Envoy, Ambassador, Gavi
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and chair of the board of GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunizations), asked Bill to become that foundation’s first envoy/ambassador, to help raise its profile. Launched in 2000, primarily with $750 million donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates’s Gates Foundation, GAVI focuses on saving the lives of children by getting them the vaccines they need, which have included everything from measles to polio. In the decade since its founding, 233 million children in 72 countries have been inoculated, saving an estimated 5,000,000 lives. The two largest killers of children are pneumococcus, which is basically pneumonia, and the rotavirus, which results in a loss of fluids due to diarrhea. Vaccines are now available against both of these killers but there isn’t enough money available to inoculate every child who should receive these vaccines. At this point only 5 percent of global health funding goes to this effort, and Bill’s job as envoy will be to duplicate some of the strategies we used to bring attention to AIDS, which will raise the profile and the funding. With sufficient funding it’s estimated Gavi can save the lives of 4 million kids under the age of 5 in the next three years.
Former CEO of MTV networks Bill Roedy takes up fight against childhood disease
