Experts Gives Proposal to Cut Poverty in Country

from All Africa

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

There is need to impart entrepreneurship spirit to all Tanzanians at all levels of society and especially in children as a tool to fight poverty in the country, a UDSM don has said.

Dr Donath Olomi of the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that results in the creation, enhancement, realisation, and renewal of value for an individual, group, organization and society should be well enshrined in children upbringing, early learning techniques up through all levels of education.

"Integrating entrepreneurship spirit in Tanzanian culture would facilitate empowerment and hence poverty reduction of Tanzanians right from the grassroots. True empowerment is self empowerment, which is enhancing one's capacity to define and achieve ones aspirations," Dr Olomi said at a workshop on entrepreneurship organized by the National Economic Empowerment Council in the weekend.

He said if children at home and in schools and colleges are brought up in entrepreneurship culture they would develop a strong sense of independence, belief in making things done, strong sense of ownership and belief that rewards come with own effort and hard work brings its rewards, things that most Tanzanians have been lacking.

Tanzanians would also believe in the value of know-how and trust, readiness to take reasonable risks and tendency to take initiatives, Dr Olomi said.

Participants at the workshop said most native Tanzanians are sidelined in most of the economic activities in the country because they lack self confidence, risk taking attitudes and are unwilling to take initiatives to learn new trades.

"There is need for our people to learn from Tanzanians of Asian origin, for example, who seem very enterprising and are always ready to take risks and initiatives in new ventures," said a participant Mary Mushi.

She said one aspect of enterprising natives could learn from Tanzanians Asians is the habit to take the offspring from early ages into the family businesses. And sending them to school should be with the objective of integrating them later in the business rather encouraging them to seek white collar employment while the family businesses vanish after the death of the parents as it is currently the case.

Dr Olomi said entrepreneurial attributes are important not only in establishing and doing businesses but also in public service, in all kinds of employment and in politics.

He said in employment general enterprising tendencies come before papers.

Citing challenges of developing general enterprising tendencies in Tanzania, Dr Olomi said the problem is that entrepreneurship can not be taught as such in the same way as knowledge could be imparted to people.

"It is mainly through ongoing socialization from childhood, through the community, school and work place and through exposing learners to environments that force or encourage people to adopt the values," he said.

He said another challenge was that entrepreneurship in Tanzania is narrowed on business start-up instead of being broadened and diversified.

He recommended the wide and regular use of the mass media such as radio and television programmes as innovative ways of delivering mass entrepreneurship education and training.

He also expressed the need for an entrepreneurship development fund in the form of a marching grant to support entrepreneurship education and training.

'World Bank can draw upon China's anti poverty model'

from The Economic Times

BEIJING: The World Bank could "shore up" its leading role in global poverty reduction drawing upon the Chinese development experience, the newly appointed Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the bank from the Communist giant JustinYifu Lin, said.

"This appointment is a high honour and its a historic decision for the World Bank," Lin, Professor and founding director of the China Centre for Economic Research at the prestigious Peking University, said after his appointment was announced by the World Bank President Robert B Zoellick in Washington.

"By picking a candidate from China, the World Bank will be able to better serve developing countries," Lin, who has been twice awarded the Sun Yefang, Chinas highest economic honour, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

He said the World Bank could only consolidate its role as a leader in the global anti-poverty movement by coming up with effective measures.

"In this regard, China can provide useful experience," said Lin, who is the first economist from a developing country to hold the post in the World Bank, succeeding Frances Francois Bourguignon who served from 2003 to October 2007.

In his statement, the World Bank chief said "As our first chief economist from a developing country, and an expert on economic development and particularly agriculture, Justin Lin brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group."

Lin, who has a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the National Chengchi University, is the vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

Food Garden Feeds Inner City Residents

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

By Millicent Kgowedi
Johannesburg

Vulnerable and hungry people living in Johannesburg's inner city are enjoying the fruits of the successful Siyakhana Food Garden in Bezuidenhout Park.

Phase two of a food garden located in what was once a dumping ground has answered the cries of many people in the inner city who are unemployed and often go to bed on an empty stomach.

The second stage of the Siyakhana Food Garden in Bezuidenhout Park, in the east of the city, was unveiled on 31 January, the city reports on its official site.

The food garden project was started in 2005 by the health promotion unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, in collaboration with several non-governmental organisations such as BHP Billiton Development Trust, Cape Gate, Food and Trees for Africa, and Party Design, which cares for people living with AIDS.

Guests gathered in a hot marquee, providing some relief from the scorching sun, erected next to the food garden.

A party atmosphere greeted them, with the Marimba Band playing their African instruments and dancing to their own music.

Among the guests was Khabisi Mosunkutu, the Gauteng MEC for agriculture, conservation and environment; and Wits Professor Michael Rudolph, the director of the Siyakhana project.

Access to sufficient food was the constitutional right of all South Africans, the professor said.

A considerable segment of the population was vulnerable to food insecurities, with women and children, the elderly and people living with HIV and AIDS the most vulnerable.

"Poverty is the leading cause of food insecurity and food insecurity is a major contributor to the persistence of poverty," Prof Rudolph said.

"The aim of the Siyakhana Food Garden project is to establish a model permaculture food garden system for food production, education, research and empowerment of the community [particularly women] through training, employment and income-generation opportunities.

"I've seen, since I started working in the city more than 20 years ago, that more and more people don't have sufficient food intake.

"Through the Siyakhana project we are trying to improve the health of vulnerable people by giving them the nutrients needed to sustain their health. We are also teaching them how to eat properly."

Thembeka Mwale, the chairperson of the project said the project was a blessing to those who benefited from it.

"This garden is from God. It all started as an empty piece of land, hardly fertile. Me and a number of women started digging with our own hands and we never thought it would eventually look like this. God sent Prof Rudolph, who has helped us to make the garden what it is today."

MEC Mosunkutu complimented all those who have contributed to the project.

"What a good way to start this year. We are starting a year by addressing issues that are close to the community - food and the environment."

He was proud of the project, saying that his department was always willing to partner with originations that enhanced agricultural activities. "What I've learned since I took this portfolio, is that women are incredibly focused when it comes to food gardening and providing food for the family," he said.

A pond to harvest, conserve and purify water was also established and a range of organic foods, which have the best nutritional value, were planted.

About 15 people from the inner city were employed at the project, and a further 25 were formally trained.

Some funding had been obtained for phase two, but there was a lot of potential for the project to expand through the support of the private sector, civil society, volunteers, students, the public and other key stakeholders.

IIMs hit research trail to take on poverty

from The Economic Times

AHMEDABAD: IIMs are not just about fat salaries, corporate case studies and tackling business models for top-notch companies: Students from IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) are using management studies to fight global poverty. Thirty students here have chosen to change the way Indian companies look at corporate social responsibility with research in enterprise solutions to poverty (ESP).

The initiative is led by Nancy Barry & Associates, with Inter-American Development Bank, aiming to mobilise around 150 MBA and MPA students from leading global institutes like Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wharton and China European International Business School. IIMA, has the single-largest number of participants — 30 students and six faculty advisors. In India, the research is sponsored by Tata Chemicals and IFMR Trust.

The in-country MBA programmes have formed teams with students from US schools while the advisors will provide guidance and supervision. The research, in its second year, includes 22 field studies across six developing countries. Research papers and field studies are expected to be complete by March-April. “ESP’s primary objective is to have a positive impact on the incomes and assets of at least 50 million low-income people in five years, in the six focus countries: India, China, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Kenya,” said Ms Barry.

These six countries represent over 60% of the world’s population living under $2 a day. “But they also command over 60% of the GDP of emerging markets, with powerful local companies capable of mobilising the finance and organisations, to build competitive and inclusive business models, which will eventually serve the purpose,” asserts Ms Barry.

“The key areas are agribusiness, creating decentralised distribution systems, innovations in microfinance, improving communication and enterprise networks. IIMA students are participating in all these four field studies which involve preparation of ‘live cases’ on various companies,” second-year PGP IIMA student Vijayendra Haryal said.

Poverty tourism: A dose of reality

from MSNBC

Guides explain the concept—and how to find an excursion right for you.

By Anya Yurchyshyn

While the critics of so-called "poverty tourism" say that it exploits people, turning neighborhoods into zoos, the tours' organizers argue that it can raise awareness about poverty, fight stereotypes, and bring money into areas that don't benefit from tourism.

"Fifty-five percent of people in Mumbai live in slums," says Chris Way, whose Reality Tours and Travel runs tours of the city's Dharavi district, one of India's biggest slums. "Through the tours you connect and realize that these people are the same as us."

Good intentions aren't always enough, however, and these excursions should be approached with sensitivity. Here are the questions you should ask an operator.

1. Does the tour organizer have ties to the community?
Find out how long the operator has been running tours in the area and whether your guide is from there—these factors often determine the level of interaction you'll have with residents. You should also ask how much of the proceeds goes to people in the community. Some companies donate as much as 80 percent of their profits, while others give less. Krista Larson, an American tourist who visited the Soweto township outside Johannesburg, South Africa, says she chose Imbizo Tours because it's run by people who live in Soweto and it makes donations to local charities. You can research companies by talking with other travelers, at your hotel or online, about whether their tours were conducted respectfully. Search blogs or post a question in a travel forum—bootsnall.com and travelblog.org are good choices.

2. What should I expect to see?
You may have an abstract idea of what extreme poverty entails, but when you're surrounded by it—not just the sights, but also the sounds and smells—it can be fairly overwhelming. Ask your guide what has tended to shock people before, so you can better prepare yourself. "Expect to jump over open sewage lines and heaps of rubbish, and to see crowded schools, with more than 50 kids in each room," says James Asudi of Victoria Safaris, which leads tours of the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. People are often surprised to find a community that functions despite its hardships, says Marcelo Armstrong, who runs Favela Tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: "They don't think they'll see so much commerce and vibrancy."

3. Will I feel welcome?
Responsible operators won't bring people to communities where they're not wanted. "My first concern was having the approval of the locals," says Armstrong. "People are very enthusiastic because of the opportunity to change the stigmas about favelas. They're happy that someone is interested in this little place that's forgotten by Brazilian society." Larson, the American tourist, also received a positive response from residents on her tour of Soweto. "The people we met seemed glad to have the tourists there," she says.

4. Will I be safe?
The fact that crime is prevalent in many slums doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a victim. It certainly helps that you'll be in a group, and you should take the same kinds of precautions you would elsewhere, such as keeping your possessions close to you and not wearing expensive clothes or jewelry. Many tour companies don't employ security guards, saying the areas they visit are safe. Victoria Safaris hires plainclothes policemen to trail tourists in Kibera at a distance—mainly as a crime deterrent, but also to create jobs. In Rio's favelas, security is largely maintained by the drug dealers who control the neighborhoods. "The truth is that drug dealers make the peace," says Armstrong. "Peace means no robbery, and that law is very well respected."

5. Will I be able to interact with locals?
The best way to avoid having the experience feel like you're at a zoo is to talk with people and try to form a personal connection. Many tours take you to community centers and schools, and some include visits to a church or a bar. For those who want to immerse themselves in the Kibera community, Victoria Safaris will arrange for an overnight stay. Vineyard Ministries, a Christian group in Mazatlán, Mexico, runs a free tour in which tourists bring sandwiches to people scavenging at a local garbage dump.

6. Should I bring my kids?
A poverty tour can be an educational experience for children—if they're prepared for what they'll encounter. Jenny Housdon, who runs Nomvuyo's Tours in Cape Town, South Africa, says most kids adapt well to the surroundings and play with local kids, despite the language barrier. "Some of the local children can speak a bit of English and like to practice," Housdon says.

7. May I take pictures?
Many tours prohibit photography to minimize the intrusion into residents' lives. If you're with an outfit that does allow pictures, always ask people's permission first. And think about buying a disposable camera instead of bringing a flashy $1,000 camera with a six-inch lens.

8. Are there things that I shouldn't do?
Handouts are usually forbidden, whether they be money, trinkets, or sweets, because they create chaos and quickly establish the assumption that tourists equal gifts. You should also respect people's privacy, which means no peeking through windows or doors.

9. How can I help the people I meet?
Contributions of clothing, toys, books, and other household items are often accepted before the tour, so you don't have to worry about carrying or distributing them. Some companies will hold the items you bring until after the tour, when you can personally donate them to the school or community organization of your choice.

10. Do I have to go with a tour group?
Travelers who dislike organized tours might want to make an exception in this case. If you go on your own, not only will you be less safe, but you may find it hard to navigate in neighborhoods that aren't very well marked. And you'll miss out on learning about daily life if you're not with a knowledgeable guide—especially since most guidebooks tend to act as if these neighborhoods don't exist.

Mumbai, India

* Reality Tours and Travel realitytoursandtravel.com, half day $8, full day $15

Johannesburg, South Africa

* Imbizo Tours imbizotours.co.za, half day $57, full day $117

Nairobi, Kenya

* Victoria Safaris victoriasafaris.com, half day $50, full day $100

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

* Favela Tour favelatour.com.br, half day $37

Mazatlán, Mexico

* Vineyard Ministries vineyardmcm.org, free

Cape Town, South Africa

* Nomvuyo's Tours nomvuyos-tours.co.za, half day $97, $48 per person for groups of three or more

Experts Gives Proposal to Cut Poverty in Country

from All Africa

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

NEWS

There is need to impart entrepreneurship spirit to all Tanzanians at all levels of society and especially in children as a tool to fight poverty in the country, a UDSM don has said.

Dr Donath Olomi of the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that results in the creation, enhancement, realisation, and renewal of value for an individual, group, organization and society should be well enshrined in children upbringing, early learning techniques up through all levels of education.

"Integrating entrepreneurship spirit in Tanzanian culture would facilitate empowerment and hence poverty reduction of Tanzanians right from the grassroots. True empowerment is self empowerment, which is enhancing one's capacity to define and achieve ones aspirations," Dr Olomi said at a workshop on entrepreneurship organized by the National Economic Empowerment Council in the weekend.

He said if children at home and in schools and colleges are brought up in entrepreneurship culture they would develop a strong sense of independence, belief in making things done, strong sense of ownership and belief that rewards come with own effort and hard work brings its rewards, things that most Tanzanians have been lacking.

Tanzanians would also believe in the value of know-how and trust, readiness to take reasonable risks and tendency to take initiatives, Dr Olomi said.

Participants at the workshop said most native Tanzanians are sidelined in most of the economic activities in the country because they lack self confidence, risk taking attitudes and are unwilling to take initiatives to learn new trades.

"There is need for our people to learn from Tanzanians of Asian origin, for example, who seem very enterprising and are always ready to take risks and initiatives in new ventures," said a participant Mary Mushi.

She said one aspect of enterprising natives could learn from Tanzanians Asians is the habit to take the offspring from early ages into the family businesses. And sending them to school should be with the objective of integrating them later in the business rather encouraging them to seek white collar employment while the family businesses vanish after the death of the parents as it is currently the case.

Dr Olomi said entrepreneurial attributes are important not only in establishing and doing businesses but also in public service, in all kinds of employment and in politics.

He said in employment general enterprising tendencies come before papers.

Citing challenges of developing general enterprising tendencies in Tanzania, Dr Olomi said the problem is that entrepreneurship can not be taught as such in the same way as knowledge could be imparted to people.

"It is mainly through ongoing socialization from childhood, through the community, school and work place and through exposing learners to environments that force or encourage people to adopt the values," he said.

He said another challenge was that entrepreneurship in Tanzania is narrowed on business start-up instead of being broadened and diversified.

He recommended the wide and regular use of the mass media such as radio and television programmes as innovative ways of delivering mass entrepreneurship education and training.

He also expressed the need for an entrepreneurship development fund in the form of a marching grant to support entrepreneurship education and training.

Life at the bottom: S.F.'s Sunnydale project

from The San Francisco Chronicle

On a typical day in San Francisco's largest housing project, teens ditch school to take the bus to a funeral. A woman wanders into the liquor store to buy Cheetos for her young grandson and a 20-ounce beer for herself. Two 3-year-old boys ride their tricycles down a steep hill patched with trash and broken glass.

Such is life in Sunnydale, quite possibly the most dangerous, depressed and decrepit area of the city. The dilapidated barracks that make up the development are lined up on a hillside in the shadow of the Cow Palace, opposite McLaren Park in Visitacion Valley.

An estimated 1,633 people live in the square mile of concrete housing that was originally built for soldiers in World War II. Once considered a nice place for a family to live, the development is now home to those who can't afford anything else.

Sunnydale, also called "The Dale" or "The Swamp," is littered with bottles and trash. There is no landscaping, just overgrown grass and clumps of weeds. There are dirty diapers in trees. Cockroaches and mice run around inside. Some sinks are so moldy, they are black. Walls are crumbling. Stairs have collapsed.

Most San Franciscans never see Sunnydale, unless they play at the nearby Gleneagles golf course or get lost trying to avoid traffic on Highway 101. Afraid to come in after dusk, the cable guy makes only morning appointments, and Muni drivers often refuse to enter after dark. Garbage isn't picked up regularly.

Though the housing is designed to be temporary, residents stay for decades. A combination of factors - geographic isolation, extreme poverty and a lack of access to social services - make it virtually impossible to leave Sunnydale. There are no stepping-stones to something better, no road map for how to get out.

"We don't have role models. We don't go to Harvard. We barely have police. We have to take care of ourselves," said 55-year-old Keith "Kilo" Perry, who runs a barbershop in the development. "This is like a concentration camp. There is no way out unless you die."

Though the primary mission of the federally run San Francisco Housing Authority is to provide safe, sanitary, affordable and decent housing for very low-income families, senior citizens and persons with disabilities, officials admit the housing is unacceptable.

"It may not look good, but it's all we have," said Gregg Fortner, the former director of the San Francisco Housing Authority. "It would cost a fortune to fix all of our units, a fortune we do not have."

The Housing Authority was created in 1938 to help poor families build better lives by creating temporary subsidized housing. Over the years, the once well-kept projects turned into havens for crime, and the services that families need to get out and move on - such as child care, job training, legal help and counseling - evaporated with cutbacks.

The authority is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and overseen by a seven-member Housing Authority Commission appointed by the mayor. Over the past decade, the federal money has decreased, and HUD has asked authorities to go to their local governments and apply for grants to help with the costs of running the sites.

Most recently, the Housing Authority director, Fortner, resigned. City Administrator Ed Lee is now heading a transition team to look for a replacement and attempt to make some changes in the meantime.

"We hope that one day, the people of San Francisco will look at the Housing Authority like the school district, and use participation and partnerships to make it part of the city," Lee said. "The residents of Sunnydale are also residents of San Francisco and should have services at their disposal just like any other citizen."

Mayor Gavin Newsom has long said he feels the city should be partly responsible for cleaning up the sites, because "there is a lack of leadership in the federal government."

"Things don't look to improve on their own, so we are going to take responsibility and accountability for these federally funded, federally owned properties," the mayor said in an interview. "These are the areas where there is a tremendous concentration of poverty, there is a density of challenges that exist there. We think that we can have an impact beyond just physical changes and create some real opportunities in terms of social changes."

Newsom said the residents of San Francisco should be concerned about the poor conditions that fellow residents live in.

"They should care about the people that are suffering the consequences of our neglect. They should care about the health care costs," Newsom said. "They should care about the crime and violence associated with the neglect and the issues of poverty; they should care because they are human beings and they're San Franciscans."

The mayor's Hope SF plan has secured $5 million in city money to rebuild the city's eight worst housing projects, including Sunnydale, and he started Communities of Opportunity in 2004, to better link residents of those developments with services, like after-school tutoring, job placement, addiction treatment and health care. To date, the program has provided computer labs, job fairs and outreach services in some of the city's worst housing projects.

But his 3-year-old promise to rebuild the Housing Authority's eight worst apartment complexes hasn't gotten very far. Meanwhile, at Sunnydale, there are dozens of boarded-up units, while the waiting lists for public housing swell. Residents say their situation has not improved much.

"Ain't nothing changed in four years," says longtime Sunnydale resident Kenneth Johnson. "We've been lied to for so long out here. The mayor tells us to sign up for this and wait a little while for that. But we are always disappointed. We've been set up for failure."

In Sunnydale, where the average annual income is $12,000, many residents subsist on government handouts or the change they make from underground businesses, like stores run out of their apartments that offer junk food and cigarettes, haircuts and pirated DVDs.

People who don't have a job say there is no point in getting one because they will just have to pay more rent. And some of those who do have jobs don't want promotions or better jobs, because that, too, would make their rent go up. It's best to have side jobs with tax-free revenue.

"People are scared to get a raise, to do the right thing," said Johnson.

Because of Sunnydale's isolation, the underground stores are popular. There is no post office or coin-operated laundry, no grocery stores or even fast-food restaurants. Unlike most of San Francisco, in Sunnydale, you can't really walk to anything.

Many residents shop at the Little Village Market, a convenience store located near the entrance to the development that is stocked with harsh cigarettes and cheap booze. Others are afraid to go into the store because there is always a large group of men loitering outside.

The store has a bulletproof entryway and 30 surveillance cameras. Max Chua, the owner, said it is busiest at the beginning of the month when assistance checks come. He likes to help out residents, assist them in paying bills online or lend some change to pay for groceries. Those niceties and little favors ensure customers return.

Chua may not know all their names, but he remembers what they smoke and what they drink. He says residents want anything that will give them a quick buzz.

"They don't want healthy food," he says one Friday evening, the store full of customers. "These people, they want junk food. They spend all their money because they don't know how to manage it. They run out by the 8th.

"I try to help them as much as I can."

In an independent report released in May on the condition of the San Francisco Housing Authority, a consulting firm said the agency is facing a fiscal crisis that is compounded by the disrepair and deterioration of its housing sites.

The report gave estimates on fixing the developments, and said it would cost $55,960 per unit - more than $42 million - to make Sunnydale livable. The report also concluded that the Housing Authority doesn't "produce an environment conducive to self-sufficiency and success" and that the developments are in areas with the most crime, poverty, unemployment, school dropouts, family crisis and children in the foster care system.

"It is a privilege to live in San Francisco, and this is what happens to you if you can't afford it," says Sharen Hewitt, a community activist and head of the Community Leadership Academy Emergency Response, a support team for victims of violence. "This city claims to be so compassionate and progressive, but Sunnydale proves a contradiction. We need services out here.

"Sunnydale is San Francisco's Lower Ninth Ward," she also said, referring to the impoverished neighborhood in New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Hewitt said the few who do make it out of Sunnydale often go to another housing project. The Bayview, also infamous for violence and poor public housing, is considered a step up.

"People here have been downtrodden for so long that they are just kind of immune," Hewitt said. "They are happy to get out but then they go get trapped somewhere else."

Anthony Hodges, a 27-year-old who recently moved to public housing in Bernal Heights, says anything is a step up from Sunnydale.

"It's still public housing, but the other day, I accidentally left my door unlocked and came down in the morning, and there was nothing missing and no one dead," Hodges said. "The air is fresh with jasmine and people are jogging. No one is scared to call 911."

Christina Bryant, who works as a nursing assistant in the Western Addition and pays $160 a month for her Sunnydale apartment, is one of many residents who feel trapped.

The 22-year-old said she travels on BART every weekend to spend Friday night through Monday morning at her parents' house in Pittsburg. She sleeps in her Sunnydale unit during the week but doesn't like it, and neither does her young son.

"He is always saying, 'Mommy, I don't like your house,' " she said. "I agree with him."

But she says there is virtually no way she can go from paying $160 a month with utilities included to $800 for a cheap San Francisco studio.

There is no middle ground between the housing projects and San Francisco living unless you get some kind of help. Even if you save everything you make, Bryant says, a parking ticket can set you back for months.

Parents want to encourage their children to go to school, where they could get an education and a better job, but they get robbed at the bus stop.

"People hide and catch you off guard. The kids hang out in front of the bus stop and usually are up to no good," said Frank Holman, who lives on Brookdale Avenue. "Then at night, the place isn't even lit up."

Resident Natalie Gulley refuses to let her son take the bus home from school for fear he will get hurt before she gets home. She has him stay with relatives until she can pick him up.

The community center is not such a welcoming place. On a typical day in the Willie Brown teen center, a relaxation tape blares over the sound system. Teens gamble with dice. There are no books. There is a sign on the door announcing anyone who enters can be searched for weapons and a plaque that says: "Blacks must not hurt blacks."

It doesn't help. Shootings are a weekly occurrence. Burglary is so rampant that people who can't afford security bars for their windows fear leaving their homes.

"If you can't buy bars, you have to stay inside and watch your stuff," said Johnson, who takes complaints from residents for the city. "My house has been broken into so many times. I've had video games, jewelry and CDs stolen.

"These people will take anything and everything from anyone and everyone."

Johnson says little things could improve the place, like lighting on the main strip, shorter waits to make improvements to the properties, and jobs.

"They should put these teens to work cutting grass," he said. "We should create a trade school and train kids to be carpenters and plumbers so they can do maintenance. Then we could make a plan to get everyone out of here. We should go door to door and find out what kind of services people need.

"Instead, they just throw some paint on during election year and then ignore us."

Madagascar improves health care, has lowest HIV rate in Africa

from The North County Times

By: TERRY LEONARD - Associated Press

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar ---- On a back street in one of Antananarivo's seedier neighborhoods, Saholy clutches at the hood of her blue jacket, pulling it down against the light rain. She steels herself for more verbal abuse from her fellow street walkers plying their trade on the corners.

Saholy is 39, a single mother of three teenagers, a prostitute ashamed of her life and, for the last couple of years, a weapon in Madagascar's war on AIDS. Several nights a week, she dons a blue uniform and white badge and tries to convince prostitutes to have only protected sex and get regular medical checkups.

"The other sex workers insult us and try to drive us away because we are intefering with their work," says Saholy, who does not want to be identified further for fear her children will learn what she does. "We leave but keep coming back. Eventually they listen to what we have to say."

Madagascar has the lowest HIV rate in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 1 percent of its people infected. Yet this island is waging one of the most aggressive campaigns against AIDS on the continent ---- a model for how to prevent HIV and improve basic health care at the same time.

"On HIV and AIDS, Madagascar is the only country in Africa that is getting it right," says Dr. Hugo Templeman, a Dutch AIDS specialist in South Africa who advises Madagascar President Marc Ravalomana on fighting AIDS.

Other African countries are making some headway against the disease ---- the number of new infections in Uganda and Kenya has dropped after widespread public campaigns, for example. But 80 percent of Africans still see the spread of AIDS and other diseases as the continent's single biggest problem, according to a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey based on 57,000 interviews in 10 countries.

Madagascar's all-out attack on AIDS comes from the fear that HIV will arrive along with a more open economy and an influx of foreign workers. Foreigners come every year to work in the vanilla plantations and in new ventures such as a mining project recently launched in once-remote Fort Dauphin.

The island has been protected so far largely by its isolation, but it has only to look across the water to southern Africa to see the killer wave headed its way. Nine of the world's 10 most HIV-ridden countries are in southern Africa, with infection rates of more than 37 percent in Botswana and Swaziland.

If AIDS takes hold in Madagascar, it could explode. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, and some of its people take the risk of sex work to live. It also has a high rate of sexually transmitted diseases, a sign of vulnerability to AIDS.

Leading by example
The response to AIDS starts at the top. President Ravalomanana makes it a point to take AIDS tests in public, at a time when his South African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki, has publicly questioned whether HIV causes AIDS. Health care is such a priority in Madagascar that the national AIDS office is in the presidential palace, where the top advisor can report to the president at a moment's notice.

"The AIDS campaign is a personal initiative from the president," says Dr. Fanjaniaina Rajoelisolo, who runs the AIDS office. "He himself negotiates with the donors. The president tells me to go and see out in the country ---- he wants to see the impact of his policies."

The crusade against AIDS ripples out from the palace throughout this country of about 19 million people. Prevention messages scream from billboards and posters, and condoms are readily available. More than 100 screening centers have been set up, and mobile testing units are sent to remote areas. The government hopes to distribute 400,000 HIV test kits by the end of 2007.

In villages, hundreds of local AIDS councils take action in their own ways. The village of Maroambihy, for example, held a carnival, showed films and organized home visits reaching more than 8,000 people. Young players in the football club were taught to carry condoms, and women demonstrate their use at regular sessions to weigh children.

Groups considered at risk get special attention, including the youth aged 19 and under who make up half the population of Madagascar. Thousands of teachers are trained in how to convey the AIDS prevention message to their students. Young people can get check-ups at a discount, and training kits are passed out to Scout troops so they can talk about AIDS.

Going for treatment
At a small private clinic in one of Antananarivo's poorer neighborhoods, Dr. Voahirana Lalao Raniriharisoa ushers her last patient, a young woman, to the door. The office is spartan, with a cluttered desk and dingy white equipment cramped into about eight square feet.

The doctor says the AIDS prevention campaign is helping, and more young people are going for treatment.

"There is a lot of sensitivity now to health issues," she says. "Health care is improving, and now more people are aware of their own health."

Along with AIDS prevention, Madagascar is trying to help those who already live with the disease. In August, the island passed the first law in Africa that introduces hefty fines for discrimination against AIDS patients or disclosure of their status.

Anti-retroviral treatment is readily available, and Madagascar hopes to get 90 percent of its HIV-positive people on it within five years. In nearby South Africa, by contrast, the government dragged its feet on providing anti-retroviral medicines to those with HIV until a court-ordered action.

Madagascar's campaign against AIDS goes together with a general push to expand its clinics, hire more doctors and upgrade health care. Madagascar is using the one disease it has little of so far ---- AIDS ---- to fight all the other illnesses it suffers from in abundance. As long as its HIV rate remains low, it can spend aid money on both HIV problems and general health.

In Antanetikely, a village in the central highlands south of the capital, mothers and young children stand in line for hours in the sun for a few minutes of simple treatment that the government hopes will save 40,000 children this year alone.

People in such rural areas rarely get to a clinic because of vast distances and poor roads. So twice a year, medical teams visit to give children a dose of vitamin A, de-worming tablets, a measles vaccination and a chemically treated anti-mosquito bed net to stave off malaria. Health workers cajole wailing toddlers in the shade of a makeshift clinic, as village men abandon their crops for the day and gather in the shadows to watch the spectacle.

The village has two-story houses with the long elegant lines, narrow shuttered windows, steep roofs and gables so common in the French countryside. But instead of streets, Antanetikely has dirt footpaths. The houses have no electricity or running water, and are built beside large mosquito-breeding rice paddies. Families live in one room, cook on homemade charcoal burners and die from malaria or respiratory diseases worsened by the smoke.

There are almost no elderly people in Antanetikely. Life expectancy in Madagascar is only 52 years, and shorter in rural areas. People die from treatable and often preventable diseases made worse by poor hygiene and diet, and a lack of access to medical care. Mostly, they die of poverty.

Making a difference
The focus on medical care is making a difference. Child mortality is down by about 40 percent, according to the United Nations. The island aims to lower unwanted pregnancies by 50,000 this year by training young people in both sexual health and family planning.

About a third of Madagascar's money for health care comes from international donors, who spend millions more on individual programs to fight AIDS and malaria or improve nutrition. Adm. Tim Ziemer, the coordinator of a U.S. anti-malaria initiative, says Madagascar is among the very best in Africa at forging collaborations.

These partnerships work because the government knows the importance of showing results.

In a neighborhood clinic, doctors spend the slow hours of the afternoon painstakingly making records of every procedure, every consultation. At a small table at the makeshift clinic in Antanetikely, health workers carefully document every injection, mosquito net, vitamin drop and de-worming tablet under the name of the patient.

The information helps the government prioritize its programs. Precise record keeping also gives donors a detailed accounting of how ever dollar has been spent, says AIDS advisor Rajoelisolo.

"Donors see exactly what their money is doing and are more willing to contribute more," she says. "We do a lot of analysis. We compare ourselves with other countries. We then analyze all of that and plan a strategy that will fit us."

Madagascar also uses the aid money to train staff ---- a huge problem in much of Africa, where brain drain to the West has left a crippling shortage of doctors and nurses. More Ethiopian doctors are thought to practice in Chicago than in Ethiopia, for example. Madagascar is hiring young doctors around the country and giving them money to start their practices.

"We have the right people," says Dr. Yollande Rabetokorany, a government official who gets training and equipment for doctors and nurses in private practice. "Some of our doctors are so motivated they go to places so remote they must walk for more than week, carrying their medicine and equipment, just to get there."

Ask Saholy, the prostitute, if Madagascar's anti-AIDS programs are working, and she puts down her cup of tea and shrugs.

"We reach some of the sex workers, and that is something," says Saholy, whose greatest fear is that her daughter too will one day be a sex worker. "I feel really good about what I do when one of them calls me and asks me to take her to a doctor. I think I might have helped someone."

But many men pay a lot more if they don't have to use a condom, and it is difficult for a sex worker who makes little money to resist, she says. And many men believe they can cure themselves of a sexually transmitted disease by passing it on to a prostitute through unprotected sex.

Saholy pauses, swirls what's left of her tea around in the cup and then drinks the last.

"It is getting better," she says. "More people are having safe sex. But we still have to change a lot of behavior, destroy old myths and educate a lot of people."

Poverty survey exposes St. Philip

from The Antigua Sun

by Nikisha Smith

St. Philip Village has been identified for immediate mitigation measures due to the results of the 2005 to 2006 Country Poverty Assessment (CPA).

Coordinator of Country Poverty Assessment Almira Henry said that the CPA exercise involved a household survey of living conditions, which targeted 1,200 households from upper, middle and lower income brackets across the country.

In the survey of living conditions, the St. Philip community emerged among the poorest in the country.

Concern was raised, as this community was not identified as poor in the 2001 Census. As such their cause has been featured as priority for the short term.

“We have mobilised our efforts to undertake further research with respect to conducting a participatory poverty assessment and this is currently in progress.” The project began in January.

The participatory component of the CPA assesses the qualitative dimensions of poverty and documents the voices of the poor as they explain the coping strategies they have adapted in order to deal with social and economic deprivation. It also seeks to find out what lead a formerly ‘rich’ community to be determined ‘poor’ in about 15 years' time.

A participatory assessment was held during the original CPA that examined elderly, youth, men, women, employed and unemployed people from 12 communities based on the findings of the 2001 Census.

The process is being funded and technically advised by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The National Assessment Team, located in the Ministry of Social Transformation, will be conducting the qualitative assessment.

Henry said the findings will be utilised to inform policy initiatives and assist in the design of programmes to urgently address the situations of deprivation that exist. The National Assessment Team will analyse the information that is provided and produce a report on the findings that will also inform the formulation of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which will follow in the future.

She said they are not sure what happened to the community, but the researchers are speculating that the downfall may be attributed to the closure of the Half Moon Bay Hotel 13 years ago.

Henry added that St. Philip's residents are disputing the findings. The results, however, came about from the household survey of living conditions, wherein the researchers made a report based on questionnaires that were filled out.

Henry said the researchers would have walked away only with what they were given.

They are consequently working with the hypothesis that inaccurate data may have influenced the results of the study. The participatory component will either prove or disprove the theory.

The residents of St. Philip are being asked to attend focus group discussions based on the different age, employment and gender groups. Those will be followed by an overall consultation within the community, which all can attend.

The CPA was commissioned by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and was carried out through a survey conducted across the country in the last half of 2005 and the first half of 2006.

The CPA was handed over to the government officially handed over the government in December 2007 and has been available to the public on the government’s Web sites.

The published document will soon be circulated to all parliamentarians, government agencies, civil society groups and other interest groups as there are only still a limited number available.

Poverty's grasp grows wider

from the Myrtle Beach Sun News

Carolinas groups aid rising ranks of poor
By Jason M. Rodriguez
The Sun News

As head of the Brunswick County Family Assistance program, Joe Cannon is used to seeing construction laborers seek help in the slow months.

But in the past six to nine months he began to notice that those seeking assistance rose a work tier to include small contractors. Taking it as a sign that it was time to work harder than ever, his agency began to seek more money from an already ailing economy.

"Quite honestly, we're out there begging for money more than we've ever begged for money before," he said. "What we're seeing as an agency is an explosion in demand in the last year, year and a half.

"We've been on a downhill slide since 2004," he said.

Poverty numbers across the Carolinas have been growing in the past years, according to officials in Horry and Georgetown counties and Brunswick County, N.C. In January, the U.S. Census Bureau released its most recent data, which show the percentage of people living in poverty in those counties rose by as much as 1 percentage point from 2004 to 2005.

Officials in those counties warn that the situation is much worse than the numbers might make it appear.

Dianne Ramsey, executive director of the Horry County Community Kitchen, said the number of people served by her kitchen has nearly tripled since 2005

"Our numbers have gone from 90 to 130 [per month] during [2005] to last year between 150 to 170 month to now 225 to 270 this year," Ramsey said. "We're seeing an incredibly large number of people. We have lines around the building."

She estimates about 30 percent of the kitchen's clientele are homeless, while the rest are working poor.

The Census Bureau uses the definition of poverty from the Office of Management and Budget. It is updated annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index.

In 2005, the national poverty threshold for a family of four was $19,971. A single person would have had to make less than $9,973 to be considered living in poverty.

In Georgetown County, 17 percent of residents fell under the poverty level in 2005, more than the two other counties in the coastal area.

Annette Perreault, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Georgetown County, said she has seen an increase in requests for help, but has also noticed more people getting in over their heads financially.

"We've also seen an increase in the debt load that our clients are accumulating from examining their applications," Perreault said. "We're doing our best to address that."

Perreault said Habitat offers a six-week course on financial responsibility that was created only for those who applied for housing. That course now is being offered to more people in need of help, including victims of predatory lending.

"This is an education process for them as well," she said.

The census data showed 14 percent of Brunswick County residents lived in poverty in 2005. Cannon said that number has grown since then, according to his calculations, to about 18 percent currently who live below the poverty level. He said about 22 percent of children in the county live below the poverty level.

Cannon said the family assistance program has seen the number of people it serves increase 211 percent from 2004 to 2007. He said from 2006 to 2007 alone, the volume increased by 71 percent.

It has prompted the family assistance program to institute creative programs for donations.

Sea Trail Golf Resort and Convention Center and Ocean Ridge Plantation golf courses have been collecting food for the food pantry, which is run by the family assistance program, since December and offering discounted golf to those who participate. Cannon said both programs have collected as much as 1,600 pounds of items per week.

In another program, churches and social organizations adopt a family for $3,500 per year.

Cannon said the high volume of requests for aid is making it hard for the program to help those in need to learn to help themselves.

"We don't have time to do that," he said. "Neither the family nor the agencies have the time to do the second piece of the equation, which is the crucial piece."

Horry County
Community Kitchen

1411 10th Ave. N.

Myrtle Beach, SC 29577

Phone: 444-9383

Habitat for Humanity Georgetown County

1907 Hampton Court

Georgetown, SC 29442

Phone: 546-5685

Brunswick County Family Assistance Agency

P.O. Box 333

Supply, NC 28462

Phone: 910-754-4766

To Ghana, with love

from the Richmond Times Dispatch

Ghana trip is humbling Some VCU students spend break volunteering in West Africa

By BONNIE NEWMAN DAVIS
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ACCRA, GHANA In her part-time job as a pool lifeguard, Virginia Commonwealth University senior Elizabeth Reeder is able to quickly help people in need.

But her training didn't prepare her for what she experienced two days after the New Year's holiday while visiting an impoverished area of Accra, Ghana, in West Africa.

There, Reeder and other students from VCU's School of Social Work met Felicia, a 10-year-old girl who appeared to be lifeless in the tiny, one-room dwelling she shared with her mother and eight siblings.

Reeder hoisted the girl on her back in a sling and, with the help of other students, carried her to a hospital on a Tro Tro, one of the many recycled passenger vans that serve as public transportation. The students, who pitched in money to pay for Felicia's treatment, waited anxiously for reports about the youngster. They knew that she had had a stroke last year and had been hospitalized for three months.

They learned Felicia had contracted malaria, a blood disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes and one of the leading causes of death in Africa. Although Reeder is relieved that Felicia survived, she still is shaken by the child's suffering.

"To carry her on my back, feel her warm temperature and heartbeat and hear her crying . . . it brought things home," said Reeder, 22. "It really humbled me."

Reeder's words reflect those of the 18 VCU students who spent their winter break volunteering with Sovereign Global Mission, a nongovernmental organization with which the VCU School of Social Work has established a partnership. The mission, which has been run by Ghanaians Eric and Felicia Annan since 1992, assists orphaned, abandoned, sick or abused street children in Accra's Cocoa Marketing Board region.

The mission also conducts outreach and education in rural communities; provides information, education and training on HIV/AIDS prevention; offers job training through the Homeless Street Girls Project; and helps provide medical assistance to street children, men and women.

The trash-infested CMB area in Accra is occupied by street children -- some estimates place the number as high as 20,000 -- who must live by their instincts. Children as young as 7 or 8 take care of younger siblings who can barely walk. Girls ages 12 to 16 who have fled Ghana's northern region in search of a better life become "porters" or sell items to passengers at nearby train and bus stations. Other girls resort to prostitution.

When the Annans are unable to stop young girls from selling their bodies, they raise funds to send them back home. A 14-year-old girl with ebony, model-like features was put on a bus home during the VCU students' visit.

Witnessing the patience and joy she exudes as she easily walks among the street children dispensing toothbrushes and other personal items, the VCU students fondly call Felicia Annan "the Mother Teresa of Ghana."

Eric Annan, 41, said he and his wife are "grateful for the students' presence. . . . Every year, they come to help support our programs and provide resources such as shoes and clothing."

Randi Buerlein, assistant director of field instruction for VCU's School of Social Work, met the Annans while visiting Ghana five years ago. She was searching for an organization with which VCU could form a short-term partnership. After learning about Felicia Annan's weekly feeding and outreach program, Buerlein became an SGM volunteer.

"I sometimes have a sense of anger; it seems so unfair that so many children we meet are going to be sick or not survive," Buerlein told the social work students one night during the group's recent trip. "Anger's not helpful, but it can be motivating."

This trip marked the fourth time Buerlein has traveled to Ghana with VCU student groups. The trips are open to any VCU student, alumni or friends of the university, with each participant responsible for paying his or her expenses.

One group included Kelly McCall, 25, who after visiting Ghana in January 2005, returned eight months later. She stayed six months, conducting HIV/AIDS training, teaching rural children and "living like a Ghanaian."

McCall, who teaches job-seeking skills to clients at Richmond's Daily Planet, said, "I never wanted to go home.

"I used to have social anxiety, but teaching and working with others helped eliminate that."

She also lost 30 pounds with all the walking and physical activities that living and working in Ghana require.

McCall helped Buerlein lead the group this time. She cautioned the students to "see Ghana for what it is by focusing on its strengths and methods of survival."

In 2006, Chris Burnside, former assistant dean of student affairs in VCU's School of the Arts, met the Annans on another student trip. Struck by the level of poverty and the students' work, he created a class. In "Making a Difference," students created a benefit program "FOR AFRICA," to raise funds for the nonprofit SGM.

Burnside was co-director of the event last November that helped raise $38,000 for a child-development center being built by SGM.

The center is part of a three-pronged approach for combating the poverty that has haunted Ghana in the 50 years since it obtained independence from British rule.

One part of the VCU-Annan project involves working with street children, providing food, basic health care and literacy education. The second phase sponsors children to attend school for one year. The third phase involves building the child development center in Adoteiman, a village outside Accra.

The total cost for the project is $60,000, and a library and dormitory are expected to be completed in April. A Richmond-based foundation account established through Peacework, a nonprofit organization in Blacksburg, will accept donations that will help sustain the school through annual donations, Buerlein said.

The students helped dig the center's foundation in Adoteiman, hauling cinder-block-sized bricks amid sweltering temperatures. Their evenings were spent in a hotel with no hot water, bad lighting and lots of lizards.

Yet there were few complaints.

"It's one thing to read about global poverty and having HIV and AIDS," Buerlein said, "but it broadens their perspective by being there and seeing" such challenges. "They all come back wanting to do more."

Cecelia Rich, a first-year graduate student in social work, wanted to help SGM but was also eager to visit the country's slave castles or forts, which housed up to 10,000 African slaves a year during the 250-year slave trade.

The "40-something" Rich, who has worked in social work and criminal justice for nearly 20 years, wants to start her own community-based social work program. A VCU master's degree will help, and so will the time spent in Ghana, she said.

Rich was pleased to find unity, community, resilience and tenacity among the Ghanaians.

Their situations are bad, but their nature was "we're coping with it," she said. "To be able to see how they can make a quick income by selling something off the Earth, or being resourceful while recycling . . . that's ingenious."
Bonnie Newman Davis, a former editor and reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University. She traveled to Accra, Ghana, with the VCU students as part of the National Association of Black Journalists' Ethel Payne Fellowship.

Doug Buerlein is a professional photographer who lives in Ashland.

Yemen nears one Millennium Development Goal, but still has work to do

from The Yemen Times

Almigdad Dahesh Mojalli Dahesh95@yahoo.com

Although Yemen is on track to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school enrollment, more work still must be done to keep Yemeni children in school after they enroll.

As of 2006, 75 percent of Yemeni children were enrolled in primary school, according to UNICEF’s December 2007 Children’s Progress report.

Over the past few years, Yemen’s Education Ministry has constructed as many schools as possible nationwide. As Education Minister Abdulsalam Al-Jawfi explains, “The number of schools built annually increased from 200 to 1,200. There are 16,000 schools in Yemen, 80 percent of which contain primary education classes.”

However, according to the minister, the dropout rate increased 10 percent, particularly among female students.

Al-Zubairi School teacher Ismail Zabarah says students drop out for a variety of reasons, including poverty, lack of incentives and the poor quality of the education system. “Students drop out if the school is far from their home or there aren’t enough teachers,” he notes, adding, “They also drop out due to poverty and the need to work.”

“The government built neighborhood schools three years ago, but that’s not enough,” says Jamal Al-Azab from the Khawlan countryside. “Schools may be near three or four villages, but far from two others. Because we can’t provide our children vehicles to pick them up from school every day, we really need more schools,” he adds.

Dropouts begin in fourth grade, when 10 percent of girls leave school and from there, the rate increases in each grade. Minister Al-Jawfi explains that Yemeni families, especially those in smaller villages, often refuse to send their daughters to school when they reach age 11, the age when girls cease interacting with males. Villages have no girls-only schools and mixed schools have male teachers.

Despite understanding the importance of attending class, many students attend only mid-term and final exams. “It’s very important to attend class because some subjects are extremely difficult to understand without a teacher,” points out Yahya Ayid, deputy headmaster at Al-Kibsi School in Sana’a.

Yemen previously was off-track regarding the primary school enrollment Millennium Development Goal, but the Education Ministry concentrated its efforts, resulting in many new projects. “Education in Yemen faces many challenges, but as a result of interested officials within the education sector, we have numerous strategies through which we can achieve those goals,” minister Al-Jawfi notes.

He continues, “It’s now easier for us to reach the targeted children. We’ve redistributed teachers to those districts needing more teachers and gathered parental councils in those districts to give incentives for them to send their children to school. We aim to enroll 95 percent of children in primary schools by 2015.”

Many Sana’a schools provide students all necessary facilities and utilities. For instance, Al-Shaheed Mutahar Zaid School in Sana’a has good sanitation and the number of classes is proportional to the number of students. Headmistress Shafiqah Al-Nizari adds, “We have a complete science lab with instructional aids, a computer lab with internet and all of our school’s furnishings are complete.”

In contrast, other schools are unable to provide books to students and even teachers. Omar Bin Abdulaziz School in Bani Hushaish, located 25 kilometers east of Sana’a, struggles to obtain enough teachers and operates with an incomplete syllabus.

“The toilets are completely destroyed and there’s no science lab,” headmaster Adel Al-Sumaie laments, adding, “[Students] have never seen any instructional aids other than the cartoon posters they occasionally create for themselves.”

Many education specialists agree that city schools generally are doing better than those in rural areas, not only in terms of facilities, but also with regard to their graduates.

“Our challenge is to enable education to reach Yemen’s remote and mountainous districts,” Al-Jawfi points out, “For example, we’ve built 400 schools in Amran within the past two years and the same is true in the other governorates. We’ve now reached the deserts and the far regions of Yemen.”

While the minister knows Yemen hasn’t yet reached its goal of near-total primary school enrollment, he maintains that his department has begun reaching those targeted districts needing the most help.

In addition to constructing schools in most Yemeni districts, Al-Jawfi notes that his ministry has awarded contracts to 1,000 new female teachers from those same districts in an effort to set an example that educated women can get jobs. Additionally, it serves as an incentive for Yemeni girls to attend and stay in school.

Even though Yemen’s enrollment rate is good, there are still problems regarding the quality of education children receive.

As father Mohammed Al-Hammadi complains, “We must re-explain the lessons to our children because some teachers aren’t sufficiently qualified or are only high school graduates.”

Ali Qadi, headmaster of Al- Hayof School in Sana’a governorate, remarks, “In my opinion, the quality of education is weak because of the curricula itself. Many teachers don’t know what teaching methods to use because an education expert hasn’t visited the field to determine a suitable syllabus for students.”

Al-Jawfi responds, “The two main challenges involve quantity and quality. The quantity challenge regards the number of enrolled students, which is still below the requirements qualifying us to achieve the Millennium Development Goal.”

He continues, “Regarding quality, experts have found that 110,000 teachers – both male and female – only possess high school qualifications, which means we must enhance their abilities and qualifications. Consequently, we’ve held numerous training courses for such teachers.”

Although Yemen is working hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, there’s still much work to be done, as 25 percent of Yemeni children still aren’t enrolled in primary school.

India's illegal organ transplants - 1 Feb 08

from Al Jazeera via You Tube

`Living cadavers' forced by poverty to sell organs

from The Toronto Star

Few precautions taken, watchdog group says

Leslie Ferenc
Staff Reporter

Demand for healthy organs from patients on long waiting lists in developed countries and rampant poverty in places like India has created an opening for shady operators like Dr. Amit Kumar, according to the head of a group documenting illegal transplant surgery.

Donors of illegally traded organs are the vulnerable and "coerced by poverty," said Dr. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, founding director of Organs Watch in Berkeley, Calif. They become "living cadavers," selling organs like a kidney.

Some allege kidnapping and organ theft, claiming they were lured, drugged or forced to give up a kidney at gunpoint.

Kumar, who has a house in Brampton, is believed to be the kingpin in a kidney transplant ring involving 500 unsuspecting destitute people in India whose organs were harvested. Interpol has issued a warrant for the Indian-born Kumar, dubbed "Dr. Horror."

Americans and the Japanese are the biggest consumers of illegally traded organs, said Scheper-Hughes, an anthropology professor at University of California, Berkeley. Among her fields of specialization is global traffic in organs in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Cuba, Israel, the Philippines, Moldova, Turkey and Romania.

She noted that in many cases, few precautions are taken with donors, including tissue matching. Anti-rejection drugs are strong enough to maintain a kidney even when there is no donor match, Scheper-Hughes noted. And it's common knowledge recipients do better with a living donor that a dead one.

Scheper-Hughes said buyers sometimes make contact with brokers on the Internet or through local ethnic communities where U.S. residents from India or the Philippines, for example, are connected to dealers back home and "can navigate the system."

This past summer, Scheper-Hughes was a member of a task force on organ trafficking across Asia. (Task force members included scholars and medical specialists from Iran, the Netherlands, the Philippines, the U.S., India, Japan, China, Pakistan and Taiwan.) Among its recommendations, were strict laws on transplants, organ harvesting and donation.

Indian laws stipulate living donors can only provide a kidney to a blood relative or spouse. A donor could also be granted special approval to provide a kidney based on so-called altruistic reasons. Corrupt local authorities, however, often bend the rules for personal gain, said Scheper-Hughes.

Some argue the laws are too strict and have forced organ traders to go underground.

The task force defined trafficking as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation."

A draft of its report noted trafficking involved illicit means such as "threat, use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction or fraud of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability." Exploitation also includes undue influence to encourage or induce people to allow the removal of their organs for transplantation.

On the heels of the Kumar scandal, India's health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, has vowed to crack down on the illegal trade of organs. According to the Times of India, the government is poised to change the National Organ Transplant Act and get tough with lawbreakers.

The newspaper reported that under planned changes, harvesting healthy organs from brain dead patients will be permitted with incentives to those who donate organs after death.

The government also intends to launch a public education campaign to put the brakes on the illegal organ trade.

The trade was banned in China last year where it was alleged authorities were harvesting organs from prisoners and victims of road accidents without permission. Under the ban, doctors involved in trafficking would lose their licences, participating hospitals or clinics would not be allowed to perform transplants for three years and government officials would be fired.

Matthews takes aim at poverty

from The Toronto Star

More efficient to catch province's most vulnerable before they fall through cracks, minister says. We have people accountable for programs but we don't have people accountable for people

Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau

Ontario's anti-poverty czar Deb Matthews often talks about a homeless man named Murray. Million-dollar Murray.

That's what U.S. officials estimate the Nevada man cost the government in hospital visits, treatment programs and other services before he died.

With Ontario's disjointed and inadequate network of supports for the poor, it's just the kind of thing that could happen here, says Matthews, minister of children and youth services.

As chair of the cabinet committee on poverty reduction, she plans to change that.

In short: Matthews wants to fix the existing system so money is spent on people before they fall through the cracks and cost a fortune, move forward with targeted programs that actually give poor and vulnerable people the support they need, and enable Ontario's less fortunate to live happier lives.

With provincial politicians talking about lifting people out of poverty – a subject that hasn't been this popular in decades – expectations among community advocates are high, perhaps too high.

Can Matthews deliver?

"We're not going to solve poverty in four years, we're not, but are we going to take steps in that direction? Absolutely, we can. We must," says Matthews.

"I'm not prepared to throw up my hands and say it's too hard."

Today, her committee starts to flesh out Premier Dalton McGuinty's election promise to introduce firm poverty-reduction targets so the government can be measured on its progress.

Along with choosing the all-important goals – some groups are already pushing for a 25 per cent cut to poverty in 5 years – the committee will develop a comprehensive strategy to give the government a realistic shot at meeting its target.

With more than 1 million Ontarians living in poverty, there's a lot at stake.

Ontario already has plenty of programs designed to help those in need, from homeless shelters, food banks and welfare to special education programs and addiction and mental health programs.

But few are connected and people fall through, leading Matthews to say: "We have people accountable for programs but we don't really have people accountable for people."

That's how a million-dollar Murray happens.

Children grow out of foster care but don't get the help they need to cope so their next home may be a jail cell. Someone gets out of prison or a psychiatric facility but can't find an apartment they can afford so they live in an expensive shelter.

"These are the people who are costing a lot of money and they are not living very happy lives," says Matthews.

This is something that Matthews, raised by a social activist mother and a politically active father, finds unacceptable.

"I was really raised with the expectation that, because we were pretty lucky in life, that we had an obligation to help people who weren't so lucky in life," says Matthews, referring to her wealthy upbringing in London, Ont., where her father had a successful construction business.

That doesn't make her a soft touch who will push the premier to fund every initiative that comes along.

"Too many programs are based on `we think this would help.' Show me the evidence that this works," says Matthews.

"She has very deep passions but they're based on knowledge," says Matthews' brother-in-law, former Ontario premier David Peterson.

"It's not like she just feels sorry for poor people, which she does, but it's that she understands the issues and the problems and can bring rationality to attack them and can easily dispel the myths that surround them."

Matthews, 54, is the consummate overachiever. She completed her PhD in social demography during her first term as MPP for London North Centre. As parliamentary assistant to the social services minister, she toured the province for a year before recommending ways to make it easier for mentally ill Ontarians on welfare to get jobs. And she was the driving force behind the child benefit, introduced in 2007, which when fully implemented will help some 1.3 million children in low-income homes.

"She's only got one problem ... expectations are too high around her," says Peterson.

"(Poverty) is not an easy issue to make progress with. You can, but it's never going to be as good or as fast as the critics would like."

For many, the situation is dire and getting worse.

Ontario is the child poverty centre of the country with 345,000 poor kids. According to a recent United Way report, 30 per cent of Toronto families are living in poverty, compared to 16 per cent in 1990.

Advocates are demanding immediate and sweeping changes. The appointment of Matthews – who is respected by community groups – has raised expectations of real change and not just political posturing.

"She's a remarkably responsive politician, she actually answers calls," says Susan Pigott of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, who worked with Matthews on an income security task force.

Last year, when the labour minister was unavailable to attend a forum on precarious work, it was Matthews who stepped into the breach and faced more than 200 people frustrated and angry over the lack of provincial legislation to protect part-time, temporary and contract workers.

It was at a community event where Matthews, then a mother of three, and a 49-year-old student at the University of Western Ontario, decided to become a politician.

In 2002, she and her eldest daughter, also a university student at the time, were protesting against skyrocketing tuition.

Surrounded by the young students who organized the march on then Conservative education minister Dianne Cunningham's office in London, Matthews decided that if she really cared about what was going on around her, she'd better try to do something about it.

"I had this thought pass my mind: these kids are using all the levers of power they know how to pull to affect change. What am I doing?"

She put her statistics courses to work and calculated her odds of winning. Matthews gave herself a 1 in 3 chance to win the Liberal nomination and, if she won that, a 1 in 5 chance of beating the incumbent Cunningham.

Despite those odds, she ran anyway. She beat Cunningham in the 2003 election. After being re-elected in 2007, she joined the ranks of cabinet in the Liberal government.

Matthews comes from deep – but shifting – political roots.

Her grandfather was a member of the CCF, the precursor of the New Democratic Party; her father, Don Matthews, was once president of the federal Progressive Conservative party; and through her brother-in-law David Peterson, she found her way into the Liberal camp, where she accumulated impressive credentials.

She ran Peterson's successful bid to become an MPP in 1975, co-chaired the Liberal party's provincial campaigns in 1987 and 1995 elections and was elected president of the Ontario Liberal Party in 2003.

In the midst of it all, she raised three children, now all in their 20s.

"I really believe in the power of political action ... it is a tremendous vehicle for social change," she says.

But politics must be done for the right reasons, she adds.

Museum image touted as end of poverty in Africa

from the London Free Press

UWO engineers are urged to build dreams as well as buildings.

By RONNIE SHUKER, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA

Imagine a museum of poverty.

There's the last mosquito carrying malaria, the last foot-powered irrigation pump, the last home without electricity.

It's the building Parker Mitchell, co-CEO of Engineers Without Borders, hopes to one day construct, marking the end of poverty in Africa.

And he's asked members of the group's chapter at the University of Western Ontario to be help build that dream.

"To build that museum of poverty is going to require a lot of bricks," he said. "Each chapter and each individual can have a part in putting one of those bricks down in the foundation."

Mitchell, 31, spoke at the chapter's annual wine and dine event. He's a graduate of engineering and arts from the University of Waterloo and holds a master's in development studies from Cambridge. In 2005, he was voted one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 emerging leaders by Time magazine.

Mitchell co-founded Engineers Without Borders in 2000. The organization brings agriculture, water sanitation and other technologies to developing communities in Africa.

"Technology will be part and parcel of any society's transformation and ability to take control of its own destiny," he said. "We look at the application of simple, appropriate technologies that will help people gain control of their lives in Africa."

While there's still a desperate need for food in much of Africa, there's no shortage of entrepreneurial spirit on the continent to help propel its technological development, Mitchell said.

In Cameroon, on one of his trips to Africa, Mitchell stood and watched as three young boys sped down a hill on a bicycle -- a universal childhood scene.

But this bike was made entirely out of wood. And the children made it themselves.

"It's unbelievably humbling that in six years of primary school, in six years of secondary school and five of engineering education that I couldn't even conceive of how to build a bike like that. And these kids had it working perfectly," he said.

"When I see that kind of natural ingenuity just struggling to break out against the confines nature has put on so many people in Africa, stories like that give me hope."

It's that hope Mitchell believes will one day lead to building the museum of poverty.

For him, it's a symbol that engineers can help build more than just buildings -- they can build dreams.

CAFOD joins protest about impact of trade agreement on poor farmers

from Ekklesia

By staff writers

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), an agency of the bishops in England and Wales, has expressed concern that the full implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will result in job losses and radical wage depreciation for poor Mexican farmers.

The NAFTA agreement is due to be finalised this month, February 2008. Critics, including CAFOD and other UK development groups, say it will pit poor Mexican workers in an unworkable economic battle against US and Canadian competitors, rather than spreading propserity evenly.

Overall, they argue, the result may well be greater inequality. The American government says the result will be a boost in finance and trade, although it has negotiated hard, using all its international muscle, to secure a deal favorable to the rich United States.

CAFOD has now backed a strong statement from the Mexican Catholic Bishops Conference's social action commission, criticising the proposed deal.

The Mexican bishops say: "There is a very real risk of greater impoverishment in rural and indigenous areas." They want to see the interests of the poor central to NAFTA.

CAFOD has worked in Mexico for more than 30 years and has campaigned to raise awareness of the plight of small farmers affected by NAFTA since 2001.

The agency says it supports the bishops' call for the Mexican government to guarantee its people have enough food to eat, to protect national production and to consider renegotiating NAFTA.

Roisin O'Hara, from CAFOD's Latin America and Caribbean team, declared last wek: "CAFOD welcomes the bishops' powerful statement condemning the free trade system and applauds their expression of solidarity with Mexico's poorest communities."

O'Hara continued: "Trade liberalisation has filled Mexico with cheap alternatives, leaving small producers unable to compete. Every hour the country imports an estimated 1.5 million dollars worth of agricultural and food products, almost all from the US. During the same hour, 30 people leave their homes in the Mexican countryside to seek work in the US."

"We have witnessed first-hand the devastating effects unfair trade policies are having on the poor and agree we have a moral responsibility to speak out and support them out of poverty," she said.

An indigenous coffee farmer, Vicente Gómez, whom CAFOD supports through a partner organisation in the south of Mexico, is quoted as saying: "Since NAFTA we get very little for what we sell. Now coffee only brings in 6 pesos a kilo but a pair of trousers is 100, shoes 150, and a hat 50."

Mexican bishops point out that: "Mexico cannot close its borders indefinitely, not only because we are not self-sufficient in everything but also because the market now exceeds national limits in both its benefits and limitations."

They declae: "[W]hen the laws of the market impose upon the rights of the people and communities, profit becomes the supreme value and serves the large interest groups, excluding the poor and generating a global economic system which is both unjust and inhumane."

The letter from the church leaders continues: "It is necessary to seek paths, in the sphere of international commerce, which change those systems which generate injustice and exclusion in those countries or sectors of society which are less developed. No system is untouchable when it generates death."

In particular, CAFOD reports, the bishops have warned that more farmers may abandon their farms and migrate to cities or to the US which "currently has a very strong and inhumane anti-immigration programme".

They say that farm workers may be tempted to cultivate illegal crops which will open the door to insecurity and violence, and that the increasing demand for fuel for industry is stimulating the production of bio-fuels derived from grain which has serious consequences for the ability of the country to feed itself.

The bishops concluded their statement by quoting the words of Pope Benedict XVI: "The just ordering of society and the state is the principle task of political bodies and not the Church. However the Church cannot remain at the sidelines in the fight for justice".

British anti-poverty groups, ranging from CAFOD and Christian Aid through to the World Development Movement and War n Want, have warned that 'free trade' can often be a smokescreen for the huge vested interests of the rich and for widespread economic injustice.

Where groups of workers and producers are hamstrung by one-sided deals there is no freedom, only unfairness, they point out. The answer is a major readjustment of the international trade, economic and financial system, they say.

Mozambique gets $60m boost in fight against poverty

from The Mail and Guardian

Mozambique's poverty-alleviation programme this week received a boost following the approval of a further $60-million loan by the World Bank.

"The council of executive directors of the World Bank has approved a credit for the International Development Association [IDA] to the value of $60-million for the implementation of the fourth phase of Poverty Reduction Support Credit [PRSC-4] for Mozambique," the bank said in Maputo on Friday.

The fourth phase of the PRSC is the second in a series of operations approved by the World Bank and will assist the government of Mozambique, among others, to implement reforms that will result in the reduction of poverty indices, and to help the country achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Michael Baxter, World Bank regional director for Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, said the loan would enable the Mozambican government to maintain economic stability.

The loan, which would be repaid in a period of 40 years and has a 10-year grace period, would attract an interest of 0,75% per year, the World Bank said.

Antonio Nucifora, head of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Support Credit, said: "The operation will help the government implement the poverty-reduction programmes on a broader base, particularly in rural areas.

"This will also equally provide key reforms in the government through proper management of public finances."

In 2007 the UN Human Development Report placed Mozambique on the bottom list of the UN's human development ranking.

The report noted that while Mozambique was considered to have developed economically, its population continued to live in poverty.

According to the UN, more than half of Mozambique's 20-million people live on less than $1 a day and their situation was worsened by a legacy of poverty that stretched back more than 20 years.

On the eve of its independence from Portugal in 1975, Mozambique was plunged into a 16-year civil war in which a rebel movement was pitted against the newly elected government.

During the civil war, most of the country's infrastructure was destroyed while the country was littered with landmines, many of which have still to be removed.

Bell poverty rate lower than state’s: Figures may not tell whole story

from The Temple Daily Telegram

Carroll Wilson

Telegram Managing Editor

Bell County’s poverty rate is lower than that of Texas as a whole, according to new figures from the Census Bureau.

But, the rate for young people in Temple school district and several surrounding districts is higher.

Another data set just released by the government shows that the average weekly wage in Bell County is $630. That’s $32,760 a year.

But some local experts say the numbers don’t even come close to telling the whole story about the poor and the middle class here.

Cynthia Russell, who has headed up Churches Touching Lives for Christ for 14 years in Temple, doubts the poverty data.

“I don’t even know how you’d do a census here,” she said, noting the high number of people she sees who are homeless.

“If you think about food stamps, you can’t get a Lone Star Card unless you live at the poverty level, and we have 10,400 files over here on people who come in or have come in, and we don’t see everybody,” she said. “People are falling through the cracks. Families with children. On the street, men and women, and we have a tremendous number of veterans on the streets here, and they’re well below poverty level. We get new ones in all the time. We keep food for them. They’re not giving the proper number. Sixteen percent is too low.”

Connie Minnick of Temple Free Clinic said the number of children in poverty in Bell County sounded low to her, although the clinic no longer sees kids.

“I don’t think that’s too far off,” said Judy Morales of Bell County Help Center. But she, like others, suggested the poverty rate itself is no indicator of what’s going on in this area when it comes to the economic health of individuals and families.

“What we’re seeing a lot is the middle class having more struggles because of the increase in daily needs,” she said. She said the weekly wage is low here, and a great many people work two jobs to make ends meet.

Senior citizens on fixed incomes are particularly hard-hit these days, she said, by high fuel and grocery prices.

“We’re seeing more and more on fixed incomes come to see how to keep their utilities on and not be evicted,” she said.

Morales noted that a large number of students in Bell County are on the free or reduced-price meals programs.

Regina Baird of the Temple school district reported that 63.7 percent of Temple students are participants.

The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), headquartered in Texas, has long criticized the use of the federal poverty rate to measure the well-being of people.

Last August, the center issued its own report, saying that a family with two parents and two children would need to make $45,528 annually to make ends meet in the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan statistical area. A single parent with two children would need to earn $35,790.

Dr. Jose Martinez, a professor of social work at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, said by every measure, Texas ranks below average when it comes to helping people.

“Historically, Texas has had a higher poverty rate than the rest of the country,” he said. “The same applies with health care. And the same with education levels. In a word, what could be called the safety net in Texas is not much of a net in comparison with the rest of the country. It’s interesting in a way. Texas is one of the wealthiest states in terms of potential resources. But, the situation is that a large number of people don’t benefit from that. The potential is there. It’s possible to help. We just don’t.”

According to the CPPP, Texans have seen a decline in the real value of their incomes.

“The purchasing power of Texas wages has been stagnant since 1979, despite the increased cost of living,” the CPPP reported.

And, Texans are less likely to receive employer-sponsored health insurance than are workers in other states. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Texas has the highest number of residents without insurance - 25 percent.

In addition, Texas has high sales and property taxes that hit lower-paid workers the hardest.

Bahrain backs $10bn poverty reduction initiative

from Trade Arabia

Bahrain is set to host a top level gathering on $10-billion poverty reduction initiative.

The meeting will discuss the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), which was established within the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) following a decision of the third extraordinary meeting of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005.

Bahrain Finance Minister and IsDB Board of Governors’ Chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa will patronize the meeting of the “High-Level Advisory Panel for the ISFD,” which will take place in Manama on February 5 at the Gulf Hotel.

The event will bring together eminent personalities who have an interest in joint action for development and poverty reduction across the Islamic world and who can help to further define the fund’s strategies and support efforts to raise its targeted $10 billion, the organisers said in a statement.

The fund, whose objectives are linked directly to supporting the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, will focus on combating poverty, reducing illiteracy and fighting communicable diseases in IsDB’s least developed member countries (80% of which are in Africa) as well as in pockets of poverty in other member countries.

The meeting, to be presided over by Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, will include prominent political and economic leaders and humanitarians from across the OIC member states.

Among the expected attendees are: former Iran president Mohammed Khatami, former Sudan president Abdulrahman Mohamed Hassan Siwar Al Dhahab and former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohammed.

The IsDB delegation will be led by the IsDB President, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali. – TradeArabia News Service