On Tuesday, Gates unveiled a new campaign to combat the spread of malaria. His pitch: the Gates Foundation will donate a mosquito net for every person who reads his latest blog post and takes a subsequent quiz. Gates announced the mosquito net initiative in a blog posted on Tuesday. Dubbed “Mosquito Wars,” the campaign is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s broader effort to combat malaria.
Bill and Melinda Gates
Each donated net will go to families in the Inhambane region of Mozambique, where the disease is still prevalent, and will be distributed by nonprofit World Vision. The Gates Foundation, which Gates formed with his wife, Melinda, is the world’s largest private charity; it has distributed more than $40 billion in grants to date and supports organizations in over 100 countries. In 2010 the Gates and Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge, a promise to give at least half of their wealth to charity, and called on other billionaires to join them. More than 170 of the world’s richest people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg and George Lucas, have so far signed up.
