The financier and philanthropist George Soros said that he was contributing $50 million to support a sprawling social experiment, organized and led by the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, that aims to help villages in Africa escape grinding poverty.
Mr. Soros's money will, among other things, pay for fertilizers and improved seeds to raise crop yields, classrooms to improve literacy and health clinics to reduce deaths in 33 villages in 10 African countries. The hope is that poor subsistence farmers will begin earning more income by selling crops at market.
The strategy, which Mr. Sachs has been pursuing through his nonprofit group, the Millennium Promise, since 2004, is to tackle the myriad problems of poverty all at once by providing villagers with relatively inexpensive technologies and approaches, including mosquito nets that prevent malaria and stoves with chimneys that reduce deadly indoor air pollution.
Mr. Soros's contribution is a philanthropic departure for him. He has largely focused on fostering democracy and good government. But he said in an interview that he believed that this undertaking had humanitarian value for the participating villages, as well as some chance of building a successful model that could be copied.
[Excerpt of an article by Celia W. Dugger, The New York Times]
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