Carolina for Kibera's Trash is Cash Program

Many of us recycle our bottles and waste without ever seeing the tangible benefits. Although recycling is practiced far less commonly in Sub Sahara Africa, the recycling efforts of two Aid for Africa members are having profound effects on the communities they serve.

In the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, Aid for Africa member Carolina for Kibera’s Trash is Cash program employs 35 youths to collect four tons of trash each week from some 2,000 households. Because there is no formal sanitation program, the trash would be scattered in the area and lead to health and environmental problems. The trash is brought to two recycling centers. One employs 20 youth, who convert paper and sawdust into low-cost alternative fuel briquettes. The other center sorts, collects and makes pellets from plastics for sale to local industries. The program also works with local women’s groups, who turn plastic bags into retail products like purses, and with artists, who turn bones discarded from local butcheries into jewelry they sell.

Planet Aid in Botswana

Since 1997, Aid for Africa member Planet Aid has collected about 160 million pounds of donated used clothing and shoes, which would  otherwise end up in landfills, from more than13,000 drop-off bins in the United States. The items are then sold to fund international aid and development projects. In Angola, Mozambique and Malawi, for example, Planet Aid has funded teacher training programs for some 2,400 new teachers and has helped close the gap in primary school teachers. In Zambia, Planet Aid built thousands of latrines to prevent the spread of disease.  In Botswana, thousands of children left orphaned by HIV-AIDS receive educational programs, entertainment, and participate in sports through local youth clubs.

In Sub Saharan Africa, recycling programs are not just about rejuvenating waste, they are also rejuvenating lives.

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Aid for Africa has discussed the status of HIV and AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa in other blog posts, most recently on December 1, World AIDS Day.  In this blog we would like to focus on malaria, a disease that the World Health Organization says killed some 655,000 individuals in 2010, mostly children and mostly in Africa.  In his recent “Global Update,” New York Time’s Donald McNeil Jr. reported that the largest gains in reducing malaria deaths were also in Africa.  Insecticide-treated bed nets have been a big part of the reason.  In 2010 some 145 million bed nets were distributed in Africa.  While encouraging, problems persist.  The UN finds that the very poor do not have access or cannot afford the nets, the poorest children are least likely to receive treatment for malaria, and the battle to combat malaria requires and is receiving external funding, but not enough.

While bed nets are one strategy, many Aid for Africa members are also providing access to safe and effective drugs and insecticides to stop needless deaths and eliminate malaria.  Africa Fighting Malaria provides critical support for many malaria control programs in Africa and a leading role in ensuring the drugs used to treat malaria in Africa are safe and of good quality.

Africa Infectious Disease Village Clinics, provides health services to some 90,000 Maasai in southeast rural Kenya treating AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, the second leading killer after HIV, according to the UN.  Mosquito nets and drugs for malaria and tuberculosis are important tools in their work.

Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, founded to support the hospital of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate of the same name in Gabon, West Africa, also focuses on malaria eradication and is one of the most respected and productive research facilities in Africa. The John Dau Foundation provides life-saving treatment for malaria, HIV/AID and tuberculosis in the new nation of South Sudan. The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology, or ICIPE, researches the transmission of the disease through mosquito’s and empowers people with that knowledge so they can prevent and break the malaria cycle.

These are just a few of the Aid for Africa organizations working to help end the scourge of malaria in Africa.  The road is not easy, but the journey is underway.

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Source: World Hope International

When thinking about Africa, the facts that come to mind are often not good. Most Africans live on less than $2 a day. The average life span in many countries is only 50 years. Famine and starvation persist. The list goes on and on.

In an article at the end of last year, The Economist reviewed the future prospects for Africa, but highlighted some different facts. Over the past decade, The Economist wrote, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were in Africa. In eight of the past ten years, Africa’s economic growth was higher than in East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the economic slowdown in northern counties, the International Monetary Fund expects Africa to grow by 6 percent in 2012, about the same as Asia.

Surprising? Not to three African ambassadors to United States, who discussed the future of their countries at a recent Africa Studies Association Annual Meeting.  The ambassadors from Sierra Leone, Kenya and Rwanda were bullish on the economic future of the continent. What is the basis of the surprising optimism of the ambassadors and The Economist? As we begin 2012, we might well focus on some facts that provide another way to view Africa and its prospects for the future:

• Africa’s middle class includes some 60 million Africans today, and is expected to grow to 100 million by 2015.
• Foreign investment in Africa has grown tenfold in the past decade.
• There are more than 600 million mobile-phone users—more than in America or Europe.  Thus providing the majority of Africans with access to communications and mobile banking.
• The health of many millions of Africans has improved in recent years because of wider use of mosquito nets and advances in HIV/AIDS identification and treatment.
• Worker productivity has increased 3 percent a year, compared with 2.3 percent in the U.S.
• Since 1991, some 30 democratic national elections have been held and the movement toward democracy is growing.
• Sierra Leone, a country known more for its decade-long civil war, “blood diamonds,” and corruption, has sustained an economic growth rate of 6 percent in recent years, fueled by iron ore and bauxite trade.  Its government has focused on reducing corruption and reforming its government institutions.  (Ambassador Bockari Kortu Stevens)
• Despite political setbacks, Kenya has set out to become a middle-income country by 2030.  It has rewritten its constitution and built more roads in the last six years than it did in the forty years between 1963 and 2003. (Ambassador Elkanah Odembo)
• In Rwanda, women comprise 56 percent of the legislators in parliament. Malaria is on the verge of being eradicated. The government’s poverty reduction strategies are wisely focused on local economies. (Ambassador James Kimonyo)

Let there be no misunderstanding: the challenges are great, and corruption and bad government will not disappear overnight.  But the African continent is moving forward even in these times of world economic hardship.

Lions are vanishing outside of reserves in Sub Saharan Africa.

Panthera vice president George Schaller laments the demise of big cats in the December issue of National Geographic and asks if we as a people have the will to save them.  “Conservation is politics, and politics is killing the big cats,” Schaller writes.

Since 1970, several factors have caused the numbers of these large predators to decline. Human population has more than doubled, there has been a loss of forest land to farming field, and livestock herds have encroached on reserves.

“Lions, once so abundant are vanishing outside of reserves. Shot, poisoned and snared by pastoralist and farmers, partly because they kill cattle and occasionally a person, lions may ultimately survive only in protected reserves.”

How do we manage these reserves to ensure the survival of these large cats? “Most existing reserves are small, able to sustain only a few of the great cats–and these may become extinct due to inbreeding, disease, or some accidental event,”  according to Schaller. He believes conservation has to “enlarge its vision to manage whole landscapes.” He sees the reserve as a “mosaic of core areas, connected by corridors that would allow safe passage, where a large cat can live and breed in peace and security.”

Schaller’s approach would put the incentive on the surrounding community to enforce the laws and policies of the reserve by paying them to maintain a healthy lion population. But he admits that “our greatest challenge is to instill national commitments to save the great cat.”  “Communities” Schaller states, “must be directly involved as full partners in conservation by contributing their knowledge, insight and skill”. Any government involvement has issues of its own, such as insecure funding, and a lack of political will to save wildlife.

Panthera, a member of Aid for Africa, is dedicated to conserving the world’s 36 species of wild cats.

To celebrate the Declaration, the United Nations named today, December 10, International Human Rights Day. Aid for Africa and its members work every day to uphold the principles of the Declaration. And nowhere is that more evident than in the work of the Southern Africa Legal Services Foundation (SALS Foundation).  Since the time of apartheid in South Africa and more recently in Zimbabwe, the SALS Foundation has been supporting two of Africa’s most renowned public interest law organizations.

One example of how the SALS Foundation and its partners are making a difference is a recent legal success. Earlier this year, South African attorneys won an important victory, protecting the constitutional right of South African children to a basic education  through a case involving seven so-called mud schools in the former Transkei. At one of these schools, the Sompa Senior Primary School, 49 students, who shared ten desks, used the floor, their knees, or the back of another student for writing surfaces.  In the agreement, the South African government agreed to spend 8.2 billion rand in the next five years to replace mobile classrooms, water tanks, and sufficient numbers of desks and chairs for their students.

Through the training and support of public interest lawyers and citizens, the SALS Foundation is helping support hundreds of thousands of children, women and men whose rights have been challenged.

Drilling wells to provide clean drinking water for African communities is one focus of World Hope International’s work.

They did it!  World Hope International recently dug its 700th well and achieved its goal of providing 500,000 people in Sub Saharan Africa with clean water! World Hope and its partners in the Himutwe Wamalale district of Zambia dug well 700 in support of 273 people. Reaching this milestone is even more significant because providing clean water is just one part of World Hope’s mission, which also includes education, microfinance, and community-health programs.

World Hope began drilling for water in remote areas of Africa in 2004 to help poor people who were forced to search for water from local springs and rivers that are often contaminated from animals, bathing, and otherwise poor sanitation. This frequently leads to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

The program which currently exists in Liberia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone has also operated in Zambia and Malawai. One of its goals is to work with the local population. Rigs are operated by local crews and World Hope staff work with villagers who use their knowledge of the topography and geography to locate prime drilling spots. Once hand pumps are installed to bring water to the surface, community members are given training on well maintenance because the remote locations make returning to the site in a timely manner difficult. They are also given sanitation training to prevent wells from becoming contaminated from wandering livestock and nearby latrines.

Each well serves approximately 700 people and lasts for decades. Not bad for a single day of drilling.

AIDS orphans throughout Sub Saharan Africa are a focus of the work of many Aid for Africa members

On  World AIDS Day, our attention turns again to Sub-Saharan Africa, which has only one-tenth of the world’s population, but two-thirds of the people in the world living with HIV and AIDS. In its 2010 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS states that more than 22 million people in the region have HIV/AIDS.  The majority of new HIV infections continue to occur in Sub Saharan Africa — about 1.8 million people in 2009. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS. Compounding the high rates of disease are inadequate health care systems and a lack of financial resources. The effects are felt in every home, school, and workplace.

Despite these numbers, progress is being made. Between 2001 and 2009, HIV incidence fell by 25 percent in 22 countries in Sub Saharan Africa.  Part of the reason is the increase in prevention activities and increasing access to HIV and AIDS services. The UNAIDS report finds that access to drug treatments (antiretrovirals) is starting to lessen the toll of AIDS, but fewer than half of Africans who need treatment are receiving it.

Aid for Africa charities and their partners on the ground continue to confront the realities of HIV/AIDS every day. On World AIDS Day, we applaud the efforts of Aid for Africa members who fight the disease and bring dignity to those who are living with it.

Africa Development Corps operates four HIV voluntary counseling and testing centers in northern Uganda, and has reached over 300,000 youth ages 14-25 through an extensive education campaign. In Ethiopia and Kenya, Africa Children’s Haven finances programs for thousands of homeless children victimized by poverty, war, and HIV/AIDS. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. mothers2mothers is helping some 150,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. RISE International provides educational support to leaders and teachers in Angola by teaching AIDS education and prevention through the It Takes Courage! Curriculum.

African Services Committee provides HIV testing, prevention, and AIDS support in Ethiopia

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 145,000 today.   AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS.   South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care. Cabrini Ministries, a program of the Cabrini Mission Foundation, provides nutritional supplementation of fresh fruits and vegetables for approximately 1200+ HIV/AIDS patients, cares for the high rate of children orphaned by AIDS and provides home-based care for the sick and dying. The Ubuntu Education Fund serves over 40,000 children and their families, implementing HIV prevention strategies through educational programs, community outreach, and HIV testing. African Services Committee uses a mobile testing unit to bring HIV prevention education and free, confidential testing to Ethiopia’s rural communities in 4 regions and in three major cities.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson

At the annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson spoke on a range of things that make him optimistic about Africa’s future.  One was the movement toward free and open elections in a number of states, including Nigeria.  “Africa’s largest state had elections that, though not perfect, reflected the will of the people.” He said there had been election progress in a number of countries and that the preparations underway for elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of this month are headed in the right direction.

Carson was bullish about Africa’s economic growth.  “Africa has enormous promise in its people and resources,” he said. But while praising Africa’s 5.5 percent annual economic growth rate as “a good sign,” he noted that African trade accounts for only 2 percent of global trade. He added that trade between African countries is the lowest of any other region of the world, reflecting that  “development and economic reform continue to struggle.”

Carson also spoke of the Obama Administration’s work with African governments to build better healthcare systems and to improve agriculture through the Feed the Future Program. “I can’t say enough about the need for better agriculture,” he said.  “Seventy percent of the African population depends on agriculture as a primary or secondary source of income.” He acknowledged that African farmers use less fertilizer, have poorer seeds, and rely primarily on rain for irrigation. “We need to bring a green revolution to Africa, “he said.

The African Studies Association, an Aid for Africa member, is the largest organization in the world devoted to promoting information exchange about Africa and the study of Africa across all academic disciplines. ASA has some 1,700 members throughout the world.  About 1,000 individuals attended the annual meeting in Washington, including scholars, researchers and experts on Africa, African ambassadors to the United States, and high-level U.S. officials, including Assistant Secretary of State Carson.

KEF began in 2005 when its founder Bradley Broder, a former Peace Corps volunteer, set up a fund to help seven students attend high school. His program expanded to include destitute students from urban slums, rural villages, and nomadic communities across the country as Bradly found other sponsors for needy teenagers. In January of this year, and after two years of cooperation, Kenya Education Fund merged with Aid for Africa member Nomadic Kenyan Children’s Educational Fund and expanded its program to provide nomadic students with high school scholarships. The leadership of these two organizations saw value in pooling their resources and streamlining the administration and stewardship of both programs into one. Today KEF supports more than 500 students in 240 high schools across all eight provinces in Kenya. Funds for tuition, text books, uniforms and other necessities come from donors assigned to individual students whose progress they can track through regular correspondence. The fund maintains an equal distribution of boys and girls and nomadic and non-nomadic students.

In addition to formal education, KEF students participate in mentoring workshops where they learn study skills, gain networking opportunities, and receive HIV/AIDS prevention education. The workshops are led by inspirational Kenyan speakers and counselors who highlight the importance of Kenya’s indigenous culture. KEF also provides computers from corporate donors to schools. In exchange, the schools waive fees for severely disadvantaged students. The students in turn learn valuable computer skills that prepare them for university enrollment.

Learn more about the Kenya Education Fund by visiting their new website and find out what other Aid for Africa members are doing to make education more widely accessible in Sub Saharan Africa on our blog.

Dave Deppner, Director of Trees for the Future, talks about the importance of tree planting at a dinner attended by the President of Ethiopia as Grace Deppner looks on.

In our previous blog post on the 2011 International Year of the Forest we highlighted the importance of forests in Africa, which account for the livelihoods of more than half of Africa’s population according to experts. Trees for the Future (TREES) has been instrumental in maintaining this synergy by helping people living on degraded land improve their lives through environmentally sound development projects using trees.

It is with great sadness that we announce that Dave Deppner, who founded TREES 22 years ago, recently lost his battle with cancer and passed away. With the passing last month of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, we have lost two champions of the environmental movement whose compassion helped improve the lives of millions of impoverished people.

The roots of Trees for the Future can be traced back to the 1970s when Dave and Grace, his wife, volunteered with local farmers in the Phillippines. There they witnessed first-hand that planting trees on a wide scale could solve many of the developing world’s problems including deforestation, fuel and food shortages for people and livestock, and overall poverty. Dave found that the key was to sustainably harvest fast growing tree species that could be planted at high-densities and produce enough wood to meet the energy needs of rural populations. These trees also infused agricultural lands with fresh nutrients which slowed erosion and improved crop yields.

Today, TREES operates in 23 countries providing technical knowledge on agroforestry, reforestation, and sustainable development, as well as planting materials. In Africa they have worked with more than 300,000 families in nearly 12,000 communities to plant more than 20 million trees. To help keep Dave’s dream alive, TREES has created the Dave Deppner Legacy Fund.

It is ironic that the world lost two champions of reforestation and sustainable development during this International Year of the Forest.  It is reassuring to know that the work they started, which has benefited millions of people and improved our planet, will continue and grow.