WASHINGTON: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable foundation run by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates, announced $7.5 million in assistance for the flood victims in Pakistan, and repurposed its current grants to boost the rescue and relief efforts.
In a letter addressed to Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, Masood Khan, Christopher Elias, president of the Global Development Division at the agency, said its polio programme would also support 1,200 healthcare camps being run by Aga Khan University in the districts most hit by the floods.
Furthermore, the foundation would put more support towards three maternity hospitals dealing with the largest burden of displaced women to expand midwifery care, and intrapartum services, the letter said.
Elias informed the ambassador the foundation has an active $4 million grant for the poor that are receiving food subsidies and emergency cash transfers in the flood-affected areas.
On behalf of the foundation, he expressed his “deepest sympathies” over the losses due to the unprecedented calamity. “This is indeed a tragedy of national proportions and one which has captured the attention of the world,” he wrote.
“Seeing the impact of the floods on your countrymen, their homes and their lands is greatly saddening.”
Ambassador Khan thanked the foundation for its support “at a time when the people of Pakistan needed it most”.
On August 26, the envoy wrote to Bill Gates, apprising him of the huge devastation wreaked by the floods.
“As we are managing this catastrophe and working tirelessly to alleviate the sufferings, the people of Pakistan would deeply appreciate your support for urgent humanitarian assistance.”
