In his latest Sports Illustrated column Rick Reilly reports on his trip to Nigeria to distribute the first round of anti-malaria bed nets, bought from money raised by the Nothing But Nets campaign.
"Despite the deteriorating security situation in Darfur, a new United Nations assessment has found that overall malnutrition levels have mostly stabilized in 2006 and food insecurity has improved slightly thanks to a stronger international response to the suffering in Sudan's war-torn west. Crude mortality dropped for the third year running, but insecurity and lack of access to many Darfurians continued to cloud the aid picture." More
"Nicole Kidman is playing a role that has nothing to do with movies, touring Kosovo as a United Nations goodwill ambassador to the tense province.... The actress was named goodwill ambassador of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, in January and the tour of Kosovo is her first visit in that role." More
UNF board member Mohammed Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize today. In the 1970's Yunus pioneered the use of micro-loans to give rural entrepreneurs in the developing world start-up capitol needed for their small businesses. These loans typically range around $200, and are overwhelmingly directed toward women in the developing world who need funds to buy basic equipment or materials to get their small business off the ground. Fascinatingly, the Grameen Bank, which was founded in Bangladesh, claims a rate of return of over 90%.
In 1998 Ted Turner pledged $1 billion to United Nations causes. The United Nations Foundation that Turner established has now hit that mark.
As the UNF's press release says, "The Foundation (and its sister organization, the Better World Fund) has donated over $600 million from founder Ted Turner and over $400 million from individuals, corporations, governments, and NGOs to programs that address key global challenges in four areas: children's health, environment, women and population, and peace, security and human rights."