Small Charity Fights Rare Disease (with Millions from Bill Gates)

The complex reality of disease dispels the fantasy of small organization saving the world.

New York Times nonprofit reporter Stephanie Strom profiles a small charity, Institute for One World Health (EIN 94-3384500 Form 990) as a pioneer in the field of nonprofit drug research.  The organization conducted clinical trials to gain approval of a drug identified in the 1960s as a possible cure for black fever, a fly-borned disease that kills a half million people a year, mostly in India and Bangladesh.  The drug languished due to the lack of a market in developed countries.

While the implication of the article is that this small charity overcame significant odds to accomplish a great thing, the details in the report reveal a larger story in which this organization played a small role. 

In reality, the major funding for the effort came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has put a priority on making available drugs that the developed world has abandoned. 

The article also notes the help of the Skoll Foundation (EIN 11-3659133 Form 990), which supplied most of the $387,000 salary for the husband and wife doctors running the organization, part of its program to fund executive salaries at charities. 

And getting approval for the drug is just the start of the work.  Delivering it to remote villages is just one of the challenges to come.   Riders for Health (UK Charity 1054565 Guidestar UK listing) is another relatively small charity (£2.7 million) that specializes in motorcycle-based transportation systems in developing countries, which is considering methods for distribution. 

The ultimate test, however, is whether governments will fund the treatment program.  The treatment costs just $10, but the article notes that India still has hundreds of thousands of children who die from measles, which can be prevented with a vaccine that costs fifteen cents. 

So, rather than showing us what small organizations can accomplish, the story seems to be that nothing much can truly be accomplished until the largest scale organizations take action. 

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[ティンバーランド]

ティンバーランド付近住民らが数日前から目撃したのも同じ男とみられ、近くの女性も取材に「事件が発覚する何日か前の午前８時ごろ、尾崎さん宅の玄関門扉前に段ボールを持って立つ黒っぽい服装の不審な男を見た」と話した。東側の別の門扉の前には、バイクが止められていたという。

　ティンバーランド一方、堺市南区の歯科医師の妻、田村武子さん（６７）が行方不明になっている事件に絡んで窃盗容疑で逮捕された西口宗宏容疑者（５０）とよく似た男が尾崎さんの事件があった日、同市内の農協支所で、尾崎さんのキャッシュカードを使い残高を照会。その際、支所付近の防犯カメラには、黒っぽい服装の男が黒いバイクで乗り付ける姿が記録されていた。

　府警は、西口容疑者方から黒い原付きバイクを押収し、関連の有無を調べている。