08:46 Seattle to Davos service now calling at Deptford

By Vanessa Furey: January 27th, 2012

When English teacher Keely Wilson wrote a letter to the Speakers for Schools project she specifically asked them to send someone interesting. However, she perhaps wasn’t expecting one of the richest and philanthropic men in the world to drop in on the way to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Before meeting with other CEOs of leading international businesses and global Heads of State, Bill Gates spent a couple of hours inspiring the young pupils of the South London school as well as others from around the world who were joining via video link. He spoke of his early years as an entrepreneur who’s risk to leave Harvard to focus on his love of computers lead him to become one of the world’s leading champions for development.

When he did make it to the summit on Thursday Mr Gates announced that he was giving an extra $750million dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which has struggled to raise the funds it needs in the wake of the global economic crisis. Mr Gates was clear in his message that this was a wake up call to the world. This donation was meant to cover the shortfall left by Governments in recent years. He told the summit that the tough economic times were “no excuse for cutting aid to the world’s poorest,” sighting the fund as one of the ‘most effective’ organisations that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports.

Whilst it is vital that countries continue to protect their international aid budgets, it’s also important that they look at ways of ensuring that the local population have the opportunity of quality and sustainable jobs. This is an area that we have been looking at in more detail recently in the lead up to the launch of our new campaign later this year.

Last week VSO UK’s Policy Manager, Lisa Horner, highlighted the situation in Sierra Leone where 10 years after the end of the civil war the country is threatened by a new crisis. Over three quarters of the young people in that country are unemployed and for half of them the challenge is made all the more difficult with a lack of skills or literacy.

Elsewhere in the country news network Al Jazeera have an interesting two part series which looks at the impact of Pirate Fishing by European and Asian fishing fleets that trawl the protected waters off West Africa to supply consumers back at home. This has a devastating effect on the local communities who watch the fish stocks that they rely upon to survive, as well as make a living, are severely depleted.

The documentary which is made with the support of the Environmental Justice Foundation, an NGO who are committed to raising awareness of the often illegal practice, shows the length some ships will go to in order to avoid detection, including masking any identifiable markings so that they cannot be traced.

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