Project HOPE Launches Campaign to Raise $94 Million to Expand Global Reach

Project HOPE has launched an ambitious campaign to raise $94 million to expand its fight against disease and disaster and to bring treatment within reach of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
Posted: June 7, 2011

Campaign in line with UN Millennium Development Goals

HOPE in the Face of Crisis

Project HOPE, a beacon of global health education and humanitarian assistance for more than 50 years, has launched an ambitious campaign to raise $94 million to expand its fight against disease and disaster and to bring treatment within reach of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Project HOPE Campaign Chairman, Richard T. Clark, Chairman of Merck, announced the beginning of the public phase of the HOPE in the Face of Crisis Campaign to more than 600 guests at the HOPE Gala at New York City’s Museum of Natural History. The campaign is projected to reach its goal of $94 million by 2013. Mr. Clark also announced that the campaign has already raised more than $10 million towards its goal.

“Without Project HOPE, many people would not get the health care they need. There are children, women, and men throughout the world who are alive today because of HOPE’s work. Project HOPE has a special mission in this world, and it’s critical that we help the organization achieve its goals,” said Mr. Clark, who is also the Acting Chairman of Project HOPE’s Board of Directors.

Funds raised through the campaign will be used to expand HOPE’s  programs currently addressing health challenges such as decreasing the number of deaths from preventable diseases, improving prevention and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes,  delivering humanitarian aid to people in countries devastated by natural disasters and building health care capacity in developing nations throughout the world.

For 53 years, Project HOPE has made an impact on the health of communities in over 100 countries.  In partnership with a committed global community – including U.S. and foreign governments, global corporations, foundations and individual donors – tremendous advances have been made.

According to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, there were 10,000 fewer deaths among children around the world than in 1990.  About 63 percent of women in the developing world are receiving skilled medical assistance during delivery, a 10 percent increase from 1990; and the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV increased tenfold – from 400,000 to 4 million between 2003 and 2008.  However, there is much work to be done to reverse the death toll from preventable diseases and more.

“The need for smart and sustainable health education programs in the developing world has never been greater.  Project HOPE has the resources – education, training, vaccines, medicines, equipment and medical volunteers – to expand its reach even further, saving more lives and building healthier communities.  With the support of donors, we can make a difference,” said John P. Howe III, M.D., President and CEO of Project HOPE.

The HOPE in the Face of Crisis Campaign will focus on the following areas:

  • Combating Disease   by expanding vaccine programs and providing health education and medical screenings to reduce obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. In addition, HOPE plan to train more than 25,000 health care professionals to stem the spread of infectious diseases tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS by 2015.
  • Saving Lives of the Most Vulnerable by promoting breastfeeding, full vaccination coverage and monthly growth monitoring visits for infants.
  • Delivering Disaster Relief – by furthering HOPE’s legacy of saving lives through long-term humanitarian assistance programs, and providing $250 million of donated medicines, medical supplies and equipment to disaster zones by 2015. HOPE will provide medical care for over 50,000 people annually in disaster zones by boosting HOPE health volunteer corps to more than 1,000 individuals.
  • Nurturing Innovation and Awareness to support a Health Innovation Fund to encourage people with great ideas to develop long-term solutions to the world’s most pressing health challenges. The Fund will provide resources to develop new program ideas.

About Project HOPE
Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health crises, with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now conducts land-based medical training and health education programs in 35 countries across five continents.