03 May 2021 by Peter Sands, Executive Director download in 日本語 ] In Okinawa, Japan, on Saturday a team of global health advocates and leaders from “The Global Fund ― From Okinawa” team carried the Olympic torch aloft, lighting the way for a world free from the burden of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and COVID-19. Okinawa has a special connection to the Global Fund. At the G8 Summit in Kyushu-Okinawa in 2000, Japan’s leadership in global health was fundamental to the creation of the Global Fund and in rallying world leaders to combat the deadliest infectious diseases of our times – HIV, tuberculosis and malaria – when these appeared unstoppable. Twenty years later, programs supported by the Global Fund have saved more than 38 million lives.