Our first day is starting with a meeting with Ambassador Arietti, our U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda. He’s giving a good overview of the progress that has been made here since the genocide ended in 1994. It is amazing to think of the progress that this country has made, not only in education and health care, but also in healing the societal scars from the genocide.
Couple of points that the Ambassador made that should especially interest ONE members. PEPFAR — our global AIDS program — is making an enormous contribution to Rwanda. He said that the U.S. contributes around $120 million through PEPFAR to Rwanda. As a result, 50,000 people are now on HIV medicines.
The Ambassador pointed out that we have used the PEPFAR program to help build medical capacity in Rwanda. There are 441 rural clinics in this country. Many didn’t have power or water or staff. The United Stats has been a strong partner with Rwanda and, through PEPFAR funding, America has been able to improve medical services. Doctor training, nurse training, and medicines are at the core of the U.S. involvement.
Later today, we’re going to see how Rwandan products are opening doors to trade and opportunity for people (hint — think Starbucks).
July 19th, 2008 at 8:55 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
The crew of ONE staff and American leaders has touched down in Rwanda. Check out the short video that ONE Vote ‘08 Co-Chair and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sent us from the ground:
July 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
By 2010, over 20 million children will have lost a parent to AIDS. The vast majority of these children live in developing countries, with eighty percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Less than one in ten of these children receive any form of external support. Without a safety net, these children are more likely to drop out of school, to be malnourished, to lose their homes, to face discrimination and abuse, and to contract HIV themselves.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR in short, offers hope to children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. By providing key funding, PEPFAR enables its implementation partners to reach needy children and their families with life-saving treatment, prevention, and care.
Thanks to such support, Claire and her siblings in Rwanda are on the path to a brighter future. Claire’s parents died of AIDS when she was 17 years old, leaving her to care for her three younger siblings and two cousins. HIV positive herself, Claire was forced to rent their house for income and move her family into the backyard shed. In 2005, FXB International stepped in and provided the family with food, educational support, health care, HIV treatment, and grants to operate a small business. Today, Claire is a student at the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology, where she studies dietary therapy for people living with HIV. FXB continues to send her siblings and cousins to school, so that the children now enjoy a better chance of achieving their full potential.
In urban slums in South Africa, students like Nomthandazo are benefiting from HIV prevention and school support programs. In her early teens, Nomthandazo’s father passed away and her mother later died from AIDS. Although Nomthandazo’s aunt helped ensure that her basic needs (food shelter, medicine) were met, Nomthandazo had no one to teach her about sex, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.
Fortunately, Nomthandazo’s teachers recognized her need for guidance and support. Nomthandazo was enrolled in an after-school program operated by FXB International. Through the program, Nomthandazo was able to learn important health and life skills including HIV/AIDS education and received counseling to help her cope with her grief and growing pains. She is now confident that she has the knowledge to make informed and safe choices in life.
Stories such as Claire’s and Nomthandazo’s demonstrate the need for HIV prevention, treatment, and care in resource-poor settings. Success stories like theirs can be repeated on a larger scale with full funding from Congress for PEPFAR, including orphans and vulnerable children programming.
Later this month, the ONE Campaign is set to reach out to senior advisors and key political voices from the Democratic and Republican parties as we continue to make the case that aid works, that American leadership can help a generation of people break the brutal cycle of extreme poverty. To drive that point home, we’re headed to Rwanda with an impressive roster of folks. We’re fortunate to have people who understand what’s at stake, both in terms of the lives which are on the line from poverty and preventable disease, and in terms of the benefit for America’s renewed leadership role in the world through expanded investment and assistance in these terribly poor countries.
The trip will be led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist – the two men who, for the past year, have co-chaired our ONE Vote ’08 effort. They’ll be joined by people like John Podesta (who was Chief of Staff to President Clinton and heads the Center for American Progress), Mike Huckabee (former Governor of Arkansas who expressed support for the ONE platform when he was running for the GOP nomination), and John Kasich (former member of the House of Representatives who worked as House Budget Committee Chairman). Cindy McCain will join the bipartisan trip as well. Mrs. McCain has a solid history of work in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable global disease. She’s served on the Board of Directors to ONE-partner CARE International since 2005. She founded the American Voluntary Medical Team in 1988, organizing trips for medical personnel to provide emergency care to disaster-struck or war-torn regions. She also serves on the boards for the non-profits Operation Smile and the HALO Trust.
The American people have made an incredible difference in the lives of millions of people struggling to survive extreme, brutal poverty. Our next president has the opportunity to finish the job – to finally erase preventable diseases from the planet and eliminate the kind of suffocating poverty which claims thousands of lives a day. We know the way, but we need our next president to show the will. That’s why we’re bringing this group of people to Rwanda. Each of them is in a unique position to help shape the policies and priorities of the man who could be our next president, and we want the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases to be front and center.
In Rwanda, we’ll visit places where PEPFAR is providing funds to save lives at risk from HIV/AIDS. We’ll stop at a school to hear from the students about the importance of their education to break free from extreme poverty. We’ll hear from farmers about their efforts to grow more crops and address the food crisis by growing their way out of it. All told, it will be an eye-opening trip, and one that we hope pays off with stronger policy commitments to the issues we care so much about – ending poverty and disease — from the two leading presidential candidates.
We’ll send updates from the trip and let you know how things are going.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:22 pm | posted by Ashley.Judd
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 documented her impressions and experiences in a personal journal, which have been transformed into a week-long series of blog posts.
Day Four:
I am here (in Goma, DRC) to visit our clinics that specialize in family planning, maternal and child health, and the treatment and prevention of malaria. (We also do safe water and HIV prevention in this area of the DRC). I also hope to visit with women who are rape victims. Rape is an epidemic here. It is an emergency. It is everywhere, on a massive scale. It is not altogether unreported in the western media, but it is grossly underreported. An ancient and common tool of warfare, this area’s female population has been hostage to gender based violence for decades.
What a shocking difference a few feet make. On the Rwandan side of the crossing, the roads are tidy, neat, maintained. The earth is red and the wind blowing through the trees, the lapping of the shores of Lake Kivu, is serene. There is a sense of orderliness and even within the clear poverty; I feel the purposeful attempt at self improvement, through agriculture and the tiny, colorful flower gardens.
Passing into the DRC…Oh my God.
-Ashley Judd
Read the rest of this entry, on Five & Alive’s website.and check back to the ONE Blog next week for highlight’s from Ashley’s journal on days 5,6 and 7 of her trip.
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
June 18th, 2008 at 4:50 pm | posted by Ashley.Judd
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 documented her impressions and experiences in a personal journal, which have been transformed into a week-long series of blog posts.
Day Three:
We met the clinic staff, whom I always love to celebrate and honor, and saw the “laboratory” (they do have rapid result HIV tests) and other offices. Everything was so utterly simple and plain; they would be beautiful if I didn’t remember the complex nature of the needs they are struggling to meet effectively. The wards themselves were bare cement rooms with simple aluminum cots lining the walls. Over each cot was painted a number, 1, 2, 3, 4…the beds were all filled and newborn babies slept and nursed everywhere. A few women had visitors from their other children, one granddaddy was there.
The minister and I talked with them about how undeveloped their children’s immune systems are and why mousquitaires are essential. I got to hold a sleeping 2-day old baby, but not for long….he was off, again! I barely got to make good eye contact with everyone. I think that baby was premature, it was very tiny. Low birth weight is a big factor in maternal child health in poor countries. In the pre-natal ward, identical in appearance, the minister spent time chiding the pregnant women, especially the very young, and reinforcing family planning behaviors once their babies are born, as he did on malaria.
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
June 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pm | posted by Ashley.Judd
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 documented her impressions and experiences in a personal journal, which have been transformed into a week-long series of blog posts.
Day 2:
1 in 12 children born here will die before age 1, and then an additional child per 7 will die before 5. Malaria, preventable and treatable, is cause number 1. There are 2 million cases of simple malaria a year in public health facilities and 4 million cases that are not treated at all….children average 23 cases a year. Death by mosquito bite. I think of that the next time you play badminton and get all annoyed. At least it’s not killing you and your babies.
To take this on, we socially market a net called “Tuzanet,” which is pre-treated with the appropriate insecticide and lasts for 3 years. It is available at a very small price which research shows different sectors of society can afford (”market segmentation”), and we give them away for free in many areas as well. This approach of private sector availability combined with recent free distribution of 3 million bed nets to caregivers of children under age 5, pregnant mothers, and the HIV+ helped achieve a stunning 60% reduction in malaria cases in 2007!
For treatment, we have made Coartem available at government 227 registered pharmacies nationwide (registered is important to ensure correct education is given with the sale of the product regarding its use to avoid generation of myths and creation of resistance to meds). We have “over packaged” instructions from the manufacturer, one of my favorite things that we do. We make it a brand, “Primo,” which we “market,” and provide pictorial and local dialect instructions for the low/non literature. Even the photos of the babies guide care givers on correct dosage based on age. It’s a truly wonderful thing and I get very, very excited about over packaging!
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
May 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pm | posted by Nora Coghlan
New statistics from the GSM Association reveal that cell phone usage is taking off across Africa. The GSMA reported that African cell operators added 70-million users in the past year (a growth rate of 33%) and expanded cell phone coverage by an area the size of France. Around 66% of Africa’s population is now reached by a mobile phone signal, up from 62% in 2007. Some African countries, such as Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, already have coverage rates well above 90%.
Cell technology has enabled poor African countries to bypass the messy infrastructure and expensive start-up costs of setting up fixed-line systems. As a result, wireless technology is reaching isolated rural areas where fixed lines were never able to penetrate: while the number of African cell phone users reached 282 million in 2008, there are still only 35 million fixed lines on the continent.
For Africa, these new connections have the potential to reap widespread development benefits. Where roads are bad, fixed lines nonexistent and email rare, cell phones are forging communications links that are vital to economic and social progress. Everyone from farmers to health ministers to market vendors is coming up with innovative ways to harness cell technology. In Kenya, for example, the Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) linked up with Safaricom, the country’s largest cell phone company, to help farmers access market prices over their phones. For about 20 cents, farmers can use text messaging to get current prices for goods at markets throughout Kenya, allowing them to reduce transaction costs and bypass middlemen, who often charge below-market rates.
Donors are getting the hint that cell phones can help overcome deficits in Africa’s health infrastructure. PEPFAR, for example, is working with African health ministries and the private sector to set up the Phones for Health program, a $10 million initiative that will allow health workers to use cell phones from the field to input health information to a central database. The program is modeled after TRACnet (http://www.pepfar.gov/pepfar/press/84654.htm), an impressive web-based system in Rwanda that collects and disseminates antiretroviral treatment program reporting, drug shortages and CD-4 tests across the country.
In the long term, coverage and usage must expand significantly if African countries are to realize the full economic potential of cell technology. Evidence indicates that high levels of cell phone usage can fuel economic growth and even attract foreign investment. One widely-cited study found that a developing country with an average of 10 more cell phones per 100 people has 0.59% higher GDP growth than an otherwise identical country. Seizing upon this opportunity will require prioritization by both the international community and African governments, who must continue to combat regulatory bottlenecks that constrain the competitiveness of cell operators across the continent.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:35 am | posted by Natalie.Sugira
Last night I called my sister in Rwanda. She, her husband and five of their eight children live in a small village about 10 miles outside of Kigali. Normally, our conversations are about 35 minutes and we mostly talk about the children. As a mother she worries about their future, and hopes her two teenage boys can pass the national exam to go to secondary school. Last night something else was on her mind.
A few minutes into the conversation she asked me if President Bush is aware of the poverty and AIDS crisis and in the Rwanda’s small villages. One of her friends suffers from AIDS and travels to the capital to get her medication. My sister said she is only alive because of the medicine from the Americans. I asked her what she thinks about President Bush and Mrs. Bush’s visit to Rwanda. She paused for sometime and said “Our leaders should bring him so we can meet him and tell him about our struggles, they stay in Kigali but life there is very different from ours here in the village’’. I asked her if people in the village know about the presidential campaign in the U.S. She said that those who go to the capital more often say that there are many more Americans than before the genocide. She continued that even the radio talks about America, so everyone has heard at least a little. I asked what she would say to President Bush if she saw him. She said that she would thank him for the AIDS medication that has saved her friend, and ask him to provide more help for education so her two sons can go to a vocational school. I have shared ONE’s commitment to Africa and my work with the campaign with her. She said that since President Bush is about to leave office, that they cannot ask him much. “You who are able to talk to them, speak on our behalf and let them know that we still need their help”, She insisted. She is sure that the president’s visit is a proof that Americans care about Rwandans.
My sister, who is now 50-years old, is the oldest member of my family to survive the genocide. She has always been (more…)
February 19th, 2008 at 9:46 am | posted by Taylor.Royle
This morning in Kigali, Rwanda, I attended two events: first, a roundtable discussion on education with First Lady Laura Bush, First Lady Jeannette Kagame and a group of Rwandan schoolgirls and second, a press conference with President Bush and President Kagame.
The schoolgirls at the roundtable were very nervous, but they each stood up and told Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kagame their stories. Their ages ranged from 16 to 18 and they all came from families who could not afford to pay for their schooling. Each girl was a beneficiary of the African Education Initiative - in other words, your tax dollars and mine put these girls in school. And that was an amazing thing to see.
Education for girls in poor countries means that they are much more likely to earn decent wages as adults and much less likely to become infected with HIV. Mrs. Bush asked them if they all knew how to prevent AIDS: they all said they did.
One other thing that surprised me: more than half of the girls were heading to universities to study physics or chemisty.
The press conference with President Bush and President Kagame focused on Rwanda’s impressive economic growth since the terrible genocide here that ended in 1994. Rwanda is a country with little corruption and big plans to become a technology leader in Africa. Even though they grow amazing vegetables and fruits here, Rwandans know that their land-locked country must find an industry other than agriculture if their people are to work their way out of poverty.
Now I am back in the White House press corps filing center. It’s funny to listen to the TV and radio reporters filing their stories. Surely they have seen many interesting things on this trip so far - but all of them are talking about the bed net factory they visited yesterday. They are amazed that children die from malaria transmitted by mosquito bites, that something as simple as an insecticide treated bed net can save lives…and that the United States is not only saving lives by buying these bednets for families - we are also providing jobs to the workers in the factory and better lives for their families as well.
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
