CONSIDER THIS:

• Women and girls of villages in India’s Nagpur district spend four to five hours a day collecting water, the World Bank reports.
• In 2002, diarrhea killed 1.8 million people, and malaria killed 1.3 million – almost all of them children under 5, a U.N. report says.
• Teaching people to wash their hands with soap could cut diarrhea deaths in half, a U.N. study says.
• Children taught proper hygiene can educate families, reducing household vulnerability to disease by 40 percent, a U.N. report says.
• 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, according to a 2006 U.N. report.
• 2.6 billion people – about 42 percent of the world’s population – have no access to modern sanitation facilities, the United Nations reports.
• Young people ages 15 to 24 account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization report.
• About 2.3 million children under 15 are infected with HIV, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS reported in 2006.
• Eight thousand people die of AIDS-related illnesses each day, according to a 2006 report by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.
• Nearly 40 million people are now infected with HIV, says a 2006 report by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.
• Of the 2.9 million deaths from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006 – vs. 2.7 million in 2004 – nearly four-fifths were in sub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization report.
• Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in low-income countries, the World Health Organization reports.
• More than a third of people in developing countries lack access to essential medicines, according to the World Health Organization.
• Every day, 11,000 people are newly infected with HIV – one every eight seconds, according to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.
• Less than 25 percent of people in low-income countries live to 70; nearly a third of deaths are children under 14, says the World Health Organization.
• Neglected tropical diseases affect about 1 billion people in tropical and subtropical climates, the World Health Organization reports.
• Every minute, 20 women suffer injury, infection or disease as a result of pregnancy, according to the World Health Organization.
• Every minute, a woman dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, the World Health Organization says.

Overview

Next year, 14 million people will die from infectious diseases. An estimated 1.4 million children will die from a lack of clean water. And 500 million people will suffer from malaria. Much of this tragedy could be avoided by treatment and prevention measures widely available in affluent nations. In developing countries, however, poverty and poor health form a vicious cycle. Poverty limits healthcare, leading to worse health and greater poverty. But you can help break this cycle. We encourage investment in a range of locally based, integrated health initiatives – combining worldwide best practices with strong local partnerships.

Sector Performance 2006

• Projects Funded: 154
• Expected Lives Changed: 625,238
• Client Investments Managed: $5,828,593
• Cost per Life Impacted: $9.32

Active Funds

• Ethiopia HIV/AIDS
• Mumbai HIV/AIDS and Human Trafficking
• Rwanda and Burundi Neglected Tropical Disease Control
• Ukraine HIV