Lives saved are a testament to Gates Foundation vision

Shortly after billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, announced that he was giving 80 percent of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, a story appeared on the Web from the Guardian Newspapers in Britain with the following headline: "Could the Gates foundation do harm?"
The premise of the story was that Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft and the world's richest man, now wields even more power through the foundation that he and his wife, Melinda, run than he did before Buffett's pledge. The foundation, which is a leader in international public health, is by far the best-endowed private charitable entity. And such power, according to the story, has some activists worried that public efforts to assist the poor around the world could become irrevelant.
But those worries are without merit. Gates and Buffett have no ulterior motive in their commitment to financially support programs that deal with the cause of widespread illness and death in developing countries. They are truly concerned about the welfare of those who lives amount to a roll of the dice. In addition, the Gates Foundation, which supports doctors and scientists in medical schools and research laboratories worldwide, has a record of accomplishments that speaks to the dedication and hardwork of the principals.
Buffett's pledge doubled the foundation's endowment to about $60 billion. It's money that is not only urgently needed, but will be well spent.
Access to health care
As an Associated Press story in Wednesday's Vindicator noted, since its inception in 2000, the foundation has donated about $6 billion to finance programs and research projects to improve access to health care and the quality of care in developing countries, especially in Africa.
For instance, Botswana has received $50 million for a national HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment initiative, which has increased the number of patients getting life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment from 3,000 at the end of 2002 to more than 48,000 today. Botswana has the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rate. A child born today can expect to live less than 30 years.
Another target of the Gates Foundation money is malaria, which infects 350 million to 500 million Africans a year, killing about 1 million. Children make up the vast majority of the deaths. The mosquito-borne disease kills about 2,000 children every day.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a special project in Zambia to assess the success of fighting the disease with drugs, insecticide-treated nets and spraying. The goal is to reach 80 percent of the population, reduce malaria infections by 75 percent and use the program as a model for other countries.
It is foolhardy to think that publicly funded agencies can accomplish what the Gates Foundation has done with HIV/AIDS and other killers, such as acute diarrheal illnesses, tuberculosis and poor nutrition. Government bureucracies, widespread corruption and the competition for limited resources have long served as barriers to progress.
That is why the Gates-Buffett financial collaboration is so significant. It is results oriented, which is what is needed in the developing world.