NGO Partner

Check out this partner post about International Violence Against Women Act from our friends at Women Thrive Worldwide.

Every day around the world, a war is waged against women and girls. Approximately one out of every three women globally has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Violence against women includes abuse by spouses or partners in the home, rape as a weapon during times of war, dowry-related deaths and forced prostitution. This abuse is a global health crisis, an egregious human rights violation, and a moral outrage that knows no geographic or cultural barriers.

But what many people don’t realize is that violence against women is also a major cause of poverty. Violence keeps women from getting an education. Violence keeps women from earning an income to help lift themselves and their families out of poverty (research has shown that economic opportunity empowers women to escape abusive situations).

Today, Senator Kerry (D-MA), Senator Snowe (R-ME), Senator Boxer (D-CA), Senator Collins (R-ME), Congressman Delahunt (D-MA), Congressman Poe (R-TX), Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) and others will reintroduce the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). IVAWA is the most comprehensive piece of legislation addressing violence against women and girls worldwide. This bipartisan bill would support proven best practices for reducing gender-based violence. It would expand our government’s ability to prevent violence against women caught in conflict, support grassroots organizations already working to effectively combat violence in their communities, and would make it globally known that the U.S. is committed to ending violence against women and girls.

To help make IVAWA a priority, please send a message to your Representative and Senators at www.WomenThrive.org/ivawa and ask them to co-sponsor IVAWA. To find out more information about IVAWA, or to read about other ways to get involved, visit www.WomenThrive.org/ivawatools.

- Mckenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

Check out this post about an event that ONE is partnering with CARE on in NYC Feb 11th.

On Thursday, February 11 in NYC, don’t miss the chance to see an exclusive sneak peek of CARE’s 2010 International Women’s Day star-studded event, Half the Sky LIVE.

Inspired by moving stories from the critically-acclaimed book “Half the Sky” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky LIVE will feature an uplifting night of music, celebrity discussion and the world premiere of “Woinshet,” a powerful short film directed by Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone. The film chronicles the struggles of an Ethiopian woman who triumphs over violence and discrimination. Half the Sky LIVE will also feature appearances by India.Arie, Maria Bello, Michael Franti, Dr. Helene Gayle of CARE, Angelique Kidjo, Nicholas Kristof, Andrea Mitchell, Marisa Tomei, Sarah, Duchess of York, Melanne Verveer, Sheryl WuDunn and other notables.

Half the Sky LIVE will take place at 7:30 pm at NYU’s Skirball Center (566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South). Ticket price is $25—and tickets are limited, so click here to purchase your ticket today.

We look forward to seeing you! And if you can’t make it on February 11, Half the Sky LIVE will screen on March 4 at 7:30pm in theatres nationwide (including NYC). For more information, visit www.halftheskylive.com and check out the trailer below:

-Stephanie Libby, CARE

The Associated Press this morning has a report on a recent policy shift in an AIDS relief project funded by the US government. The project, implemented through Catholic Relief Services will seek to directly pay South Africans.

Catholic Relief Services explains further:

With funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and assistance from the AIDSRelief consortium—including Catholic Relief Services—the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has brought care and treatment to 60,000 people, including 20,000 on lifesaving antiretroviral medications. The AIDSRelief program in South Africa has been so successful that the SACBC is taking over responsibility for the grant money—the first full transition to local partner management, as called for by the U.S. government.

Here’s a guest post about child marriage from our partners at CARE.

Last week on Capitol Hill, I joined Paul Barker, CARE’s Country Director of Tanzania, as he spoke to legislators about the problem of child marriage in Tanzania. It is estimated that over the next decade, more than 100 million girls in the developing world will be married before they are 18. The millions of girls who become child brides face daunting odds: they are less likely to finish school, have fewer economic opportunities and face a multitude of health problems, including premature pregnancy, complications in childbirth and a high risk of physical and sexual abuse from husbands and in-laws. But beyond this overwhelming statistic, there are individual stories, too, which help convey both the tragedy and the hope surrounding the issue of child marriage.

One such story is that of Mukeshwari. She was 15 years old and living with her grandfather in an isolated village in India when he arranged for her to marry to a man in a neighboring village. Child marriage is common in India, where close to 50% of girls are married before they are 18.

Fortunately Mukeshwari’s story ends well. With the support of a CARE trained volunteer health worker, her situation was brought to the attention of the village council. They voted to stop the marriage, in line with India’s marriage age law. The case also inspired the village to form a committee on early marriage, which now works with the families of adolescent girls in the village to discourage the practice.

Mukeshwari’s story is inspiring, but it also provides valuable lessons on some of the actions needed to address the problem of child marriage. This includes support for community-based mechanisms and programs for girls and their families. US policy makers have a chance to support such solutions by passing the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act. This legislation, which has been introduced in the U.S. Congress, requires the President to develop a multi-year strategy to help prevent child marriage in developing countries. It also requires the Department of State to address child marriage in its annual Human Rights Report, to integrate child marriage prevention strategies throughout U.S. foreign policy initiatives, and to scale up successful approaches to prevent child marriage.

The time is now for leadership from Congress on this issue—on behalf of Mukeshwari and girls just like her around the world. Policymakers have to make difficult decisions every day. Passing this legislation should not one of them. Ask your representatives today to co-sponsor the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009.

-Erin Kennedy, Policy Advocate, CARE USA

Photo credit: © Ami Vitale/CARE

Here’s a final post from Elizabeth Gore, the executive director of global partnerships and Nothing But Nets for the United Nations Foundation. She recently hiked up Mt. Kilimanjaro with the Summit on the Summit team to help raise awareness about the global clean water crisis. To read about her trek, click here and here.

Instead of staying in bed to recover after conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro, Kenna, Jessica Biel, Santigold and I woke up early one morning and boarded a plane to Ethiopia to experience firsthand the effects of the lack of clean, safe water. Kenna’s dad (Dr. Zemedkun, the inspiration for the entire Summit on the Summit project) and his sister Emerald joined us on our journey.

Our guides for the day, UNHCR (the United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees and a beneficiary of our climb) showed us the Kebribeyah refugee camp in Jijiga, Ethiopia. The UNHCR is responsible for 40 million displaced people around the world, half of which do not have adequate access to clean water. The camps they run in Ethiopia are some of the most desperate anywhere.

Arriving in Kebribeyah, we viewed the Jarrar water supply system, which supplies water for both refugees and local Ethiopian people. Before UNHCR was here, these people lived on just a few liters of water per day. The current system (managed by UNHCR and the local government) now provides 12 to 15 liters per day. Even though this is a huge improvement, the Jarrar system needs an upgrade to reach the UNHCR minimum standard of 20 liters per person per day.

After leaving Kebribeyah, we then navigated the long, bumpy road to the Jijiga refugee camp. On our first stop, we visited a woman who ran the very first Somali refugee committee. She told us that the water sources in her camp are inadequate—and her words resonated with us: “I was never born to be a refugee. We are human beings, too.”

We then met with students at the primary school. They exuded hope and confidence for their future. We glanced at each other in that school room and knew that we had to give water to these kids, so that they could achieve their dreams, too. Seeing them was the highlight of the day.

Walking through the camp, Jessica and I also spent time with two women in their wooden stick, old t-shirt, mud floor homes. They told us how much better their life was now that a water source was within 200 meters of their home. Our entire team was overwhelmed by their resilience. All they have is each other and their hope to return home to Somalia some day. The least we can provide them is safe water.
After thanking the UNHCR, we loaded the plane. Our team members were silent. Then, one by one, we each began to express our commitment to helping support the people here.

So let’s bring water to 600,000 people in the most barren part of Africa. Send water today at www.summitonthesummit.com.

Check out this guest post from Ciro A. de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and co-chair of the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE) in the wake of last week’s big announcement from the Gates Foundation—a pledge of $10 billion towards the research, development and delivery of vaccines.

With all eyes currently on vaccines following the Gates Foundation’s recent $10 billion commitment to immunizations, the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE), a project of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is pleased to recognize the work of a steadfast pioneer in this field: WHO’s Dr. Thomas Cherian.

Yesterday, Dr. Cherian received the PACE Global Leadership Award at the Global Immunization Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The award was in recognition of his tireless efforts to accelerate the development and delivery of pneumococcal vaccines. Pneumococcal disease is one of the least known but most deadly infectious diseases worldwide, causing meningitis, sepsis and most commonly, pneumonia. It takes the lives of more than 1.6 million people each year, more than half of them children under the age of five.

Over the course of a 25-year career that began at Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu, India, Dr. Cherian has made significant contributions to the fight against pneumonia and pneumococcal diseases. His work includes helping to accelerate the development of pneumococcal vaccines, evaluating their efficacy against pneumonia, and informing the development of the WHO protocols that today guide treatment of pneumonia and other respiratory infections around the globe.

In 2009, Dr. Cherian was a member of the research team responsible for producing the first global study of pneumococcal disease burden in the last decade—and the only study of its kind to look at the burden of this disease at the country level, critical to efforts to protect children from pneumococcal disease.

Five years remain for countries rich and poor alike to reach Millennium Development Goal IV—a two-thirds reduction in child mortality. Pneumococcal disease prevention is key to making this goal a reality. At last, thanks to the hard work of leaders such as Dr. Cherian, governments, foundations and the vaccine industry have the information and tools to grasp the dramatic scope of this disease—and the scientific evidence to see which interventions work. Now it is up to us to urge our policymakers to take action against pneumococcal disease.

-Ciro A. de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and co-chair of the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE)

Check out this great new PSA from LA Galaxy Captain and U.S. Soccer midfielder Landon Donovan. Landon recently teamed up with United Against Malaria and its youngest champion, 12 year old Charles Ssali from Uganda, to help show how folks from across the globe can join in the fight against malaria. You can read lots more about United Against Malaria and all the work that they do here.

Check out this guest post from John Wecker, Director, Vaccine Access and Delivery at PATH:

Last June, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a recommendation to include rotavirus vaccines in all national immunization schedules. This was welcome news, as rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea-related global deaths in children less than five years old. But in order to turn welcome news into good news, we need to get these vaccines to the parts of the world that can least afford them.

First-of-its-kind data released this week in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) presents vital evidence from Africa and Mexico that demonstrates the potential for rotavirus vaccines. These studies clearly show that rotavirus vaccines can save young lives and they underscore the need for their immediate inclusion in national immunization programs across the world, particularly in those where diarrhea is a leading cause of childhood deaths.

Take Mexico, for example. During the annual rotavirus season between December and May, almost 800 infants died from severe diarrhea. Despite efforts to improve sanitation, increase the use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and promote exclusive breastfeeding, rotavirus continued to kill children. Then, in 2006, the government introduced a vaccine to prevent the disease. Within two years, diarrheal deaths among children less than two dropped by more than 65 percent.

In Africa—where the majority of diarrhea hospitalizations and nearly half of all rotavirus deaths occur—the vaccines hold even greater promise. The new NEJM data showed that the use of rotavirus vaccines significantly reduced severe rotavirus in African infants—preventing more than 60 percent of life-threatening infections. Now we must ensure that all African children—indeed all of the world’s children—receive this dose of prevention as soon as possible.

The clock is ticking toward the 2015 Millennium Development Goals—the target date for countries rich and poor alike to do their part in reducing child deaths worldwide. Vaccines can be costly. Fortunately, the GAVI Alliance has pledged to support rotavirus vaccine introduction in at least 44 low-income countries by 2015. This could have a tremendous impact on childhood mortality, but GAVI won’t be able to do it alone. It will take international donors, national governments, policymakers, and the larger global health community working together. And, there are some who can and should be doing more. Bill Gates said it himself in his recent annual letter.

Vaccination against rotavirus is of vital importance. But to defeat diarrheal disease, the vaccines must be part of a package, including the use of cost-effective, available interventions, such as oral rehydration therapy and zinc, as well as clean water, proper sanitation, and nutrition.

Today we are witnessing the real-world impact of rotavirus vaccines, and we can’t afford to lose momentum now. Let’s take the impact we’ve seen in Mexico and expand it worldwide. Let’s deploy the tools and strategies that already exist. Let’s fulfill our global responsibility to all of the world’s children. Or, as my colleague Samba Sow, a Malian doctor, says in our new rotavirus vaccine video below, “Let’s do it!”
You can help us do it. Spread the word and encourage others to recognize that diarrheal disease must be a global health priority. And share our video within your own communities!

-John Wecker, Director, Vaccine Access and Delivery, PATH

Check out this partner post from the World Food Programme on their Students Helping Haiti campaign.

Since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been delivering emergency food assistance to survivors. But help hasn’t just been on the ground. Students from around the world—the workers, parents, voters, and leaders of tomorrow— have been stepping up to help fight the hunger crisis in Haiti. Find out how you can join them here.

As Executive Director Josette Sheeran noted on Friday from Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s devastated infrastructure has made emergency operations extremely challenging.

“This is the most complex operation WFP has ever been involved in. That’s why opening up the supply chain is so critical,” said Sheeran.

She also noted that the UN food agency is bringing in special boats that will be able to transport humanitarian aid by sea and land directly onto beaches.

“This operation is getting up to scale, but we’re having to rebuild ports and airports.”

WFP began distributing food assistance within 24 hours of the earthquake and has launched a $279 million relief operation to reach 2 million Haitians. They’re also helping to provide logistical and telecommunications support to the entire humanitarian community.

Since the earthquake struck, WFP has delivered 3 million rations, the equivalent of nearly 10 million meals, to nearly 450,000 people. WFP aims to deliver 5-day rations to 100,000 people each day.

-Graham Bell, WFP Youth Outreach

InterAction member organizations have raised more than $200 million for Haiti relief efforts from millions of donors across America. Whether through faith-based groups like Catholic Relief Services, American Jewish World Service, Lutheran World Relief and World Vision—or broader-based organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children and Heifer International—more than 80 of our organizations are a crucial part of relief efforts in Haiti.

InterAction members do not make up the totality of the US NGO response in Haiti but they do make up 80-90% and they are the sole group that has agreed to meet the highest global NGO standards. InterAction’s 193 members work with 1800 corporations, they represent 13.7 million people in red and blue states, and they come from all faith groups. These NGOs will be in Haiti for the long haul and we urge Americans to support the full diversity of NGOs that are committed to rebuilding Haiti. Click here for more details.

-Sam Worthington, InterAction President and CEO