Kingdom Foundation, chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, donated $356,500 to the "Deworm the World Initiative." The Young Global Leaders Education Taskforce at the Davos World Economic Forum presented the initiative early this year.
The initiative aims at spreading school-based treatment of parasitic worms as an education intervention.
Treating children for parasitic worms has been shown to increase their access to education by as much as 15 percent. Deworm the World intends to reach over half a million children at risk of infection.
Through Deworm the World, the Young Global Leaders are working with governments, international agencies, private foundations, and nongovernmental agencies to scale up school based treatment for parasitic worms.
In addition to the educational benefits, treatment for parasitic worms, which costs just 50 cents per child per year and can add up to a year to a child's education, helps improve child health and cognitive development.
Despite the existence of a simple and cheap treatment, these parasitic worms still infest 400 million children across the world, cause malnutrition, absenteeism from school, and lower productivity as adults.
