Reforming Afghanistan’s orphanages
Afghanistan’s new national director for orphanages, Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi, has been conducting inspections of the country’s provincial children’s homes in an effort to root out corruption by local officials, who often siphon off not only the $1.50 that is allocated daily per child, but food and clothing. Hashemi is finding that, outside the capital Kabul, the authority of the central government is weak.
Benin makes inroads against malaria
The West African country of Benin is enhancing its free treatment efforts for malaria by targeting those who sell counterfeit and substandard malaria drugs, and recruiting ordinary citizens as health workers who focus on care for expectant mothers and sick children. Malaria is the leading cause of death in the country.
Girl Scouts are recognized by UN for palm oil awareness campaign
The United Nations on Thursday awarded the first-ever International Forest Heroes Award for North America to Girl Scouts from Michigan who have been drawing attention to the threats posed to endangered orangutans in Malaysia and Indonesia, where forests are being cut down in order to create massive palm oil plantations. Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen are encouraging the use of sustainable substitutes for palm oil in thousands of products, including Girl Scout Cookies.
The workers who helped fight polio in India
Volunteers and social workers across India are the unsung heroes of the country’s successful push to eradicate polio, helping to administer some 900 million doses of a polio vaccine over the past year alone. “I decided to get involved because I wanted to do something for the future of our children here,” said Madara, a 76-year-old street hawker who has been volunteering to help with immunization efforts for the past six years.
Nigeria’s governors sign on for polio eradication
Nigeria’s 36 governors and the minister of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja have each agreed to pursue eradication of polio in their areas, responding to a challenge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To receive the promised $500,000 grants, the states must meet strict criteria confirmed by World Health Organization monitoring.
Education drives empowerment for poor women
In an interview, Anita Sharma, director of the UN Foundation’s Millennium Development Goals Initiatives, talks about the achievements and remaining challenges of the foundation’s Every Woman Every Child initiative, which aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children. “I think you have seen increases in political will, but it needs to be sustained and accelerated,” Sharma said. “We’re hoping by the sustained and refocused education that they become the driver of economic change and improvement.”
Toxic cookstove smoke threatens billions
An estimated 3 billion of the world’s population cook over potentially toxic open fires, and the World Health Organization estimates that 2 million deaths annually can be linked to cookfire pollution. Radha Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, said that the use of clean cookstoves is “one relatively simple intervention that has a multitude of impacts.” This CNN video report looks at one effort to bring clean cookstoves to Tanzania.
