The first library of the Lubuto Library Project was completed on September 1, 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. The smashing success of that library has sparked an ambitious plan by the Lubuto Library Project to build 100 public libraries across Africa in the next 10 years.
That first library started as little more than an unofficial reading room at the Fountain of Hope, which is a shelter in Lusaka. As the reading program expanded, it attracted a wide variety of volunteers to contribute to this new educational opportunity.
As more and more children came off the streets to practice reading and writing, the reading room expanded to a fully-functioning library. It was built out of nothing more than a used shipping container.
The library proved an instant success. The library was a shelter, a classroom and a social space all-in-one. Seeing hope for the future of education in Zambia, the Lubuto Library project was created. Construction on a series of similar libraries began immediately.
Those libraries in Zambia now act as safe havens for Zambian street children. The population in Zambia has been ravaged by the HIV epidemic, and the children there have been particularly damaged by the disease. Over half the population of Zambia is youth, and of that youth, one-fifth have been orphaned by the epidemic.
Most of those children are outside the reach of social services. They are forced to live on the streets. The Lubuto Library Project aims to not only take these kids off the streets by providing shelter, but also to give them a quality education in the process.
Some of the kids even used the libraries in Zambia to study for the entrance exam which allowed them to gain access to a public high school education.
The particular curriculum that the project utilizes involves increasing access to local-language literature — something which has been woefully lacking in recent years. The libraries hold frequent storytelling events to bring the kids together in a social learning environment. At the same time, there are private reading rooms for children who wish to learn on their own.
Finally, the libraries in Zambia have been using laptops to encourage reading and writing and to advance the children’s computer skills.
For this innovative solution to the educational crisis in Zambia, the Lubuto Library Project has been awarded a $300,000 grant from USAID to continue its mission across Africa. The project will use that money to expand its operations, with plans to eventually incorporate mobile technology to its libraries.
But in the end, it’s not fancy technology that’s helping these orphans; it’s having access to a safe space where the kids can express themselves and escape from the harsh life of being an orphan in Zambia. It’s being comforted by caring volunteers and mentors who sacrifice their time to give hope to these children. It’s reading and writing imaginative stories that help them dream again.
That is the driving force that has allowed these libraries to become so instrumental to the education system in Zambia.
— Sam Hillestad
Sources: Lubuto Library Project 1, USAID
Photo: Lubuto Library Project 2
Chickungunya Virus Spreading Fast
North Carolina’s first case of the Chickungunya virus was confirmed on June 12. Seven days later Georgia confirmed its first case. Two days after that Tennessee confirmed its second. With over 30 cases already confirmed in Florida, this mosquito-borne virus is quickly spreading.
Until 2007, Chickungunya was only found in Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Then it appeared in Italy and slowly made its way throughout Europe. In December of this past year the first case of Chickungunya was reported in the Caribbean. Now, barely six months later, the Pan American Health Organization has confirmed 5,000 cases of the virus and suspects another 160,000 cases in the region.
There is currently no vaccine for the virus or treatment for the symptoms. Those symptoms include fever, rash, nausea, chronic joint pain, swelling and headache. They usually first appear within three to seven days after infection with most symptoms abating after about a week’s time. However, the joint pain often lasts for months.
There are now 20 afflicted states and islands in the Caribbean, with Cuba being the most recent. The Center for Disease Control has reported approximately 60 total cases in the continental United States thus far. All such cases have included patients who have made recent trips to the Caribbean. The virus has been linked to the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, both of which are fairly common in the U.S. The CDC has recommended that people who are traveling to the Caribbean use bug spray and dress in long sleeves and pants to avoid being bitten by either kind.
Despite rising concerns about possible contraction of the Chickungunya virus, trips to the Caribbean remain popular among American tourists. With cruise season currently in full swing, the number of cases in the U.S. is sure to rise.
— Taylor Dow
Sources: LA Times, Island Gazette, CNN, AJC, Medpage Today
Photo: Wageningen Ur
Malnutrition in Pakistan
Children are more prone to malnutrition than adults. Half of the children in Pakistan are malnourished, leading to mental and physical health problems. These children are often living in poverty.
Malnutrition caused 54 percent of children’s deaths in 2001. Babies are often underweight from birth due to their mothers’ malnourishment while bearing them. It was reported in 2001 that 14 percent of pregnant women were underweight and 2.5 percent of them were extremely thin. Malnourished children often get infectious diseases and since they do not have the right nutrients to fight off these diseases, it often leads to a never-ending cycle.
Many surveys have indicated that sub-clinical deficiencies in iron, zinc and Vitamin A are widespread among schoolchildren and pregnant women. In the national nutrition survey in 2001 to 2002, it was implied that 66.5 percent of 0-5 year olds were found to be iron deficient, 37 percent with zinc deficiency and 12.5 percent had VAD. It has been found that 5.9 percent, 36.5 percent, 41 percent and 45 percent of pregnant women had sub-clinical deficiencies in VA, iodine, zinc and iron respectively.
One of the more significant, potential causes for malnutrition in Pakistan is the low production of food. Cereal is a big part of Pakistan’s diet, making 62 percent of a person’s energy. Pakistan is one of the few countries to primarily consume milk, but the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish is very low. The reason fruits and vegetables are hardly consumed in Pakistan is due to the weather conditions being inadequate for growing crops, and there being hardly any market facilities for the products.
Other causes for malnutrition include poverty, unawareness, population growth, political instability, loss of food stock due to poor harvest and natural calamities. Undernourishment in children has been directly linked with illiterate mothers, low incomes and bigger families.
Here are a few ways malnourishment in Pakistan can be fixed — better farming techniques like using fertilizer that can produce better crops, government policies that ensure food security, programs educating people on how to eat cheaply properly, family planning and a controlled population.
— Priscilla Rodarte
Sources: World Bank, JPMA, The News, FAO
Photo: Save the Children
Syria Hands Over Chemical Weapons
On June 23, officials announced that the final 8 percent of chemical weapons were removed from Syria. The landmark announcement marked the final shipment of Syria’s 1,300 ton stockpile of weapons, which included mustard gas and raw materials that could be used to create the sarin nerve gas.
The removal of this last shipment of chemical weapons finally arrived after multiple missed deadlines that were originally set by the U.N. The most recent ones were at the end of February and the June 30 deadline to have all of the weapons destroyed. In February of this year the international watchdog group, called the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said that Syria had only shipped out 11 percent of their chemical stockpile. Many of these delays were largely thanks to the threats and actual attacks from both rebel groups and pro-Assad militias.
While this achievement certainly is a step in the right direction, many questions still remain about how many chemical bombs are still in Syria outside of those that were officially declared by the Assad regime. Ahmet Uzumcu, chief of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said, “We cannot say for sure it has no more chemical weapons. All we can do is work on the basis of verifying a country’s declarations of what they have. I would not make any speculation to possible remaining assets, substances, chemical weapons…”
After departing Syria, the chemicals will be shipped out to Norway and Denmark via Italy, where they will then be destroyed off the coasts of the UK and Scandinavia in international waters.
There still is an ongoing investigation into President Assad’s use of chlorine, which Ahmet Uzumcu said “may take a little more time.” While chlorine is not lethal and excluded from the list of prohibited toxic chemicals thanks to its widespread commercial use, the gas can still cause a considerable amount of harm and negative health effects. The use of chlorine as a weapon would also violate many international laws and conventions that Assad has previously signed.
Even though the removal of this many chemical weapons will help the situation, the civil war in Syria still continues unabated and with drastic human rights consequences. According to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, “We are always going to remain truly appalled at the level of death and destruction that continues to consume Syria, notwithstanding the removal of these weapons.” His words come at a time when 2.5 million people are denied water by opposition groups, 90,000 people lack medical assistance and nearly half of Syria’s population of 22 million have been displaced. While the removal of chemical weapons helps, violence throughout the country sill rages on.
— Andre Gobbo
Sources: BBC, Huffington Post, CNN, The Borgen Project (1), The Borgen Project (2)
Photo: Press TV
Clean Water From a Box
As of 2005, one in six people are without access to clean water. Perhaps they spend a huge fraction of their income to gain access to a truck that distributes clean water to them, which, ultimately, might not even be clean. They might simply drink available water that holds dangerous bacteria, or that is laced with chemicals. Slightly less than 1 billion people wake up knowing that their first demand of the day is to find any source of water at all.
It isn’t as if water purification hasn’t been perfected in a number of other contexts. Drug companies purify water in huge quantities to produce medicine. The U.S. Navy found methods by which drinking water could be desalinated.
But both of these methods lack the level of portability needed to address the issue of water deprivation in impoverished regions. Methods like chlorine tablets exist, along with reverse osmosis plants. Yet problems of portability persist. It’s possible only some pollutants get purified, and others remain. Sometimes parts are too expensive to replace or are difficult to find.
The struggle with water purification for those in poverty has obviously been a long one, but it looks like the end might be in sight. It comes in the form of a plain-looking box, no larger than a mini refrigerator. Behind its design is a unique story, and its benefits have been a long time coming.
Dean Kamen has been working on what he calls the Slingshot for over 10 years. The inventor of the Segway, Kamen came to the project when Baxter International asked for his help. They had built a device to perform a procedure called peritoneal dialysis, which uses sterile saline to filter a patient’s blood. Kamen’s job was to refine and improve the machine.
It required huge amounts of purified water, or what amounted to multiple gallons a day for each patient. Kamen and his team turned to a simple scientific principle to solve their problem: they recycled the energy used when water evaporates. Now, Kamen has a device that he says can “take any input water, whether it’s got bioburden, organics, inorganics, chrome and… make pure water come out.” Kamen explains that the Slingshot could provide perfectly clean water using less power than a typical hairdryer.
Kamen’s last challenge is getting the Slingshot where it needs to go. Alongside Coca-Cola in October of 2012, Kamen announced plans with the company to bring the Slingshot to remote regions of Africa and Latin America. The partnership had already sent 15 of the machines to Ghana in 2011. Also involved in the process were the Inter-American Development Bank and Africare.
But Kamen has even bigger plans. His next project will work to reach even more people in need of clean water with his energy-efficient Stirling generator, solving the lack of electricity that could inhibit the use of the Slingshot. In the near future, Kamen has made it quite possible that millions of people will no longer face water insecurity.
— Rachel Davis
Sources: Popular Science, HowStuffWorks, Coca-Cola
Photo: Business Week
Armed Syrian Groups Use Child Soldiers
As Syria enters its fourth year in a civil battle, Human Rights Watch has reported certain Syrian groups are using child soldiers as young as 15 for battle and suicide missions. HRW has named extremist Islamic groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS,) as specifically baiting children through the false promise of free educational opportunity. According to international law, armed group leaders who recruit child soldiers can be tried as war criminals.
Majed was only 12 years old when he started spending time with members of the Islamic terrorist group, Nusra Front. Like many other groups, Nusra Front masked their true intentions behind educational opportunities, and once they had reeled in a significant group of followers, social pressure would do the rest. Amr, 17, fought with an extremist Islamist group in northern Syria at just 15, where children were “encouraged” to participate in suicide bombings. His friends had signed on, so Amr felt pressured to follow suit — though he was able to get away just before his turn came up.
While the actual number of child soldiers in Syria is unknown, the Violations Documenting Center, a Syrian monitoring group, has recorded at least 194 deaths of “non-civilian” male children since 2011. These children (male and female) are being used to fight in battles, act as snipers, participate in suicide bombing missions, treat the wounded on battlefields and carry ammunition to and from the front lines.
The Syrian government has been subject to an array of horrific crimes, including recent reports of government forces dropping chlorine bombs on citizens, including children. Now, with armed opposition groups sending children to fight, the civil battle has resulted in a double-edged sword: one which Syrian children are falling victim to.
Children who want to leave armed groups are left with few options and lack of social support. Saleh, 17, has fought with the Free Syrian Army since he was 15 after he was detained and tortured by government forces. After years of fighting, Saleh has often wished for a different life. “I thought of leaving [the fighting] a lot,” he said. “I lost my studies, I lost my future, I lost everything.”
— Nick Magnanti
Sources: Human Rights Watch, CNN, Time
Photo: Naij
Doctors of the World Helping Others
Doctors of the World is an organization dedicated to helping vulnerable groups of people by providing them basic health care. This organization was first founded in 1980 by 15 doctors who believed in bringing relief to the poorest population in the world. The first doctors were sent to unstable areas like El Salvador and Afghanistan during wartime. Doctors of the World, also called Médecin du Monde (MdM,) settled its headquarters in Paris in 1980.
There are several important fields that MdM are working on. First of all, MdM takes care of women and children living in developing countries that lack basic health facilities. Second, MdM delivers health care to people who are infected with infectious diseases like HIV/AIDs, malaria and tuberculosis. Third, MdM also takes care of the immigrants, who are new to an environment and left their country’s health care systems behind. Last but not least, MdM are dedicated to helping people suffering from local conflicts and war. During the times of conflicts and war, people leave their heath resources behind and are vulnerable to diseases.
MdM is actively involved in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin American and New York State. For example, its involvement in Rockaways, N.Y. has become a great relief to the local population. In Rockaways, 21 percent of the residents lack health insurance and 20 percent of them live below the poverty line. Since Hurricane Sandy came to Rockaways, MdM has tried its best to provide basic health care. MdM brings volunteer doctors to local families to provide primary treatment and prescribe further care if needed.
MdM also applies innovative ways to help unprivileged people. In North America, Doctors of the World Canada launched its first mobile clinic, which will provide health care services in several districts. In addition to volunteer doctors, the team also includes a driver, nurses and other volunteers. Using mobilized clinics makes it more convenient to provide basic health care to marginalized people.
MdM consider “access to health care a fundamental right of all human beings.” Today, its global network provides basic care for over 1.6 million in 79 countries all over the world.
— Jing Xu
Sources: Doctors of the World, CNW
Photo: DOW Frontline Diaries
Genetically Modified Bacteria
Over the course of the past 50 years, scientists, engineers and academics have unlocked the secrets of energy efficiency by producing technologies with the capacity to harness wind, solar and nuclear power. Scientists have additionally focused their research on developing viable oil substitutes – particularly ethanol and biomass energies – that can be used to produce heat and electricity. Yet the future of global sustainability and decreased warming will depend on the expansion and improvement of these technologies.
The Huffington Post and The Mother Nature Network recently released profiles on Dr. Ka-Yiu San, a bioengineer who discovered a method for turning plant waste into fatty acid. This fatty acid is the beginning ‘ingredient’ in a synthetic compound – a compound that can be converted into an artificial diesel fuel or oil-like lubricant. The base of the compound comes from a genetically modified bacteria, and specifically a strain of the E. coli bacteria, which “converts sugar-heavy hydrolysate (inedible cellulose from sorghum) into fatty acids.”
According to his reports, San’s fermentation process of the genetically modified bacteria “generates an 80 percent to 90 percent yield of fatty acids from what the science team calls ‘model sugars’”– a process he believes has the potential for an even greater yield. It may take numerous rounds of tests and several years, however, before the E. coli strain is ready to be used in a wide industrial setting.
San’s research hasn’t been adapted into a large scale project, but the implications of his discovery are immense for developing countries. Though some biofuels have potential drawbacks such as aggressive land, water and resource requirements, air and water pollution and increased food costs, San’s research is promising. His E. coli strand can use plant waste efficiently; this provides an avenue for agriculture based societies – like those in Africa and rural Asia – to use their abundant plant waste in a productive way. In areas where electricity and energy access is scarce, a technology like this could have an unspeakably large impact.
— Allison Heymann
Sources: The National Resources Defense Council, Huffington Post, EPA
Photo: ScienceDaily
Public Libraries in Zambia Flourish
The first library of the Lubuto Library Project was completed on September 1, 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. The smashing success of that library has sparked an ambitious plan by the Lubuto Library Project to build 100 public libraries across Africa in the next 10 years.
That first library started as little more than an unofficial reading room at the Fountain of Hope, which is a shelter in Lusaka. As the reading program expanded, it attracted a wide variety of volunteers to contribute to this new educational opportunity.
As more and more children came off the streets to practice reading and writing, the reading room expanded to a fully-functioning library. It was built out of nothing more than a used shipping container.
The library proved an instant success. The library was a shelter, a classroom and a social space all-in-one. Seeing hope for the future of education in Zambia, the Lubuto Library project was created. Construction on a series of similar libraries began immediately.
Those libraries in Zambia now act as safe havens for Zambian street children. The population in Zambia has been ravaged by the HIV epidemic, and the children there have been particularly damaged by the disease. Over half the population of Zambia is youth, and of that youth, one-fifth have been orphaned by the epidemic.
Most of those children are outside the reach of social services. They are forced to live on the streets. The Lubuto Library Project aims to not only take these kids off the streets by providing shelter, but also to give them a quality education in the process.
Some of the kids even used the libraries in Zambia to study for the entrance exam which allowed them to gain access to a public high school education.
The particular curriculum that the project utilizes involves increasing access to local-language literature — something which has been woefully lacking in recent years. The libraries hold frequent storytelling events to bring the kids together in a social learning environment. At the same time, there are private reading rooms for children who wish to learn on their own.
Finally, the libraries in Zambia have been using laptops to encourage reading and writing and to advance the children’s computer skills.
For this innovative solution to the educational crisis in Zambia, the Lubuto Library Project has been awarded a $300,000 grant from USAID to continue its mission across Africa. The project will use that money to expand its operations, with plans to eventually incorporate mobile technology to its libraries.
But in the end, it’s not fancy technology that’s helping these orphans; it’s having access to a safe space where the kids can express themselves and escape from the harsh life of being an orphan in Zambia. It’s being comforted by caring volunteers and mentors who sacrifice their time to give hope to these children. It’s reading and writing imaginative stories that help them dream again.
That is the driving force that has allowed these libraries to become so instrumental to the education system in Zambia.
— Sam Hillestad
Sources: Lubuto Library Project 1, USAID
Photo: Lubuto Library Project 2
UK to Donate £39 Million to Help Eliminate Trachoma
The British Department of Development announced on June 24 that is it set to donate £39 million to help support the elimination of trachoma. The funding is designed to support implementation of the Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial Cleanliness and Environmental Improvements (SAFE) strategy, which has seen considerable success in helping to eliminate the disease.
Trachoma is an infectious disease of the eye caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The disease has a variety of clinical manifestations, but the most common one is an acute infection that results in mild itching, irritation and inflammation. Repeated infections and inflammation can cause visual impairment, scarring and, eventually, blindness. As is typical with such diseases, children are especially susceptible to contracting it. Trachoma is responsible for 3 percent of global blindness, with 230 million people at risk of contracting the disease, and 70 percent of those who are affected are women
The £39 million will be implemented by a consortium of International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC) members and will be managed by SightSavers. The ICTC was established in 2004 with two main goals: contribute to the global effort to eliminate blinding trachoma and to advocate for and implement the SAFE strategy. The ICTC consists of a wide variety of organizations committed to trachoma control and is endorsed by the Wold Health Organization (WHO.) One of those organization is SightSavers. Their work has already spread to 37 different countries, helped over 120 million people and it currently has over 200 active projects.
The biggest concern regarding trachoma is that as a result of blindness, those who contract the disease are unable to work. As a result of this, the inability to work traps those who catch the disease in a cycle of poverty. As the International Development Minister Lynn Featherstone explains, “Stopping trachoma before it gets hold [sic] can make a significant difference to people’s lives, especially women. Up to 90 percent of blind people cannot work, making their poverty worse and leading to greater financial insecurity and lower standards of living.” Hopefully this donation can help those in need and turn the tides on this entirely preventable disease.
— Andre Gobbo
Sources: SightSavers, International Coalition for Trachoma Control, Department for International Development
Photo: Medical Ecology
END7 Diseases by 2020
END7, an international advocacy campaign, aims to end seven neglected tropical diseases (NTDS) by 2020. It is currently raising awareness of the seven most common NTDs, and the easy and cheap resources available to eliminate them.
Cheap is not an understatement — it takes only 50 cents to treat and protect one person against all seven NTDS.
While 2020 may seem like an overly optimistic date to have eliminated seven diseases, treatments for all NTDs exist — it’s just a matter of getting them to those in need. The seven diseases include Hookworm, Roundworm, Whipworm, Elephantiasis, Trachoma, River Blindness and Snail Fever.
Nearly one in six people worldwide, including over half a billion children, have these diseases living and breeding inside their bodies. The effects of these diseases can be devastating, causing blindness, massive swelling in limbs, severe malnutrition, pregnancy complications and anemia.
Apart from the horrific effects of NTDs, these diseases makes it increasingly difficult for affected families to lift themselves out of poverty. They prevent children from going to school.
In order to spread the word about their cause and the work being done to help victims of NTDs, END7 utilizes social media outlets, hoping to target young activists who will then share the word with others. The goal is to get the general public involved, not just doctors and health care professionals.
The campaign asks the community to donate to NTD prevention and treatment programs. These programs deliver the medications to schools and poor communities all over the globe.
How can it be so cheap? Drugs to treat NTDS are donated by pharmaceutical companies, allowing for the remaining cost to come only in distributing the drugs to those in need.
Bill Nighy, who provides a voice for many of the END7 videos, describes his astonishment in the opportunity at hand, stating, “I’m shocked by how much devastation these diseases cause. But what shocks me more is how simple the solution is.”
If pocket change can provide a cure for seven diseases, it seems that a cure in 2020 may not seem so far out of reach after all.
— Caroline Logan
Sources: END7, TwitChange
Photo: Northeastern