Small Businesses Save Lives!

// May 17th, 2013 // No Comments » // Ethiopia, Ethiopia-Mudiyambo, TCD, TCD Income, Uncategorized

Boridiko in her shop

Mudiyambo, Ethiopia

 This is just one amazing story from GHNI leaders in Ethiopia about women starting small businesses to help their families:

Boridiko lives with her husband in a small round hut.  In addition to this, she has a small shop which is made from sticks and covered with plastic sheeting.  Our TCD worker asked her, “What are you doing?”  Boridiko said “I am shop kipper.”  [shopkeeper]  My friend ask her, “How and when did you start this shop and who helped you?”   She said that several months ago she joined a TCD group that was formed by GHNI & she attended TCD classes on how to start small businesses to generate income.

“They taught us different kinds of methods and possibles to create jobs.  After I learned this, I opened this shop.  At the time, the task was full of challenges because the village has no access to markets and no start-up capital for small businesses. However, I decided to go for it when I saw that my future was bright.”

In our village, 12 women started different types of work through small businesses.  Eleven women are still at it and have started to repay the loans that GHNI provided.  Boridiko tells her friends, “I can show how GHNI can help the people.”

 In developing nations, like Ethiopia, small businesses can be the difference between having confidence that there will be a meal on the table that day or not.  It’s women like Boridiko that learn to make that difference for her family. 

Racing for Water

// May 6th, 2013 // No Comments » // Indonesia, Indonesia-Tanah Keke, TCD, TCD Water, Uncategorized

Watch this inspiring video!

Tanah Keke, Indonesia

A year ago, the women of Tanah Keke would race to the local well in the middle of the night to get water for their family.   In less than four minutes, you can see a village transform from racing for water in the middle of the night to having enough water for each family.  GHNI National leader, Phil, captures this inspiring six-month transformation on video. GHNI National leader, Phil, captures this inspiring six-month transformation on video.

News Behind the News: April 2013

// April 30th, 2013 // No Comments » // News Behind the News, Uncategorized

Section 1: GHNI Focus Countries

Here’s GHNI’s news behind the news headlines around the world…

Nepali women receive health education

AFGHANISTAN

Women’s Rights, One Tribe at a Time

One small success in the struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan is reported by IRIN in an article which starts with the story of a woman who comes to a woman’s refuge for the fifth time after a brutal beating by her husband.  On the four previous occasions she was sent back to her husband either by the decision of tribal elders or the government court.  The small success is the decision by the tribal elders to ban “baad,” the practice of giving away girls as payment to settle a dispute.

GHNI village TCD Programs always begin with the understanding that all people are created equal, men and women.  We rejoice with the people of Afghanistan in this small success.  Here’s one way GHNI is helping Afghan women and families…

BURMA (MYANMAR)

Aid Equality?

A report from IRIN gives an estimate of 127,000 internally displaced persons, mostly from the Muslim Rohingya community, in the wake of two waves of violence directed against this stateless minority.  Continuing agitation by Buddhist activists, complaining that international aid is focused on the Muslims, is making it difficult for aid agencies to recruit and retain local staff, and thereby hampering their efforts to provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance.

GHNI serves with several partners in Burma (Myanmar).  We serve all who are needy, regardless of race, religion or national origin.

EGYPT

Fuel Shortage Poses Threat

A shortage of fuel has delayed the wheat harvest in Egypt, exacerbating an acute policy dilemma for the government, according to a report from IRIN.  The government wants to increase domestic wheat production to reduce the foreign exchange burden of importing 75% of the wheat consumed in the country and has announced a marginal increase in its buying price.  But farmers forced to resort to the black market to obtain fuel for the harvest are facing a much greater increase in their costs.  While the harvest is delayed, losses from pests and disease increase, in some cases up to 50% of the expected crop, and the rise in production costs lowers the incentive to embark on the next planting.  The shortage of fuel threatens both food security and the precarious level of foreign exchange reserves.

GHNI is helping many villages in Egypt.  Here’s one such story…

ETHIOPIA

Forestry to Revive Ethiopia

Rising populations of humans and livestock have reduced forest cover from 40% of Ethiopia’s land surface four centuries ago to 4.6% today.  A project to reverse deforestation covering 500,000 hectares has been launched in the mountains of Bale in Oromia Province, run by a combination of a British and a local NGO and funded by the governments of Norway, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

The project uses a strategy of participatory forest management, seeking to enlist the active support of the local community, which in exchange for giving up its customary practices of uncontrolled extraction of forest resources would share in the benefits of managed exploitation of commercial opportunities to produce bamboo, forest coffee and honey.  Of 23,000 families in the Bale area, 3,500 have adopted these activities, though the level of investment is insufficient.  For honey production to flourish, hives need to be distributed, technical support provided to beekeepers, and marketing arrangements to be improved.

GHNI is supporting many micro-business opportunities that really help families become resilient and self-sustainable.  Another way GHNI is also helping families to engage natural resources for pesticides and fertilizer to increase successful food and income production.

INDONESIA

Preventing Abuse Despite Barriers

Although Indonesia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, there are many practical barriers to effective enforcement of measures to prevent child abuse, according to a report from IRIN. Although the police established specialised units to handle crimes against women and children, these are threatened with closure because so few cases are referred to them.

GHNI continues to help women thru education and micro-business in the slums and have seen lives of families changed.

KENYA

Rains: Blessing or Curse?

Exceptionally heavy rains in many parts of East Africa are proving a mixed blessing. While boosting future harvest prospects, in Kenya alone the flooding has already cost 32 deaths and displaced more than 18,000 people, a number that could rise to 30,000 according to the Kenya Red Cross.  Damage to roads has made access more difficult to the Dadaab camp complex, home to 463,000 mainly Somali refugees, and raised commodity prices.

GHNI has been helping in the Somali camps for many years. The suffering is horrendous.

NEPAL

Womens’ Health Education

Nepal is on track to achieve its Millenial Development Goals (MDG) target of reducing by three-quarters its maternal mortality ratio by 2015—a huge achievement and in vivid contrast to most African countries.  Paradoxically, the gains have been made without a significant increase in the supply of trained midwives.  The first professional midwives are expected to enter training in 2014.

GHNI is initiating community-based health education for the women of 7 villages in SW Nepal.  We have already seen this make a big difference in reducing maternal death in some villages in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Read more on GHNI’s work in Nepal…

SYRIA

Survival Turns Dangerous

A survival strategy adopted to overcome the bitter chill of winter and early spring has risked the health of thousands of Syrians.  In the absence of refined heating oil, people have been turning to crude oil for heating and cooking purposes, but because burning crude has more sulphur and carbon monoxide, it has produced respiratory and skin problems among the people affected.  It is not only crude oil to which people resort.  In the town of Hama, people have been burning desks and chairs from schools.  In the village of Maaret al Numan 500 hectares of olive groves were cut down to provide fuel.

GHNI is taking in medicines to refugees during the writing of this article.

TURKEY

Syrian Refugees Require On-Going Need

From the beginning of the conflict, Turkey has been receptive to the situation of Syrian refugees seeking to cross its border, and has borne the cost (at least $700 million) from its own resources.    According to IRIN, 192,000 refugees live in 17 camps strung out across the 8 provinces which face Syria, with a similar number living in apartments, unfinished houses and even sheds among the host community.

Turkey freely admits those with passports, while those without are accommodated in the camps.  Although these have the reputation of being among the best in the world, they are also functioning as a choke on the admission rate, since Turkey admits undocumented refugees only as new camp accommodation comes on stream.

During the writing of this article, we at GHNI have a team on the border of Turkey with Syria bringing clothing and medical supplies.  All of our team members are volunteers.  We desperately need $200,000 to meet the needs for the refugees now.  That will also help with resettling them later.  Join this life-saving work, today!

YEMEN

Microcredit for Developing Countries?

Microcredit has been promoted in many developing countries as a means of propelling the poor to a higher standard of living by encouraging investment in productive enterprises.  It is unclear whether this objective has been achieved in Yemen, according to a report from IRIN.  Although a very high rate of loan repayment has been recorded, which is one crucial indicator of success; it is less apparent that success is reflected in indicators such as higher household expenditure or higher rates of enrolment in school.

Challenges to further growth of microcredit include lack of understanding of loan operations, high rates of interest (its equivalent in Islamic finance) and the ever-present temptation to divert what is intended as investment finance into immediate consumption needs such as paying medical or food bills.

SECTION TWO:  FEATURE ARTICLE OF THE MONTH

RESEARCH FOCUS:  PHARMACEUTICALS IN INDIA

Patent Protection and Access to Pharmaceuticals in India

According to a story appearing in the World Development section of the Guardian newspaper, a decision by the Indian Supreme Court not to uphold the patent protection on Gleevec, the blockbuster cancer drug developed by Novartis, has provoked a lively debate on the merits or otherwise of the intellectual property regime which has been driven largely by the interests of large multinational firms based in the West.  The immediate consequence of the decision is that an Indian manufacturer of generic medicines will be free to continue producing the drug and selling it in India at a fraction of the price that Novartis has charged ($170 for a monthly course of treatment in contrast to $2500).  This is obviously an enormous benefit to patients in India who would not be able to afford the international price.   The argument used by the pharmaceutical companies is that the monopoly pricing power afforded by patent protection is necessary as an incentive for the pharmaceutical companies to undertake the huge expenditures and uncertainties involved in the development of new drugs.

This is a specific example of the struggle that has been raging over the past two decades between commercial interests and their supporters in industrialised country governments on the one hand and the advocates of improved access to medicines, especially in developing countries, on the other hand.  The fact that it is an Indian story is unsurprising, since Indian generic manufacturing capacity has often been at the flashpoint of this frequently bitter struggle.

The situation of patent protection for medicines changed fundamentally with the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.  Up until then, many developing countries had no patent legislation; some had protection for processes but not products, which allowed scope for generic manufacture; and some had protection for both products and processes.  Membership of WTO entailed signing up to a number of multilateral agreements, among which was the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).   Countries were obliged by TRIPS to amend their domestic legislation to give 20 years patent protection for both products and processes.  This applied to new drugs, so generic manufacture of products registered before 1995 was still possible.  There were transition arrangements which allowed developing countries to delay compliance until 2000 in all cases and 2005 for countries with no previous patent legislation.  In addition, there were two exceptional provisions.  One allowed countries to issue compulsory licences to other companies to manufacture without the patent holder’s consent when justified in the public interest and subject to certain conditions.  The other allowed parallel imports, meaning import of the identical patented product from another country at lower prices.

A meeting of WTO member states in Doha in November 2001 resulted in the Doha Declaration which asserted the important principles:  “. . .the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent Members from taking steps to protect public health . . . we reaffirm the right of WTO Members to use, to the full, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement that provide flexibility for this purpose.”  The Declaration also stressed the right of Members to determine what constituted an emergency and referred specifically to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other epidemics.

It was these provisions which allowed some developing countries, supported by activists in the industrialised countries, to access generic versions of HIV drugs when from 2003 onwards WHO and other agencies adopted a policy of treating HIV patients with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs which had hitherto been regarded as too expensive for use in poor countries.  Whereas an annual supply of ARVs initially cost $10,000, within a few years the cost in developing countries had fallen to $70. Indian manufacturers of generic drugs such as Cipla played a hugely important role in supplying developing countries with WHO quality certified drugs at these more affordable prices, which transformed the survival prospects of millions of patients with advanced HIV infections.

The action of the Indian Supreme Court in striking down the application by Novartis for patent protection for its expensive cancer treatment enlarges the possibility that there will be improved access to medicines active against non-communicable disease.  The Supreme Court based its judgement on the finding that the version submitted by Novartis was not a novel formulation but only a minor modification to the original drug which could not be given patent protection because it was already in production.   By exercising its independent power of decision, the Supreme Court struck a lusty blow in favour of universal access to essential medicines.

News Behind the News: March 2013

// March 27th, 2013 // No Comments » // News Behind the News, Uncategorized

Section One: GHNI Focus Countries

Syrian orphans testing out their new school supplies

AFGHANISTAN
Small businesses are struggling, but hope continues to blossom in a Garden

Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangahar Province, sits astride the main trade route between Afghanistan and Pakistan where small industrial enterprises which do not have regular electricity supplies are consequently forced to lay off workers or close completely. “There were 115 factories in 2011, but today there are 85 and if there is no electricity it could be reduced more” the local representative of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce told IRIN. “About 600 people have been left jobless by factories shutting down only this year.” The reason for the electricity shortage is that an electricity pylon was destroyed by the Taliban.

GHNI’s Garden of Peace and Hope is Blooming for Expats

“The Manager at the Garden of Peace and Hope is full of ideas for the Garden. At the start of March, he organized an exhibition of Afghan Art for the foreign community. This was a great event and was an ideal opportunity not only to promote young local artists, but also to bring the Garden to the attention of the wider expat community. The Manager also told us that in February a television crew came to the Garden to do an interview and take footage of the work there. We hope to build on these events in the spring and encourage more visitors to the Garden.” GHNI is the founder and manager of the Garden, after it was requested by the office of the President of Afghanistan.

BURKINA FASO
GHNI Educates Villagers on Human Trafficking Risks

A photo gallery in The Guardian newspaper of indeterminate date describes Ouagadougou as the focal point of human trafficking in West Africa, produced by a combination of corruption in Burkina Faso and more stringent controls in other countries, notably Niger. It tells the familiar story of young girls, in this case mostly from Nigeria, lured abroad by promises of work as maids or even emigration to Europe or the USA. They are then forced into prostitution to pay the debts they allegedly owe to the traffickers. GHNI is now looking to test lessons in rural villagers to warn them of the traffickers.

BURMA (MYANMAR)
Accessibility of Higher Education

Through the almost five decades of military rule, the academic standing of Burmese universities sank under the combined pressures of inadequate funding and complete political control. The government plans a private universities bill, which would allow international campuses to be established by foreign universities either jointly owned or wholly owned by the external partner. Although all these developments are as yet unrealized, they do hold the promise of a fundamental change from the past repression of university life.

GHNI, last month, had several staff speaking in higher education schools on the empowerment for change that happens using our community based self-sustainable training or TCD (Transformational Community Development).

Burmese Orphans Thriving and Sustaining after Cyclone Nargis

Our local TCD Trainer writes, “During the month of February, we welcomed a team from Europe and the US. It was great to work with them and have relationship-building time with them. We were able to welcome them at The Father’s House and check on the progress of this self-sustaining orphanage. Great progress has been made and the children are very happy. It is wonderful to see the healing that has come into their lives after going through the traumatic experience of Cyclone Nargis and the loss of their families.”

EGYPT
Looming Danger of Swarming Locusts

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a warning in February that there was a risk of desert locust swarms forming in the border regions of southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. Scattered swarms of immature locusts (hoppers) had been found, and the FAO warns all of the countries adjacent to the Red Sea of the possible danger. An association doing community development amongst the rural poor has asked GHNI to teach our TCD program in a number of villages in Southern Egypt.

JORDAN
Impoverished Jordanians Now Competing with Refugees for Work

The 4,000 person population of the village of Fifa in north-western Jordan can tell a story of increasing poverty. Historically, they depended on seasonal agricultural work in the Jordan Valley, sheep breeding, and cash and material assistance from the Ministry of Social Development. But their situation has deteriorated sharply in recent months.

Food prices have risen, partly in response to the disruption of trade with Syria. Charitable assistance has fallen in the wake of the global financial crisis. Most recently, fuel prices rose by 40% when the government withdrew subsidies as a condition of receiving a loan from the IMF. According to IRIN, poorer people can no longer afford to heat their homes. They also eat less and find even casual work hard to get since they are in competition with Syrian refugees who are willing to provide the labour of an entire family for the wages of a single labourer.

GHNI has instituted a very successful Goat Loan Program that loans pregnant female goats to poor families. We also teach the villages self-sustaining lessons with our Transformational Community Development (TCD) programs. One farmer that had no goats now has twelve.

LEBANON
Southern Migration Puzzles Aid Workers

The initial flood of Syrian refugees was largely directed at the north and east of Lebanon, but a disturbing new trend is reported by IRIN. Syrian refugees, who are largely Sunnis, have been increasingly moving to southern Lebanon which is the stronghold of the predominantly Shia Hezbollah, and a long-term ally of Bashir Assad. Aid agencies have only recently started channeling humanitarian aid to the south, and they remain puzzled by the motivations of the new migrants, given the antecedents. One speculation is that the absorption capacity of the north is near exhaustion and therefore there are better prospects of finding jobs in the south. The spillover of the Syrian conflict to violence in Beirut itself may also be a contributing factor.

Caring for Refugees, One Life at a Time

GHNI’s partner in Lebanon is focusing on 200 Syrian Refugee families. The numbers keep growing as do our abilities. Here is one small story from one family. “A man had only one cloak. Since he is so overweight, he can’t walk or leave his apartment. I asked a tailor how I could take his measurements. The tailor will now be able to make him another garment. This may not seem like a big story, but it is to this man. THANK YOU!”

LIBYA
Large Organizations Retire, GHNI Perseveres

More than two years after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime, there are still 60,000 IDPs, some held in prisons, some in camps managed by militias which are not under the full control of the national government. The main phase of humanitarian operations closed at the end of 2011. Thus agencies like the World Food Programme, donor organizations like ECHO and international NGOs like Save the Children have pulled out. The main government aid agency, UNHCR continues to maintain a small presence. One of its interventions is training IDP leaders in techniques of negotiation. This will be vital when processes of reconciliation and reintegration get under way. GHNI is hoping to bring a load of wheelchairs there next year if we can get trained personnel to help us fit them to the people who receive them.

SRI LANKA
Water Woes

The well-intentioned distribution of water pumps in the Northern Province by the government and aid agencies, designed to boost agricultural recovery in the wake of the civil war, has backfired according to scientists reported in IRIN. There are two major problems: the rate of consumption of underground water exceeds the average rate of recharge; and the water pumps are encouraging wasteful use of water, with up to 70% of the water drawn being wasted. While success in boosting incomes has been achieved, the rate of consumption of underground water is unsustainable. There is now an urgent need to put in place water conservation measures. GHNI has helped put in several wells but we also teach water conservation when we establish the community-based committees to run them.

SYRIA
Is There Hope for the Syrians?

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than a million people have fled the Syrian conflict. But this number appears to reflect only those who have been officially registered as refugees on admission to camps established in the neighbouring countries. Unknown numbers have crossed the border and found refuge in cities, towns and villages with friends, relatives or simply compassionate hosts. These refugees have no external support and no jobs.

In an interview carried on TV Station France 24, a UNHCR spokesman observed that the flow of refugees was increasing rapidly since the turn of the year. Whereas the average number crossing the border throughout 2012 was 3,000 per day, in January this increased to 5,000 per day and in February to 8,000 per day. Services in the refugee camps are being overwhelmed by the numbers seeking help, while NGOs are battling to provide humanitarian assistance inside Syria under multiple constraints.

GHNI continues to bring Help and Hope to refugees. Recently a Syrian woman told our GHNI leaders, “Thank you for coming. We know that there are many organizations who work with Syrians, but we have to go to them, you came to us.”

Section Two: Feature Article of the Month

Global Status of Human Trafficking: It is Bigger than You Think…and Closer to Home!
Human Trafficking Statistics*

The following is a list of available statistics estimating the scope of Human Trafficking around the world and within the United States. Actual statistics are often unavailable, and some may be contradictory due to the covert nature of the crime, the invisibility of victims and high levels of under-reporting. Further obstacles include inconsistent definitions, reluctance to share data, and a lack of funding for and standardization of data collection. Particularly lacking are estimates on the number of American citizens trafficked within the U.S.

Human Trafficking Worldwide

27 million – Number of people in modern-day slavery across the world.
Source: Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), estimates vary from 4 to 27 million.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.4 million people were victims of human trafficking from 1995-2005. This estimate uses the UN Protocol definition of human trafficking, and includes both transnational and internal data.

800,000 – Number of people trafficked across international borders every year.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report: 2007.

Note:
1 million – Number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade, every year.
Source: U.S. Department of State, The Facts About Child Sex Tourism: 2005.

50% – Percent of transnational victims who are children.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003: 2004.

80% – Percent of transnational victims who are women and girls.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report: 2007.

70% – Percent of female victims who are trafficked into the commercial sex industry. This means that 30% of female victims are victims of forced labor.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons: 2004.

161 – Countries identified as affected by human trafficking:
127 countries of origin; 98 transit countries; 137 destination countries.
Note: Countries may be counted multiple times and categories are not mutually exclusive.
Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns: April 2006.

$32 billion – Total yearly profits generated by the human trafficking industry.
$15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries.
$9.7 billion in Asia
$13,000 per year generated on average by each “forced laborer.” This number can be as high as $67,200 per victim per year.
Source: ILO, A global alliance against forced labor: 2005.

Foreign Nationals Trafficked into the U.S.

14,500 – 17,500 – Number of foreign nationals trafficked into the United States every year.
Source: Human Trafficking Statistics | Polaris Project

*Human Trafficking Statistics | Polaris Project | P.O. Box 77892, Washington, DC 20013 | Tel: 202.745.1001 | www.PolarisProject.org | Info@PolarisProject.org

News Behind the News: December 2012

// December 26th, 2012 // No Comments » // News Behind the News, Uncategorized

Section One: GHNI Focus Countries

Syrian refugee children enjoy a camp led by GHNI staff in Lebanon

Afghanistan

GHNI HELPS IDPs RE-ESTABLISH LIVES

A report on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) commissioned by the Norwegian Refugee Council contains some interesting findings.  There are at least half a million IDPs, mostly located in squatter settlements on the fringe of urban areas.  Few wish to return to their place of origin, and the proportion that do declines with the passage of time.  Over 90% of IDPs are classified as Extremely Vulnerable Individuals; women and children especially. In several villages GHNI is doing Transformational Community Development as a major part of the village is comprised of IDP’s who want to stay and re-establish their lives.

Burkina Faso

LOCAL VILLAGES GAIN INCOME AND RECONCILIATION

Clashes between pastoralists and settled agriculturalists in northern and eastern Burkina Faso are running at 600 per year and have taken at least 55 lives in the last four years.  Under pressure of population growth, land grabbing by agro industries and the increase in artisanal gold mining, agriculture has spread into areas previously part of traditional transhumance routes.  The consequent conflict between pastoralists seeking fodder for their herds and settled farmers seeking to protect their crops calls for solutions the government is seeking to implement. GHNI has the focus of helping local villages improve their incomes by whatever means they determine best.  We use animal loan programs and agriculture lessons to get more production from less.  We also focus on reconciliation between differing parties.  We are starting small and building model villages which we hope will influence many other regions.

Jordan

SYRIAN RELIEF COMMITTEE FORMED

The influx of refugees from the conflict in neighbouring Syria continues to grow.  Despite some international help, the cost of supporting the refugees falls largely on the Jordanian authorities, which is both unfair and unsustainable. GHNI staff and partners in Jordan are working under a larger Syrian Relief Committee of several partners inside and outside Syria to provide immediate relief and plan to enter to help with the development of the destroyed areas of the country when peace returns.

Read More…

Lebanon

EDUCATION LACKING FOR REFUGEES

Although 51% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are aged under 18, the majority of children face problems accessing education.  Many children are headed for a second year of no school.  Language is an issue because the Syrian school system uses Arabic exclusively. Also, older male children encounter the expectation that they should return to Syria to fight rather than continue their education. GHNI and partners are working with many refugee and poor children in the North especially to bring them help and hope via camps and relief.

Myanmar

BATTLING MALNUTRITION WITH PARTNERSHIPS

UNICEF is drawing attention to the problem of child malnutrition in Rakhine Province, which was already the second poorest even before the outbreak of conflict between the Muslim minority and Buddhist majority which broke out in June, and again in October, this year.  In one location, Sittwe, 10% of children examined were found to be in a state of severe acute malnutrition, and a further 15% were suffering moderate malnutrition.  UNICEF has expanded its therapeutic feeding programme in response to these findings.  GHNI now has village work going in several areas and one of the fundamental works we focus on is health, nutrition and agriculture education of how to grow healthy crops.  We are conducting training in several partner organizations in Rangoon and beyond.

Read More…

Nepal

PEASANT FARMERS HAVE HOPE WITH TCD

The vulnerability of peasant farmers to natural disasters is illustrated by the case study of Manbahadur Tamang; a farmer from  Kolpata village, Sindupalchok district.  Kalpata is 150km southeast of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.  Manbahadur Tamang’s entire maize crop was lost to heavy monsoon rains this year.  With no cash from the harvest, life has become very difficult for this family of six.  Two teenage sons have dropped out of school to look for work as day labourers.  There is no help from the government and the family have been forced to borrow at high rates of interest from the landlords. Their entire future is at risk if they are unable to pay off the moneylenders at the next harvest. The GHNI assessment team who visited villages and schools in the southwest reports a great need for community based development to add resilience for poor families. A pilot project targeting poor villages that are victims of human trafficking is also planned; GHNI hopes to launch in 2013.

Syria

DISPLACED PEOPLE INCREASE

A UNHCR mission to Homs reports dire conditions in the city, with more than 250,000 displaced people being registered by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.  Many people were staying in unheated communal buildings, but faced acute shortages of blankets, clothing and shoes.  Half the city’s hospitals were said to be non-functional and 60% of the doctors had left.  Many children had not been to school for the past eighteen months. Refugee reports to GHNI staff are horrendous with many major and permanent injuries that must be dealt with.

Section Two: Feature Article of the Month

Malaria Update

MALARIA POSES CONSTANT THREAT WORLDWIDE

In almost all the countries in which GHNI is active, malaria is a significant threat to health and a major killer of young children.  Some reduction in malaria cases and deaths has been achieved by preventive measures, especially by the use of long life impregnated bed nets.   When it comes to treatment, there is a problem.  The malaria parasite has developed resistance to many of the traditional drugs, such as chloroquine, and resistance has emerged as a problem even in the new artemesinin based drugs.  This is the background to a controversial project designed to make the new, but expensive, quality assured artemesinin combination therapy (ACT) drugs more available and more affordable through private sector outlets.

The basic thesis is that many people in developing countries resort to the private sector for medical care.  It has been estimated that between 40-90% of people seeking treatment for malaria use the private sector, varying from country to country.  It is claimed that making the new drugs more available and cheaper would have two benefits: it would result in more people benefitting from effective treatment as they chose ACT drugs over traditional but less effective drugs, and it would delay the spread of resistance to artemesinin based drugs by substituting the combined form which is less susceptible to development of resistance to the monotherapy formulation and other older drugs.

The project was developed by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).  In 2009, it created the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, with the acronym AMFm.  The goal was to improve access to ACT drugs.  The means chosen was threefold: to negotiate lower prices with manufacturers; to subsidise the cost to buyers at the top of the supply chain; and undertake supporting measures in countries such as carrying out mass media campaigns to promote ACT drugs and to train providers in their use.  The countries involved in the pilot phase of the project were Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya*, Madagascar, Niger*, Nigeria*, Tanzania and Uganda.  (* GHNI project countries).

An independent evaluation report on the pilot phase was published in October 2012.  The report was largely favourable to the project.  It showed that in most countries the target outcomes had been met, in that ACT drugs were more frequently available, the price of ACT drugs at the retail level was reduced, the market share of ACT drugs had increased, and the monotherapy form of artemesinin was less frequently used.

This favourable view of the project was not universal.  In particular, Oxfam produced a highly critical report, arguing that the treatment benefits were uncertain, and that far from delaying the development of resistance, the overuse of ACT drugs could actually accelerate it.  Furthermore, the project could not claim credit for the reduction in use of artemesinin monotherapy, because that had already been largely accomplished by actions of the World Health Organization (WHO) in recommending countries to ban its sale and persuading manufacturers not to produce it.   Oxfam argued that increased sales of ACT drugs did not equate to effective treatment because in the private sector the diagnosis of malaria was rarely supported by reliable testing procedures as recommended by WHO.  It was likely that basing treatment on a presumption that fever was caused by malaria would result in overuse of ACT and neglect of effective treatment for fevers caused by other conditions such as pneumonia.

These criticisms by Oxfam were dismissed by supporters of AMFm as “ideological” because Oxfam’s preferred alternative was promotion of treatment by community based health workers supported by the public sector.  It argued that this model had proved effective in Ethiopia* and Zambia, and the focus on the private sector was misplaced because it was driven by considerations of profit rather than public health.  It noted that most of the orders placed for purchase of the subsidised ACT drugs were for the adult form: “ACT drugs were being ordered primarily—not for the children who needed them—but for the adults who could afford them”.

Of course, it can be argued that the supporters of AMFm are equally “ideological” in favouring the private sector despite its acknowledged limitations in reaching the poorest in society or observing public health procedures.  Yet the fact remains that in many of the poorest countries, public provision of health care is so deficient that the population have little choice but to access private services.  In these countries, a major expansion and improvement in public services is improbable in the short and medium term.  Using the private commercial sector in the creative way that AMFm does can be regarded as making the best of a bad job—not the ideal solution, but a constructive response to current realities.

4 Shopping Days Left: Give the Gift of Health!

// December 21st, 2012 // No Comments » // GHNI Holiday Store, Myanmar, Myanmar-Thar Kar Yung, TCD Wellness, Uncategorized

One would think these children are vying for the last piece of Christmas pie but really they are excited about their lesson on health!

It’s not too late to give a GHNI gift card! Health is precious no matter where one lives.  Give the gift of health to the hidden and hurting this holiday season. 

Disease has been devastating families in Thar Yar Kung, Myanmar.  Over the past year, GHNI has been combating this issue through TCD training.  The villagers quickly understood the general method and goals of TCD, identifying their priority problem; sanitation.  Along with our Myanmar staff, the villagers built five latrines and learned important information on health and hygiene, significantly improving the wellness of the community.

Impressed by the improvements, the primary school headmaster invited GHNI to teach the children wellness lessons in areas such as Clean Water, Malaria, Scabies, Worms and TB. These lessons are greatly helping the children and their families,  applying the lessons immediately and showing astounding improvements!
If you are scratching your head for that hard to buy relative, consider giving them a GHNI gift card which they can redeem to help bring a wellness trainer to a desperate village.

Visit our Holiday store now!

Syrian Refugees Receive Help and Hope

// December 11th, 2012 // No Comments » // Disaster Relief, Jordan, Syria, Syria-Refugees, Uncategorized

JORDAN—Global Hope Network International (GHNI) provides aid to Syrians in and around the Zatari refugee camp through the leadership of GHNI Middle East Regional Leader, Jamal Hashweh, native of Jordan.  With numbers of Syrians seeking refuge daily, GHNI seeks to bring help and hope to this displaced nation.

Syrians began seeking refuge in Jordan earlier last year when the conflict began in their country.  The need for refuge has only accelerated with lack of resolution in Syria.  As the conflict became more complicated, refugees began flooding Jordan and neighboring countries, both legally and illegally, reports Hashweh.  “Over 40,000 people have been killed, double or triple that amount of people being injured, and about 150,000 people have been taken prisoner.”

To add to the gravity of the situation, 42,000 Syrians now reside in the Zatari camp, alone; about a 1 ½ hour drive north of Amman.  “It’s hard to keep track of the exact number with people coming and leaving every day,” Hashweh reports.  The camp provides schooling for the children, medical care, water, and electricity for about one fifth of the refugees in Jordan.

Some of the refugees are also living in homes; sharing flats or small houses.  “Up to twenty people may share a two bedroom house,” says Hashweh.  “They come with very few belongings, which is a concern as winter gets colder and it snows.”

Where in the summer GHNI provided fans to the refugees, the winter means donations of over 1,500 blankets through GHNI to keep families warm.  These donations are in addition to the food parcels distributed regularly.

“Families with children are an additional concern,” Hashweh tells, “because they have special needs.  A family with six children can run a washing machine all day long.”  Almost 50 washing machines have been donated through GHNI to such families.

GHNI has also helped some Syrian families with their rent.  “It’s a really sensitive issue because it’s an ongoing thing that doesn’t stop,” says Hashweh.  That’s why the team works with local partner organizations who know the families and their needs.  “We determine through them and with them who to help with rent money.”

GHNI’s mission is “to bring help and hope to the hidden and hurting.”  So, not only does GHNI’s team provide food and other physical needs, they also bring hope.  Hashweh says, “We sit with them.  Many of them are not cared for.  The trauma is great and so we care for them, listen to them, and hear about their situation.  They are very touched by our personal care.  We try to help but we also give hope.”

About Global Hope Network International

Global Hope Network International (GHNI), is a non-profit, private humanitarian aid organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.  GHNI believes that it’s possible to bring not only hope, but change, to the poorest villages of the world.   GHNI began through a project in 1999 to help an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan. This effort made such an impression on the nearly three million refugees that stories are told all over the region of the big hearts of the small team.  That set the stage for additional work and the official launching of Global Hope Network International, “Bringing help and hope to the hidden and hurting.”

Since then, over 100 other projects have opened doors for GHNI to bring sustainable and transformational assistance to communities in Afghanistan, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Turkey and many others. GHNI has partnered with remote villages and national organizations to help bring sustainable community based transformation for some of the poorest of the poor in 40+ countries in the world.  Through these projects GHNI has developed their method of Transformational Community Development.

Contact

To learn more about GHNI’s efforts toward the Syrian refugees, please contact

Jeff Power

720.260.4359

Jeff.power@ghni.org

http://ghni.org

One Village at a Time: Myanmar Will Rise

// December 1st, 2012 // No Comments » // Adopt a Village, Myanmar, Myanmar-Thar Kar Yung, TCD, Uncategorized

Mike Parks, GHNI Regional Field Leader, reports news of hope in the lives of those who have suffered long hardship in Myanmar.

Myanmar is changing for the good!  President Obama’s visit to Myanmar demonstrates the positive changes we have been talking about for over a year as the government makes an epic shift from a military junta to a democratically elected government.

Our national staff and partners have been working hard and are in positions to help their country make many positive changes including helping many desperately impoverished villages escape poverty and many destructive life choices.

Our staff is busy overseeing village projects and training others in Transformational Community Development (TCD).  TCD brings empowers villages to identify, prioritize, and resolve their own problems with a timeline of 3 to 5 years till they are independent no longer needing outside assistance.  Our existing work such as The Father’s House orphanage is raising health, happy, and educated children, our partners are reaching across Myanmar to bring the help needed to escape poverty and give them hope that in they can be empowered to understand and make the necessary changes in their villages and communities.

Myanmar, also called Burma, was known as the Gem of the Orient, but under the oppressive military government became impoverished.

This time in Myanmar is the beginning of a historic shift as they make the peaceful transition from a totalitarian military government to a democratically elected representative government.  However, they will need help and we are going to be there to help them.  The new government as expressed a strong desire to eliminate poverty.  This will be a monumental task.  As other organizations see and hear about TCD we have a growing number of request to teach them this model and to partner with them to help the poor.  As the requests for help grow, we are going to do all we can to join with them in this task. 

These great changes cannot happen all at once or simply with good intentions.  It must happen at the grass roots level, training, hard work, and one village at a time.

We invite you to join with us and be a part a historic change such that has seldom been seen.  

Our “Adopt a Village” project opens the way for you to be personally involved in bringing lasting change to a nation.

$150 supports one TCD worker for a month

$1800 supports one TCD worker for a year

$15,000 adopt one village for a year

Donate to a village or include this story with a GHNI gift card from our Holiday store as a gift to a co-worker, friend, or family member and they can choose to spend it on “Adopt a Village”.

Thank You!

Michael Parks

International Field Director GHNI

Garmaam Gardens Give Hope!

// November 26th, 2012 // No Comments » // Ethiopia, Ethiopia-Garmaam, GHNI Holiday Store, Kenya, TCD Income, Uncategorized

Seeds and training feeds families and gives hope.

Do you remember the story of Fatuma, Seada and Kedira?  They are active coworkers in Garmaam, Ethiopia who took the GHNI TCD training and learned how to plant their own vegetable garden to help their families have a more balanced diet. These women have developed discussions with other women over coffee. They are using this time to educate their neighbors on how to produce vegetables and other TCD topics.

 
Do you know a garden enthusiast? Why not give them a GHNI gift card that they can use toward seed and training for a family to start a vegetable garden or to send a Miracle Acre trainer into a village.

Visit the GHNI Holiday Store today!

News Behind the News November 2012

// November 25th, 2012 // No Comments » // News Behind the News, Uncategorized

Persistance of child marriage poses great threats to girls in Napal. GHNI is beginning efforts to tackle the issue of this and other forms of human trafficking.

Afghanistan

MUSHROOMS ADDRESS ISSUES OF FOOD SECURITY

The food security situation has much improved thanks to good harvests this year, but pockets of food insecurity are predicted among poor households who lost livestock last year in northern Badakhshan and the Wakhan Corridor.  GHNI is now expanding its mushroom project, working with widows to yield income by providing more mushroom spores as a small business opportunity.

Mali to Burkina Faso

GHNI SEEKS TO HELP REFUGEES IN POOR VILLAGES

The Relief website is carrying a story of a young man of 35 who is a resident in northern Burkina Faso, Ahmid Ag Rali.  He gave up his regular job with a foreign mining company and applied to work with UNHCR to care for the stream of Malian refugees fleeing the conflict in that country.  He opened a camp which houses 6,000 refugees.  He was struck by the high proportion of children among the refugees arriving at his village and moved by their common ethnic identity (Ahmid is himself a Toureg, raised inBurkina Faso).  He provides a welcome, as well as food and shelter in keeping with Toureg traditions of hospitality.  It is estimated that 35,000 Malians have fled toBurkina Faso.  The irony is that the refugees are seeking help from one of the poorest countries in the world, where the residents have insufficient food and water for their own needs.   GHNI has been partnering with poor villagers on health assessments for their children.  We hope to expand opportunities to the Toureg’s who are in dire need.  Funding is not yet available.

Burma

TCD PROJECTS INITIATE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN VILLAGES

Attention has recently been focused on tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine Province which have led to at least 82 deaths and more than 20,000 of the Rohingya people being forced from their homes.  There is continued fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army.  Thankfully, reports from the southeast of the country indicate a declining level of conflict affecting Karen, Karreni, Shan andMonscommunities.  Whereas, in previous years, the numbers of people forced from their homes averaged 75,000 per year, in the last year that number has fallen to around 10,000.  GHNI is presently working with several minority groups in their villages with our Transformational Community Development (TCD) projects and two learning institutions have adopted our training program for their students who will work in villages.  A key component of this effort is reconciliation between groups as a necessary component of village development.

China

AID LAUNCHES PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

The magnitude 8.0 earthquake which hit Sichuan Province in 2008 was a major disaster at the time, with upwards of 200,000 people being directly affected, but it focused attention on the needs of the area.  The American Red Cross subsequently carried out a project to bring piped water to 19 villages, 11 clinics and 4 schools, reaching 13,650 people in difficult mountainous terrain where, previously, families had typically spent up to two hours per day collecting water.  The project included an educational component to improve personal and home hygiene. GHNI has been involved there since the first day and we still have many volunteers working in the national partnership to help with village re-development.

Ethiopia

RELIEF EFFORTS OPEN DOORS FOR DEVELOPMENT

Somali refugees continue to pour into neighbouring countries, although at a slower rate than in 2011.   Between January and September this year, more than 25,000 arrived at the complex of refugee camps around Dollo Ado, taking its total population over 170,000, the second largest refugee complex in the world, prompting the Ethiopian government to authorise a sixth camp some 54km north of Dollo Ado town.   The estimated cost of this camp including medical, educational and warehousing facilities will be US $5 million, of which $1.5 million is required immediately for site preparation, land demarcation and basic infrastructure.  The Ethiopian government is now allowing GHNI to expand our work amongst the Somali population of East Ethiopia.  We are focused on the poorest villages.

Indonesia

TCD CATCHING ON IN SULAWESI

When Mt. Merapi erupted in 2010, it spewed out 77 million cubic meters of rock, much of which accumulated around the summit of this dangerous volcano which is surrounded by a dense rural population.  The growing rural poor population is a target of GHNI in Indonesia, especially in Sulawesi. We have been invited by many villages to start TCD there.

Jordan

GHNI CONTINUES EFFORTS WITH REFUGEES

A school in eastern Amman provides for refugees not only from Syria but other troubled spots throughout the region.  Ashrafiyeh is a Greek Catholic School which operates as a regular public school in the mornings.  In the afternoons and evenings it accommodates the Jesuit Refugee Service, which provides courses in English language and conversation, and computer studies taught by 30 volunteers, some of whom are refugees themselves.  In the afternoons the students are mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians.  In the evening, they are mostly Sudanese and Somalis, working during the day at informal sector jobs no-one else would wish to do.   An atmosphere of mutual tolerance and respect is fostered, and the teachers are encouraged to socialise with the students.  GHNI has passed out thousands of boxes of food for refugee families there and now is seeking more aid for the massive influx of refugees fromSyria. 

Kenya

PARTNERSHIPS FUEL DEVELOPMENT IN ISIOLO

A fledgling project to build a huge new port, oil refinery and transport hub at Lamu onKenya’s northern coastline promises to deliver thousands of jobs and is a pillar of the government’s long term development agenda.  But critics fear displacement of population without adequate compensation and destruction of the mangrove forests which nurture the artisanal fishing industry on which 70% of Lamu’s population depend. Populations in the Isiolo area are also being displaced and GHNI is seeking to stabilize local villages there with community development partnerships with the villages and other NGO’s (non-governmental organizations).

Lebanon

REFUGEE RELIEF EXPANDING

The number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon at the end of October was 74,720 with another 29,948 awaiting registration, for a total of 104,668 people, mostly in the north and in the BekaaValley. GHNI is positioning to expand our relief work from Jordan to Lebanon soon.

Libya

GHNI TRANSENDS TENSION

There is continuing concern about unsecured weapons in the wake of the fall of the Gaddafi regime.  It is reported that many have been exported to conflict centres in the region, including Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.  Within Libya, despite efforts by the government to disarm militias or incorporate them in the national army, there persist a number of heavily armed militias, some aligned to the government, some pursuing their own agendas, which pose a threat to civilians, foreigners and the authority of the national government.  Despite problems with security, GHNI conducted several humanitarian outreaches there this summer.

Nepal

GHNI PILOTS EFFORTS AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The persistence of child marriage, despite a legal age of marriage at 20 years for both sexes, poses a threat toNepal’s attainment of MDG 2 (universal primary education), MDG 3 (gender equity), MDG 4 (infant mortality) and MDG 5 (maternal mortality) by taking girls out of school and subjecting them to early childbearing.  There is a long tradition of early marriage inNepal, with 61% of currently adult females married before the age of 18.  Many rural families marry off their girls as early as 11-13 because the older a girl becomes, the greater the dowry demanded.  Legal enforcement is difficult because it means prosecuting the parents when their “crime” has economic roots.  Although the earlier practice of sending child brides to their husband’s home is largely discontinued, as most stay with their mothers until they are 16, after marriage their lives change drastically and they rarely return to school. GHNI is sending an assessment team there in late November to seek village opportunities for a pilot project to educate young women and their families as to the dangers of human trafficking.

Nigeria

TCD LAUNCHED TO AID DISPLACED PEOPLES

Since July, at least 1.4 million people have been displaced, 550,000 houses damaged, more than 431 fatalities have occurred and many more are missing in devastating floods affecting 30 of the 36 states in Nigeria.  Torrential rains have caused the loss of houses, crops, livestock and property, as well as causing major damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.  By mid October there were 36 camps established for internally displaced persons in the most affected area of the north-central region.  Conditions in the camps were reported to be dire with shortages of food and clean drinking water.  As a consequence of damage to the agricultural economy, food price inflation has taken off. GHNI has launched TCD in the village of Dogon Gada and surrounding villages to help with the water crisis and improve food growing for each village family.

Sri Lanka

GHNI ENCOURAGES RECONCILIATION

More than three years after the end of fighting, 470,000 internally displaced people have returned home.  But at the end of September 2012, 115,000 remain in camps with host communities or in transit sites or have been relocated, often against their will, to areas other than their places of origin.   Among those registered as having returned, many continue to face difficulties in accessing basic necessities such as shelter, food, water and sanitation, in rebuilding their livelihoods and exercising their civil rights.  GHNI has launched two villages for Transformational Community Development (TCD) and one is in a mixed village, thus helping with reconciliation and unity to go forward.

Syria

SYRIAN RELIEF COMMITTEE FORMED

The UN estimates that at least three million people are badly affected by the current conflict.  At least 1.2 million have taken shelter in public buildings, in parks, or with hosts.  At least 350,000 refugees have already leftSyria, though this may be an underestimate as many do not register to avoid reprisals against remaining family members.  Thousands are still leavingSyriaevery day, three quarters of them women and children, and the UN estimates the total may reach 710,000 by year end.  Despite the conflict, the UN system has supplied food and medical supplies.  The UN calls on all parties to the conflict to avoid targeting civilian areas.  GHNI is providing relief in Jordan and Lebanon and has just formulated a partnership called the Syrian Relief Committee in Switzerland to help meet the present relief and future re-development needs for this country.

Tajikistan

PARTNERSHIPS INSPIRE GLOBAL HAND WASHING DAY

October 15 was Global Hand Washing Day.  InTajikistan, UNICEF collaborated with the Ministry of Education in a campaign with the slogan “Clean hands save lives.”   Diarrhea accounts for 23.3% of deaths in the population of children under five inTajikistan, second only to respiratory infections.  It has been shown that simple hand washing with soap can reduce diarrhea in children under five by almost 50% and respiratory infections by nearly 25%.   “Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few  wash with soap at critical moments such as after using the toilet, cleaning a child or before handling food.”  GHNI is hoping to launch Community Health Education lessons as part of their TCD efforts in Tajikstan next year.  GHNI launched a self sustainable micro loan animal loan program last year.