March 2010 Africa Trip

Tema Clinic in Accra, Ghana

ONE just returned from a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Below is a post from Don MacKinnon, Head of Entertainment for ONE’s sister organization (RED):

I have spent the past four years of my life telling a story. Last Thursday, I saw it come true.

Since I joined (RED) in 2006, I have sat in thousands of conference rooms with prospective and current (RED) partner companies, speaking with their sales and marketing teams, CSR groups and even retail employees. And for (RED)WIRE and (RED)NIGHTS, I have spoken with musicians, their managers and their labels. In all of these meetings, I tell them the story that Bono told me, the story that caused me to join (RED).

This story is powerful because it is so simple and so concrete.

Not more than a few years ago, life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) medication was too expensive to make widely available to the millions of people dying of AIDS in Africa. This meant that when a pregnant woman got tested and found out she was positive, it was merely a death sentence for both the mother and her child. That, and the intense stigmatization of HIV in local communities, was hardly an incentive to head to a clinic. Early on, the story almost never had a happy ending.

Then, through innovation and negotiation by many parties, the cost of ARVs was driven down so low that it became possible to make them widely available through grants by the Global Fund. Suddenly, there was hope. A woman could now not only receive ARV medication to save her own life, but also treatment to radically reduce the risk of HIV being transferred to her child.

Happy endings became possible, and (RED)’s goal is to make as many of them happen as we can. Sales of (RED) products have driven contributions of over $150 million dollars to the Global Fund, of which $48 million has been directed to Ghana, where it helps to fund treatment delivered in regional health clinics across the country.

As I said, I’ve been telling the story of these women for years, but until this week, I’d never met them. That all changed on Thursday morning when, along with the delegation from ONE, I got to visit the Tema clinic in Accra, Ghana. Women are referred to this clinic from a radius of 50 kilometers to be tested, counseled and treated. Virtually all of the ARVs are funded by (RED) contributions that result from consumers purchasing (RED) products.

Dr. Patricia Mkansah Asamoah, who runs the clinic, ushered us into a room where we were able to sit and talk to the women (and the children) we’d been working for. As we sat with each one, they told us their story.

“Meg” had been abandoned by her partner when she became pregnant. Her aunt got her to go to her local clinic for prenatal care, and they referred her to Tema. The counselors at Tema give a presentation prior to testing the women, telling them that if they are positive, they can receive ARV treatment for their babies. Meg told us that before she heard this presentation, she had been unaware of the ARVs and even then, she didn’t really believe they worked until one of the counselors told her that she herself was HIV positive and was alive because of the ARVs.

In her arms was a beautiful sleeping boy. She had received the NPV treatment in time so the risk of HIV passing to him had gone from 30% to 4%. They won’t know for sure if he’s in the clear for another few months, but he sure looked wonderful and healthy when he woke up at the end of our session.

Sitting with these women and hearing their stories was an overwhelming experience for me because each of their stories was a very personal, very real version of the story we have been telling all these years to convince people to produce, market and buy the (RED) products – the very products that had helped fund the medicine that was enabling these women and their children to be here, speaking with us.

Sometimes an iPod is not just an iPod. It’s time to get back to work.

Protecting Children and Mothers Against Vitamin A Deficiency

ONE just returned from a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Below is a post from Dr. Regina Kapinga, Program Office at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:

My name is Dr. Regina Kapinga, Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and I oversee the sweet potato grant which covers more than 10 countries in Africa Mozambique inclusive. On Monday 15th March, a delegation from ONE visited this program — the Sweet Potato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) — a project located about an hour outside of Maputo, Mozambique. SASHA is a sweet potato research project aiming to directly improve the food security of poor families in sub-Saharan Africa with a goal of reaching ten million households in ten years.

In Mozambique, sweet potato is one of the most important traditional food and cash crops. It ranks third in production, after maize and cassava. The government of Mozambique selected sweet potato as one of the most significant crops for mitigating food insecurity and malnutrition among its 21 million people. All sweet potatoes are excellent sources of carbohydrates, fibers, macronutrients, several B vitamins and vitamins C and K. Most importantly, orange-fleshed sweetpotato are also rich in beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. Sweet potato in Africa is widely consumed mainly in rural areas hence the widespread consumption of orange-fleshed sweet potato could significantly reduce vitamin A deficiency, which threatens an estimated 43 million children under age 5 in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique Vitamin A deficiency accounts for 69% of the total children.

Our program focuses on several components of which three of them include the following: The first and largest component of the program is breeding sweet potato varieties for Africa in Africa. Secondly, we are multiplying the planting material and using innovative methods to distribute them to farmers. The third component is the integration of agriculture and health to impact vitamin A deficiency through the production and consumption of orange-fleshed sweet potato. We are investigating the best ways to scale up these activities in order to ensure that at risk mothers are able to access orange-fleshed sweet potato and feed them to their children.

We are looking for government commitments to be able to scale up and enable farmers even in remote areas to provide calories and vitamins for themselves through a crop that they trust. Right now we are in 14 countries in Africa, but these are small pockets and we want to scale the program out to reach millions of more families.

Jessica Alba on education for all

ONE just returned from a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Below, US Co-Chair of 1GOAL Jessica Alba talks about 1GOAL and the campaign to provide education to all children:

I had an incredible week, joining the ONE team on the road in Senegal and Ghana as part of the 1GOAL: Education for All campaign to make the lasting legacy of the upcoming World Cup education for every child.

I’ve wanted to travel to Africa my whole life and when offered the opportunity to listen and learn alongside ONE, it was a once in a lifetime chance that I couldn’t pass up. I’ve always admired the work ONE has done and being able to see the programs you’ve contributed to firsthand was inspiring.

We met African entrepreneurs and academics, spoke with civil society and private sector leaders. We sat with street vendors at a microfinance project, heard from women now able to save their and their children’s lives through ARV HIV/AIDS treatment. We met some amazing people, a new generation of leaders for not only the continent, but for the world.

My goal in going on this trip was to listen closely and learn more about the fight against global poverty. And what I heard repeatedly was that as I’ve always believed, education has the power to lift individuals, communities and entire nations out of poverty. From a promising business idea to a woman pushing cultural boundaries to stand up and speak out, education has been the key.

Today, 72 million kids are out of school around the world, the majority of them girls. Without an education, they are almost certain to be trapped in a life of poverty and robbed of the knowledge of their basic human rights. Every year a child is out of school is a year they lose in literacy, in health, in opportunity.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Since 2000, because people like you and governments took action, 48 million more children are in school. And if we come together around this World Cup, we can do even more to put education front and center. Together with FIFA, leading players and fans around the world, we can use the power of this truly global game to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We have a plan, we know how to beat this—all we need now is the will to make it happen.

Increased global education funding fights global poverty at the root, empowers girls and women, and promotes economic growth in poor countries around the world. And it’s a very smart investment: experts tell us that a girl will earn an additional 10% in income for every year of schooling she receives and be 50% less likely to become infected with HIV/AIDS. In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40% more likely to live beyond the age of 5. It’s a proactive measure to avert many of the problems that plague developing countries.

We spent a day at Osu School in Accra, Ghana, where initiatives to provide free school uniforms and free lunch to students have dramatically increased enrollment. And they have one other policy with great results—requiring perfect attendance to play on the school’s soccer or “football” team! As a result of these programs, 71% of Ghanaian girls and 73% of Ghanaian boys go to school. Ghana’s President John Atta Mills has even signed up to 1GOAL, promising to provide free textbooks to every student.

At Osu, we met Stephen, an 18-year-old student with enormous talent. The Ghanaian Premiere League has already had their eye on this young goalkeeper for the past three years. The school’s headmaster has been keeping tabs on Stephen, constantly reminding him that you can’t be a good player without a good education. He stresses to Stephen that the only way he will know how to sustain the wealth and opportunities he will gain as a “footballer” (soccer player) is by having an education.

Stephen is an inspiring young man. He is the eldest of seven children and his family’s sole provider. He wakes early, goes to school, practices with his coaches in the afternoon and then goes to work at night as a busboy to support the family. On average he goes non-stop for 18 hours.

He told us that he now understands he cannot be a footballer or achieve his dreams without an education. Top teams are looking to recruit him. He dreams of playing for his national team, the Ghana Black Stars, and someday becoming a catcher for Chelsea.

You can’t go anywhere in Africa without seeing kids playing the sport. The excitement for the first-ever World Cup in Africa this summer is everywhere. The world’s eyes will be on the continent and it’s a moment for Africa to shine.

WSUP with Maputo

Mar 22nd, 2010 9:55 AM UTC
By Beth Adler

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ONE just returned from a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. ONE’s Beth Adler reflects on a water and sanitation public private partnership in Mozambique:

One of our days in hot and green Mozambique was spent welcoming some ONE delegation members to a water and sanitation site run by a public private partnership called Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) which includes ONE’s long-time partner CARE.

WSUP works in Maputo’s urban slums, called bairros, connecting families with the water network and building sanitation blocks to replace latrines. They also complement the physical infrastructure they install with health and hygiene in the bairro schools. The organization is a unique public-private partnership between private sector companies like Thames Water, Halcrow, and Unilever, NGOs like CARE, Water Aid, and WWF, and Cranfield University. A core component of WSUP’s operation is to working in close collaboration with local authorities, municipalities, and local service providers to provide sustainable solutions that will be used and maintained even once donors leave.

Our first stop was at the bairro’s standpipe—the current water provision mechanism. The standpipe is open for several hours each day and people line up with their jerry cans, sometimes for hours, to get water. When we visited, the line was comprised almost entirely of women and girls who after filling them would carry the jerry cans home on their heads. Our second stop was the home of a family who saved to pay for the installation of a water tap just outside their house. The mother explained that she was thrilled with the tap—it’s allowed her more time to purchase and market the vegetables she sells to earn her family income. Her family has also been able to sell some water to their neighbors, adding a source of income for them.

Walking through the unpaved, muddy streets of the bairro, it was clear that families live close together and there isn’t space in homes for personal sanitation facilities. We visited a latrine—shared by more than 30 families—which is typical of the sanitation situation in the bairros. A sanitation block is slated for installation soon, about which the community is very excited. We then saw a sanitation block in another part of the bairro. The block is a simple, concrete structure that takes about two months to construct. It has toilets as well as a water pipe and place for families to do laundry. The block is maintained by a committee of people in the community, and the water pipe is operated by a woman who draws an income from opening and closing the pipe each day and ensuring that the meter is paid so that residents can receive water.

The need for improved water and sanitation services in Maputo are severe and growing. The city is home to over 1 million residents and is growing at 6% annually. The water supply coverage from a conventional network is around 40%. The general coverage for sanitation is around 82%, and in the peri-urban areas there have been significant investments for the construction of improved latrines. Mozambique’s Government policy is to improve these conditions but it does not have the capacity without assistance.

The WSUP project in Maputo aims to improve the health and living standards of residents by providing sustainable access to potable water for 180,000 people and improved sanitation facilities for 100,000. Their hygiene programs also reach 11,000 children. Our bairro visit really opened our eyes to the challenges in the water and sanitation sector—and the opportunities. WSUP is making impressive progress talking this issue and it was a treat to see them in action!

John Githongo: “Dignity comes before development”

Mar 20th, 2010 10:49 AM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

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ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Below is a video by ONE advisory board member John Githongo.

We wanted to share this video taken in Kenya this week of anti-corruption campaign and ONE advisor John Githongo. I found his words moving, and tried my best to transcribe them below.

“Hi, I’m John Githongo. I’m Chief Executive of Inuka Kenya. Also head of
Twaweza Kenya.

When people ask me what we’re doing, at the end of day, I mean there’s lots of stuff we’re doing, but at the end of the day what we’re creating is a social movement of people, especially young people, who believe in the concept of “ni sissy.”

Ni sisi is the Swahili words for “it is us.”

It is us who owns our problems and it is us who will come up with the solutions.

There are many ways of doing that. We have culture platforms. We partner with the private sector. We use media, information technology. There are a whole range of ways this can be applied.

But at the end of the day the critical element is people. That is the most valuable asset that we have in a country like Kenya. Despite the difficulties that we had in 2007 2008 after the elections.

A network that brings people together for themselves to improve their own conditions and their own relationships with each other.

Dignity comes before development — and that’s about relationships.

Therefor you may find a situation where people seem to be poor, who are living under challenging circumstances, but they are comfortable in their own skin.

And it is in that kind of context that development, in the traditional sense, happens most easily.”

More about John Githongo, written by my colleague Morgana, below:

In 2002 the newly appointed President Kibaki appointed John Githongo as Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in the Office of the President, where he was known as the “anti-corruption czar.” Eighteen months after Githongo entered office, he began to discover considerable instances of corruption. As Githongo tried to probe further, government ministers prevented his investigations. Without support from the President and his administration, Githongo resigned from his post in 2005. He then went into self-imposed exile in the UK, without any explanation for his abrupt departure. When he left, he took with him potentially explosive documents that revealed the corruption schemes in the government. Githongo compiled the documents into a dossier which was leaked to the press in early 2006. This dossier contained evidence of a series of government procurement deals with non-existent companies, which effectively robbed Kenya of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Michela Wrong, a British author and former foreign correspondent who housed Githongo during part of his exile, chronicled Githongo’s fight against corruption in her book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower. Githongo, who is on ONE’s Advisory Board, has since returned from exile, but travels extensively to continue to monitor, investigate, and spread awareness about government corruption.

Mr. Githongo’s new organization, Inuka (“get up” in Swahili) Trust, aims to recapture the powerful moment of hope felt by all Kenyans in 2003 and convert it into lasting change created by and for Kenyans. Inuka works to affirm individuals as African and global citizens and empower Kenyans to use information, express their views and – importantly – take initiative aimed at improving their lives and holding governments accountable.

On Wednesday, March 17th, Githongo took us to visit Nyawira Kazi — a self-organized local community group of 20 people who have come together to help the vulnerable in their community. Led by charismatic leadership with no external help, Nyawira Kazi finds the gaps that exist in their local community and work towards closing them. Right now this means their focus is on caring for the orphans left behind by the political violence by providing a nursery and feeding program for children who would otherwise go without meals.

Global Fund and (RED) Provide Hope at Tema General Hospital in Ghana

ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Christy Turlington Burns checks in:

I met an inspiring woman a few days ago in Accra, Ghana. Her name was Elizabeth*. She is a mother, a widow and she is HIV positive. This may sound pretty grim, but what I learned from spending some time with her is that Elizabeth and her two-year-old daughter Abigail* are getting the care they need here at the Tema General Hospital.

Elizabeth learned about her HIV positive status when she came here to be tested after her husband died a few years ago. She was pregnant at the time, which was actually a blessing, because it enabled her to begin antiretroviral treatment at a critical time for Abigail. Abigail takes a prophylactic drug to prevent infection of the AIDS virus.

I also spent some time with the nurses here who counsel the families who come into the clinic from up to a 15 kilometer radius to be tested. They shared other stories like Elizabeth’s, where women sought them out to be tested and then treated if their results were positive. When mothers have access to ARVs, they use them. And when they use them the chances of vertical transmission (when the virus travels inadvertently from the pregnant mother to her child) are minimal. At Tema, a mere 4% of babies whose mothers have begun treatment test positive. I was told that just a few years ago things were not nearly as hopeful.

Before the Global Fund and (RED) started distributing money to treat and prevent AIDS, there was very little incentive for the poor in Ghana to test because having HIV was a virtual death sentence.

Dr. Patricia Nsamoah, a senior medical officer and HIV focal person at TEMA, told us about the state of the clinic before they received Global Fund (RED) money.

“We’ve been testing HIV for a very long time, but basically people just didn’t know what to do if they tested positive for HIV,” Dr. Nsamoah said. “So when ARVs came, the Global Fund made it possible for us to have access to ARVs. You can at least see a patient, treat opportunistic infections, test for CD4, and at the point when they need the ARVs it is available and you can have a success story. Previously if you were working in the fever unit as the doctor in charge, what you did at the beginning of every morning was to sign death certificates because overnight by the time you came people had just died. But now a lot has changed… I’m telling you the clinic just grows bigger because people do not die.”

Today, Tema serves more than 2,200 people infected with HIV/AIDS in Ghana. These families are thriving and they are hopeful despite all they have endured. Abigail is a beautiful, curious little girl. She is confident with wise eyes that have seen the future.

*Elizabeth and Abigail’s names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Tostan: Spreading Social Change

ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. ONE’s Morgana Wingard checks in:

Recently we sat down with Molly Melching in Senegal, the founder and Executive Director of Tostan – an NGO focusing on community-led development in 8 countries in Africa. Operating primarily in remote regions, Tostan provides participatory human rights education to adults and adolescents who have not had access to formal schools.

For 2 decades Tostan has demonstrated that providing such an education transforms learners and their communities, leading to meaningful and sustainable social change. Their 30-month education program includes community-led outreach strategies that engage program participants in their own and neighboring villages. As a product of their programs, their participants have built schools, wells, health centers, organized inter-village meetings and public declarations to abandon harmful practices such as female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage. They have also helped communities establish their own public health initiatives, such as campaigns to prevent malaria, increase vaccination rates, and promote family planning.

Here’s video of Molly Melching discussing Tostan in more detail. For more information about Tostan, visit www.tostan.org: