I saw a man lying on the ground with his head almost buried in the sand and ants running all over him.  It was a victim of sleeping sickness…He was past all help, though he still breathed.  While I was busied with him I could see through the door of the hut the bright blue waters of the bay in their frame of green woods, a scene of almost magical beauty, looking still more enchanting in the flood of golden light poured over it by the setting sun.  To be shown in a single glance such a paradise and such helpless, hopeless misery, was overwhelming…but it was symbol of the condition of Africa…
…Nowhere but in Africa could I have discovered the philosophy of Reverence for Life.
--Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Dr. Schweitzer dedicated the last five decades of his life to medical work in Africa, caring for many thousands of patients at the “village hospital” he and his wife Helene Bresslau founded in Lambaréné in 1913.  Today the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer continues not only to be the primary source of medical care for the people of the Moyen Ogooué Region of Gabon, but also a major research and training site involving doctors and scientists from many African countries, Europe, and the United States.  A Community Health Outreach Program has been cited as “a school for our country” by the Director-General of the Gabon Ministry of Health, and the hospital’s clinical staff, in collaboration with the hospital’s Medical Research Unit, has achieved the lowest documented mortality rate for children with severe malaria – the leading killer of African children -- in all of Africa.
The historic U.N. Millennium Declaration of September 2000 called for a global commitment from the world’s governments to achieve dramatic progress on the health, poverty, and environmental problems faced by Africa and other developing regions.  The Declaration was subsequently translated into eight top-priority “Millennium Development Goals” that are the centerpiece of the U.N. Millennium Campaign:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Detailed plans for how to accomplish these goals have been developed by the U.N. Millennium Development Project. What is currently most lacking is sufficient political will and public engagement of people throughout the world to ensure that the commitments made in September 2000 are actually achieved. 
For more information about how to become involved in supporting the U.N. Millennium Development Campaign please visit www.millenniumcampaign.org.
A listing of additional organizations working on various U.N. Millennium Development Goals can be found in the sponsors and partners of The One Campaign at: www.one.org/partners.