At PATH, we believe in giving everyone the chance of a healthy life. Join us in reaching higher, so that every mother, baby, and child can have access to the vaccines, interventions, and care needed to survive and thrive.
PATH has been headquartered in Washington State for almost 40 years. So when we have a chance to celebrate with our local community, we make an occasion of it. May marked our annual Breakfast for Global Health, designed to bring our supporters up-close and personal with the work we do thousands of miles away.
In the audience this year: more than 1,000 donors and volunteers. On stage: Steve Davis, our president and CEO, telling the centuries-old story of malaria, meningitis, and polio—and a newer story about the potential to eliminate all three diseases. Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, describing a world where climate change and emerging epidemics mean PATH’s work is needed more than ever.
Dr. Nanthalile Mugala speaks at the 2016 PATH Breakfast for Global Health 2016 in Bellevue, Washington. Photo: PATH/Christopher Nelson Photography.
And Dr. Nanthalile Mugala, who traveled all the way to Seattle from Zambia to share her country’s plan to eliminate malaria by 2020. Imagine, she says, what it’s like to watch a child die—knowing you could stop it, if you only had the tools. Now imagine a world where that never happens again.
We believe that world is possible—a world free of malaria, of meningitis, of polio, and of many other diseases. And we’re actively working to achieve it.
This year’s events gave us something special to celebrate: hitting the mark eight months early on our $100 million Reach Campaign. Our Breakfast guests and event sponsors, including Delta Air Lines and McKinstry, helped us raise $1.1 million for the campaign, pushing the total raised to $100.4 million.
I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for this outpouring of support from the greater Seattle community. And this tremendous support doesn’t stop here in the Puget Sound—it comes from all corners of the word. Nearly 6,900 individuals, foundations, and corporations from more than 35 countries have made a contribution to the Reach Campaign.
The Reach Campaign has allowed us to advance our work in malaria elimination and other key initiatives. But the campaign still has work to do. On behalf of PATH’s board of directors, I’m pleased to announce that PATH is extending the Reach Campaign, with the goal of raising $125 million by the end of 2017.
Funds raised in the final phase of the campaign will be critical to our work over the next years, helping us accelerate progress toward eliminating stubborn diseases like malaria; sharpen our strategies in Africa and Asia; and advance great ideas from the ground up by supporting local scientists, innovators, and businesspeople in low-resource areas.
In the words of Dr. Mugala, the last miles of the fight against an entrenched and devastating disease are the hardest and when support is needed most. Today I invite you to stand with her, and with us—and to support PATH’s work to give everyone the chance of a healthy life.
Here’s to the final mile for the Reach Campaign—and to reaching higher together!