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.
AmeriCares
Chief of Staff Carol Shattuck recounts her experience on AmeriCares first emergency airlift to help Haiti with earthquake and humanitarian relief.
Concern Worldwide
Program Officer Susan Finucane offers a video update of Concern’s work on the ground in Port-au-Prince.
Leon H. Sullivan Foundation
“In the aftermath of the largest earthquake to hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti in more than two centuries, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation has initiated a relief effort to help meet the population’s immediate needs and participate in long-term efforts to restore normalcy to a country plagued by natural disasters.
“To merely replace the unsound buildings and feed people temporarily will not be enough. My organization is working on projects to help Haiti and its people become more self-sufficient over the long term,” said Hope Masters, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sullivan Foundation. “We who have so much must never forget to help those who have so little.”
TransAfrica Forum
An online resource for the latest news on the earthquake and its aftermath. TransAfrica Forum also held a candlelight vigil at the Haitian Embassy in Washington DC earlier this afternoon.
World Food Programme
“Within the next week, we aim to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals so that people whose homes have been destroyed, and who have no access to cooking facilities, can feed their families,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We are also procuring 4.2 million rations of supplementary ready-to-use foods specifically designed to give children the calories and nutrition they need each day.”
As you may have already heard, a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti several hours ago. While many details about the situation on the ground are still developing, CNN reports that the US State Department has been told to expect a serious loss of life. Below is a round-up of statements and updates from our friends and partners. You can also read these statements from President Obama and Secretary Clinton.
CARE is attempting to contact our country office in Haiti and assess the humanitarian situation following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near the impoverished nation’s capital city. Initial reports indicate the disaster could be a major catastrophe.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck a region about 14 miles from Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, according to media reports. World Vision staff members are assessing the situation and determining a potential emergency response.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviews a World Vision official:
WESTPORT, Conn. (Jan. 12, 2010) — Save the Children is verifying the safety of staff just hours after a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, near the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
Houses are down in the area surrounding the Save the Children office, which was also damaged in the quake, according to Ian Rodgers, the agency’s Emergency Response Advisor, who is currently in Port-au-Prince.
An estimated 1.8 million residents were violently shaken by the earthquake and aftershocks affecting the densely populated areas near Port-au-Prince.
Save the Children has worked in Haiti since 1985, primarily in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the Central Plateau region, providing health, education, protection and food security programs to vulnerable children.
Right now, Save the Children is assessing staff and program safety, which will be complicated by the onset of evening. Employees who were in the office at the time are uninjured, though about half of program staff were elsewhere. The agency plans to deploy emergency teams and begin relief efforts soon.
I’ve been on the phone for most of the last three hours figuring out the best way we can respond to the news in Haiti.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake has toppled buildings, including at least one hospital, and we assume there are significant casualties (the news has been slow to trickle out).
We do not currently have staff in Haiti, but we do have extensive experience responding to earthquakes — most recently in Padang, Indonesia last September. My colleagues and I have been canvassing our own emergency operations team as well as veteran relief workers from throughout the agency to determine the most qualified and immediately deployable staff.
We will begin deploying our team tomorrow and working now to line up resources to respond.
Dama Boru Godana couldn’t make it here to Copenhagen. But I sure wish the Ethiopian pastoralist could. Delegates negotiating a new global climate change treaty over the next two weeks would learn a lot from her, particularly as they decide how much assistance developed countries should invest in the world’s poorest communities to help them adapt to climate change.
I met 40-year-old Dama in the Borana zone of Southern Ethiopia in June.
“It is much warmer these days,” she told me. “Droughts are occurring more frequently, they are lasting longer and they are more severe compared to when I was young. Many of us have watched our cows die of starvation, and the dry season grazing areas are not so accessible anymore.”
A few years ago, Dama learned about a village saving & loans initiative taking place in a nearby village. She subsequently started one with 15 other women in her village. The results underscore what I’ve witnessed in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa: positively empowering women goes a long way in positively changing the lives of their families and communities.
These women pooled their financial resources, and using their traditional knowledge, they fattened two bulls and sold them for a $200 profit. With this money, they stocked up on cereals and sugars sold during the dry season when demand is higher. Then, with the help of CARE, they learned how to make hay, saving themselves from long treks to get food for their livestock during the lean season.
“Most pastoralist women depend on handouts from their husbands,” Dama said. “I formed this credit group so that we can work together, make some income and improve our lives.”
World leaders, did you hear her? You can alleviate this historic unfairness–the least responsible paying the greatest price–with a hand up, not a handout. Here in Copenhagen, you must agree on an increased and sustained investment, above and beyond what is currently labeled development assistance, something that can empower innovators such as Dama to appropriately adapt to climactic changes not of their making.
Looking at Dama that day, I saw adaptation past and present. Let’s hope, by the end of this fortnight, I can say I saw adaptation’s future, too.
-Cynthia Awuor, CARE’s climate change coordinator for East and Central Africa
This week The University of Miami’s Department of International Studies teamed up with ONE’s partner organization, CARE to present a panel discussion on climate change as a human security concern. Many ONE members came out for the event to learn more about the challenges that drastic changes in climate present for people living in extreme poverty.
Dr. Sherri Porcelain, senior lecturer with the Global Public Health Department at UM kicked of the event and moderated the panel discussion which covered topics such as resource scarcity, increased spread of diseases like malaria from more active mosquito populations, to the mass migration of people from coastlands and other areas affected by climate change.
As policy makers prepare to meet next month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, we will continue to work on the ground here in Florida and around the country to educate our members of Congress and raise awareness about the deadly costs of climate change to those living in extreme poverty.
On Saturday approximately 275 Atlantans joined together with ONE and CARE to Take a Stand Against Poverty. It was an amazing event, featuring Fredrika Whitfield from CNN, CARE CEO and President, Dr. Helene Gayle, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, and ONE CEO David Lane. Mayor Shirley Franklin was also in attendance.
The event began in the atrium of the American Cancer Society Center with cocktails and a buffet provided by local Atlanta restaurant, Six Feet Under. As guests mingled, they had the opportunity to shop the microfinance marketplace which showcased handmade goods made by women from around the world including handbags from Guatemala, paper beads from Uganda, candles from India and beautiful beaded work from Kenya. Guests also had the opportunity to meet with author Mary Cantando and purchase a copy of her new book “Leading With Care,” a look at how women around the world are inspiring businesses, empowering communities and creating opportunity.
ONE volunteers staffed a sign up table and talked with guests about the importance of the advocacy work that ONE is engaged in. Local ONE’rs also had an opportunity to chat with David Lane as he mingled with the crowd and took part in the evening’s festivities. The CARE Action Network and Join My Village also had tables. At 7:45 the Burundi Drummers entered the atrium and treated everyone to a rousing performance of dancing and great African drum beats that continued as they lead the guests, conga line style, into the theatre for the rest of the evening’s entertainment. Philanthropy awards were presented to two local Atlanta young women for the work they have done to raise money and awareness on anti-poverty initiatives.
But the biggest surprise of the evening was the musical guest Hanson! We were treated to a 30 minute mini-concert by these incredibly talented men as they sang and played some of their newest songs for us. With a piano, a guitar and a cajon (a Mexican drum box) as accompaniment, Hanson’s well blended vocals and thought provoking lyrics were a perfect reminder of the reason we had all come together: to renew our commitment and show solidarity for actions that lead to ending poverty in our lifetimes.
What can you say about an event that is not only inspirational but fun? All I want to know is what do we get to do next year?
We’re excited to relate that Helene Gayle, head of CARE, global health advocate & leader, and ONE board member has been appointed Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).
President Obama commented on the appointment, “(a)s we organize numerous ways to engage the American people in confronting the HIV epidemic in our country, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS will play a critical role in developing and implementing a National HIV/AIDS Strategy.” “Dr. Gayle brings an intense commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS and unique experience in advancing public health. I look forward to her leadership and counsel.”
The position is voluntary and part time. Dr. Gayle continues in her ongoing leadership of CARE.
You can read the full story on the appointment on CARE’s website.
Congratulations Helene! This is great news for U.S. leadership on ending HIV/AIDS.
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.
This week The University of Miami’s Department of International Studies teamed up with ONE’s partner organization, CARE to present a panel discussion on climate change as a human security concern. Many ONE members came out for the event to learn more about the challenges that drastic changes in climate present for people living in extreme poverty.
As policy makers prepare to meet next month at the 
We’re excited to relate that Helene Gayle, head of 
