Imagine you have been sent as a Peace Corps volunteer to a poor African nation experiencing widespread hunger. Design a strategy for assesing the needs of the people and for contacting appropriate sources for help.
What sources and organizations would you contact? How would you go about evaluating what was needed, and what was feasable in terms of aid? What would be the priorities?
I need to see specifics (organizations, etc.). You need to do your research, see what has been/is being done in similiar situations, and how can you apply that information?
Responses are due no later than Thursday Feb. 5th @ 11:59 p.m.
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19 comments:
First of all, the most important thing of all is to improve water quality. Organizations such as the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) work on issues related to water, food production, soil quality improvement, food security, land degradation, and desertification control. The FAO is also pays particular attention to HIV/AIDS in the context of rural development, particularly its impact on agricultural development. If I were to contact the FAO many of the problems would be solved. However, I cannot just leave it at that because conditions will go right back to where they were if I were to ignore the fact that they need medicine of some kind to aid them with various diseases. For that I would contact the World Health Organization (WHO). Then there is the aspect of educating the locals on how to grow sustainable, healthy crops, and keeping themselves healthy at the same time. For that I would contact the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This organization provides basic education in Africa about healthcare and various agricultural technologies which could be very useful to that particular nation. Unfortunately, this approach could be rather expensive so contacting a micro-lending organization would be a good idea in order to aid in the development. Once all of these organizations have done their jobs, I believe that the agriculture should be effective to the point where the hunger will stop, and the poverty will decrease.
My first step for helping the health of this African community would be to ensure the availability of Clean drinking water. "The water project" is a non profit organization that "sends money and expertise to help local communities build their own long-term water solutions and then ensure they are trained to manage it."
Next I would have the issue of food security addressed... with out food, people are more than hungry, they are unhealthy. Organization: AFRICARE sends money and human aid to Africa to adress Crop production
Livestock production
Farmer training
Nutrition education
Farm inputs: seeds, manual and mechanized tools, draft power, etc.
Land management: soil fertility, tree planting, etc.
Infrastructure: irrigation systems, storage facilities, farm-to-market roads, etc.
Post-harvest handling of crops
Food processing and other value-adding activities
Agribusiness development, farmer credit and marketing
Emergency food supply: for example, in refugee camps.
I would then assure education allows the children of Africa to learn how to be efficient in their production of food, cleansing of water, and ability to stay healthy. ICODEI (VolunteerKenya) is an organization set out “To fight HIV/AIDS, provide primary school education, encourage microenterprise development for women and provide healthcare for the people of Western Kenya without regard to religion, politics, ethnicity or nationality.”
Ian Fox
PERIOD 7
Just like everyone else has said the first thing to asses is the water quality and quantity. As the population increases the need for water increases. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) works on issues directly related the the water shortages across developing countries and the quality of that water. FAO also deals with farming practices, food security and safety, drainage and irrigation and HIV/AIDS and its threats to rural development. The FAO seems to cover almost every practice that is needed to sustain a developing country and get it on the right track. The FAO is great not only because it covers a wide range of topics from food to forestry, but the thing that attracted me to it was that it was teaching program. It doesn’t just address the problem then leave, perhaps doing more harm than good, but it teaches the locals how to farm, how to take care of their crops, how to manage your crops and how to irrigate. FAO is a great organization but it’s not the answer; it’s a step. When you address one problem (such as hunger) you have to address all the problems. Education, healthcare and poverty are issues that must be dealt with along with the food and water shortages and crisis or else the hard work on the food and water issue will diminish and the country will be in either the same or worse shape.
ADEA (Association for the Development of Education in Africa) has programs that target effective learning in schools, textbook provision and library development and employment. ADEA provides programs and seminars throughout Africa on how to deal with the education and employment issues. They also have seminars on HIV/AIDS called "Effective Responses to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in the Education Sector: From Analysis to Action".
Both of these organizations are on the right track to addressing the numerous problems in Africa and other developing countries. Once we manage the education and healthcare problems only then can we work on the food and water shortages and be on the right track making Africa an independent country.
I agree that finding a quality and clean water source is the first thing that needs to be done for most poor areas in Africa. Water is extremely important and the problem of hunger can't be fixed without it. Even if you were to feed the people illness would still be apparent because of water issues. Once you have water you can also begin strengthening the agricultural system of the area. I would use organizations such as The Water Project to help provide the water. I would then contact a group such as AFRICARE who could assist in providing food and agriculture resources. After the problems of food and water are solved I would help create safe and stable places for the people to live. I think this should be done after helping with food and water because there is no point to building a villiage in a location without food and water to support it. Once the three basic needs of food water and shelter are taken care of I would work to educate the people. I would not only educate them about agriculture but about safety and disease. I think the issue of poverty in the area will be greatly reduced at this point if each step is done well and the people are educated about how to continue the process.
In Africa there are plenty of serious, life threatening problems that would need tackeling. Things such as dirty water, AIDS/HIV, lack of food, and the stability of the people to keep everything stable. The main priority for me would be to create something that they can keep stabilized on their own. Relying on their government wouldn't do us any good.
After taking a look at the official Peace Corps website, AIDS relief seems to be a huge problem they are trying to slowly, but surely, fix. One person at a time. There are many orginizations that either direct all of their time or a portion of it towards AIDS awareness or the passing of AIDS to our future generations. The PMTCT prevention from mother-to-child transmition, ART Antiviral Therapy, and other bigger organizations such as Oxfam America, which bases almost all of their time and donations toward helping children in South Africa with either AIDS medication or awareness on how to avoid repeating such a deadly cycle.
The work that has to be done in Africa is something that wont immediatley get better, everything is connected, and with so many issues it is difficult to know where to start. Something like AIDS that is killing off large amounts of the population, and ruining generations to come, it has to be fixed, how will future generations fix what has been messed up for so long if they are sick? if they are dying? Getting AIDS/HIV awareness organizations to get involves, while also slowly tearing down a cultural barrier, when the number of people with AIDS has dropped significantly, it will be much easier to knock away at the other problems.
Apparently I can't edit posts... anyways:
I would tackle the people's needs in a logical order. There's no point in giving them medical care if their health will only deteriorate due to lack of clean water, and there's no point in giving them clean water unless they have food.
That being said, the order I believe makes sense is as follows with the organization that can provide it.
Food, if the problem is hunger, we might as well get rid of the problem in the short term. Africare does this.
Water is next, or at the same time as food. Google has directed me to the H20 Africa foundation.
The next step is assessing why there is widespread hunger. Then solving that problem, preferably with education of the people. If it turns out that there are just too darn many people living in a desert area with no chance of agriculture, then we move them
To get enough volunteers to combat the problems that need solving, I would use the Building Bridges Coalitions to bring students from colleges, universities and corporations who are willing to help and double the size of our group volunteer numbers.
To assess the needs of the people, an evaluation would be made of the people's health, amount of food provided, water supply, and source of economy by talking with community members. The water situation is the most important thing that needs to be taken care of and by working with local governments and communities, we would improve water and sanitation facilities. Potable water sources would be built and managed, sewage and irrigation systems would be constructed, and garbage collection facilities, concrete spillways, and earthen dams would be designed and built.
Through a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U. N. (FAO), food security programs would be supported and they would work to improve food production, distribution, and access.
Finally in regards to health, teaching prevention would be key to building healthcare knowledge where health needs are most pressing. Also, maternal and child health services would be provided along with hygiene and nutrition offered at community clinics that also offer vaccines to prevent infectious diseases.
Health is definitely the biggest issue in Parts of Africa like the Sun Saharan Africa and Sudan/ Ethiopia who’s children suffer from malnutrition and undernourishment. Since plants and crops are hard to sustain from the unpredictable rainfall of the region, and can lead to famine from drought in some cases, I think providing water is a key step toward a lower death rate, especially among children. By helping the African Water Association (AWA) to maintain its job as sanitation and educational source for water by either providing funds from the United States, and maybe in even volunteers from organizations to help provide education. Education in Africa in general can be refurbished and spruced, since over 40 million children of age are not able to go to school, or have schools that can provide optimum teaching and educational opportunities. The African Education Initiative (AEI) is a $600-million multi-year initiative that focuses on increasing access to quality basic education in 39 sub-Saharan countries through scholarship, to help finance educated teachers, new textbooks, and classrooms for children. AFRICARE provides great aid for Africans in a Broad spectrum of ways through providing help for AIDS/HIV, food security, water, environment, being a leading U.S Charity organization gives 93% of its donations directly to services in Africa.
Providing aid is a temporary fix, we have to be able to know how to actually change the environmental aspects that can deteriorate the African farms, like drought. Whether dipping into biotechnology and creating more resistant plants to abiotic factors, and creating a stronger base maybe through education, so the Africans can also have means to help themselves, by creating jobs for money to help fight poverty. Also, medicinal care and sanitation are huge factors when it comes to the mortality rate. Providing the means to help themselves through foreign aid is key to making sure that Africa can reach a positive turning point.
To decrease widespread hunger, there should be a level of self sufficiency. Developing countries facing famine and hunger were stablized in the Green Revolution because the US brought its advanced techniques of how to further crop yields. For example, when the Rockefeller foundation sent Burlaug to Mexico, advanced
American technologies were incorporated into developing agricultural lands; which in turn improved crop yields, and self suffiency and knowledge of ways to sustain succesful agrictultural methods that prevent hunger.
Like if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime, as opposed to giving him a fish.
The Heifer Project does not just give livestock to people in impoverished countries, but teaches them how to sustain these methods of raising livestock. Hunger can only be prevented if the process can be sustained and continued.
The strategy to improve widespread hunger would need to involve eduacation of how to continue the methods that prevent it; the methods that aren't known or practiced well which result in famine and hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization has been able to improve hunger in impoverished countries by spreading knowledge of sustainable agricultural and methods of raising/herding livestock.
Also, the root cause of hunger, whether war or drought is somewhat important.
If I was sent as a PeaceCorps volunteer, I would go to Africare for help on hunger. Through “Africare” we can send money and help to the country in need.
World Bank initiated the “Association for the Development of Education in Africa”. Through the ADEA, education for Africans is available through funding.
At “change.org” there’s an organization called “The Water Project”. The Water Project helps make wells in Africa and clean water available for Africans.
I agree with everyone else that, water is one of the biggest problems in Africa. But there is also the problem of food, diseases (HIV/AIDS), and education.
Dealing with water is a big task and I think if i were to contact the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), they would help improve the supply of water and how sanitary it is. Then there is food, which is causing a huge problem in Africa because there are so many people that are suffering from poverty. The African Development Foundation (ADF) specializes in alleviating poverty and helping stabalize a society by providing resources and all that. Kiva is a micro-lending organization that also helps in trying to reduce poverty.
There are so many diseases in Africa that are constantly spreading. World Health Organization (WHO) would be very helpful in trying to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDs. THe WHO has a very good system and agenda in trying to prevent diseases. The Grassroots Alliance for Community Education (GRACE) is a great organization that is trying to improve health and education in Africa. G.R.A.C.E. works with communities in sub-Saharan Africa to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS. The Red Cross seeks financial help with AIDS programs, disaster relief, and other disease outbreaks like Cholera.
I also think that education and the children of Africa are very important. There is such a lack of education in Africa and that needs to be changed. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works worldwide to provide for children in a variety of ways: basic survival, education, and HIV and AIDs.
If all these organizations helped out and did their jobs there would be such an improvement in the African society. All these organizations are on the right track in helping to eliminate the factors keeping Africa from being a sustainable society.
I do believe that water quality is a very important part in eliminating widespread hunger in poor African nations but i strongly belive that before we imporve water quality we need to adress the hunger and disease. Yes in the long run improving water will improve hunger and the spread of disease but first we need to help those who are dying of hunger and disease. The fastest way to do this is to provide food and medical care. There are many organizations that provide hunger relief quick.(SOS) Share Our Strength supports food assistance, treats malnutrition, and promotes economic independence among people in need to meet immidiate demands for food as well as investing in long term solutions to hunger and poverty. The World Food Program is another organization of the UN that has donated 43 million metric tons of food to combat hunger and promote economic and social development and provide emergency relief assistence around the world. Also (MAP)
Medical Assistence Programs helps to provide essential medicines, prevent further disease, and promotes community health for people living in the worlds most poorest communities. We can also call in(WHO) World health organization, they direct and coordinate authority for health within the UN system.It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping health research, and setting standards. It will help monitor and keep the nation safe from future epidemic and spread of disease. So after we had brought in these voulenteer organizations to help out with the immediate relief needed we can start to form at strategy to improve water quality. The(FAO)Food and Agricultural Organization works on issues related to clean water and sustainability. They also adress food production, soil quality and food security. People will now be able to grow healthy crops, have clean drinking water, be less likly to catch new diseases and have a strong future ahead of them.
I agree with the general consensus that food and water are of the utmost importance- after all, we can't solve the problem in the future if everyone dies in the present. I would probably call the FAO first seeing as their services cover a pretty broad range, and we could get more done at once this way.
I also like the idea of The Heifer Project, because I have been involved with that organization before, and have faith that they would be quite useful.
The next thing to check off the list is education, so that after we help them get back on their feet, they can stay standing and be able to support themselves.
If i was sent to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer i would want find a good supply of clean water. the H2O African Foundation is a partnership with the goal to provide clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene education for children and families in the water scarce regions of Africa. This foundation would also help to educate the people in Africa on better hygiene and sanitation. I would also want to find an organization that could tend to the food scarcity in Africa, like Africare.
I like Cece's idea about recruiting more volunteers through the Building bridges Coalitions, which brings in college students and people from corporations. Even through we are theoretically part of the Peace Corps, which sends volunteers to countries in need, it's still benefitial to have more people. In order to assess the needs of a country you first need to understand how the country works, what type of government do they have. What would benefit them the most, water, agriculture, education, medicine, or the environment? I believe that all of these are important in aiding a developing country. First and foremost we need to assess what type of water the country has access to. Is it a well, a river, how far away is the source, is it polluted? These are all important questions that need to be answered before figuring out what is the best way to aid in water management. There are two types of organizations that could be helpful to improving water quality and they are the African Water Association (AWA) and the Food and agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO not only helps with water quality but it also helps with food production, soil quality, food safety, land degradation, and HIV/AIDS. By having safe drinking water we can decrease the number of deaths and diseases caused by poluted water. We can now move onto education, which can also aid in food production. One of the factors that is holding developing countries back is the lack of education. We need to provide a means with which they can pull themselves out of a financial crutch and we can give this to them through education. By educating the young we allow them to choose a future that does not have to be farming. With adults we can teach them better farming techniques that would increase their yields and allow them to sell a larger cash crop. Education can also teach the poor about the need to provide a sustainable lifestyle, that cutting down forests for a few years of agriculture is not the answer to solving their poverty. One organization that would prove helpful is the African education Initiative (AEI), which was mentioned by Jeff. The AET grants $600 million a year to initiate focus on increasing access to basic education. It does this through scholarships, finance educated teachters, and provide new textbooks. Another organization is the CORAfrica, which supports the growth and development of the education program. So far we've looked at ways to improve water quality, education, agriculture, and the environment. Now we can look at medicine. One problem with a high death rate is that its compensated by a high birth rate. Now, we can curve the death rate by improving water quality and teaching women how to properly care for a correct child. However, to get even better results we need to introduced modern medicine, which can only be brought in by the government. While, we wait for the government to accept this idea we can ask for aid from the World Health Organization (WHO) to help administer basic medicine. There are many more things that can be done but if we focus on these points it will allow the developing country to regain its footing and begin to help itself out.
I think that people in Africa need to get involved and take action. Government should give money to citizens for them to start growing crops or harvesting something, ANYTHING that they can contribute to the community. People need to feel like they can have an impact, and that everyone can get involved.
Our bodies are made up of about 65% water. We need to drink water every day, and water is necessary in growing crops (The Food and Agriculture Organization can help with water related issues). If clean water is unavailable in a community, famine is bound to strike, because no one would be able to grow any crops. If the soil was unhealthy then it would be impossible for crops to grow. Something that could work is some serious modernization. I would hate to see Africa's culture change but if they got on their feet as far as industrialization goes, I dont see what could stop them. Their people are determined and they could add something to the diversity of the economy. If they wanted to really get going while still keeping their culture, then they could sell their products and ideas to other countries. In exchange for these things, these countries could pay Africa, with that money going towards getting cleaner water, more food and better education for its people. There isn't yet a corporation or a program that helps with this but I would sure like to see one.
Another thing to tackle would be the violence. Many peoples lives are in danger and I'm sure this affects the quality of life in Africa. The fact of just getting awareness out to the rest of the world is the most crucial part. People are willing to help, they just need to know what's going wrong and what they need to help with.
First, the people need a clean, disease-free source of water. There are various organizations and projects that can deliver that. My personal favorite is the Play-Pump! It's basically a well powered by a piece of playground equipment. It harnesses the energy of the children to pump clean water from underground. Check it out: http://www.playpumps.org/site/c.hqLNIXOEKrF/b.2589393/k.30EE/The_PlayPump_System___How_the_PlayPump_Works.htm
In addition, some sort of governmental or UN agency should be monitoring the water supply.
As far as modern medicine goes, I don't think it should be introduced until the community has a stable food supply and is capable of supporting a larger population. To work on having a stable food source, sustainable agriculture needs to be implemented. So locals should be educated on farming techniques and whatnot. UNESCO could help out with that. Also, microlending in the form of farm animals (ala Heifer Foundation) is a good way to get things rolling. After the food is taken care of, then organizations should work on combatting AIDS. The World Health Organization is a good one... but there are also about a bazillion various organizations trying to help fight aids by raising funds.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is the immediate issue of hunger. If these people are malnourished/weak/starving then I would send rations into the particular area I was in - I would do this through the WFP (a branch of the United Nations). The reason I would do this is because the people have to be involved in the process of healing themselves, this is only possible of course, if the people are physically capable. With the people at their "Best" I believe the next step would be to acquire water. Obviously if there is no tappable source of water in the are, then the reasonable approach would be to try to improve and teach the concept of Agrofarming (impoving soil, saving water, and so on). Simultaneously, you would have to choose Agricultural resources that provide the most efficiency as far as nutrition and quanitity go. If there is no water around the area, then the place is hopeless aside from relocation or providing water, which I believe is hopeless when there are plenty of people who could be helped if only to divert water. With the new ideas of proper farming and nutrients, and hopefully water - one can begin to attack the health issues that the area faces. I would first contact WHO (world Health Organization) and get vaccinations and the like to treat immediate concerns, then with the help of nutrition and water - their immune systems should improve. The next step is to wean the are off of help, once the Agriculture is capable of sustaining the country then rations will decrease and finally disappear. The health would be a bigger problem - it depends on the progress of the country itself. You have to allow the country to provide it's own medicine. The first step being education.
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