Bill Gates Spends a Couple of Peanuts to Rehabilitate Capitalism in
Seattle-
Mandela & Machel Wrap Up Seattle Visit with $30m Gift
December 15, 1999
Seattle - Wrapping up a heart-warming and thought-provoking visit to
Seattle by Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel, the Craig and Susan
McCaw Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last week
announced gifts totaling more than $30 million to the Nelson Mandela
Foundation and Machel's Foundation for Community Development, which are
working to bring health care, education, economic development and peace
to the African continent.
The Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation will contribute $7.5 million to the
Nelson Mandela Foundation and $7.5 million to the Foundation for
Community Development. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will
contribute $10 million to the Nelson Mandela Foundation and $5 million
to the Foundation for Community Development. The gifts were announced
last Friday at a news conference with Mandela and Machel at the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.
"We're humbled by the opportunity to help Nelson Mandela and Graca
Machel with their inspiring work in Africa. We were all touched by the
two greatest humanitarians of our time as they reached out to everyone
they came in contact with in our community," said Craig McCaw, who along
with his wife Susan, invited Mandela and Machel to the region to help
raise awareness of issues in Africa as well as funds for their
charitable foundations.
The couples met in South Africa last year during an international
telecommunications conference.
Bill Gates said, "I'm honored to be associated with Nelson Mandela and
Graca Machel, who have improved people's lives in such meaningful ways."
At a global health discussion with Mandela and Machel last Thursday
hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates discussed the
moral imperative of making vaccines available for all people, especially
those in Africa, a topic of great interest to Mandela and Machel.
In acknowledging the gifts, Mandela said, "We must do everything in our
power to help the poorest of the poor. These are global issues, not just
African issues. We're thankful to be able to share this message with the
people of Seattle and the rest of the world."
Machel, the recently appointed chancellor of the University of Cape Town
and the former minister of education for Mozambique, said, "We want to
be ambassadors for the people of Africa, many of whom have not had the
opportunities available to us. Through our foundations, we want to bring
their voices and stories to the world so we can collectively address the
challenges facing us in health care, education, economic development and
access to technology. Our dream is to help strong communities flourish
throughout Africa."
In related news, the Rotary Club of Seattle No. 4, the largest and
fourth oldest Rotary Club in the world, announced a $50,000 gift to be
split between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Foundation for
Community Development. Mandela addressed the Rotary on Dec. 8, the first
day of his and Machel's three-day visit.
Mandela and Machel, who returned to South Africa last Friday, left the
region full of memories of the children, college students, anti-
apartheid activists, and community and business leaders they met during
their first Seattle visit.
Highlights included:
-- A welcome ceremony at Boeing Field with hundreds of Seattle school
children. A young descendant of Chief Sealth, Seattle's namesake,
presented a specially carved Native American talking stick to Mandela as
he stepped off the plane.
-- An emotional, private meeting with local leaders in the anti-
apartheid movement.
-- A Rotary Club meeting at Benaroya Hall with a special musical program
performed by the Seattle Symphony directed by Gerard Schwarz. A
classical music lover, Mandela conducted the South African national
anthem. Two local school choirs provided accompaniment. The audience
included area high school principals.
-- A community development discussion with African American community
leaders at a black-owned childcare center in Seattle's Central Area.
-- A visit to Madrona Elementary School, where children participating in
the Team Read tutoring program read a story to Mandela and Machel.
-- A sold-out, 900-person benefit dinner at the Seattle Sheraton.
-- A global health discussion focused on vaccines with Bill Gates and
experts on AIDS and malaria at the University of Washington.
-- An 1,100-person student convocation at Seattle University featuring
students from area colleges, universities and high schools. Seattle
University conferred honorary doctorate degrees on Mandela and Machel;
Seattle Central Community College bestowed honorary associate degrees
and announced the formation of a $30,000 scholarship endowment in
Mandela's name; and the University of Washington announced a $50,000
scholarship endowment in Mandela and Machel's name for the study of
African issues.
-- A breakfast celebrating the contributions of 750 local non-profit
leaders and community activists.
Background
The newly created Nelson Mandela Foundation promotes health care,
education, peace and conflict resolution on the African continent. The
Foundation for Community Development helps establish economic
development, health care and other much-needed programs in disadvantaged
communities in Mozambique and other parts of Africa. More information on
the foundations can be found at a special Web site created for the
Mandela-Machel visit to Seattle -- www.mandelavisit.com.
The Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation places a primary focus on education
and the environment. The foundation created and funds Team Read, a
Seattle Public Schools tutoring program that pairs high school students
with elementary school students who need help in reading. Nearly 800
reading coaches and student readers have been paired. The foundation
also created the John Stanford Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship
awarded each year to an exceptional Team Read tutor. Craig McCaw also
serves as chairman of Ocean Futures Society, which is focused on raising
the world's awareness of issues relating to the health of the oceans.
Bill and Melinda Gates have endowed their foundation with more than $17
billion. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation places a major focus on
helping to improve people's lives through health and learning. In
addition to the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program,
significant Foundation projects include: the Gates Millennium Scholars
Program, a $50 million commitment per year for 20 years to provide
college scholarships to high-achieving minority students; the Maternal
Mortality Reduction Program, a $50 million commitment to prevent
pregnancy-related deaths of women in developing countries; a $25 million
commitment to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) for
research and development of a vaccine to prevent the spread of AIDS;
and, a $50 million grant to the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention
to prevent cervical cancer in developing countries. More information can
be found at www.gatesfoundation.org.
Contacts: Bob Ratliffe, Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation, 206/979- 4254
Trevor Neilson, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 206/619-4444
REPEATS: New York 212-752-9600 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-236-4266 or
800-225-2030; SF 415-986-4422 or 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473 Today's
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