(clipped from full article) Bangladeshi farmers have to go through numerous hardships. Natural calamities cannot be avoided. However, if the farmer knew when to expect one and thereby take appropriate preventive measures, maybe some of his crops could be saved. Besides natural calamities, he is always running the risk of crop infestations and rainfall that is either too low or too high, thereby producing poor yields. Due to poor education, many farmers may be following the practices of his fore-fathers blindly, without looking for better agricultural methods or practices.
Without proper information, a farmer whose crops have been infested by pests, for example, would think that this is the end and that his crops are only destined to die. This would mean a bad income that year, and no food for his family.
So what if this farmer was armed with easy access to the correct information at the correct time? This could lighten his load by ridding him of numerous uncertainties during his agricultural process and thereby raise his family's living standards. A better living standard for the farmers would mean a more developed Bangladesh.
BIID , with support from UNDP, has teamed up with Grameenphone by setting up Community Information Centres all over the country. In the pilot phase, 10 Centres had been opened in various locations, but the aim is to scale this up to more than 1000 locations in the country.
Social epidemiologist Paula Lantz reveals what actually leads to premature deaths among Americans. Obesity? No. Poverty? Yes.
By Tom Jacobs (Aug 11, 2010)
So why is being poor hazardous to your health?
Paula Lantz: Stress processes probably play a role. Chronic stress is not good for immune function. [Difficulties with] housing, transportation, income security — all those factors can produce stress. Do you have friends and family — people who can actually help you get to the doctor? Is your community organized in such a way that it provides the resources you need?
Miller-McCune: Do you think the health care reform bill that recently passed will have an impact in terms of lessening the disparities in health in this country?
PL: The bill that passed is a big beast. The main thing it does is extend health insurance coverage to a greater number of Americans. That’s a good thing, a necessary thing, but it’s not sufficient to reduce disparities. There is funding in the bill for more community-based prevention. That’s a good start. There is recognition within the bill that health and health care are not the same thing.
M-M: What factors are you looking at as this new system begins to take shape?
PL: I’m worried that the focus will be on the health insurance exchanges and expanding Medicaid, while the broader mission of public health will be subsumed. In public health, we talk about primary prevention — let’s stop diseases before they occur.
by Katherine Gustafson (Aug 17, 2010)
…a patient with a poor diet and little money will be much more interested in eating right if he or she gets a doctor's slip worth $1 a day to be redeemed only at a farmers' market. Not only does the doctor's intervention let patients know that their health is threatened by diet-related issues, the free cash will motivate a corrective action.
This concept was originally pioneered by the Boston-area healthcare foundation CAVU Foundation (Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited) as part of its Healthy Weight Initiative. The organization's efforts were on a limited and local scale, though, so this year the charity is partnering with Wholesome Wave to pilot the “Fruit and Veggie Rx” program. At a recent meeting of all of Wholesome Wave's partners, a breakout meeting with CAVU representatives drew a large crowd of enthusiastic folks from farmers' markets and food-related foundations around the country. A spirited discussion ensued, in which it was clear that many in the circle felt this type of program could produce a massive positive change in eating habits if implemented broadly.
Phi Beta Iota: The above articles reinforce our holistic analytic model on Global Threats based on the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges & Change which states that poverty is the #1 Global Threat, even in the United States. Below are links to a few of our graphics representing our unique holistic view on analytics.
Project Masiluleke is a South African project that aims to find solutions for the country's growing AIDS pandemic. The project is unique in that it enjoys the collaboration of a group of leading South African and international partners in the clinical, technical, philanthropic, development and design arena's. The project was unveiled globally at the annual Pop!Tech Conference in Camden, USA in October 2008 and will be officially launched in South Africa in 2009.
Intended Impact
In a country where less than 5% of the adult population knows their HIV-status and more than 24% is HIV positive (close to 40% in provinces like Kwazulu Natal), Project Masiluleke has the potential to:
Bring large numbers of people into testing without spending millions on expensive and often unsuccessful awareness campaigns,
Empower people to know their HIV status by testing privately and accurate for the disease, in the privacy of their own homes,
Involve adherent ARV patients as role-models and mobile support agents, through the virtual call centres,
Keep patients on treatment and increase treatment effectiveness, through regular doctor's visits and clinical support.
A two-part exhibition of water technologies and artwork from developing countries where Denver-based IDE works to cultivate prosperity.
Part I (August 6 – 31) of the exhibition features photographs of the people IDE works with every day, along with displays of the innovative water technologies IDE has developed as part of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded “Rural Prosperity Initiative” – extremely affordable water pumps, drip irrigation and water storage systems. Special events scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition offer opportunities to meet IDE staff from around the world and learn about their work.
Part II (September 1 – 25) features the addition to the exhibition of paintings from local artists in IDE countries, brought to Denver especially for this show. The artwork will be offered for sale through a silent auction with proceeds benefiting IDE.
Low-cost water technologies, access to better seeds and growing techniques, and better connections to markets are the foundation of the IDE approach to cultivating prosperity in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continue reading “Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries”
Playpower.org aims to introduce the world’s cheapest computer programs to the poor by utilizing the technology of old 8 bit computers. The Apple II computer, which had its heyday in the 1970s in the West, has lived on in the developing world, where its technology is now open source and easy to manufacture. As a result, computers can be sold for as little as $10-12. Many of these systems are currently on sale as “TV computers” in Bombay, Bangalore, and Nicaragua, offering pirated, low-tech versions of games like Mario and Donkey Kong. Like the early home computers sold in the United States, they plug into a TV screen for display, making them an easy access technology. Continue reading “The $12 Computer”
“The 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report outlines the continuing challenges across the globe, including in the United States. The Report, for the first time, includes a ranking of the United States based on the same standards to which we hold other countries. The United States takes its first-ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America. This human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it.”
Phi Beta Iota: The Department of State has so much potential, if they could just get a grip on the fact that the only thing standing between them and owning the Open Source Center with the Multinational Decision-Support Centre embedded, is the fact that her gate-keepers are blocking every piece of paper on this 9-11 Commission recommended new agency because CIA “claims” it and no one at State is willing to stand up to them. Human trafficking, like other kinds of smuggling including narcotics and arms and blood diamonds, cannot be addressed in stove-pipes. It can be represented by stove-pipes, but the collection and analysis must be REGIONAL. Neither CIA nor any other part of the US get that yet–the Joint Intelligence Centers at the theaters are travesties, just look at the travesty of USSOUTHCOM pretending to help Haiti. The Nordics and the Netherlands have it right–Multinational, Multifunctional Information-Sharing and Sense-Making Centres is the only way to go–Centres that do both the all-source integrated processing the secret world cannot do, and do not lose sight of the human factor working in 183 languages the US secret world, at least, does not speak.
