Bill Gates Again

["Joseph" <joseph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

December 1, 1999
Gates donates $3m to SA for AIDS fight

London (Reuters) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates has donated $3 million to
help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in South Africa, the
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) said on Tuesday.

The three-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, announced
on the eve of World AIDS Day, will fund centres providing family planning
information, counselling and medical services in nine communities in South
Africa.

"Young people must be able to protect themselves from the HIV epidemic,
unwanted pregnancy and sexual violence," Ingar Brueggemann, the director
general of IPPF, said in a statement. "This grant will greatly help us to
meet this challenge and the urgent needs of the future generations of South
Africa."

South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world with 1
600 new infections each day. Experts estimate that in five years six million
South Africans will be HIV positive.

IPPF said sexual violence is also increasing in the country where a woman is
raped every 12 minutes.

The London-based organisation added that for the first time since the start
of the AIDS epidemic two decades ago more women than men are infected with
HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gates, the richest man in the United States with an estimated wealth of $65
billion, donated $100 million last year to help vaccinate Third World
children.