Archive for January, 2008
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WHO Releases Malaria Report Tomorrow
A new report on malaria from the World Health Organization outlines some positive news. Among the key findings is that the distribution of bed nets and medications have cut malaria deaths in half in Rwanda and Ethiopia.
From a Washington Post article this afternoon:
“This is the first time we have seen these results with the new tools,” said Arata Kochi, head of malaria programs for WHO.
“This is a genuinely historic achievement,” said Richard G.A. Feachem, former director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “This is not theoretical. We do not have to wait for a vaccine or new drugs. If we implement today’s technologies aggressively on a national scale, we will have a big impact.”
Two key items in the current “tool kit” are bed nets impregnated with insecticide that lasts three to five years and treatment with at least two drugs. One of them is artemisinin, a compound originally derived from a Chinese herbal medicine.
Read the Washington Post article here. Tomorrow we’ll be able to link to the full report.
-Virginia Simmons
Feeling Like A Child in Nigeria
I like to think that I know how to take care of myself. Before I came to Nigeria, I lived in an apartment, paid bills, cooked (and baked with passion), and took care of myself for the most part. One could even think that I was an adult.
At least a couple times a day here, I feel like a child incapable of taking care of myself. Yesterday, I dropped my wallet into a cement wall. It’s a long story that ended happily for me (I had my wallet), but not so happily for the wall (it had a couple holes in it). Tomorrow, I’m going to do my laundry, which includes a long process of fetching water from the well, washing each piece of clothing from hand and then line drying it. I get really embarrassed if anyone else comes by when I¹m washing, as my technique has some room for improvement and I’m not really sure if my clothes are more than rinsed.
Luckily, there are generous people surrounding me, helping me out poking holes in walls and the like. Maybe taking care of myself doesn¹t mean being totally self-sufficient and incapable of living on my own. Maybe the real lesson in how to take care of ourselves is how to take care of each other.
This is something that I learn everyday from the kids at the Gwaimen Center. The older kids help take care of the younger kids. When one of the young kids crying, one of the older ones are quick to wipe away their tears and comfort them. From my first moments at the Center, this amazed me.
Pictured here is Dorcas, who is eleven years old and attends primary school in Kwoi. From the second that she leaves school until they leave the Center around seven, Dorcas is with Precious, the child on her back. She¹s always taking care of her.
I am learning. Life in Nigeria is teaching me great and complicated lessons about justice, about AIDS, about poverty and how to fight it. But mostly, I’m learning life lessons. If we all took care of each other like Dorcas takes care of Precious, maybe I wouldn¹t have to learn about AIDS and poverty.
-Anne Batchelder
Anne is a ONE member, as well as the former ONE Deputy Field Director, and co-founder of the Gwaimen Center in Kwoi, Nigeria
Carolina for Kibera on Kenya
A guest post from Rye Barcott and Emily Reynolds Pierce of the ONE Partner organization Carolina for Kibera.
The recent post-election violence in Kenya has stunned nonprofit organizations fighting to end poverty in the country, including Carolina for Kibera (CFK), an international NGO with institutional roots at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a partner organization of the ONE Campaign. Our work with youth at CFK centers on promoting ethnic reconciliation through sports, fighting gender-based discrimination, and providing primary health care in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The past month in Kibera has been frightening, and we are heartbroken to see the hard work of our young CFK staff and volunteers, as well as that of many other community-based organizations in Kibera, unravel so quickly at the hands of feuding politicians.
People of Kenya’s six major ethnic groups live together in Kibera – east Africa’s largest slum with nearly 1 million residents. Although ethnic divisiveness is no stranger to Kenyan politics, no one anticipated the level of violence that has engulfed Kibera and much of Kenya. Swaths of Kibera have been burned to the ground. Many of our staff and volunteers have had their homes looted and burned. Our office and community medical clinic are located in the thick of the ethnic fighting in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, and are two of the few structures left standing. CFK member Fatuma Roba, 23, is a Digital Diarist for UNICEF Radio and Voices of Youth. Ms. Roba reported on the situation from Kibera for on Jan. 2 and Jan. 11.
We at CFK sensed in mid-January that the situation was likely to get worse before it got better. Security felt tenuous at best. Then yesterday, on Jan. 29, Kenyan parliamentary member Mugabe Were, 39, was gunned down and killed in Kibera. Mr. Were was a member of the opposition party and vocal supporter of CFK. When word of Mr. Were’s death spread throughout the slum, violence erupted yet again.
The violence reminds us that development depends on good governance, local leadership, and effective security. Our own effectiveness, as CFK, also depends on our ability to read and respond to events, and that is why we are currently concentrating on a short-term feeding program and emergency medical assistance to meet the immediate needs of our friends and neighbors in Kibera. Additionally, (more…)
Get the World’s Poor on the Map… er Board.
I got an email today about how I could help determine which countries go on the next “global” Monopoly board. At first, I was intrigued, I would of course vote for Chicago but then I found out you could vote more than once. My mind raced, I could vote for the country where I studied, the one where I was in the Peace Corps, and I always liked to say “Dar es Salaam” maybe I would vote for that city, or I have a friend in Nigeria, why don’t I vote for her current home? Very excited I went to the site only to find out that there are only two African countries on the list and of all the possible cities, none are in countries classified as low-income. How can they claim to have a “global” board, when half the world’s population is left out?
Luckily, there is the possibility to write in some cities, so here are my suggestions that cover different geographic areas, if you have a different favorite, write that instead!
-Nairobi, Kenya
-Yangon, Myanmar (that’s Rangoon, Burma for those of us that studied geography a bit ago…)
-Kwoi, Nigeria
-Port-Au-Prince, Haiti
Unlike the regular voting, you can only vote for one wildcard a day, but I’m from Chicago, I’ll remember to vote early and often and get the world’s poor on the map…, er board, I hope you can too!
-Annisa Wanat
If Children Can Do This…
On Friday, January 25th, Rockrimmon Elementary school in Colorado Springs produced a talent show to benefit ONE. The show was organized by six enterprising fifth graders (with help from their parents and teachers). It contained 40 acts and went off without a hitch. When asked why they did it, they said “Because we want to help the children of Africa.” One of the children had seen a video at her parents’ church during the summer and proposed the idea.
The children and parents had signed media releases, so we took photos, some of which are attached. These kids were adorable! They were also very well educated on the conditions in Africa. I am so proud of this display of compassion and perseverance.
If fifth grade children, on their own, can do this…what can we do?
–
Ann Marie Glasford - ONE Colorado Springs
Taking 17 Kids to See The Doctors in Kafanchan, Nigeria
At the Gwaimen Center, we currently have 16 children who are on ARVs, so every other month, we have to take them to the general hospital in Kafanchan for check-ups and prescription refills.
Last Wednesday, we packed up some food for lunch, packed into a van and went to Kafanchan. It was a long day: registration, weighings, and individual doctor visits. The most important things that the doctors look for is side-effects to the ARV drugs, like opportunistic infections, and changes in overall health that could be due to their decreased CD4 counts.
Most are normal kids with runny noses and coughs, but when someone is HIV-positive, coughs can be more serious and infections seem to be sneaking up on them all the time. We just found out that two of the children have tuberculosis and one has malaria. Prompt treatment is necessary for these children to combat these illnesses.
Days like today are the ones that I realize why I am here. It was a long day: trying to get 17 children under control and not to run around the hospital like we were at a playground is exhausting (and usually not all that successful). But knowing that these children are getting the medical attention that they need: drugs that could literally save their lives, makes all the running after kids worthwhile.
I brought my ONE nalgene along for the ride, as I do many days. As I find that I am always doing, I carry ONE along with me in all of this work. Accompaniment is powerful and I’ve told many people about ONE and all of the Americans who care about them and who take action everyday to end extreme poverty. It inspires them and it inspires me. Thank you, ONE!
-Anne Batchelder
Anne is a ONE member, as well as the former ONE Deputy Field Director, and co-founder of the Gwaimen Center in Kwoi, Nigeria
David Brook’s ONE Shout Out
Nice shout out from David Brooks in the NYT today:
Paragraph 10:
“And in the students’ rapture for Kennedy’s message, you began to see the folding over of generations, the service generation of John and Robert Kennedy united with the service generation of the One Campaign.”
-Matt Higginson
This is amazing!
John McCain mentions ONE in under a minute into his response to the SOTU on MSNBC. Check out the clip.
Go ONE!
-Steve Wilson
State of the Union Address
I’m all set up to watch President Bush’s final State of the Union address - and have located an advance version of the speech. An important excerpt for our work:
“America is leading the fight against global poverty, with strong education initiatives and humanitarian assistance. We have also changed the way we deliver aid by launching the Millennium Challenge Account. This program strengthens democracy, transparency, and the rule of law in developing nations, and I ask you to fully fund this important initiative.
America is leading the fight against global hunger. Today, more than half the world’s food aid comes from the United States. And tonight, I ask the Congress to support an innovative proposal to provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from farmers in the developing world, so we can build up local agriculture and help break the cycle of famine.
America is leading the fight against disease. With your help, we are working to cut by half the number of malaria-related deaths in 15 African nations. And our Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is treating 1.4 million people. We can bring healing and hope to many more. So I ask you to maintain the principles that have changed behavior and made this program a success. And I call on you to double our initial commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS by approving an additional $30 billion over the next 5 years.”
The address should be starting at 9 p.m. EST.
-Virginia Simmons
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UPDATE: Ok. I watched. The above text was verbatim - and ended in applause.
Banding Florida’s Governor
ONE members spent a warm Florida evening drumming up awareness and visibility outside the MSNBC GOP debate in Boca Raton, FL. We took advantage of the live MSNBC broadcast before the debate to hold up our ONE signs in the backdrop while Chris Matthews was on the air. Not to let our work stop with the national TV exposure, we soon spotted Joe Scarbourough of MSNBC who took the time to have his picture taken with us. We ran into Joe later at a debate watch party and were able to chat a bit more.
After our successful MSNBC encounters, we stepped it up a notch and decided to band “The People’s Governor” himself, Charlie Crist. Our youngest member, 18-year old David, was up to the challenge and positioned himself perfectly next to Governor Crist as he came off stage. As soon as Crist finished taking questions from the media, David seized the opportunity to give Crist the white band on behalf of the ONE Campaign. Way to go David!! Even the ONE staffers were impressed. It was a great night in the Sunshine State.
-Ali Escalante, Florida ONE member
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
The ONE Blog updates readers daily with the latest in global development news and analysis and what ONE members and our partners are doing around the world to influence world leaders in the fight against global poverty.
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TAGS: Ethiopia, Malaria, Rwanda, World Health Organization