The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • WHY IMPACT JOURNALISM DAY?

    WHY IMPACT JOURNALISM DAY?

    Readers all over the world today are hungry for stories with a difference. Stories that bring hope and concrete solutions, at both  local and global levels. They are looking for signs of change they can identify with. Change that will make them think… and act.

    The media has a key role to play in this – to alert us about problems AND share solutions. This is called Impact Journalism.

    Stories like these are often hard to find. As the proverb says, “a falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest”.  That is why Sparknews is working with the media to track down stories that are changing our world.

    We invited editors of major newspapers to give more space to these inspiring initiatives. Twenty-two papers said yes, and today, the special pages they are dedicating to solutions will reach up to 50 million readers in 20 countries. Others are keen to join us and we hope 100 newspapers, TV and radio stations will participate in the next edition.

    This has been a collaborative effort. The Sparknews team prepared a package of original articles, and the newspapers in turn reported on innovative projects in their own countries. The editors then made a selection for their own readers.

    We at Sparknews hope the pages you are about to discover will be the start of a long adventure. Once this campaign is over, we will bring together our partner editors to share best practices and develop future collaborations.

    The media are on board.  Now what about us? Are we, ordinary readers, doing our bit to share solutions? A father complains his son is falling behind at school and losing confidence in the future but then he realizes he’s the one who comes home at night moaning about problems at work, the financial crisis and political scandals.

    In other words, it’s up to each one of us to pass on news that could inspire others and give them hope.

    So once you have read these pages, why not show them to your children, friends or colleagues? Why not use the social networks to share a video or an inspiring project you discovered on the Sparknews website? Why not become a force for change yourself, by talking about solutions?

    Join us on www.sparknews.com or, if you would like to contribute: impact@sparknews.com

    Thank you and welcome aboard!

     

    Christian de Boisredon is  founder of Sparknews

     

  • How a single article sparks big change

    How a single article sparks big change

    Behind ‘impact journalism’ are the people who write it, and what the readers do next

    It’s happened to nearly all of us at some point.  Whether leafing through our daily newspaper, or reading it online, one story just sort of ‘jumps out’.  We might even cut it out, or share the link with a friend.  But some ‘ordinary’ readers go further than that, and end up starting something much, much bigger.

    What does a fair trade store in France, a charity ball in New York and a bank in Chile all have in common? A well-told, well-timed story. This is what happened when a businessman, a campaigning mom and a disenchanted banker all chanced across news articles that sparked something unexpected.

     

    Coffee

    Tristan Lecomte was getting bored at his desk-job at French multinational L’Oréal when his sister tore out a two-page spread for him from one of the newspapers sold by the homeless, Le Réverbère. It was about coffee, and something called fair trade, which Lecomte had never heard of. “At the time, I remember thinking it was kind of odd to mix ethics with business, and I buried the article in the bottom of a drawer,” he says.

    That was back in 1998. Some months later, he quit his job to start his own business with his university mates: they tossed around the idea of fair trade, brainstormed how to apply it, and finally ended up founding the first fair trade store in France, Alter Eco. After a rocky start, the company now distributes products to major retail stores around the world, including the United States, Australia and Brazil, certifying respectable wages and working conditions for the producers of the goods.

     

    Congo

    A very different story is that of Jennifer Williams, from an affluent suburb in Westchester County, New York. A former banker turned mom, Williams sat down to catch up on the news one Sunday not long after she had had her second son. Opening the front page of the New York Times to a story about rape in the Congo, Williams was shocked: “Why had I never heard about women and children of the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose lives were being ripped apart by unimaginable violence?” she says.

    She sent the article out to her group of power-mom friends, and shot off an email to the author, Africa correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman, for advice on what she could do to help. He got back to her and put her in touch with some key figures—such as playwright Eve Ensler and her foundation, V-Day, which was planning the construction of a special retreat center for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, called the City of Joy.  Williams and her friends began to hatch plans for an up-scale benefit called Women of the Congo, inviting speakers like Gettleman and Ensler, but also actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Glenn Close. That first gala in 2008 became an annual event, and Williams and her friends have now managed to raise $250,000, or about one-third of the total funds needed for the construction and operation of the City of Joy hospital wing in Bukavu, which opened its doors in July 2012.

    “It’s a massive undertaking, but I liked the challenge,” Williams says. Before getting involved with V-Day, she had never done anything like this before. “There are a million causes, but it feels great to know that I’ve made a difference in one,” she adds. “We read about an issue, we were touched by it, we wanted to do something. And we did. There’s no better feeling than that.”

     

    Cooperative credit

    Laurent Marbacher, like Williams, is also a former banker turned consultant. He went to work for Banque de France, the French national bank, fresh out of the country’s most prestigious business school. There, he began to have the creeping suspicion that banking could be done very differently than what he saw. “I remember a mother, who came with her baby,” he recalls nearly 30 years later. “She was clearly very poor, and she wanted to take out 50 francs but her bank account didn’t have that much. I just felt terrible: I had to say no. And she was clearly distressed.”

    One day, Marbacher stumbled on an article about “tontines,” an informal cooperative banking system that was common in certain parts of rural Africa. This was back in the ‘80s, and the first time Marbacher had heard of micro-credit. “These days, you can’t open a development magazine without reading about it, but at the time it was rare,” he says.

    The article blew his mind. He describes it as “an answer to the kind of powerlessness I had felt in my experience working for the national bank.” The idea continued to nag him, and when he moved to Chile some years later, he co-founded the country’s first micro-credit bank, Contigo. Since its start in 1989, it has granted 30,000 micro loans.

     

    It all boils down to empowerment. Through a lucky combination of good timing, personal initiative and bold reporting, something was set into motion when Lecomte, Willams and Marbacher picked up their newspapers. Marbacher hits the nail on the head as he explains: “When you read the paper, the question is: do I feel more or less powerful afterwards as an individual? In this case, it was a kind of a breakthrough towards what was possible.”

     

    Some journalists strive to have exactly this effect: one of them is Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times columnist Nick Kristof. “We’re in the lighting business,” he says of journalists. “And by and large our power comes from shining a spotlight on something that would otherwise be neglected.”

    Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn set off on a global trip to report on the subject that they saw as being paramount to 21st century development: women. Their book, Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, met with critical acclaim, was turned into a 3-hour documentary and also spawned a Facebook game which has raised $321,400 in charitable donations since its launch this March.

    Ranging from maternal mortality to sexual abuse to education, Half the Sky paints a rather dismal picture of the challenges still facing women today. But Kristof and WuDunn spare their readers from despair by also introducing them to individual women who are working towards a better life however they can. The book raises, and also genuinely tries to answer, the urgent question: what means do you have?

    But doesn’t this mean that the roles of the humanitarian activist and the journalist get blurred? “There’s a very fine line that journalists have to walk here,” Kristof warns. “It’s great to aspire to change the world with your reporting, but you can’t cover every city council meeting as if it’s the moral equivalent of genocide.”

    Magazine-journalist-turned-documentary-maker Claire Ward was inspired, as a student, by the New York Times’ “Fixes” column to take a closer look at how the non-profit sector works. But after putting together The Cola Road, her film about ColaLife, a project that is bringing basic medicines to rural populations in Zambia by piggy-backing on the vast Coca-Cola distribution network, she agrees with Kristof. “’Feel-good’ land is murky territory in the world of the supposedly objective,” says Ward. Nonetheless, she is convinced the film “could teach the general public a lot about what development and social entrepreneurship look like on the ground.”

    What is now known as ‘impact journalism’ is therefore about bringing practical possibilities for change to wider attention. But it should obviously remain as free and rigorous as regular news reporting. “Part of journalism is outlining not just problems but also potential solutions. But we shouldn’t be partisans, and I’m wary of becoming too closely identified with any one approach or group,” Kristof says.

    With the rise of shareable news, journalism is having more impact in the last few years.  Often we become aware of this in negative ways, like the violent protests sometimes sparked by cartoons. But journalism’s potential to instigate positive change is just as great. A newspaper that recently tapped into this is The Times of India, which launched its Aman ki Asha (Hope for Peace) campaign in 2010. The idea was to kick-start cross-border cooperation, and it began with an arresting front page that said simply “Love Pakistan.” Not words you read often.

     

    SIDEBAR

     

    Other media outlets that are experimenting with impact journalism:

    • After natural disasters like the tsunami in South-East Asia and Hurricane Katrina prompted many viewers to ask their channel for guidance on what they could do to help, CNN launched its Impact Your World campaign in 2007, which directs you to relevant initiatives after every story.
    • Kindia Project at the French TV channel Canal + follows development projects in Kindia, Guinea partially funded by the channel over the course of four years.
    • Cartooning For Peace, called into being in 2006 by Kofi Annan, then General Secretary of the UN, is an international network of political illustrators committed to spreading tolerance and understanding through drawings.
    • Bamyan Media is tapping into the educational potential of unscripted television by producing reality TV shows about social entrepreneurs—recent locations were Afghanistan and Egypt.

     

    Video Links

    http://www.sparknews.com/fr/video/shining-hope-half-sky-movement

     

    Journalist’s Contact Information:

    Anna Polonyi: apolonyi@sparknews.com

     

  • SOCCKET: How football turns kids into bright young things

    SOCCKET: How football turns kids into bright young things

    It looks like a football.  It plays like a football.  But once you have kicked it around, plug in the lamp attachment and you’ve got yourself 3 hours of light to see by.  The SOCCKET is the brainchild of two female Harvard graduates who believe great design is fun and tackles fundamental problems at the same time.  So now kids off the grid can play right past sundown and still have light to study.  A soccer ball with real power to bring change.

    By Valentine Pasquesoone

    Sparknews

    NEW YORK –  As they walked through  the World Science Festival Street Fair near Washington Square in early June, passers-by stopped and looked, intrigued. Between a basketball space and an innovation stage, one little booth was presenting a soccer ball called SOCCKET. Children and parents got closer.

    Some asked questions while others chose to play. After a few football passes, kids brought the ball back to the booth. The presenters of the SOCCKET held it and connected it to a flexible lamp attachment. In a matter of seconds, the lamp lit up.

    SOCCKET could be a perfectly regular soccer ball. It looks exactly the same and weighs barely more. Yet there is a simple mechanism hidden inside that makes this one different.  When you play with it, a pendulum inside it stores energy resulting from the motion, and converts it into electricity. A 30-minute-long match with the SOCCKET might feel like soccer. But that ball will give you three hours of light at the end of the game.

    In five years, the SOCCKET went from being a student project at Harvard College to catching the attention of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. Described as “the kind of thing I would like to see done” by the former U.S. President at the Clinton Global Initiative in March 2012, the development of this energy-harnessing ball is now being taken to a new level. Uncharted Play, a New York-based start-up whose founders created the SOCCKET, is looking to increase the ball’s distribution, hoping to bring light to communities without electricity around the world.

    “It is something simple that resonates in people’s lives,” said Jessica Matthews, co-founder and CEO of Uncharted Play. “You’re making a difference.”  Matthews and her classmate Julia Silverman developed the SOCCKET during their junior year at Harvard when they both enrolled in an engineering class for non-engineers.  In May 2011 the pair founded Uncharted Play.   They have spent the last two years introducing the project in the U.S. and abroad, from the South Bronx to South Africa.

    Melissa Seligmann, vice-president of business development at Uncharted Play, remembers children’s reactions when playing with the SOCCKET in Soweto, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. “There was a true excitement among them when they saw the product,” she said. “They started telling us it could help their parents with the energy bill.”

    In the different places Uncharted Play presented the project, children often shared ideas on how SOCCKET could benefit their families and communities. “You see kids playing with the ball, and then their mothers use the lamp,” said Victor Angel, vice-president of product development at Uncharted Play. “It’s very powerful.”

    In Mexico, the company distributed several hundred SOCCKET balls in Puebla, the country’s fourth-largest city, and in the neighboring state Oaxaca.

    “I’m from Mexico, I can relate to these children,” Angel said. “It’s an incredible feeling to see them using the lamp for the first time.”

    The Uncharted Play team launched more pilot programs abroad —in El Salvador and Brazil for instance—and learned from these countries’ users that they needed to make a better product. The ball, which weighed about 800 grams and was difficult to play with at first, went through four major redesigns. It now weighs between 480 and 500 grams —only 50 grams heavier than a typical soccer ball.

    The ball finally became ready for wider distribution this year. Uncharted Play launched a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter at the end of February, hoping to raise $75,000.  Instead the SOCCKET raised $10,000 on the campaign’s first day, and in just one month had pulled in $92,300, with more than 1,000 people supporting the project.

    “The campaign let us know that there was a market for that, that people were interested in getting involved,” Matthews said.

    The start-up sold 750 SOCCKET balls and obtained between 700 and 800 pre-orders. The price of the ball is expected to be roughly $90, and above, depending on the location. Clients are conscious consumers, people interested in innovation and design, but also parents and teachers eager to show their students the theory behind the ball.

    “A lot of educators think of the SOCCKET as a way to engage kids who wouldn’t think of themselves as science experts,” said Seligmann.

    The pre-ordered balls now need to be ready by August. And the production phase is often a testing moment for a bright young start-up. “Meeting your delivery schedule is the most challenging part of any Kickstarter campaign,” Seligmann said. “But we are currently ahead of schedule to deliver in August.”

    Initially, the SOCCKET will be produced locally, on Long Island, but depending on how the project grows, Uncharted Play hopes part of the manufacturing can eventually be done abroad, in the communities which need the ball, and the jobs, the most. The company has built a partnership with the Department of Energy in Mexico and has had preliminary talks with the Nigerian and Bolivian governments.

    A social media associate at Uncharted Play, Jaime Saltos, 31, is trying to get in contact with government agencies in Ecuador, where he is from. He hopes to bring SOCCKET to public schools there, as 8 percent of Ecuadorians still don’t have access to electricity, according to World Bank figures.

    At the World Science Festival, Uncharted Play presented two new prototypes along with the SOCCKET —a jump rope cord and an American football. “We’re moving to different forms,” said Hailey O’Connor, a lead designer at Uncharted Play. “Globally, football is very popular but not so much in the U.S.” In expanding SOCCKET’s energy mechanism to other sports like these, the start-up is now trying to reach the American market —and populations who have less access to soccer, such as young girls.

    “Each one of us is very ambitious,” said O’Connor. “ Jessica (Matthews) has been very good at pushing us until we fail. And there were failures! But you’re not learning until you’re failing.”

    Video : http://www.sparknews.com/en/video/soccket-kick-starting-innovative-social-development#

  • Cleaning up a country in one day

    Celestine Bohlen, Sparknews

    It began the day when Rainer Nõlvak, an Estonian computer entrepreneur, got ”seriously fed up” with the trash piling up in his country’s forests. He took seven months off work to mobilize a countrywide clean-up that took place on May 3, 2008. In the space of just five hours, some 50,000 Estonians collected 10,000 tons of garbage.

    That was the start of ‘Let’s Do It,’ now one of the world’s most ambitious volunteer efforts which helps organize one-day wars-on-waste in country after country. In 2012, it launched a World Clean Up, which lasted six months, and involved 96 countries.

    In a telephone interview, Nolvak, now 46, explained how it works.

     

    Q. How do you manage such a widespread operation?

     

    A.    We don’t manage a ‘Let’s Do It’ event. Essentially, they are unmanageable. That’s the best part of the movement. This way, you can’t manage it in the wrong way.

    We are now in 101 countries; it is almost impossible to make the right decision for all those cultures without living there, or loving that country. People would feel you are shallow.

     

    I don’t think anyone can convince people in another country to do something that is about national pride.

     

    What we’ve done is inspire people and help them where they need help. It almost always begins with one or two people whom we find mainly through friends.

     

    Q. Where do you go to get help?

     

    A. We are notoriously bad at getting funding. We may have five people who get a salary in any one project, but we get help, depending on the country. In some countries, municipalities take care of logistics. Sometimes, it’s centralized; in others, it is decentralized.

     

    You need tons of phone time, zillions of minutes of phone time to do it, the media stuff, the designing and printing. It is close to a military organization.

     

    I would bribe someone if they can help clean up the planet. We’ll work with non-democratic governments. The problem is everywhere.

     

    Q. What’s the formula for a successful ‘Let’s Do It?”

     

    A. Essentially, it combines two things. You have to have a local team, so you find 5, 10, or 20 people who think alike, and who are willing to work within an organization, because a whole-country clean-up requires a really complex organization.

     

    Second, do something. Don’t talk about it. I have seen teams who are slow to start, who write press releases etc. But what defines people is real action, something where outsiders can see that you are taking real responsibility.

     

    Q. How does a country stay clean after it has been cleaned up?

     

    A. What we are cleaning is not just the garbage but the waste inside the heads of people. It is utterly pointless to clean up if we don’t change people’s behavior.

     

    We are not targeting environmentally-sensitive people. We are successful only if indifferent people change their behavior.

     

    If you tell an everyday person, let’s go out and clean up, they’ll feel that this is for ‘green’ people, and their attitude will be ‘let them do it.’

     

    In order to convince that person, you need to talk in the same language, and there is a way to do that. We have to show that we can make that person’s effort significant. It needs to be fun; it needs to have an effect.

     

    Q. One of the recent ‘Let’s Do It’ clean-ups took place in Kosovo, one of the world’s newest, smallest and most divided countries, one still struggling with a legacy of war and suspicion. How does ‘Let’s Do it’ work in that environment?

     

    A. It was a slow start in Kosovo because of the cultural background. It was not easy, but I admired how they went about it. You have to find the belief in your country that this is possible. That is the basic question over and over again.

     

    People say oh, this can be done in Estonia or Slovenia, but not in Romania, Moldova or Kosovo. That is the first reaction, and it is very honest. I tell them it only becomes clear when you take the first small step, when you do something that shows you are serious.

    The team in Kosovo was so confident and in the end, they had 100,000 people participating, Kosovars and Serbs. That is the peculiar thing about our campaigns. If we don’t ask everyone, then nobody shows up. Country clean-ups are like an orchestra: it takes every instrument to make it happen.

     

    Q. Why do you do it?

     

    A. This is my hobby, not an everyday job. I am organizing because I hate clean-ups. We are determined to get out of this business.

     

    I think we have lost the ability to do selfless work together in the last 100 years. This is the way things got done earlier. It is socially interesting. It is fun. It is something that makes people come together.
    http://www.letsdoitworld.org/country/estonia

     

  • Good things come in small packages: the ColaLife solution

    Good things come in small packages: the ColaLife solution

    Why can you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola in almost any remote village in the developing world, but not a sachet of rehydration salts for a child with life-threatening diarrhoea?  20 years ago British social entrepreneur Simon Berry asked this question and came up with an ‘aid pod’ that could be slipped in between the rows of bottles in a crate of Coke and transported, anywhere, via Coke’s regular distribution routes.  A simple, incredibly clever idea that took over two decades to get noticed.  But now ColaLife is having its day with the first field trials underway in Zambia, a newly released documentary film ‘The Cola Road’, and multiple «Product of the Year» awards.

    By Catherine Galloway

    Sparknews

    It’s a boiling hot afternoon, or the middle of a pitch black night, in a rural village three hours’ walk from the nearest health centre.  A child is suffering from acute diarrhoea, a common but lethal problem which could be fixed with a simple course of oral rehydration salts, or ORS.

     

    The salts cost next to nothing, but the village’s only shop doesn’t stock them.  Instead it sells washing powder, cooking oil, plastic buckets, and the inevitable bottles of Coca-Cola.

     

    Why can Coke get there but not medicine?  Indeed, how can a fizzy drink access pretty much every distant village on earth?  And how could we learn from that and cover those last, crucial miles to reach that child?

     

    These were questions that British aid worker Simon Berry was asking in a remote corner of north-east Zambia over 20 years ago.  But, as he says now, reaching Coca-Cola executives to talk about hitching a ride on their supply network was impossible at that time, not least because his only communication device was a dusty telex machine.  In addition, corporate social responsibility wasn’t the buzzword it is today.

     

    But, speaking on a Skype call from the Zambian capital Lusaka, his wife Jane laughs «Simon is not the sort to have an idea and then just leave it.»  If Simon is positively fizzing with ideas, then Jane is the research person.  «I’m always looking at what solid ground we’re standing on, » she says.

     

    So she vetoed his first plan – to attach a cardboard box of medical supplies to the side of the Coke crate – as it would make the crates too hard to stack and transport.  And she rejected the second one as well – to replace one bottle in each crate with an ‘aid cylinder’.

     

    It was Jane who finally found the answer: packing the empty space between the rows of bottles. To use the thin air that no-one else wanted.  And so the ColaLife ‘aid pod’ was born.

     

    Or, not quite.  Actually there was what Simon describes as a «huge pause».  The Berrys returned to the UK and continued to be haunted by the fact that diarrhoea is the second biggest killer of children under five. (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs330/en/)  According to the World Health Organisation, 760,000 infants die every year of a disease that is both preventable and treatable.  And the couple knew they had a solution.

     

    Cut to May 2008 when Simon recognised the fast-growing power of social media and tried putting the idea out on Facebook.  Three months later, the ColaLife Facebook group (www.facebook.com/colalife?fref=ts) had 5,000 members –and Simon suddenly had a telephone conference with Coca-Cola’s global head of Stakeholder Relations.  By October, Coke had invited Simon for a meeting in the Tanzanian capital, Dar Es Salaam, giving him a chance to research their local distribution network.

     

    In November, Simon summarized developments in his newly created ColaLife blog: «May 1988 – May 2008 – the first 7,305 days – no progress!  May 2008 onwards – the last 180 days – real progress!»

     

    By now, the Berrys had abandoned their kitchen table prototypes and handed design over to PI Global, a professional packaging company in the UK, but doubts remained that anything truly useful could be fitted into such a small space.  So Simon opened a bag of rice and filled the aid pod, discovering that it actually had more than enough capacity for what he had in mind: «That was a very exciting moment».  But it still wasn’t, quite, lift off.

     

    Thanks to a surge of corporate and media interest, as well as a main funding grant from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfiD), the Berrys were soon ready to give up their jobs for 2 years and head back to Zambia to run the first ColaLife field trial, or COTZ, full-time.  Jane says «it’s one of those ideas whose time had come -suddenly we could talk to people like UNICEF without being laughed out of the room.»

     

    That’s when the mothers stepped in.

     

    When the trial got underway in four rural districts of Zambia in December 2011, the local women told the Berrys that the standard ORS sachets, making up one litre of solution at a time, didn’t work for them.  Even if the mothers have a litre-sized receptacle at home to measure properly, a litre is just too much for a sick child to drink, which means a lot gets wasted.  Made too weak, the solution isn’t effective.  Made too strong, the child’s diarrhoea gets worse.

     

    Then the real answers came pouring in.  What if the plastic aid pod was, simultaneously, not just a way to protect and transport the contents (the salts, a ten day course of zinc supplements, and soap for hand-washing) but also a way to measure, mix and drink the solution?  A container and a cup?

     

    To make this work, the ColaLife team had to produce new, smaller, single dose ORS sachets that made up exactly 250ml of fluids.  So they did, using local pharmaceutical company Pharmanova.

     

    New York-based documentary-maker Claire Ward witnessed ColaLife’s creative ingenuity first hand when she spent 4 weeks following the field trial in August 2012 for her film ‘The Cola Road’. (https://www.facebook.com/TheColaRoad?fref=ts)  As her narrator says, “This is a story about thinking outside the box, and inside the crate.”

     

    Today, with just three months left before the end of the trial, demand for the Kit Yamoyo (or ‘Life’ Kit) is so enormous that local shopkeepers aren’t slipping 10 aid pods into their crates of Coke, but buying two whole boxes full, or 70 pods at a time.

     

    As Simon says, despite all those years of intense thought about the size and shape of the kit, «fitting it into the Coca-Cola crate has not been important at all.»  Yes, you read that right.  ColaLife works without Coke.

     

    And that’s not all.  The kits retail for 5 kwacha, or $1, apiece.  But mothers who live on one dollar a day now plan ahead and buy the kits in advance, to have ready for when their child next falls sick.  As Jane says, «poor people don’t do that.»

     

    The real solution, it turns out, was not the Coca-Cola supply chain but the local value chain.

     

    What the field trial has taught them, concludes Simon, is that if everyone along the line, from the producer to the rural shopkeeper, has a chance to make a small profit, and if the kits are still affordable and desirable for the customer at the end, then «that product will get there, and you don’t need a single vehicle!»

     

    As COTZ ends this September there will be a couple of months of analysis and review, as well as what they intend to be a «seamless» move to regional and then national distribution of Kit Yamoyo.  Simon emphasizes «given the delight at the product on the part of mothers in remote rural areas we are absolutely determined that the flow of kits won’t stop.»

     

    Back in the UK ColaLife has also had an extraordinary couple of months with the aid pod scooping «Product of the Year» at both London’s Design Museum (http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2013/designs-of-the-year-2013) and the Observer Ethical awards (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/16/observer-ethical-awards-2013-other-winners), and winning the DuPont Packaging Innovation prize in the US as well (http://www2.dupont.com/Packaging_Resins/en_US/whats_new/article20130516_packaging_award_winners.html).

     

    But most crucially, out in rural Zambia, ColaLife has succeeded in covering what the Berrys call «the last mile»: the distance left between the medicine and the child who needs it.  And there’s no question of turning back now.

    Hyperlinks:

    http://www.colalife.org/

    Video Links (EN):

    http://vimeo.com/61315023: “The Cola Road” trailer. Courtesy: Claire Ward.

    https://vimeo.com/61315023: Exclusive extract of “The Cola Road”. Courtesy: Claire Ward.

    Journalist’s Contact Information:

    Catherine Galloway: cgalloway@sparknews.com

  • Give them bread: Feeding the hungry no longer a science

    Janet OTIENO, (The Daily Nation, Kenya)

    Over 500 government ministers and diplomats from around the world were among guests invited for a sumptuous meal during a meeting held in Nairobi on February 19, 2012. On the menu of the five course menu was yellow lentil commonly known as dal, grilled sweet corn and a variety of vegetables including French Beans. Only this time, something about the meal was different. It had been prepared using ingredients that had been rejected by various UK supermarkets because they were not beautiful enough.

    Tristram Stuart, the author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal and founder of Feeding the 5000, had earlier visited several farmers across Kenya to collect the 1,600 kilos of “unwanted” fruit and vegetables and used what he got to prepare the meal that was used to feed the VIPs, who included Kenya’s Permanent Secretary for Environment, Mr Ali Mohamed.

    “The waste of perfectly edible ‘ugly’ vegetables is endemic in our food production systems and symbolises our negligence,” says Mr Stuart, who has been campaigning to reduce food wastage.

    Some of the food he collected was also given as donation to local charities such as Msedo School in Nairobi’s Mathare slums.

    According to Mr Siago Benedict who runs the school, learners only get a meal a day at the school but when Mr Stuart made the donation, the school was able to provide a balanced diet of two square meals that day. Because the school did not have sufficient storage capacity, students were allowed to carry some of the food home to share with their families.

    Mr Staurt says that aside from the cost implications and environmental impact, food wastage also increases pressure on the already strained global food system.

    “It’s a scandal that so much food is wasted in a country with millions of hungry people; we found one grower supplying a UK supermarket who is forced to waste up to 40 tonnes of vegetables every week, which is 40 per  cent of what he grows,” Mr Stuart says.

    But rather than wring their hands in despair or throw away the rejected food, farmers have learnt to use the “left overs” to feed pigs, cows and other domestic animals which are a source of livelihood as they produce meat or milk which also supplement family diets.

    In recent years, drought, low grain stocks and speculation in food stocks have been blamed for widespread hunger across the globe. However, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says food waste could worsen the situation in coming decades if not checked.

    According to UN Environmental Programme, food loss and wastage refer to the decrease in mass or nutritional value of food throughout the supply chain that was intended for human consumption.

    Though attempts by researchers to quantify the food wasted in Africa have been hampered by limited data, the problem is so grave that UNEP, FAO this year rolled out a new global campaign –Think. Eat. Save. Reduce Your Food print (http://www.thinkeatsave.org/) to reduce food loss and waste in the chain of food production.

    According to a recent study by FAO, about one third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or is wasted in either production or consumption stages, amounting to 1.3 billion tonnes annually. UNEP and FAO estimate this to cost about $1 trillion.

    The report says that retailers and consumers discard around 300 million tonnes that is fit for consumption, around half of the total food squandered in industrialised countries. This is more than the total net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa and would be sufficient to feed the estimated 900 million hungry people worldwide. About 239 million of the starving population is to be found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    “Wasting food makes no sense – economically, environmentally and ethically,” said the UN EP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

    “To bring about the vision of a truly sustainable world, we need a transformation in the way we produce and consume our natural resources,” he said early this year while pointing out how food wastage is increasingly becoming a major concern in Africa and beyond.

    However, not all of the food is lost in the production process or in the supply chain; consumers also contribute to rising global hunger and food insecurity across through improper storage. Many are the times when they throw away food.

    According to Think. Eat. Save. Reduce Your Food print website, simple actions by consumers and food retailers can dramatically cut the amount of food lost or wasted each year and help shape a sustainable future.
    The campaigners call on consumers to avoid impulse buying of food, eat food that is already in the fridge before buying more, keep fresh produce in freezers, cook and eat what is bought first, be creative with leftovers for instance using chicken to make sandwiches and donating non-perishable food to children homes or shelters.

    As experts renew their calls for increased production to stem hunger in Kenya and other developing countries, the World Hunger Education Service points that the world produces enough food for everyone.

    Their data indicates that agriculture alone produces about 17 per cent extra calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 per cent growth in population globally.

    Perhaps developing nations could borrow a lesson or two from local authorities in the UK who are providing a food waste collection service to householders.They have collaborated with organisations like WRAP-UK, which is involved in recycling food waste.

    UNEP is also urging families in Africa to use indigenous food preservation methods. For instance in Nigeria, garri which is produced from cassava tubers is peeled, washed then grated or pounded. It is later fermented and roasted for long-term storage. In western Kenya, maize is dried then stored using ash to keep it free of weevils and aflotoxin. Such methods are particularly effective in areas without constant supply of electricity or with a high supply of food that can be preserved using these methods.

     

    FACTBOX on how institutions\Individuals can reduce food wastage

    • Shop smart: Plan meals, use shopping lists and avoid impulse buys.
    • Understand Expiration Dates.
    • Eat food that is already in your fridge before buying more.
    • Use Your Freezer: Frozen foods remain safe indefinitely.
    • Request Smaller Portions: Some restaurants will often provide half-portions upon request at reduced prices.
    • Use the FIFO (First in First Out) principle: Cook and eat first what you bought first.
    • Donate: Non-perishable and unspoiled perishable food can be donated to local food banks and shelters.

    (Adapted from NRDC , WRAP UK and Think, Eat, Save)

    Email: ajotieno@ke.nationmedia.com  Twitter :JanetOtieno

     

  • FG, stakeholders move to check oil theft

    FG, stakeholders move to check oil theft

    In order to stop crude oil theft in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday night met relevant stakeholders in the oil sector to map out strategies to check the menace.

    Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after the meeting, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison Madueke, said the president summoned relevant stakeholders in the oil industry to discuss the critical issue of crude oil theft.

    To get lasting solutions to the menace, which she claimed has been adversely affecting revenue accruing to the Federation Account, she said that the new move will involve in-depth and aggressive brainstorming for the next 10 days.

    She said, “We are continuing with what has been done but we are becoming much more aggressive. We met with a number of the multinationals, we have come up with various pointers which must be addressed in an in-depth manner over the next 10 days.

    “A technical team is going to meet across all the stakeholders, they will break into various committees, like I said it is a many prong issue and must be addressed by a multi-prong pushback. So over the next 10 days we will form the relative committees, they will meet and then we will move to implement very aggressively.”

     

     

  • Succour for rape victims

    Succour for rape victims

    In Nigeria like in some other parts of the world, rape and child abuses are on the rise. A recent survey by a NOI Polls, Nigeria revealed that three in 10 Nigerians admitted knowing a rape victim.  Many of victims are left with bruises and scars that they have to live with for life.

     

    As part of global efforts give the victims succor and help them come out of the traumatic situation, MediaCon, a Non Governmental Organisation with interest on women and children in Nigeria, has an initiative called the Crisis Respond Programme through which it provides emergency and crisis attention to rape victims and other child abuse cases.

     

    Established since 2005, MediacCon is comprised of highly trained professionals who work tirelessly to ensure that victims and families are attended promptly and adequately.

     

    Founder of the NGO, Princess Olufemi Kayode outlined a number of services the organisation offers in a bid to care for these victims.

     

    First of such services is the Victim Advocate – through this,  victims and families are linked up to access medical, legal and other psychosocial needs. “We provide support, care counseling for victims, families and friends and ensure victims / survivors get optimum care right from the moment of reporting and monitoring the case during litigation working in partnership with professionals in criminal justice system and other important stakeholders.

     

    ‘We stand by the victims and family through the process while providing necessary information and going all the way with them from the moment of reporting the case. The Victim Advocates have worked with over 350 victims and families since 2005 supporting them all the way, explaining each step and providing comfort and reducing re-traumatization of victims and families/guardians,” Kayode explained.

     

    The NGO also has a 24 hours and seven days a week confidential help lines where calls are made to report cases of child sexual abuse, rape and suspicion. “Confidential counseling is also provided on these lines and face-to-face. The lines work at national and international level. Referrals are also made available to calls of enquiries on prevention and other sexuality issues and SMS are attended to and receive response,” she added.

     

    With over 200,000 individuals attended to since inception, the founder says, “total number of sexual violence cases reported last year was 1,898 making it the highest ever recorded in a year. Calls came from different states within Nigeria and abroad. Reports of sexual violence were higher than other forms over 75 per cent. Helplines received request for prevention information. Others calls include health, riot, armed robbery, commendation, partnership request, inquiry if line is working, threat to life, widow victimization, abandonment, rent, financial support, conflict, assault and child custody related matters.”

     

    Another service provided by the NGO is the Trauma Management Counseling to help deal with the experience and avoid further stress and trauma to victims. According to Kayode,  so far over 250 survivors of rape have accessed this service through during one-on-one contact,   phone and social media like Facebook,  online (skype, whats app) and email.

    The NGO also provides Post Emergency Prophylaxis (PEP) within the first 72 hours of rape to prevent HIV, Access to adequate and timely medical services such as Emergency Contraceptives (EC) to prevent unwanted pregnancy within 72 hrs, other Vaccination against Hepatitis B, and treatment for other Sexually Transmitted Infections.

     

    Victims are also supported in the area of litigation.  “Referral for legal assistance – Since matter is criminal, we petition the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) on behalf of victims to prosecute matters. Currently, we are working on 22 matters with this department. We have also recorded three convictions. Overall over 50 cases,” the founder said.

     

    Psychosocial support for victims and their families include relocation of family and victim, accessing Emergency Protection Order for State Protective Custody, support for education – tuition fees and provision of school uniforms etc. The organisation also takes care of the feeding, clothing, skill acquisition, transportation to court and payment of medical bills of victims.

     

    A major aspect of the organisations’ quest to provide assistance, particularly to cases of child abuses is the Forensic interviewing, which is the first step in most child protective services (CPS) investigations. “This was newly introduced in 2011 at a pilot scale and working with the Police we were able to attend to about 20 victims and accused perpetrators. The comprehensive facility is to be concluded by August and another phase of the piloting will kick off and we are hopeful that this will assist traditional investigation of these cases,” Kayode stated.

    SUCCOUR FOR RAPE VICTIMS

     

    By Justice Ilevbare

    In Nigeria like in some other parts of the world, rape and child abuses are on the rise. A recent survey by a NOI Polls, Nigeria revealed that three in 10 Nigerians admitted knowing a rape victim.  Many of victims are left with bruises and scars that they have to live with for life.

     

    As part of global efforts give the victims succor and help them come out of the traumatic situation, MediaCon, a Non Governmental Organisation with interest on women and children in Nigeria, has an initiative called the Crisis Respond Programme through which it provides emergency and crisis attention to rape victims and other child abuse cases.

     

    Established since 2005, MediacCon is comprised of highly trained professionals who work tirelessly to ensure that victims and families are attended promptly and adequately.

     

    Founder of the NGO, Princess Olufemi Kayode outlined a number of services the organisation offers in a bid to care for these victims.

     

    First of such services is the Victim Advocate – through this,  victims and families are linked up to access medical, legal and other psychosocial needs. “We provide support, care counseling for victims, families and friends and ensure victims / survivors get optimum care right from the moment of reporting and monitoring the case during litigation working in partnership with professionals in criminal justice system and other important stakeholders.

     

    ‘We stand by the victims and family through the process while providing necessary information and going all the way with them from the moment of reporting the case. The Victim Advocates have worked with over 350 victims and families since 2005 supporting them all the way, explaining each step and providing comfort and reducing re-traumatization of victims and families/guardians,” Kayode explained.

     

    The NGO also has a 24 hours and seven days a week confidential help lines where calls are made to report cases of child sexual abuse, rape and suspicion. “Confidential counseling is also provided on these lines and face-to-face. The lines work at national and international level. Referrals are also made available to calls of enquiries on prevention and other sexuality issues and SMS are attended to and receive response,” she added.

     

    With over 200,000 individuals attended to since inception, the founder says, “total number of sexual violence cases reported last year was 1,898 making it the highest ever recorded in a year. Calls came from different states within Nigeria and abroad. Reports of sexual violence were higher than other forms over 75 per cent. Helplines received request for prevention information. Others calls include health, riot, armed robbery, commendation, partnership request, inquiry if line is working, threat to life, widow victimization, abandonment, rent, financial support, conflict, assault and child custody related matters.”

     

    Another service provided by the NGO is the Trauma Management Counseling to help deal with the experience and avoid further stress and trauma to victims. According to Kayode,  so far over 250 survivors of rape have accessed this service through during one-on-one contact,   phone and social media like Facebook,  online (skype, whats app) and email.

    The NGO also provides Post Emergency Prophylaxis (PEP) within the first 72 hours of rape to prevent HIV, Access to adequate and timely medical services such as Emergency Contraceptives (EC) to prevent unwanted pregnancy within 72 hrs, other Vaccination against Hepatitis B, and treatment for other Sexually Transmitted Infections.

     

    Victims are also supported in the area of litigation.  “Referral for legal assistance – Since matter is criminal, we petition the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) on behalf of victims to prosecute matters. Currently, we are working on 22 matters with this department. We have also recorded three convictions. Overall over 50 cases,” the founder said.

     

    Psychosocial support for victims and their families include relocation of family and victim, accessing Emergency Protection Order for State Protective Custody, support for education – tuition fees and provision of school uniforms etc. The organisation also takes care of the feeding, clothing, skill acquisition, transportation to court and payment of medical bills of victims.

     

    A major aspect of the organisations’ quest to provide assistance, particularly to cases of child abuses is the Forensic interviewing, which is the first step in most child protective services (CPS) investigations. “This was newly introduced in 2011 at a pilot scale and working with the Police we were able to attend to about 20 victims and accused perpetrators. The comprehensive facility is to be concluded by August and another phase of the piloting will kick off and we are hopeful that this will assist traditional investigation of these cases,” Kayode stated.

  • Tablet of knowledge

    Tablet of knowledge

    Ifeoluwa Odetayo, a secondary school student in Osun State in South West Nigeria now has something he treasures as much as his cell phone.  It is the Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge), a hand-held computer tablet pre-loaded with educational resources that can ease her study.

    Though the Opon Imo was only officially launched by the state government about two weeks ago, Ifeoluwa has had it for more than two months now, during which he has come to value it more than his physical textbooks.

    “I treat it the way I treat my own phone.  I treat it with a lot of respect,” said the pupil of Ilesa Grammar School, in an interview with The Nation at the launch.

    Ifeoluwa is one of the 150,000 SS1 and SS2 pupils that the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration is providing with the tablet in its bid to digitalise education as well as provide public school pupils with all the relevant textbooks and other materials to enhance performance in school and national examinations.

    The tablet features an e-library containing 63 e-books – 57 covering the 17 subjects examined by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) – and six others including a bible, dictionary, history of the Yorubas, Opon Ifa, and a book on enterprise education.

    It also features a virtual classroom where the pupils can take tutorials; an integrated test zone, where they can access more than 40,000 past questions for the SSCE and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations; and educational games like chess, scrabble and others that can develop their intellect and critical thinking skills.

    With all these content packaged into the device that weighs just 1.1kg, 10 times less than the normal secondary school Physics textbooks, Aregbesola said the state is relieving the pupils of backache from carrying so many textbooks; the parents of the financial burden of buying textbooks for their wards, and saving the government at least N50 billion it would have needed to provide such rich content in hard copies.

    It is no wonder Ifeoluwa handles the device like a treasured possession so nothing happens to it.

    “I charge it all the time.  When I am not at home, I keep it in its box,” he added.

    Ifeoluwa said he finds using the tablet to study more interesting than his hard copy textbooks.

    “I find it very useful – more than my textbooks.  To be sincere, when one is reading textbooks one will get bored.  This is more interesting.  It is more equipped than our textbooks,” he said.

    Ifeoluwa’s classmate, Temitope Alake, is already implementing a personal timetable using his tablet.  He said he gets more knowledge from the device.

    “I read from 5am to 6.30am in the mornings, and then I also read in the afternoons.  For today, I have English and Biology on my timetable.  I read English in the morning; in the afternoon, I will read Biology.  The tablet gives me more knowledge,” he said.

    The tablet has replaced hard copy textbooks at Ilesa Grammar School.  Ifeoluwa and Temitope said teachers come to the classroom with their own and just instruct the pupils to open to specific areas.

    “We use it in the classroom.  All the teachers have it so they use it to teach us.  Every student just clicks on the page the teacher calls and read,” Ifeoluwa said.

    With the use of the tablets in schools, the Osun State Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, expects a reversal in the abysmally poor performance in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations from next year.

    Mrs Yomi Mohammed, Head of Science Department at Ilesa Grammar School shares her hopes.  Already, she has noticed her pupils are more attentive.  She added that the tablet has equipped them with the relevant textbooks they needed, unlike before when not all of them had textbooks.

    “They have been using it very well.  It enables them to improve in their education because they have the different textbooks they need for the sciences.  And after each topic, they have questions they can answer on their own,” she said.

    However, the pupils are urging the government to decode some of the tablets as it is denying them of enjoying all its features.  For instance, Ifeoluwa said because his tablet has been fully decoded, he can have access to the virtual classroom, view diagrams on his textbooks and take mock examinations in the integrated test zone.  Not so for Temitope.  He said he does not enjoy all the features because when he gets to certain environments, the device asks for a code he does not have.

    “Some of us have this problem.  The government should decode all the tablets so we can enjoy everything available,” he said.

    The government has assured it has taken care of durability and power issues.  Aregbesola said the tablet battery can last up to eight hours between recharges, while the device has been reinforced to survive rough handling by the young ones.

  • Keshi hails Super Eagles despite Uruguay’s 2-1 victory

    Keshi hails Super Eagles despite Uruguay’s 2-1 victory

    With a scoreline of 2-1, Uruguay on Friday morning beat Nigeria  at the Confederations Cup  in Salvador, Brazil.

    Uruguay took the lead in the 19th minute of the game with the first goal by defender Diego Lugano while John Mikel equalised for the Super Eagles with a goal in the 37th minute.

    A 51st minute by Uruguay’s striker, Diego Forlan however ensured  the defeat of the Nigerian team.

    The Eagles now have an uphill task to defeat Spain in the 3rd round of the Group B fixtures.

    In his post- match comment, Coach Stephen Keshi said, “I think my players played well and played to instructions. It was just one minute’s lack of concentration that made the difference. Otherwise it was good.”

    In the other Group B match, Spain defeated Tahiti with a record 10- 0 victory.