Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was joined last week by a group of high-profile celebrities and musicians in Montreal to make an important point. They say the world’s leaders must do more to help fight major diseases that affect people around the world.
He was at a conference that brought experts together to raise money for the Global Fund, an organization that fights tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.
Some of the big names at the conference: Bono, lead singer for the popular rock band U2; the head (“Secretary-General”) of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon; Bill Gates, a world-famous billionaire businessman (and co-creator of the company Microsoft).
According to a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper, the Global Fund wants more than $13 billion to put in the fund over the next three years. The organization says that money could save as many as eight million lives.
Canada will give the Global Fund $785 million over the next three years.
Trudeau is in New York this week; he will give a speech at the United Nations there on Tuesday. It will be his first speech to the UN as Prime Minister.
