Dr. Ripley Ballou of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals explains why he devoted his life to beating malaria.
What I remember most clearly were her eyes.
A young mother, whose only son had died a few weeks earlier, sat with her husband across the single room of a tidy but impossibly small hut in the Gambia. I sat on the boy’s now empty bed.
The story was all too familiar. He had been a perfectly happy little boy of 18 months until a few days earlier when he had become irritable, then feverish, and in less than 48 hours, slipped into an unresponsive state punctuated by seizures. Sometime during the night, after receiving ineffective treatment, his life slipped away.
Amy Spindler, winner of ONE’s World Food Day blog post contest, brings her story pitch to life in this piece on food security, empowerment and activism.
Amy checks out a greenhouse, a simple technology that allows for a longer growing season in the high mountains of Tajikistan.
It’s a moment that’s stuck with me. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, when I first saw girls hauling metal canisters through the village, I assumed that they contained milk. How naive. I quickly learned that they contained river water for cooking, drinking and bathing. Of course milk was available, but only affordable in small glass jars. As I’ve gone on to work in food security in Tajikistan, that moment humbles me again and again. There’s so much to learn.
Bernadette with some of the fruits of her labor. Photo credit: One Acre Fund.
In Tyazo, located in Nyamasheke District, Rwanda, Bernadette is one of many smallholder women farmers receiving agricultural assistance through One Acre Fund (OAF). By participating, she received a “market bundle” of seed and fertilizer on credit, as well as technical knowledge on improved methods of planting, harvesting, storing and selling her crops.
You may have heard that the world is set to officially hit the 7 billion mark by tonight. What does that mean, exactly? Take a look at these cool tools from around the web to find out…
1. What’s the population right this second? Check out the UN’s official counter.
2. Some stunning, must-see photos from the Atlantic certainly leave me less likely to complain about my crowded commute…
4. It would take 222 years to say “hello” to everyone around the world? Wow! Find this and other interesting population facts here.
5. Here’s an amazing video for the occasion from National Geographic, highlighting what we can all do to help the millions of people living in extreme poverty. Watch it in the player above.
6. Looking for some more details on where you fit into the world? 7 Billion and Me gives you detail by year, country and even home city.
Fate of Bush-era program a matter of life or death – Princeton University professor, Julian Zelizer, argues that amid difficult budget negotiations, President Bush’s PEPFAR should be preserved, saying that “when a program does work, as the evidence suggests that PEPFAR has, and is desperately needed, there should be some kind of security for its future.” According to Zelizer, the program has helped “save the lives of millions of people and helped to contain a disease that was ravaging the African continent,” all for a fraction of the U.S. budget. (CNN)
Despite Budget Crisis, Bill Gates Pushes Continuing Foreign Aid – Bill Gates traveled to Capitol Hill last week to encourage members of Congress to reconsider cutting “foreign aid efforts to poor and developing countries, saying that every dollar of aid ‘makes a huge difference.’” Gates commended improvements in the reduction of poverty, malnutrition and the under five death rate, reminding us that we “need to take the generosity, the innovation, and carry that forward despite the fact that we have this economic crisis.” (ABC News, Imtiyaz Delawala)
Today, the world’s population reached 7 billion. As the world only hit six billion in 1999, that’s the fastest increase in our population ever. If you were to start counting to 7 billion out loud, it would take you 200 years to finish. The global population is growing at extreme rates, with five births every second, but only two deaths. Of all seven continents, Africa has seen the fastest population growth, and is home to more than 1 billion people with an expected population of more than 2 billion by 2050.
Every Halloween, I try to make conscious choices about my candy purchases. I know many like-minded people are the same and want to be sure that their purchases aren’t contributing to the extreme poverty that we all work to eradicate on a daily basis. But it’s hard –- where do you start? How do you ensure that you have a fair trade chocolate Halloween?
Fair Trade Halloween: Sweet Earth Trick or Treat Chocolates
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
