World AIDS Day has become a time to reflect on the daunting challenges we face in the battle against this tenacious killer. Although huge strides have been made over the past two decades, we are, in many respects, continuing to lose ground as new infections outpace our ability...

Last year, a horrible disease impaired and robbed 8 million people of their vision. Right now, 84 million people are infected with this disease. The good news is that treating it is relatively easy, and curing it requires the commitment of a relatively modest amount of resources. This disease is...

Last month, Half the Sky hit bookstores all across the country. Written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the first married couple to jointly win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, Half the Sky is an extraordinarily exciting book. It examines the economic potential that could be realized by relieving oppression...

There's a lot of debate among parents in the U.S. about the H1N1 vaccine. Some of the parents of small children I've spoken to over the last week are seriously debating whether to get it. Many are deciding not to give their child yet another vaccine.

However, what if H1N1...

Earlier this month the film As We Forgive, a documentary about Rwanda, was released on DVD (check out the trailer here). It does not chronicle the 1994 genocide, but what has come after: Rwanda's struggle to rebuild itself.

Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame, is following a path of reconciliation, not...

Rwanda: The first rains of the season are falling in this part of Africa. The rain is part of a weather cycle that can make or break life in this region of the world, depending on several factors. Prominent among these is health - not just people's health, but also...

While Garth Brooks may be best known for his country music, he is also a devoted philanthropist. Through the joint efforts of his Teammates For Kids Foundation and Rwanda Works, the critical message that poverty and health are directly related is about to be demonstrated in a very tangible way....

I have written and talked a great deal about the importance of health care in raising the standard of living among sub-Saharan Africans. There's a very good reason for this. While we must create development opportunities and prosperity-building programs for Africans, unless we collaborate with governments to help improve the...

It's graduation time, and young people everywhere are donning caps and gowns and eager expressions. In a small village in rural Rwanda, Claudine Mukangoga just fulfilled her lifelong dream: she became a nurse. Claudine's graduation celebrations were bittersweet, though, as just a month ago, Claudine's mother -- her greatest supporter...

As President Obama and his family head for Africa, the choice of Ghana as the first sub-Saharan African nation to play host to the first African American president has many asking -- "Why Ghana?" It's perhaps on the surface not a remarkable choice: a place far from flashpoints and, although...

Cattle have always held an important role in Rwandan society. They are a key source of protein and an important status symbol. Over the last couple of years, the government, working with Heifer International and other groups, has promoted a policy of "One cow per poor family" in an attempt...

This September marks nine years since leaders from 192 countries around the world endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world through the achievement of eight objectives - the Millennium Development Goals, by 2015. The endorsement was based on the belief that,...

You may not have heard the siren over the earsplitting clatter of the economic crash in America and the ominous emergence of swine flu, but there's an urgent crisis involving Africa and other parts of the developing world that rely on our donor dollars for public health. The Global...

Could the cost of interrupting the transmission of AIDS in Africa be just 32 cents? That's the revolutionary idea raised in a piece published this week in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The authors write that schistosomiasis -- long considered one of the central Neglected Tropical Diseases...

As the world's poorest countries, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa, fall behind their developed counterparts, their citizens are faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Extreme poverty, fatal illnesses, and deplorable conditions make the prospect of becoming a global player extremely daunting. You can actually take a look at how far some...

This Saturday is World Malaria Day. It's an important milestone; the international malaria community has only two years to meet the 2010 target set by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of delivering treatment and protection to all people at risk of malaria.

That's sobering when you consider recent developments. After...

On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, gasoline cost about 35 cents a gallon and a barrel of crude oil cost less than you'd pay for a grande latte today. Even then, people had figured out that burning fossil fuels wasn't a healthy or sustainable way to power our...

As the global economic crisis deepens, developing African nations must adjust for the many new realities they face. It was just a year ago that optimism and promise imbued economic conversations about Africa's promise. With the global economy soaring and the need for basic commodities following, wealth was being created...

In Mayange, Rwanda, rain means hope. In violent downpours when I've sought the shelter of a tree, I've seen kids and adults alike dancing in the puddles. Rainy days there are happy days. Over the last few years, however, rain patterns have become increasingly erratic and crops have suffered as...

This is what happens when a school system can't keep pace with the vast numbers of students that must have an education: half of the classes come to school in the morning and then leave at noon, while other students come into the same classrooms in the afternoon and study...