President Clinton and UN Secretary-General click Massivegood
4 March 2010 | New York - With a simple click at the United Nations on March 4th, President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon kicked off the Massive Good movement to build a healthier world. Leisure travelers in the United States will now be able to “click” on MASSIVEGOOD on commercial travel websites like Travelocity and Accor Hotels and through travel agents, and contribute $2 to fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and to improving the dismal state of maternal and child health in the developing world.
“It is a profoundly important day," said the 42nd President of the United States, before he walked down from the UN speaker’s podium, along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to give the first donation to MASSIVEGOOD on a small laptop.
"This is basically an institutionalized version of what we saw happen after the Haiti earthquake where people were texting in $10 or $5," Clinton said. "These systems, I predict, will empower ordinary people to change the future of the world in ways that we can only begin to imagine."
Joining President Clinton and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations were Raymond Chambers, UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Her Royal Highness Doña Cristina, Infanta of Spain, First Lady of Namibia Penehupifo Pohamba, Andrey Pirigov, Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization and Graeme Wheeler, World Bank Managing Director.
"Today's launch in the United States will be followed by expansion to European countries, and then elsewhere," said the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "We hope MASSIVEGOOD will become a truly global phenomenon."
The "first click" at the United Nations was the final event of the MASSIVEGOOD launch week in New York City, which brought together celebrities, political figures and travel industry representatives.
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