Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones promised each other to dedicate their achievement to the children of the world and to use the media exposure and fund-raising potential of their fame to combat forgotten or disregarded suffering.

This led to the establishment on 9th September, 1999 of the Winds of Hope Foundation, recognised as a charity under the auspices of the Swiss Confederation. Its launch capital consisted of the Budweiser cash prize won by the round-the-world team as well as a donation from Breitling.

As it first campaign, the Foundation chose to support the fight against noma, an appalling childhood disease and symbol of extreme poverty, by:

• funding prevention and early detection programmes in the countries at risk:
• raising public awareness at an international level
  

By making the media aware of intolerable situations in the world, Winds of Hope tries to encourage the political will to take necessary urgent measures while appealing to the public and businesses to help finance certain humanitarian actions.