Last night, Melinda Gates stepped in front of the University of Washington and made her own statement regarding the topic of foreign aid. The event for celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Department of Global Health at the university had many guest speakers, particularly philanthropists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Geekwire reports that during her speech, she regarded the Trump administration’s stance for cutting foreign aid, even though President Trump hasn’t made his opinion known either way as of late.
The issue is mainly a concern of providing care to foreign allies, a cause that only costs the federal government less than one percent of its budget. An amount that Melinda and Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, agree is well spent.
“Families don’t want to uproot from their communities,” Gates said, “and they certainly don’t want to go across the high sea on a terrible boat to make it to Europe. But they are not finding economic opportunity where they are, they are not having good health where they are.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is known for its philanthropy globally as well as locally. Much of their work has gone to benefitting better healthcare for all. They provide funding and scholarships to many different initiatives, but none so much as the University of Washington where the foundation has provided over 250 grants with over $1.25 billion funneled in.
Melinda Gates hopes to persuade President Trump’s administration that the cause of foreign aid is not only the humanitarian response but will bring more peace and security in the long run.
