Year in Review

This year the foundation made grants to nearly 2,000 organizations working to improve global health, education in the United States, public access to digital information, and the lives of vulnerable families in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing first-hand the work that individuals and organizations are doing to improve the lives of those around them, reinforced my conviction that positive change is possible and tangible. In Senegal, Cleveland, Seattle, and other places across the globe, we’re moving toward a different world.

In Senegal I spoke with prostitutes living with HIV who shared deeply personal stories of how economic necessity and lack of access to means of prevention brought the virus to their door. Today, they receive regular HIV screenings and counseling on how to protect themselves and others from the disease. And many are passing this information along to their friends. Multiplied across the country, these efforts are part of the reason why Senegal has kept its HIV prevalence rate under 1 percent.

During this trip, I also met a young girl named Absa Sey. Crippled by polio since she was 8 months old, Absa was abused and ostracized for suffering from a disease that is entirely preventable. She is one of hundreds of young, often illiterate women learning about the value of basic health through one of our grantees, Tostan. Frequently over the radio airwaves, Absa shares this knowledge with the public, hoping that Senegal’s unprotected children will receive the vaccinations they need against measles, tuberculosis, and other life-threatening diseases.

Experiences like these make it clear that more needs to be done to ensure that people in the developing world have equal opportunities for a healthy life. The foundation’s Global Health program continues to support the development and testing of new vaccines and drugs for preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, and a range of other diseases disproportionately affecting the poor. While we would rejoice if the discovery and development of these new technologies—such as vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics—would ensure they are deployed around the world, we are finding that is far from the truth. Many critical and inexpensive interventions—including vaccines or oral rehydration salts—have taken decades or longer to reach those who need them most. This fact has led to a dramatic increase in our efforts to ensure financing for the rollout of these tools by partnering with governments and multilateral organizations and by encouraging a greater flow of funds to these interventions. We are optimistic about new opportunities for increased foreign aid and investments in health, both of which are critical to economic and societal growth in the developing world.

Closer to home, we continue to increase the number of Americans—especially those in the poorest regions—who have access to the Internet. The Library program celebrated its fifth birthday this summer. During the program’s span, I’ve spoken with hundreds of dedicated librarians and trainers working to implement the foundation’s $250 million effort to provide free access to computers, the Internet, and training on new technology in public libraries serving low-income communities. It was our goal when we started this program that if you could reach your public library you would reach the Internet. That goal will be a reality in 2003. And we are offering tools to help libraries maintain and increase their ability to offer access to the Internet and new technology in the future.

Throughout this country, our public high schools are failing too many students. Nearly half of African-American and Hispanic students are dropping out. Yet the commitment of the many city and district leaders, teachers, and parents who are working to improve our schools is remarkable. In October, I visited East Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where I met with Cleveland Mayor Jane Brown and the head of its school district, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Faced with the fact that less than 40 percent of the city’s youth are graduating, these dynamic individuals are leading a district-wide commitment to transform its large public high schools into smaller, more effective schools.

Through partnerships with school districts like Cleveland, our Education program continues its work on increasing high school graduation rates by supporting the creation of new small high schools and the transformation of large, impersonal high schools into rigorous, personalized learning environments. We’re working with more than 30 local and national foundations and funding partners around the country to help create high schools where students graduate ready for college, work, and citizenship. The foundation also supports several scholarship programs designed to improve access to higher education for disadvantaged students, many of whom are minorities. We now have more than 7,500 students attending college through our programs.

Here in our backyard, I was privileged to address the Seattle Foundation, an incredible organization made up of business, philanthropic, and government leaders. What we all share is a commitment to serve the disadvantaged in our local community. The Seattle Foundation is one of 120 nonprofit organizations in Washington and Oregon supported by the foundation’s Pacific Northwest program. Our largest local initiative, Sound Families is funding new transitional housing units for families on the edge of homelessness in the Puget Sound region.

These first-hand encounters with grantees, teachers, librarians, and girls like Absa, continually renew my hope that the dedication of individuals can have enormous impact on society. But this year, we’ve learned that good work alone is not enough. We’ve got to take the proof that these programs succeed to people who are in a position to effect long-term change. More than ever at the foundation, we’re taking the real-life evidence of what works—on homelessness, public education, and the health gaps between the rich and the poor—to decision makers who can sustain progress on these challenges once thought intractable.

Consider adding your own efforts to those of the many people I met this year. Take action—big or small—towards supporting your local library, serving the homeless, or addressing another issue close to your heart. Encourage your government leaders to support efforts to improve global health. Our collective action truly does make a difference.

We look at the coming year with optimism that the unprecedented opportunities of this new century will be further realized in every corner of the globe. Together we can work toward a different world.

Patty Stonesifer
Co-chair and President