The first International Financing Facility for Immunisation (IFFIM) bond is going to be bought by Pope Benedict XVI today, through the president of the Papal Board for justice and peace, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino. IFFIM is meant to provide international financial help for vaccination. "The gesture of Benedict XVI is real and symbolic at the same time; it is written in a note by the Vatican ministry managed by Cardinal Martino, who really encouraged the initiative right from the beginning, – moreover, it manifests full support by the Holy See to an initiative which is going to produce immediate and direct effects in the field of aid and development, with full international guarantee". Anybody will be able to buy the bonds, which are guaranteed by several governments, the British one, first of all. Those governments will pay interests and refund the bonds at the expiry date, while the purchase sum will be directly received by the populations most in need of large-scale vaccination. "In 72 countries in the world, it is written in the note, the lives of ten million people will be saved within 2015, including five million children".
