Historically, children have often been used in conflict and, up until the Middle Ages, most cultures considered them equivalent to small adults. As of 2017, seven countries actively used both boy and girl children for armed fighting. However, countries, governments and armies have heard the many voices that call for the absolution of child soldiers.
Just at the beginning of February 2018, a few hundred child soldiers were released in South Sudan; last year saw the release of over 5,000 child soldiers. While this is a great step towards human justice, life after being a child soldier is still a difficult journey as well. Here are five ways humanitarians and psychologists have found useful for creating a healthy environment post wartime experiences.
Terminology
Child abductions are easy to classify as victimhood. While this title is true, it is only a small percentage of what the child has experienced. Children who escape their wartime prisons are survivors, and highlighting the importance of words helps shape a new identity in the life after being a child soldier. A victim can bring about a shame mentality and, depending on experiences, create ostracization.
The simple term ‘survivor’ puts an ex-child soldier in a different place in the world and in their own internal self-worth, as the word acknowledges what they have been through, while also underlines their strength. This phrase is much more preferable than than letting the one event — or victimhood — define them.
Check Western Thought
There is an overwhelming support and advocacy in the world for child soldiers. Many countries send people and finances to fight the use of child soldiers. Humanitarian aid can be amazing and overwhelmingly generous, but when the aid dries up (either people leave or funds are allocated elsewhere) it can leave some ex-child soldiers at risk again.
For example, typical Western group therapy can leave children more vulnerable if proper therapy is not continued afterward. Proper therapy can be difficult to follow through when a local solution and resources are not present and/or utilized.
Community
Unstable environments put children at risk for being recruited or abducted into armies in the first place. When a child returns home, studies have shown a community’s acceptance or rejection can be key to the success for a survivor. Utilizing local traditions and ceremonies for the life after being a child soldier cement a child’s place in local society.
Embracing local traditions or customs and incorporating that into a healing process is also a public announcement that the child is welcomed and supported.
Education
Many children are taken away from their home before they have a chance to finish school. Education is important because it brings normalcy back to the survivor’s life as well as prepares them for something other than fighting. Unfortunately, it is not always a perfect system.
A returning 16-year-old may feel shame if he or she needs to return to a 10-year old’s classroom. Fortunately, some towns have been able to create basic classes tailored for an older student.
This is still not completely reproducible as education, in general, is limited, but efforts have been made to create cheap and easy access to more educational opportunities.
Job Skills
Learning job skills is an important part of a survivor becoming successful in life post-war. Apprenticeship can be particularly useful in that it provides an education, community and small funds for food and shelter. Also, apprenticeship is reproducible and available for grown-up ex-child soldiers.
Apprenticeship has not been researched significantly compared to the importance of education or community, but the benefits of a job are acknowledged. Someone who has a skill and is able to provide for themselves and family become a part of society and prevent risk for later recruitment.
Children in at-risk areas are taken because their lack of fear, they are easy to control, and probably have little to no community support. Children returning home can find themselves in similar circumstances with the added trouble of psychological trauma. Finding ways to assist in lasting support for life after being a child soldier can transform ex-child soldiers into contributing members of society.
A combination of education and community with proper support are the key building blocks to taking back and reinventing the lives that armies stole in the children.
– Natasha Komen
Photo: Flickr
How the US Benefits from Foreign Aid to Honduras
Honduras lies within Central America as a part of a northern triangle with El Salvador and Guatemala, and this nation faces severe problems including crime, violence and poverty. Honduras has a long, and not always beneficial, relationship with the United States. However, there are many scenarios in which the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Honduras.
History and Past Relationships
The United States has a looming presence over Latin America including Honduras. One of the most notable cases occurred during the Cold War when the United States intervened in a myriad of countries in the name of preserving democracy; Honduras was used as a stationing point by the U.S. in their missions against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.
The people of Honduras haven’t always necessarily been fans of the United States and its government. The country is a former “banana republic” — its economy was based on the production and sale of bananas through foreign, particularly American, companies.
This arrangement ended up not favoring the Honduran people and poverty in many rural areas can be traced back to this relationship. However, it is still possible to see both Honduran and U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Honduras.
War on Drugs
Honduras has been a pivotal part of drug trafficking through Central America to the United States. Central America is used as a transit region — it transports drugs from countries in South America such as Bolivia and Columbia to Mexico where the drugs can be transported across the border into the United States. This exchange has caused crime and violence to run rampant in the region, and the murder rate in Honduras is the highest in the world at 92 murders per 100,000 citizens.
The United States has previously given aid to Honduras so that the country can combat drug trafficking and the consequences the activity brings.
The U.S. Department of Commerce dedicated $1.5 million in 2017 for a customs and border management program in Honduras. Providing aid for this purpose can not only limit drug-related violence but it will limit some of the transport of drugs into the United States.
Immigration into the United States
The violence and poverty in Honduras has significantly increased immigration rates from the country to the United States. Many citizens have had no choice but to leave, and any risk they may face on their journey is deemed better than the alternative. In 2014, thousands of unaccompanied minors were found trying to flee to the U.S. from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Providing foreign aid could dramatically change the lives of these vulnerable citizens who feel pushed towards immigration. Such outside aid can help to alleviate poverty and provide services like healthcare and public education.
The United States has provided more than three billion dollars in development assistance since 1961, but more can be done for the Honduran people. This investment will lower immigration rates in the long run from Honduras into the United States.
U.S. Benefits from Foreign Aid to Honduras
There are a number of scenarios in which the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Honduras, but the only scenario in which we will actually see these benefits is the one in which we actually provide much-needed aid. Not only will the United States benefit from such an action but, possibly more importantly, the Honduran people will as well.
– Megan Burtis
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of World Vision in the Developing World
World Vision is an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development and advocacy organization. It has many recent success stories including helping 4 million sponsored children, disaster survivors and refugees, strongly impacting education, providing clean water and so much more.
What is World Vision?
World Vision emphasizes its sponsorship program — a $39 a month service that provides essentials including clean water, nutrition and education to a sponsored child and his/her community. Sponsors receive photos, letters and updates of the impacts made.
World Vision focuses on fragile states by developing new approaches to enable transitions out of fragility. Its strong program areas include water, sanitation, hygiene, health, livelihoods, food assistance, child protection and education.
The organization partners with churches, donor governments, corporations and individual supporters across the globe, in addition to local communities, faith bodies, civil society and public institutions to help refugees.
World Vision addresses barriers to education and works with communities and local governments to improve the quality of education for children.
Who Are its Partners?
The organization works with WFP, World Food Program and USDA in Rwanda to improve children’s literacy.
World Vision also partners with Home Grown School Feeding Program to provide a suite of complementary literacy and health interventions to the school’s feeding project. The literacy intervention guides schools, parents and communities in supporting the development of the five core reading skills: letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
According to World Vision, nearly 1,000 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation and improper hygiene.
What’s the Organization’s Goal?
The organization’s goal is to solve the global water and sanitation crisis by providing clean water and sanitation to every man, woman and child in every community it works in, including the most vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach places.
World Vision is bringing its World-Class Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programming with their health sector work in an effort called BabyWASH.
Effective approaches include training volunteer community health workers where these volunteers teach families about critical water, sanitation, and hygiene behaviors, counsel mothers to facilitate hygienic delivery of babies in health care facilities, and learn to identify and treat common childhood diseases while referring more serious cases to a health care facility.
What is the BabyWASH Model?
The BabyWASH model combines three life-saving interventions:
There are continual efforts and success stories of lifting people out of poverty thanks to the World Vision staff and volunteers,.
– Julia Lee
Photo: Flickr
Feed Production and the Impact on Poverty and Conservation in Kenya
In Kenya, Bidco Land O’Lakes is developing an encouraging partnership with farmers to assist in producing quality animal feed. Commercializing Kenyan farms with the assistance of quality feed would provide economic gain, and the partnership’s goals work to address poverty and conservation in Kenya.
Bidco Land O’Lakes and African Farmers
The partnership began in 2016 when Bidco Africa and Land O’Lakes combined the organizations’ strengths. Bidco Africa is the largest consumer goods company in East Africa with more than 35 years of market knowledge and customer insights. Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a big producer in feed technology and formulation, supporting a commitment to quality. Combining the two groups collective knowledge, the partnership implements the goal to increase farmer productivity and well-being.
Land O’Lakes International Development
Another organization affiliated with Land O’Lakes, Inc. is the Land O’Lakes International Development nonprofit, which has developed the base for dairy industry growth in Kenya for about two decades. This nonprofit assists societies in building local economies through agriculture and business development, and connecting farmers to markets. The organization “collaborates locally to create lasting inclusive economic growth.”
In many developing countries, agriculture, the basis of feed product, and other natural resources are the foundation of economic growth; however, around 11 percent of the world’s surface is suitable for agriculture and of that percentage, around 38 percent has been degraded by inadequate natural resource management.
The Land O’Lakes International Development nonprofit addresses inadequate natural resource management through the importance of sustainable agricultural practices. The organization promotes conservation and efficiency in natural resource usage through flexible sustainable strategies that strengthen agricultural production, such as quality livestock feed.
Poverty and Conservation in Kenya
Kenya’s economy and people’s livelihoods are extremely contingent on natural resources. Addressing poverty and conservation in Kenya could start with sustainable practices of agricultural and natural resources.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) made most of the Land O’Lakes International Development work achievable. However, the Land O’Lakes International Development Fund (IDF) develops additional financial earnings through non-U.S. government donors that increase the efficiency and success of the programs.
USAID’s Work
USAID promotes good farming conventions and effective land management so as to increase agricultural productivity. Sustainable agricultural production promotes conservation and preservation of farming lands while also increasing agricultural productivity.
In Kenya, USAID assists in laying a foundation for long-term economic growth through sustainable agriculture. The organization promotes community-based natural resource management so as to effectively eliminate conservation challenges associated with development.
Kenya’s new constitution ratified in 2010 bids “community land” to any group composed on the basis of ethnicity, culture or mutual interest. The group can then have free, community usage of the land and development of the selected area of land.
Historically, there has a been a collision of the right of people to use traditional, community lands for their own development needs and the need to conserve natural resources. Community ownership usually chooses to develop the land for economic growth or chooses to conserve the land.
However, in an article by Janet Ranganathan of the World Resources Institute, she describes that the “current mindset of society is to put economic development and nature in separate boxes,” but in reality, “development and ecosystem services are intertwined.” She promotes the idea that development organizations can assist developing countries in advancing economically while conserving the environment by evaluating ecosystems and natural resources as assets that generate benefits.
Increased Productivity
The feed partnership with Bidco Land O’Lakes and Kenyan farmers promotes the two goals of conserving natural resources and promoting economic development. Both groups provide hands-on trainings to the farmers to increase sustainable agricultural productivity in addition to quality feed production.
Combining the need for economic development and conservation of natural resources, the Bidco Land O’Lakes partnership increases productivity of agricultural feed, and addresses poverty and conservation in Kenya.
– Andrea Quade
Photo: Flickr
How the U.S. Benefits from Foreign Aid to Guatemala
According to the U.S. Department of State, assistance from the U.S. to Guatemala is focused mainly on:
One main interest in Guatemala is building a strong anti-illegal immigration task force in the region due to a rising number of illegal immigrants from Guatemala to the U.S. In return, Guatemala offers many imports and exports, as well as political support and free trade agreements between the two countries and other international organizations.
Recently, the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Guatemala through the country’s support in political spheres to make social statements. The cooperation reflects Guatemala’s reliance on U.S. aid. In a Dec. 25, 2017 article, CNN reported that Guatemala was moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The change implied that they, as well as the U.S., recognize Israel and not Palestine as the nation which rightfully inhabits the land.
By deciding to move the embassy, the U.S. and Guatemala went against U.N. protocol regarding the situation. The U.N. later decided in a 128-9 vote to approve a resolution calling on other countries to avoid moving their embassies to Jerusalem. By siding together, Guatemala and the U.S. showed a strong mutual support.
On Guatemala’s side, offering a united front in support of the U.S. not only secures their relations with the U.S., and therefore their trade agreements and aid agreements, but it also helps Guatemala look like a dominant political figure. The U.S. and Guatemala both benefit from foreign aid, but the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Guatemala in many political and social spheres.
– Molly Atchison
Photo: Flickr
Merry-Go-Strong Encourages Women’s Development in Kenya
Women’s Development in Kenya
Back in the spring semester of 2012, Professor Lesley Sager challenged her students to use design thinking processes to artistically create shelters for people displaced from natural disasters.
The students created a structure based on cardboard. Susan Miller, a designer, saw value in cardboard structures being brought to Kenya. Sager and Miller teamed up and decided to journey to Kenya to see if there was any viability in promoting cardboard houses for families there.
Aside from the architect side of the trip, Sager had a deep interest in bringing education opportunity to the children (specifically girls) in Kenya.
Sager’s Journey in Gatunga
When she arrived in Gatunga, a small village in Tharaka Nithi County, Sager met Aniceta Kirigata, the founder of the Tharaka Women’s Welfare Program (TWWP) and the Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP). ARP is designed to protect girls from female genitalia mutilation (FGM). TWWP receives its funding through a scholarship with the Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP). Many girls are forced to drop out due to lack of money to pay for fees, or they must remain out of school in order to work; therefore, a scholarship like one from WGEP is a huge deal.
Once she realized there was an immense lack of income generating options for women and children, Sager decided to take a different approach to helping women’s development in Kenya.
The Origins of Merry-Go-Strong
In fall of 2014, Sager offered the first of four sequential design thinking courses at UW-Madison. These courses would focus on using student’s own ingenuity to create projects and tools that would be useful to the women in Kenya. These projects range from product development, to solar power, beekeeping and other options.
And one of these projects is how MGS was born. The members within this organization partner with TWWP in the village of Gatunga, a project that supports women by providing materials to create viondo (aka bags/purses). The purses are then bought from their Kenyan makers to be sold in the United States where there is a much bigger consumer market.
MGS’ Impact
The profits from the purses are used to fund future projects and create scholarships for girls to continue to attend ARP and finish proper schooling. This approach to supporting women’s development in Kenya is empowering because it provides for self-sustainability both among women and the community in Gatunga; these lives will be positively impacted in the upcoming future.
Sager still continues to go to Kenya once or twice a year to follow up on the progress of Merry-Go-Strong’s efforts in empowerment and ending FGM (Big Ten Network, 2017). With this type of resiliency and consistency, women’s development in Kenya will hopefully experience leaps and bounds.
– Caysi Simpson
Photo: Flickr
Life After Being a Child Soldier: Five Ways Things Are Changing
Historically, children have often been used in conflict and, up until the Middle Ages, most cultures considered them equivalent to small adults. As of 2017, seven countries actively used both boy and girl children for armed fighting. However, countries, governments and armies have heard the many voices that call for the absolution of child soldiers.
Just at the beginning of February 2018, a few hundred child soldiers were released in South Sudan; last year saw the release of over 5,000 child soldiers. While this is a great step towards human justice, life after being a child soldier is still a difficult journey as well. Here are five ways humanitarians and psychologists have found useful for creating a healthy environment post wartime experiences.
Terminology
Child abductions are easy to classify as victimhood. While this title is true, it is only a small percentage of what the child has experienced. Children who escape their wartime prisons are survivors, and highlighting the importance of words helps shape a new identity in the life after being a child soldier. A victim can bring about a shame mentality and, depending on experiences, create ostracization.
The simple term ‘survivor’ puts an ex-child soldier in a different place in the world and in their own internal self-worth, as the word acknowledges what they have been through, while also underlines their strength. This phrase is much more preferable than than letting the one event — or victimhood — define them.
Check Western Thought
There is an overwhelming support and advocacy in the world for child soldiers. Many countries send people and finances to fight the use of child soldiers. Humanitarian aid can be amazing and overwhelmingly generous, but when the aid dries up (either people leave or funds are allocated elsewhere) it can leave some ex-child soldiers at risk again.
For example, typical Western group therapy can leave children more vulnerable if proper therapy is not continued afterward. Proper therapy can be difficult to follow through when a local solution and resources are not present and/or utilized.
Community
Unstable environments put children at risk for being recruited or abducted into armies in the first place. When a child returns home, studies have shown a community’s acceptance or rejection can be key to the success for a survivor. Utilizing local traditions and ceremonies for the life after being a child soldier cement a child’s place in local society.
Embracing local traditions or customs and incorporating that into a healing process is also a public announcement that the child is welcomed and supported.
Education
Many children are taken away from their home before they have a chance to finish school. Education is important because it brings normalcy back to the survivor’s life as well as prepares them for something other than fighting. Unfortunately, it is not always a perfect system.
A returning 16-year-old may feel shame if he or she needs to return to a 10-year old’s classroom. Fortunately, some towns have been able to create basic classes tailored for an older student.
This is still not completely reproducible as education, in general, is limited, but efforts have been made to create cheap and easy access to more educational opportunities.
Job Skills
Learning job skills is an important part of a survivor becoming successful in life post-war. Apprenticeship can be particularly useful in that it provides an education, community and small funds for food and shelter. Also, apprenticeship is reproducible and available for grown-up ex-child soldiers.
Apprenticeship has not been researched significantly compared to the importance of education or community, but the benefits of a job are acknowledged. Someone who has a skill and is able to provide for themselves and family become a part of society and prevent risk for later recruitment.
Children in at-risk areas are taken because their lack of fear, they are easy to control, and probably have little to no community support. Children returning home can find themselves in similar circumstances with the added trouble of psychological trauma. Finding ways to assist in lasting support for life after being a child soldier can transform ex-child soldiers into contributing members of society.
A combination of education and community with proper support are the key building blocks to taking back and reinventing the lives that armies stole in the children.
– Natasha Komen
Photo: Flickr
How the US Benefits From Foreign Aid to the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a small country, a fact that should not serve as an influencer in international affairs, and despite its size, the Dominican Republic came to serve as a major trading port and hub for the developing Americas in its early history. As a result, the small country still plays a huge international role and the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to the Dominican Republic.
Trade Economy
According the U.S. Department of State, the Dominican Republic is a strong partner of the U.S. because it still holds the title of second-largest economy in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic has a strong bilateral trade economy with the U.S., and its economy is increasing steadily, making it one of the most economically stable countries in the region.
This being said, the Dominican Republic still has an issue with governmental impairment: numerous coups and upheaval has led to U.S. involvement to build lasting economies in the region. Before the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to the Dominican Republic, it has to help maintain the balance between state and its people.
U.S. Programs
The U.S. Agency for International Aid offers short-term and long-term solutions for three major programs in the Dominican Republic:
According to their website, USAID states that the Dominican Republic has high literacy rates, but that hunger and food security levels are at only half capacity. The U.S. can help the Dominican Republic build food security, as it helps in all these other areas. But what will the U.S. gain in return?
U.S. Benefits from Foreign Aid to the Dominican Republic
The U.S. benefits from foreign aid to the Dominican Republic through the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement — the trade agreement ties the U.S. to five other countries in respect to labor, manufacturing and opportunity creations. What the U.S. donates in funds, it receives in commodities, and vice versa. The U.S. benefits from foreign aid to the Dominican Republic specifically through the supply of medical appliances, electric components, textiles, minerals and tobacco.
The Dominican Republic is perhaps one of the most solid trading partners the U.S. has, and with consistent aid and communication on both ends, there is no reason that the Dominican Republic can not benefit just as much from the U.S. as the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to the Dominican Republic.
– Molly Atchison
Photo: Flickr
Ghana Health Service Partnerships to Fight Disease in Ghana
In recent years, researchers, doctors and health organizations have begun to target the high rate of pneumonia deaths. As one of the largest causes of death in children, pneumonia and researchers’ search for its solutions have not been taken lightly. The Ghana Health Service and partner GAVI, supported by UNICEF, launched vaccines to combat the infection in 2012.
What is Pneumonia?
Pneumonia is a bacterial, fungal or viral infection of the air-sacs in one’s lung or lungs, usually caused by the inhalation of specific or diseased germs. The infection causes fluid build up in the lungs, difficulty breathing, high fever, sweating, chills, chest pain and discoloration of fingertips. The best way to treat this infection is through immunizations and antibiotics.
Historically, pneumonia has been the leading cause of death in those under-five years old. Steps have occurred to decrease death rates from year-to-year, but yet unfortuantely, the number of deaths and the percentage of children lost to pneumonia is still staggering.
What Are the Impacts of Pneumonia?
In the year 2010 alone, pneumonia caused the deaths of 16,200 children, and the total number of deaths brought about because of pneumonia was a reported 13 percent. Subsequently, this percentage remained consistent between the years 2000 and 2010, and the percentage of deaths at the hands of this infection remained between twelve and thirteen percent, without substantial improvement.
Despite the decade-long absence of progress in pneumonia prevention and treatment, advancements have started taking place in more recent years. In April 2012, UNICEF supported the Ghana Health Service and partner GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, in launching pneumonia and diarrhea vaccines and the first ever World Immunization Week. The introduction of these vaccines to Ghana was a monumental step towards decreasing fatalities.
Ghana Health Service and its Aid
Although the establishment of vaccinations was a large logistical undertaking — including increasing hospital refrigeration storage in all ten regions of Ghana — the children of the country have benefited greatly from such measures. Pneumonia, for the first time ever in 2013, was not the leading cause of death for those under-five, though it was still the second-largest cause. Consequently, the total percentage of pneumonia causing fatalities decreased by 44 percent by 2015.
The installation of the pneumonia vaccine to Ghana has helped combat the vast amount of children who are annually impacted by the infection; however, there is still much progress to be made. As of 2017, UNICEF worked diligently to decrease pneumonia cases through fighting poor sanitation and open defecation.
How to Create Sustainable Solutions
To combat such massive undertakings, the organization implemented latrines and water pumps to as many communities as possible. Many have poured great effort into this ‘war against pneumonia’ and the Ghana Health Service, but measures must increase for significant and permanent changes to be sustained.
– Lydia Lamm
Photo: Flickr
How Crowdfarming is Optimizing Livestock Production in Ghana
With adequate rainfall, plentiful vegetation and a low pest population, Ghana’s Northern Savannah Ecological Zone is an optimal environment for cattle production. Despite this prime landscape, livestock production in Ghana has remained low. Insufficient or otherwise absent livestock policies, uninformed ranching practices and lack of funding are among the many factors responsible for underperforming livestock production in Ghana.
Limitations of Meat Access
Over the years, the domestic meat industry has become so problematic that it became cheaper for Ghana to import its meat from South America and Europe. Furthermore, poor cattle production has contributed to nationwide nutrition issues. According to USAID, about 1.2 million Ghanains face food insecurity, and anemia and iron deficiency afflict much of the population.
Recognizing meat access limitations, nutrition deficiencies and cattle mortality in the country, Kamal-Deen Yakub, Damian Brennan and Luis Grolez came together to find an innovative solution to such a persisting problem. In 2013, the trio launched Farmable, a “crowdfarming” platform that connects investors to smallholder cattle farmers in the country.
Crowdsourced funding enables farmers to take better care of their cattle, receive education in agricultural best practices and business development and sell in the domestic market, ultimately improving livestock production in Ghana over time.
Here’s How it Works:
Since launching, Farmable has helped to revolutionize the cattle ranching industry for participating farmers. “The company has succeeded in bringing together 7,500 cows owned by 600 smallholder farmers. We have sold about 1100 cows through the platform direct from the farms,” cofounder Kamal-Deen Yakub told The Borgen Project.
Education and Optimization
In light of these successes, Farmable has had to put the crowdfarming platform on a temporary hold as it gears up for its next phase. The company is focusing on educating farmers and optimizing production in the interim: “We engage farmers through partnership with existing incubators working to build capacities of smallholder farmers,” Yakub explained.
Farmable recruits subject-matter experts from the University of Ghana, local veterinary officers and experienced farmers to provide training for participants.
Livestock Production in Ghana
Over the next few years, Farmable plans to establish renewable energy cattle ranches in Ghana to promote sustainable practices and cut down on costs. The company will use dung and agricultural waste to produce manure and biogas respectively to sustain these renewable energy ranches for free. Yakub encourages potential donors to stay tuned for this important next step.
The crowdfunding platform will go live again in the coming future, and Yakub hopes investors “are ready to participate in the crowdfarming and become cow backers.”
– Chantel Baul
Photo: Flickr
Danger of Diarrhea: How to End the Hygiene Crisis in Ghana
Diarrhea kills 2,195 children each day, more than Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, malaria and measles combined, and nearly 11 percent of Ghana’s population relies on surface water — water that collects on the surface of the ground or top layer of a body of water — for their daily hydration needs. This water is unpurified and unsafe for human consumption, yet Ghanaians lack a safe alternative. Ghanaians who ingest surface water are at risk for water-related diseases, such as ever-deadly diarrhea.
Risk of Diarrhea
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, diarrhea is a global health concern with 1.7 billion cases occurring every year. Although diarrhea can affect any age-group, it is the second leading cause of death in children under the age of five; in fact, 2,195 child fatalities happen every day worldwide. The hygiene crisis in Ghana has escalated with diarrhea as the third leading cause of death for children under five, taking nearly 10,000 lives every year.
How Does Diarrhea Become Fatal?
Diarrhea depletes body fluids, causing dehydration, and children often die when they have lost too much water from their bodies.
Several organizations have implemented health initiatives to combat the hygiene crisis in Ghana. Preventing diarrhea is possible by increasing water availability and quality, distributing oral rehydration salts, breastfeeding infants until six months of age and educating the population on proper sanitization techniques.
UNICEF and IWASH
‘IWASH,’ UNICEF Ghana’s handwashing project, yields extremely promising results in entire villages in Ghana; the program educates schoolchildren on the health effects of not washing their hands. While touring a handwashing facility with 70 schoolchildren, District Resource Coordinator Issah-Bello said that students should share their knowledge in order to be an ambassador for behavior change and end the hygiene crisis in Ghana.
The Rehydration Project
The Rehydration Project cites oral rehydration salts, or ORS, as the most effective and least expensive way to combat diarrhoeal dehydration. ORS is a combination of dry salts mixed with clean water that replaces fluids lost from diarrhea. If ORS is unavailable, a homemade solution may be made with six teaspoons of sugar, one-half teaspoon of salt and one liter of clean water.
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding infants until six months of age can reduce infants’ likelihood of contracting diarrhea because breastfeeding mothers do not prepare their infant’s formula with contaminated water.
Clean Water
Water.org believes that clean water is the way to end poverty, save lives and prepare for the future. Since 2009, Water.org has worked to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitization facilities in Ghana. The organization’s current project is expected to be completed in late 2017, and is in the process of constructing 61 water facilities.
Water.org has also reached 53,000 Ghanaians through water systems, health and hygiene education and borehole wells. With numerous solutions like these, the hygiene crisis in Ghana is well on its way to resolution.
– Carolyn Gibson
Photo: Flickr