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Increased funding to support partnerships with nearly 20 organizations
fighting malaria
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ExxonMobil has committed more than $120 million to fighting malaria,
reaching more than 105 million people
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Partnerships helped distribute more than 13 million bed nets,
administer 2 million malaria treatments and train 355,000 health
workers
Company Website:
http://www.exxonmobil.com
IRVING, Texas -- (Business Wire)
ExxonMobil
marked World Malaria Day today by participating in events across Africa
and announcing more than $10 million in new grants to support lifesaving
programs across Africa and in the Pacific Rim, where the disease is a
major threat to health and economic development.
The grants from ExxonMobil and the ExxonMobil Foundation will support a
wide range of research, advocacy, treatment and prevention programs to
accelerate progress in the fight against malaria, which still claims
more than 627,000 lives each year, mostly children under the age of five.
In addition to funding, ExxonMobil provides business expertise and
insights to help strengthen these initiatives. ExxonMobil has been
committed to fighting malaria for more than a decade, and has provided
more than $120 million to programs that are helping more than 105
million people. The new grants build on the company’s support for
innovative programs to control and one day eliminate deaths from this
preventable and treatable disease.
To mark World Malaria Day, ExxonMobil is participating in events across
Africa – including the launch of Malaria No More’s award-winning
NightWatch campaign in Nigeria, La Coalition de la Communauté des
Affaires Contre le Sida, la Tuberculose et le Paludisme’s Malaria March
in Cameroon and CORE Group’s Malaria Day play in Angola. Through events
such as these, combined with advocacy and education efforts, ExxonMobil
aims to increase awareness and progress in the fight against malaria in
the communities in which it works.
“We have seen firsthand how the lives of ExxonMobil workers, families
and communities are directly harmed by malaria – and improved by the
efforts of our partners on the front line fighting this disease,” said
Suzanne McCarron, president of the ExxonMobil Foundation. “Together, we
are investing in sustainable solutions to help people live a healthy
life without the burden of malaria.”
Unprecedented commitment from the global community in the past decade
has led to a 45 percent reduction in malaria mortality worldwide since
2000. Yet the disease is still a leading cause of death among children.
Beyond lives lost, the disease costs sub-Saharan Africa billions of
dollars in lost gross domestic product and accounts for as much as 40
percent of public health expenditures in some countries.
"The private sector has a crucial role to play in defeating malaria and
alleviating poverty,” said Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Executive Director
of Roll Back Malaria Partnership. “The engagement of ExxonMobil shows
how public-private partnerships provide the resources, knowledge and
expertise that drives progress in the global fight against malaria,
which in turn drives development.”
ExxonMobil’s grants will help drive a comprehensive response to the
disease that generates deeper impact in local communities and around the
world. Highlights of ExxonMobil’s 2014 malaria grantees include:
- Grassroot Soccer to use the convening power of soccer to
educate and mobilize youth in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania
to protect themselves and their communities from malaria.
- Seed Global Health to place U.S. medical volunteers in tropical
disease settings to help train the next generation of health care
professionals.
- Harvard Malaria Initiative to support Dr. Regina Rabinovich as
the ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar-in-Residence at the Harvard School of
Public Health, where she is advancing innovative strategies to combat
malaria. ExxonMobil is also supporting a leadership development course
for emerging malaria leaders from developing countries.
- Cameroon’s Business Coalition against Malaria, Tuberculosis and
HIV/AIDS to strengthen coordination between the private-sector
response to malaria and other serious diseases.
- Norwegian Red Cross to conduct a low-cost mobile phone malaria
survey on use of bed nets, diagnostics and approved malaria treatments
in affected communities in West Africa.
- PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to educate and train
African health officials and opinion leaders to advocate for effective
implementation policies in advance of the potential 2015 introduction
of the first vaccine to protect against the disease.
ExxonMobil is one of the leading private-sector investors in malaria.
Its Workforce Malaria Control Program offers prevention tools, early
diagnosis and treatment to company employees and surrounding
communities. Since 2000, ExxonMobil’s partnerships have helped
distribute 13.1 million bed nets, administer 1.9 million malaria
treatment doses and train more than 355,000 health workers and
counselors working on the front lines of malaria prevention and control.
ExxonMobil’s other 2014 malaria grant recipients include Accordia Global
Health Foundation, Africare, Global Health Corps, Jhpiego, UN Foundation
– Nothing But Nets, Medicines for Malaria Venture, USAID – President’s
Malaria Initiative, Oxford University, Population Services International
and Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Pova para Povo.
About the ExxonMobil Foundation
The ExxonMobil Foundation is the primary philanthropic arm of Exxon
Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) in the United States. The foundation and
the corporation engage in a range of philanthropic activities advancing
education, with a focus on math and science in the United States, promoting
women as catalysts for economic development, and combating
malaria. In 2013, together with its employees and retirees, Exxon
Mobil Corporation, its divisions and affiliates, and the ExxonMobil
Foundation provided $269 million in contributions worldwide. www.exxonmobil.com.
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Contacts:
ExxonMobil
Media Relations, 972-444-1107
Source: Exxon Mobil Corporation
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