Scott Filler | The Global Fund

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May 26, 2015

The Global Fund Money Squandered

Corruption and greed has lost The Global Fund and the countries Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hundreds and thousands of dollars. The Global Fund had allocated a great deal of money to the two states which were eventually used improperly costing all three parties the donation. Vesti.KG reported the story initially, “The Global Fund demanded Kyrgyzstan compensate it for a loss of over $120,000. The Global Fund believes it has proof of theft of grants by various Kyrgyz state officials. A similar story — only with slightly larger sums of theft — was reported in neighboring Tajikistan two months ago and is still being poured over by local media.”

After The Global Fund launched an investigation with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) after the Fund realized the money was not being allocated properly. After the findings of the investigation, the Inspector General uncovered the had been incorrectly spending and allocating money through the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism of Tajikistan. The Global Fund then blacklisted the Committee from receiving any further funding. Even though the Tajikistan Committee accused is calling the reports false, after a full audit concluded that over $120 thousand of the $300 thousand given to the Committee had been either used wrongly or distributed to another organization. The Committee apparently worked with a very unorthodox company, Komyob, which used the money to purchase “non-health products such as MP3 and DVD-players, notebooks, pens and health insurance packages with prices inflated by an average of 118% when compared to the market value of the products.“

With the missing money the Global Fund hopes to get their money back shortly so they can truly allocate it to a good cause which can save lives. For more information and news on The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

February 23, 2015

The Global Fund ‘All In’ To End AIDS

With AIDS the leading cause of deaths for adolescents in Africa, The Global Fund is pushing to go ‘all in’ against the deadly virus which has been declining over the past few years. The main concern for The Global Fund and African adolescents is the fact that only one in four of adolescents with AIDS are able to receive adequate treatment. The biggest concern for officials is the alarming rate of girls being affected by AIDS. According to AllAfrica.com, “Adolescent girls, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are most affected. In South Africa in 2013, more than 860 girls became infected with HIV every week, compared to 170 boys. HIV is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa and young women are most affected. This is a moral injustice. I am calling on young people to lead the All In movement, alongside the United Nations, public and private partners, and countries themselves, to end the adolescent AIDS epidemic.”

Together with UNICEF and UNAIDS, The Global Fund are beginning to focus their attention on adolescents who were affected 10-15 years ago. The problem with those affected back then is they are unaware of the fact they even posses the deadly virus and could be passing it along without even knowing. Even though reaching these now adults is extremely difficult since there is no tell all sign someone has AIDS, the three groups will work in conjunction with one another to prevent the spread of the virus. They are also now reaching out and explaining the importance of getting tested to the youth of Africa. Teaching them that getting tested is important and could potentially save lives is the way to educate the youth.

All parties fully understand that getting rid of AIDS completely is unreasonable and hope to slowly knock down the number of affected and deaths. Together, all hope to receive fundings to help with the cause. This is a world problem where any donation can help.

For more updates on The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

 

January 26, 2015

Malaria Funding On Edge

2015 will play a pivotal role in Malaria funding for not only this year, but for many years to come. Lindsay Graham, senator of South Carolina and advocate in the fight against Malaria explains how the drop in funding by the United States and other countries in the world could cause for a Malaria epidemic in some countries.

 

Graham explained, “Look at the lives saved and the infrastructure that’s been developed in the last ten years, All of that’s at risk. You’ll be pulling back at a time when you’re just about to get over the finish line.” With the United States funding expected to decrease, the World Health Organization is concerned for what this could mean for the world in its fight against the deadly parasite. From 2000-2013 the World Health Organization noted the number of infections dropped from 173 million to 128 million. This number is significant since Graham believes we are on the cusp of getting over the disease and controlling its spread.

 

One of the biggest organizations funding the fight against Malaria is the Global Fund who is expected to increase funding, along with the US government to $701 million in 2015. The problem in the funding is coming from countries around the world who are cutting their expenses on fighting Malaria.

 

According to Scott Filler, The Global Fund’s senior disease coordinator for malaria stated, “Malaria is a very smart disease, Both the mosquitoes and the parasite itself really can thwart biologically what we try to do.” The Global Fund understands and is educating the world on how these bugs can adapt, and not continuing the fight them in attempts to wipe Malaria out completely.

 

The Global Fund has explained the drop in funding in such a manner, “if we are buying  ten mosquito nets, and you (other countries) need to buy only two nets, those countries are not meeting us and getting those two extra nets.” When it comes to a bigger picture, those two nets can essentially cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Dr. Filler is hoping “the importance of emerging economies of India, Brazil and China to become Global Fund donors. Regional cooperation — neighbor helping neighbor — could become more common.” The Global Fund and the rest of the world can hope the funding for Malaria continues in hopes to eradicate the disease.

 

For more information on the topic, please visit: Devex.com for the full articles, and for more on the Global Fund, please visit ScottFiller.info

 

December 23, 2014

Global Fund Saves US $100 Million

Ever since the origin of The Global Fund, they have been working to save lives and fight world issues that no one else seemed to work or care for. Fortunately, for the US and the rest of the world, the work of The Global Fund has been saving countless lives and money. Over the next two years, The Global Fund will be saving the US just around $100 million.

The Global Fund will be purchasing HIV/AIDS medicine for patients in the US saving the country nearly $100 million. The Chief Procurement Officer for The Global Fund, Christopher Games explained the importance of public health safety, ” Savings from the new agreement on HIV medication are equivalent to providing anti-retroviral drugs to an additional 400,000 people for two years.” The importance of saving lives is more important than saving money for the Fund, which is why they are advocating and educating countries to take this approach to have readily available medicine and vaccines, not to save that extra dollar. 

The Fund believes, spending money now will yield, their goal is to hopefully wipe out HIV/AIDS by putting so much money towards medicine and teaching patients it is okay to go get tested and get proper medicine. In another statement from Games, “As well as expanding the supply of life-saving medicines, our new approach will provide deep and sustained savings, to the benefit of people living with HIV across the world.”

Although The Global Fund is spending so much to provide medicine, many people who have HIV are aware but do not get treated due to a fear that society will shun them. Fortunately for The Global Fund, they are able to team up with local organizations around the world to have them teach and recognize patients with HIV as humans and not someone who everyone should avoid.

The Fund has mobilized over $4 billion so far and are now in over 140 countries worldwide. This growth is exactly what The Global Fund set out to do. They want to spread knowledge and understand that money needs to be spent in order to stop this deadly virus. They have also partnered up with major organizations around the world, including: World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the Pan American World Organization. Together, they believe this is a fight they can win, and will work hard until this fight is won.

 

For more information on The Global Fund saving the US $100 million please visit: AllAfrica