MacKenzie Scott supports END to end tropical diseases

MacKenzie Scott, a 50 years old philanthropist and an American novelist, with estimated worth of $60.8 billion, is supporting END, a private philanthropic initiative dedicated to ending the five most common neglected tropical diseases, NTDs.

This is contained in a press statement made available to OpenLife by African Media Agency, AMA.

According to the statement, MacKenzie Scott disclosed that she will be supporting the work of select global organizations driving transformational social change.

This update, according to the statement,  comes a year after her Giving Pledge Commitment where she made it known that she will be giving the majority of her wealth back to the society that helped generate it.

She is, therefore,  supporting organizations including the END Fund, a global health organization working to end neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Specifically, she is investing in the Deworming Innovation Fund – a six-year Audacious Project initiative to accelerate progress towards the elimination of parasitic worm infections affecting more than 40 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.

“We are thrilled to have MacKenzie Scott’s generous investment and partnership in the Deworming Innovation Fund. She joins a consortium of donors who pledged $50 million towards the launch of the initiative and challenged the END Fund to raise an additional $50 million in match funding to make this a success.

“We could not be more grateful for MacKenzie Scott’s  commitment to our ambitious vision,” said Ellen Agler, CEO.

The END Fund leverages drug donations from key pharmaceutical companies and coordinates with governments and partners to create robust delivery systems. Through 2025, people at risk of intestinal worms and schistosomiasis in these four strategic countries will benefit from life-changing deworming treatment. Thus, ensuring that nobody is left behind and that at-risk groups often overlooked in treatment campaigns, like women of reproductive age and children who are not yet in school, are reached. 

 Meanwhile, NTDs diseases are affecting more than 1.7 billion of the world’s population, with about 40 percent of this burden concentrated in Africa.

Two of the most common NTDs are intestinal worms and schistosomiasis, both of which are parasitic worm infections.