Basic Information on Water and Sanitation Issues

Posted on December 14, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

One of the biggest issues facing countries struggling with endemic poverty is the states of their water sources. In many countries, such as in Iraq and Zimbabwe. This week, Pay Drechsel from the International Water Management Institute (IMWI) guest posted at the Google.org blog about the issues facing communities using polluted irrigation water. He posted a video (below) which describes the problem very well.

According to the World Health Organisations Guidelines for the Safe Use of Water and Excreta and Grey Water, sufficient achievement of the Millenium Development Goals 1 (Eliminate extreme poverty and hunger) and 7 (ensure environmental sustainability) require the use of water. It then goes on to stress that despite the desperate need, use of water should be done safely so as not to endanger human life.  

A farmer moulds his irrigation channels

A farmer moulds his irrigation channels

This is why we like Pays’ video and thoughts posted on goolge.org – because they take in to account that in developing countries things we take for granted (such as money for capital works, infrastructure such as aqua-ducts and dams and organisational bodies to manage our water) often don’t exist.

Thus, we thought the following list may prove useful for you.

Key Information when thinking about Water and Sanitation

  1. Water is required for agriculture and development of sustainable economies in developing countries.
  2. Often, however, this water will be mixed with excreta, grey water and various other detrimental matter.
  3. Roughly three quaters of the worlds countries only 10% of the population are connected to sewerage systems, making capital investment in creating an integrated system incredibly expensive and unrealistic for many communities.
  4. However, with good community engagement and support, practices can be put into place to lower the amount of water born diseas present in agricultural water at low cost.
  5. The leading cause of disease, despite the poor health of many communities water pipeline, is still born in the preparation of food.

Filed under: Food, Steve Hopkins, Water and Sanitation | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Brick laying and mobile phone use in Bangladesh

Posted on December 11, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

We first spotted this clip on http://jennylu.wordpress.com/ a few days ago…

It’s an extraordinary display of skill and context that not only makes us smile, but makes us realise the reality that is building & living in Bangladesh.

But it is these types of methods - ways that people are building and working without mechanical technology – that are common place throughout the developing World. I mean, Bamboo scaffolding is still commonplace in China despite having 1.3 billion people and having hosted the mega-huge Beijing Olympic Games earlier this year.

Whilst the above Bangladeshi chap has found a way to carry 20 bricks with no hands, another – shown below was featured on Ted.com in late 2006.

Iqbal Quadir on Ted

Iqbal Quadir’s story is amazing. He grew up as a poor kid in Bangladesh and became a New York banker before connecting 80 million people in Bangladesh using mobile phones. This experiences tells him that ‘connectivity is productivity’, it’s bottom-up development and pretty ingenious stuff.

Those Bangladeshis are doing some real thinking!

Filed under: Poverty | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Learn About Poverty – the next chapter

Posted on December 6, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

Okay – so it’s been about month now since Blog Action Day 2008 - the event that stopped the blogging nation and turned the conversation towards poverty and the massive issue that it is. This blog, Learn About Poverty, was always supposed to be about the event.

We here at World Vision were keen to join the conversation instigated by the great people at BAD08, and we hoped that by giving away our awesome prize we would be able to further engage in the day. We think we did and we’re pretty pleased to have met a whole lot of you. So pleased, in fact, that we have rethought closing the blog down and decided to keep it running!

We're back on the Learn About Poverty horse

So here, we close the chapter that is the birth of Learn About Poverty and begin the new chapter. The content that you will find posted here at Learn About Poverty from now on will be just that. Content to help you see what is really happening out there. Content that actually engages with what is happening in developing countries right now, as you read this. Content that is real, and not ‘marketing ready.’

So please, join in the journey. If you find ’stuff’ out there in web land that you think is amazing and gets to the heart of the real world, comment, email or send it through. We look forward to continuing the conversation with you – see you out there!

-eds Steve, Nigel and Joely.

Filed under: blog action day | 8 Comments »

Winners: Learn About Poverty Blog Action Day competition

Posted on October 22, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

This time last week, we were all furiously typing away posting and sharing our thoughts on Poverty and generally sharing in momentum of Blog Action Day. Today, we happily announce the 3 winners of our Learn About Poverty Blog Action Day competition.

All of the entries were really excellent, and it was fantastic to see that every post confronted the realities of what is happening in the world, whether it be from your very own street, to your family, to many of the children and people around the world who deal with endemic poverty every day. But, we only have three prizes to give, and so without any further ado, I’d like to congratulate the following people:

1st Prize: Simon Loffler, from his blog (sigh)mon

2nd Prize: Steve McDonald, from his blog eman8

3rd Prize: Hendrick Therik, from his blog RANTHERxtra

A little on the judging process

We had a panel of 4 judges from World Vision Australia judge the competition, independently of each other. It was very interesting to see just how Simon’s post stood out as a clear winner, with Steve and Hendricks posts close behind.

Simon’s post, especially, had a large impact here at World Vision, where people we’re amazed at his honest assessment of how his own life and choices effects the way that other people, all over the world, live daily. Not only did his post address this issue, but outlined how he had personally gone about making choices in his life which we’re for the betterment of his fellow global citizens. We we’re inspired by his post. Simon will now enjoy the Digital Training Day with our amazing partners at Amnesia, Yahoo!7 and Google.

Steves post was also excellent, and we enjoyed reading about his thoughts and memories of his time in service with the Australian Defense Force. Some of his insights we’re amazingly clarifying, and accurate, about the challenges we face in the field when trying to help people out of poverty. His assessment of the system developing countries often work within are themselves restricting, and his ideas about how best to approach that we’re spot on. He will be awarded with an Apple iPhone, thanks to the generosity of our friends at the nowwearetalking blog.

Hendricks post was also excellent, and finished 3rd in the judging. If you haven’t read Hendricks post yet, we highly recommend you get along andhave a look. Hendrick was one of the first UN operatives on the ground in Aceh when the Tsunami struck the region in December of 2004. His account of what happened, and how he both personally and professionally dealt with the disaster is inspiring and incredibly enlightening.

Special mentions

We really appreciated the entry from the prizetastic blog, which discussed how mothers and fathers should not shelter their children from the harsh realities that many other children all over the world face. We also loved the approach taken by the guys from Instantiate Podcastswho created a podcast entry and Christians post about how we often don’t even realise the poverty which surrounds us, even in our own neighbourhoods.

Finally…

We really want to thank the amazing people at Amnesia Razorfish who have helped us pull the Digital Training Day prize which we we’re able to give away. Amnesia Razorfish happily, and graciously, organised for the tours of yahoo!7 and the Googleplex, as well as covering the flights and accommodation provided to Simon (and Loreena from the Problogger competition.) We owe them a huge vote of thanks. We also, obviously, want to thanks Yahoo!7 and Google for opening up their offices and people to meet with Simon and help him with his own blogging.  

We also owe a huge thanks to the guys at nowwearetalking, Telstra Australia’s blog about all things Telstra, who have contributed the two iPhones for the 2nd and 3rd place prizes. Jeremy Mitchell, from the nowwearetalking blog as been amazingly helpful in providing not only the prizes, but also in encouraging other bloggers within telstra to take part in the big day. We can’t wait till we get to work with these people again, and look forward to some shared blogging and interviews in the future.

Most of all, however, we need to thank the team at Blog Action Day, who are probably still sleeping the fatigue and exhaustion away from their amazing effort in once again putting on the day and thus generating a huge amount of discussion and thought about Poverty from 10,000+ bloggers and millions of readers from around the world. These guys are incredible, and the event provided an amazing catalyst for World Vision as an organisation to get involved in blogging, and help share exactly what we do on a day-to-day basis.

And lastly, we want to thank you, the entrant and reader. Without your support and participation, Blog Action Day would have been an empty exercise. Thank you for your thoughts, your ideas and your insights. We have taken them all on board, and have begun implementing some of your ideas into action within our organisation.

Thanks again, and congratulations to Simon, Steve and Hendrick for their fantastic posts!

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: blog action day, competition | 7 Comments »

WIN: The Learn About Poverty Blog Action Day Competition

Posted on October 9, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

The Learn About Poverty blogging competition launches today! We know that you are taking part in Blog Action Day because it is a serious issue that we need to talk more about. But if you need any more incentive, we here at World Vision Australia  (seeing as we’re really keen for people to learn more about the huge issue of poverty) have managed to lay our hands on some amazing prizes for the best three blog posts about poverty on Blog Action Day.

 

The Prizes

We have an amazing Digital Training Day prize to give away. The prize includes flights and accommodation to Sydney, where you will be whisked around the offices of the most innovative web companies in Australia (and the world).

First prize (courtesy of Amnesia, Google and Yahoo7)

1st Session (10:30 – 11:30am) Microsoft Surface
Spend an hour with the only Microsoft Surface machine and experts in Australia.

2nd Session (11:45 – 1pm) Digital Strategy & Creative
Learn about the trends and attitudes that drive Amnesia – one of the premier digital agencies in the Asia-Pacific region.

3rd Session (2pm – 3pm) Yahoo!7 SEO Training
Tutorial with Yahoo!7’s SEO and SEM expert.

4th Session (3:30-5pm) Google Australia
Finish off the day at Google’s Sydney office. Dialogue session with digital experts at Google Australia.

2nd and 3rd Prize (Courtesy of the www.nowwearetalking.com.au, Telstra’s blog)

An Apple iPhone pay-as-you-go with $100 credit on the Telstra network.

The Competition

To put yourself in the running for the Digital Training Day and the iPhone all you have to do is:
1) Register your blog at http://blogactionday.org
2) Write your blog post
3) Submit a link to your post in the comments section of THIS POST to be considered for the prizes

The winner will be the person who writes the most insightful post about poverty (as judged by Steve and Joely at World Vision). Remember, to enter you must include a link to your post in the comments section below.

If you’re wondering what your blog has to say about poverty, there are some excellent resources at  http://blogactionday.org  and http://learnaboutpoverty.org. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

• A Design Blog might analyse a set of charity posters and how they convey their message
• A Tech Blog might look at pro-poor technologies and projects like 1 Laptop Per Child
• A Political Blog might examine the relevant agendas of leading candidates
• A Sports Blog might look at recent charity activities of a major sports franchise
• A Business Blog might discuss how businesses can utilize ethical practices to boost their bottom line
• A Celebrity Blog might write up a who’s who of celebrity causes and how their participation impacts those causes
• A Movie Blog might create a list of the best documentaries relating to issues on poverty
• A Personal Blog might document a personal activity of the blogger that is helping the disadvantaged
Our hope is that you will be able to have a real discussion about poverty with your readers, to raise awareness and begin driving change across the globe.

Terms and Conditions

Prize fulfilment date: Wednesday, October 29th, 2008. Flights from Australian capital cities and accommodation included. This is non-negotiable, so you need to be free this day to collect your prize!

Prizes courtesy of: It’s important to note that we secured these amazing prizes courtesy of our incredible friends at Amnesia, Google, Yahoo!7 and Telstra’s nowwearetalking blog.

Australia only: If you’re an international reader, we really want to see what you have been writing and encourage you to join the discussion by logging your post in the comments section. Unfortunately, for the international readers, the prize is only for those bloggers currently living in Australia. But that’s no reason not to share, is it?

Get to the airport: The successful winner will need to get themselves to their closest major domestic airport. Once you’re there we’ll take care of the rest and get you to Sydney.

Judges decision is final: Obviously, in this case, what say goes and the judges decision is final. We hope you understand but it’s going to be hard to judge given the quality of posts we are expecting!

About World Vision

World Vision provides relief in emergency situations. We work on long-term development projects with local communities to address the causes of poverty and help them become self-sufficient.

We focus on driving change through relief and development, advocacy and relief. We define “development” not just as a higher material standard of living, but as a process of poor people taking control of their situations, identifying their most critical needs, and working together to find solutions. In this way people can transform their lives.

In this kind of development process, people discover the barriers that prevent them from moving towards a better future. This helps them to deal not only with immediate problems, like malnutrition and disease, but with underlying causes such as unemployment, illiteracy, landlessness and dependency.

We are participating in Blog Action Day because of its amazing ability to help us achieve our goals towards eradicating global poverty. We look forwards to chatting with you more through-out the day, and beyond!

About Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment. Blog Action Day is about mass participation. Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.

Note: You can double your chances by entering the competition at Problogger, where there is another seat at the Digital Training Day up for grabs! See this link for entry details.

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Steve Hopkins, blog action day, competition | 57 Comments »

Darfur displacement camp photo

Posted on October 4, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

I thought today I would highlight an amazing photo we found when we were hunting through our photo library recently to prepare for Blog Action Day. Needless to say, this photo took my breath away when I saw it. The shot comes from a displaced persons camp (note: a displaced persons camp is basically a refugee camp but for people internally displaces within their own country. A refugee has, by definition, fled across their border.) where there has been a large amount of conflict and terror in the past four years. here are some words that accompany the shot in our library that help give some understanding to the photo.

“It was the second attack on their village in the span of five months. The first raid by camel-riding armed Arab militia had robbed the village of 13 men and left tens injured. This second time, many were determined to survive.”

Obviously, pretty chilling. But in all the tragedy that has visited the region in recent years, there is hope.

“The conflict in Darfur has orphaned, widowed and wrought untold suffering to thousands of families. Now huddled in plastic dwellings across the camp, many are struggling to cope with their new, despondent life. Amidst the sea of gloom, children are proving to be islands of hope. Many are piecing together what was left of their lives with amazing fortitude”

I hope that through this site, we can bring you a few more of these photos and stories to help paint the picture about our work and the effect poverty has on half of this planets population. You can find more resources such as these in the Photo tab, under the displaced people link.

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Poverty, Steve Hopkins | Leave a Comment »

Interviews abound!

Posted on October 3, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

So, we have finally got up a heap of interviews for your viewing pleasure! You will now find a heap of great information from our key staff members about the global food crisis and more under the ‘interview’ tab above. Each staff member tells it how it is, and discusses exactly what is happening around the horn of Africa in the current Global Food Crisis.

We have also interviewed our CEO, Rev Tim Costello specifically for Blog Action Day. Here, Tim discusses communications technologies and how they relate to poverty and the battle against it.

Anthea Spinks, who is one of the many staff members who provides her view of the Global Food Crisis, speaks here about the effect the emergency is having on World Vision Programming.

 

As always, we encourage you to check out the resources by using the tabs above to navigate your way around.

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Poverty, Steve Hopkins | Leave a Comment »

More about Child Labour

Posted on October 2, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

It’s now less than 2 weeks to go until Blog Action Day, and we’re starting to get a little excited around here at World Vision HQ. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements here at the Learn About Poverty blog in the next few days. It’s now time, just like Monkeybizness has done, to further encourage your friends and readers to take part in their own way in Blog Action Day.

Meanwhile, after our last post about child labour and slavery, we thought it wise to follow up by referring you to some more information about this huge problem (especially in the Asia-Pacific region) by pointing you to a few other video resources, and our Don’t Trade Lives campaign website.

As always, you can find more videos like the above at our Video Tab or at our WorldVisionStir YouTube page.

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Child Labour, Joely Wilkinson-Hayes | Leave a Comment »

Child labour and slavery in the modern era

Posted on October 1, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

In the world today, there are an estimated 250 million children working in the world today, around one third of them are under 10 years old. Most of these children have no choice, they’re forced to work to support their families, and many have been orphaned by HIV & AIDS. Work is their only way to survive. Child labourers often do incredibly tiring and repetitive jobs, for almost nothing.

Some tasks, such as beading and embroidery can risk a child’s eyesight, others like working in factories or on farms, run even higher risks, like unsafe machinery and contact with dangerous chemicals.

Child labour damages every child, every hour that they’re working is an hour they’re not at school. It can become a vicious cycle, as they grow up illiterate, former child labourers often struggle to find well-paid jobs, sometimes forcing their own children into the work force.

The UN Convention of Child Rights was written to protect children from being in forced labour, so why are their still 250 million children working? And what is being done about it? Perhaps this can be a topic you can discuss for Blog Action Day, which is now only 2 weeks away. There are a large number of injustices taking place around our planet. This is just one of the many you could discuss.

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Child Labour, Joely Wilkinson-Hayes | Leave a Comment »

What is ethical consumerism?

Posted on September 30, 2008 by worldvisionaustralia

Just a quick post today – pointing you again to some of our video resources, which can be found by clicking on the tab furthest right on the bar up top.The following video outlines really clearly and simply what ethical consumerism means, and how it is caused. It’s a great little bit of footage, and one of our favorites around here.

You can find even more video resources at the World Vision Stir YouTube channel.

Cheers and keep posting!

Bookmark and Share

Creative Commons License

Filed under: Child Labour, Poverty | Leave a Comment »

Next Page »