FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 4, 2007

Contact: Eric Block, 206-321-4957

-- The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria funds vital $26 million advocacy and education initiative

PORTLAND, Ore. - Mercy Corps is teaming up with The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Pakistan Ministry of Health on a five-year, $56 million program that aims to reduce the burden of TB by 2015, in line with the Millennium Development Goals. This agreement marks the first partnership between the Global Fund and Mercy Corps, as well as an expansion of the global humanitarian agency's health programs.

Mercy Corps is the principal recipient of a $26 million initiative to lead advocacy, communication and social mobilization efforts with eight partner organizations. The agency has been running similar programs for the past three years in 13 districts. New projects will include large-scale social marketing campaigns and ongoing activities in 57 hard-to-reach, underserved districts, specifically targeting rural populations, females and youth ages 15 to 25. Programs commence this week.

"The Pakistan government called TB a national emergency in 2001," said Joanna Walshe, Mercy Corps' senior program officer for South Asia. "Advocacy and community-level education are our frontline tools in the battle against the spread of tuberculosis."

According to the World Health Organization's 2007 Global TB Report, Pakistan suffers from the seventh-highest burden of TB in the world. The bacterial disease kills 62,000 people there each year, and only 27 percent of the cases are detected. The number of TB cases in Pakistan is on the rise due to grinding poverty - more than 20 million people live on less than $1 a day - and explosive population growth.

"Thanks to the Global Fund, Mercy Corps and our partners will reach isolated villages with the information and resources they need to beat this disease," Walshe added.

The Government of Pakistan has recognized Mercy Corps as a leading partner in the fight against tuberculosis. The agency has worked in Pakistan for two decades, and currently supports more than 60 diagnostic centers in government district hospitals and primary health care facilities to strengthen TB detection and treatment.

The National TB Control Program of the Ministry of Health of Pakistan (NTP) is the principal recipient for an additional $30 million worth of programs to improve clinical infrastructure. Mercy Corps will partner with NTP on these initiatives to enhance local capacity to treat and diagnose tuberculosis, including drug-resistant TB and TB-HIV co-infection.

Mercy Corps' assistance to Pakistan dates back to the mid-1980s. The agency's current programs in Baluchistan Province reach 320,000 people. In addition, Mercy Corps continues to assist survivors of the 2005 earthquake and this summer's torrential floods. Other programs focus on improving health, water access and livelihoods for resident and Afghan refugee populations.

ABOUT MERCY CORPS:

Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,400 staff worldwide and reach nearly 14.4 million people in more than 35 countries. For more information, visit www.mercycorps.org.

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