West Africa

December 15, 2009, Philanthropy News Digest - The Paris-based Agence de Medecine Preventive at the Institut Pasteur has announced a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement a new program to support immunization advocacy in West Africa.

NEW YORK, April 28, 2009 — This spring, Saks Fifth Avenue will once again partner with charity: water, a non-profit organization that funds freshwater wells in developing nations for as little as $5,000. Last year, Saks raised over $500,000 for the charity, which aided in the construction of over 100 wells that will serve 37,000 people in Central America, India and Africa.

The Aetna Foundation today awarded a $25,000 grant to MAP International, a nonprofit organization that promotes the total health — physical, economic, social, emotional and spiritual health — of impoverished people in over 115 countries.

The MasterCard Foundation has announced two new programs to expand savings initiatives in Tajikistan and Rwanda with Aga Khan Foundation Canada and CARE Canada. With a total investment of $9 million, these programs will strengthen and create innovations within the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, benefiting approximately 900,000 people in remote communities, many of whom live on less than $2 a day.