Inside the Clinton Foundation

This is the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT.

President Bill Clinton left office in January of two thousand one.  Since then, he has been leading a private foundation active on a number of world issues.  These include H.I.V/AIDS, health security and climate change.  Other projects involve poverty reduction, leadership development and working toward racial, ethnic and religious understanding. 

The Clinton Foundation forms partnerships with individuals, organizations and governments.  For the past two years, in New York, the former president has held a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. 

Each invited guest must make a promise to work toward one of the foundation's goals.  The idea is that the foundation will then observe the progress made toward the commitment over the next year.

The second Clinton Global Initiative meeting took place for three days in September.  At the end, the foundation announced commitments worth more than seven thousand million dollars.  These included a three thousand million dollar commitment by Richard Branson to fight global warming.  Mr. Branson is chief executive officer of Britain's Virgin Group.

The Clinton Foundation says more than one thousand leaders of business, government and nongovernmental organizations attended this year.  They were joined by almost fifty current and former heads of state.  Last year, more than two thousand million dollars worth of commitments were made.

One of the major programs that Mr. Clinton has launched is an H.I.V./AIDS campaign.  For example, he has negotiated lower prices for H.I.V. tests and AIDS drugs in developing countries. 

On the issue of climate change, the Clinton Foundation has a program for large cities to work together to buy energy-saving products.  The goal is to reduce the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere.  The cities also receive technical assistance from experts.

Bill Clinton and his foundation are also active on other issues.  There is even a campaign to work with schools and food companies to reduce the problem of overweight children in America.

The Clinton Foundation has offices in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas.  Mr. Clinton was the governor of Arkansas.  His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is now one of the two United States senators who represent the state of New York.

And that's the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT, written by Jill Moss.  Internet users can download transcripts and MP3 files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.  I'm Steve Ember.