Take a look at this news story:
NEW YORK Sep 13, 2006 (AP)— Billionaire financier and global philanthropist George Soros has dedicated $50 million to the anti-poverty work of the Millennium Village project in Africa, his largest commitment to a single entity in almost a decade.
The donation, to be officially announced Wednesday, is being matched by other donors to bring in $100 million for the project, which works to reduce extreme poverty in African communities through a multi-pronged approach covering areas such as health, education and food productivity.
[…] The Millennium Village project covers 12 sites in 10 African countries, a total of 78 villages. Each village, averaging about 5,000 people, gets five years of support from experts to help lift itself out of poverty. That support includes cleaning up water sources, provision of basic education, and teaching people how to diversify crops and make the best agricultural choices.
For about $60 per villager per year, or about $1.5 million per village over the five years, the U.N.’s poverty reduction goals can be achieved, Sachs said. The first village started with the program about 2 years ago, with most of the rest starting up this year. That first village, Sauri in Kenya, has already seen a surplus in food production and an increase in school test scores.
Sachs said that after a fundraising goal of $100 million was set, he approached Soros, who through his Open Society Institute gives out hundreds of millions of dollars to a number of causes every year.
Soros agreed to commit $50 million over five years if matching donations could be found.
$100 million dollars. A paltry hundred million. The UN can barely raise a hundred mil for ten African countries, but an effing palestinian stubs his toe, and the world donates billions.
These are the people who are truly starving, and yet, the EU is all set to contribute half a billion in aid to the palestinians, who have received billions already over the past decades. Let’s take a look at only the past few years:
UNRWA’s General Assembly-approved cash budget for 2006 is US$ 470.9 million. This funds the Agency’s ongoing Education, Health and Relief and Social Services activities. As of July 2006, contributions pledged to this cash budget by UN and donors total US$ 340.2 million. An additional US$ 150.4 million has been budgeted for projects and US$17.6 million for in-kind donations.
In keeping with previous years, UNRWA will likely have to initiate measures to reduce implementation of some planned activities to bring its regular budget closer to its likely income from donors. In 2005, UNRWA’s regular cash budget was approved at a level of US$339.2 million. However, actual expenditure was US$345 million while income was US$326 million.
Since October 2000, UNRWA has launched Emergency Appeals to the donor community to fund the Agency’s Emergency Programmes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. From October 2000 until December 2005, the Agency received a total of US$542.8 million in pledges, which is less than two-thirds of the amount requested. In December 2005, UNRWA launched an appeal for US$ 95.5 million to cover the cost of its emergency activities in 2006. Due to the prevailing difficult situation in the oPt, the 2006 Appeal was revised in May 2006 to include additional US$75.2 million to cater for anticipated humanitarian needs. Against 2006 Appeal UNRWA received US$103.6 million in pledges as of 31 July 2006.Please find additional information on the Emergency Appeals below.
Let’s hear again how the palestinians desperately need the help. Because gee, they’re so much more important than the millions of Africans in poverty.