With no cases of polio in Somalia in the last year, the WHO has declared the country’s massive vaccination campaign a success.
“Some 10,000 volunteers and health workers delivered multiple doses of oral vaccine to children in Somalia’s hard-to-reach villages, nomadic communities and makeshift camps that have grown as a result of clashes between Islamic insurgents, warlords and Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces.
Bruce Aylward, director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, said the campaign showed that the virus could be stopped in highly insecure pockets of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and densely populated corners of India where sanitation facilities are lacking.”
On Sunday, April 13th, the hit band DAUGHTRY is coming to Las Vegas to play a special concert, with all ticket proceedings going to ONE to support our advocacy work.
DAUGHTRY has set aside 200 tickets in a special Ebay Auction. The top 200 bids win tickets. Click on the link below to go to the auction or check out the widget at the bottom of the post.
What: A Concert with the Grammy-nominated band DAUGHTRY
When: Sunday, April 13th 2008
Where: The Beatles REVOLUTION Lounge, The Mirage Hotel & Casino, 3400 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV89109
Lead singer Chris Daughtry is a ONE member and has been to Africa to help raise awareness about the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. This a great chance for anybody in the Vegas area to rock out and support ONE.
A Reuter’s article today highlights the devastating toll of AIDS in Mozambique – and the interconnected nature of disease, education and economic development.
“More than one-sixth of Mozambique’s 9,000 teachers are dying of HIV/AIDS each year, lowering the quality of education and jeopardising future development, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday…
Health officials say more than 16 percent of the 20 million Mozambicans between the ages of 14 and 49 — generally the most economically productive — are infected with HIV, and an estimated 500 new infections occur each day.
“This is a crucial issue for us and we are trying to train more teachers for them to be able to deal with it (the pandemic) in the communities. Teachers play a major role in the economic development of this country”, he said.
Despite its limited skilled labour force, Mozambique’s economy has boomed in recent years, spurred by a rise in foreign investment and development aid, and GDP growth is projected to hit 8 percent this year after reaching 7.5 percent in 2007.
Aly said the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS on the country’s human resources threatened to damage its economic prospects.”
Last week, the WHO released it’s newest study on the disease, reporting that while TB cases have been slowly falling since 2003, a drug-resistant strain of TB (MDR-TB) is on a steep rise. Worldwide we can expect about 9 million new cases of TB this year, and 500,000 new cases of MDR-TB.
And scroll though the ONE Blog’s “TB” tag for our recent postings.
Including:
Alexandra Fullem’s (of the the Global Health Council) excellent account of the Congressional briefing in honor of World TB Day on the 13th and the status of TB overall.
A summary of the WHO’s February report on TB and MDR-TB
A LA Times editorial urging world leaders for more funding to fight the drug-resistant strain of TB.
A Business Day op-ed argues that while many development analysts focus on subsidies to farmers in rich countries and the damage it inflicts on the world’s poor, more attention should be paid to the fact that the world’s poorest countries impose the highest barriers against trade with each other—70 percent of the world’s trade barriers are imposed by governments in poor countries on people in other poor countries.
Great report back from Ross of SetonHall University of ONE students and members lobbying Senator Robert Menendez last Monday.
“Last week the luck of the Irish was with the ONE Campaign. New Jersey members of ONE and our partner organization CARE met with Senator Robert Menendez to discuss his support for several anti-poverty bills going through Congress. For my part in the meeting I thanked the senator for co-sponsoring and voting for the Biden/Lugar amendment to the FY09 international affairs budget which, as many of you might know, restored $4.1 billion dollars…”
Our friends at Water Advocates compiled this list of upcoming World Water Day events.
Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. These donations to UNICEF will go towards improving access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Plug in your zip code to find restaurants in your city.
World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, March 20. In New York you can help bring awareness to the sanitation crisis by “standing up for those that can’t sit down.”
PSI will host a World Water Day discussion about their Safe Water Programs, the successes and challenges, and the way forward on March 20 from 3:30-5:00 PM. If interested, please RSVP to akhanna@psi.org.
Celebrate World Water Day with Water For People on Friday, March 21. Raffles and speakers-including Amy Hart – Filmmaker, WATER FIRST-will make the evening one to remember.
If in Louisville, KY, join Edge Outreach on March 21, 2008 for a night of music, water and film. Join speakers and hear stories of what is being done for those without water and sanitation.
The DC Environmental Film Festival will have several water movies showing on World Water Day March 22. There is also a panel of water experts at 4:00 PM that day from Water Advocates, the Global Water Challenge, Natural Resources Defense Council and ConservationStrategy.
Join the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates and others at the Student Movement for Real Change event on March 22: “Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day”.
In 2007, 69 cities across the United States passed resolutions acknowledging March 22 as World Water Day. Join those interested in promoting World Water Day in a variety of events across the country.
WaterAid America in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History present a panel discussion exploring the burden unsafe water and sanitation place on women, and the role women can play in water and sanitation development interventions. The discussion will be held on World Water Day, March 22.
Attention runners: join in an effort to raise awareness about the global water and sanitation challenge and help build a borehole well in the Azawak Valley, Niger – sign up for a Run for Water on March 22.
The Global Health Council will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill called “The Link Between Clean Water and Health.” The briefing will be on March 26 at 12:30 PM on Capitol Hill.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
