In 2000, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria appeared to be unstoppable. In many countries, AIDS devastated an entire generation, leaving countless orphans and shattered communities. Malaria killed young children and pregnant women unable to protect themselves from mosquitoes or access life-saving medicine. Tuberculosis unfairly afflicted the poor, as it had for millennia. The world fought back. As a partnership of governments, the private sector, civil society and people affected by the diseases, the Global Fund pooled the world’s resources to invest strategically in programs to end AIDS, TB and malaria as epidemics.