Empowerment Through Chess: Uganda’s Som Chess Academy

With a single chess board and a heart for change, Robert Katende launched Uganda’s Som Chess Academy in the Katwe slums of Kampala in 2004. Thirteen years later, the program boasts 13 different centers in varying parts of Uganda (one which focuses on children with disabilities), an impending expansion into neighboring Kenya, an estimated participant count of 1,400 and a world-class chess player in Phiona Mutesi.

The most attention has been gifted to the incredible story of Ms. Mutesi, whose rise from the slums of Katwe to the international chess arena has been featured in ESPN Magazine and Disney’s Queen of Katwe film. And understandably so—Phiona has been honored in various capacities, most notably as one of three “Women of Impact” at the 2013 Women of the World Summit. Her story is especially significant considering the relatively limited role of women in Ugandan society. Such a role ensures that the literacy rate for girls 15 years of age and older is cemented at 65 percent—a rate which is a full 18 percent lower than that of their male peers. Consequentially, Phiona’s success has paved the way for other women to also strive for their goals and meet their potential in spite of traditional gender barriers like minimized education.

However, the everyday successes of Uganda’s Som Chess Academy demand recognition as well. The program is completely free for its participants and provides tangible perks, such as meals, but it also provides something arguably more important: intangible perks, such as personal empowerment, something that is so incredibly significant for children who have very few opportunities to know their strength.

The program operates under the guidance of about 40 peer coaches who aim to not only teach chess but to teach it well—in 2015, Som Academy placed seventh in the national chess league—but to also teach life skills that focus on character development, goal-creation and leadership skills, too. Chess is only a vessel with which to facilitate these understandings; the strategy, mental discipline and adaptation required to play the game is translated into real-life usage as well.

Furthermore, the program actually enrolls participants in school and supports them throughout their academic endeavors, with several of the program’s graduates going on to higher education levels that would have otherwise been inaccessible to children entrapped in the cycle of slum poverty. In an environment where 31 percent of urban children aged 13 to 18 are not attending secondary school, a free program that empowers and ultimately pushes such children into the educational system is truly an incredible gift to a deserving community.

– Kailee Nardi

Photo: Flickr

The Success of Healthcare in Cuba

Due to the dwindling trade restrictions between Cuba and the United States during the Obama administration, people around the world are getting a look into a country that has been closed off from much of the world for many years. While the country is known for its slow wealth creation and high levels of state control, healthcare in Cuba has made massive strides since the country’s revolution in 1959.

Cuba’s healthcare is recognized as being among the world’s most efficient and high quality systems. Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that the country’s healthcare system should be used as a model for many developing countries.

Since the 1959 revolution, when Fidel Castro gained power in Cuba, the socialist ideology emphasized that access to healthcare is a fundamental human right. With this belief inscribed in Cuba’s constitution, the country focuses on preventative approaches to medicine. From providing annual, mandatory checkups to the most complex surgeries, healthcare in Cuba remains free of charge.

With this high level of accessibility, the country has made many health improvements since the beginning of the Castro regime. These include:

• A 98 percent full immunization record by the age of 2 that protect children from 13 illnesses.
• Low infant mortality rates. Cuba’s rate is extremely close to that of the United States’ with less than 5 deaths per 1000 births. This statistic makes Cuba the best performer in the developing world.
• High life expectancies, with men living an average of 77 years and women living an average of 81. These expectancies are almost identical to those in the United States.
• Record doctor to patient ratios that surpass many developed nations. Every doctor cares for around 150 patients.
• A well-educated public regarding individual health. Family doctors, who make mandatory visits annually, discuss issues such as smoking, eating and exercising with patients while also providing tailored recommendations to remain healthy.
• World leading medical schools. Former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that Cuba’s medical education system is the world’s most advanced. In 2014, over 11,000 students from over 120 nations pursued a career in medicine at the Cuban Institution.
• A significant focus on research and development. The focus on innovation has been attributed to the U.S. embargo that prohibited trade in medicines for Cuba. This made investing in medical sciences a necessity to provide quality health care.

By the mid-1980s, Cuba developed the world’s first Meningitis B vaccine. In 2012, Cuban doctors developed Cimavax, the first therapeutic cancer vaccine. Additionally, The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the country as being the first to eliminate HIV transmission between mothers and their children in 2015. These outcomes are found to be a direct result of the huge investments made in Cuba’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Healthcare in Cuba has benefited more than just the citizens of its country. Every year, Cuba sends around 50,000 health professionals abroad, providing care to developing countries. In only one decade, Cuba’s contribution to Mission Miracle, a program supporting people with sight impairments, has restored around 3.5 million individuals’ vision. Many of these contributions are made in Latin America, where 165 Cuban institutions maintain 49 ophthalmological centers and 82 surgical units in 14 countries.

However, Cuba’s support reaches beyond its own continent and into Africa. The Cuban chemical and biopharmaceutical research institute LABIOFAM launched a vaccination campaign against malaria in 2014 in more than 15 West African nations. Additionally, during the recent Sierra Leone Ebola crisis, over 100 Cuban doctors and nurses were of assistance.

Castro was an advocate for providing international health support, as he believed by assisting developing countries, Cuba was preventing the expansion of epidemics that could spread to its own nation if not handled correctly. In addition to the philanthropy aspect, Cuban doctors and nurses working in over 77 countries generate $8 billion a year, which makes international health services the country’s largest export.

While the country’s GDP per capita is ranked 137th in the world, healthcare in Cuba has demonstrated that a poor country can create dramatic developments in its population’s quality of life for the long term. Castro’s form of leadership, while questioned in many other areas, has improved the living standards for Cuba’s poorest with regard to medical needs.

The WHO stresses that Cuba provides a prime example of a developing nation with limited resources that can provide an efficient health care system to all of its population. However, for such an outcome, the political institutions of the country must make human beings the center of their policies and not their own wallets.

– Tess Hinteregger
Photo: Flickr

The Top 3 Individual Benefits of Charitable Action

The inability to see the direct benefits of charitable action keeps many from contributing to charity and advocacy. However, there are several individual benefits to charity despite being unable to see the direct impacts of donation.

Below are the top 3 individual benefits of charitable action.

1. Numerous studies show that people who act charitably and compassionately are often happier. In a psychological study on compassion by Barbara Fredrickson in 2008, participants of compassionate meditation showed increased levels of daily happiness. Also, participants experienced less depression and had higher satisfaction with life. Another study by the National Institutes of Health reported a similar finding in their research on donation. Participants of this study who donated money experienced activated pleasure centers in their brain.

   Findings of the Do Good Live Well Survey also reported higher happiness in charitable people. The survey consisted of 4,500 Americans, of whom 41 percent were volunteers. Of those volunteers, 89 percent claimed that volunteering had improved their overall wellbeing and 73 percent reported that it lowered their stress.

2. As well as improving overall happiness, charitable action has also been shown to improve overall health. In the 2008 compassion study by Fredrickson, participants of compassionate meditation were in better physical shape.

   The Do Good Live Well Survey reported the same, as 68 percent of volunteers said that volunteering made them feel physically better. Compassion was also shown to boost immune and stress responses, according to a 2009 study by Thaddeus Pace.

3. Charitable action has the capacity to improve important life skills such as empathy, helpfulness, and money handling. A study done by Antoine Luiz in 2008 shows how compassion impacts people’s ability to process their own and others’ emotions. The brains of participants were scanned, which showed the brain regions responsible for emotional processing were enhanced for those who completed compassionate meditation.

   Another study by Jennifer Mascaro in 2013 investigated further into the impact of compassion on empathy. Participants in the study were given the “Mind in Eyes Test” to evaluate their empathic accuracy. The participants who had completed a course on compassion scored higher on the test, meaning that compassion enhanced empathic accuracy.

   Compassionate people were also found to be more helpful, according to a 2011 study done by Susanne Leiberg. Those who participated in the study played the Zurich Prosocial Game, which tests whether they respond when others are distressed. Participants who went through compassion training before taking the test “demonstrated more pro-social behavior,” meaning that they were more helpful.

   Lastly, charitable action improves personal money management through scheduled donation. Having a scheduled donation to a charity calls for closer attention to personal finances, thus training people to be attentive to their bank account. On top of this, many charities grant a tax deduction.

Charitable action goes beyond helping those in need. Compassion and charity also can improve individual lives by making them happier, healthier and more skilled.

– Haley Hurtt

Fighting Violence Against Women: Eight Methods

Gender-based violence is a human rights violation. The use of violence against women (VAW) and children as a war tactic is inhumane and a way for extremist men to keep women “in their place”. Activists fighting for human rights often face considerable hostility, and many VAW activists recognize that creative activism along with a proclivity for affecting change from within goes a long way towards raising awareness of gender-based violence. While an innumerable number of people work tirelessly to bring positive changes to women’s lives, these eight campaigns are creatively fighting violence against women.

1. Maps4Aid – India

India ranks eighth on WondersList’s ten worst countries for women. The statistics are mind-numbing. Around 70 percent of women in India are victims of domestic violence. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a woman is a victim of crime every three minutes, a woman is raped every 15 minutes, a dowry death occurs every 77 minutes and around 100 million women and girls are estimated to be victim of human trafficking. In a country with such staggering crime rates, P. Sheemer created the Maps4Aid app, which uses SMS and email to submit reports of any crime committed against women. This data helps map out the areas that are the most unsafe for women to travel in. Eventually, this data will be used to map out the most dangerous streets and areas across India and to press authorities to provide extra security measures in these areas.

2. MenEngage Alliance – Kenya

MenEngage Alliance is an initiative of international NGOs to involve men and boys in promoting gender equality. Gender equality cannot be achieved in isolation; men need to be a part of the solution. The campaign aims to educate and work with men and boys around the world to change their perceptions of masculinity and to learn healthier ways to relate to each other. In addition, the campaign also aims to advocate for newer and better laws to end VAW, including female genital mutilation.

3. The Burka Avenger – Pakistan

Creating alternative narratives in line with popular culture can be a powerful tool to reach a wider audience with maximum impact. This is one of the reasons why countries like India and Pakistan are using comic strips as tools to reach its younger generation. The Peabody Award-winning “Burka Avenger” is a children’s cartoon series about a good-natured female Pakistani school teacher with secret martial arts training who dons a burka to tackle a range of issues, from discrimination against women to environmental protection to fighting polio.

4. Fathers’ club – Haiti

Most gender-based violence campaigns exclude men. In Haiti, Rorny Amile, a father from Haiti, started a fathers’ club to initiate a conversation on issues like meaningful consent and the importance of not using violence. The members receive training from CARE, an international organization with a mission to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. The organization spreads its message by going door-to-door in their community to talk to men about violence against women. According to Amile, “children see their fathers beating their mothers and some carry on the cycle of violence when they grow up. We’re trying to show other fathers it’s not okay to do that”.

5. Bead Game – Worldwide

The international organization CARE is creatively fighting violence against women by designing innovative games that challenge societal taboos. The Bead Game is designed by CARE to address issues related to the age-old blame that women take on if they are unable to produce a boy. With the help of two colored beads representing the X and Y chromosomes, the game demonstrates how the father determines the sex of a child. These domestic and cultural misunderstandings often result in gender-based violence, a problem CARE is committed to ending through community outreach, education and simple activities like the bead game.

6. Paradise – Norway

Photographer Walter Astrada is known the world over for using photography as a tool to fight VAW. Recently, he took his fight to Norway to show the world that gender-based violence is not just a third-world problem; it occurs even in a country with an impeccable reputation as one of the wealthiest, safest, well- educated and most democratic countries in the world.

7. Affordable Wood-Fired Stoves – Sudan

Zam Zam camp in North Darfur is home to 200,000 refugees fleeing the civil war in Sudan. The women of Zam Zam risk rape by Sudanese militiamen every time they leave the camp to collect wood for their cooking fires. If they chose otherwise, they would have to spend scarce money on firewood. Ashok Gadgil worked with Darfuri women and other engineers to create an affordable wood-fired stove that uses less wood. The stove reduced assaults, saved families money and made the homes of thousands of refugees healthier by considerably reducing carbon emissions.

8. Orange Day – United Nations

In light of the recent barrage of cases of gender-based violence, the United Nations designated the 25^th of every month as “Orange Day.” The UNiTE campaign, started by the United Nations Secretary-General’s, is dedicated to raising awareness and ending VAW. Orange Day is creatively fighting violence against women by calling upon everyone to mobilize people and highlighting issues relevant to preventing and ending VAW every month.

– Jagriti Misra

Photo: Flickr

Inclusive Learning: Improving the Education System in Ghana

The education system in Ghana is well known for maintaining the ignorant practice of marginalizing children, especially disabled children, from getting an education. Children who are girls, disabled, of an ethnic minority, and/or of the lower class are consistently neglected by the education system. Approximately 100,000 Ghanaian kids aged six to 14 have a disability. More than 30 percent, or 16,000, of those 100,000 kids are not getting an education.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service have created a 45-page document called the Inclusive Education Policy. Launched to combat special education discrimination, its mission statement is straightforward, saying: “inclusive schools must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their students, accommodating both different styles, rates of learning and ensuring quality education to all through appropriate curricula, organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and in partnerships with their communities.”

Among other documents, the Inclusive Education Policy is anchored in the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the Disability Act and the Education Act and will be reviewed every five years. The Inclusive Education Policy calls on parents, teachers, community leaders, government officials and the wider Ghanaian society to reevaluate deep-rooted, misguided ideas. It aims to change systems, create mechanisms, equip schools and perpetuate the beliefs that all children can learn, have a right to learn and learn differently. The education system in Ghana is working to ensure that children with and without disabilities have an encouraging physical, social, emotional and psychological environment to learn in. Despite the Inclusive Education Policy, kids with disabilities are still at risk of stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination in their local communities.

Under the Ghana Education Service, the Special Education Division started implementing Inclusive Education Policy fundamentals in the Greater Central Accra and Eastern Regions. In 2011, the policy covered 529 schools in 34 Ghanaian districts. In the summer of the following year, UNICEF implemented the policy in 14 more schools. In early 2017, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development provided 21 kindergartens across 11 districts with child-sized wheelchairs, crutches, complete spectacles, hearing aids, Snellen charts, tossing rings, tennis balls, basic screening materials, drums and assistive devices for assessment centers and schools.

– Tiffany Santos

Photo: Flickr