Archive for category: Children

Information and stories addressing children.

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MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health

MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health
This is the fifth in a series of posts focusing on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. There are eight interconnected MDGs that were agreed upon by over 180 countries worldwide. These goals are to be achieved by 2015 and are based on a shared pledge to improve the social, economic, and political lives of all people. Two years out from the goal date, it’s time to consider how far we have come, as well as how much work we have left to do.

The fifth MDG is to improve maternal health. This goal comes in two parts:

  • Cut the maternal mortality ratio by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015
  • Achieve universal access to reproductive health

Significant progress has been made on both fronts. In 2010, the maternal mortality ratio was 47% of the 1990 figure. Three regions (Eastern Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Asia) have already reached the two-thirds reduction goal, and progress has been made in every region. However, women in sub-Saharan Africa still have a 1 in 39 chance of dying from pregnancy complications, and improvements in many regions will need to accelerate substantially if the MDG is to be met by 2015.

Work towards universal access to reproductive health has made encouraging headway as well. Health care for pregnant women in developing countries is on the rise, with antenatal care increasing by almost 20% between 1990 and 2011. This reflects an admirable commitment to women’s health care in developing regions. In a reflection of changing cultural norms, the number of teenage mothers is decreasing in most developing regions, though progress on this front has slowed in recent years.

Despite the progress that has been made thus far, maternal mortality still bears the highest disparity between developed and developing countries, with 99% of maternal deaths occurring in poorer nations. The maternal mortality ratio in developing areas remains 15 times higher than in developed regions. This severe inequality points to the undeniable connection between poverty and maternal health.

The primary cause of maternal deaths in the world today is the lack of skilled health care before, during, and after delivery. Women in developing areas are seeking maternal care at an increasing rate. It is therefore absolutely vital that the care they receive is of excellent quality. Doctors must be trained, facilities must be built, and supplies must be provided in order to save the lives of these women and their children.

Women and their partners are also seeking family planning services in higher volumes. Meanwhile, the supply of these services is increasing only minimally. Family planning must be prioritized in order to meet this need. It has been estimated that fulfilling the unmet demand for family planning could cause the number of maternal mortalities to plummet by one third. Impressive progress in this area was made in the 1990s when contraceptive use in developing countries increased by almost 10%. However, this level of progress was not matched in the 2000s.

Improvements in contraceptive use, especially in developing areas, would reduce one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related death: unsafe abortions. Approximately 13% of pregnancy-related deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortions, which kill 68,000 women annually. In another example of the disparity between developed and developing nations, 97% of unsafe abortions occur in poorer countries. Preventing unsafe abortions, both by increasing knowledge and use of contraceptives and by providing adequate health care in developing countries, is absolutely necessary as we work towards improving maternal health.

The quality of maternal health care will also rise when women are more empowered. Women worldwide are often constrained by cultural norms that leave them disenfranchised. They suffer physical and sexual violence at alarmingly high rates and are often unable to hold positions of power in society. The appalling state of maternal health in many countries can largely be attributed to societal injustices against women. When such countries work towards gender equality, they will also improve maternal health.

It is important, however, to remember that maternal health isn’t just a women’s issue. Poor sexual and reproductive health is a significant contributing cause to poverty worldwide and can prevent victims and their families from fully participating in society. Furthermore, improving maternal health entails more than just providing skilled birthing assistance. Women are less likely to have pregnancy complications if they do not have sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and if they have not undergone female genital mutilation. Therefore, improving maternal health necessitates the enhancements of society as a whole. These include increasing the general public’s knowledge of and access to sexual and reproductive health care, including contraceptives and treatment for STIs.

There are copious reasons to improve developing nations’ maternal health. Poor maternal health is a human rights violation, killing roughly 250,000 women each year. It harms countries’ economies and social fabric by preventing people from fully participating in society. It contributes significantly to poverty. It contributes to the perpetuation of gender inequality. And, as we have seen, improvements can clearly be made. The world has made so much progress when it comes to maternal health. These achievements should be used as a springboard, inspiring us to keep working towards the fifth MDG up to and beyond 2015.

– Katie Fullerton

Sources: UN UN Economic and Social Affairs WHO MDG5
Photo: Flickr

More than a Ball: Alive and Kicking

More than a Ball: Alive and Kicking
Sports play an essential role in the development of children. They provide structure and help teach hard work and discipline. For underprivileged kids, it may be one of the only healthy releases from the difficult lives they have. For kids in Africa, the sport that supplies this release is football, known as soccer to Americans. Yet many African children live in environments where sports equipment – such as soccer balls – is not affordable or accessible.

Thanks to Alive and Kicking, these kids have not had to worry about how they can play soccer. The only legitimate manufacturer of sports balls in Africa, Alive and Kicking has provided over 500,000 balls to impoverished children. Their impact goes far beyond simply producing sporting equipment. Below are the positive impacts Alive and Kicking has on the people of Africa.

  1. Employment: Alive and Kicking has been helpful in improving the economies of local African communities through the hiring of citizens to help manufacture balls. They have had 120 people hired to produce the balls on their manufacturing line. Each of these people has at least six family members and the wages they earn can help provide enough for their families. The employment has helped stimulate local communities with revenue as well.
  2. Healthy Lifestyle: Some children in Africa are subject to things that no developing youth should have to endure. Their ability to play soccer with their friends and be active in a normal way is extremely beneficial. Even if it helps them escape their unsuitable environment for even a few minutes, it is a success.
  3. Replacement of Makeshift Balls: Children in poor living conditions are often forced to stitch together materials and make their own ball, and these balls do not last long. Alive and Kicking provides synthetic stitched balls that will remain in good condition in any environment.

Alive and Kicking continues to make a profound impact in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. But they need help. Donations are instrumental in funding the production of sports balls. A generous donation of 100 dollars would provide eight soccer balls for school systems and communities, impacting the lives of many children. A much more modest donation of 15 dollars provides a child with a ball. These gifts may be small but will play an important role in a child’s life. For more information, visit Alive and Kicking’s website.

– William Norris

Sources: Alive and Kicking, CNN
Sources: Globo

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Marketplace for Nutritious Foods in Kenya and Mozambique

Marketplace for Nutritious Foods in Kenya and Mozambique
Over 925 million people are currently undernourished worldwide, and 3.5 million children under the age of five die from malnourishment every year. The problem is especially prevalent in Eastern Africa, where 23 million children will grow up stunted and likely permanently impaired. Most diets in these areas consist of simple grains and very few fruits and vegetables which contain key nutrients that are needed for proper mental and physical growth.

In the past, poverty alleviation efforts have been focused on increasing the quantity of food produced by farmers, rather than quality. But recently, more attention has been paid to what kinds of foods are reaching those in poverty, and how the crops can help them not just survive, but actually improve their quality of life. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has created a unique plan for making nutritious foods a possibility for farmers to grow, and for consumers to buy.

The Marketplace for Nutritious Foods, which was started up with a $2.1 million grant from USAID, is up and running in both Kenya and Mozambique, with plans to go to Tanzania as well. The Marketplace works by searching for businesses that can provide affordable nutritious foods upon receipt of help from the organization in the form of funding for seeds, technical assistance, business support and networking opportunities. After receiving numerous applications, GAIN selectively chooses organizations that fit the program and gives them everything they need to get nutritious foods to the consumers. The final product, which is anything from dairy products to sweet potatoes, is fully nutritious and reaches the local markets at an affordable price for the public to consume.

As a result, the public is not only given more access to nutritious foods, but the farmers also gain an opportunity for income. The Marketplace provides the incentive farmers need to produce the healthy foods necessary for the population to thrive.

– Emma McKay

Sources: USAID

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6 Ways to Bring an End to World Hunger

6 Ways to Bring an End to World Hunger
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates nearly 870 million people are suffering from chronic malnourishment despite the world producing more than enough food to feed everyone. Nearly all of these people, 852 million, live in developing countries. What can be done to solve world hunger?

1. Prevent Land Grabbing: The ugly truth of the future food supply scarcity issue is that wealthy, land-poor countries, including those in the Gulf and South Korea, are obtaining tracts of land in developing countries to use as allotments. Many African countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, and Madagascar, have already been targeted. A reported estimate totaling an area the size of Spain has been taken from these countries leaving many families unable to feed their children. The push to end land grabbing is the main campaigning focus of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign.

2. Reform and Regulate: Large amounts of investment funds have flooded into the commodities markets since the 2008 financial crisis. The automated trading systems, which exploit the tiniest of flaws in the market, encourage volatility. This makes it extremely difficult for traditional traders to keep prices stable and capable of hedging against spikes in the market. Though this was a topic much discussed in the G20 and G8, an international agreement to reform and regulate the commodities markets has not yet been reached.

3. Produce Less Biofuel: With the pressure to reduce carbon emission from fossil fuels, wealthy countries have been turning sugar, corn, and other crops into ethanol and biodiesel. Burning large amounts of food in our cars reduces the amount available to eat and results in much higher food prices. If that does not sound catastrophic enough, evidence shows that many biofuels actually release more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels. More greenhouse gasses means hotter, drier seasons, dying crops, and even more hungry people.

4. Support Small Farms: Many African farmers are less productive today than US farmers were 100 years ago. There is an agreement between NGOs and governments that supporting small farmers is the smartest solution for future food security. With a combination of aid, education in better farming methods, and the introduction of better seeds and fertilizer, a green revolution could soon be within Africa’s reach.

5. Target Infant Nutrition: Many companies and wealthy nations are backing an African government-led plan to eliminate malnutrition, and large improvements have already been made. The solution is education on good feeding techniques and getting the proper nutrients to the mother and child at the beginning of pregnancy. This aid is key because malnutrition is responsible for an 11% decrease in GDP in affected areas.

6. Reduce Poverty: No surprise here; economic growth is the key to reducing hunger. More trade, financial liberalization, and open markets will aid in the flow of food. Successful poverty-reducing methods in China have led many economists to believe that hunger in the country will be eradicated by 2020. As for the rest of the world, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals aim to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. If each UN-member state does its part, these goals can be achieved.

– Scarlet Shelton

Sources: The Guardian, World Hunger

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Spotlight: Giving Children Hope

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Giving Children Hope (GCHope) is a grassroots organization that strives to do just what its name suggests: focus on the social, economic and health needs of impoverished children around the world. GCHope aims to achieve this through disaster relief, health and community development, and vocational training in developing countries.

President and CEO John Ditty and his wife developed the idea of GCHope in 1993 after deciding to make it their lives’ aims to help the world’s disadvantaged youth, both at home in the United States and internationally. Though the program started by merely delivering medical supplies to regions of developing countries with the least access to health care, the Dittys soon realized that they needed to do more.

As they recognized that children were necessarily a part of families and wider communities, the Dittys expanded GCHope to include community medical clinics and micro-enterprises, immediate disaster relief, and increased family health care coverage in some of the world’s most disadvantaged regions.

GCHope doesn’t take its mission statement lightly, and has been working tirelessly for the last 20 years to make a difference in children’s lives in every corner of the globe. In 2008, GCHope led an initiative to send cholera medicines to Zimbabwe after an outbreak.

One year later, in 2009, the group partnered with Not For Sale to establish clinic in Northern Thailand for children rescued from slavery. In order to raise funds for the latter project, GCHope teamed up with the Not For Sale campaign, International Justice Mission, and Free the Slaves to produce a documentary called Call + Response that supported human rights activism against human trafficking.

In 2010, GCHope was one of the first to respond to the Haiti earthquake and begin collecting donated supplies.

GCHope believes that it can empower “disenfranchised communities” and elevate them out of poverty by instilling hope and leadership capabilities into society’s youngest members. When the children in a community are healthy, well educated, hopeful and stable, the cycle of poverty is more likely to be broken.

If children are truly the hope of the future, organizations like GCHope may be the key to unlocking the children’s  potential.

– Alexandra Bruschi

Source: Call and Response, Giving Children Hope, OC Register
Photo: WFP

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The World’s Most Oppressed People: The Rohingya

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The Rohingya people represent a small Muslim minority in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar. They are denied citizenship, forbidden from colleges, and have suffered mass killings and violence that the government has done nothing to halt. And recently, Myanmar passed a law restricting Rohingya childbirths, an action which may qualify as an act of genocide.

The Rohingya people have lived in Myanmar since the eighth century. However, their existence was wiped from official record in 1982 with the passage of a citizenship law. The law had the effect of making the Rohingya stateless peoples, illegal immigrants in their own country, with no rights or international recognition.

Rohingya people have experienced harsh violence and now will suffer an enforced two-child limit. The limitation is officially claimed as an effort to ease tensions between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority, however the policy serves as a frightening indicator that genocide may not be far away. Genocide Watch has even gone so far as to issue a “Genocide Emergency Alert” for Myanmar, and the United Nations has also expressed similar concerns.

Genocide Watch breaks down genocides into eight distinct stages. In order, they are as follows: Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination and Denial. Myanmar is quickly ticking stages off the list.

Rohingya people are regularly forced to live in ethnic enclaves with enforced curfews. They experience intense violence which the government has done little if anything to prevent. They are becoming increasingly isolated from resources and from the outside world. If nothing is done to stop these policies, the Rohingya may be removed entirely from their country. The international community must act now to hold the Burmese government responsible and stop the eradication of the Rohingya ethnic group before it is too late.

-Caitlin Zusy

Sources: UN Dispatch, News.com
Photo: News.com

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Child Sponsorship Works

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When people ask how to help the poor, child sponsorship often is suggested. Indeed, for a small amount of money each month, organizations allow individuals to sponsor a child and help to provide education, food, and clothing for them. In return, the sponsors get a picture of the child and quarterly or annual updates from the organization regarding their child.  It has long seemed like an easy way to make an impact. The question many people ask, however, is does it really work? One development economist decided he was going to find out.

It seemed no one had ever been interested in finding the answer despite the fact that 9 million children are sponsored worldwide and more than $5 billion dollars per year is invested in child sponsorship programs. For organizations, obviously the stakes were high. If they allowed researchers to study the effectiveness of their programs, what would they do if they came back ineffective? After several years, one organization decided to allow themselves to be studied under one condition: anonymity.

The study initially looked at individuals in Uganda, studying 809 individuals including 188 who were sponsored as children. The results from the first study were any economist’s dream. The data clearly showed large and statistically significant impacts on the educational outcomes of sponsored children. It appeared the program was actually working! To solidify the results, the study was conducted in six other countries: Uganda, Guatemala, the Philippines, India, Kenya and Bolivia. Data was obtained on 10,144 individuals and the results were consistent with the first study. 27 to 40% more sponsored children complete secondary school and 50 to 80% more complete a college education. In addition to effects on education, the study found that sponsored children were also more likely to gain meaningful employment.

As a result of the study, the sponsorship organization removed the anonymity clause. Compassion International was the organization that allowed its program to be scrutinized; the results were clear that child sponsorship works. It helps lift kids and families out of poverty and provides them with hope. For more information about child sponsorship, visit Compassion International at www.compassion.com.

– Amanda Kloeppel
Sources: Christianity Today, Compassion International

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The Cost of Hunger in Egypt

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The health concerns of undernutrition are evident. But a study conducted by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) and the UN World Food Program (WFP), the African Union Commission, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has highlighted the economic consequences of the condition. The study incorporated data from 2009 provided by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAD), the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education in Egypt to delve into the less obvious penalties of child undernutrition.

The results of the study were published in a report titled “The Cost of Hunger in Africa: the Social and Economic Impact of Child Undernutrition in Egypt”. The report concluded that Egypt has lost an estimated 20.3 billion pounds in 2009, or $3.7 billion, as a result of child undernutrition.

Stunting, a condition of slowed or stopped growth in height, and chronic malnutrition were found to be the primary drivers behind Egypt’s undernutrition-based economic losses. Stunting occurs when children are not supplied the necessary proteins, vitamins and minerals from conception through age five. The condition affects 40 percent of Egypt’s population. Stunted individuals are prone to poor adult health, impaired academic performance, and premature death.

The costs are incurred as a result of mounting healthcare expenses and burdens placed on the education and labor systems. In rural Egypt, where the majority of people work manual labor, it is estimated that the decreased productivity caused by the lowered physical ability of adults who had been stunted as children resulted in a $10.7 billion loss in 2009. Healthcare costs equaled $1.2 billion in economic productivity lost.

31% of Egypt’s population is under the age of 15, which places the necessity for adequate child nutrition at a top priority; to thrive tomorrow, Egypt needs to address these threats today by achieving food security. Without discovering ways to prevent child undernutrition, the costs Egypt incurs could increase 32% by 2025. The IDSC plans to disclose the study’s findings and recommendations to decision-makers in an effort to reverse this downward trend.

Egypt is not the first country to conduct the Cost of Hunger in Africa study. Uganda has already carried out their own study, and the 10 more countries following suit will be Botswana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Swaziland.

– Dana Johnson

Sources: Bloomberg, WFP
Photo: Blogsome

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Hunger Kills Every 10 Seconds: A New Campaign

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The UK campaign, Enough Food for Everyone If, knows how to use statistics in a way that emphasizes their message.

The statistic they are currently using is that hunger kills every 10 seconds. This is derived from the fact that three million children died from hunger in 2011. Those three million deaths spread evenly across the year equals ten seconds a death.

Some assert that this statistic is a manipulation of the data, as the real issues surrounding those three million deaths are slightly complicated. It is not as simple as people simply starving to death.

A large portion of the deaths involved in the three million per year statistic are caused by infectious diseases or other things that poor nutrition can be related to. When children aren’t given the proper nutrition in the earliest parts of their lives, their bodies are much more susceptible to infectious diseases that a normal healthy child would simply be able to fight off.

The problem isn’t only involving malnutrition in children, but also malnutrition in mothers. In many societies, women aren’t given the best food in the household, therefore they can end up being malnourished during pregnancy and breast feeding, leading to malnutrition in their children.

Malnutrition is especially prevalent in communities that rely heavily on cereals and starches for their diets. These areas tend to neglect the importance of fruits and vegetables in their diets, and sometimes it is the case that milk or meats are avoided in these areas for cultural reasons.

Despite the complexities revolving around the statistic perpetuated by the IF campaign, the campaigners rely on the ‘hunger kills every 10 seconds’ statistic to give people a concrete way to think about the magnitude of global hunger. When people hear that three million died of hunger in 2011 they tend to block it out, as it is hard to conceptualize such a large number. The Enough Food for Everyone If campaign puts this statistic in an easy to understand way that makes people identify with individuals in poverty.

Enough Food for Everyone If uses its resources to raise awareness about world hunger in order to impact governmental decisions in favor of providing more aid to developing countries. The campaign also has put out helpful ways that people can contribute to ending hunger through their consumer choices, such as buying local, in season vegetables. The campaign is exemplifying how putting data in a certain manner and context can make all the difference in the impact is has.

– Martin Drake

Source: BBC News, Enough Food for Everyone If
Photo: BBC News Images

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Varkey GEMS Fights for Global Education

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Despite the importance of global education, donor agencies and major developed countries have decreased their federal budgets and funding. Developing countries like India are working hard to get children into school and are increasing enrollment rates, but the fact remains that attendance rates and general accessibility to education in developing countries are lower than they should be.

Vikas Pota, CEO of Varkey GEMS Foundation, interprets this as “a major setback for children all over the world”, and states that “we need innovative solutions to make sure children have the opportunity to attend school”.  The Varkey GEMS Foundation attempts to imrove the standards of education for underprivileged children, with one of their major goals being to impact 100 underprivileged children for every child enrolled in a GEMS school. In order to ensure that “every child has a chance to prosper”, the foundation provides scholarships and leadership development, as well as builds schools throughout the developing world. Another core goal of the foundation is to promote gender equality and provide for girl’s and women’s education as well.

At the launch of the foundation in December 2010, Bill Clinton had this to say, “There will rarely be people who launch something with so much potential to lift the hopes and spirits and dreams of children as this Foundation has done tonight. The benefits from an educated child will affect not only the child itself, but his or her family and the wider community… the world is depending on it”. By focusing on education of underprivileged children, it is the hope of Pota and of the foundation that those children will be able to lift themselves from poverty into a life of better opportunities and independence.

Pota believes that the biggest crisis we face in education “is that of not investing enough in our teachers”. Over the next ten years, the foundation hopes to train over 250,000 teachers globally, with the help of government aid. Another problem is that the majority of aid to basic education is not allocated to the lowest income countries where the most aid is needed. Pota calls for collective responsibility and action, which starts with the citizens. Calls to congress people and legislators are the most effective way to show support, and will increase the likelihood that budgets for education-based aid will increase.

– Sarah Rybak
Source: Huffington Post, Gems Education
Photo: A Celebration of Women