Two weeks ago Melinda Gates used the E word. I want to share what she said, and what Bill Gates said too, and why it is so directly related to the way we confront hunger and other seemingly unsolvable social issues.

The much anticipated September report of General David Petraeus will refocus the national conversation on the level of our engagement in Iraq. The drawdown of American forces, whenever it comes, will bring with it developments we can't predict.

On July 30, I joined a team from Venice Arts, a Venice, CA youth arts organization, to embark on an exciting journey to Africa, our third since 2001, that also causes me some personal conflict.

As a native of the Sudan, I have been deeply involved in aiding those in the Darfur region of my country -- but the conflict is no longer contained to the Sudan.

For years, the field of micro-finance has struggled with the challenge of blending a social mission with a need to operate economically viable institutions. Some in the field have argued that, as long as microfinance organizations provide the poor with reliable access to credit, they should seek to maximize returns in order to attract investment capital.

April 25th is the first time the United States will officially observe National Malaria Awareness Day. The President is hosting an event at the White House to commemorate what has been celebrated by the rest of the world as Africa Malaria Day since 2001. A forgotten disease that was eradicated in the United States, malaria affects over 500 million individuals a year, killing a child in Africa ever 30 seconds.

Every year since 1948, BBC has organized a series of lectures in which a leading public figure addresses a worldwide radio audience about important contemporary issues. This year the Reith lectures, named in honor of the BBC's first director general will be delivered by Jeffrey Sachs.

This past week, the political establishment has been obsessing over who "won" and who "lost" stage one of the so-called "money primary." But the first incumbent-free presidential election in 55 years should first and foremost be about ideas and leadership.

Some of the work of Zachary Steinberg and Jeremy Berman, founders of Students for International Medical Action (SIMA), has been recounted in a recent post on Sharing Witness. They recently met with the Share Our Strength staff to report on their experiences bearing witness to the medical care crisis in Ethiopia.

"So, are you a missionary?" A retired South African physician asked me, his contempt not thinly-veiled. I'd tried to explain why my colleagues and I had come to his country during our many conversations. But, the doctor mistook my words; I was on a "mission."

Since the global health community acknowledged close correlations between malaria and HIV, there have been great strides made towards joint prevention of these two deadly diseases.

During the past few years, the world has watched Cote d'Ivoire in a state of crisis due to the continued fighting between the north and the south. The real crisis, though, is just under the political surface, "paludisme." (For those of you who are like me and don't speak French, we are talking about the Ivory Coast and malaria.) Malaria is the reason for 80% of the hospital visits in this country.

My colleague Jeremy Berman and I began our organization, Students for Medical Action (SIMA), over three years ago when we were first-year medical students. Since that time we have sent dozens of second-year medical students and George Washington University (GW) faculty to Ethiopia, linking them with Ethiopian medical students and medical professors. This year we have organized SIMA's first fourth-year medical student rotation in Ethiopia, and I am currently writing you from a small internet cafe off the bustling streets of the Piassa in downtown Addis Ababa.

Maha Ghosananda, the leader of Cambodian Buddhism, and one of the world's great religious leaders, died on March 12, 2007. In October of 1998, I had a memorable encounter with this remarkable figure whom Jack Kornfield characterizes as "a forest monk, a father figure for Cambodian children, a translator and scholar of fifteen languages, a meditation master for Western students, a peacemaker at the United Nations, and one of the living treasures of Cambodia, leading the Khmer refugee communities around the world" (Preface, Step by Step, by Maha Ghosananda, 1992).

Victoria Hale from the Institute for One World Health, the first nonprofit pharmaceutical, delivered a keynote address this weekend at the Social Enterprise Conference at the Harvard Business School.

When I read Billy Shore's op-ed about his visit to Arlington National Cemetery, I realized I've been waiting to see a reflection like his for several years. The White House and Pentagon have done so much to make the final stage of military sacrifice invisible, so every experience is individualized and isolated - like Billy's personal excursion to Arlington.

The symbol of hope for me today is a pink mosquito net. On Monday, we met Esperanca Afonco at the Pediatric Hospital in Luanda. She was admitted a week ago due to complications with malaria. We did not see her until the end of our day because she is in the pediatric AIDS/HIV (SIDAS) ward hidden behind the hospital.

Not since the Ford Assembly Line has there been mechanization such as this. Like putting an automobile together by hand with every necessary part, the 'Integrated Plus Days' through the Measles Initiative are fighting malaria and other diseases such as measles and polio, providing healthy children for our future.

"Malaria Kills. Kill Mosquitoes" That is the saying on over a million yellow bracelets that were handed out throughout Nigeria in 2006. Imitating the cause marketing sensation, LiveStrong wristbands, these yellow bracelets are all over the country, namely in rural areas of Nigeria.

It's that time of year when social entrepreneurs get to hang out and carouse with the world's leaders. I'm en route to Switzerland for two conferences (or, a pre-conference and a conference). The first event is the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Summit. This is where many of the key global players from the social entrepreneurship field get together, under the auspices of Klaus and Hilde Schwab. Klaus is the founder and head of the World Economic Forum. And, later in the week I move to Davos for the World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2007.

I recently returned from my second trip to Haiti in the past 9 months and I can't wait to return! While it is nearly impossible to find an encouraging word about Haiti in the U.S. press, I found plenty to celebrate at Wings of Hope, a school and community for children with severe special needs in Fermathe, Haiti.

From December 10 through 19, my colleague Bob Forney and I visited the Mexican Association of Food Banks (AMBA) in Guadalajara for The Global FoodBanking Network. Our purpose was to discuss with AMBA their plans for food banking development, specifically food sourcing capacity building, and to identify fundable projects.

Today I attended the White House Summit on Malaria. For reasons of space and security the event was held a few blocks from the White House at the National Geographic building across the street from Share Our Strength.

You probably noticed the many news stories the day after Thanksgiving about the official start of the Christmas shopping season, now known as Black Friday (because it is traditionally when retailers begin turning a profit, or operating in the black), and the almost unimaginably long lines waiting for the midnight openings of doors at Best Buy stores and other retail outlets. There were even some frightening stampedes caught on tape as malls racked up a record $9 billion in sales. Most of the news anchors closed out their broadcasts with a wisecrack or shook their heads good naturedly, but there was also something a bit unnerving about the sight.

On October 17, 2006, the board of Venture Philanthropy Partners was privileged to host Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a special event for VPP founding investors, new supporters, friends, board members, and team. Patty, joined by her colleague Allan Golston, President, US Program, candidly shared what she has learned as the foundation has stepped up its efforts to reduce inequities in the United States and around the world.

With the mid-term elections quickly approaching, many candidates are bolstering their platforms with foreign policy issues like terrorism, Iraq and nuclear arms in North Korea. The congressional landscape is bound for a facelift and likely will be shaped by the ongoing debate over the United States' involvement on international soil. But equally important, and often not making the headlines, is a topic that is inextricably linked to our overseas interests - foreign aid.

“If you’re a political junkie (especially one from Hollywood) this was almost as good as Oscar night,” a reporter stated in the Calendar section, normally reserved for entertainment and arts, of the Los Angeles Times in a story about the party in New York where the attendees doled out $15,000 a piece to attend Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative and mix with some of the world’s most rich and powerful.

The Nobel Prize Committee's decision to award its 2006 Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank should give encouragement to millions of people around the world working to eradicate hard core poverty. For Yunus, it is a step forward toward creating a world in which, as he says, “our great grandchildren will have to go to museums to see what poverty was.”

On Friday, all of us at the UN Foundation were delighted to hear that our Board member Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank had won the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work on microcredit. It’s not hard to appreciate the beauty of Professor Yunus’ breakthrough idea: small loans and a measure of trust can help people written off by old-fashioned thinking lift themselves out of poverty. But I didn’t fully appreciate the impact of microcredit – or Professor Yunus – until last year, when I joined him and the UN Foundation Board on a trip to Bangladesh.

There’s a common misperception that global health problems are too complex to be solved – and that investments in development are likely to fail or be wasted. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The citation awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and The Grameen Bank in recognition of their work with microcredit says that it is for “their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”

The Apocalypse, in the words of Joachim of Fior, is “the key of things past, the knowledge of things to come; the opening of what is sealed, the uncovering of what is hidden.” The Apocalypse, then, succeeds in hiding its own meaning, and bears a transcendental, secularized version, so its eschatology should be studied not only as the end of history, but also as the proposition of events and signs accompanying the final denouement.