Tag Archives: diarrhea

Cause for Celebration: An MDG Met

Where there’s a will, there’s a way:  The UN announced yesterday that 89% of the world’s population – 6.1 billion people – now has access to safe drinking water.  A Millennium Development Goal, to halve the number of people who had unsafe drinking water by 2015, has been reached early.  Between 1990 and 2010 more than 2 billion people received access to improved drinking water through projects like pipes and protected wells. Contaminated water poses a host of dangers, many of which effect children disproportionately more than adults. More than 3,000 children die daily from diarrhoeal diseases, and 88% of these deaths are due to poor drinking water, lack of sanitation, and poor hygiene.

It is wonderful news that the majority of people now do not have to be concerned about their drinking water, but that only solves part of the problem.  To truly improve the lives and health of the poorest people proper sanitation and hygiene practices are essential.  The UN warns that sanitation aspect of the water MDG is still off track. The Gates Foundation, the UN, and other groups like the Global Soap Project are working on both the grassroots and government level to teach good hygiene and provide proper sanitation.  One of the ways they are doing this is to reward village chiefs and leaders for their roles in improving their villages.

The chief of Massane village shows the bicycle he got as a reward for the village's certification of "open defecation free" status.

The fact that the Millennium Development Goal for safe drinking water has been met is a testament to the power and abilities of dedicated people.  Something so seemingly impossible as giving almost 90% of the world’s population safe, clean drinking turned out to be perfectly achievable.  That means that all the other MDG’s are just as possible.  Now let us press forward with renewed hope and passion, and give children and families the world over a fair shot a full and healthy life.

World Vision and the Crisis in the Philippines

One of my favorite things about World Vision is their focus on children.  In any situation – conflict, famine, natural disaster, trafficking, etc… – children are always the most vulnerable and the easiest to overlook.

Tropical Storm Washi hit an unprepared and low-lying area of the Philippine archipelago, causing flash-floods and landslides that took most people in their sleep.  Because of their sponsorship project in the Philippines,  World Vision was already present in the area and had a relationship with some of the locals, making them uniquely equipped to offer assistance.  They provided the life-saving necessities first – food, water and shelter – and also gave out hygiene kits with soap, blankets, cooking pots and utensils, blankets and sleeping mats.

Then, they set about caring for the needs of those who had suffered the most, the children, World Vision began building child-friendly areas – the first of which is now finished, just days after the storm hit – with toys so the youngest survivors could have a safe place to play. For the older children, they began handing out school supplies to nearly 10,000 kids, to add a little consistency to their now turbulent lives.

Child plays with bubbles in World Vision new Child-Friendly Space

These trivial-seeming acts are actually essential in helping the kids deal with tragedy.  Most of the children have lost their a parent, a sibling, or their homes, some have lost everything.  To have a place to play or studies to focus on helps bring a little normalcy back to their lives.  World Vision is always there for children, to make sure they are not marginalized, and to show them that they precious and cared for, no matter what happens.

My Favorite Organization Today: Global Soap Project

Derreck Kayongo is now a naturalized American citizen, but he was born in Uganda and his young life was a traumatic one under the rule of dictator Idi Amin. Now that, in his own words, he is blessed in America it’s time to give back to those who aren’t as fortunate as he is.  His inspiration came to him while staying in a hotel.  He noticed that even though the bars of soap were barely used, everyday they were replaced with brand new soap.

Kayongo realized he could take all of that wasted hotel soap (what amounts to 3 million bars a day), recycle it and send it to people who can’t afford it all around the world.  The problem in the developing world, he says, is not a lack of available soap, but the cost of it.  If you make only a $1 a day, and soap costs $.25, you’re not going to spend your money on soap.  You’re going to buy food, seed, water canisters, or any of the things you think will help you live.  It’s only when you or your children get sick from not washing your hands, and can’t afford medicine or the hospital that you wish you had purchased that $.25 soap.

Global Soap Project started as a small endeavor in Kayongo’s home basement, and has now  requires an Atlanta warehouse to store the tons of soap they receive, recycle and send out.  With hotel partners such as Hilton Worldwide, and others donating their leftover soaps – some of which, like Bvlgari brand soap, would retail for $27 a bar –  Global Soap Project has 25 tons of soap as of June.  The soap is then recycled, repackaged, and sent out to countries like Haiti, Uganda, South Sudan, and Kenya, where it will save lives and money.

For information on ways to get involved, or to sign up your hotel, see the Global Soap Project website.

And a Happy World Toilet Day to You

November 19th was declared to be World Toilet Day by the World Toilet Organization in 2001.  It was created to raise global awareness of the 2.6 billion people – more than a third of the world’s population – that live without daily access to clean and proper sanitation.  Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events held by various water and sanitation organizations.

A Nepalese girl at one of 1,400 toilets built by World Vision in the Kaski district.

Toilets are more than an item of convenience.  For chidren especially, they can be a matter of life and death.  Children living in households without toilets are twice as likely to get diarrhea as those with toilets. Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 – it kills more kids every year than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Improper hygiene leads to contaminated water, which causes a host of infections that are especially dangerous to young children.  Many children in poverty stricken areas are under or malnourished which puts them at double risk for the preventable but otherwise deadly diseases that are caused by poor sanitation, such as cholera, diarrhea, pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery.

Every day over 6,000 children die due to contaminated water, poor sanitation, and hygiene – nearly one child every 7 seconds. The majority of illnesses in the world are cause by feces: one gram of feces contains 10 million viruses,1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasites, and 100 worm eggs.  The average family in the developing world without access to a toilet consumes about 10 grams of fecal matter a day.  To a child with a weakened immune system, this kind of exposure can be death sentence.  Clean water and proper sanitation can cut a community’s child mortality rate in half.  Access to clean water enables parents to improve the health, hygiene and overall well-being of their children, allowing them to grow and prosper to their full potential.

Help provide clean water and a proper toilet to a child in need by donating to a program like World Vision’s Water and Sanitation Fund which multiplies gifts three times and uses them “to build wells, treat contaminated water, and provide storage containers to save fresh rainwater for later use”.  Also support WaterAid as they endeavor to make water, sanitation, and hygiene a national priority in Sub-Saharan Africa, where inadequate water and sanitation services hold back social and economic development and ultimately cost the region 5% of the gross domestic product every year.  Lend your voice to the cause of sanitation and spread awareness this World Toilet Day for the billions of people out there who don’t have access to a proper toilet.