Grow Your Own Garden

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has launched a one-year long agricultural project in Ecuador, teaching 400 families about effective gardening techniques. Participants get the chance to learn how to grow their own home gardens, and also take part in nutritional workshops. As a result, these families will have easier access to healthy food, and their incomes can be used for other necessities.
Source: AlertNet

More Than Just One Good Cause

The first CarbonFree® Certified water on the market, NIKA water, is also the first to donate 100% of their profits to charities who provide clean drinking water to impoverished areas around the world. The certification was awarded after a rigorous assessment of the water's manufacturing process, distribution and consumption. NIKA has also pledged that for every bottle sold, they will take a bottle out of the environment and recycle it.

According to the company's co-founder, Jeff Church, “If we can shift just 1 percent of the annual consumption of bottled water to NIKA we would be able to donate more than $2 million per year to the impoverished world. Thus, even a small shift of bottled water consumers to NIKA will help make significant inroads around the world toward cleaner water and sanitation.”

Learn more about NIKA here.
Source: PR.com

Maternal Health Improvements

In Ruhiira, Uganda, the number of medically-supervised births has increased to 75%, up from 8% in December 2007. This has been the result of the newly introduced "Maama" Kits by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). Each kit contains materials such as soap, gloves, and a surgical blade, to ensure clean conditions for childbirth. The Ruhiira Millennium Development Village has placed the maternal and child health MDG as its highest priority, and they are seeing a significant decrease in mortality rates.
Source: ReliefWeb

New Technology to Combat Diseases

Launched in March, WikiMapAid is a website that uses wiki technology to allow users to post information about diseases, treatments, and recent developments onto a map accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This technology will be used mainly by humanitarian workers to collaborate better about health care in developing countries. Currently, the website is focusing on Zimbabwe's cholera crisis, but there are plans to expand it. This technology will be very useful in combatting various diseases, controlling any future outbreaks, and overall making medical aid more efficient.
Source: New Scientist

The Good News and the Bad News

World trade is suffering its steepest plunge in 80 years, a crisis that will not leave the developing world unscathed. One positive effect has been the increase of the US dollar, which has seen a 13% rise over the last year. Unfortunately, this reflects the dire situation faced by those outside our borders, especially countries struggling with poverty. American investors are avoiding foreign markets, and US debt is an attractive place for foreigners to put their money. This increased flow of cash into the United States, however, results in a decreased flow into developing countries. Usually, a devalued currency benefits developing countries by making their exports cheaper to the world market. Unfortunately, this is not the case as the global recession creates a decrease in demand for their products.
Source: Slate Magazine

Fundraising Event

Join some of the staff at The Borgen Project next weekend on Saturday, April 18, for an exciting day of canvassing! We'll meet up at our downtown office to go over some basics, and then head out to downtown Seattle and the university district to spread the word about our organization. If you're interested in making a difference, contact Pat at patrick@borgenproject.org for more info. We look forward to hearing from you!

New Way to Look at HIV

The HIV virus kills 3 million people each year, and scientists have devoted a lot of time and effort over the last 25 years to find an effective treatment for it. Recently, a group of researchers began to tackle it with an interesting new approach; ignoring the virus and instead focusing on the body's reaction to it. As HIV attacks, the body sends out distress signals to white blood cells, who in turn get infected when they try to fend off the virus. The recent studies focus on muting those distress signals to keep the white blood cells from responding and getting infected. The technique prevented infection on 4 out of 5 monkeys tested, but it is still in very early experimental stages. As is the entire field of HIV research, this science is still uncertain and will need to go through long intensive tests before it can be applied to humans.
Source: Wired Science

High Demand for Water

On the first day of the World Water Forum, UNESCO reported that the rising production of biofuels as well as population growth are both contributing to an increasingly high demand for water. The forum is held every three years to promote water conservation ideas. This year the emphasis was on climate change, and the role that clean water plays in eradicating poverty. According to UNESCO, the number of people living under the poverty line of $1.25 a day is roughly the same as the number of people who lack access to clean drinking water. Water conservation cannot be ignored if poverty is to be alleviated.
Source: Associated Press