Good News Agency – Year VIII, n° 8
Weekly - Year VIII, number 8 –
15th June 2007
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive
and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the
work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions
engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the
space of a day. Editorial research by Fabio Gatti (in charge) and Elisa Peduto.
Good News Agency is published in English on one Friday and in Italian the
next. It is distributed free of charge through Internet to the editorial
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of Public Information. The
Association has been recognized by UNESCO as “an actor of the global movement for a culture of peace” and it has
been included in the web site http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/uk/uk_sum_monde.htm
Human rights – Economy and development – Solidarity
Peace and security – Health – Energy
and Safety – Environment and wildlife
Religion and spirituality – Culture and education
Geneva (ICRC) 5 June – The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is stepping up its humanitarian
activities after months of growing hostilities in the Central African Republic.
In particular it is increasing its aid for people forced to flee their homes
and for the communities hosting them. In the coming months, almost 100,000
people will receive relief items (mosquito nets, blankets, tarpaulins, mats,
cooking kits, buckets and soap) and farming implements. All ICRC distributions
will be carried out in conjunction with volunteers from the Central African Red
Cross Society. (…)
The ICRC will also boost its
efforts to secure protection of the civilian population and people deprived of
their freedom. It will remind all the parties concerned of their obligations
under international humanitarian law. "The situation is deteriorating from
a humanitarian viewpoint," said Jean-Nicolas Marti, head of the ICRC
delegation in the capital, Bangui. "Given the needs of tens of thousands
of people in distress, the ICRC has increased its field presence in order to
come to the aid of civilians living in the conflict zone." This, he said,
had enabled the organization to establish a constant dialogue with all the
warring parties, who recognized its neutrality and independence.
The ICRC has been working in
the Central African Republic since 1997. In 2006 it considerably increased its
presence in the conflict zones so as to be able to quickly adapt its operations
to the nature, scale and urgency of the needs. ICRC offices have been set up in
Paoua and in Kaga-Bandoro, in the north-west of the country, and another office
will soon be opened in Birao, in the north-east. At present the ICRC has 17
expatriates and 80 locally recruited staff working in the Central African
Republic.
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/central-african-republic-news-050607!OpenDocument
Guinea:
Roadmap for sustainable development adopted
Brussels, 30 May - The
International Trade Union Conference to Promote Sustainable Development, held
from 23 to 24 in Conakry, ended with the adoption of a roadmap reflecting the
demands of the trade union movement and civil society, both Guinean and
international, marking a first step down the long path towards the
consolidation of peace, democracy and development in Guinea. The Conference,
organised by Guinea's four main trade union centres, CNTG, USTG, ONSL and UDTG,
with the support of the ITUC and the African regional organisations AFRO and
DWATU, addressed three key issues:
social and economic development, governance and institutions, and human
rights. (...)
After the ITUC mission to
Guinea last January, the international confederation and its affiliates see
this Conference, which once again highlighted the widespread solidarity with
the workers and people of Guinea, as a turning point, having given rise to very
concrete proposals. (...) The document calls on the Guinean authorities, all
the forces of the nation and the international community to take every step
needed to ensure genuine democratic reforms and a peaceful transition in
Guinea. To read the roadmap in full, click: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/FINAL-Feuille_de_route_pour_la_Guinee.pdf ; www.ituc-csi.org
IFAD
unveils new fund to stimulate business innovation in rural Africa
The
Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund
Rome, 13 June – IFAD today
announced details of a new multi-donor challenge fund that will help poor rural
people in Africa by supporting innovative new businesses. The announcement was
made in Cape Town at the World Economic Forum on Africa.
The African Enterprise
Challenge Fund (AECF) represents an important partnership between members of
the international development community. Donors involved so far include the
African Development Bank, the Consultative Group for Assist the Poor (CGAP),
IFAD and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. The
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a member of the Donor Steering
Group. (…)
Challenge funds, such as AECF,
have a proven track record of stimulating pro-poor economic growth. The AECF
will be the first challenge fund to be based in and designed for rural Africa.
It will encourage the development of agricultural and financial markets in
rural Africa by offering matching grants on a competitive basis of up to US$1.5
million to projects which meet its development goals.
The fund is designed to
encourage businesses to think of poor rural people as potential entrepreneurs,
consumers and employees. Challenge funds have proven effective in stimulating
business innovation. The grants provide a powerful incentive to encourage the
private sector, which often has substantial expertise and financial resources,
to risk branching out into areas they might not have otherwise considered. AECF
will run for seven years, starting in 2008. It has already secured most of the
capital needed to start operations on schedule.
Contact information: Farhana
Haque-Rahman, Chief, Media Relations, Special Events and Programmes, tel: +39
0654592485, e-mail: f.haquerahman@ifad.org
Qatar
hosts Niger donor conference: IFAD announces US$20 million grant
Rome, 12 June – IFAD will
provide an additional US$20 million in grant funding to combat food insecurity
in Niger during the period 2007-2012. Matthew Wyatt, IFAD’s Assistant President
for External Affairs, announced the grant today at the International Donors’
Conference on Consolidating Food Self-Sufficiency in Niger. It is being hosted
by the Government of Qatar in the capital city of Doha. The donor conference is
a joint initiative by the Government of Niger, the Government of Qatar and the
General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to
encourage donors to support programmes that will enhance food security in
Niger. (…)
Unfavourable climatic
conditions and widespread poverty have resulted in chronic food insecurity that
affects more than 24 per cent of the rural population in Niger. Locust attacks
in 2004 and poor rains in 2005 resulted in an eight-month dry season that created
food shortages and severely affected food supply. (…)
IFAD currently finances a
project that has created cereal and pre-harvest supply banks in Maradi, one of
Niger’s hardest-hit provinces during the 2004-2005 food crisis. Previous
IFAD-funded cereal banks in Niger were used to store crops immediately after
harvest to sell during the dry season when market prices tend to rise. But the
Project for the Promotion of Local Initiatives for Development in Aguié has
tested a new type of bank that provides poor farmers with access to cereals
when they are unable to feed themselves and their families at least two meals a
day.
These banks, known as soudure,
are operational from mid-July to mid-September on the basis of exchange.
Farmers can take food as a credit during the planting season to ensure proper
nutrition while they work in the field. Then farmers “pay back” this loan with
the cereals they harvest, with 25 per cent interest to replace the stock and
cover the cost of storage and maintenance.
At the end of last year, there
were 111 soudure banks in Maradi containing more than 680 tons of cereal, which
can reach about 200,000 people during the harshest period.
For more information, Farhana
Haque-Rahman, Chief, Media Relations, Special Events and Programmes, f.haquerahman@ifad.org
The
next frontier in genetic research: under water
Countries
to discuss managing the world's aquatic genetic resources
Rome, 11 June - Improved
international policies are needed to conserve aquatic genetic resources and
improve global food security, FAO stated today at the start of the biennial
meeting of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA,
11-15 June). A lack of coherent management of the world’s fish genetic
resources is becoming a serious problem, the agency warned.
"The rapid expansion of
aquaculture and the overexploitation of many capture fisheries have created
conditions where irresponsible use of natural resources can result in adverse
environmental and social impacts, intersectoral conflicts and
unsustainability," according to a paper by FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture
Department to be presented to the Commission on Wednesday. (Click here to read.) The paper argues
that a successful transition to more responsible, sustainable and productive
aquaculture and capture fisheries will depend in large measure upon effective
management of fish genetic resources. The CGRFA is well situated to address
this need, it says. "However, the large and increasing contributions from
aquaculture to world fish supply and the problems of effectively managing
capture fisheries stocks that are not well characterized genetically have not
yet been recognized in terms of increased investment in fish genetic resources
management policies," cautions FAO.
New Project Won–Honduras:
Farmer Access to Credit – Millennium Challenge Corp.
30 May - The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has awarded ACDI/VOCA a two-year $2,893,663 Honduras Farmer Access to Credit (FAC) project to increase the supply of credit and the availability of other financial services to program farmers, agribusinesses and rural enterprises. This is ACDI/VOCA’s second MCC award and will also develop building local capacity to ensure sustainability. ACDI/VOCA will provide technical assistance to build capacity within local financial institutions to offer credit and other services to a broad range of farmers and rural entrepreneurs who lack access. Strengthening the supply of credit to farmers in the short term will be facilitated by financing under the project’s farmer loan fund, and ACDI/VOCA will promote the sustainable expansion of financial services to farmers and other rural enterprises on strictly commercial terms. (…)
ACDI/VOCA has also won an
$18.4 million MCC award for its Armenia Water-to-Market Activity to accelerate
the transition of the Armenian economy to more profitable agricultural
production through irrigation rehabilitation.
http://www.acdivoca.org/acdivoca/PortalHub.nsf/ID/news_newbizHondurasMCC
June 5 - As war-weary,
displaced Liberians journey back into their homeland, the Adventist Development
and Relief Agency (ADRA) is supporting their efforts to restart their lives.
Through an extensive initiative called the Household Food Security Recovery
project, ADRA is improving food availability in 3,300 returning farming
households (approximately 17,100 individuals) in Lofa County, Liberia. The
one-year project is slated for completion in August 2007.
The peace and improved
security that followed Liberia’s democratic elections in fall 2005 have led a
significant number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and former refugees
to return to the towns and villages they had fled during the nation’s brutal
civil war. However, many Liberians are returning to war-devastated homes and
are without basic necessities such as health care, education, clean drinking
water, or sufficient food supplies.
ADRA’s initiative assists IDPs
and refugees currently living in the war-ravaged Kolahun and Foya districts in
Lofa County. Many of the returnees and resident small-scale farmers, who have
no assets and limited access to quality farm tools, seeds, and other
agricultural materials, are facing difficulties in re-establishing their
livelihoods and food sources. (…)
By project’s completion, the
3,300 beneficiary families should be able to produce at least 50 percent of
their household food and at least 80 percent of families will have increased
the number of meals eaten per day from one to two. (…)
http://www.interaction.org/newswire/detail.php?id=5823
June 1 - Amid rising
volatility in the region, two physicians with Medical Teams International are
headed to Kabul, Afghanistan to treat Afghan children suffering from landmine
blasts and other traumatic injuries. The New York City twin surgeons—a
cardiologist and an urologist— are making their second trip to the country in
17 months.
Drs. Vince and Vance Moss are
scheduled to spend four weeks in Kabul, performing reconstructive surgeries at
the Tanghi Saidan Community Health Clinic and training healthcare providers in
updated surgical procedures. The doctors have been instrumental in setting up a
rehabilitation unit at the Kabul medical clinic. The Moss brothers raised more
than $10,000 in donated medical supplies—including splints, bandages, crutches
and collapsible wheelchairs—which they will carry in when they arrive June 2.
Medical supplies, equipment and medicines are nonexistent in the region and
patients often lose limbs and mobility because of the critical shortages.
(…) Medical Teams International is
partnering with Morning Star Development for this mission, a relief agency
based in Kabul whose goal is to rebuild Afghanistan and its families through
community development. (…)
http://www.interaction.org/newswire/detail.php?id=5820
Lebanon, May 31 - CARE is
providing aid to civilians caught in an ongoing confrontation between the
Lebanese Army and militants of the Fatah al-Islam faction.
Fighting between Lebanese Army
and Fatah al-Islam erupted on May 20,
after Lebanese authorities tried to arrest suspects in a bank robbery. The fighting quickly escalated and spread to
the Naher al-Bared refugee camp, which is home to 28,000 Palestinian
refugee.. An estimated 23,000 people
have fled the camp. Some 16,000 have
found temporary shelter in a neighboring refugee camp, Al Bedawi, while another
3,000 have gone to Tripoli and 4,000 have gone further to Beirut and camps in
the South nearby areas.
CARE is primarily concerned
with moving supplies to civilians displaced by the fighting, and with opening
up humanitarian access to up to 5,000 people still trapped in the camp. Electricity to the camp stopped when the
fighting broke out, and much of the
camp's water system was damaged. Continued fighting has made getting food and water into the camp a hazardous
proposition, and with garbage piling up inside the camp there is danger of an
outbreak of disease. (…)
Working in close coordination
with UNRWA and other local agencies, CARE is focusing on providing mattresses
and bedding for 3,000 of the displaced people.
CARE has been active in Middle
East since 1948 and in Lebanon since 2006. It has provided health and
nutritional support to pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants affected by the July War. CARE
provided emergency support to waste water treatment in southern Lebanon and
rehabilitation to rainwater storage facilities, and currently gives economic
support to fishermen whose livelihoods were affected by the war and
environmental damage in southern Lebanon.
http://www.care.org/newsroom/articles/2007/05/20070531_lebanon.asp
25 May - Faced with a growing
human catastrophe in eastern Chad, the ICRC has begun distributing urgently
needed food, seed and agricultural implements as well as essential shelter and
other household items to some 67,000 displaced people in Dogdoré and the Dar
Assoungha and Dar Sila areas bordering Sudan.
The operation aims to help
displaced families plant crops before the imminent onset of the rainy season.
Once the rains start, poor roads and the remoteness of the area will make
access by humanitarian workers to the displaced people and their host
communities virtually impossible.
A recent nutritional survey
conducted by the ICRC shows a serious food shortage in the area caused by
displacement of families and the resulting difficulties accessing farmland.
"The purpose of this operation is to prevent the worst from
happening", says Thomas Merkelbach, head of the ICRC delegation in Chad.
"The lack of security due to inter ethnic strife, combined with the internal
armed conflict over the past year and a half has made it impossible for people
to store enough food, which is why we need to ensure their food needs are
covered during the planting season."
The ICRC remains present in
all conflict-affected areas of Chad and continues working mainly along the
volatile border between Chad and the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan, where
several aid agencies have limited or suspended their operations owing to
security concerns. (…)
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/news-chad-250507
Heartbeat
International reaches into Bangladesh
Nobel peace laureate and
founder of Grameen Bank, Professor Muhammad Yunus, inaugurated the first Pacemaker
Bank in Bangladesh on March 1, 2007 at the National Heart Foundation in Mirpur,
Dhaka. Speaking at the inaugural function as chief guest he said, "Heart
disease is on the rise in Bangladesh. Modern treatment of heart disease is so
expensive that the poor cannot afford the treatment. The Heartbeat
International Pacemaker Bank will provide an opportunity for poor patients to
get pacemakers free of cost. This pacemaker bank would extend the horizon of
service of the Rotary Clubs." Professor Yunus thanked the National Heart
Foundation for providing such a platform through their good organization to
serve the people of his country. (…)
Heartbeat International
recently approved the new pacemaker bank, which will receive 50 or more new
cardiac pacemakers and related cardiac devices annually from HBI for
implantation among underserved heart patients in Bangladesh through direct
involvement of cardiologists of the country's National Heart Foundation. The
new pacemaker bank is a joint collaboration of Rotary Clubs of Dhaka, Dhaka
Buriganga, Dhaka Cosmopolitan, Dhaka Midcity and Dilkusha with the assistance
of the National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh.
Peace
Bureau deplores military spending rise, urges investments to counter poverty
and climate change
Geneva, June 12 - The
International Peace Bureau has expressed profound concern at the announcement
yesterday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute at the launch
of its annual Yearbook (www.sipri.org) that
world military expenditures in 2006 reached a new high of $1204 billion. This
represents an increase of 3.5% over the 2005 figure, and is 37% more than a
decade ago. The USA accounted for nearly half the total, with $529 billion.
These amounts constitute a huge treasury that should be re-directed to the
fight against mass poverty and the threat of climate change.
The UN's Millennium Project
(2005) has estimated that the annual costs of meeting the Millennium
Development Goals by the target date of 2015 are of the order of $135 billion
per year, little more than 10% of the money currently allocated to the military
sector. “In a year in which public awareness of the accelerating impacts of
climate change has rocketed, the continued investment of human brainpower and
financial resources in narrow, weapons-system 'security' on this gargantuan
scale is nothing short of scandalous”, said IPB Secretary-General Colin Archer.
(…)
The IPB, whose main programme
is entitled Sustainable Disarmament for Sustainable Development, is working to
build an international civil society alliance to bring together peace,
anti-poverty and environmental organisations. The purpose is to press for an
end to the over-funding of military establishments and for the creation of new
funds to tackle human insecurity and common threats to the planet. IPB will
organise a seminar on this theme at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt, on
November 11-12, 2007.
The International Peace Bureau
is dedicated to the vision of a World Without War. We are a Nobel Peace
Laureate (1910) and over the years 13 of our officers have been recipients of
the Nobel Peace Prize. Our 280 member organisations in 70 countries, and
individual members, form a global network bringing together expertise and
campaigning experience in a common cause.
June 8 - A demining team from
the UAE Armed Forces working in Lebanon has handed over 28 villages in southern
Lebanon to the local authorities after successfully clearing the villages of
landmines, cluster bombs and other dangerous explosives left behind by the
Israeli army.
Areas cleared by the team,
which is part of the UAE Project for the Support and Construction of Lebanon,
include farmlands and fields in a number of villages in South Lebanon. The
cleared areas were handed over to the Lebanese authorities in a short ceremony
attended by heads of the municipalities of the affected areas, officials of the
Coordination Centre for the Demining of South Lebanon, which operates under the
supervision of a United Nations team and the Lebanese Army.
According to Captain Abdullah
Butti Al Shamsi, who toured the cleared area, about 766,433 square metres have
been cleared of mines since the beginning of the project, bringing the total
areas cleared to 4,861,581. He said 4,304 landmines and cluster bombs have been
unearthed during the operations.
Reacting on the achievement,
Lebanese officials expressed profound gratitude to the UAE and its leadership
for their “great humanitarian services worth emulating”. They also expressed
gratitude to all the personnel of the UAE demining team.
http://www.landmine.de/en.titel/en.news/en.news.one/index.html?entry=en.news.0e6ee3990d500000
Dutch Rehab Hospital signs
agreement to support landmine survivors on the Thai-Burma border
Posted by: Imbert Matthee
Arnhem, Netherlands, June 6 -
Stichting Groot Klimmendaal (www.grootklimmendaal.nl), a major physical
rehabilitation center in the Netherlands, has agreed to help Clear Path
International's landmine survivor assistance efforts along the Thai-Burma
border. Under a two-year agreement, the Dutch hospital will provide $30,000 in
funding and facilitate the involvement of its professional rehabilitation
specialists as volunteers in eastern Thailand where CPI has an active program
fabricating prosthetics, offering physical therapy and providing full-time care
for landmine accident survivors from Burma. (…)
Groot Klimmendaal's funding
will be used to help cover CPI's two-year $130,000 budget for its survivor
assistance activities along the border, including the training of new
prosthetics fabrication technicians, continued support for existing fabrication
workshops, creation of new workshops and fulltime care for severely disabled
survivors in one of the largest refugee camps (..)
http://clearpathinternational.org/cpiblog/archives/000901.php
May 31 - Fighting in the Nahr
al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon has displaced thousands of Palestinian
refugees over the past week. Approximately 20,000 people have fled horrific
scenes of conflict and devastation, including over 500 infants and
preschoolers, and 100 elderly with chronic illnesses. Many left home without
clothing, food, medication and other necessities, and have taken sanctuary in
the camps of Baddawi, Chatila and Bourj el Barajneh.
People are in great need and
ANERA is responding to the emergency. On May 30, we routed a container of
medical supplies from AmeriCares to our local Lebanese partner, the Health Care
Society, to help displaced persons. With the assistance of the Society and
non-governmental organizations such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society, we
distributed pain relief medications, hand sanitizers, surgical implements such
as syringes, surgical sponges and examination gloves, wheelchairs, and first
aid cream, and medicine to treat hypertension. Most of the medical relief was
directed to the Safad Hospital and the Health Center in the Baddawi Camp. In
addition, some aid went to clinics maintained by Popular Aid for Relief and
Development.
A second shipment of medical
supplies, valued at $1.3 million, will be sent this week. (…) ANERA will continue
to distribute aid to those in need through our Lebanon-based partners.
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) was founded in 1968 in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, to help the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
25 May - Southern Lebanon is
littered with landmines and explosive remnants subsequent to the July/August
2006 war. With the support of the Family Praz in Lausanne, the Haut-Lac
Bilingual School in Vevey and the University of Balamand in Beirut, a special
edition of the interactive magazine "Nour & Noura" will be
printed with the aim of educating children about the risks caused by landmines
and explosive remnants of war. This project is initiated by Caroline and
Pierre-Alain Praz in memory of Jeanie Waddell-Fournier, a delegate who has been
tragically killed while on a medical mission in Casamance, Senegal, for the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
China diabetes education
program extended
June - Project HOPE and its corporate partners, BD, Lilly and Roche Diagnostics, announced from Bejing, a two-year extension to the China Diabetes Education Program (CDEP). This multi-collaborative program, which started in 1998, established diabetes training centers, introduced a state-of-the-art training model, and developed diabetes education and training materials that have won strong support from the Ministry of Health and government at various levels.
CDEP provides comprehensive
diabetes training to local medical and healthcare providers – also known as
Trained Trainers. To date, outreach efforts by Trained Trainers across 800
local hospitals and community care centers have successfully trained nearly
37,000 medical professionals and about 170,000 patients with diabetes.
“Project HOPE’s China Diabetes
Education Program continues to be one of the most successful collaborative
programs in our 24-year history of service to China,” said John P. Howe III,
M.D., President and CEO of Project HOPE. “It is an excellent example of a
collaborative partnership between industry, a non-profit health education
organization, local doctors and hospitals, and the Ministry of Health – all
with a positive impact on the health of the people of China.”
As in other regions of the
world, diabetes incidence in China is increasing due to the greater prevalence
of obesity and physical inactivity. More than 30 million Chinese citizens are
currently estimated to have diabetes, a figure forecast to rise to as many as
100 million by 2010. (…)
http://www.projecthope.org/headlines/view.asp?id=12387970
Conflict and poverty create a
deadly mix on the island of Hispaniola, shared with the Dominican Republic.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 1
– With a generous donation of US$10,000 from the Community of Christ,
Counterpart International procured more than a million dollars worth of
pharmaceuticals in partnership with Medicines for Humanity and airlifted them
to Haiti for use in clinics run by the United Nations and Doctors Without
Borders. "The pharmaceuticals will benefit about 9,200 of Haiti's most
vulnerable, particularly women and children, through an outreach effort by
international aid organizations and local clinics," said Dr. Thoric
Cederström, Counterpart's Vice President of Food Security and Sustainable
Agriculture. (…)
As violence persists, the
current United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is working to
maintain civil order in the streets and to treat the sick in hospitals and
clinics. Thanks to the airlift, Counterpart and UN medical workers will
alleviate the stress on medical supplies in Haiti's resource-poor medical
facilities. Building on relationships developed through Counterpart's school
feeding program in Senegal, West Africa, Counterpart's shipment was processed
by its Community and Humanitarian Assistance Programs (CHAP), and was received
and managed by the Senegalese MINUSTAH contingent. (…)
http://www.counterpart.org/Default.aspx?tabid=340&metaid=H72R4449-7c9
June - In just a few weeks,
volunteer doctors, nurses and other health care professionals from Project HOPE
will begin boarding two separate U.S. Navy ships, as part of our public/private
humanitarian initiative to reach under-served communities in two separate
regions of the world.
Between June 19 and October 8,
the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, will embark on a health education mission
to the Caribbean and Central and South America, visiting coastal communities in
Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia,
Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Surinam. Project HOPE will send 88
volunteers on this mission, in four rotations, each lasting approximately 23
days, to help treat an expected 85,000 patients – including 55,000
children.
Between July 10 and September
14, the USS Peleliu will visit Southeast Asia including coastal communities in
Vietnam (where the SS HOPE sailed during the second half of its maiden voyage
in 1960), Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands. HOPE
will send 63 volunteers on this mission, serving in three rotations, each
lasting up to 19 days.
Along with the volunteer
support, Project HOPE is seeking to provide an estimated $6 million worth of
donated medicines (including vaccines, antibiotics and basic supplies) in
support of each operation. (…)
http://www.projecthope.org/headlines/view.asp?id=12387964
Eradicate
polio rather than control it, Harvard researchers say
by
Joseph Derr, Rotary International News
11 May - The battle to
eradicate polio has been expensive and difficult. But ditching the current
eradication plan in favor of a policy that aims to control spread of the
disease would be far more costly, a new report says. A recent study by the
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), which was published in the 21 April
issue of the leading medical journal The Lancet, found that despite the
relatively high short-term costs, global polio eradication is a better option
than trying to control the disease to a certain number of cases per year. (…) Researchers
used a mathematical model to weigh financial and human costs and health
outcomes of control and eradication options. Researchers factored in the number
of expected polio cases for the next 20 years and a range of controlling
options to come to their conclusions.
Through its PolioPlus program,
Rotary and its global partners have been working toward polio eradication for
more than 20 years, contributing to a 99 percent drop in the number of cases
since 1988. The global effort has invested some $5.3 billion in the cause so
far, of which about $650 million will have come from Rotary by the time the
world is certified polio-free.
Concerns of the high perceived
costs of eradicating polio surfaced last year in scientific journals, when
skeptical experts proposed that the focus shift from eradication to effectively
controlling the disease’s spread, pointing to several challenges that stand in
the way of reaching the last one percent of cases of polio in four countries.
Yet accepting a certain number
of cases per year in favor of perceived lower costs also poses difficult
ethical questions, says Robert Scott, chair of the International PolioPlus
Committee. "What’s the acceptable [level of] control? There are the human
suffering costs, too," Scott says. "How do you put a dollar amount on
pain and the suffering of lifelong paralyzed limbs?"
Learn more about the study at
the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative Web site
http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/polio/070511_lancet.html
HKI Announces $2.7 million
multi-partner public/private initiative to produce vitamin A-fortified cooking
oil in eight countries in West Africa.
Dakar, Senegal, May 21 – Helen
Keller International (HKI) announces a new $2.7 million multi-partner
public/private initiative to produce vitamin A-fortified cooking oil in eight
countries in West Africa. Controlling vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a
cost-effective intervention to ensure the sight and survival of children, and
to reduce maternal mortality. (…)
This new partnership covers
the eight countries of West Africa that share the same currency and are members
of the Monetary and Economic Union of West Africa (UEMOA): Benin, Burkina Faso,
Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. HKI has helped
bring together the key private sector, public sector and not-for-profit
stakeholders to ensure mandatory vitamin A fortification of
industrially-produced cooking oil throughout the UEMOA zone.
The funding of the initiative
is led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which
is contributing $1.3 million. Other financial partners include the Michael
& Susan Dell Foundation ($750,000), the Government of Taiwan ($300,000),
the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN - $200,000) and the
Micronutrient Initiative (MI - $173,775). The initiative is enhanced by major
contributions from private cooking oil industries, governments, consumers, and
the ongoing investments by GAIN, MI and USAID in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and
Senegal. (…)
http://www.hkworld.org/about/press_releases/WA%20Tache%20D'Huile.html
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Connectedness
and communion in meditation
by
Ervin Laszlo
June 2 - The reality of the
feeling of connectedness and communion was confirmed by a scientific experiment
carried out by Dr. Nitamo Montecucco, head of the Club di Budapest Italia. The
experiment was timed to coincide with the meditation/prayer events in Europe
and Africa on the 20th of May.
Two groups of meditators were equipped with electrodes on their heads,
connected to an electroencephalograph that measured the electrical activity
(EEG waves) of their brain. Eight of the meditators were in Bagni di Lucca,
headquarters of the Italian branch of the Club of Budapest, and eight in the
city of Milan, 200 km away. The measurements were synchronized to the hundredth
of a second through the Global Position System and examined for correlation
between the two groups. Since the meditators in Bagni di Lucca and in Milan
were not in any ordinary form of contact with each other, the “normal”
expectation was that the value of the correlation would be zero. Yet the average level of synchronization
between the two groups proved to be 0.64% with the peak values rising to 5.4%
-- findings that exclude mere chance and coincidence. Further scientifically
controlled tests have been carried out, testing among others the effect of the
meditations on random-number generators in various parts of the world. (…)
The subjective experience, as
well as the objective results of the Global Peace Meditation/Prayer Day give us
warrant to affirm that human consciousness has a real effect on people and the
world. The Club of Budapest is dedicated to the proposition that when many
people join together to focus their consciousness on peace in the world, the
outcome is likely to be highly significant: the combined power of their
consciousness will help heal our war- and violence-torn world and overcome the
sense of helplessness and separateness that is the root cause of people’s frustration
and the conflict and violence that results from it. For further information: jh@clubofbudapest.org
Moscow, Russia, 7 June – A new
national park has been created in the Russian Far East, following years of
advocacy work by WWF and local environmental groups.The Zov Tigra (Call of the
Tiger) National Park encompasses 82,152 hectares in the forest area of the
Sikhote-Alin mountain range in the far eastern Primorye region. It is the third
of 21 protected areas planned for Russia by 2010.
The park is home to abundant
wildlife, including the endangered Siberian (or Amur) tiger. In the 1940s the
Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction, with no more than 40 tigers
remaining in the wild. Thanks to
vigorous anti-poaching and other conservation efforts by the Russians
authorities, with support from many partners including WWF, the tiger
population has shown signs of recovery, remaining stable throughout the last
decade with some 500 individuals.
“The main purpose of the
national park is to conserve biodiversity and develop eco-tourism in the
region,” said Yurii Bersenev, protected areas coordinator for WWF-Russia’s Far
Eastern office. “Thanks to the positive cooperation between WWF and the Russian
authorities, we were successful in establishing the park. We are happy to see
this unique natural area finally getting the protection it deserves.”
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=105480
by Marie-Françoise Borel
7 June - United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and International Federation President Juan
Manuel Suárez del Toro shared common humanitarian concerns during their
first-ever meeting, in Madrid, on 6 June. The UN Secretary General stopped in
the Spanish capital, on his way to the G-8 meeting in Germany. The leaders
exchanged views on three major issues: the challenges facing the African
continent, the effects of climate change and the consequences of world
migration flows. President Suárez del Toro explained the Federation’s
commitment to fighting the spread of killer diseases such as AIDS, malaria, and
measles in Africa as well as the scaling up of programmes to reduce poverty and
significantly strengthen the capacities of African Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies. He pointed out that the Federation’s Global Agenda, based on Red
Cross Red Crescent core areas of activity, is also aligned with the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals, in order to contribute to their achievement. (…)
They also broached a subject
that is a “personal priority” for the UN Secretary General - climate change,
and its impact. The Federation President added that the Federation is strongly
committed to helping communities around the world meet this new challenge and
is “fine tuning” its disaster management systems – which include risk
reduction, disaster preparedness and response – to help people be better
prepared to face the impact of disaster and become more resilient.
Both leaders agreed that the
challenge is global, and that better and closer cooperation between the two
organizations is vital to meet it. (…)
http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/07/07060801/index.asp
The Hague, The Netherlands, 7
June – A two-storey-high photo mosaic of a tiger, created from personal photos
of nearly 25,000 tiger lovers worldwide, was unveiled here today to urge world
leaders to end all trade in tigers.
The International Tiger
Coalition, comprised of 35 organizations working to save wild tigers, including
WWF, assembled the world’s largest photo mosaic of a tiger in front of the
convention centre where hundreds of delegates are attending a meeting of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). (…)
Wild tigers face an emerging
threat from Chinese tiger farms, which now house nearly 5,000 captive-bred
tigers. The farm owners are pressuring the Chinese government to lift its
successful 14-year ban on domestic trade in tiger bones and products. The
Chinese delegation to CITES distributed a position paper this week saying it
was maintaining the ban for now, but listing the supposed benefits of trading
products made from farmed tigers.
The International Tiger
Coalition — an unprecedented alliance of environmental, zoo and animal
protection organizations as well as the traditional Chinese medicine community
— is calling on the Chinese government to reject the pending petition by tiger
farm investors that seeks to overturn the country’s ban, close down the
country’s numerous tiger farms, and destroy the stockpile of carcasses being
stored on these farms so they cannot enter illegal trade. The coalition is also
asking China to make its successful 14-year tiger-trade ban permanent.
Close to 25,000 people from at
least 146 countries have submitted their photos online to create the
International Tiger Coalition’s photo mosaic. Of the 146 countries represented
on the mosaic, 142 are members of CITES. Additionally, 32,000 signatures have
been collected for a message of appreciation to China, urging the country to
keep in place its successful ban on domestic tiger trade. http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=105660
Anchorage, United States, 1
June - Following last year's "St. Kitts Declaration", which mumbled
that the moratorium on commercial whaling might not be necessary anymore, the
anti-whaling countries have bounced back with a 37-4 vote for a resolution
strengthening the commercial whaling ban. This was a major victory for the
voices of whale conservation worldwide.
At last year's meeting, 33
countries - led by pro-whaling Japan - voted in favour of the "St. Kitts
Declaration," essentially an attempt to restart commercial whaling, which
has been banned since 1986. That temporary, one-vote whaling majority was a
wake up call, and as Japan continued to recruit votes in support of their
position, often with lucrative aid packages, Greenpeace and other conservation
organisations, like-minded countries, and whale supporters all over the world
responded with their own efforts to ensure that the true opposition to whaling
worldwide was reflected at this year's meeting. (…)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/commercial-whaling-ban-strengt
The
20th of May, 2007: the first Global Peace Meditation/Prayer Day
On the initiative of The Club of Budapest, a million
people meditated and prayed for Peace on the five continents
by
Ervin Laszlo
June 2 - On Sunday, the 20th
of May an estimated one million people participated in the first Global Peace
Meditation-Prayer Day in 64 countries on the five continents. This was a
historic first. Never before have so many people in so many countries and from
so many faiths and cultures come together to direct the power of their
meditation and prayer to peace on Earth: the first truly common cause of all of
humanity.
The Global Day was created to
reduce the level of conflict and violence in the world, and to help create
deeper understanding, tolerance, and readiness to live in peace with our
neighbors both near and far, as well as with nature. (…) The organized
meditations of May 20th followed the same procedure wherever they took place
and regardless of the culture, faith, and religion of the participants. The
events began with initial speeches, music and dance, and were followed by
meditation or prayer guided by a spiritual master. They ended with five-minutes
of silence when the participants stood and held hands, and then silently
repeated a phrase such as “may peace prevail on Earth.” The one-hour
meditations/prayers were carefully synchronized to reinforce each other and
produce the maximum effect. (…)
www.globalpeacemeditationprayerday.org
International Festival of
Cinema and Religion: a journey in the differences
Trento, Italy, 21 May - Born
in Trento in 1998 as the first cinematographic festival focused on the
inter-faith dialogue, the International Festival of Cinema and Religion
“Religion Today” this year will reach its tenth edition. Through cinema and
art, Religion Today during the past years has undertaken a “Journey in the
differences” aiming to discuss our false believes on
religions, to deepen our ‘faith’ and show it without fears, to get to know in a
non-homologated way our “close ones”, so deeply ignored or misunderstood, to
build bridges for a dialogue between men and women of different religions.
The journey of the
Festival, hence, becomes a challenge to listen and an invitation to not
banalize and confuse, to promote a richness of differences that no ‘easy
dialogue’ logic can ignore or guiltily do away with. Within this general theme,
every year the Festival depicts a subject to help in the investigation on the
different approaches of faiths and cultures. For the tenth edition, the choice
fall on the big theme “Compassion - conflict and compassion in the paths of the
faith”, while for the 2008 the film makers are invited to work on “The scandal
of evil”.
http://www.religionfilm.com/homeENG.htm
By Linus Atarah
Helsinki, June 8 (IPS) - Books
cannot talk back to a reader and answer all of their questions. So if one is
seeking concrete information on, say, a gay person, the library is perhaps the
wrong place to visit. But the Finnish Youth Cooperation (Allianssi) has a
better idea. Instead of a library full of abstract information, it runs a
living library made up of real people who can be "borrowed" and who
provide instant feedback.
"We believe that
discrimination and intolerance in society are based to a great extent on prejudice,
and with the living library concept we aim to increase awareness and bring
about constructive dialogue between people in order to diminish prejudice, if
not remove it altogether," said Riikka Jalonen, coordinator of the
Allianssi campaign "All Different, All Equal".
The living library concept was
demonstrated at the World Village Festival, an annual meeting of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) aimed at informing the general public of
their activities, held in late May in the Finnish capital. In a spacious tent
sat a group of people, or "living books" ready to be borrowed,
chatting lively with one another and with "readers." "All the
'books' here represent categories of people who face prejudice in Finnish
society, such as immigrants, gays and lesbians or Muslims. The aim of the
living library method is to break down such prejudices and give faces to real
people," said Jalonen. There were 40 "living books", including a
policeman, an immigrant, an engineer and a heavy metal rock musician.
"All the 'books' here
have been borrowed more than once already, but the immigrant attracts the most
'readers'," said Jalonen, adding that "we are constantly busy."
There is a catalogue of the kinds of "books" available, which also
contains a list of common stereotypes about that "book." Readers go
through the catalogue and make their choices from the ones that have not been
loaned out. Each reader is allowed to check out one "book" at a time
for only twenty minutes, explained Jalonen. However, extensions are possible if
a discussion was left incomplete. Only one reader can check out a
"book," said Jalonen, in order to maintain equal power relations
between the reader and the "book." Just as readers must not give
shabby treatment to library books, so a "living book" must be
returned in good mental and physical condition.
The living library avoids
collecting only members of obvious groups, such as cultural or sexual
minorities, because the aim is to provide a wider perspective on how different
categories of people get pigeonholed in society, said Jalonen. It thus includes people such as engineers,
police officers and priests, who may not face discrimination but are
nevertheless stereotyped. (…)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38106
Creative LEGO® building event
to provide family entertainment at the World Children’s Festival
5 June - The International
Child Art Foundation announced today its collaboration with LEGO Systems, Inc.
to enhance the free activities at the World Children’s Festival to be held on
the National Mall, Washington DC on June 23-25, 2007. LEGO Systems will host an
interactive, creative family building event throughout the 3-day festival from
11:00 am until 5:00 pm daily at the festival site on 4th to 7th Streets of the
National Mall.
LEGO Systems will join child
artists, young performers and musicians, parents and teachers, and creative
leaders and lawmakers to create a complete synesthetic experience – a total
work of art that transforms the National Mall. The festival will become a
turning point in their lives, a touchstone to guide them in the future.
“We are thrilled to bring a
LEGO building experience to the world’s largest celebration of creativity and
imagination on the National Mall,” says Michael McNally, brand relations
direction, LEGO Systems, Inc. “What the International Child Art Foundation does
to encourage a child’s inner creator is something we passionately admire and
are proud to support, because we believe children who are exposed to creative
activities from a very young age go on to become the world’s most meaningful
contributors.”
“LEGO is one of the most
respected brands in the world and a great company that celebrates and nurtures
a child’s pursuit of lifelong creativity,“ said Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq, founder and
executive director of the ICAF. “The children will be thrilled to see LEGO
entertainment on the National Mall at the World Children’s Festival. We
appreciate their support.”
The ICAF serves as the
national art and creativity organization for American children and the only
international art for the world’s children. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
registered in April 1997 in the District of Columbia, the ICAF integrates the
art with science, sport and technology to nurture children’s creativity and
develop empathy - preconditions for a more just, prosperous and nonviolent
world. www.icaf.org (…)
http://www.icaf.org/news/newsfiles/200706050001.html
Corruption
in education: breaking the taboo
“Corrupt
Schools, Corrupt Universities: What can be done?”, a report published by
UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) will be
launched on 6 June. Read the interview with authors Jacques Hallak and Muriel
Poisson.
The
IIEP will hold its first international Summer School on “Transparency,
accountability and anti-corruption measures in education” from 6 to 15 June
2007. Bribery in teacher recruitment, embezzlement of funds destined for
education, faked calls for tender, illegal registration fees, academic fraud -
the list goes on and on. Based on six years of research and the experience of
over 60 countries, “Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities” analyses the
problem, points the way forward and outlines anti-corruption strategies,
illustrated by success stories. The IIEP Summer School on “Transparency,
accountability and anti-corruption measures in education” will use the findings
of the report.
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=53377&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
International
Summer University:"Global Campus" - July 19 - 28, Monte Cerro,
Portugal
This year the International
Summer University, from the 19th to the 28th July, will go under the heading
'Global Campus'. The idea of the 'Global Campus' was born in the international
Summer University 2006 together with our co-operation partners in
Israel/Palestine (The Holy Land Trust),
India (Barefoot College) and
Colombia (Peace Village San Jose). It
is an initiative that will provide education, training and research in all
aspects of peace work for the future - community building and social dynamics,
sustainable technology, truthful reconciliation between the genders, the
connection between the spiritual and political.
The Campus gains its
'Globality' in 2 ways: by creating a synergy between organisations and
individuals within all continents of the world, and by revealing the synergy
between ourselves and the world. Its aim is to be a global education initiative
that knows no borders. For the Global
Campus to succeed a major new global infrastructure must be built up and
developed - a Globalisation with the motive of supporting a positive
transformation. To do this we must re-think and re-act in the basic pillars
that form our contemporary social structures; Finance and Economy,
Spirituality, Information Technology and Sustainable Technologies.
There will be daily keynote
speeches given by experts and co-workers of Tamera on these subjects.
Also in the Summer University
will be: Common study times using the books "Future without War" by
Dieter Duhm and "Grace" by Sabine Lichtenfels, Theatre workshops,
Capoeira, Art, and Music. http://www.tamera.org/index.php?id=102
“How
Can Regional Integration Contribute to Social Equity?”
UN Headquarters, New York, 19
June, 1:15 pm – 2:45pm
The United Nations University,
Office at the United Nations in New York (UNU-ONY), in cooperation with the
United Nations University Programme on Comparative and Regional Integration
Studies (UNU-CRIS), is organizing a Panel Discussion entitled “How Can Regional
Integration Contribute to Social Equity?”
The event is scheduled to take place on 19 June 2007, from 1:15pm to
2:45pm, at Conference Room 6, UN Headquarters, New York.
The panel will showcase the
following presentations:
§ “Thinking, Debating and
Shaping the Social Dimensions of Regional Integration”, by Luk Van Langenhove, Director,
UNU-CRIS
§ “Regional Social Policy
for Equitable Development”, by Isabel Ortiz, Senior Interregional Adviser, UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
There will be two discussants:
§ Elizabeth Gibbons, Chief,
Global Policy Section, Division of Policy and Planning, United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF)
§ Esa Paasivirta, First
Counsellor, Legal Affairs, Delegation of the European Commission to the United
Nations
The event will conclude with
twenty-minute discussion session. You are invited to attend and contribute to
the conversation. If you are interested in attending this event, please
register online at http://www.ony.unu.edu/unuseminarregistration.shtml
* * * * * * *
Next English issue: 6 July 2007.
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