Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, and was founded by Bill and Melinda Gates.

Here is how the Foundation describes its mission on its website:

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we focus on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, we seek to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.

Activities in Nigeria

A Los Angeles Times article of 2007 reported that while the Gates Foundation funds a polio and measles vaccination drive in Ebocha, Nigeria, at the same time it has invested in oil companies that are polluting the Niger Delta with flares, seriously undermining public health. The LA Times article states that the Gates Foundation

has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the [Niger] delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

The article reports that a local physician blames the oil flares for a range of health problems in Ebocha:

an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.

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