Gates makes donation to African AIDS war
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-20 16:43
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has donated $900,000 to set up a training
facility for health professionals working with AIDS in Africa's Great Lakes
region.
Microsoft Corp
Chairman Bill Gates listens to a reporter's question at a news conference
in Tokyo April 21, 2006. Gates has donated $900,000 to set up a training
facility for health professionals working with AIDS in Africa's Great
Lakes region. [Reuters] |
On a low-profile visit to Rwanda on Sunday and Monday, Gates offered the
funds to set up the Centre for Training and Operation Research to serve five
nations: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Such support from well-wishers will go a long way in helping developing
countries achieve much in the war against the scourge," Dr. Agnes Binagwaho,
executive secretary of Rwanda's National Aids Commission, said late on
Wednesday.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region hardest-hit by AIDS, with about 25
million people infected. Binagwaho told Reuters 3 percent of Rwanda's 8 million
people had HIV.
The ultra-modern facility will be run from Kigali by international experts
under the coordination of Rwanda's AIDS Treatment and Research Center, the
official added.
Gates, the world's wealthiest man and a major international philanthropist,
was in Africa on a holiday with his wife Melinda and children, Rwandan officials
said.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday grants worth
$287 million to create an international network of 16 labs to try new approaches
for making a vaccine against AIDS.
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