boiling bostonians

image from www.charitywater.org

Ironically enough, May 2 through 7 is National Drinking Water Week, encouraging American’s to drink tap water. Certainly Bostonian’s, and 2 million other Massachusetts residents will not be drinking their tap water early this week. A water pipe cracked in Weston and disrupted the clean water supply to 2 million Massachusetts residents.

While the response was swift, including ‘boil water warnings’ on TV, radio, and internet, national guard distribution of bottled water, and a rapid assessment of the dangers and an estimated time frame of repairs, I couldn’t help but feel that the public response was a little bit of an overreaction. Stores were wiped clear of bottled water, and anxiety and emotions were running high at distribution points, grocery stores, convenience stores, coffee shops, and restaurants. Shoppers at my local grocery store were frantically filling carts with bottled water, gatorade, soda, juice, and any other drinkable substance they could get their hands on. Corporations in the area spent a fair bit of time determining how they would supply their employees with coffee Monday morning. And I am sure that there was more than one tirade at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on Sunday morning as people tried to get their hands on a Sunday morning latte.

While surely an inconvenience, crystal clear water is still flowing from my tap. And it’s heated. The stove in my kitchen is clean burning, and not emitting smoke and other fumes making me and my family sick. And the water can be transferred to any number of clean containers with lids, and put in the fridge immediately to cool.

Bostonian’s are not walking miles for water and then carrying 40 pound jerry cans on their backs to get the water home. We aren’t boiling water over open fires. And our water isn’t clouded and muddy with visible contaminants. And, if we don’t to boil water, we can hop in to our cars and drive to the grocery store where we can pick up cases of Poland Spring Water. Well, a limit of 2.

I hope that this water crisis in Massachusetts sheds some light on the REAL water crisis going on around the globe.

Worldwide, almost 1 billion people (one in eight) lack access to clean safe drinking water. This lack of clean water takes an unbelievable toll on the population in the developing world. Each week, 42,000 people die from unsafe drinking water. 90% of those deaths occur in children under 5. Not only does poor drinking water cause a myriad of illnesses (including dysentery, cholera, and other diarrheal diseases), but it also inhibits gender equality, access to education, and a growing food supply.

Women often collect the water, meaning they spend hours walking to and from (often unprotected) water sources. This often prevents girls from attending school and furthering their education and also puts women in danger of attack and sexual violence, especially in conflict ridden areas. One can see the opportunities for women to improve the lives of them and their families, as well as improve the communities they live in.

Providing access to clean water not only prevents illness, death, and other challenges, it can also improve the food supply and strengthen the economy of a community. By ensuring that there is a near by water source, not only is there water for drinking, but also for irrigation and use in agricultural activities.

There are many places where you can go to make a donation to help improve the water crisis around the world. One of my favorite charities is charity: water. 100% of public donations go directly to one of their 2,524 projects in schools, health clinics and hospitals, and communities.

www.charitywater.org

939 times a day

image from http://www.dcp2.org/features/58/givers-of-life-condemned-to-death

Yesterday the New York Times published an article under the headline, Maternal Deaths Decline Sharply Across the Globe. With the final push to the Millennium Development Goals, all eyes are on the achievements and progress that organizations have been able to make since 1990 in reducing poverty, improving education, and making people healthier. MDG-5 – reducing maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 – got a big boost in press yesterday thanks to a Lancet article published this week. Not only was the Lancet article covered by major news outlets like the NY Times, AP, Reuters, and NPR, reporting the successes of organizations in reducing the number of women who die in during pregnancy, in childbirth, or in the 42 days following the termination of a pregnancy, but there was also a debate between international health and development professionals about the release of the information.

Christopher Murray and his colleagues received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates to undertake one of the most extensive and accurate studies of maternal mortality in 181 countries. The methods were remarkable; using accurate modeling methods, extensive data sources, and robust data analysis. This is the first study of this magnitude to be produced, and it has encouraging results.

In 1980 there were an estimated 526,300 maternal deaths. In 2008 that number was down to an estimated 342,900. This is an unprecedented 35% drop in maternal mortality in 28 years. Another number to think about is the Maternal Mortality Rate, which is the number of deaths per 100,000 live births. In 1980, the MMR was 422, reduced to 320 in 1990, and in 2008 to 250. This is a yearly decline during the life of the MDGs (1990-2008) of 1.3%. There are a number of reasons why maternal health is improving. Certainly some of the improvement can be due to political backing from the US, including Obama’s Global Health Initiative and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. Other reasons for the improvement include higher household income, increased maternal education, a lower total fertility rate (the number of pregnancies a woman experiences in her lifetime), and an increase in skilled birth attendance.

While these improvements are remarkable, our work is far from over. 50% of all maternal deaths occur in six countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. HIV rapidly becoming one of the biggest problems for maternal health providers. Without HIV, the improvements to maternal mortality would be much greater and impressive – a MMR of 206. The fact that the MMR is dropping by 1.3% every year is definitely something to celebrate, but it’s not enough to help us achieve the MDGs. In order to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015, the MMR has to drop by 5.5% annually. And while 342,900 may seem like a great improvement, 939 women are still dying everyday from pregnancy related causes.

So what’s next? One of the most crucial pieces of information is missing from this discussion – what is having this great impact? This article, while encouraging, tells us that we’re doing something right, but we don’t know what that is. There are countless interventions targeting maternal mortality around the world. The NY Times article highlights Conditional Cash Transfers (paying women to deliver in clinics), home visits by health care workers, provision of EmOC (Emergency Obstetric Care), and scale ups of primary health care. But we still don’t know which of these works best. A comment published alongside the article in the Lancet highlights some key points here: integration of services, political and advocacy power, and the need for continued robust data collection and analysis.

One of the most interesting debates and discussions surrounding the Lancet article was not about the facts and figures, but whether or not the study should have been released right now. NPR published a story about the article and the swirling debate among public health professionals. There is valid fear that the publication of these results will detract attention, and more importantly funding, from a cause that is far from won. Advocates went so far as to pressure the Lancet into not publishing their findings until September.

This is a fascinating debate – will the release of this information do more harm than good? I certainly hope not. It’s important that international public health professionals broadcast our successes. Without publishing robust results like these, how can we continue to convince people that we are doing good work, work worthy of their donations and support? I believe that we can’t. However, it’s also important that the message not be misconstrued. While progress has clearly been made, 939 women dying each day as a direct results of pregnancy is too high a number, and much more work waits to be done. And we owe it to the women of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria to continue to work on their behalf, ensuring that they have the right to a  safe and health pregnancy.

“Women have long delivered for society, and, slowly, society is at last delivering for women.” Are we? Lets make sure we continue to…

For more information on Maternal Mortality, check out http://maternalmortalitydaily.wordpress.com. It’s a great blog continuously updating the challenges and successes to achieving MDG-5 from around the globe.

time to rebuild

Photo from Partners In Health (www.pih.org) website.

Everyday inches the survivors of Haiti’s earthquake closer to hurricane season, which begins on June 1. Twitter has been full of tweets reminding us that the hurricane season is rapidly approaching and that Haitians are not ready for heavy rains. The risk for disease and destruction is already staggering, and will only increase with the impending rain. While the conditions are daunting, relief organizations and Haitians are up to the challenge.

Two weeks ago, the United Nations and the US Government, alongside the Haitian Government held a Donor’s Conference with the objective being securing funding to rebuild Haiti. According to Anderson Cooper, the goal of the conference is to secure close to $4 billion which is the start of a 10 year, $10 billion plan to rebuild Haiti. I find it so admirable that Haitians, and those working on their behalf, refuse to let their future be written for them.

Of all of the plans to rebuild Haiti that are being circulated right now, I think the most remarkable one is the urban development plan that addresses a number of Haiti’s biggest challenges: congestion in Port au Prince, lack of economic opportunity outside of the major city, and poor housing codes. The confluence of all of those factors are in part what contributed to such an unimaginable death toll in the earthquake.

The New York Times has a piece on this remarkable plan, highlighting the need to redistribute the population to places outside of Port au Prince that are less vulnerable to disaster. This begins with reopening ports in the northern part of the country; ports that were closed after the American take over in 1915. In the wake of the disaster, people have been fleeing the congested capital, and planners see this as an opportunity to follow the fleeing population with services and jobs – including schools, hospitals, clinics, markets, and soccer fields. By providing these services in the rural areas, it will encourage people to remain out of the capital and rebuild a life that was possibly better than the one they had before.

Included in these plans are both urban and rural plans, housing options, and building and zoning codes. It is worth pointing out that plans like this erupted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. However, the guidelines and progress of the planning is beyond anything that has been prepared for New Orleans or Southeast Asia after the tsunami in 2004.

These are brilliant and exciting plans, and demonstrate resilience, determination and pride. All qualities that lead me to believe that Haiti might just be able to not only survive, but to thrive.

photo credit: Damon Winter/The New York Times

disconnected…really?

So I have been on a bit of a blogging hiatus. And not intentionally. I recently accepted an exciting position with the international health organization, Management Sciences for Health, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While I am thrilled to be working for an organization that I am so committed to, on work that I am so passionate about, I find that I feel incredibly disconnected from the world of international health and development. This comes as a shock to me, and probably to you, since I have just joined an organization who is working to promote stronger health systems and achieve greater health impacts in developing nations around the world.

While I am familiar with MSH’s work on Health Systems Strengthening in Rwanda, HIV/AIDS programming in South Africa, the provision of a basic package of health services for women and children in Afghanistan, and relief work in Haiti following the earthquake, I feel disconnected from the current activities of other organizations, recently published literature, and new facts about the world of international health and development. Much of this feeling of disconnect is the result of me being so busy with work that I am no longer on Twitter or Facebook, reading blogs and articles. It’s incredible the information that I was used to getting through the internet.

While I miss the constant influx of information available on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and articles, I am thrilled to be employed, and by an organization who’s mission and beliefs so closely align with mine. I hope to find a balance in the coming months of immersing myself in my work, but also keeping up with the new developments in the exciting, and ever changing, field of international health and development.

keeping the faith

Burqa-clad Afghan women enter a medical treatment center in Kabul. photo credit: Behrouz Mehri, AFP

Faith based organizations have had to work hard to prove themselves as viable international health and development organizations, which has been an incredible challenge. PR setbacks, poor coordination and implementation, and incorrect or bad programming have all plagued FBO’s, who’s mission is often rooted in the best of consequences.

The Vatican was responsible for the wide distribution of the message that condoms do not protect against transmission if HIV in countries with high prevalence of HIV in 2003. Focus on the Family (a US based Christian organization whose mission is to mend struggling families) supported, if not created the anti-gay bill in Uganda. This bill extends the punishment for some homosexual acts to go as far as death. And there are alarming stories of money raised through tithing, bake sales, can drives, and other charity events that are funneling money into health clinics and orphanages without coordination, planning, or efficient implementation. Additionally, many of these health clinics funded by churches are furnished with operating theaters and other over the top luxuries that cannot be utilized by the catchment population because there is usually no electricity, or the health centers are poorly located.

The strong objection to reproductive health services for women, including family planning and access to abortion services have been my biggest contention with FBO’s. When women are healthy and have all of there needs met, including reproductive needs, families and communities are healthier.

All of that said, FBO’s offer an amazing opportunity for collaboration and improvement in communities and individuals. Faith is such a powerful influence in so many people’s lives. It keeps people going through their daily struggles and allows them to face each day. Religious leaders in a variety of faiths have proven to be effective partners in the most unlikely of circumstances. Mullahs are helping to promote the use of birth control in Afghanistan. Catholic nuns have come out in support of the US health reform bill, even though the Catholic Bishops opposed the bill.Working with religious leaders presents a unique opportunity to tap into an amazing resource to effectively disseminate accurate and helpful health messaging. It is also critical to partner with FBOs since they provide such a large proportion of health cervices in the developing world, according to a report released by WHO in 2007.

Certainly there are religious organizations that are effective and powerful implementers of public health programs. Among the most notable are Catholic Relief Services, providing assistance to individuals living in over 100 countries around the world; and World Vision, a Christian organization working to support children, women, and families around the world.

It’s critical to harness these powerful forces, and use them for good. The international health and development community stands to gain an amazing amount from these partnerships.

dignity and grace

widows in uganda.

Today is International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate the political, social, and economic achievements of women, both past and present. However, it is also a day to reflect and be reminded that not all women have equal access to opportunities including education or health care, nor are they encouraged to develop their own agency to follow their dreams, passions, and talents.

I’ve spent a good portion of today thinking and reflecting on the many issues that women face in today’s world, and struggled to come up with a topic that I felt was sufficient for a blog postinng on International Women’s Day. A friend, and colleague, of mine (Kate Mitchell) writes a blog where I get much of my information on maternal health, so I started there. www.maternalmortalitydaily.wordpress.com. While Kate’s blog points to the unmet need for contraceptives, the incredible dangers associated with being pregnant in the developing world, and other challenges faced in achieving MDG 5 (improving maternal health), none of those topics jumped out at me for a posting. I felt that it was important to consider all women today, not just mothers.

So I turned to Twitter. I often find articles or thought provoking Tweets that inspire a posting. And today was no exception. The State Department is wondering how we can make Women’s Rights Human Rights, the Gates Foundation has remarkable photo essays on women and their successes, Partners in Health shared a breathtaking slideshow honoring women around the world, Care reminds us of women and girls forced into unwanted marriages, as well as the staggering statistic that women aged 15 to 44 are more at risk of rape/domestic violence than cancer, motor accidents, war, and malaria according to the World Bank. Still, I wasn’t finding what I was looking for, until I saw this: @NickKristof For Int’l Women’s Day, I try the Congo Exercise Plan (work like a Congolese woman). Help! http://nyti.ms/cz3FUx.

The three minute video highlighting some of the most remarkable characteristics of women, the world over, but focusing on those in Congo, I found to strike the perfect tone for International Women’s Day – calling attention to the drastic inequalities that women face around the world, but the grace and poise with which they face their dire circumstances. Mr. Kristof ends his piece with this quote:

“It gives me hope to see a place rising like the city of Joie. these women have shown me that they are incredibly strong; and the question is whether we can harness that strength for the good of their societies, economies, and nations.”

I hope that as International Women’s Day draws to a close, we remain hopeful that someday, women around the world will reach their full and complete potential.

To do your part and make your voice heard on International Women’s Day, there are a number of things you can do. Call your legislators and ask them to co-sponsor the International Violence Against Women Act, make a loan to a woman entrepreneur around the world who is working to improve her life, the lives of her family, and her community through Kiva, and remind the special woman in your life, mother, sister, partner, friend, that she’s amazing. And women, be grateful of the men in your life, your fathers, brothers, and partners who support and encourage everything about you.

women's work

*images are authors own

shift in advertising?

photo courtesy of pur water

A nice follow up to my previous post on social entrepreneurship is a post about socially responsible companies who are doing their part to improve the world that we live in. It has been an exciting few years I think in corporations, and I believe that we’re seeing a greater focus these days on companies being proud of their social responsibility.

There are a number of techniques to play up your business’s social responsibility, but one of the most effective ways must be through advertising. A number of companies are really taking advantage of this opportunity to appeal to an audience who is attracted by doing good. Some of the greatest ads I’ve seen on television by companies include the fabric softener Downy, laundry detergent Tide, and water filtration Pur.

Downy’s new initiative ‘Touch of Comfort‘ works by donating $5 from specially marked Downy fabric softeners to provide hand made quilts to children hospitalized battling cancer and other long term illnesses. The spokes person for this campaign is Chandra Wilson, also known as Dr. Bailey from ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. The goal of Touch of Comfort is to help make nights away from home at the hospital a little bit easier and more comfortable by sleeping under a hand made quilt. Watch the commercial here, and donate to ‘Touch of Comfort’ here. Next time you’re shopping and want to make sure your clothes are extra soft, think about the comfort you can provide to suffering kids by picking up a bottle of Downy.

There is something about laundry companies getting involved in helping those who may be struggling. Tide has created the Tide ‘Loads of Hope’ program that provides free laundry to those affected by disaster. The ‘Loads of Hope’ program has been hard at work in places afflicted by flood (Fargo, North Dakota and Waterloo, Iowa), fire (San Diego, California), or hurricane (New Orleans, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas). Tide has focused on one of the most important part of disaster relief; ensuring survivors maintain their dignity. Watch the Tide ‘Loads of Hope’ commercial here, and contribute to ‘Loads of Hope’ here. In addition, Tide is working now to raise money for rebuilding Haiti after the earthquake.

Pur water is working to provide clean water to some of the 1 billion people with no access to clean water. By purchasing a Pur water pitcher or faucet purifier, you share exciting technological advances to provide clean drinking water to those without it. Pur has striking commercials promoting their partnerships to provide clean water. A partnership to form Children’s Safe Drinking Water has led to an unprecedented climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in order to raise awareness for the water crisis around the world. Summit on the Summit airs on MTV on March 14 at 9 pm.

photo courtesy of pur water

It’s exciting to see organizations tapping into the idea of using their power to improve the lives of those both in the US and around the world. The more companies that use their power and their influence to raise awareness and shed light on many of the challenges around the world, the better off we will all be.