What's Woody Doing Now

Water Changes Everything

Water is the best 'silver bullet' to end poverty and improve quality of life. Water improves education, health, and development.

 

Eight killed by epidemic akin to polio in the Republic of Congo

 

Every time I hear POLIO, I think of these two young boys that I saw recently in a Congolese village.  They are the only two children not standing erect. They were stricken and crippled by polio.  Also, they were too poor and did not have access to braces.  So they crawl around in the dirt and dust.  BUT, they were lucky!  They were alive!!

Health officials said "There is a serious outbreak of polio in the Republic of Congo:120 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (a syndrome related to polio) and eight deaths."  I heard the story last week at a Rotary District 6560 meeting.  Our Polio contact just mentioned southern Congo was the site.  I thought it was about my Congo (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) instead of the other Congo (the smaller and northern neighbor, the Republic of Congo).

IRIN Africa | CONGO: Eight killed by epidemic akin to polio | Congo | Health & Nutrition.

An epidemic akin to polio, which has raged for nearly two weeks in the main commercial city in southern Congo, Pointe-Noire, has already killed eight, and several dozen cases have been reported, say health officials.

"Patients admitted to hospitals have flu-like symptoms. They are also presenting with paralysis starting in the lower limbs which spreads to the upper limbs, "said Director-General of Health Alexis Elira Dockekias.

"This epidemic is related to the recent polio outbreak. The only difference is that this time the disease affects adolescents and adults, unlike polio which affects mainly the young and children," he said, adding that those affected by the epidemic are aged 15-45.

He called on the public "not to panic but to observe strict hygiene measures: boiling drinking water; washing vegetables properly; and cooking cassava [the staple food] thoroughly."

Children Should Carry Books, Not Water

Yes, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is essential to achieve universal education and to end extreme poverty.

Here's a Press Release from John Sauer, Water Advocates.

 

Children Should Carry Books, Not Water

 

U.S. Raising Clean Hands Campaign Launched: WASH (WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene)

Is Essential to Achieve Universal Education

 

October 13, (Washington, DC) – Nathan Strauss, 17, a student at Abington Senior High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is part of a growing movement of America’s youth who are stepping up to make a change in the lives of the students around the world who are carrying water and not books.

 

Even for those children that have the opportunity to go to school, students lose 443 million school days each year due to diseases associated with the lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Repeated episodes of diarrhea and worm infestations diminish a child’s ability to learn and impair cognitive development. This problem is exacerbated by the more than half of all schools in developing countries that lack adequate WASH facilities.

 

“I had no idea of the magnitude of the issue and I was shocked to find out the severity of the crisis and the number of students like me across the world that still don’t even have a toilet at their school. Doing something about this has become a really big deal for me,” said Nathan Strauss. “I think America’s youth has great potential to do something about this problem; if everyone gets taught the issue, we can all help. Imagine if all the students in America were a part of this; the change would be enormous,” he continued.

 

Nathan is not alone. Nearly 30 organizations launched a campaign in the United States today at an event at AED to demonstrate that providing water, sanitation and hygiene education in schools globally can help solve the WASH and education challenge around the world. Through this campaign, and an exhibit called “Bathroom Pass,” these organizations highlight the solutions they are currently implementing and urge the U.S. Government, the World Bank, and other actors in the education and health sectors to bring WASH to schools in the developing world.

 

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero stressed, “The bottom line is this: if we are serious about improving child health, achieving universal primary education, ensuring gender equity and stimulating economic development, we need to be serious about providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene in schools.” She emphasized the important role of students, like Nathan, to participate in service learning projects that help them engage in concrete actions to help others around the world. Earlier this year on World Water Day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized that global water issues would be a priority for the U.S. Government.

 

Other speakers who highlighted the need to act included Carol Bellamy (Education for All - Fast Track Initiative), Clarissa Brocklehurst (UNICEF), Jack Downey (AED) and Denise Knight (The Coca-Cola Company). Jon Hamilton of NPR served as the moderator.

 

Nathan took action by helping to start a club through H2O for Life to raise funds to help schools in developing countries; the money is used to improve access to clean water, build toilets and handwashing stations, and provide hygiene education. So far 120,000 students across the U.S. have participated in H2O for Life service learning programs. Nathan’s story is highlighted in the “Bathroom Pass” exhibit, as are the stories of three students from Honduras, Madagascar and Nepal.

 

As a part of this campaign the organizers are challenging you to:

• Live for one day on the global minimum standard for water—approximately 5 gallons per person per day for drinking, cooking and bathing.

• Wash your hands at critical times: after using the toilet and before preparing food or eating.

• Start an H2O for Life club at your school like Nathan and his classmates did. Visit http://www.h2oforlifeschools.org/

 

The launch of this campaign is timed to coincide with the week of Global Handwashing Day, October 15, when 200 million children, parents, teachers, celebrities and citizens in over 80 countries are raising attention for handwashing and for WASH in Schools. Visit http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/

Why did you specifically choose grandmothers (women) for that project?

Why only train women and not men?!  Roy Bunker, founder of Barefoot College, trains poor rural women to solve problems in their communities and villages.  He answer the question below. 

BUNKER ROY « map magazine's street editors#more-9205#more-9205.

Why did you specifically choose grandmothers for that project?

Because we feel that men are just untrainable! They are restless, ambitious and compulsively mobile and all want a certificate. The moment you give anyone a certificate in a village anywhere in the world, they’ll use it to get a job in the city.

If you go to any remote village in the world you’ll find very young people and very old people. So we thought the best investment for us would be to work with a grandmother because she’s been there for years and doesn’t want to leave, plus she’s not ambitious and doesn’t want a certificate and would be a marvellous engineer.

When you train women, they like to train other women. But if you train a man, he doesn’t want to train another person because his job is threatened. None of the grandmothers have ever let me down – they’ve all stayed and become role models and change agents.

So what if they’re illiterate? Where is it written that if you can’t read and write you can’t be an engineer or an architect or dentist or designer?

That’s what the Barefoot College has tried to prove over a long period – that you shouldn’t be penalised for being illiterate. The sky is the limit and anything is possible.

 

I agree with Roy Bunker about training men.  I have seen it happen in Bulape, Congo.  It contributes to village drain.  We have to train women.

Mobile Phones Are The Internet of the Poor

It's a fact the internet has changed your life.  That's whether you believe it or not, or whether you think it has or not, or whether you wanted it or didn't.  It did!

The mobile (cell) phone will change the lives of billions of poor people in the world.  It will change the world.

Millions of people are starting to use the mobile phone for banking and commerce. 

Jan Chipchase Goes to Washington | Blog | design mind.

"In a world of 8.6 billion people, there are approximately 5 billion active cellular subscriptions, and roughly 1.2 billion products sold, they're thinking about a phone like this (hold up Nokia 1110) that costs about $30, can survive the rigors of everyday life — knocks, heat, sweat, dust — can make calls, send text messages, access SIM card, an alarm clock, services and it has what is probably the world's most played game — snake. If it breaks, there's typically someone in the neighborhood who can fix it, often cannibalizing other devices.

"It is important to recognize that almost every adult on the planet, as well as lot of children, aspires to sole mobile phone ownership (sometimes of more than one) and that they will overcome considerable obstacles to owning one. The key differentiator of personal ownership of a mobile phone over alternatives such as the neighborhood phone kiosk, or sharing a phone amongst a number of people is convenience (not needing to go through another person, being able to communicate when you want) and privacy.

A Real Problem With Africa

It's called the paradox of plenty.  African countries rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, diamonds, gold, and forests but the people live in extreme poverty. 

Letter From Europe - Trying to Spread Africa's Wealth - NYTimes.com.

In years past, Africa was always the outsiders’ cornucopia, the font of gold and diamonds, slaves and minerals, cotton and rubber and, more latterly, oil.

These days, the continent’s riches draw a new cast of prospectors and predators, but the question is the same: who benefits — the people, or a coterie of political and military elites that has sunk deep roots in Africa’s postcolonial loam, fed and watered by foreign powers and investors?

Some people have called it the paradox of plenty: across the globe, around 3.5 billion people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals, according to an advocacy group called the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or E.I.T.I. Those people should all benefit, the group said, but “when governance is weak, it may result in poverty, corruption and conflict.”

New Proposals for the End of Poverty

Fair trade arrangements are part of the solution.  Is it the silver bullet?  A hail of bullets is needed to end poverty.  The bullets needed are agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, water and sanitation, and fairer trade arrangements.

Rethinking Jeffrey Sachs: New Proposals for the End of Poverty - STWR - Share The World's Resources.

Take the Democratic Republic of Congo. Canadian negotiators recently convinced the DRC government to barter away mineral concessions worth some $120 billion to China in exchange for a paltry $6 billion of infrastructural development. Why are the Congolese people so desperately poor when they're literally sitting on a goldmine? Because -- as in the days of old European colonialism -- their mineral profits are being siphoned by first-world corporations that can get away without paying them the real price of the commodities they extract or the labor that digs them up. Africans don't need aid, they need fairer trade arrangements.

Response to 'Moonshine or the Kids?'

Nicholas D. Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize winning author of the New York Times and co-author of best-selling book Half the Sky, wrote about the ugly secret of GLOBALLY poverty.  That is, the poor spend a higher portion of their meager income on alcohol, tobacco, and others.  Also, they spend less on their children education, health, and others. 

Duh!  Mathematically when you make less income, the choices that the poor make or MAGNIFIED. 

It is fact and true.  And it's universal and does not just apply to the poor in Africa, the Republic of Congo (Nick traveled in the other Congo), my Congo, or the inner city or rural areas of the US. 

I think the one of the root causes of this errant spending is lack of a vision of the future.  Frankly, I have NOT seen it in rural Congo.  But I am sure it happens everyday throughout the world where the poor do not see a chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.  They can not see beyond today.

In many situations, the Congolese poor bank and invest in their children's prosperity.  It is their living retirement plan or long term health care insurance.

I agree with Nick that women or mothers spending (or savings) habits are better than their men and husbands.  Also, I agree that most microfinance plans help the poor (especially women) focus on savings.  It forces them to think about the future and develop a vision of the future.

My vision of the future is that the poor develop a vision of a brighter future for themselves, their families, and their communities, and their countries.

Op-Ed Columnist - Moonshine or the Kids? - NYTimes.com.

There’s an ugly secret of global poverty, one rarely acknowledged by aid groups or U.N. reports. It’s a blunt truth that is politically incorrect, heartbreaking, frustrating and ubiquitous:

It’s that if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.

That probably sounds sanctimonious, haughty and callous, but it’s been on my mind while traveling through central Africa with a college student on my annual win-a-trip journey. Here in this Congolese village of Mont-Belo, we met a bright fourth grader, Jovali Obamza, who is about to be expelled from school because his family is three months behind in paying fees. (In theory, public school is free in the Congo Republic. In fact, every single school we visited charges fees.)

In 2010, There Will Be 4 Billons Mobile Phones in the Developing World

In the world, there will be 5 billions mobile (cell) phones.  But 4 billion will be in the hands of the poor.  There are more phones in the developing (poor) world than the developed (rich) world.  Here's an example of what could be done with these 4 billions phones.  These phones are cheap, less than $12 each.  These phones are simple, just 12-keys.  They are not just for talking.  They can provide access to information for agriculture, health, and education.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the epic center of the developing world.  The Grameen Foundation (and there local partners) is partnering with Google and MTN, a local mobile service provider in Uganda.  The video is about this amazing project.

Billy Teninty Spotted in Rwanda

There many boat anchors located at thousands of hospitals and clinics in Africa.  Two things are wrong.  There are no boats and bodies of water nearby.  The boat anchors look like non-functioning medical equipment.  But sometimes, they look like just plain old pieces of non-medical electronic equipment.  The common thread is lack of repair, service and maintenance capabilities by its African owners.

Engineering World Health and Billy Teninty are out to prevent more boat anchors from accumulating.

Engineering World Health.

What good is access without sustainability? This question couldn’t be more appropriate for biomedical equipment technicians in Rwanda. Eleven hospitals throughout Rwanda received substantial medical equipment donations from GE. These donations provided unprecedented access to modern medical care, yet the donations and access alone were not enough to build a sustainable in-country system for equipment maintenance and repair. The EWH Biomedical Equipment Technician training program is actively engaged in a capacity building project encouraging healthcare technology maintenance programmatic sustainability.