Ecologia Youth Trust

11/05/2025

BREAKING: Bill Gates drops an atom bomb on Elon Musk's reputation, accuses him of "killing the world’s poorest children" by cutting USAID — and announces that he's donating his remaining $100 billion to the Gates Foundation to save lives.

He's really putting his money where his mouth is...

"The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one. I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money," Gates told the Financial Times.

Back in February, Musk's now widely reviled DOGE initiative shut down the US Agency for International Development, which Gates said resulted in food and medicine expiring inside warehouses. It also directly contributed to an explosion in measles, HIV, and polio outbreaks.

Musk and Republicans hated USAID because it was a government expenditure that actually helped poor people and although they won't admit it, they believe that tax dollars should only go towards tax cuts for the super rich.

Gates went into some detail in his conversation with FT, and explained that Musk gutted the grants to a hospital in Gaza, Mozambique that was preventing women from transmitting HIV to their babies.

Musk and other Republicans — either through ignorance or intentional misrepresentation — claimed that condoms were actually going to Gaza in Palestine.

Musk later admitted that he was incorrect about the Gaza-condoms situation, saying "some of the things that I say will be incorrect." Of course, in his case everything he says is incorrect.

"I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money," said Gates.

Gates announced that he is going to spend nearly his entire fortune to help the world over the next two decades and estimates that his foundation will spend over $200 billion on global health, development, and education, after which it will shutter for good.

He stated that he plans to leave less than 1% of his wealth to his children and that he strongly supports a robust estate tax and "much more progressive taxation" to prevent families from accumulating "dynastic wealth."

"People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve," he stated in a letter explaining his decisions.

Gates said that the accelerated rate of spending from the foundation could result in the total eradication of polio or a cure for HIV.

"It gives us clarity," said the Microsoft founder. "We’ll have a lot more money because we’re spending down over the 20 years, as opposed to making an effort to be a perpetual foundation."

Gates also slammed Trump's decision to appoint anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. to be his Health Secretary, stating that he "attacked vaccines, and specifically my role . . . with a lot of falsehoods."

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02/03/2025

08/11/2024

Nika is a doctor who helped Dato, the Georgian boy, so much. He has a brain tumour and needs our help to pay for the treatment. Please do what you can. 🙏

My name is Nika. I am a young doctor from the Caucasus Republi… Madge Bray needs your support for Please Help Me Save My Life and Live to See My Children Grow

01/11/2024

A Closing Door and an Open Suitcase
If you’ve been involved with SIDCN for a while, whether through the Facebook group, Friday Connect calls, or SIDCN Fest, you’ll know that sharing is at the heart of what we do.

It’s the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.

Since SIDCN started as a small group during the early lockdown days, there have been countless stories of members supporting each other. We share common causes, fundraising tips, project ideas, learning resources, and much more. This particular story involves the sharing of a suitcase filled with jewellery…

A closing door and an open suitcase

It was during a Friday Connect call in August that Liza Hollingshead shared an update with the group. Ecologia Youth Trust, the charity she’d been directing for 30 years, was closing its doors. Testament to the organisation’s sustainability efforts, their projects in Kenya, Uganda, Russia and Scotland are now self-sufficient and can run themselves. Ecologia has helped transform the lives of over 56,000 children, young people and families affected by poverty, inequality, disease and climate change.

One of their projects in Kenya is a skills-training course for women living with HIV and AIDS at Kithoka Amani Community Home, founded by Dr. Karambu Ringera. The women create beautiful, high-quality pieces of jewellery, enabling them to generate an income and access medical care.

Liza explained…

“Karambu sent me this large suitcase of jewellery which we’ve been selling over the years in Scotland. When we were winding the charity down, I wondered what I was going to do with all this jewellery that we hadn’t sold. I was explaining this during a Friday morning call and Tina said ‘I’ll take it!' So I posted this suitcase full of jewellery to her.”

A full circle story

Alongside her day job in public health, Tina runs Freedom 4 Girls, a charity tackling period poverty through dignity kits and menstrual health management (MHM) education in the UK and Kenya. They’ve delivered over 10,000 dignity kits to women and girls in Kenya, made by local seamstresses, and volunteers in the UK. The kits include reusable pads, underwear, a calendar, and washing instructions.

After the jewellery arrived in the post, Tina was able to sell some of the pieces at an arts festival in Leeds. It raised £600 for Freedom 4 Girls! This will go back to Kenya to enable local seamstresses to make more dignity packs for women and girls there, which Liza was encouraged to hear.

“The women who made the jewellery in Meru would be so pleased to know the money is going to support other girls in Kenya.”

Founded eight years ago, Freedom 4 Girls are earlier on in their journey than Ecologia Youth Trust, whose time has come to an end. However, their legacy will continue through this simple act of sharing. An unexpected connection made on a Friday morning Zoom call enabled one door to be opened as another closed.

The potential to create meaningful change is much greater when we connect and share with each other - one piece of jewellery, one dignity kit at a time.

If you like the sound of our Connect calls, please do join us. They take place weekly - on Tuesdays at 9am and Fridays at 8.30am. They're a great opportunity to chat, learn, laugh and share. The Zoom details are posted in our Facebook group each week. We'd love to see you.

SIDCN is supporting small charities internationally. SIDCN started in 2016 as an online collective through Facebook. Now grown to a community of over 2,000 members, SIDCN’s aim is to amplify the voices of small international development charities.