Communities

Supporting Strong Global Communities

Inequity is one of the most pressing global social, economic, and moral issues we face today. While the percentage of the people living in extreme poverty is decreasing, there are still more than 700 million people (roughly 10% of the world’s population) who struggle to have their basic needs met – such as access to education, food, health care, and clean water.

Creating Stronger, Healthier Communities

We believe in the idea of one global community. Because of that, we work to create stronger, healthier communities all around the world – not just here in the Northwest. We work with communities in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia to increase access to food, water, and education. We also support emergency responses to health threats such as Ebola in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Communities Ebola Response

Supporting Developing Communities

We work to create healthier communities with more access to food, water, and education. In the Okavango Delta and the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, we do this by supporting community development efforts that include projects such as drilling boreholes to deliver clean drinking water, providing meals for local students, increasing math programs, and training nurses in HIV education. A key component of decreasing poverty globally is increasing girls’ education – through powerful storytelling, we helped ignite a worldwide campaign to champion equality.

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Charity Begins At Home

This project helps meet the essential needs of a Zambian community by supporting clean water, food, education, and health care. It improved access to clean water for more than 25,000 people by drilling boreholes that residents say have “changed lives.” School buildings including an assembly hall, classrooms, dormitories, washrooms, and dining facilities have been constructed. In addition, 2,200 children receive a nutritious meal each day, 300 students participate in an enhanced math program, local nurses receive training in HIV education and prevention, and hundreds of indigenous trees have been planted.*

Partners
Charity Begins At Home, Mfuwe Lodge

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"Girl Rising"

“Girl Rising” is a feature-length documentary that follows nine girls living in different countries around the world. It calls attention to the direct impact that educating girls has in reducing poverty. Since its release, the film has ignited a global movement championing girls’ education and equality. The supporting campaign helped raise more than $5 million for education and also resulted in a $3 million USAID grant that’s funding programmatic work in the DRC, India, and Nigeria.

Partners
Richard Robbins and Martha Adams

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Responding to Ebola

In 2014, Paul G. Allen became a leader in the fight against Ebola by committing $100 million to the response and developing a program that advanced strategic and targeted solutions to the outbreak. That commitment continued when the second-largest Ebola outbreak began in the DRC in 2018.

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Combatting the 2014 Ebola Outbreak

Soon after the 2014 outbreak started in West Africa, Paul G. Allen committed $100 million to the response and mobilized a program that brought strategic and targeted solutions to the global outbreak and addressed evolving needs. The Paul G. Allen Ebola Program focused on six key areas: emergency response, emergency management systems, medevac, behavior change, recovery, and research and development.*

"Body Team 12"

Academy-Award nominated documentary “Body Team 12” tells the story of a group of Liberian Red Cross workers tasked with collecting bodies of the dead during the height of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. Not only did this film raise awareness and support for the relief effort, it also broke down stigmas and debunked myths surrounding the disease and inspired many to get involved – including survivors themselves.

Partners
RYOT Films

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#ISurvivedEbola

#ISurvivedEbola is the name of a multi-dimensional communications campaign in countries affected by the 2014 outbreak that shared stories of survivors to help educate the public about the virus while reducing stigma and promoting re-integration across communities. One component of the campaign involved distributing more than 8,000 smartphones to aid workers and survivors to help dispel myths about Ebola. Ultimately #ISurvivedEbola reached more than half the population of West Africa.

Partners
PCI Media Impact in collaboration with UNICEF

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Ebola Response Accelerator Challenge

In late 2018, as the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history broke out in the DRC, Vulcan and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation mobilized funding for frontline responders. Based on feedback from on-the-ground organizations, we developed the Ebola Response Accelerator Challenge to to rapidly fund innovative approaches for responding to the crisis, which included helping health workers in the DRC to overcome community distrust that was undermining their efforts. The projects we funded helped better inform the community on when to seek care, understand the truth about the disease, and build community trust.*

Partners
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, UNICEF, World Health Organization

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"Unseen Enemy"

Feature documentary "Unseen Enemy" explores the reasons 21st-century populations are experiencing a rash of diseases that were once only outbreaks, but have now become full-blown epidemics. The increased risk, and the ways society and individuals can work together to reduce that risk, are explained by highlighting the case studies of three epidemics: Ebola, influenza, and Zika. The film looks at how population growth, urbanization, increased travel, and climate change have increased the risk disease will spread and mutate.

Partners
Sierra/Tango Productions, CNN, Janet Tobias

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* Funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Supporting Strong Global Communities

Creating Stronger, Healthier Communities

Supporting Developing Communities

Charity Begins At Home

"Girl Rising"

Responding to Ebola

Combatting the 2014 Ebola Outbreak

"Body Team 12"

#ISurvivedEbola

Ebola Response Accelerator Challenge

"Unseen Enemy"

Join the Vulcan Team