In Uganda, dozens of Karamajong children and adults have been lured to the streets of Kampala in search of a better life, only to find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of begging and scavenging.
UNICEF-supported organizations resettle unaccompanied children and educate communities about the real dangers of migrating to the cities.
This is the story of John, who was orphaned at the age of 10 and forced to live on the streets of Kampala.
Click through to get involved with UNICEF.
From UNICEF:
Together we will reach the day when no children die from preventable causes: zero children killed by malaria and measles, poisoned by unclean water, lost for a lack of safe shelter or by falling prey to malnutrition.
As the organization that has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization, UNICEF is committed to doing whatever it takes, until we can ensure the survival of every human born on this planet.
From The Hunger Project.
The Hunger Project
The Hunger Project is a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.
In Africa, Asia and Latin America, The Hunger Project seeks to end hunger and poverty by empowering people to lead lives of self-reliance, meet their own basic needs and build better futures for their children.
The Hunger Project carries out its mission through three essential activities: mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents, and forging effective partnerships with local government.
From the Hunger Project report Women Farmers and Food Security
Nick Kristof talks about Hillary Clinton's development speech
From Nick Kristof’s NYT blog, highlights and commentary on Hillary Clinton’s speech on global development (which you can read here in its entirety). Excerpt:
–She emphasized measuring results, an approach that has gained ground recently in part because of the work of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT. Some people complain that results are difficult and expensive to measure, but I think this approach is yielding important new insights into what kind of interventions are most cost-effective.
–She talked about partnerships with local countries, and consulting them rather than dictating to them. It’s generally agreed that one of the big mistakes we make in foreign aid is to march in and tell everybody what we’re going to do, so a new emphasis on listening would be a good step forward.
–She focused on investments in women and girls, saying that women will be central to her development efforts. Not surprisingly, I think that’s just right. You just get more bang for the buck when you focus on girls, as Clinton noted. And, more broadly, she talked about investments rather than just aid, which is also the right way to think about some initiatives.
From the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, click through for full slideshow.
A model and an ambassador
Supermodel Liya Kebede was born in Ethiopia and now serves as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
Herself a mother, Liya helps WHO in its campaign to raise global awareness of maternal and child health issues, and improve the health of mothers and children.
Although she now lives in New York, Liya still frequently visits Ethiopia. In 2009 she returned to her country to get a first-hand look at the life and death struggles that women there face during childbirth.
The United States seeks a safer, more prosperous, more democratic, and more equitable world. We cannot be assured of that progress when one-third of humankind live in conditions that offer them little chance of building better lives for themselves or their children.
We cannot stop terrorism or defeat the ideologies of violent extremism when hundreds of millions of young people see a future with no jobs, no hope, and no way ever to catch up to the developed world.
We cannot build a stable global economy when hundreds of millions of workers and families find themselves on the wrong side of globalization, cut off from markets and out of reach of modern technologies.
We cannot rely on regional partners to help us stop conflicts and counter global criminal networks when those countries are struggling to stabilize and secure their own societies.
We cannot advance democracy and human rights when hunger and poverty threaten to undermine the good governance and rule of law needed to make rights real.
We cannot stop global pandemics until billions of people gain access to better health care, and we cannot address climate change or scarcer resources until billions gain access to greener energy and sustainable livelihoods.
” Hillary Rodham Clinton, Development in the 21st Century, January 6th, 2010RapidSMS technology helps fight malnutrition in Malawi
From UNICEF, excerpt:
LILONGWE, Malawi (January 6, 2010) — The short message service (SMS) is proving to be a great ally in Malawi’s battle to contain malnutrition and improve the lives of the country’s children.
Since January of 2009, UNICEF—in collaboration with Columbia University - has been supporting the Government of Malawi in piloting the use of RapidSMS for nutrition surveillance on three different sites—in Dedza, Salima and Kasungu districts.
The project aims to greatly reduce the time needed for data collection at health centers and data transmission to health offices at the district and national levels. It also aims to improve data sharing, provide instant data validation, and enhance the ability of nutritionists to provide real-time feedback to health workers on the treatment needs of each individual child.
With classes sometimes only a few hours a day, the IRC sponsors after-school learning groups—keeping children safe and occupied with meaningful activities amid the turmoil that often surrounds them.
Building a better world? Education is a good start
From the Philadelphia Inquirer, excerpts:
Helene Gayle, who heads CARE USA, believes her Atlanta-based agency has one answer: Build schools in the world’s troubled regions, including Afghanistan. Educating children, including girls, helps to lift people from poverty, which, in turn, contributes to stability and peace…
The most encouraging news about the schools that CARE supports in Afghanistan - nearly 300, so far - is that none of them has been attacked by the benighted forces that oppose girls’ education or by insurgents who have gone after schools built by the Afghan government. A report released in November - “Knowledge on Fire: Attacks on Education in Afghanistan” - documented an “alarming trend” of violence against schools. As a result, hundreds of schools were closed, and parents in some regions hesitated to send their children to schools that remained open.
Because of CARE’s community-based approach, Gayle said, “we’ve been able to keep our schools up and running. [Communities] feel that this is their school, not a government school.”
While Gayle worries that a return of the Taliban could once again eradicate girls’ schooling, she hopes that communities will push against that antediluvian view. “Hopefully, there’s been a long-enough period of time when girls have been educated that families have seen the value,” she said.
U.S. Considering Debt Relief for Poor Countries
From oneworld.net, excerpt:
In mid-December, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers introduced the Jubilee Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed, this bill will broaden debt relief for poor countries, reform the policies of international financial institutions, and press lenders to use responsible practices with respect to the world’s poorest nations.
Still taking signatures— Over 38,000 have signed the ONE Campaign petition to President Obama asking him to include $1.75 billion for the Global Fund in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget. If you haven’t done so yet, please sign this important petition by clicking the postcard above, and ask your friends and family to do the same!
World’s Healthiest Food by Nick Kristof
Nick Kristof’s Sunday column, excerpt:
It was a lack of this substance that led to a tragedy that I encountered the other day at a hospital here in the Honduran capital. Three babies lay in cots next to one another with birth defects of the brain and spinal cord.
In the first cot was Rosa Álvarez, 18 days old and recovering from surgery to repair a hole in her spine. She also suffers from a brain deformity.
In the next cot was Ángel Flores, soft tissue protruding from his back.
Closest to the door was José Tercera. His mother unwrapped a bandage on his head, and I saw a golf-ball-size chunk of his brain spilling out a hole in his forehead.
The doctors believe the reason for these deformities, called neural tube defects, was that their mothers did not have enough micronutrients, particularly folic acid, while pregnant. These micronutrients are the miracle substance I’m talking about, and there’s scarcely a form of foreign aid more cost-effective than getting them into the food supply.
