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Yehu Microfinance

Founded in 1998 under the name Yehu Enterprises Support Services (YESS), Yehu has always had a strong focus on low income rural entrepreneurs and women of Kenya. The company’s dedication to providing the aforementioned population with specially targeted products and services allows their customers to improve their economic position.

The most significant trait that sets Yehu apart is their commitment to responsiveness. The company receives feedback from their clients using surveys, focus groups, complaint resolutions, and market research. From these endeavors, employees are able to draw conclusions regarding what their customers want. Yehu believes that “access to responsive and sustainable financial services helps accelerate their clients’ ability to move up the economic ladder and improve their lives.”

The aforementioned dedication to customer satisfaction is clearly portrayed in their products and services. One of the products Yehu offers is known as the Maji ni Uhai (which means “water is life). The Maji ni Uhai allows the customer to choose from water tanks, water connectors, and fresh water wells. It involves “durable water tanks (both underground and storage tanks), piping, water harvesting infrastructure, water pans, and plumbing works.” This product is meant to provide clients with an uninterrupted sustainable supply of clean water for domestic and commercial use.

Among its other services, Yehu offers the following: Business Loans, Elimu Loans (school fees), Mabati Loans (home improvements and clean water harvesting), Emergency Loans (covers finances in case of an emergency or death), Poultry Loans, Meat Goat Loans, Sikukuu Loans (religious unemployment, covers costs of housing and food), and Top Up Loans (an additional amount given to clients with existing business loans to mitigate unforeseen business challenges). In all of these situations, Yehu values flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs.

According to the World Health Organization, there are only two registered medical professionals for every 1,000 patients in Kenya. A recent economic survey showed that only 19 public health officials and 18 doctors are available per 100,000 Kenyans. Those who have health insurance have the option to receive better care at a private health facility and have a much better chance of survival. However, few Kenyans can afford insurance for their families, much less themselves.

Thankfully, Yehu noticed this devastating problem and stepped up to the plate with the introduction of a brand new loan–the Afya Imara (“strong health”) loan. Boasting no HIV/AIDS exclusion, this loan allows Yehu members to purchase a combined in-patient and out-patient family insurance policy for $140 per year. To ensure the loan’s accessibility to the rural population, the company has offered them as low as 2 percent below market rate.

Another unique facet of Yehu’s business is how their credit officers operate. Eighty percent of clients live in the remote coastal villages of Kenya. Credit officers travel on foot or on motorbike in order to meet with clients weekly or bi-weekly. This distance would often be deemed a huge problem in regards to loan disbursement, but Yehu quickly figured out a solution.

All disbursements and deposits are made through “a network of local banks and post office outlets.” This prevents distance from becoming an issue and strongly displays Yehu’s commitment to accessibility and responsiveness.

– Samantha Davis

Sources: KIVA, Yehu
Photo: Joseph Hill

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What is Measure DHS?

Measure_DHS
How prevalent is anemia in children and women? Is there a good vaccine against malaria available where it’s needed the most? What are the consequences of domestic violence? And what are some complications resulting from second-hand smoke?

Seeking to provide accurate answers to these, and many other questions of similar nature, MEASURE DHS (Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results of Demographic and Health Surveys) is a comprehensive database which employs a wide variety of household surveys and evaluation methods around the globe.

There are over 300 survey templates spread across more than 90 countries. Complementing the survey results, biological markers and GPS data are often collected together with the survey questions for maximum accuracy. Through an online platform called STATcompiler, DHS results are viewable in scatter plots, charts and maps – these are all sorted by indicator and year.

The purpose of DHS is not solely to collect and catalogue, though. Evaluating valuable statistics on disease, fertility and nutrition is crucial to solving global issues within those, and other categories.

Two kinds of surveys are utilized to ensure the most precise measuring data technique: standard and interim. The former is conducted at circa five-year intervals to allow for comparison over time, and the latter deals with key performance monitoring. Although both types are nationally representative, sample sizes for standard surveys tend to be much larger than interim.

Started in 1984 by ICF International and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), data collected by DHS is used for planning new programs in host countries and policy formation. Developing countries are specifically targeted in this long-running project, and many of the findings are published online.

For instance, an interesting trend has recently been discovered that seems to disprove the common misconception that HIV affects impoverished communities most: factually, HIV-afflicted citizens of many of the countries surveyed have a tendency to belong to the wealthiest families.

MEASURE DHS is open to communicating with the media for coverage of results and promotion of new survey distributions; this way, it becomes possible to reach as many people as possible and collect an accurately representative sample.

When new information comes to light and is indicative of a desired policy change, MEASURE DHS often forms partnerships with other organizations in order to help understand and get the most out of the results and develop new, effective programs as a response. For example, after the 2003-2004 Tanzania HIV Indicator Survey, MEASURE DHS developed a curriculum which aided hundreds of professionals in their work with AIDS/HIV, and worked together with Pathfinder, Pact Inc., and the Tanzania Commission on AIDS.

Together, they organized new training for staff working with HIV/AIDS, which lasted for three days and provided valuable insight for the future of AIDS studies, both on location and in the U.S.

Overall, MEASURE DHS provides essential data from the past few decades which supports and shapes the partner USAID’s (and others’) global work. First-hand quantitative and qualitative questions on the surveys allow for unique and accurate depiction of an entire country’s population. Although the project itself tends to be somewhat underappreciated in social media, it has since its start been the sturdy backbone of humanitarian workers across the nation.

– Natalia Isaeva

Sources: Measure DHS, ICFI

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Jamii Bora Bank and its Fight Against Poverty

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What is the Jamii Bora Bank? Originally known as the Jamii Bora Trust, the Jamii Bora Bank (JBB) was founded in 1999 by a group of Kenyan families in order to serve the needs of citizens looking to escape poverty.

Beginning as a charitable trust, the organization currently specializes in micro finance services for an estimated 300,000 Kenyans with 150,000 new customers acquired in 2013 alone. JBB is not simply a bank; the institution has become an established resource in fighting Kenya’s poverty level over the last decade. The poverty gap around the world has grown dramatically worldwide and Kenya is no exception.

In the past 2 years, JBB has raised its capital by over 1 billion Kenyan shillings and shifted the focus on poverty aid. Initiatives include affordable housing, vast infrastructure improvement, and increased employment. Available banking methods have evolved to provide individuals with the financial tools necessary to gain middle income living through personal, mortgage, small and medium enterprise and agricultural banking.

Bank members are allowed to borrow over twice the amount of funds within their saving accounts which can then be applied to a variety of debts including school bills, healthcare costs, housing payments, and business startups.

Technology has played an important role in the bank’s growth within the last year. Newly implemented programs suggest that lack of access to technology directly correlates to poverty levels, as well. In response, the first ATM debit cards were released to customers by JBB earlier this year. Mobile banking has also become available within the last few months and the addition of Western Union services have enabled Kenyans to connect to the outside world with ease.

The institution has designed an innovative reward program for its citizens. Similar to referral programs favored by U.S. banks, employees, and customers are financially rewarded for successfully referring a friend to enroll in banking services. However, JBB offers rewards for the duration of the new account. In theory, if Customer A convinces Customer B to enroll in services, and Customer B maintains an account for 10 years, Customer A will receive monetary rewards for 10 years.

Jamii Bora also contains a component solely devoted to public health with special focus on issues such as HIV/AIDS, maternal health, child and newborn wellness, and primary/secondary care. Health insurance is available to members and includes maternal care, HIV/AIDS patient inclusion, and inpatient care without any form of co-payment.

The plan is needed in a country where nearly 34,000 children die from malaria annually and an estimated 360,000 are prescribed antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS treatment, according to USAID.

The bank continues to strive to reach its goal of 6 million members by 2018. It hopes to expand its current network across the continent, essentially allowing many developing African nations to gain a foothold in the current technology-centric world. Its innovative programs may one day allow millions of Kenyans and their neighbors to escape their current state of poverty.

– Jasmine D. Smith

Sources: Jamii Bora Bank, Health Market Innovations, USAID
Photo: West fm

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Universal Health Coverage Beyond 2015

A new movement of global leaders is urging the United Nations to include universal health coverage in the next round of goals for economic development, just as similar reforms are up for discussion in the United States. This United Nations statement, signed by 15 global civil society organizations, urges UN countries to include healthcare in post-Millennium Development Goals.

Health coverage rates in the United States are already significantly higher than those in most developing countries, where coverage is sometimes below 10 percent. Because of this, nearly a billion people worldwide are unable to obtain modern healthcare and 100 million people every year are forced into poverty by out-of-pocket expenses.

The above figures exemplify the growing need for universal health coverage, which is constantly pushing people from all over the world into poverty. Without these expenses covered, it will be nearly impossible to end extreme poverty.

“Universal health coverage can bring the global health community together,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a special adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on the Millennium Development Goals. “UHC is where all diseases come together, all countries have primary health systems, all ages and all classes have care.”

With the current government shutdown in the United States over the Affordable Care Act, it is easy to see how monumental the issue of universal health coverage truly is. Perhaps the first step should be in the United States, and the next step, the entire global system. Health is a universal right, and in working towards a poverty-free future, it is undoubtedly the place to begin.

– Sonia Aviv

Sources: all Africa, New York Times, PawNation
Photo: Sunday Times UK

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The Side Effects of Not Knowing

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Everyone in the United States knows to expect a long, rambling list of side effects at the end of a TV commercial for medication. We have also learned that taking medication as directed by a physician is an important part of being a responsible patient and consumer, and to notify our doctor immediately if symptoms worsen. But in the absence of television, many people living in rural communities of developing nations don’t know what to make of their medication and its side effects. And without consistent access to doctors or nurses who might be able to explain these side effects, patients’ lack of information often prevents them from benefiting from medication meant to help their quality of life.

This lack of consumer information has dramatic consequences. For example, the World Health Organization estimates that there are more than 222 million women worldwide who would like to use family planning methods to delay or prevent pregnancies, but are unable to do so. Coincidentally, for those women who do make it through social and financial barriers to obtain birth control pills, experiencing adverse symptoms to birth control is one of the main reasons women stop using the method. When women get unexplained bleeding outside of regular menstruation, cramps, headaches, and back pain, they assume the medication is hurting their bodies. This breeds rumors that birth control damages the body, further ingraining social stigma against family planning.

Similar issues surround the drug Coartam, used in many rural health centers as the first-line treatment for malaria. Because Coartam relieves the fever and chills of a malarial infection, some patients will ask for Coartam any time they have a fever, whether it is caused by the malaria parasite or not.

Most public health organizations focusing on HIV/AIDS have realized the critical importance of education alongside medication and healthcare. The famous ABC campaign, first created by the health ministry of Botswana in the 1990s and adjusted in 2003, has educated millions of people about how the HIV virus is transmitted, and how abstinence, being tested regularly, and using condoms can prevent HIV infection. The campaign has aimed to leverage the millions of dollars invested in condom distribution. Because gender dynamics and other social norms play a large role in the acceptance or rejection of condom use, education is a critical step in bringing about behavior change.

Now, health education needs to expand to include drug information any U.S. consumer would want to know. Public health and international development projects need to have the foresight and funding to include patient education if they want to truly impact healthcare and quality of life.

– Shelly Grimaldi

Sources: World Health Organization
Photo: EmaxHealth

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Could Aspirin be the Solution for Colon Cancer?

Aspirin Potential Cure for Colon Cancer
Aspirin is a synthetic compound used medicinally to relieve mild or chronic pain and to reduce fever and inflammation. Many people use it when they feel ill, feverish, nauseous, or all of the above. However, researchers have also found another crucial use for the common over-the-counter pill. According to Nancy R. Cook, Associate Biostatistician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School, a low dose of aspirin may serve as protection against colon cancer.

Cook’s study was based on “a long-term trial in a large group of women, who have been underrepresented in studies on this topic.” According to official reports, “The study included nearly 40,000 women, 45 and older, who were part of the Women’s Health Study.” About 34,000 participated in a follow-up study. Researchers followed the women for up to 18 years from the start of the study. The research has also found that aspirin has preventative properties against other diseases, such as melanoma. Each of the study’s participants was required to take a 100mg dose of aspirin every other day.

During the first ten years, researchers failed to link aspirin to a cancer cure – let alone to a colon cancer cure. However, when researchers passed the 10 year mark, aspirin was highly associated to colon cancer treatments. According to official reports, “study participants who reported aspirin use after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer had a 29% lower risk of colorectal cancer death and a 21% lower risk of overall death, compared to non-aspirin users.”

In addition, researchers also found that patients taking aspirin after their first diagnosis as positive colon cancer patients had a greater chance of survival. According to WebMD, patients with colon cancer who began regular aspirin use for the first time after diagnosis had a “47% lower risk of colorectal cancer death and 32% lower risk of overall death than nonusers of aspirin.” Moreover, researchers have found that some colorectal cancer tumors may be resistant to aspirin’s effects, while others may be especially susceptible. The researchers found that colon cancers related to Cox-2 positive tumors are more susceptible to aspirin’s cancer-eliminating effects. Today, more research is being planned in regards to cancers dealing with other type of tumors.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: WebMD, CNN Health
Photo: Extreme Longevity

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Gender Equality Still an Important Goal

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As the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  rapidly approaches, there is much discussion on the post-2015 MDGs. A coalition of charities and campaign groups plans to ask the leaders at this year’s UN General Assembly to take a holistic approach to ending global poverty.

This holistic approach targets those most vulnerable demographics: women and girls. The coalition argues that by empowering women and girls, the true root causes of poverty will be addressed.

There is concern that the current MDG goal of gender equality will be replaced with a watered-down goal addressing broader inequality concerns. However, the coalition believes that gender equality was a neglected MDG goal the first time around and, therefore, needs to be an area of focus in the post-2015 goals.

Countries with greater gender equality in education and employment have stronger economic growth and human development. Therefore, empowering women and girls creates a stronger country and world. Empowering women and girls will help end world poverty.

Empowering women and girls starts with their physical health. By providing accessible and affordable healthcare, core concerns such as maternal health, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights will be addressed. Currently, the main concerns include the lack of healthcare and sexual and reproductive health services for women, as well as the lack of medical care for their children.

Many women and girls die from inadequate healthcare. By addressing these vital needs, it is estimated that 79,000 maternal deaths, most of which occur in sub-Saharan Africa, would be prevented.

Recognizing that mothers sustain and create life, the coalition is urging the Member States to include a goal that focuses explicitly  on gender and equality. According to Tewodros Melesse, the Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a world with gender equality is a “world of justice, choice, and well being for all.”

Working on the MDGs has provided the world with many lessons. Perhaps the most valuable of these is that progress is likely to be uneven – and at times reversed – if gender equality is not viewed and addressed as a vital goal.

– Caressa Kruth

Sources: News Afrique Informations, The Guardian
Photo: A Nation of Moms

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Health Leads & Clinton Global Initiative

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Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, spoke about Health Leads during a panel discussion on non-communicable diseases (NCD) at the Clinton Global Initiative on 24 September. Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey noted that important preventative measures for NCDs should include analyzing the living environments outside hospital walls in order to improve the quality of overall care people receive, which is what Health Leads specifically advocates and executes.

Health Leads’s mission statement reads, “to catalyze this health care system by connecting patients with the basic resources they need to be healthy…to champion quality care for all patients.” An example of this model is enabling doctors to prescribe basic resources like food and heat to their patients the same way the doctors would prescribe medicine or provide referrals. This whole-patient approach requires healthcare professionals to learn about the community environment and the living conditions of their patients when they leave their doctors’ offices.

The results of these inquiries enter the patient’s electronic record, which partner-hospitals can use to refer patients who lack basic resources to Health Leads. Through a systematic set of steps, the patient can carry the prescription to a Health Leads desk at the partner-hospital.

A Health Leads Advocate then works with the patient to connect her to the necessary community services that will help provide the basic resources the patient requires. Aid programs for basic resources may include additional health insurance coverage, access to food pantries and food assistance programs, discounts on gas and electric costs, job training, and childcare subsidies.

The last two steps require a follow-up from the Health Leads Advocate and updates to the clinic team from the patient. This symbiotic relationship is necessary to navigate any further challenges that may arise as a result of the previous steps. These challenges may include tracking down phone numbers, creating maps, finding transportation, and completing applications. Health Leads launched in 2010 and has since served over 23,000 patients.

In 2012, the program identified the top seven patient needs: education, utilities, housing, food, employment, income and benefits, and legal. To address these needs Health Leads trains a dedicated staff of program managers and Advocates whose sole design is to connect patients with the basic resources they require to get healthy.

– Yuliya Shokh

Sources: Health Leads, CGI 2013 Annual Meeting
Photo: Bloomberg

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New Study Links Hygiene and Height

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According to a new study linking hygiene and height, soap and clean water for hand washing can help increase growth in young children. Previous medical studies have proven that better hygiene can reduce outbreaks of diarrhea among children less than five years, but the studies failed to measure its impact on a child’s height.

The most recent study showed a slight improvement in average growth by half a centimeter among children who used proper hand-washing techniques as opposed to those who did not. Researchers concluded that clean water and soap decreased stunting—when a child is too short for his/her age— by as much as 15 percent.

Further scientific evidence is also showing a connection between instances of diarrhea and a child’s development. The evidence shows that repeated bouts of diarrhea can reduce the gut’s ability to absorb nutrients that allow children to develop a healthy mind and body.

Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the study’s lead authors, said that “WASH”—water, sanitation, and hygiene—fits all the characteristics of a underlying cause of malnutrition.

Dangour and his colleagues found 14 studies conducted in low- to middle income countries that provided data on the effects of the WASH program on the growth of nearly 9,500 children. Five of the studies included control groups of children who did not receive soap and clean water, but who were similar in most other ways to the children who did.

Chronic malnutrition, which causes stunting, is a foremost cause of preventable mental disabilities in children under five-years old. It claims the lives of nearly three million young children per year.

Until now there has been no research conducted on the direct impact of WASH interventions on nutrition. Researchers believe that further, more “robust” evidence is needed. Nevertheless, these findings are significant, and they remain hopeful that WASH could be the simple ‘cure for stunting.’

– Scarlet Shelton

Sources: IRIN, The Lancet, Wiley Online Library
Photo: Examiner

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How Poverty Impacts the Environment

Poverty Impacts the Environment
How poverty impacts the environment: Natural resources are being depleted, clean air is growing scarce, climates are shifting, and entire ecosystems are being affected. It doesn’t take long to look around the world and see the ways in which the environment is changing. While mankind, in general, places stress on the environment, poverty in particular has played a major role in environmental degradation across the world.

 

Poverty Impacts the Environment: Effects and Solutions

 

One of the biggest ways that the environment is affected by poverty is through deforestation. Forests provide the world with clean air, in addition to working as “sink holes” that help reduce the drastic climate changes seen in the world today. With the increasing level of deforestation taking place, the environment is taking a heavy blow and finding it difficult to recover. Impoverished communities, unaware of the errant, harmful ways in which they use natural resources, such as forest wood and soil, are continuing the destructive cycle that spirals the environment further downward.

Air pollution is another way in which poverty contributes to environmental degradation. As mentioned above, poor communities lack the proper knowledge when it comes to production techniques. Thus, the ways in which they use resources to help them survive are harmful to the resources around them, and ultimately the world at large. Air pollution is one of the major consequences of poor production techniques while water pollution is a result of poor water management, once again due to lack of knowledge. Water pollution affects so many things beyond the poor community itself. Water pollution deprives soil of nourishing elements, kills off fish, and is extremely harmful to human health.

Because extreme poverty doesn’t always lend to widespread birth education, many poor women lack the resources necessary to engage in birth control. Therefore, it is common for poor women to continue having children well after they would have liked because of little to no access to resources and education.

The more the global population grows, the more weight is placed on the environment. Every human being consumes their share of resources from the environment, and with so many births originating from poor communities, the burdens placed on the environment grow heavier and heavier each day.

In order to help the state of the environment, we must first help the state of the poor and education is key.

Poor regions need to know what the proper and harmless methods are in which they can dispose of their waste. They must learn how to tend a healthy and sound agricultural system without the reliance on degraded soil, and other unfit resources. There must be more importance placed on water management and protecting fisheries, as those are essential for the livelihood of many people. Re-forestation projects are crucial in replenishing the supply of environmental “goods” that deforestation has destroyed.

In addition, taking action to stop the rampage of deforestation is even more important in order to begin to nourish the environment back to good health.

– Chante Owens

Sources: Teams To End Poverty, Global Issues
Photo: Science Daily