Rotary International is teaming up with violin virtuoso and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman and the world-renowned New York Philharmonic to present the Concert to End Polio, a benefit performance supporting the global effort to eradicate this disabling and sometimes fatal childhood disease.

Polio eradication resonates strongly with Mr. Perlman, who contracted the disease at age four and overcame serious physical challenges to become one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. Mr. Perlman is a winner of 15 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. In this historic, one-night-only performance Perlman will help Rotary in its effort to raise $200 million to match a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the money raised will fund critical eradication activities in countries where polio still threatens children.

Rotary International, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an initiative to make polio only the second disease to be eradicated. At the time (1988), there were 350,000 polio cases a year. Last year, there were less than 2,000. Worldwide, the number of polio cases has been slashed by 99 percent, preventing five million cases of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. However, the final one percent of cases is the most difficult and expensive to prevent.

The one-night-only performance will be held on 2 December at 7:30 p.m. in New York City.
Learn how you can help at rotary.org/endpolio or purchase tickets for this historic event at nyphil.org/perlman.

-Petina Dixon, Rotary International

Check out this post from Children’s HeartLink, an organization now in its 40th year that sends volunteer medical teams and individual consultants to train, teach and perform life-saving heart procedures for children. They partner with hospitals in South Africa, Kenya, India, China, Ukraine, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brazil.

Greetings from Children’s HeartLink, an international medical NGO working to build sustainable programs to prevent, treat and cure heart disease among needy children in underserved regions of the world. We have a team in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam right now, working alongside a pediatric cardiac team from Singapore and a local team at Nhi Dong 1 (Children’s Hospital 1) to provide training, mentoring and patient treatment.

I wanted to share one small story about our work by introducing you to Le, one of several children receiving lifesaving treatment this week. Le, an only child, had a heart operation Monday, November 9 (his first birthday). When Le was only two weeks old, he developed pneumonia, and his parents took him to the provincial hospital near their home in Angiang Province. A doctor there discovered Le had a congenital heart defect—a ventricular septal defect, or “hole in the heart.” Since then, his family has been making the long trip to Ho Chi Minh City once every month so cardiologists can track his condition. While Le’s treatment expense is covered by the government, his family has had to borrow money to pay for the trips to Ho Chi Minh City, which is five hours by bus from their home. The family’s income is very limited, so this has been a struggle for them.

Now that Le has had his operation, his parents are hopeful he will recover rapidly and that their financial burdens will be lighter. Treating Le’s heart defect has given the family great hope of a better life for both their son and themselves.

Having worked as a volunteer with Children’s HeartLink for years now, I’ve seen this hope firsthand. Nothing brings more joy than a child’s beating heart, and this week in Vietnam is no exception. With 40 years of experience and partners in nine countries, Children’s HeartLink has extended access to high-quality pediatric cardiac care in places where it’s needed most.

-Dr. Joseph A. Dearani, Medical Director, Children’s HeartLink, Mayo Clinic, Division of Cardiac Surgery

Check out this post from our partner organization Bread for the World. This post—talking about the need for more (and better) funding for agricultural development—is part of our Food Security in Focus series.

I’m a vegetarian. So I wasn’t sure how to respond when my host Yemiama offered me chickens as a gift for visiting him in southeastern Burkina Faso. I reluctantly took the chickens with many “thank yous.” Later, as I climbed into our truck, my colleagues joked that the birds would never make it through U.S. Customs.

Recently, I visited Burkina Faso as a guest of the Ministry of Agriculture on a project supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). While there, I talked with farmers about how they are coping in the midst of a global food and financial crisis. Predictably, they are struggling.

But the government in Burkina Faso is trying. With the support of IFAD, they are working to improve agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods. In Kompiengbiga, they have built irrigation schemes, increased organic fertilizer use and taught farmers business skills. Burkinabè farmers have benefited from these efforts. Even in my short visit, I was impressed that they are willing to take risks and adopt new technologies if they are given the chance.

Unfortunately, far too few farmers are getting the support they need. Currently, only four cents of every dollar of Official Development Assistance supports agricultural development. That’s down from 17 cents of every dollar in the 1980s.

How did we get to a point where we failed to anticipate needs in an area as critical as agriculture? Part of the answer is donor policies are poorly aligned with needs in developing countries. This must change.

Creating more responsive foreign assistance that alleviates hunger and poverty is sorely needed. Right now Bread for the World members are urging their Senators to support S.1524, “The Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act.” This bill will strengthen the capacity, transparency, and accountability of U.S. foreign assistance—and is a critical step toward helping farmers like Yemiama. Click here to learn more about S. 1524.

-Eric Muñoz, International Hunger and Nutrition Policy Analyst, Bread for the World Institute

GiveVaccines.org wishes you a Happy and, most importantly Healthy, World Pneumonia Day. Today, we help raise awareness to fight pneumonia, a disease taking the lives of two million children each year. With increased awareness and aid, these deaths can be avoided. GiveVaccines.org is teaming up with WorldPneumoniaDay.org by donating all proceeds from November 1 thru November 30, 2009. Each time you log on to GiveVaccines.org and take part in our interactive vocabulary quiz game, you too will help fight the spread of pneumonia around the world.

GiveVaccines.org is a non-profit organization whose ultimate goal is to help prevent the spread of disease in the neediest areas of the world while providing an enjoyable tool for participants to improve their English vocabulary and medical terminology. All net proceeds from advertising revenues are donated to GaviAlliance.org and other affiliated organizations for the purchase of life-saving vaccines. Through support from the GAVI Alliance, low-income countries can access pneumonia vaccines for as little as $0.15 per dose., which equates to 150 accumulative correct answers on GiveVaccines.org. To play this interactive learning quiz, go to www.GiveVaccines.org

To commemorate the World Pneumonia Day, GiveVaccines.org has created a special category with regards to pneumonia. For this category, and each of the other categories, you will find 10 levels of difficulty. GiveVaccines.org will automatically adjust to words of varying levels of difficulty based on your performance. So, challenge yourself and your friends to see what level you can achieve. Visit GiveVaccines.org and help join the cause!

-Sam Rabinowitz, GiveVaccines.org

Gary White and Matt Damon of water.org just formally announced a new commitment to extend their great work around water and sanitation to Haiti.

Haiti which has suffered several hurricanes recently has had particular trouble bringing clean water to rural communities. Water.org will commit to helping bring water to a minimum of 50,000 people by investing at least 2 million dollars in work with local NGO’s.

We’ll have more on this and President Obama who will be addressing the meeting shortly.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s video of the entire opening plenary.

Opportunity International President and CEO Kadita “A.T.” Tshibaka (right) meets with Dikembe Mutombo Foundation employees (center) and the local mayor (left) to discuss how Opportunity can partner with them to serve those living in poverty in the DRC.

“A single bracelet does not jingle,” states a Congolese proverb. With that idea in mind, the tone of Opportunity International’s recent trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo was one of cooperation. The microfinance organization realizes that without partnerships it will not be able to fully address the problem of poverty.

Half of the DRC’s 66.5 million people live on $1 per day. With painful poverty comes a host of serious problems for the Congolese people. Financial, health and social service organizations must work in tandem.

For this reason, Opportunity visited the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation (DMF) hospital in the DRC. A tour of the impressive facility and a meal with the staff further revealed that the two organizations have a shared vision. The patients to which the DMF Hospital provides healthcare are the very ones that Opportunity targets in its effort to alleviate poverty through savings, loans and insurance. Both organizations are committed to serve those living on less than $1 per day.

Opportunity International President and CEO, Kadita “A.T.” Tshibaka, also set up meetings with local churches such as the Evangelical Covenant Church in the DRC. He notes that “churches play a key role in advocating for the poor. We encouraged church leaders to partner with us as we serve our brothers and sisters in the D.R. Congo.”

Finally, the group met with other microfinance organizations. Rather than finding a competitive climate, Opportunity International discovered a great deal of support and encouragement. The organizations all share one common goal: to serve and empower the poor.

Without partnerships, organizations can only have a limited impact. Indeed, with the power of partnerships Opportunity International can be more than just a single bracelet in a country filled with agonizing poverty.
And the poor can receive a working chance.

To learn more about Opportunity’s commitment to providing microfinance solutions to the working poor in almost 30 countries, visit www.opportunity.org.

-Sonja Egeland Kelly, Opportunity International

Now that the G8 Summit in Italy has officially wrapped up, a number of NGO’s have publicly issued their reactions, including a number of our partners. We’ve compiled a short list, and we’ll update as more come in.

Bread for the World: Welcomes G8 Hunger Initiative

Washington, DC, July 10, 2009 — Bread for the World welcomes the statement issued today by G8 member nations at their meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, on reducing world hunger by increasing agricultural support and development in the world’s poorest countries.

According to Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, the agreement by G8 leaders to contribute $20 billion over three years to a new initiative to combat global hunger is a sign of hope for tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.

CARE: Agriculture Assistance Package a Tremendous Step in Tackling Global Hunger

ATLANTA (July 10, 2009) – The Obama administration’s announcement of $20 billion in agricultural assistance for poor farmers is a tremendous start to helping families and countries feed themselves, according to CARE experts. Of critical importance to the success of the program is making sure that assistance reaches the poorest of the poor, often women and girls.

“CARE’s work in the field demonstrates the need to ensure that assistance reaches those most vulnerable to chronic hunger, the poorest of the poor. This initiative sets us on the path to do that,” said Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA. “We look forward to working with all parties to make this commitment a reality.”

Catholic Relief Services: CRS Applauds Pres. Obama’s Announcement of $20 Billion G-8 Commitment to Food Security

July 10, 2009, Baltimore, MD —Catholic Relief Services, one of the nation’s largest private international humanitarian agencies and a leader in providing U.S. food and agricultural assistance, applauds President Barack Obama’s announcement that G-8 nations have committed $20 billion to help millions of the world’s poor farmers to grow more food.

This commitment, including $3.5 billion to be pledged by the U.S., is a good start to funding a comprehensive food security plan along the lines of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger, a strategy proposed by Catholic Relief Services and a coalition of other humanitarian groups to Congress and the Administration. In addition to agriculture, investments are needed in nutrition, disaster risk reduction, social safety nets and improved, more flexible emergency response.

InterAction: G8 and Other Leaders Agree that Global Food Security Critical to Development

L’Aquila, Italy, July 2009 — “We commend the G8, G5, and other countries, as well as international institutions for their Joint Statement on Global Food Security, its commitment to the world’s poorest, and agreeing to mobilize $20 billion over three years for food security. To be realized these commitments must be pursued as part of a comprehensive strategy in order to help the world’s poor. The success of this global food strategy rests on the ability of the G-8 to be accountable to its promises,” said Samuel A. Worthington President and CEO of InterAction, an alliance of 183 U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs). “The bold decision of President Obama, the G8, and other leaders to significantly increase aid to agriculture and to partner with vulnerable countries is critical to addressing the food crisis and alleviating the disastrous impact of the global financial crisis.”

(more…)

The southern African country of Zambia boasts a population of just 12 million people. But every year we bear a phenomenal loss of life due to a preventable cause – diarrhea. The annual death toll of children under five from diarrhea in my country is a staggering 14,000.

The reason: lack of political will to give priority to diarrhea and its environmental causes, such as lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation.

Mother of 12 Christina Pede (left) from Chipongwe village in Kafue District knows the importance of clean water and adequate sanitation in preventing diarrheal diseases. In Christina’s words:

“This handpump is a great improvement on what we had before. Previously, when we used to drink water from the dam we used to get diarrhea. These health problems have stopped now.”

In Zambia, the need to prioritize diarrhea is stark: more than 80% of cases seen in clinics are diseases related to poor environmental sanitation. Yet, the report Fatal neglect: How health systems are failing to comprehensively address child mortality, released by WaterAid this week, shows that environmental health interventions that could prevent diarrheal diseases are given little priority in health budgets in Zambia from the national government and donors alike.

Along with water, sanitation and hygiene education (measures provided by WaterAid across Africa, Asia and the Pacific region), oral rehydration therapy, zinc tablets, rotavirus vaccinations and breastfeeding all help to stop child deaths from diarrhea. The global health organization PATH brings attention to the importance of all of these interventions in their new report, Diarrheal Disease: Solutions to Defeat a Global Killer. WaterAid has joined PATH and over 80 other organizations in a call to action that unites diverse organizations in demanding investment in all of these vital prevention and treatment interventions.

Until prevention and treatment of diarrhea is adequately funded, children will continue to needlessly die, despite the best efforts of their mothers, such as Stella Musanda (right) from the village of Jeremiah in Kafue District, who reports giving her toddler son Joseph the least amount of water he needs to stave off dehydration so as to minimize the chance of him contracting a fatal diarrheal disease.

-Nancy C. Bwalya-Mukumbuta, Program Manager at WaterAid in Zambia

Photos by WaterAid/Jon Spaull

This year, ONE worked with the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign (USGLC) in their efforts to garner Congressional support for bipartisan letters asking President-elect Obama to make greater investments in diplomacy and development. Today the USGLC announced that a record 217 members of Congress signed on to the letters pledging their support for a robust U.S. International Affairs Budget. This includes 51 Senators and 166 Representatives (you can see the full list here).

As we keep you updated on day-to-day developments in the Obama team’s transition process, strong grassroots support will be needed to ensure Congress and the president-elect provide greater foreign aid. With the help of ONE members and activists across the United States, the USGLC has mounted a very successful campaign to seek broad bipartisan support from our elected officials in the fight against extreme poverty.

You can read more about today’s news here.

-Chris Scott

This week we’ve been keeping you posted about the crisis situation in Zimbabwe and mounting international pressure on President Robert Mugabe to step down. Despite a staggering cholera epidemic sweeping Zimbabwe, Mugabe continues to deny the magnitude of the epidemic, adding further chaos to the growing crisis. Today the New York Times published a fascinating and insightful piece on where things currently stand.

Excerpts below, full piece here

The outbreak is yet more evidence that Zimbabwe’s most fundamental public services — from water and sanitation to public schools and hospitals — are shutting down, much like the organs of a severely dehydrated cholera victim.

Zimbabwe’s once promising economy, disastrously mismanaged by President Robert G. Mugabe’s government, has been spiraling downward for almost a decade, but residents here say the free fall has gained frightening velocity in recent weeks. Most of the nation’s schools, which were once the pride of Africa, producing a highly literate population, have virtually ceased to function as teachers, whose salaries no longer even cover the cost of the bus fare to work, quit showing up.

In a country that already lays claim to the terrible distinction of having the second highest proportion of orphans in the world — one in four children has lost one or both parents — the closure of schools and hospitals is hitting these most vulnerable children mercilessly.

-Chris Scott