In 1973, the sci-fi film “Soylent Green” portrayed a dystopian future society characterized by overpopulation and the effects of global warming in which the people ate wafers to survive. At the film’s conclusion, everyone becomes privy to the fact that the wafers are actually made of people. Four decades later, a group of three men in their twenties have taken the idea of everyone eating one easy food to survive and produced their own product called Soylent, thankfully people free.
When Rob Rhinehart and his team sat down to create this meal replacement, they decided that they needed to pull out all of the essential nutrients needed for health and functioning and combine them to make one super drink. With that goal in mind, they developed a powdered drink with what has been described as a “doughy” nature. You add water, drink a meal’s worth and you can power through the rest of your day.
Soylent consists of sodium, fatty acids, zinc, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, fiber, protein, iron, magnesium and a slew of vitamins. Despite its name, there are only trace amounts of soy, and Rhinehart’s team is currently in the process of getting a gluten-free version out on the market. Rhinehart claims that you can live on Soylent, and Soylent has made up 90 percent of his diet for the past year and a half.
There is speculation, however, about how much necessary nutrition one actually gets from living off of Soylent. Lee Hutchinson from Ars Technica, who has purchased large boxes of Soylent to supplement the occasional meal, has written numerous articles about living on Soylent and what Soylent could mean for busy, anti-cooking people. She explains that, while the types and amounts of nutrients in Soylent are based on U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances, “It’s still not wholly certain that simply hitting roughly 100 percent of the RDA standards is enough.”
Likely in anticipation of this criticism, Rhinehart stated that the ingredient list would change and evolve as their product made progress on the market.
So far, Soylent is being marketed toward the busy workaholics who simply can’t fit in the time for meal preparation and would rather mix up a powdered drink to get them through the day. As an added plus, Soylent is markedly cheaper than weekly groceries, with a month’s supply costing only $70.
Little is being said, though, about how Soylent could prove to be an important product in feeding the world’s hungry. The past and current packaged food products that are being sent to impoverished areas like sub-Saharan Africa have had mixed success. MANA nutrition, which produces packets of peanut paste that require little preparation, are cheap and instrumental in helping bring people back from the brink of starving to death. What it lacks is the minimal nutrition Soylent provides people — something that is important in improving quality of life.
Another widely used food supplement was produced as a powdered milk substance, similar to Soylent in that you simply add water. Again, there is a lack of essential nutrients in milk, but it was easy for many families and efficient to produce and distribute.
One issue that Soylent would face, were it implemented as a source of food aid, is the water mixing aspect. In some poverty-stricken areas, plentiful, not to mention clean, water is often a precious resource rather than an abundant luxury. This is an issue that the powdered milk supplement faced, as the lowest possible maintenance necessary will often see the best results.
There are other potential problems with providing people with Soylent to survive on. Innovative Development brings up the fact that chewing is an essential action to establish proper functioning of the digestive system. They also explore the option that people who have been exposed to war and famine may have different dietary needs. The introduction of Soylent to a fragile body system may have unforeseen negative effects, particularly on children whose bodies are just developing.
At this point, Soylent isn’t necessarily ready to be shipped out en masse to Africa, but it does have its perks for addressing world hunger. Often, approaches to feeding the poor focus on survival, which is of course an important aspect. But beyond that, nutrition is incredibly important for establishing a healthy, stable society where people can be productive and live in a happy environment.
– Magdalen Wagner
Sources: The New Yorker, Ars Technica, Soylent, Innovate Development, Seattle Gluten Free
Thailand Under Threat of US Aid Withdrawal
As of June 24, the United States announced the possibility of reducing U.S. foreign aid to the Kingdom of Thailand in response to the repressive military junta.
Typically, Thailand receives about $10.5 million in security-based aid from the U.S., and Washington, D.C. recently cut off $4.7 million from their long-time ally.
Another sign of high tensions between the two nations is the suggested removal of U.S. regional major exercises out of Southeast Asia. Since 1980, Thailand and the U.S. have participated in Cobra Gold, one of the biggest military exercises that also influences relations, together with about 13,000 participants from around the Southeast Asia region. It has not been confirmed whether the exercises will go on or be stopped.
The chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia, Representative Steve Chabot, acknowledged the possible dangers of continuing with the exercises, stating it “could clearly send the wrong message” to Thailand and other global figures “in light of the repressive nature” of the military junta currently puppeteering the nation.
Levels of unrest are also extremely high in Thailand at the moment due to the intense regime in which the constitution has been suspended. This forces many repressed people to find other, more combative ways, to express the dissent with the junta. Should the U.S. get too deeply involved by keeping the military exercise in Thailand this year, there is a threat of long-term expenses and involvement not accounted for by the U.S.
The U.S. is not the only world power to acknowledge the danger Thailand is facing. The European Union also commented in a statement on June 23 that they condemn the junta, stating that a credible government should form “as a matter of urgency, the legitimate democratic process and the Constitution, through credible and inclusive elections.” The response from Thai spokesperson, Sek Wannamethee, explains the disappointment felt by the lack of support from the E.U. for not viewing the coup from all angles and seeing the supposedly measured reasoning on the part of the military.
This military coup stands out from the previous ones experienced in Thailand before due to the oppressive measures taken and the sense of permanency it holds. Should this continue, it is likely that the U.S., as well as other nations, will withdraw more security-based funds as the junta continues their reign.
– Elena Lopez
Sources: Channel News Asia, Bangkok Post, Wall Street Journal
Photo: Flickr
How to Help the Hungry
Helping those who suffer from malnutrition has become a lot easier in the 2010s, with advancements in modern technology.
Helping the hungry and needy can be as simple as clicking a button in the modern age. Funds and donations are one of the most important parts of helping the hungry worldwide along with volunteers and advocacy.
Using donations and monetary gifts, nonprofits are able to mobilize volunteers, some who work on the ground in impoverished areas and some who try to get their cause more well-known through advocacy.
Through the use of technology, including the Internet and social media, doing this has become much simpler. How to help the hungry and put an end to global poverty can be as simple as sending emails or tweets to representatives in government or radio stations.
Posting fliers is easier, spreading the word is easier, delivering food to hungry families is easier and even providing clean water is easier.
Posting fliers to raise awareness on social media can grab someone’s attention and if not the person for whom it was meant, then someone who is friends with them and can see it on their news feed.
Delivering food is made easier, especially in high risk areas through air drops and drones. Now cleaner water is within reach as well with technology that uses plasma to purify water as it is being brought up from a well.
There are also billboards and water tanks that collect water from the rain and humidity and purify it so people can have clean water to drink.
There are so many more ways to help the hungry than there has been in the past right now. But there are still hungry people in the world, struggling to get by on $1 or less per day. Hunger has increased in Africa by 153 percent in the last five years.
However, hunger is down in impoverished South American countries as well as in impoverished Asian nations because these nations see most of the technological advancements and learn to put them to good use.
It is rare for South African nations to see the same sort of technology and receive the same type of training other nations do in order to provide technologically advanced aid.
Much of the technology that is making it onto the market comes from South American inventors and nonprofits to help the impoverished, but as a nation stricken with poverty find it increasingly difficult to get their patents and designs to other nations in desperate need.
So, how do you help the hungry? Monetary gifts and food donations take little to no time at all; in addition, they help greatly with spreading knowledge and technological advancements in order to make fighting hunger, providing clean water and putting an end to global poverty much easier for generations to come.
– Cara Morgan
Sources: Feeding America, US News, WFP 1, WFP 2, World Hunger
Photo: Action Against Hunger
South Sudan Named Most Fragile Nation
In 2011, South Sudan split from Sudan. Consequently, Vice President Riek Machar was accused by President Salva Kiir of planning a coup and fighting began. Residents were forced to leave their homes as the fighting between the two factions worsened.
As a result of the mass killings and violence coupled with the unstable leadership, the Fund For Peace named South Sudan the most fragile nation in the world (bumping Somalia down the list after it held the top position for six years.)
The U.N. is appealing for around $1 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for South Sudan and has expressed concern that the horrendous fighting will worsen the famine and leave little hope of progress for the young generation of children.
The U.N.’s report asserts that without the aid, 50,000 children could die from malnutrition, food insecurity will persist, cholera will not be contained and there will be no real determined effort to combat the human rights violations that pervade the daily lives of those living in South Sudan.
According to The Guardian, the deputy special representative of the U.N. secretary general in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, reports that “with many communities unable to farm or tend properly to their cattle, the risk of famine looms large. In some particularly hard to reach areas of the country, people are already starving.”
He continues by saying that while the more immediate goals of the emergency aid would be used to repair damage caused by the famine, the money would also be used to prevent future damage and to save lives. Ideally, it would be used to strengthen the younger generation by ensuring children are vaccinated, by providing counseling to help children deal with the aftermath of the violence, and by keeping schools open so that children can continue receiving a formal education.
Organizations such as Oxfam and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) have expressed support for the concerns conveyed by the U.N. All three organizations are in agreement that as South Sudan reaches the six-month mark for all the devastation, communities need to take further action to remedy the terrible, persisting situation in South Sudan.
– Jordyn Horowitz
Sources: CNN World, UNICEF, The Fund for Peace, The Guardian
UN Food and Agriculture Organization Committee on Forestry
Forests are one of the world’s most crucial ecosystems, providing a large portion of the world’s population with energy, shelter and aspects of primary health care. However, despite the importance of forests to the development agenda, they are routinely ignored in national policies.
The vast socioeconomic benefits of forests and the need to protect them were discussed at the 22nd Session of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO) this month.
The United Nations agency report The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) credits forests with the preservation of biodiversity and acknowledges their key role as carbon sinks. Forests are indispensable to environmental preservation, performing erosion control, pollution, natural pest and disease control and climate-change alleviation.
According to this report, the formal forest sector employs some 13.2 million people across the world and at least another 41 million in the informal sector.
Forests are especially important in less-developed regions, where roughly 840 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, collect wood fuel and charcoal for their own use. Wood fuel is oftentimes the sole source of energy for impoverished people. The SOFO report estimates that about 40 percent of the population of less developed countries cooks with wood fuel.
Additionally, the report reveals, “at least 1.3 billion people, or 18 percent of the worlds population, live in houses built of wood.” Wood homes are key for developing countries, because they are oftentimes the most affordable building option.
Although these figures give us a sense of the world’s use of forests, it does not begin to capture the significance of trees to the poor.
As the SOFO report insists, “Evidence is critical to inform policies on forest management and use, and to ensure that the benefits from forests are recognized in the post-2015 development – not only with respect to the environment but for their contribution social issues as well.”
FAO Assistance Director-General for Forests, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, suggests “countries should shift their focus, both in data collection and policymaking, from production to benefits, in other words, from trees to people.”
Rojas-Briales hopes that when more data is collected to confirm the importance of wood to the poor, policy makers, donors and investors will be more willing to protect forests.
In order to strengthen forest and farm producer organizations, FAO signed a four-year agreement with AgriCord to collaborate with the Forest and Farm Facility, and these forest protection issues will be discussed further at the joint World Health Organization global intergovernmental conference on nutrition, to be held in Rome in November 2014.
– Grace Flaherty
Sources: UN News Centre, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Photo: World Wild Life
What Soylent Could Mean For World Hunger
In 1973, the sci-fi film “Soylent Green” portrayed a dystopian future society characterized by overpopulation and the effects of global warming in which the people ate wafers to survive. At the film’s conclusion, everyone becomes privy to the fact that the wafers are actually made of people. Four decades later, a group of three men in their twenties have taken the idea of everyone eating one easy food to survive and produced their own product called Soylent, thankfully people free.
When Rob Rhinehart and his team sat down to create this meal replacement, they decided that they needed to pull out all of the essential nutrients needed for health and functioning and combine them to make one super drink. With that goal in mind, they developed a powdered drink with what has been described as a “doughy” nature. You add water, drink a meal’s worth and you can power through the rest of your day.
Soylent consists of sodium, fatty acids, zinc, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, fiber, protein, iron, magnesium and a slew of vitamins. Despite its name, there are only trace amounts of soy, and Rhinehart’s team is currently in the process of getting a gluten-free version out on the market. Rhinehart claims that you can live on Soylent, and Soylent has made up 90 percent of his diet for the past year and a half.
There is speculation, however, about how much necessary nutrition one actually gets from living off of Soylent. Lee Hutchinson from Ars Technica, who has purchased large boxes of Soylent to supplement the occasional meal, has written numerous articles about living on Soylent and what Soylent could mean for busy, anti-cooking people. She explains that, while the types and amounts of nutrients in Soylent are based on U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances, “It’s still not wholly certain that simply hitting roughly 100 percent of the RDA standards is enough.”
Likely in anticipation of this criticism, Rhinehart stated that the ingredient list would change and evolve as their product made progress on the market.
So far, Soylent is being marketed toward the busy workaholics who simply can’t fit in the time for meal preparation and would rather mix up a powdered drink to get them through the day. As an added plus, Soylent is markedly cheaper than weekly groceries, with a month’s supply costing only $70.
Little is being said, though, about how Soylent could prove to be an important product in feeding the world’s hungry. The past and current packaged food products that are being sent to impoverished areas like sub-Saharan Africa have had mixed success. MANA nutrition, which produces packets of peanut paste that require little preparation, are cheap and instrumental in helping bring people back from the brink of starving to death. What it lacks is the minimal nutrition Soylent provides people — something that is important in improving quality of life.
Another widely used food supplement was produced as a powdered milk substance, similar to Soylent in that you simply add water. Again, there is a lack of essential nutrients in milk, but it was easy for many families and efficient to produce and distribute.
One issue that Soylent would face, were it implemented as a source of food aid, is the water mixing aspect. In some poverty-stricken areas, plentiful, not to mention clean, water is often a precious resource rather than an abundant luxury. This is an issue that the powdered milk supplement faced, as the lowest possible maintenance necessary will often see the best results.
There are other potential problems with providing people with Soylent to survive on. Innovative Development brings up the fact that chewing is an essential action to establish proper functioning of the digestive system. They also explore the option that people who have been exposed to war and famine may have different dietary needs. The introduction of Soylent to a fragile body system may have unforeseen negative effects, particularly on children whose bodies are just developing.
At this point, Soylent isn’t necessarily ready to be shipped out en masse to Africa, but it does have its perks for addressing world hunger. Often, approaches to feeding the poor focus on survival, which is of course an important aspect. But beyond that, nutrition is incredibly important for establishing a healthy, stable society where people can be productive and live in a happy environment.
– Magdalen Wagner
Sources: The New Yorker, Ars Technica, Soylent, Innovate Development, Seattle Gluten Free
Remembering Salwa Bugaighis
Although Salwa wished to change the stereotypes of women in her country, she did not find this to conflict with her Islamic faith, saying in a 2012 interview with The Global Observatory, “…we are Muslims, we are proud that we are Muslims but we want moderate Islamist. We want Libya like that.” She later added, “My main concern is the role of the women in the future. We want equal opportunity in all sectors. We want to ensure that our rights in the constitution will be there.”
Rebuilding a country has been no easy task for the new government, which struggles to enforce its borders against terrorists and the trade of illegal goods. Libyan illegal arms have made their way to militants in Mali and the Palestinian territories. The revolution left the infrastructure in ruins, and many Libyans seek health care in neighboring countries.
The day after the murder, chaos persisted as the Supreme Court closed for security concerns, militias patrolled the streets and a bomb outside the assembly writing the new constitution injured two. The violence hampers economic growth largely dependent on the oil sector, and threatens to further destabilize the region.
Western powers that toppled the dictatorship have refocused efforts to other worldly crises, leaving the new government largely to its own devices. After decades of oppression, the Libyan people must now confront the challenges of organizing a state from scratch. But if Salwa left her people with any legacy, it is one of hope: “We have to be patient, we have to give us some time to moving to a democratic country and I’m really optimistic about our people.”
— Erica Lignell
Sources: The Chicago Tribune, The Global Observatory, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Le Monde
Photo: New Yorker
Bureau of International Organization Affairs
In order to make significant dents in global poverty, countries, no matter their annual GDPs, must collaborate. Poverty-stricken and privileged nations alike must work together. International and unifying organizations, such as the United Nations, make this kind of collaboration possible, along with departments of state enabling progressive conversation. The Bureau of International Organization Affairs, headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, incumbent Esther Brimmer, speaks for the United States on critical stages, at the United Nations and other international organizations. It is a powerful tool for banishing poverty; something you should know a thing (or two) about.
1. The Basics
The Bureau of International Organization Affairs is a division of the United States Department of State and speaks on behalf of the U.S. while working with international agencies and organizations. This means that it is the Bureau’s duty to promote the President’s vision regarding international collaboration. President Obama’s vision centers around something called “robust multilateral engagement.” The Bureau’s process is considered multilateral because it regards a wide range of global issues, including peace and security, nuclear nonproliferation, human rights, economic development, climate change and global health. As these issues develop and change, so do the Bureau’s policies and implementation tactics.
2. Recent Projects
The Bureau recently spearheaded an attack against the inequality keeping 62 million girls out of school in what is called the Let Girls Learn project. This new push will be led by USAID and, according to its own description, will “provide the public with meaningful ways to help all girls to get a quality education.” USAID additionally announced over $230 million for global education initiatives. Education droughts are severe roadblocks on the path of poverty reduction, and are exacerbated by the sexual bias targeted by Let Girls Learn. In the words of Barrack Obama, “The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women.” The Bureau of International Organization Affairs acknowledges this and is acting to relieve harsh, sexist conditions.
Other recent projects include the commemoration of World Refugee Day, observed on June 20, and the designation of a new World Heritage Site, Poverty Point, La., on June 22. The Bureau’s scope is large, both local and global, but with an emphasis on communication and internationality.
3. They are Accessible
Because of social media and the Internet, vast amounts information are accessible, and organizations who utilize social media’s power reap the benefits. Anyone can follow the U.S. Bureau of International Organization Affairs on Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, RSS and mail subscription. Tweets offer honest (albeit political) advice, informative links and interesting statistics. The Bureau makes an effort to communicate not only with diplomats and foreign political leaders, but also with the general public, giving the not-necessarily-political an opportunity to get to know their country’s global actions. This is important, especially when those actions combat global poverty or send neglected women to school.
– Adam Kaminski
Sources: Bureau of International Organization Affairs., USAID, U.S. Delegation Official Website for World Urban Forum
Photo: Education News
International Day for Victims of Torture
This week marked the anniversary of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
According to the United Nations, torture as a practice seeks “to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being.”
The U.N. General Assembly adopted resolution 52/149 in December 1997, a resolution that proclaimed June 26 as the U.N. International Day in Support of Torture Victims. Believing torture to be “one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings,” the resolution maintains the intention to completely eradicate all torture measures and practices.
Torture practices used today include the controversial waterboarding, sleep deprivation, force feeding, electric shock and cold cell, among others. Rape, beatings and public sexual humiliation are also considered to be forms of torture as they are measures used to inflict pain upon other individuals. Countries, including the United States, continue to use enhanced interrogation techniques to obtain information from suspected criminals or terrorists. Many believe these techniques qualify as acts of torture.
“As we honor the victims on this International day, let us pledge to strengthen our efforts to eradicate this heinous practice,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
The U.N. Fund for Victims of Torture has assisted torture victims around the world. It provides direct assistance to torture victims — assistance that includes access to psychological and physical rehabilitation centers as well legal services.
While many countries do not make use of torture practices, 41 countries have not ratified the Convention Against Torture and thus allow and continue to use practices deemed to be inhuman by the U.N. In fact, Amnesty International’s 2013 Report stated that 112 of 159 countries practiced torture methods in 2012.
“Torture is an unequivocal crime,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said. “Neither national security nor the fight against terrorism, the threat of war, or any public emergency can justify its use,” Pillay said. “All States are obliged to investigate and prosecute allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and they must ensure by every means that such practices are prevented.”
– Ethan Safran
Sources: allAfrica, United Nations, International Business Times, Human Rights Web, United Nations Human Rights, Dignity – Danish Institute Against Torture
Photo: Time and Date
Debunking Misconceptions about Foreign Aid
As an advocacy group, The Borgen Project works to raise awareness about the importance of foreign assistance. Foreign aid not only improves the quality of life for millions of people, but it also brings jobs to the United States and strengthens national security. Yet, in spite of the benefits that foreign aid provides, many U.S. citizens are not in favor of it.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2013 reported that nearly half of the U.S. general public was in favor of major cuts to the foreign aid budget to help reduce deficits, and 65 percent believed that economic problems at home make such spending too costly. Cutting foreign assistance will not have a large impact on U.S. debt, as it consistently makes up 1 percent of the federal budget or less.
Why are so many people in favor of reducing foreign aid when doing so will not reduce deficits? One problem may be that they do not know the actual amount being spent on foreign aid. The Kaiser family poll found that U.S. citizens on average believe that 28 percent of the budget goes to international development, with 12 percent of respondents stating that half of U.S. spending is foreign aid. Similarly, 61 percent of those asked believed the current amount spent on foreign aid should be lower.
However, the public does not seem to support more foreign assistance spending even with accurate information. When the Kaiser Family poll informed respondents that about 1 percent of the budget went to fighting poverty abroad, only 28 percent believed this was too little, while 30 percent still believed this was too much and 31 percent said that the current budget was the right size.
A much larger problem may be that most U.S. citizens do not think that international development programs have strong impact. According to the Kaiser Family poll, only one quarter of respondents thought that U.S. programs to improve global health had a strong effect, while two-thirds believed the effect was “only fair” or “poor.”
Again, the idea that foreign aid has no effect is simply not true. In the 2014 Annual Letter, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation explain how much international development programs help the poor. Since 1960, over 1 billion people have escaped extreme poverty. Global health programs have done incredible work to stop disease; over 2.5 billion children have been immunized against polio since 1988, and in 2013 fewer than 400 cases were reported worldwide. Given current trends, extreme poverty (living on $1 per day) will end by 2035, and child mortality will drop to U.S. levels by that time as well.
Not only do people not know how much is spent on foreign aid, but they also do not know how great its benefits are. To gain support for a stronger international development budget, advocates must work to debunk both myths and educate others about the worthiness of foreign assistance.
– Ted Rappleye
Sources: kff.org, annualletter.gatesfoundation.org www-tc.pbs.org
Maternal and Child Health in Ethiopia
Just two years ago, in 2012, nearly 5 million children worldwide died before they reached their first birthday. Too many of those children were lost simply because they were born into nations without the necessary health infrastructure to attend to their basic medical needs. Lacking proper medical supplies, accessible health centers and proper prevention methods, developing nations are losing more mothers children than they must due to the fact that maternal and child health are intimately related.
One of these countries is Ethiopia, which in 2009 was rated one of the riskiest countries for childbirth, as one in 27 women died delivering their children. Though today that figure is still among the highest in the world – one in 67 women dies during childbirth in Ethiopia in 2014 – that the number has declined is representative of ongoing efforts both on the part of Ethiopia and on the part of international aid organizations to improve maternal and child health.
In a nation where 80 percent of mothers give birth at home without the help of a trained midwife or other health care worker, preventable death occurs frequently. Recognizing this situation, public health outreach in Ethiopia aimed at mothers and children has focused on giving them access to health centers that may be far away from rural areas where much of the population lives. Though there is still much to be done, this outreach has so far been incredibly successful, with Ethiopia accomplishing Millennium Development Goal #4, to reduce child death before age 5 by two-thirds by 2015, well ahead of schedule.
That achievement is sure to be followed by even more improvement in maternal and child health in Ethiopia, as the Ethiopian government has committed to training and stationing Health Extension Workers at critical places throughout rural Ethiopia as part of its Health Extension Plan. If this policy is successful, every Ethiopian will have access to a regional health center staffed by two knowledgeable Health Extension Workers, a larger nearby health center and a full-fledged hospital.
The government has realized not only the importance of accessible health care for its people, but also culturally-appropriate health care practices. Because Ethiopia is a large and diverse nation, attending to the many cultural preferences of its people is key to delivering the highest quality of care. ONE reported a case in which Ethiopian women were choosing to deliver at home rather than at a local health center because the birthing position at the health center made the women feel uneasy. After rectifying the birthing position, more women felt comfortable coming to the health center for pre- and post-natal care. Installing health centers is an admirable first step, but it will also be crucial to train health care workers to respect the culture of the local community.
Ethiopia is by no means a wealthy country – it is ranked among the poorest in the world – but despite widespread impoverishment, it has committed to taking care of its mothers and children and in the past several years has begun making strides toward that goal. Targeted international aid will only speed up the process of keeping every mother and child alive in Ethiopia.
— Elise L. Riley
Sources: ONE, Strong Women Strong World, WHO
Photo: IXMHD