How To Save Dozens Of People's Lives For $36
posted on September 28, 2010I just met someone who's saved dozens of people's lives with a home-built device.
It goes like this: In Guatemala, if the power goes out in the middle of a major surgical operation, the room is blacked out and the patient dies. This may happen several times a day.
Existing solar-powered surgical lights cost $1000. This means that not many of them are installed.
This guy (he's not big on publicity) took a dozen garden-path lights, stuck them onto the back of an aluminum muffin tin, and made a light that is bright enough to save the patient's life.
Three of these devices have been delivered... and have already saved over 30 lives.
Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to save someone's life? Even to save one person's life, sometime during your lifetime? Most of us never get that privilege.
This one person, with garden lights, a muffin tin, and velcro, has saved dozens of lives already.
That's the optimist's aspect of extreme poverty. Even the littlest things - if designed to fill a need, and delivered appropriately - can make a huge difference.
The Impact You Can Have
posted on July 30, 2010What would it mean to you if you suddenly got a 30% raise?
If you are already well off perhaps it wouldn’t mean much: a vacation, a boat, perhaps even upgrading your house.
If you are comfortably well off, it might mean that your children could go to a private school or a better college; you could add to your retirement account.
If you are part of the working poor, it could mean you could eat more healthy food; your family could get decent medical care.
If you were part of the very poor, you could afford to buy mosquito nets to prevent malaria; your children could stay in school instead of working for a living.
What does it mean that half the people in the world are living on $2 a day? It means that for half the world 60 cents per day would be a 30% raise. Well guess what? One percent of the world’s productivity is equivalent to 60 cents per day for 3 billion people.
In other words, if just 1% of the world’s budget were added to the resources of the bottom half of the population they would be able to achieve far more than they can today. The resources might include: a village health clinic, schools, wells or water pipelines, better roads and communication to make it easier to earn money, or land ownership.
What’s needed varies from place to place. That’s why big anti-poverty programs frequently don’t work. But human-scale programs can and do work. One Percent Global has found programs that work effectively at
the community level and we’ve featured them here on our blog.
Human-scale donations also work. Ending poverty does not need government money or massive fundraising. Just 1% of your personal budget would be enough to bring several families out of poverty.
If you’re not ready to donate money, or if you already donate as much as you want to, you can contribute by talking about this. I believe that if people understood how far 1% could go things would shift in the world. So pick a friend, share this idea with them, and start a discussion. Or you could simply forward a link to this page to someone. 1% of your free time could go far to spread the word about human-scale donations.
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A Creative way to donate to a charity: Gift giving
posted on July 21, 2010Charity gift giving is becoming increasingly popular and is a positive evolution of donating to charity. Charity gift giving solves two pressing issues: the need to donate to worthy causes, and the need to recognize the social and cultural importance of the exchange of gifts in an environment that has too much stuff.
Seth Godin, the marketing expert, had a birthday recently and he wrote on his blog that he didn’t want any gifts for his birthday. Instead, he asked people donate to Charity:Water. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/07/its-not-my-birthday.html This caught our eye because Charity:Water is a charity we wrote about in this blog. http://onepercentglobal.org/blog/2010/06/clean-water-vs-poverty
There are two basic ways of giving to a charity instead of buying a gift for someone. You could donate directly to the charity. Or you could donate through an organization that has a selection of charities featured on their website. What is the difference between these two ways of charity gift giving?
When you donate directly to the charity you can be assured that all the money you donate actually goes to the charity, eliminating the middle man. But how do you determine that a charity you are donating to is a good one? There are organizations that rank charities and here are a couple of them:
http://guidestar.org/ “The non-profits in the Guidestar database are registered with the Internal Revenue Service, or meet IRS requirements for being a tax-exempt organization. In order to be listed as a charity over 60% of the donations need to go out to the target populations.”
http://charitynavigator.org/ “Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of over 5,500 of America's largest charities.”
http://www.bbb.org/us/charity/ “The BBB Wise Giving Alliance (the Alliance) helps donors make informed giving decisions and advances high standards of conduct among organizations that solicit contributions from the public.”
What if you just want to get that last-minute holiday gift? Doing all the due diligence yourself may seem like a lot of work. What if you wanted your gift of charity to recognize a particular event, like a wedding? What if you did want to have a physical object to give, but wanted that object to support a population in need? There are organizations on the internet that can help you with these types of needs.
There are so many “charity gift giving” websites that we are not going to list them here, but rather give you an overview of the different types. You can go online and type in “gift giving charity” and you will find organizations that fit your need and your budget.
For example:
Do you want to buy a gift card to give to family or friends, so when they spend it, part of the proceeds will go to a designated charity?
Do you want buy an item that was made by an “at risk” population, the proceeds of which will help them break the cycle of poverty?
Do you want to involve your children, introducing them to the “family tradition” of giving to charities for birthdays and holidays?
Do you want to celebrate a specific event such as a wedding? You could have your wedding guests donate to a group of charities, or a specific charity, rather than buy a gift for the bride and groom.
Do you have a social network of your family, friends, or co-workers that want to donate together? There are websites where you can create “gift challenges” where different “teams” compete to see how much money they can raise over a specific period of time. These websites usually have sophisticated analytics that help you track the amounts raised, where it was distributed, and which team is leading in the fund raising.
This is a sample of the types of websites one can find for charity gift giving.
What one needs to remember is these websites have overhead costs that must be paid: website hosting, administration of the website, credit card fees, etc. The fees charged can be as simple as $0.03 per dollar, or a complex system - “deducting 3% for credit card processing, a $0.50 transaction fee per card plus 5% administrative fee,” as one site states in their FAQ.
One Percent Global vets the organizations featured on this blog, but does not offer additional services like the “charity gift giving” websites. One Percent Global is self supporting and receives no portion of the donations you make to the organizations featured here.
Whatever method you choose, giving directly or going through a website that did the due diligence for you, remember the added bonus of a charity gift: tax deduction. If you are setting up a charity team in a challenge or steering wedding guests to a website, it’s good to remind them that their donations are tax deductible.
Comments
Gift giving is a nice way of donating, I've done it a few times, not the most exciting, do you have any information on the health lottery (heard about it the other day from a friend but a bit clueless.)
Five medical gadget innovations that also save money
posted on July 14, 2010Two big problems that health professionals face when working in the poorest communities of the world are the limits on their funds and reliable access to electricity. This posed a challenge to some of the brightest people to invent medical equipment that was both low cost and did not rely on electricity. As featured in a TakePart article, here are 5 medical equipment innovations that save money while saving lives.
1. Medical centrifuges are used to spin blood to separate the red blood cells from the lighter plasma for tests or transfusion. The cost for an electric driven centrifuge starts at $2,000.
Rice University students developed the “Salad Spinner blood centrifuge” that can spin 30 capillary tubes worth of blood in 20 minutes, by hand, needing no electricity. The cost for the “Salad Spinner blood centrifuge” is less than $30. It is light weight, portable and can travel to the most rugged locations.
2. Each year in under developed countries millions of babies are born under weight and premature. Incubators are needed to help these babies regulate body heat. The average cost of an electrical powered incubator is $20,000.
A group of Stanford graduate students invented “Embrace” an incubator that runs on hot water, without electricity, for only $25. It looks like a sleeping bag that one fills with hot water. It can be ready to use in 10 minutes and reused a hundred times.
3. Wounds heal quicker when negative pressure (suction) is applied to the wound. It also cuts down the amount of times one needs to dress the wound. Negative pressure pumps cost $100 a day to rent.
Danielle Zurovcik, a doctoral student at MIT’s Mechanical Engineering school, invented a $3 negative pressure pump out of plastic tubing, air tight bandage, and a hand powered bellows pump.
4. 2.6 billion people, or 40% of the world, have no access to basic sanitation. Open pit latrines often contaminate the ground water spreading disease. Anders Wilhelmson noticed that in some areas without toilets people were using plastic bags and tossing them in the local garbage heap.
That is what inspired him to come up with the “PeePoo” biodegradable bag that only cost pennies. How it works is the PeePoo bags are lined with urea, the most common, non-hazardous fertilizer in the world. When urea comes in contact with human waste, it kicks off a chemical reaction that breaks down the waste, kills the bacteria, and fertilizes the immediate area the bag was buried.
5. Doctors need microscopes to scan biological samples. Then they need to send the scans to hospitals, clinics, and labs where the images can be diagnosed. The equipment that is usually used in developed countries would be expensive, dependent on electricity, and too bulky to take into remote areas.
UCLA’s Aydogan Ozcan came up with a way to use $10 in spare parts, mounted to a cell phone, that will turn the cell phone into a microscope that can scan biological samples and then send the scans on to be diagnosed elsewhere.
http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/07/07/medical-gadgets-that-save-money-and-lives
Please read the uplifting and often amusing article at the TakePart website. There are links on that page that will lead you to more information on each individual or group that developed these innovations.
Comments
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Top Down vs Bottom Up
posted on July 7, 2010“The White Man’s Burden” written by William Easterly, has influenced the focus of One Percent Global. Easterly separates anti-poverty aid organizations into “Planners” and “Searchers”. He contends “plans” that come down from the “top” often do not do as much good compared to “searches” for solutions that start from the “bottom”. “Planners” often waste millions of dollars with unrealistic, albeit lofty, goals, and reap little benefit. “Searchers” look for organizations that have solutions to specific problems as identified by the locals, that are accountable and sustainable, and are more cost effective.
Easterly goes into detail about how many millions have been invested by African nations, coupled with more millions in foreign aid, and the result is often zero at the ground level where the aid is needed. Why is that?
“Planners” often have a Utopian plan that they are going to force on to the country that has the need, often overlooking cultural and political barriers to that plan. “Planners” have lack of accountability that is equal to lack of positive outcome. The typical reaction when plans do not work? Throw more money at the problem rather than stop the project when it does not work.
“Searchers” work from the grassroots, working with existing organizations that are involved with the community, looking for specific problems that can be solved easily, with little investment, to break the cycle of poverty. For instance, if a road or a bridge is needed so goods can be brought to market, build that road or bridge. When the solutions are sustainable, the aid organization is held accountable for the outcome of the project, it takes less aid money to change the life of many.
When an aid organization conceives a “plan” to effect a change on a community without consulting the people the aid is intended, instituting solutions that are not sustainable, are not held accountable when the plan fails, the results are often dismal. Even the UN admits to these failures in the reports on the Millennium Development Goals.
“"It is clear that improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow, and some hard-won gains are being eroded by the climate, food and economic crises," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the foreword to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, issued on 23 June.”
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202010%20En%20r15%20-low%20res%2020100615%20-.pdf
The organizations that One Percent Global features are the “bottom up” charities that are accountable for the donated funds, that use sustainable solutions utilizing local labor and existing community organizations, that aim to turn the project over to the local community when they can maintain the solution for themselves.
This focus was inspired in part by “The White Man’s Burden” because it is obvious to many that the “Top Down” approach which throws massive amounts of money at the problem of global poverty, without accountability, without transparency, and without consulting the people the aid is intended, has obviously failed, time and time again.
Combating global poverty is not immune to the current recession. Therefore, it is even more imperative that donated funds are spent effectively. The organizations must be accountable and transparent as to where the funds are allocated. Wasteful projects that do not serve the function that they were intended cannot continue. It is only logical and practical that the “bottom up” approach of the “Searchers” is the more effective method of breaking the cycle of poverty. To learn more please read “The White Man’s Burden”.
Easterly, William. The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. Penguin Press HC, The, 2006; ISBN 1594200378
For more information please watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_H0g30YwQ8
NYU professor William Easterly visits Google's Mountain View, CA, headquarters to discuss his book, "The White Man's Burden." This event took on April 6, 2006, as part of the Authors@Google series. (56:43)
Pumping Water - Child’s Play
posted on June 30, 2010One Percent Global focuses on organizations that come up with solutions that are sustainable. What does that mean with regards to water and sanitation issues? Isn’t it enough to drill a well, set up a pump, build some latrines and be done with it? No - pumps break down, latrines get filled, and the problem with clean water and sanitation for the community is again a problem. Many so-called solutions are not sustainable. Communities around the world are stuck with unsustainable projects and the local people have to go back to the old way to secure water and deal with sanitation.
Water For People has set up a system for these projects that insures long-term success. Part of that long-term success is to involve the local community so they are invested in making the project work and continue to work over time. Another part of the long-term success is to know when to step away and let the residents have complete control of their water management. Here are some of the important elements of Water For People’s programs.
“Our model works because it’s focused on the long-term rather than the ribbon cutting.
It is a holistic view that encompasses and accounts for how the solutions will work long into the future:
· Select a community and create motivation to succeed.
· Support the community as it works toward self-sufficiency.
· Bring in other organizations from the community and help them grow.
· Bring in local government partners, and convince them that it’s in their best interest to play a positive and supportive role.
· Engage the local private sector to be a part of the solution.
· Strengthen all the players and create a synergistic environment with a vision of, and an active focus on, long-lasting water and sanitation systems. “
http://www.waterforpeople.org/unique/making-it-last.html
Pumping Water-Child’s Play:
After the water needs of the entire community are secured, Water For People does something that is just for the children. We are accustomed to playgrounds for our children where there are swings, slides and metal merry-go-rounds that the children push round. In African villages there are no playgrounds like that. In the communities lucky enough to have a school, there are no playgrounds and children are hungry for them, as all children have the need to play.
Water For People has come up with a compassionate and practical solution to the water needs of a school, as well as the need for play for children: a merry-go-round pushed by the children that pumps the water up to a holding tank, called Play Pumps. Play Pumps are installed only after the community has its water and sanitation needs met. They supply the school with water for drinking, hand washing and washing dishes. The holding tank for the water can be an income generator by using the sides of the tank for advertising. This is only one of the innovative ways that Water For People approaches a project.
http://www.waterforpeople.org/extras/playpumps/how-playpumps-works.html
Water For People's focus on sustainability is the most important reason why it is an organization that One Percent Global admires and encourages you to support!
http://www.waterforpeople.org/
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Frontline recently aired an investigative report on the Play Pump and discovered that it was not as bottom-up or sustainable as promised:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/southernafrica904/index.html
Getting the word out
posted on June 24, 2010“A pinch, a fist and two liters” What does that mean to you? To us it means oral rehydration. A pinch of salt, a fist of sugar and two liters of water spoon fed to a child with diarrhea can save their life. Dehydration due to an illness is life threatening and oral rehydration is something that can be done simply and cheaply, if the local villagers know about it.
But what’s the point of using this low cost oral rehydration if the water supply is unsanitary?
“A plastic soda bottle and sunlight” What does that mean to you? To us it means a low cost way of sanitizing water with UV rays. Take a clear plastic soda bottle and fill with water from the village’s local source, which may be contaminated. Set the plastic soda bottles out in the sunlight for 3-4 hours and the water is sanitized. But again the local villagers need to know about it to take advantage of this low cost water purification technique.
What if the most abundant source of water is sea water and not fresh water?
There are low cost desalination techniques that rely on captured evaporation. One is a cone of plastic that directs the evaporated sea water to drip to a center container. In a day 1.5 liters of sea water can be de-salted. Again, the locals who need this low cost technique must be informed that a method exists that does not cost a lot of money, does not use electricity, and that they can maintain themselves.
Solutions to problems of sanitizing or de-salting water, of rehydrating children who are in danger of dying because of a gastro-intestinal illness that cause diarrhea, do not have to be expensive or complicated. What is needed is to spread the information and make sure that it gets to the people who need it the most.
Here at OPG we make effort to feature non-government organizations that help spread the information, train locals to train each other, and that utilize the donations in such a way that it is most effective. In this way we can inform you, our blog readers, of the different organizations that are helping fight poverty worldwide. Just as the local villagers need the information on water purification and oral rehydration our blog readers need information on which organizations we feel are doing the best job.
How we select organizations:
· No band-aids – sustainable and lasting change, not just alleviating human suffering.
· Accountability and self-assessment
· Working directly with people (bottom-up, not top-down – no big plans or governments)
http://onepercentglobal.org/organizations
Some solutions to big problems are low cost, low tech, can be managed by those who need it the most. Small donations can go a long way in fighting poverty worldwide. As we said in a previous blog post, “$20 can provide 20 years of clean water.” One percent of our resources can go a long way in fighting poverty. The solutions do not have to be expensive, complex, or high tech. We just need to get the word out.
Sustainable agriculture reduces poverty
posted on June 16, 2010“Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) addresses the tropical deforestation crisis in Central America by providing farmers with sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture… Desperate farmers longed for practical training to protect local forests and restore degraded lands. Not only concerned with increased agricultural yields, these farmers also wanted to leave a healthy ecosystem for future generations.” SustainableHarvest.org 1
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/en/who-we-are/history-of-shi
Slash and burn agriculture works this way: burn the forest for ash that acts as fertilizer for one growing season. After one growing season farmers have to move on to find another area to do slash and burn. Half of the rain forest in Central America has been destroyed by slash and burn agriculture. The ecological impact has been massive erosion, rivers overflow and become contaminated, and as one of the SHI trainers said in a video, “Central and South America are the lungs for America.” The rain forests provide the oxygen for America. When the rain forests are cut down it effects more than the local farmers. The impact is global.
"Think Globally, Act Locally"2 is at the heart of Sustainable Harvest.org.
SHI’s trainers are locals who teach farmers how to use sustainable and organic agriculture techniques to grow a multitude of crops. In this way the ecosystem is healed, maintained and protected. Not only is the land healed but the farmer’s lives are improved as well.
Farmers usually grow one crop and primarily eat that crop, e.g., corn. Other fruits and vegetables were not part of their daily diet. This causes rampant malnutrition leading to poor health and a shortened life span. “Farmers don’t need money, they need ideas” said a SHI trainer. The farmers needed information regarding sustainable farming practices, diversified crops, nutrition, and access to micro-credit borrowing. The farmers needed training, encouragement, and given to them by someone who knew and respected their culture. Involving locals in the community is key to the success of SHI programs. Those local trainers are dedicated to being involved with the farmers and their families for years. They know the local culture and have a real connection with the people they serve.
SHI’s focus on organic solutions is more than a “green fad”. The farmers earn $300 a year on average. Buying pesticides or fertilizers from an outside source was out of the reach for these rural farmers. Slash and burn that caused ecological damage was the only option the farmers knew. SHI offers organic and sustainable solutions that are low cost.
One example is the practice of “Integrated Farming” that SHI encourages. Participating farmers are encouraged to use chickens to control pests in the gardens, utilize the guano for fertilizer, use fish in the rice paddies during the wet part of the cycle to fertilize the rice paddies and then eat the fish when the rice is in the dry growth cycle. An organic solution to combating pests and fertilizing crops frees the farmer from needing to buy inorganic products provided from an outside source, as well as offering an alternative to slash and burn.
“Local field trainers work with communities to develop appropriate techniques that integrate their livestock in a whole farm system, providing humane treatment of animals, valuable nutrients to the soil, low impact on the natural environment, and food and income to the families.“
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/techniques/integrated-farming
A goal of SHI is to enable the communities to be as independent of outside sources as possible, to work together as a community and help each other. All while using sustainable low cost methods.
Below are some quotes from the SustainableHarvests.org website. Visit their website to learn more about the programs and techniques that are used. http://www.sustainableharvest.org/
“Sustainable Harvest has worked with families in rural farming communities in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama since 1997. Using organic vegetable gardens, wood-conserving stoves, community loan funds and a host of other projects, SHI's local field trainers work together with families, individuals and communities to dramatically improve their quality of life while restoring the environment. Our five-phase approach to solving the agricultural, ecological and economic problems of Central America is innovative, hands-on and long-term.”
There are five key elements that make Sustainable Harvest International's projects stand out:
1 - SHI provides long-term assistance to make sure the programs that we introduce actually take root in the communities. Our projects typically last from three to five years.
2 - SHI uses a varied approach to selecting and working with communities, including invitation by community members, choosing communities based on socio-economic and environmental conditions, and communities’ own level of interest.
3 - SHI operates as a skeletal organization with low administrative overhead.
4 - SHI understands that effective development and ecological solutions come from the grassroots level. We work to empower local individuals and promote cooperative sharing of knowledge and resources. This allows local individuals and families to learn from each other and become more independent, rather than rely on outside aid, an unfortunate but common occurrence in international development.
5 - SHI focuses on building localized communities that require minimal input from external factors or resources.
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/en/programs/program-overview
· Bocashi (is a highly effective natural fertilizer made from microbial cultures.)
· Natural Pesticides & Fertilizers
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/programs/techniques
1. (Not to be confused with “SustainableHarvest.com,” which promotes sustainable practices in coffee imports.)
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Globally,_Act_Locally “Urges people to consider the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities and cities.”
Clean water vs. poverty
posted on June 9, 2010Clean water would go a long way toward relieving poverty. The statistics are staggering: one billion people (that's 1 in 8) do not have clean drinking water, 80% of illnesses are caused by lack of clean water, and more deaths are caused by lack of clean drinking water than are caused by war. Massive amounts of time and energy are spent in going to get unclean water and bring it back to the village, affecting women and children the most.
Instead of getting depressed, Scott Harrison got motivated to found charity: water.
“charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We use 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years.”
http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/
If you want to get excited and motivated, do check out the video on the page that shares his story. His excitement, hope and enthusiasm for charity: water are palpable.
http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php
Scott states the problems and provides solutions that are not only low cost but also sustainable, using local labor.
Access to clean water close to the village transforms the village in more ways than one would imagine.
If women and children do not have to walk miles, for hours, for unsafe drinking water, their time could be put towards education for the children and food cultivation and community organization for the women.
If clean drinking water was available, diseases caused by unclean water would diminish.
If fresh water was available, villages could plant vegetable gardens and improve their diet.
charity: water encourages the use of both men and women in the project of digging the well and maintaining it. Women are trained to teach hygiene. The whole community benefits in having more time to learn, work, grow food, avoid and resist disease. Those benefits will be noticed by other villages that then will petition to have a well dug for them.
Clean water is basic for survival. It is also a linchpin to anti-poverty. When a village is free from disease, has basic sanitation, the people eating better, and children going to school, the cycle of poverty can be broken and for what cost? Not as much as you’d think.
Using local labor to dig and maintain the wells not only keeps the cost down but also unites the community in a common cause. Utilizing both men and women in the project promotes gender equality, and it is in areas of extreme gender inequality that you see the most malnutrition among the women and children. To be able to go to school instead of spending the whole day in search of water, the children have an opportunity for a better life. Having clean water to drink insures the children live long enough to see that better life.
“2524 water projects, serving 1,130,986 people as of 3.31.2010
charity: water funds a range of water solutions. These solutions include hand-dug wells, deep wells (boreholes), rehabilitations, spring protections, rainwater harvesting schemes, and biosand filters. In 2009, charity: water added projects in Cambodia and Sierra Leone. “
http://www.charitywater.org/projects/projects.php
charity: water in conjunction with Google Maps has the location of the wells that have been drilled so the donors can actually see where their donations go.
http://www.charitywater.org/projects/map/
Best of all, 100% of the donations go to the program.
“You may be wondering – how does charity: water give away 100%? A group of private donors, foundations and sponsors help pay for the everyday costs of running the organization. Our flights to the field, our staff, our office, even paperclips and ink toner are sponsored so your money goes straight to water projects. From the beginning, our mission was to restore people’s faith in charity, and one of the ways to do that was to direct 100% of donors’ money straight to project costs. In fact, we’re so passionate about giving 100% that we pay the paypal and credit card transaction fees each time you donate online. So each time someone gives, a true 100% goes straight to building a well.
Would you like to learn about supporting operating costs?
Contact supporters@charitywater.org “
Scott Harrison also attracts people to him who create unique ways to spread awareness, encouraging regular everyday people like you and me, to donate a little. For example, $20 buys you an e-card for the holiday to raise awareness as you send it, and that money goes directly to drilling wells. The average donation to charity: water is small – there have just been a lot of them. With enough people donating a little - big change can be made. This is the hope of One Percent Global and it is the result of efforts by organizations like charity: water.
Comments
Construction crews this weekend began shutting down portions of busy Sunset Boulevard and the 405 Freeway on the
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the Sunset bridge. Workers will then spend 10 months rebuilding it before
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blasts and communicated via Twitter and Facebook to keep them apprised
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the Westside. On average botas ugg oferta, about 3 outlet ugg rotterdam venta ugg,500 vehicles cross the 54-year-old
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remember that one morning, I boarded the bus accident, saw a high school classmate, a girl, I looked at her, she was immediately attracted, medium length hair, bright of a large eye. When I stared at her, she inadvertently discovered, so we were both embarrassed, bowed his head. So every day after school I would certainly must identify the time she was on the bus, in order to look at her. After almost a week or so, strange things happened, did not see her every day. It took another two weeks, I saw her again, but this time it is dull eyes, her pale, more surprisingly, she did not stop at the stop, the next few days are the same situation. One day, I make complete mathematics, to eat a meal, have eight, so I have to wait for the bus, while, the bus came, I squeezed up, Yishang Ju, I saw that girl Finally sat expressionless face, I was too tired to sit down and fell asleep. Suddenly, I woke up feeling very smooth breathing, eyes only slightly open, is called also not yell, I am afraid, simply turn a blind eye to, strangely enough, one with eyes closed, not feeling also disappeared . I want to get off I had a vague estimate, so I played great courage to fight for open eyes, actually all right, but one thing let me blindsided, I saw a man, and took female students who, She has been struggling with a sudden call, outrageous that the drivers do not look back with this, so I went to the driver in front of someone in the back with a fight, he said, the two of us look back at the same time, suddenly my hairs on end, I saw that female students, but also sit safely sitting behind a strange looking to me to look, but the man has long gone, I was terrified, and quickly told the driver to stop, I rushed down the car, desperately The house has to run, suddenly, I saw a man in front, pale face, no, is she, she just stand in front of me, my legs felt weak, knelt on the ground, eyes closed until you want to read what I gave you! Strangely enough, I finished, the fear is gone, I broke away eyes, she was gone. Is Sunday, I suddenly want to check to see, he had called several friends to ask, I have painted her face shape better. A friend asked out, think up a few weeks before her, a man on the bus was strangled, and when I heard this, inadvertently is a cold sweat. Went to the night, I can not hide out at home, and suddenly heard someone upstairs, but also in a cold sweat, strange thing is I thought I saw her, it would seem did not see, then I can not open content, just feel her come to my side, tears, and said some indistinct words, but I understand. Probably means that I'm sorry --- you! Dealt a heavy blow to your spirit! In fact, when I was alive, the first time I saw you, like you, but I'm already dead ... ... on the road, on the bus. I have never seen this girl ... ...
The Hunger Project Reduces Poverty
posted on June 6, 2010
Ending world hunger is a complicated goal because it’s not simply a matter of giving hungry people food. There are links between hunger, poverty, unsustainable agricultural methods, lack of education, lack of health care, and the marginalization of women. It is not surprising that areas with the highest level of hunger and malnutrition are also areas where the women are most marginalized. It is a cycle where uneducated malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished babies. Too often, people who need aid are not involved in the process because they lack political power. “Top down” programs, where millions of dollars of aid get filtered down through successive layers of bureaucracies, are not the most successful in improving the lives of the people the aid was intended for. Rather than feeding people directly, The Hunger Project (THP) breaks the cycle of hunger and poverty at its roots. In many locations, THP starts with the “Epicenter strategy”, clustering 10 – 15 villages together, giving the people a combined voice that has more power to effect local government. That cluster of villages can then partner with community based organizations and local government agencies. They can learn to manage their own programs for microfinance, improved agriculture, food-processing, income generation, adult literacy, food security, and primary health care. (In India, THP focuses more on empowering women politically.) * “THP carries out its mission with strategies that are affordable, effective, replicable and sustainable. While our strategies are adapted to local conditions in each region where we work and, therefore, differ in detail, they share a unified approach, based on three pillars: 1. Mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self-reliance; 2. Empowering women as key change agents; and 3. Forging effective partnerships with local government.” http://www.thp.org/system/files/Strategic_Direction_Sept_2009.pdfhttp://www.thp.org/system/files/Strategic_Direction_Sept_2009.pdf As you can see promoting gender equality is a key point in THP’s integrated approach. Women provide 80% of the labor for growing food and getting it to the market. When women’s voices are heard village priorities shift to nutrition, water safety, sanitation and health care. Combating global hunger is not a “food issue” alone. It must involve community organization, gender equality, education, health care for mothers and children, as well as implementing sustainable farming practices. This is what the integrated approach THP employs. Below are the goals of THP: “Achieving the sustainable end of hunger means creating a new future for all humanity, a future where · every day, every person has enough of the right food to be healthy and productive; · babies are born healthy and strong, and girl babies are prized as much as boy babies; · children stay alive, so parents can have smaller families; · women and girls are full partners in society; · people have control over their own lives and destinies, and all individuals have a chance to contribute; and · the values of honoring human beings and nature flourish.” http://www.thp.org/what_we_do/missionhttp://www.thp.org/what_we_do/mission “Changing mindsets and behaviors is essential to embed lasting change: Once people truly believe they can change their own destinies, they learn new skills, respond to opportunities and initiate actions to make changes in their lives and in their community.” http://www.thp.org/system/files/Strategic_Direction_Sept_2009.pdf Changing the mindset of donors is also necessary in attacking global hunger. The “top-down” centralized approach has been proven to be ineffective. Throwing millions of dollars at a problem with an inflexible plan, not involving the people who need the aid, invites misuse of those funds. The Hunger Project’s decentralized approach, calling on the energy of organized communities, utilizing all the people - men and women, using an integrated program that addresses a variety of problems and solutions, has been seen to be very effective. *Additional Sources:
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Comments
Chris,
That's an impressive story. Please post it to buzz. Thanks.
Ray