Posts

, , , , ,

5 Ways to Make Your Workout Fight Poverty

Workout_Fight_Poverty
We all know working out is good for us. It makes you feel good and improves your health. But what if your workout could fight poverty as well? Sound too good to be true? It’s not! Here are 5 ways that you can help end poverty with your workout:

1) Charity Miles: This free app will track how many miles you run, walk, or bike and sponsor your efforts. For every mile you run or walk, they’ll donate a quarter, while a mile biking translates to a dime for charity. When you’re done with your workout, you share your success on a social media site and they send the money to a charity of your choice!

2) Run For Charity: This website will help you find a charity to run for. Charity runners use their training and hard work to raise money for the charity of their choice. Charities are extremely supportive of their runners, providing help with registration, training, and fundraising. Some will even have race day events for their runners. This is a great opportunity for runners to put all those miles to good use.

3) Plus 3 Network: This network was created by four guys who wanted to encourage people to get out and ride their bikes more. It has since grown to include all forms of exercise, which you can log on their website. You earn money for charity by logging your activity, so you feel even better about that yoga class or walk around the block.

4) Eco-Friendly Workout Gear: You show yourself some love by working out and staying healthy. Show the earth some love, too, by purchasing eco-friendly workout gear. Be sure to buy your shoes, socks, and clothing from eco-friendly companies like Montrail (shoes), Teko (socks), or Patagonia (clothing). Using reusable water bottles will keep plastic ones out of landfills and save you money. You can also look for secondhand fitness supplies, like weights, treadmills, and exercise balls to cut down on waste.

5) Donate Your Old Workout Gear: That fitness equipment that you just don’t use anymore could help someone else lead a healthier life. You can donate old sports balls, shoes, cleats, and the like to Sports Gifts, which redistributes old workout gear to underprivileged kids. Old tennis balls can go to Rebounces, which restores them and resells them as practice balls, saving space in our landfills. Your old orthotics that helped you get back to the activities you love can be given to Rebounces’ philanthropic organization, Joni and Friends. The nonprofit will give the equipment to disabled or injured people in the developing world.

– Katie Fullerton

Sources: Charity Miles, Plus 3 Network, SparkPeople, Oprah
Photo: DX Foundation

, ,

Prenatal Sprinkles Offer Easy Solution to Malnourishment

Sprinkles_Prenatal_Health
According to the Hunger Project, a non-profit organization that works to end global hunger, “malnutrition occurs when the variety or quality of food is insufficient to support proper development and health.”

Roughly 15 percent of babies born in developing countries are of low birth weight due to maternal malnutrition, and even those born at a healthy weight are at risk for malnutrition due to insufficient breastfeeding. Malnutrition causes one-third of global child deaths, perpetuated as undernourished women give birth in low-resource settings.

When a malnourished woman gives birth to a low-birth weight baby that has already been affected by her mother’s malnourishment, the child will suffer from a compromised immune system and will most likely stay malnourished, even when she reaches reproductive age. Her child, too, will be born malnourished, and the cycle of malnourishment will continue.

Seeking to break the cycle of malnourishment, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada is developing a daily microencapsulated micronutrient powder through its affiliate SickKids.

Called “Prenatal Sprinkles,” this powder contains iron, folic acid and calcium. Pregnant and lactating women in poor areas can simply sprinkle their food with this supplement in order to combat malnutrition.

Prenatal Sprinkles will help to combat anemia during pregnancy, which often leads to premature birth, and preeclampsia associated with hypertension, which often causes maternal and fetal death.

Prenatal Sprinkles can potentially lower maternal hypertensive disease related mortality by 20 percent and preterm birth by 24 percent. Previously, supplements could not contain both iron and calcium due to poor absorption, but Prenatal Sprinkles contain differential time-release nutrients that increase iron and calcium absorption and prevent calcium-iron interaction. They also have a smooth texture and a pleasant flavor, making them palatable for malnourished women.

The Hospital for Sick Children is partnering with companies in the private sector in order to finance the production of Prenatal Sprinkles, but the projected cost of mass production is very low for the supplement.

Though Prenatal Sprinkles are not yet in wide circulation, they offer a simple and cost effective solution to malnutrition, a problem that cannot be solved by food aid alone.

– Katie Bandera

Sources: Sprinkles (R) 60mg Fe for Pregnant and Lactating Women, Issues: Malnutrition
Photo: Girls’ Globe

, , ,

Project Concern International

Africa-Kenya-Agricultural-Extension-Development
Project Concern International (PCI) is an organization which seeks to to prevent disease, improve community health, and promote sustainable development worldwide. PCI was founded in 1961 by Dr. James Turpin after saving the lives of two children suffering from pneumonia while working in a Tijuana clinic. This experience inspired the young doctor to go on and forever change the lives of millions. PCI envisions a world in which resources are abundant and shared, communities are capable of providing for the basic health and well-being of its members, and children and families can achieve lives of hope, good health and self-sufficiency. PCI conducts its work through field offices in host countries where directors can live in the area and get an intimate understanding of local needs.

Working in 16 countries, PCI hopes to reach at least 5 million people per year with its services. Overtime, PCI has expanded its reach through increased funding: from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to government grants to the Starbucks foundation, PCI has a well rounded list of supporters. PCI’s ultimate goals include addressing the root causes of poverty and poor health; working with the community to leverage their assets, capabilities and goals to create community-inclusive solutions; implementing holistic solutions; cultivating long-standing relationships with community leaders, investors, and stakeholders to catalyze the impact of aid spent; and developing tools which measure the long-term success of such programs. PCI addresses poverty through programs focused on women’s empowerment & poverty, children’s health, disease prevention, food & water programs, and disaster relief & recovery. Between 2013-2016, PCI hopes to reach over 10 million people worldwide and become a leader in building community capacity, resilience and self-sufficiency.

In addition to its programs worldwide, PCI also has a series of initiatives to further promote its goals. These intiatives include: Women Empowered, Legacy, Who Cares? and SHE.

  • Women Empowered: Established in May of this year, Women Empowered is an initiative in support of women’s equality, human rights and success. PCI believes that women are the solution to poverty, poor health and vulnerability and that through WE, women can attain social and economic empowerment. WE programs are currently being implemented in Guatemala, Bolivia, Botswana, and Malawi. One such success story comes from Maweta in Zambia. After raising six children of her own, Maweta returned to parenthood to raise her grandchildren after their parents died from AIDS. Without a steady source of income, Maweta struggled to provide for her grandchildren. After attending a community orientation hosted by PCI, Maweta began mobilizing women in her community to form a self-help group. Nine months later, Maweta has learned how to read and write, perform basic accounting and save $60 by selling mangoes to her community. Maweta has since received a loan to start a small business. Maweta buys food in bulk, repackages it into smaller quantities and sells these to her village. Since starting the business, Maweta has been able to provide for her grandchildren’s basic needs and education.
  • Legacy: PCI’s Legacy Programs focus on maternal/child health and nutrition, as well as economic empowerment. As the name suggests, ‘Legacy’ for PCI means consistent and compassionate commitment to the communities involved. These programs include: Well Baby clinics, Ventanilla de Salud (VDS), Casa Materna, and the Street and Working Children Program. Ventanilla de Salud (VDS) targets at risk immigrant populations near the border, by providing basic health and community services, while these families are waiting for service at the Mexican consulate. VDS has reached more than 41,000 people with health education information and nearly 20,000 with HIV/AIDS prevention messages. However, the VDS program suffers from a lack of funding and has been scaled back by more than 25 percent.
  • Who Cares?: An online campaign which celebrates, recognizes and encourages those who are giving back to the greater good. Who Cares? provides volunteers with the opportunity to network, share stories, or just get motivated about a cause. Who Cares targets the youth and young adults because they believe that the ability of today’s youth to mobilize others is huge, yet largely untapped. In addition, Who Cares provides tools to help the youth mobilize others and make their efforts pay off.
  • SHE: SHE, which is short for Strong, Health and Empowered, is a group of ambassadors who dedicate their time to PCI’s projects across the globe. These ambassadors work within the community to promote women’s empowerment and find innovative solutions to ensure that women lead strong, healthy lives.

To learn more about PCI’s work, explore PCIglobal.org for more info.

– Kelsey Ziomek

Sources: PCI Global, The San Diego Foundation, Washington Global Health Alliance, Coronado Eagle

, ,

Four Focuses of Hunger Prevention

four-ways-hunger-prevention-borgen-project-global-poverty_opt
Millions of people worldwide live with the absence of available food sources. From our Western perspective, this is often difficult to understand as well as painful to imagine. However, the world without food is not without hope. Here, we focus on 5 ways to not only stop hunger in its current state, but also prevent it from happening in the first place.

1. Look to the Future.
Breaking the cycle of hunger is not possible without future-mindedness. So many countries go hungry due to lack of investment—no one sends aid because the hungry population is not prospering, the population is not prospering because they don’t have enough food to function…and the nightmare goes on. Investing in the future and electing smart leaders who have a plan to fight this epidemic is crucial to ending current and preventing future starvation.

2. Focus On Women.
Women make up 60% of the world’s hungry. Starving women means malnourished babies or failed pregnancies, and even those pregnancies that do come to term often lead to another hunger-stricken life.

Women tend to go hungry more often than men, because women are more likely to have unequal access to resources, education, and income—all because they tend to participate less in decision-making. Healthy women will bear healthy babies, raise them into healthy children, and create healthy adults.

3. Invest in Livestock and Agriculture.
Think of the famous saying,  “Catch a man a fish, and feed him for a night. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” Sustainable production of food is essential for starvation prevention, and healthy communities. Most starving countries have poor agricultural systems due to drought or lack of water sanitation.

However, it is not the drought itself that erodes food security in a population. The real issue here is an areas vulnerability to drought because of chronic underinvestment in their lands and livestock.

A population’s land may be infertile so no one invests in improving it for fear of little return, but the land is infertile because the people don’t have the resources to cultivate it; the people don’t have the resources to cultivate the land because no one is investing in it. A modest investment can break this cycle.

4. Find Out How You Can Help.
Hunger won’t end without all of our help. All of us—every human being on the planet—need to commit to fighting starvation in order for it to end. Something as simple as volunteering at a food back, or something as radical as campaigning on Capitol Hill will move our world toward an age where no one dies of starvation.

– Kali Faulwetter

Source: Ready Nutrition, Revolution Hunger, Trust, World Food Programme
Photo: ICNA Relief

, , , , , ,

Bruno Mars Sings for Poverty Relief

bruno mars sings for poverty relief
Bruno Mars isn’t just another handsome face singing catchy love songs. He — along with over 70 artists — is partnering with the Global Poverty Project to address poverty worldwide by using a fanbase to raise awareness and funds.

Global Citizen is a website managed by the Global Poverty Project that centralizes information about global poverty and opportunities to help. Its ultimate goal is to increase the number of citizens actively advocating for change. The site is comprised of actions related to education and advocacy campaigning, all of which address 13 key issues:

  • Food and Hunger
  • Primary Education
  • Gender Equality
  • Child Mortality
  • Maternal Health
  • Fighting Diseases
  • Water and Sanitation
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Global Partnerships
  • Fighting Corruption
  • Effective Governance
  • Polio Eradication
  • Fair Trade

Participation in Global Citizen actions such as watching a video about extreme poverty, signing petitions, contacting representatives or volunteering time or money earn points for users, which can be redeemed for prizes.

14-time Grammy Award nominee Bruno Mars is one of over 70 artists who realize the importance of ending global poverty. As touring recording artists, they are exposed to areas of the world that suffer the effects of extreme poverty in outrageous percentages. Recognizing the power of their celebrity, they have stood up to support the movement. Mars joins a group of industry power-players like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Kanye West, John Mayer and more who have donated at least 2 tickets from each show scheduled in their current tour, resulting in over 20,000 tickets donated to Global Citizen. Once users reach enough points, they can enter a drawing for a chance to win concert tickets. Another option is simply redeeming a higher number of points for tickets, similar to the ‘Buy It Now’ feature on eBay.

Extreme poverty has been cut in half in the last 30 years, and the knowledge and resources necessary to end the crisis completely within a generation are available. It won’t happen overnight, but Global Citizen is breeding an army: an army with the power to end extreme poverty by making informed consumer decisions and advocating for change. Global Citizen and artists like Bruno Mars are helping people to see that every voice counts and every person is capable of changing lives around the world.

– Dana Johnson

Source: Global Citizen, New York Times
Photo: Smash Vault

Chinese Health Diplomacy in Africa

Chinese Health Diplomacy in Africa
China has been a part of health aid to Africa since 1941 and has since then developed their intervention in Africa to be distinctly different from that of Western aid. Their emphasis has been on horizontal interventions to further develop health care infrastructure in a clearly anti-imperialist manner. Health diplomacy for China specifically targets under-served rural communities, with more than 15,000 medical personnel serving in Africa since 1964. Another important difference is that China’s assistance is almost entirely public in nature, and in the words of one Chinese informant: “If they don’t ask, we don’t provide”.

This factor is incredibly important, as it gives the aid recipients a much larger role in any initiatives, wherein they propose a project and the Chinese government then assesses whether it can meet those demands or not. Chinese medical teams also tend to stay together in one facility for a minimum of two years, whereas interventions from the West usually end up turned over to the government with an end to donor involvement after a project ends. In this way, China is working towards a very sustainable strengthening of the Chinese healthcare system.

The construction of clinics and training of medical students is also a focus point of Chinese health diplomacy. Most recently, the development of “container hospitals” will soon be introduced into African countries, either in Cameroon or Namibia as a starting place. Each hospital consists of ten containers with rooms for “general clinics, waiting for patients, treatments, a pharmacy and back-up power supply”. These portable hospitals were developed in order to be used for long-term service use near suburban villages. Smaller “container clinics” have also been developed with one to three containers. These clinics are expected to reach Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Egypt by the end of the year, and the first of these will be staffed by African doctors trained specifically to use these container hospitals and clinics.

While China’s focus on infrastructure is clear and effective, recently Chinese health diplomacy has seen a shift to work closely with organizations such as The Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. These collaborations have been focused on malaria and HIV/AIDS treatment, which are a contrast to the infrastructural focus of China’s common aid projects. Hopefully, Western organizations and donors will begin to shift their focus as well so that no source of aid is entirely focused on vertical or on horizontal aid programs. As well, all forms of assistance should work closely with the recipient governments in order to provide more effective and efficient aid.

– Sarah Rybak
Source: All Africa, All Africa
Photo: The Age World

, , , ,

Food Insecurity in India

Food Insecurity in India
The Indian government is currently considering a special session of parliament to pass a bill on food security. While some dismiss the effort as a rather blatant ploy for votes by the ruling Congress party, the issue of food security is very real for the world’s second-most populous country.

The UN World Food Programme recently released a report on food security in the Indian state of Maharashtra that highlights the challenges for India as it seeks to push forward in its economic and social development. Maharashtra is one of the largest states in population and land area in the country. The state has varied landscapes, varied demographics, and is an excellent example of the complexities involved in Indian food security.

Two key factors in addressing food security and social and economic issues arising from widespread hunger and malnutrition are child mortality and under-nutrition. Half the districts of Maharashtra suffer from under-five mortality rates higher than the national average of 74.3 per 1,000 live births. The state also struggles in comparison to the national average of under-weight children, with 26 of to 33 districts above the national percentage.

In both children and adults, improving the nutritional level can improve an individual’s productivity level. Given the implications such improvements hold for the overall development of a community, there are several programs working to reduce and prevent under-nutrition. Unfortunately, these programs are plagued by the problems of centralized implementation, often resulting in more affluent populations receiving aid over the populations most in need.

Availability, access, and absorption of food are also critical issues in Indian food security. Changing rainfall patterns in Maharashtra have created new challenges involving these aspects. Effective irrigation infrastructure and practices are notably lacking throughout much of the state, causing widespread low crop productivity. Low crop productivity, in turn, reduces a household’s income, limiting their buying power of food commodities they do not grow themselves.

Even when food is available, water-borne illnesses can drastically reduce the number of nutrients absorbed. Cleaner irrigation practices and modernized infrastructure are proven methods to improve the morbidity and mortality rates from these diseases, and a healthier population is a more productive population.

More effective irrigation is not the only infrastructure needed in Maharashtra. Road improvements are critical to improving food access in the region. Reliable roads not only open up economic opportunities but also serve to connect a rural population to health and education resources. This connectivity, particularly to educational opportunities, can help diversify rural economies away from a sole reliance on agriculture.

Women are also an important part of the successful implementation of food security and development programs in Maharashtra. Reducing and eliminating gender inequality is a top priority of the UN World Food Programme. In Maharashtra, women’s land ownership rights are particularly critical in integrating women into the food security solution.

Even with modest progress, the challenges facing Maharashtra and India as a whole are daunting. Government, private sector, and foreign investment in the implementation of responsible and sustainable development practices is critical. More critical, however, is the collaboration of the local communities receiving the aid. Without a comprehensive, collaborative approach, the many challenges of food security in Maharashtra and India could continue to afflict several future generations.

– Lauren Brown
Source: UN World Food Programme, BBC
Photo: Ask Use

, ,

Violence Against Women is Global Health Epidemic

Violence Against WomenPhysical or sexual violence against women is causing a global health problem of “epidemic proportions,” according to a new study released by the World Health Organization on June 20.

The report, “Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner and non-partner sexual violence,” was released in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council. According to the report, more than 1 in 3 women globally are impacted by physical or sexual violence. The perpetrator of such violence is usually an intimate partner: it affects an estimated 30 percent of women worldwide.

The new study compared this violence in high-income countries with that in other countries. The study found that 23.2 percent of women living in high-income countries experience intimate partner violence, as compared with 36.6 percent in Africa, 37 percent in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and 37.7 percent in South-East Asia.

“These findings send a powerful message,” said Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO. “We also see that the world’s health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence.”

The report looked at the impact of violence on both the physical and mental health of girls and women, including broken bones, pregnancy-related complications, impaired social functioning, and mental problems.

Other findings on the health impacts of intimate partner violence were staggering. The report found that 38 percent of all women who were murdered were killed by their intimate partners. Women who experienced this were twice as likely to have alcohol-use problems and were 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. In some regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, those women were also 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV.

The report called for a major scaling up of violence-prevention efforts by addressing social and cultural factors that could be impacting the prevalence of violence. It also called for better health care for women experiencing it. Simply teaching health workers how to respond to violence could be helpful, the report noted.

The report pulled data from dozens of regional and national studies for the first time. By using regional data it was also able to highlight regional patterns. For example, women in Africa are almost twice as likely to experience violence as women living in lower and middle-income countries in Europe.

– Liza Casabona

Source: World Health Organization, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian

, , ,

Feed the Children

Feed_the_childrenEvery single day, families all across the world struggle to provide food for their children. The harsh effects of world hunger and malnutrition are shocking. In 2010, nearly 7.6 million children lost their lives. Of these children, nearly half died due to hunger and poor nutrition.

Feed the Children (FTC) does not take these issues lightly. A not-for-profit organization, FTC pledges to make a difference in children’s lives. Donations made to FTC are matched five times by partner support, making contributions even more important. These donations provide the children with everything they need to be properly nourished and healthy.

FTC is deeply rooted in its values. These values, reflected through their four pillars, serve to end world hunger and poverty altogether. The four pillars are:

1.    Food and Nutrition
2.    Water and Sanitation
3.    Health and Education
4.    Livelihood Development

FTC provides relief in ways other than donations. Volunteers can take part in medical and disaster missions worldwide. There is also the opportunity to sponsor a child. Donors are able to keep in contact with the child they are providing for, communicating with the child and receiving updates on the child’s health.

For more information on the Feed The Children organization and how to become involved, visit www.feedthechildren.org.

– William Norris

Source: World Hunger.org
Photo: Blogspot

Global Hunger v. Global Malnutrition

children eating rice

All the talk these days is about global hunger. Under-nourishment. But in focusing solely on that, we completely miss the issue of mal-nourishment. An issue that is becoming all the more relevant as more people are raised out of extreme poverty. Getting enough to eat is one thing, but with nutrition, quality counts nearly as much as quantity.

This facet of global malnutrition is further reaching than that of global hunger. Malnutrition is present in all societies, in developed and undeveloped regions. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), two billion people worldwide are deficient in essential vitamins and minerals.

The consequences of malnourishment are severe and irreversible. For children who aren’t getting enough nutrients, stunting can do permanent damage to the brain’s ability to develop. Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF emphasizes the difference between lacking food versus lacking nutrition:   “The fact is that India, with 48 percent (childhood) stunting, is considered food secure – but that doesn’t mean food is distributed equitably within India.”

Conversely, 1.2 billion are obese. Many of those people live in developed countries where the issue isn’t getting enough to eat, it’s eating healthily. It’s an unfortunate thing that a by-product of readily available cheap foods is that they tend to be unhealthy. Meaning that those who do climb out of extreme poverty and the constant struggle with hunger, end up instead in a situation where the food available to them is cheap and processed and can lead to obesity.

In order to truly break out of a cycle of malnutrition, people need to not only escape extreme poverty, but to reach a point where they can afford to buy more than just the basics. Education also plays a role in this. Understanding and awareness of what’s available and what’s beneficial can go a long way towards improving quality of life. And the knock-on effects of that can be huge. A report by the FAO claims that the combined effects of malnutrition cuts global income by 5% annually due to lost wages, amounting to some $3.5 trillion.

Perhaps a report highlighting this figure will garner some attention for the complex issue of malnourishment. It’s not enough to simply reduce global hunger. The fight doesn’t stop there. That’s only the first step towards a healthier world.

– David Wilson

Sources: Voice of America, FAO, Reuters
Photo: World Barrios