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Basil & Spice Blog

Wednesday, September 24 2008

This week, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes with Former President Clinton announcing the program for the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative. The CGI Opening Plenary Session will include Lance Armstrong, Hamid Karzai, Barack Obama, John McCain, Michael Bloomberg, Craig Barrett, John Chambers, T. Boone Pickens, Bono, Al Gore, and the Queen Rania of Jordan. More than 130 leading CEOs and over 50 current and former heads of state are confirmed to attend.Lance Armstrong will share some of his professional cycling plans and the LAF efforts to fight cancer around the world.

Recently CGI worked with Turtle Pond Publications, Scholastic , Wildlife Direct and the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation to launch a campaign to help save critically endangered mountain gorillas. A Kids Gorilla Summit (elementary and middle school children) will convene to discuss the plight of Africa's endangered mountain gorillas, with the purpose of asking pupils and students to become global citizens. Scheduled for release at the same time is Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own (Scholastic Press) by Craig, Isabella, Juliana Hatkoff, and Paula Kahumbu.

Another announcement comes from SEVA Foundation , working with CGI, commits to launching So One Million Eyes See Again campaign. It is a plan that will revolutionize eye care in the developing world, enabling hospitals to improve capacity, ensuring that 1 million more eyes receive cataract surgery by 2015. 45 million people in the world are blind--2/3rds are women. A simple 15 minute surgical procedure (cataract surgery) can restore sight immediately to most of these people.
Past accomplishments of the Clinton Global Initiative include:

Helping to avoid or reduce more than 40 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions
Supply more than 4 million people with access to clean-energy service in the developing world Fund more than 270 microfinance institutions, permitting access to finance for close to 3 million microentrepreneurs provide more than 8 million children with access to schooling Increase access to health services or improve quality of care for over 11 million people Target 34 million people for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases Provide interventions addressing malnutrition or under-nutrition for over 42 million children

As a non-partisan project of the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI--founded 2005), convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Since its inception, CGI members have made nearly 1,000 Commitments to Action valued at upwards of $30 billion to improve more than 200 million lives in over 150 countries. Through Annual Meetings, CGI has brought together more than 80 current and former heads of state, hundreds of top CEOs and non-profit leaders, major philanthropists and 10 of the last 16 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.