Jun 30th, 2008 12:05 PM UTC
By Betsy Avila
|
The food crisis has taken its harshest toll on the poorest countries, Ethiopia being one of the hardest hit.
From the Christian Science Monitor :
In this African nation, about 10 million people, more than 12 percent of the population, are now in need of emergency food aid after a drought wiped out harvests. But because grain is now twice as expensive as a year ago – if it is available at all – there is not enough food in Ethiopia to feed everyone in need.
The UN estimates that 4.6 million Ethiopians are suffering from “severe malnutrition,”, but the lack of food is so severe that foreign and domestic aid-workers need to “prioritize” who is the most needy. Some have take to weighing children on wooden scales and providing food rations to the most malnourished.
UNICEF has made an appeal for $49 million to go towards “immediate intervention” in Ethiopia. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson emphasized the severity of the situation:
“We talked to mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers and all actors in the field. This picture was confirmed by all of them and a clear message was conveyed: there is no food. The assistance needs to be taken to scale and it has to happen urgently.”
-Betsy Avila
|
Jun 24th, 2008 11:17 AM UTC
By Betsy Avila
|
In a plan that may seem better fitted for a Hollywood science-fiction blockbuster, scientists in the UK are exploring a new route in the ongoing fight against malaria: genetically-modified mosquitoes. Malaria kills over 1 million people every year, mostly children.
From the AP:
Millions of bed nets have been handed out, and villages across the continent have been doused with insecticide. But those measures haven’t put a significant dent in most malaria cases…Some scientists think creating mutant mosquitoes resistant to the disease might work better.
[The scientists] are now planning to create sterile male mosquitoes to mate with wild female mosquitoes, thus stunting population growth. They are also trying to engineer a malaria-resistant mosquito.”
There’s definite worth to the classic “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” adage, but many wonder if there could be unintended consequences when one “fools with mother nature.”
Lead scientist Andrea Crisanti considers this project one worth the risk.
Crisanti acknowledged there might be unintended consequences of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into the wild, although he could not predict what they might be.
“I think there is a moral good to doing it” he said. “If we do this right, the mosquitoes will get rid of malaria for us.”
You can read the full piece here.
-Betsy Avila, ONE Intern
|
Mar 26th, 2008 2:25 PM UTC
By Betsy Avila
|
Ed Streitelmeier opened the sermon at Zoar Lutheran Church’s “ONE Sunday” with “Bambelela,” a South African term for encouragement. Throughout the month of February, the congregation held two Bible Studies and devoted a sermon to educating their congregation about extreme poverty, its reality, and Christianity’s role in fighting extreme poverty.
The Bible Studies included a Hunger-Awareness Sunday for first grade and pre-school children. The children were given cheerios, crackers and donuts to represent the different amounts of food given at different economic levels, from the most minimal to the overstuffed and over-glazed. Using treats may have been the best way of grabbing their attention, and it assured every little attendee was involved in the event.
For the older students (those probably less impressed with dry cheerios and donuts) the studies included a run through of the bind that holds Christianity to the duty of social justice by adding a biblical application to each MDG:
8. Create a Global Partnership for Development
Biblical Application: “If you lend money to my people, to the poor around you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else should that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.” Exodus 22:25-27.
Adults were able to contribute to the “Noisy Bucket” and throw loose change, bills and checks. Those attending generated almost $3500 in donations for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal!
- Betsy Avila
|
Dec 6th, 2007 9:57 AM UTC
By Betsy Avila
|
Ashley Judd visited Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an Ambassador with Population Services International’s Five and Alive program in late April. She wrote her experiences in a personal journal. Below is an except from one her last days on the trip.
Day Six:
One day, PSI staff who go door to door visiting people to offer education about family planning arrived at their household while Victor was out. Therese listened keenly, told her husband what she had heard, and they went to the clinic I had visited earlier to learn more. Characteristically, Victor was concerned the birth control might have some hidden, long term detrimental affect on Therese’s health: he had already seen her suffer so much. Eventually learning from medical staff it was safe, they’ve been using an injectable birth control every 3 months.
We sat in the shade of a fine tree as this sweet couple shared their success with family planning.
Read the rest of this entry, on Five & Alive’s website..
Five & Alive, a program of Population Services International (PSI), provides children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries. www.fiveandalive.org
Ashley Judd visited Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an Ambassador with Population Services International’s Five and Alive program in late April. She wrote her experiences in a personal journal. Below is an except from last day on the trip.
|
