A Letter from WLF President Louis James de Viel Castel

When we established World Lung Foundation (WLF) six years ago, it was clear that more efforts were needed to combat the global epidemic of preventable lung disease, which kills 10 million people worldwide each year. Since 2004, WLF has emerged as a dynamic public health organization with expertise in project management, capacity building, health communications and information, and operational research.

WLF has experienced exceptional growth and achievement in the past few years. Our funding has increased from $26.3 million in 2007 to $45.3 million in 2008 and $47.2 million in 2009, with 97% of funds committed to providing program services.

WLF supports capacity building projects in tuberculosis and asthma, which together kill two million people worldwide each year. We provided funding for development of a state-of-the-art facility in the Philippines, to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis throughout Asia. To help reverse the incidence of child asthma in Kenya, WLF has raised more than $95,000 by sponsoring a running team in four years of the annual New York City Half-Marathon. The proceeds are being used for training, infrastructure and medicine to identify and treat this disease.

In the area of health communications and information, WLF has helped launch major mass media social marketing campaigns under the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, in countries that include China, India, Egypt, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. Such campaigns help support tobacco control policies and educate the public about the health harms of smoking and secondhand smoke. WLF also provided public relations support for the release of the landmark World Health Organization Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, which yielded media coverage around the world. For World No Tobacco Day, we developed an innovative web video that could be customized and distributed in any country.

In operational research, WLF is supporting a pilot project in rural Tanzania to train medical officers to perform emergency obstetrical surgery. WLF commissioned five research reports on the economics of tobacco taxation; these are being used around the world to advocate for policy change. We have also initiated a global research project to identify the most effective tobacco control behavioral change messages.

To support this programmatic growth and innovation, WLF underwent important operational and organizational changes in 2008 and 2009. We moved our New York City headquarters to larger office space, and our staff has grown from 13 to more than 30 in two years. In New Delhi, India, we opened a South Asia office, which has taken the lead in supporting a pilot program for a smoke-free Delhi University and has advised on several major regional tuberculosis initiatives. We also revamped our visual identity and website to support our constituents and brand the Foundation more clearly.

Although we are proud of these many accomplishments, we face constant reminders that our work has only just begun. The number of drug-resistant TB cases is increasing. Rates of tobacco use continue to rise in developing countries. Environmental degradation and urbanization are causing more asthma, and pneumonia remains a major killer of children under five years old. 

WLF is poised to meet these challenges. This year, we will add more programmatic expertise and build more sustainable capacity in the places where we work. We will maintain global flexibility and local focus. With your support, we will continue to improve the lives of individuals around the world by strengthening community capacity to prevent and manage lung disease.