$3,000 to Health in Harmony
$3,000 to KIWAKKUKI
$1,000 to M.S. Swaminathan Foundation
Health in HarmonyHealth in Harmony is a project that combines human health with the environmental health of an endangered lowland rainforest in Borneo (Gulung Palung National Park). It is one of the last places on earth with a breeding population of orangutans. It also provides the watershed for 38 villages surrounding the Park. There is almost no affordable or accessible health care for these people (population of about 35,000). The average income is $13 a month, way below the extreme poverty standard of the WHO $1 a day. Dr. Kinari Webb started Health in Harmony in November 2005 and it has 501(c)3 status. What is so special about this project is that it focuses on community development so that individuals and families have alternate ways of paying for health care by working in a seedling nursery or on an organic gardening farm. Other than the two Directors (Dr. Webb and a PH.D environmental specialist), all supervisory personnel will be Indonesians who have been provided training. {MDG#1}.
The projects are carefully chosen to be sustainable and ecologically friendly. Villages will also receive discounts (once the system is in place) for protecting their boundaries with the national park from illegal logging and poaching by reporting it to the National Park Office. Health care is used as an incentive to protect the park. {MDG#7} Malaria and TB are rampant and more than 70% of the children have received no vaccinations according to government statistics. So, in this rural region, it may be even higher than that.
Health in Harmony is trying to break the cycle of poverty here and their goals fit very well with the MDGs. They opened their clinic on July 12th with Dr. Webb and an Indonesian doctor, an Indonesian dentist and 3 Indonesian nurses {MDGs #4,5,6}. Their long-term goal is to build a teaching hospital in this region. Eventually, the program is designed to give micro grants for women to start cooperatives making articles from bamboo to export (MDG#3). All Board members in the US are volunteers and administrative costs are low. Health in Harmony has been awarded two grants in addition to private contributions, one from the Sea World Conservation Fund and another from the US Government Fish & Wildlife Great Ape Conservation Fund. These are both prestigious grants that speak to the high quality of the program design and the expertise and dedication of its leaders. It certainly fits MDG#8, Developing a global partnership for development. The website is www.healthinharmony.org.
St. Stephen's in Durham supports this project through their outreach budget.
KIWAKKUKIKIWAKKUKI - Empowered Women Fight Against HIV/AIDS in Tanzania
Tanzania, located in the Kilimanjaro Region of sub-Saharan Africa, is among the poorest countries in the world. But that is not its only sad and disturbing distinction. It is also the East African country with the highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
Here, the main mode of transmission of the virus that causes AIDS is heterosexual and mother to child transmission ranks second. Men, struggling to earn income for their families, leave agricultural villages for jobs in cities. They often return infected with HIV/AIDS because of intercourse with prostitutes. Given the clearly defined gender roles of their culture, wives usually do not dare to refuse sexual contact with their husbands. Pregnancies result. Husbands eventually die of their illness. Family members, fearful and ashamed, reject their daughter/sister/aunt/grandchild, and the woman is left to support herself and her children the only way someone without education and prospects can - through prostitution. And so the cycle of disease continues, though denial of it remains widespread in local communities.
The first case of AIDS in the Kilimanjaro Region was reported in 1984. IN 1990, KIWAKKUKI (kee-wah-coo-kee) was established by local women in response to the epidemic's effect on women. The Kiswahili acronym for "Kikundi cha Wanawake Kupambana na Ukimwi" or women's group against HIV/AIDS in Kilimanjaro, KIWAKKUKI educates and advocates for AIDS prevention and offers material and emotional support for anyone affected by HIV/AIDS.
Today, KIWAKKUKI is classified as a NGO (non-governmental organization), meaning it receives no financial support from the government. It has a small paid staff, thousands of grassroots volunteers, and helps support over 1,600 people living with HIV/AIDS and 1,800 orphans as well as street children. From its head office in Moshi, the capital of the Kilimanjaro Region, it works with international partners such as Duke Medical School (Dr. John Bartlett and wife, Patricia) to offer medical services to those infected and affected in order to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. There is also psychological counseling, a micro loan program for women so they can afford to start their own small businesses and thus generate enough income to legitimately support themselves and their families, and seminars about everything from vegetable gardening and animal keeping to personal hygiene and family planning. Orphan care, often provided by older women who work on a voluntary basis, involves physical and emotional nurturing. Feeding the children, dressing them, and preparing them for school is costly.
The work of KIWAKKUKI truly lives into the Millennium Development Goals. Not only does it directly address Goals 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, it is offering not merely temporary relief from ills but a program designed to help a country's people develop thinking and lifestyles that will keep them physically, emotionally and mentally well for the long term.
KIWAKKUKI has been supported by the ECW of the Diocese of NC and St. Martin's Church in Charlotte.
M.S. Swaminathan FoundationThe Reverend Warren Pittman of All Saints in Greensboro visited the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in August of 2004 while on sabbatical in Chennai (Madras) India. Their mission is (taken from their website, www.mssrf.org):
"M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) was registered in 1988 as a non-profit Trust. The basic mandate of MSSRF is to impart a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development. MSSRF is doing research in the following five areas: Coastal Systems Research, Biodiversity and Biotechnology, Ecotechnology and Sustainable Agriculture, Reaching the Unreached, and Education, Communication, Training and Capacity Building.
The Foundation operates through the following pathways to agricultural and rural development: conservation and enhancement of natural resources, promotion of sustainable livelihoods, gender equity and voicing the voiceless as well as information and skill empowerment. Through the Hindu Media Resource Centre the Foundation promotes public understanding of science through media practitioners. The Foundation is known for its emphasis on bottom-up participatory approach, which places people before technology."
While in India, and with $1500 from All Saints, Warren started All Saints Episcopal Church Bank, a micro credit bank. Staff who meet with groups and individuals who apply for loans manages each bank. You can see loans made by visiting http://www.mssrf.org/friends_mssrf/micro_credit/allsaints.htm.
