http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Millennium Development Goals) en-us Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:56:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jamie-drummond-lets-crowdsource-the-worlds-goals In 2000, the UN laid out 8 goals to make the world better by reducing poverty and disease -- with a deadline of 2015. As that deadline approaches, Jamie Drummond of ONE.org runs down the surprising successes of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and suggests a crowdsourced reboot for the next 15 years. Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:56:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jamie-drummond-lets-crowdsource-the-worlds-goals Millennium Development Goals, ONE Campaign, TED, Make Poverty History, Earth Summit, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, Antiretroviral drug, HIV >> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. >> TITLE: June 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland. Recorded at TED Global. >> JAMIE DRUMMOND: So let me start by taking you back, back into the mists of your memory to perhaps the most anticipated year in your life, but certainly the most anticipated year in all human history: the year 2000. Remember that? Y2K, the dotcom bubble, stressing about whose party you're going to go to as the clock strikes midnight, before the champagne goes flat, and then there's that inchoate yearning that was felt, I think, by many, that the millennium, that the year 2000, should mean more, more than just a two and some zeroes. Well, amazingly, for once, our world leaders actually lived up to that millennium moment and back in 2000 agreed to some pretty extraordinary stuff: visionary, measurable, long-term targets called the Millennium Development Goals. Now, I'm sure you all keep a copy of the goals under your pillow, or by the bedside table, but just in case you don't, and your memory needs some jogging, the deal agreed then goes like this: developing countries promised to at least halve extreme poverty, hunger and deaths from disease, alongside some other targets, by 2015, and developed nations promised to help them get that done by dropping debts, increasing smart aid, and trade reform. Well, we're approaching 2015, so we'd better assess, how are we doing on these goals? But we've also got to decide, do we like such global goals? Some people don't. And if we like them, we've got to decide what we want to do on these goals going forward. What does the world want to do together? We've got to decide a process by which we decide. Well, I definitely think these goals are worth building on and seeing through, and here's just a few reasons why. Incredible partnerships between the private sector, political leaders, philanthropists and amazing grassroots activists across the developing world, but also 250,000 people marched in the streets of Edinburgh outside this very building for Make Poverty History. All together, they achieved these results: increased the number of people on anti-retrovirals, life-saving anti-AIDS drugs; nearly halved deaths from malaria; vaccinated so many that 5.4 million lives will be saved. And combined, this is going to result in two million fewer children dying every year, last year, than in the year 2000. That's 5,000 fewer kids dying every day, ten times you lot not dead every day, because of all of these partnerships. So I think this is amazing living proof of progress that more people should know about, but the challenge of communicating this kind of good news is probably the subject of a different TEDTalk. Anyway, for now, anyone involved in getting these results, thank you. I think this proved these goals are worth it. But there's still a lot of unfinished business. Still, 7.6 million children die every year of preventable, treatable diseases, and 178 million kids are malnourished to the point of stunting, a horrible term which means physical and cognitive lifelong impairment. So there's plainly a lot more to do on the goals we've got. But then, a lot of people think there are things that should have been in the original package that weren't agreed back then that should now be included, like sustainable development targets, natural resource governance targets, access to opportunity, to knowledge, equity, fighting corruption. All of this is measurable and could be in the new goals. But the key thing here is, what do you think should be in the new goals? What do you want? Are you annoyed that I didn't talk about gender equality or education? Should those be in the new package of goals? And quite frankly, that's a good question, but there's going to be some tough tradeoffs and choices here, so you want to hope that the process by which the world decides these new goals is going to be legitimate, right? Well, as we gather here in Edinburgh, technocrats appointed by the U.N. and certain governments, with the best intentions, are busying themselves designing a new package of goals, and currently they're doing that through pretty much the same old late-20th-century, top-down, elite, closed process. But, of course, since then, the Web and mobile telephony, along with ubiquitous reality TV formats have spread all around the world. So what we'd like to propose is that we use them to involve people from all around the world in an historic first: the world's first truly global poll and consultation, where everyone everywhere has an equal voice for the very first time. I mean, wouldn't it be a huge historic missed opportunity not to do this, given that we can? There's hundreds of billions of your aid dollars at stake, tens of millions of lives, or deaths, at stake, and, I'd argue, the security and future of you and your family is also at stake. So, if you're with me, I'd say there's three essential steps in this crowdsourcing campaign: collecting, connecting and committing. So first of all, we've got to ground this campaign in core polling data. Let's go into every country that will let us in, ask 1,001 people what they want the new goals to be, making special efforts to reach the poorest, those without access to modern technology, and let's make sure that their views are at the center of the goals going forward. Then, we've got to commission a baseline survey to make sure we can monitor and progress the goals going forward. The original goals didn't really have good baseline survey data, and we're going to need the help of big data through all of this process to make sure we can really monitor the progress. And then we've got to connect with the big crowd. Now here, we see the role for an unprecedented coalition of social media giants and upstarts, telecoms companies, reality TV show formats, gaming companies, telecoms, all of them together in kind of their "We Are The World" moment. Could they come together and help the Millennium Development Goals get rebranded into the Millennial Generation's Goals? And if just five percent of the five billion plus who are currently connected made a comment, and that comment turned into a commitment, we could crowdsource a force of 300 million people around the world to help see these goals through. If we have this collected data, and this connected crowd, based upon our experience of campaigning and getting world leaders to commit, I think world leaders will commit to most of the crowdsourced recommendations. But the question really is, through this process will we all have become committed? And if we are, are we ready to iterate, monitor and provide feedback, make sure these promises are really delivering results? Well, there's some fantastic examples here to scale up, mostly piloted within Africa, actually. There's Open Data Kenya, which geocodes and crowdsources information about where projects are, are they delivering results. Often, they're not in the right place. And Ushahidi, which means "witness" in Swahili, which geocodes and crowdsources information in complex emergencies to help target responses. This is some of the most exciting stuff in development and democracy, where citizens on the edge of a network are helping to force open the process to make sure that the big global aid promises and vague stuff up at the top really delivers for people at a grassroots level and inverts that pyramid. This openness, this forcing openness, is key, and if it wasn't entirely transparent already, I should be open: I've got a completely transparent agenda. Long-term trends suggest that this century is going to be a tough place to live, with population increases, consumption patterns increasing, and conflict over scarce natural resources. And look at the state of global politics today. Look at the Rio Earth Summit that happened just last week, or the Mexican G20, also last week. Both, if we're honest, a bust. Our world leaders, our global politics, currently can't get it done. They need our help. They need the cavalry, and the cavalry's not going to come from Mars. It's got to come from us, and I see this process of deciding democratically in a bottom-up fashion what the world wants to work on together as one vital means by which we can crowdsource the force to really build that constituency that's going to reinvigorate global governance in the 21st century. I started in 2000. Let me finish in 2030. Many people made fun of a big campaign a few years ago we had called Make Poverty History. It was a naive thought in many people's minds, and it's true, it was just a t-shirt slogan that worked for the moment. But look. The empirical condition of living under a dollar and 25 is trending down, and look where it gets to by 2030. It's getting near zero. Now sure, progress in China and India and poverty reduction there was key to that, but recently also in Africa, poverty rates are being reduced. It will get harder as we get towards zero, as the poor will be increasingly located in post-conflict, fragile states, or maybe in middle income states where they don't really care about the marginalized. But I'm confident, with the right kind of political campaigning and creative and technological innovation combined working together more and more as one, I think we can get this and other goals done. Thank you. >> CHRIS ANDERSON: Jamie, here's the puzzle to me. If there was an incident today where a hundred kids died in some tragedy or where, say, a hundred kids were kidnapped and then rescued by special forces, I mean, it would be all over the news for a week, right? You just put up, just as one of your numbers there, that 5,000 -- is that the number? >> JAMIE DRUMMOND: Fewer children every day. >> CHRIS ANDERSON: Five thousand fewer children dying every day. I mean, it dwarfs, dwarfs everything that is actually on our news agenda, and it's invisible. This must drive you crazy. >> JAMIE DRUMMOND: It does, and we're having a huge debate in this country about aid levels, for example, and aid alone is not the whole solution. Nobody thinks it is. But, you know, if people saw the results of this smart aid, I mean, they'd be going crazy for it. I wish the 250,000 people who really did march outside this very building knew these results. Right now they don't, and it would be great to find a way to better communicate it, because we have not. Creatively, we've failed to communicate this success so far. If those kinds of efforts just could multiply their voice and amplify it at the key moments, I know for a fact we'd get better policy. The Mexican G20 need not have been a bust. Rio, if anyone cares about the environment, need not have been a bust, okay? But these conferences are going on, and I know people get skeptical and cynical about the big global summits and the promises and their never being kept, but actually, the bits that are, are making a difference, and what the politicians need is more permission from the public. >> CHRIS ANDERSON: But you haven't fully worked out the Web mechanisms, etc. by which this might happen. I mean, if the people here who've had experience using open platforms, you're interested to talk with them this week and try to take this forward. >> JAMIE DRUMMOND: Absolutely. >> CHRIS ANDERSON: All right, well I must say, if this conference led in some way to advancing that idea, that's a huge idea, and if you carry that forward, that is really awesome, so thank you. >> JAMIE DRUMMOND: I'd love your help. >> CHRIS ANDERSON: Thank you, thank you. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-hiv-prevention-looking-back-moving-forward Since the first official confirmed cases of HIV 30 years ago, millions have died, particularly in developing nations. But now there's hope in treatment and innovative prevention strategies. Take a journey to find out what's working in HIV prevention -- and providing hope for the future -- in this new half-hour documentary produced by ViewChange in partnership with PSI (Population Services International). Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:08:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-hiv-prevention-looking-back-moving-forward HIV, Health, AIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe, Africa, AIDS pandemic, Reproductive health, Population Services International, Kenya >> DEBRA MESSING [Ambassador, Population Services International]: Next up: It?s the pandemic that has touched millions -- AIDS. Thirty years after the first confirmed cases appeared, where are we now? And what?s working in HIV prevention? Find out in this special report from PSI and ViewChange.org.>> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: HIV Prevention - Looking Back & Moving Forward.>> DEBRA MESSING: I'm Debra Messing, Ambassador for PSI. It?s been 30 years since the Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first cases of HIV in the United States. Since 1981, more than 30 million people around the world have died of AIDS-related causes -- particularly in the developing world, where the disease has devastated entire families, communities and generations. But thanks to the medical advancement of antiretroviral therapy and progress in prevention, saving lives is now possible. Aid groups and governments have been working hard to bring innovative HIV prevention methods and tools to scale -- and it?s working. In Mozambique, one young relationship counselor is getting creative. Working with a local radio show, she is finding ways to make condoms exciting -- and even sexy. >> TITLE: Reclaim the Condom>> TITLE: Reclaim the Condom, tve, Mozambique>> VOICEOVER: Like all countries in southern Africa, Mozambique suffers from HIV/AIDS. Every year, millions of dollars are spent on prevention campaigns, including promoting condoms. But the battle is far from won, and one person thinks she knows why.>> SHEILA MANJATE [Sexual Health Counselor, North East Secondary School]: I don't know how many students there are, maybe eight thousand. To pick up condoms? I have the records here. Maybe a hundred per month. >> VOICEOVER: At the North East Secondary School in the capital Maputo, 22-year-old Sheila is a trained sexual health counselor. In her office, young people come to her with their intimate problems.>> BOY 1: I'm having a problem with my girlfriend. >> SHEILA MANJATE: And you did not use a condom?>> BOY 1: Often we didn't use it.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Because you trusted her?>> BOY 1: I risked it because I trusted her, but I mistrust her at the same time.>> VOICEOVER: The message is clear -- selling condoms as barriers against HIV can suggest couples don?t trust each other. So Sheila?s convinced it?s easier to sell condoms as contraceptives. Today in her office, she?s tearing down the public health posters. For Sheila, condoms are the main weapons against HIV/AIDS, but they must have the right image. The unbranded "white" condoms are the ones distributed in schools and clinics. Much better, she says, those more sexy, branded ones. >> VOICEOVER: Sheila lives at her grandma?s. A churchgoing Christian, she wants to train as a lawyer. She says what some in the big health agencies think privately.>> SHEILA MANJATE: The condom is too associated with HIV and so it has become stigmatized in the people's minds.>> VOICEOVER: She?s backed by market research, which shows trust in relationships is the main reason for not using condoms. Sheila knows sex and romance sell, so why not use them to promote condoms? She is working on a radio program to try her message on a wider audience. It's for 99FM, a popular national radio station. Today is the big sell. >> SHEILA MANJATE: I'm very nervous. I'm in the hands of God.>> VOICEOVER: Sheila?s off to see the head of the station. But will he buy her maverick message?>> SHEILA MANJATE: Our idea is to make a pilot program.>> NELSON CAMAL [Station head, SNYC 99 FM]: Yesterday I attended a Millennium Village ceremony in Chibuto. They had a box of condoms like this one. I didn't want to take any.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Exactly.>> NELSON CAMAL: But what are we going to say in the program? No to the AIDS condom, or are we going to say AIDS condom, yes?>> SHEILA MANJATE: No, our objective is to say yes to the condom.>> VOICEOVER: Not only have they given her airtime, 99FM has given Sheila her own team. Their slogan: "For Your Up Moments!" Public health campaigns find it difficult to link condoms with pleasure. But can you really sell condoms better branding them with sex than with illness? Early morning, and time to take the show on the road. Today to Xinavane, 100 kilometers north of Maputo. For her program, Sheila wants people to talk openly about their sex lives. She hopes their stories will reveal why they should use condoms. She's taking the message to the local school, to see how it plays. >> SHEILA MANJATE: Our mothers fell pregnant at the age of 14, 15, 16, 17; they lived their sexuality at the moment they felt the time had come. I want you to tell me: What do you do to live your sexuality, without having the same problems our mothers had? What did you say?>> MALE STUDENT 1: I use the condom.>> SHEILA MANJATE: You used the condom. Thank you. Ping pong, another one. What do you do?>> FEMALE STUDENT 1: Condom.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Condom. Who else?>> FEMALE STUDENT 2: Fidelity.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Fidelity. Who else?>> FEMALE STUDENT 3: Condom.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Condom. Who else?>> MALE STUDENT 2: Fidelity.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Fidelity. Who else?>> FEMALE STUDENT 4: Condom.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Condom. Who else?>> FEMALE STUDENT 5: Be faithful to my boyfriend.>> SHEILA MANJATE: Be faithful to your boyfriend? I have to be faithful to my boyfriend, but I also have to be faithful to the condom, because the day my boyfriend drops me, the condom will stay with me.>> TITLE: Sheila continues to encourage a change in the perception of condoms with young people in Mozambique. >> TITLE: ViewChange>> DEBRA MESSING: In India, where millions are living with HIV, reaching at-risk populations through peer education is crucial. And as this story shows, the most powerful messengers for HIV awareness come from unlikely places.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> TITLE: Peer education is a powerful tool in the prevention of HIV, but also in creating awareness and supporting those receiving care. >> MADAN KOIRALA: First I'm going to play soccer. I'm going to shoot two goals. Obviously we will win! I have many qualities. I am handsome. I am a role model for the people watching. >> TITLE: Madan>> TITLE: Element: Madan, Element, India>> MADAN KOIRALA: I was a drug user before. My ambition was to use drugs, and die. I am from Nepal. I came to Delhi just to use drugs. One of my friends sent me a message saying the drugs were good in India. I said, "Okay, let's go." I spent all my money. I was totally broke. I thought, "I'm going to die, I can't live any longer." Suddenly, I changed my mind. >> TITLE: New Delhi, India>> MADAN KOIRALA: I got a message that there is a rehab center where we can get treatment, and I said, "Okay," because I am a drug user and I needed treatment. I changed my lifestyle, and in the meantime I met my girlfriend, who is really cute! Life is not only for using drugs, eating food, and sleeping. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #6: Stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases>> MADAN KOIRALA: Now I am employed at Michael's Care Home, and I have to take care of HIV positive people who need treatment and help. Whether they're HIV positive or not, I always see them as a human being and in need of care and treatment. In India, people think that if you're HIV positive, you've got AIDS and you're going to die soon. Actually they're quite different. "AIDS" means you're sick, but being "HIV positive" just means you have the virus. Still people are very scared. They think that if someone's infected with HIV, we'll get infected too. No, we can't get it through the air, we can't get it from mosquito bites, we can't get it from kissing, and yet still there's all this discrimination. They're made jobless, homeless, and they're kicked out of society. Let them live! There are lots of examples of people who are very sick, and then they take the ARV medicine and live normally. This is anti-retroviral medicine, "ARV" medicine. >> MAN 1: It reduces the multiplication of the virus. >> MADAN KOIRALA: In India, only around twelve thousand people are getting this medicine. But there are over five million people infected with HIV. They should fight for them to get ARV medicine too. We need ARV medicine to be available free to everyone who needs it. Finish! There's something inside me that I can expose to the whole world. I am Madan Koirala, and I am HIV positive. >> TITLE: HIV+>> MADAN KOIRALA: If you look at me, can you make it out that I'm HIV positive? No, no one can tell. >> MADAN KOIRALA: The message for the new generation is: positive living, positive thinking. No discrimination and stigma. There is hope. Now clap your hands!>> DEBRA MESSING: Operating in 67 countries around the world, PSI is one global health organization at the forefront of HIV prevention. PSI believes that health services and products are most effective when they are accompanied by robust communications, which ensure that people are widely accepting and using prevention methods. And they?ve found that some of the best communicators about safer sex and HIV prevention are not necessarily the typical experts. For example, hairdressers in Zimbabwe are chipping in with their own straight-talk to patrons -- and have helped Zimbabwe cut its HIV infection rate by half. Last year, I traveled with PSI to visit one special salon in Zimbabwe where women are sharing life-saving information with one another -- truly unforgettable.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> TITLE: Braids Not AIDS, DFID, Zimbabwe>> VOICEOVER: As the economy in Zimbabwe begins to recover after years of chronic mismanagement and hyperinflation, there are also encouraging signs of a decrease in HIV prevalence. In a country where over one million children have been orphaned by AIDS, now an innovative HIV prevention program is showing remarkable success by using hairdressers to teach their female customers the facts about HIV and AIDS. But in a country with a collapsed medical infrastructure, the burden of HIV and AIDS is massive. There are around 60,000 deaths from AIDS each year, and an estimated 1,200 new infections each week. Experts in Zimbabwe say prevention through behavior change is the key to managing the spread of the disease. >> KUMBIRAI CHATORA [PSI Zimbabwe Deputy Country Director]: When we talk about behavior change, the key word there is changing. Changing from what you used to do to a new behavior. We want people to adopt safer sexual behaviors. It could be condom use, it could be knowing your status, it could be having fewer partners. All that for us is behavior change, anything that you do to protect yourself from HIV infection. >> VOICEOVER: But in a male-dominated society like Zimbabwe, reaching women with the correct information and empowering them to make decisions can be difficult. >> WENDY TAKUNDWA-BANDA [DFID Zimbabwe HIV Program Manager]: Generally women are the more vulnerable sex, and when it comes to making decisions related to sexual health, men are the dominant character. So women don't have much say. >> VOICEOVER: As a result, 60 percent of all people living with HIV in Zimbabwe are women. Dorothy Nyamukapa is a hairdresser in Kuwadzana, a low-income high-density suburb of the capitol Harare. Dorothy is one of 1,500 hairdressers that have been trained as an HIV peer educator in a program run by Population Services International and funded by the UK's Department for International Development. >> DOROTHY NYAMUKAPA: Because I am a woman it is very simple for me to approach them. I ask her which family planning she uses. When she told me, I started to introduce them to "Care.">> VOICEOVER: In this way, hairdressers like Dorothy have sold over three million female condoms in the last six years, preventing thousands of new HIV infections. Barbra Nyandika, a regular at the salon, began using the female condom with her husband Obit two years ago. >> BARBRA NYANDIKA: I went to my husband and told him about female condoms. Then he said I have to bring it so that he can see it. Then I have to introduce it to him and he said that it is very nice, that we have to continue using it. >> VOICEOVER: This initiative is spreading across Zimbabwe. Sylvester Nzaras runs a barbershop from his backyard in the commuter town of Chitungwiza, south of Harare. Here, men are also being exposed to the prevention message and the benefits of condom use. While huge challenges remain in Zimbabwe, the success of programs like this has contributed to a significant decline in HIV prevalence, a drop from over 24 percent to less than 14 percent over the last six years. >> TITLE: ViewChange>> DEBRA MESSING: But how will we really achieve large-scale change? One of the ways is by promoting HIV prevention methods that are easily affordable, highly effective and are able to show results now. Methods like voluntary male circumcision, which can reduce heterosexual HIV transmission by 60 percent. But first, grown men must be convinced to overcome their fears, as we see in this story.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> TITLE: PSI Botswana's Male Circumcision Campaign - TV Spot>> TITLE: Scaling Up Male Circumcision, PSI, Sub-Saharan Africa>> VOICEOVER: All right team: remember that we have to work at winning this match as a team. Circumcision cannot win this match alone. He needs the help of all of the defenders to keep HIV from scoring. >> TITLE: Men in Sub-Saharan Africa are choosing male circumcision (MC), a cost-effective method that reduces the risk of HIV infection in men by 60 percent. Beginning in 2007, PSI launched an unprecedented MC campaign supporting service delivery, communications, and advocacy efforts in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These are the stories of men and families being impacted by male circumcision. >> FUNGAI CHIBAYA [MC Client, Zimbabwe]: My name is Fungai. Near where I stay, there is a very big billboard encouraging male circumcision, so I just decided one day that I should do it. I'm shaking a little bit, like goosebumps. I think the procedure is going to go well.>> TITLE: PSI provides pre- and post-procedure counseling in countries where male circumcision is offered. >> FUNGAI CHIBAYA: I've learned a lot about male circumcision. They say it has a 60 percent chance of HIV reduction. >> TAKAVINGWA KOMBONI [MC Client, Zimbabwe]: My name is Takavingwa Komboni. My wife encouraged me to come to MC because she actually thought it would be good for me to be circumcised. Some of my friends said, "You can go at your own risk." I'm curious to know what's going to happen after I'm circumcised. >> SYMPATHY MPOFU [Clinical MC Nurse, Swaziland]: The local anesthesia is given to assist him in reducing pain during the surgical procedure. The procedure starts with the doctor cutting and removing the foreskin. Afterwards we dress the patient with gauze. Then the patient is escorted to the recovery room to recover for 30 minutes. >> TAKAVINGWA KOMBONI: As you can see, I am now coming out of the theater room. The circumcision is over, and I feel like a man. It has been very good, and it is not as painful as I thought.>> FUNGAI CHIBAYA: The whole procedure was just fine. >> TITLE: Changing perceptions, one person at a time. >> JABULANI NCUBE [MC Client, Zimbabwe]: One of the best benefits is the reduction of the HIV/AIDS transmission rate. That gave me the zeal to go for it. I felt it would be the best opportunity for me to prevent myself, and the person that I love, from contracting such infections. >> STEVEN CHIKOMBERO [MC Client, Zimbabwe]: I've since introduced some of my team members to be circumcised. Everyone now knows that I'm proud to be circumcised. >> TITLE: Women are important partners in this process.>> KUDZAISHE CHIFAMBA [MC Client, Zimbabwe]; It opens up dialogue within the relationship, which is not common in our environment. >> MOLEBOGENG MADISHA [South Africa]: So this is both of our decision, and I decided to accompany him as a support system. I also heard about the importance of male circumcision. >> TITLE: Communication is key to male circumcision scale up. >> JABULANI NCUBE: What I learned is that people are not well educated. They have a belief that it's cultural.>> KUDZAISHE CHIFAMBA: Dialogue needs to spread further than just young couples. >> TITLE: By bringing services to scale within the next 10 to 20 years, male circumcision could significantly reduce the number of new HIV infections. >> JABULANI NCUBE: It is the right channel to reduce the HIV/AIDS pandemic in our nation.>> TITLE: Effective communication. High quality service delivery. Thirty-eight million by 2015: scale up male circumcision now, impact the future of HIV. >> STEVEN CHIKOMBERO: A lot of things have changed in my life. Besides the confidence that I have, I also feel much more secure.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> DEBRA MESSING: Targeting behavior is also crucial in HIV prevention. In Kenya, people are talking about Mpango wa Kando -- roughly translated into "having a long-term relationship on the side." It?s an all-too-common arrangement that also happens to be one of the riskiest behaviors for HIV transmission. But the government of Kenya, together with USAID and other groups, is using mass media to change this behavior and turn the tide of HIV transmission.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> JIMMI GATHU ["Mpango wa Kando" Spokesperson]: Are you married? So you're sitting with your husband, right? Do you know if he has a girlfriend?>> TITLE: Roughly 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, twenty million plus in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, one behavior is playing a major role in transmission: concurrent sexual partnerships. >> JIMMI GATHU: There is only one way to stop HIV from destroying your marriage. It's simple. Guys, leave your side arrangement. Avoid HIV. >> HIV and Concurrent Relationships, PSI, Kenya>> TITLE: PSI and the government of Kenya address this issue head-on through a groundbreaking communications campaign: "Mpango wa Kando." >> DR. NICHOLAS MURAGURI [Director, National AIDS/STD Control Program]: Forty-four percent of new HIV infections are attributed to people who are either married or are in partnerships. These people in partnerships also have other partners, who also have other partners, who are not using condoms. And therefore, the chance that in that network somebody has HIV -- it spreads like bushfire to the rest of the families.>> TITLE: Your spare wheel could have a spare wheel who has a spare wheel who has a spare wheel who has HIV. HIV now spreads fastest in marriages. Here's the reason why. >> JIMMI GATHU: I must admit that one of the things that surprised me was the aspect of also women playing a part in it. >> DR. NICHOLAS MURAGURI: We got a strong voice, people said, "No, no, no, you are condemning men only. Women also do that." So we made some TV spots for women as well. >> JIMMI GATHU: Mama, how are you? So you are in an outing of your woman self help group? So that man standing next to you is definitely not your husband, right? Do you know research shows nearly half of all new HIV infections are happening in marriages like yours?>> ERICK WAGA [Research Consultant for PSI]: Concurrent partnership really is a great factor in the spread of HIV because you find that these people, when they have these partners, trust comes in. So you find that these partners stop using condoms throughout all the partners. >> LUCY MAIKWEKI [HIV Deputy Director, PSI]: PSI Kenya started to take on the campaign boldly, because primarily there are very few organizations that do national level mass media communications.>> TITLE: Giving Kenya something to talk about. >> TONY NJUGUNA [Creative Director, SCANAD]: For this particular brief it became quite an interesting angle for social marketing. We?ve got a social responsibility to improve the lives of the people that we are trying to talk to.>> TITLE: Social marketing (so shel mar kit ing) n. 1. The application of marketing concepts and techniques to influence behavior among a target audience in order to benefit themselves and society. >> LUCY MAIKWEKI: We pre-tested various concepts, various taglines, various names and eventually we came up with Mpango wa Kando, which was what people felt describes this loving, long-term side relationship.>> JIMMI GATHU: Somebody needed to say something. And so we did. Shock transmits, then, to how important this campaign is. >> TONY NJUGUNA It makes sense, it's logical, and I think that's what really made the campaign work: that it's real; it's a social message. >> TITLE: Sparking conversations in the community. >> DR. NICHOLAS MURAGURI: The Mpango wa Kando campaign is obviously achieving its goal. Part of the goal was to start a debate, so you'll hear people discuss it in pubs, in family outings, in the church. These things were never discussed. >> TOM NGARAGARI [Behavior Change Communication Coordinator]: They identify with the campaign, and then now the discussion starts. The good thing is that they are coming together and talking about it and finding solutions to it. >> TITLE: Moving forward...>> LUCY MAIKWEKI: Looking at what will motivate people now to move from awareness to actual behavior change. >> TITLE: ...to prevent HIV/AIDS. >> DR. NICHOLAS MURAGURI: If you look around, all families, all Kenyans, don't want HIV. You cannot talk about the issue of HIV and not talk about concurrent partnerships. >> LUCY MAIKWEKI: For me, success in the long term for this campaign would be lower HIV prevalence amongst people in married, co-habiting relationships.>> DR. NICHOLAS MURAGURI: It's something that cannot be done overnight, it's something that we need to work on until it becomes a social norm change that discourages people from having concurrent multiple partnerships.>> TITLE: ViewChange>> DEBRA MESSING: Thanks to prevention and treatment, the global rate of new HIV infections has dropped by 25 percent between 2001 and 2009. Around the world, we?re learning lessons from innovators in every sector. We?re learning to adopt messages that equate change with something everyone wants -- a happier life. We?re learning to invest in local talent, because they know how to reach their neighbors and what motivates them to change. And on the soccer field -- or at the hair salon -- we learn that reinforcing the right messages about HIV/AIDS is making a difference. >> VOICEOVER: Want to learn more about HIV treatment, prevention, or anything else you saw here? Head over to ViewChange.org/TV, where you can watch, read, and get involved in projects that are making a real difference. Watch the films you just saw, and over 350 more from around the world, at ViewChange.org/TV.>> TITLE: [End Credits]>> TITLE: A co-production of Population Services International and Link TV. To read about PSI's HIV prevention programs around the world, visit www.psi.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Gas flaring in Nigeria is rampant, even though its toxicity and effects on health and the environment make it a violation of human rights. Tina and Ifie are filming testimonies so that people around the world can see the local cost of oil. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Nigeria, Environment, Niger Delta, Gas flare, Oil well, Oil spill, Sub-Saharan Africa, Millennium Development Goals, Climate change, Governance & Transparency >> TITLE: Element>> TINA: The fuel you?re using comes from our area. It should be making Nigeria rich, but if you come to the Niger Delta, you don?t see any of that. Especially the environment. We don?t have anything. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #7: ensure environmental sustainability>> IFIE: This project, it?s like a voice to the people. >> IFIE: Tina is my small Auntie, and she?s always challenging me because she has that title, Auntie, she?s always preaching to me. >> TINA: She wants to oppress me. >> IFIE: You?re telling people that I oppress you. See, you?re quarreling again. >> TINA: See, this is the oppression I?m talking about. >> IFIE: Since apparently I?m oppressing you, I?m leaving!>> IFIE: She?s always taking all my time; she?s a kid. She?s wild, someone can call me an idiot and I can?t say anything. She?ll say, ?Call my sister an idiot again. I?ll fight you.?>> IFIE: Since we can?t fight, we don?t have guns, the only voice we have is this video editing. Now we can make our own documentary and send it to the Internet, and the whole world will see it. Everybody clap for me. We?re watching the documentary that we did on the oil spill and trying to see the response from the community. >> TITLE: Niger Delta: an oil spill pollutes the land. The oil company refuses to clean up, claiming the pipe was deliberately broken.>> MAN 1: All our food, all our fish have died. So we are hungry. >> WOMAN: And even the snails. The oil has killed everything. Small children are dying because of the effects of the oil. >> IFIE: When I saw the oil pipe I was angry. I was so angry that I didn?t know what to do. I felt like I was poisoned with anger. >> IFIE: He says he wants water, good water to drink. >> IFIE: Oil pollution is not only damaging to the environment, but it is also causing conflict and disrupting peace in our communities. >> MAN 2: We are begging them to come and clean up their oil. If they don?t come and clean it up, we will be forced to fight back. >> TITLE: Gas flaring: burning off usable gas while refining crude oil. Gas flaring, Nigeria: contributes more greenhouse gases than all of Sub-Saharan Africa combined -- the World Bank. Status: Illegal. >> TINA: They should do something about this gas flaring. I don?t see why they?re burning money while people are dying of hunger.>> TITLE: If sold, this gas could be worth $2.5 billion a year -- the World Bank. Three out of five Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. >> TINA: This is hell.>> IFIE: Maybe it?s easier to waste the gas and the oil, maybe it?s easier, and that?s why. If not, then I can?t understand. Me, I?m not a scientist, but something is happening. Everywhere is getting hotter, and I think it?s all this gas that they are burning. It?s not only us who are suffering. Everywhere around the world, people are suffering. We need a different kind of energy instead of using this petroleum that is destroying our environment. People should talk to these oil companies and to the government to stop polluting the environment. They should be active, they should come out a lot, and people should see the action. Even if people are far away, they can work together in a way. With this videotape that we are making, the youths will stand up and send it to the oil companies, send it anywhere possible for the whole world to hear. If at the end we will die, then we will start fighting today. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: Eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-monica Monica Carrillo is furiously blazing a trail for young Afro-Peruvian women in Lima. As a poet, performer, activist, and teacher, she is teaching the next generation to fight racism through self-confidence and knowledge. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-monica Peru, Gender, Afro-Peruvian, Millennium Development Goals, Education, Health, Lima, Gender equality, tve, Element: Action on Earth >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Lima, Peru>> MONICA CARRILLO: I am going to guess what is in your mind. Do you want to see me, to touch me, to f*** me? You want me to be your queen for one day, and your slave for the rest of my life? It?s a lie, only a lie, just a lie. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #3: Promote gender equality and empower women>> MONICA CARRILLO: When I am in the street, people say that my vagina is like rubber. People say, ?black?, ?f***ing n*****?, or ?monkey.? I want to show another point of view about Afro-descendant people. >> RADIO PRESENTER: I am proud to present one of our representatives of the fusion of different rhythms and cultures. How are you Monica? Good morning and welcome. >> MONICA CARRILLO: Thanks very much for the invitation. >> RADIO PRESENTER: Do you think there is still a lot to do in distinguishing between racism and sexism? >> MONICA CARRILLO: Actually sexism towards women is related to racism. >> MONICA CARRILLO: I think it is important for women to have the opportunity to know other women who are working, who are studying, who are fighting. Because if you are living in poor conditions, you don?t have other points of view on life. This is one of the most dangerous places in Lima. People have guns, people sell drugs. Girls are getting married or pregnant very young, maybe aged thirteen or fourteen, because they think that having sex is their unique possibility to get a better life. If we enter their lives now, we can stop the process. >> TITLE: Afro-Peruvian kids? workshop>> MONICA CARRILLO: They are going to use the mask to express their feelings that maybe they don?t have the possibility of expressing in other situations. >> GIRL 1: My name is Carina and I would like to be a model. >> MONICA CARRILLO: Girls express that they are not happy with their body, with their race, with their face. >> GIRL 1: When I look at myself in the mirror I tell myself I am not very pretty or very ugly but I am fat. >> MONICA CARRILLO: They are suffering a lot because they are not white.>> MONICA CARRILLO: And you eyes? What color are your eyes? >> GIRL 2: My eyes are blue, I have short hair and I like to dance. >> GIRL 3: When I look in the mirror I feel sad that I am not able to do the things I want to do. >> MONICA CARRILLO: Through the masks they can express a life that maybe they?re not living at this moment. >> GIRL 3: When I am older I want to be a lawyer and I want to be more cool because my self esteem is -- I am very boring. >> MONICA CARRILLO: With masks they can recognize their face, their big lips and start to love themselves. >> MONICA CARRILLO: What we want is for the masks to become our own face so that we don?t need the mask anymore to be happy and have the life we want. >> MONICA CARRILLO: This is a process. This is a long process. But if you can find one indicator that they are hoping for another kind of life, that?s a good point. If children and teenagers have more self-confidence, that means we have better health conditions and fewer girls will get pregnant very young. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #5: Improve maternal health>> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #4: Reduce child mortality>> MONICA CARRILLO: I think a woman can dance, can show her body, but with power. I have the power to show my body because I am using it as a way to express myself. I am Monica. I have two, or three, or six identities. I can?t decide on any one identity, I can only decide to promote human rights. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-emmanuel From Lost Boy to international rap star, Emmanuel Jal's story has taken an incredible turn. He's using his newfound platform to push for an end to conflict, hunger, and poverty in his native Sudan. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-emmanuel Sudan, Emmanuel Jal, Southern Sudan, Millennium Development Goals, Lost Boys of Sudan, Ethnic conflict, Africa, Change Makers, Civil war, Poverty >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Child soldier, Sudan>> EMMANUEL JAL: I was born in a war zone, wanting revenge and to fight. I planned an escape. We walked a distance of three months, but there was no water to drink, there was no food to eat. Wild animals ate other people. I was dependent on vultures; those were the points where I was tempted to eat a human being. The number of people that I believe survived was twelve. Then I got rescued. Emma was a British aid worker, she smuggled me into Kenya, just like it is done in the movies. I was a Lost Boy, but I was found. Later she died in a car crash. Life wasn't easy so I started doing music. >> TITLE: London, UK>> EMMANUEL JAL: People need to hear what I have to say. I survived, that means I'm here for a purpose. >> TITLE: Emmanuel>> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #1: Wipe out extreme poverty and hunger>> EMMANUEL JAL: Poverty is caused by conflict, when people are displaced from where they make their own food. They have no way to survive, so they become a refugee. I have taken a campaign to fight poverty from my own level in Africa. When I came here I found many other organizations that are willing to help Africa and the rest of the world. If one person tries, then another person joins, just like a journey of 1,000 meters begins with one step. >> EMMANUEL JAL: I'm going to a refugee camp. I normally go there to work with them and try to inspire them and show them that I was a refugee, but now things are different. I want to give them hope to continue. >> TITLE: Refugee Council, London, UK>> EMMANUEL JAL: Many young people have talents and have dreams. They are refugees like me. When they see me, and they read my story, they know, "This guy was a refugee, and he has managed to reach this far." So to them it's a challenge.>> EMMANUEL JAL: You have the possibility to actually make it in life and be someone. You guys are here for a purpose, and this is a cry for all of us. >> EMMANUEL JAL: I never thought that I would be at this point. I've lost my childhood, and I've seen so many terrible things. But now, despite my sad story, things are becoming different. >> MAN: Please give it up for the fabulous Emmanuel Jal!>> TITLE: Live 8 Concert, England, July 2nd, 2005>> EMMANUEL JAL: Thousands of people didn't like what was happening to Africa. They wanted fair trade, debt forgiveness, and they wanted more aid. The people decided to do that, and now their government is taking it into action. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #8: More aid, fair trade, debt relief>> EMMANUEL JAL: We still have a chance to change the world, but it has to begin with one person. If people are willing to do so, it will happen. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-tia Tia Taurere is a young Maori activist from New Zealand involved in campaigns to promote forest preservation, oceanic life, and the revival of traditional Maori culture. She might seem overextended, but she believes all of these causes are intertwined. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-tia Papua New Guinea, Environment, Illegal logging, Millennium Development Goals, Deforestation, Sustainable forest management, Greenpeace, Lake Murray (Papua New Guinea), New Zealand, Sustainability >> TITLE: Element>> TIA TAURERE: It's a symbol of Mana Wahine, which is prestige and strength. And that's what it means to me, my journey to finding who I am, to give me confidence to move through this world, and I suppose to educate people, to draw the line, to make that stand. >> TITLE: Tia>> TITLE: Auckland, New Zealand>> TIA TAURERE: We're just doing boat training today around Auckland harbor. One of the most important things is moving together, because sometimes you can feel so alone, and there's no hope when you're swimming against the tide by yourself. I love it when we go fast and smash through the waves, and get that spray all over us. It's an adrenaline rush as well as a good reason to be out here. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #7: Ensure environmental sustainability>> TITLE: Paradise Forests, Papua New Guinea>> TIA TAURERE: Paradise Forests are untouched, they are still discovering animals and insects and plant life that has never been discovered before. The world's forests are being depleted at a rate of 30 football fields every minute, and Paradise Forests have been destroyed the fastest of any other forest on the planet. Companies are going into these forests, these native forests, and just wipe out everything in their path for that one tree that they want. They totally destroyed the whole ecosystem. Illegal logging is making the industrial loggers richer. Companies are selling it all over the world and nothing goes back to the people. Papua New Guinea was a Global Forest Rescue Campaign, so volunteers from all around the world came to help educate the people on how to sustainably log their forest. Instead of clear felling, it was selecting logs and leaving some for re-growth and milling them themselves so the money all came back to the people. I suppose then it just rolls into conscious consuming, so you know that you're not supporting illegal logging. It's a great place, great people, beautiful people, so we really need to support them by buying their wood.>> TITLE: Auckland, New Zealand>> TIA TAURERE: I'm just chatting with one of the volunteers from Malaysia that I met on Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Training was really good; I got to drive the Zodiacs all day. We all MSN daily, and reminisce about our time there. We're all pretty useless, eh? Our survival skills. City kids in the jungle. I think that to create change we need to make an effort and just start that ball rolling and then people sort of jump on your bandwagon and then that movement starts. If you look at it like an army, you're the front line of defense, and then there are all the undercover brothers and sisters. There was an action that I did down in Nelson that was part of the Oceans Campaign. It was a Chinese deep-sea trawler that only comes into the New Zealand ports once a year, so we all rushed down to Nelson to try and stop it from leaving. >> WOMAN: We want to send a message to the government that we want a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling -->> TIA TAURERE: Whether you're an activist for the Papua New Guinea forest, or save the animals, or protect our oceans, or the revival of my culture, I feel like all of these campaigns are all linked anyway. If you would really like to live an exciting life, volunteer for NGOs and make that difference. I love my life, I really do. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-craig Craig Kielburger founded Free the Children in 1995 after being shocked by the murder of a young Pakistani child labor activist. His organization has grown astronomically since then, using education to open doors for kids around the globe. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-craig Child labor, Free the Children, Craig Kielburger, Education, South Asia, Thirukkovil, Sri Lanka, Iqbal Masih, Pakistan, Primary school >> TITLE: Element>> CRAIG KIELBURGER [Founder, Free the Children]: I'm a student. I hate Monday mornings. I hate the alarm clock going off. I don't want to get up or go to class. For a lot of kids around the world, that's their greatest dream. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #2: Primary education for all>> CRAIG KIELBURGER: It was April 19th, 1995, twelve years old. I was looking for the comics in the paper, and the headline said, "Boy, 12, Murdered." >> TITLE: Boy, 12, Murdered>> CRAIG KIELBURGER: And so I start reading the story about this young boy in Pakistan named Iqbal Masih and how at the age of four how he was taken away from the family. He worked twelve hours a day, every single day, tying thousands of tiny little knots making carpets that largely end up in Europe or North America. And at the age of ten he escapes, and he starts traveling around the world raising awareness about child labor, and he was shot dead. Most people believe he was killed because he was speaking out against child labor. I was angry enough that the first thing I did was actually rip off the front page of the paper, and then got to my grade seven class and started reading this story in front of my classroom. I said, "I need your help," and eleven hands went up, and Free the Children was born. I remember when we first started, we said that we were going to build one school, and people laughed at us. That was ten years ago. We've worked with more than one million children in 45 countries around the world, including building 420 primary schools, which every single day serve about 40,000 children. >> TITLE: Dec. 26, 2004: South Asia tsunami. Sri Lanka: 31,000 die. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: That is what's left of a school. We saw books that were still lying in puddles of water, desks that were literally smashed to the ground, a roof had caved in. It just destroyed everything in sight. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: "One year later I stand here again, instead of devastation, as a symbol of hope." I can read you my speech, but it consists of, "Prime Minister, the President --" >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: We're in Sri Lanka to help open vocational training centers and primary schools, rebuilding after the devastation of the tsunami. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: We have before us a gathering that is a testament to the power of partnership in restoring hope to lives devastated by the tsunami. Thanks to your extraordinary work, I believe that we provided many students here, and many young people, with a brighter future. Thank you. It's been our honor to work with the citizens of Palangathurai, and thank you Minister. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: Sometimes there are some cultural misunderstandings. For example, when you are a foreigner you receive a set of garlands around your neck. It's a welcome, but as a foreigner when you take it off and put it around the neck of a young woman, it's a marriage proposal. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: Ah, apparently I just proposed marriage. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: The new vocational training center, the two story building, is helping to provide the skills and tools so that families can actually earn enough to afford to send their child to school instead of send their child into child labor. We have a rule that a minimum of 50 percent of the students are young girls. We believe that education is a tool for gender empowerment. Education is the solution to everything. >> CRAIG KIELBURGER: We're off to Thirukkovil, a small village that was devastated by the tsunami. They lost their primary school so we're helping with the reconstruction. Last year, the world spent 400 billion dollars on cigarettes, 180 billion dollars drinking beer, and 40 billion dollars playing golf, when all it would take is an additional 10 billion dollars to put every single child around the world into school. Everyone loves to have fun, everyone loves to laugh, and everyone loves to be a child. There are some things that are universal, from rolling in the dirt and having fun to universal human rights like education. Being young, we often got labeled as being idealistic, as if that was a negative thing. Because we're young, we believe we can change the world, we believe we're unstoppable. And that's something we should never grow out of. At the end of every day, I go out and look for a clear sky, try to connect to the Internet so I can download a message from the office. I think today's report is going to be about an opening school ceremony, an extraordinary day, and how we need a lot more days like this. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-madan Madan left his home in Nepal to move to New Delhi for the sole purpose of accessing cheap, powerful drugs. Just as he was on the brink of death, he found a rehabilitation center and got clean. Now he's devoted his life to helping those with HIV and AIDS, and is spreading a message of hope to the younger generation. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-madan India, HIV, Millennium Development Goals, HIV positive people, AIDS, Antiretroviral drug, Health, Nepal, New Delhi, tve >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Who's counting?>> MADAN KOIRALA: First I'm going to play soccer. I'm going to shoot two goals. Obviously we will win! I have many qualities. I am handsome. I am a role model for the people watching. >> TITLE: Madan>> MADAN KOIRALA: I was a drug user before. My ambition was to use drugs, and die. I am from Nepal. I came to Delhi just to use drugs. One of my friends sent me a message saying the drugs were good in India. I said, "Okay, let's go." I spent all my money. I was totally broke. I thought, "I'm going to die, I can't live any longer." Suddenly, I changed my mind. >> TITLE: New Delhi, India>> MADAN KOIRALA: I got a message that there is a rehab center where we can get treatment, and I said, "Okay," because I am a drug user and I needed treatment. I changed my lifestyle, and in the meantime I met my girlfriend, who is really cute! Life is not only for using drugs, eating food, and sleeping. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #6: Stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases>> MADAN KOIRALA: Now I am employed at Michael's Care Home, and I have to take care of HIV positive people who need treatment and help. Whether they're HIV positive or not, I always see them as a human being and in need of care and treatment. In India, people think that if you're HIV positive, you've got AIDS and you're going to die soon. Actually they're quite different. "AIDS" means you're sick, but being "HIV positive" just means you have the virus. Still people are very scared. They think that if someone's infected with HIV, we'll get infected too. No, we can't get it through the air, we can't get it from mosquito bites, we can't get it from kissing, and yet still there's all this discrimination. They're made jobless, homeless, and they're kicked out of society. Let them live! There are lots of examples of people who are very sick, and then they take the ARV medicine and live normally. This is anti-retroviral medicine, "ARV" medicine. >> MAN 1: It reduces the multiplication of the virus. >> MADAN KOIRALA: In India, only around twelve thousand people are getting this medicine. But there are over five million people infected with HIV. They should fight for them to get ARV medicine too. We need ARV medicine to be available free to everyone who needs it. Finish! There's something inside me that I can expose to the whole world. I am Madan Koirala, and I am HIV positive. >> TITLE: HIV+>> MADAN KOIRALA: If you look at me, can you make it out that I'm HIV positive? No, no one can tell. >> MADAN KOIRALA: I'll break your camera! >> MADAN KOIRALA: The message for the new generation is: positive living, positive thinking. No discrimination and stigma. There is hope. Now clap your hands, yeah. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: Eight goals for a better world by 2015. Everyone counts. www.element-tv.net>> TITLE: Element. For more information, visit http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/to-educate-a-girl What does it take to educate a girl? Framed by the United Nations global initiative to provide equal access to education for girls by 2015, To Educate a Girl takes a ground-up and visually stunning view of that effort through the eyes of girls in Nepal and Uganda who are out of school, starting school, or fighting against the odds to stay in school. Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/to-educate-a-girl Female education, UN Girls' Education Initiative, Gender equality, Millennium Development Goals, Uganda, Girls' Education Movement, Nepal, Queen Rania of Jordan, Saathi Sanga Manka Kura, Gulu >> HER MAJESTY QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH [Global Chair, United Nations Girls' Education Initiative]: What does it take to educate a girl? Probably not a question you ask yourself every day. Today, millions of girls around the world never see the inside of a classroom. They are shut out of school through no fault of their own. Why? Because girls are more affected by poverty, disease, and violence than boys. They are more likely to do housework than schoolwork. And, even if they do get the chance to attend classes, they're first to drop out, long before their brothers. But these girls want to go to school, these girls are ready to go to school, and today they're more likely than ever to succeed. Because 10 years ago the United Nations called for equal access for girls and boys to primary education by 2015. That same year, the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative was launched, and many countries around the world declared their support. Governments, grass roots organizations, volunteers, teachers, parents, and children are all part of our movement working toward this ambitious goal. In "To Educate a Girl," you will meet girls -- and those that are helping them -- from Nepal and Uganda: two countries that are emerging from conflict, challenged by poverty, yet striving to give every girl a better future. So, what does it take to educate a girl? Watch and find out.>> TITLE: A film by Frederick Rendina and Oren Rudavsky>> KOFI ANNAN [United Nations Secretary-General, 1997-2006]: As we open the 21st century, more than 110 million school-aged children are not attending school. Two thirds are girls. >> TITLE: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan: World Education Forum, Dakar Senegal, 26 April, 2000>> KOFI ANNAN: The key to all the locks that are keeping girls out of school, from poverty to inequality to conflict, lies in basic education for all. We need all those with power to change things to come together in a global alliance for girls' education. That is why the United Nations is launching a new global initiative to educate girls. To ensure that by 2015 boys and girls will have equal access to all levels of education. That is a test we must pass. And we shall pass it only if children all over the world can pass the test of basic education, and go on to pass the test of life. >> TITLE: To Educate a Girl>> TITLE: 2010. Bara District, Nepal. Near the India Border>> MANISHA: My father carries bricks. My mother works in the landlord's fields. I dig potatoes. >> TITLE: Manisha, age unknown>> MANISHA: Because of my work I can't go to school. I did study for five months in Class 1. At that time my brother went to Punjab to work and got lost there. My mother cried and cried and became ill. Then my father went to Punjab, too. He called us and he cried a lot too. He had searched a lot for my brother. My mother couldn't do any work, and my father wasn't letting us know what was going on. I even asked, should I earn or study? My mom told me, if you're not going to study, then go and earn. Then I went to work.>> BHUKIYA [Manisha's Mother]: At that time we had a lot of problems. I was pregnant then. Manisha would bring the rice and went to earn money as well. She managed everything. >> UPENDRA: The Dalit caste here are very underprivileged. In the old days we didn't eat anything that Dalits touched. We didn't go to the places they went. So I decided to work here for their development and to raise their awareness. This is my medicine shop.>> WOMAN: He has a cold. >> UPENDRA: You need to break this into three parts and let him take one. Here children from the Dalit caste do not enroll in school. That's why Young Champions, like me, are given training so that we can take them to school and admit them and I follow up on their attendance. There are 35 girls like Manisha who aren't in school in this village. I've known Manisha's family for a long time since I'm from the same neighborhood. When I went to her home, her parents said we can't afford to educate all the kids. Then I said three of their daughters can study and leave one daughter at home. And then they agreed.>> TITLE: Manisha's Sisters>> MANISHA: My sisters started studying. >> TEACHER: What does this say? >> MANISHA: I'm not like them. They are better than me. They study and I don't. They are more confident than me. How do you think I feel? I feel like a servant. I thought it's better to earn than study. If I bring home my earnings everyone eats.>> TITLE: Northern Uganda >> TITLE: Mercy, age six>> MERCY: I will go to school. I will take my notebook and a pen. The most important thing in school will be to learn how to write in my notebook. But I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the other kids. They might beat me. I will go with my friends Adol and Kabila. >> GRACE [Mercy's Grandmother]: I stopped my schooling in Primary 3, I didn't even learn how to read. When I got married I already had four children.>> TITLE: Sarah, Mercy's mother>> GRACE: Sarah would've continued schooling, but then she had a baby. >> SARAH: A boy got me pregnant with Mercy when I was 15. After he did this to me, he disappeared. The problem with girls' education is that one has to have money. If there's no money a girl will not go to school.>> MERCY: Sarah should've gone to Senior 3 this year but we couldn't afford the school fees, so she's at home now. It is easy to educate a girl if you have the resources. But if there's poverty in your hands a child can't complete her education. >> SARAH: Let's pray.>> MERCY: I want God to open her ears and make her clever, to continue her education and get a job. After she gets a job she can get married to a person who also works. >> TITLE: Kathmandu, Nepal >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA [Radio Host]: Well I must say that I'm quite lucky to get a very supportive family. Both of my parents are university teachers. Mom! I'm leaving now. So, like, they understand how important, you know, it is for everyone to be educated. I have been one among the privileged group who've got the chance of education and all the modern facilities and all. I love my job. Each day, each week I'm learning so many new things.>> AYUSH: Hello friends! What's up? Welcome to your favorite program, "Chatting with My Best Friend." And I'm your very dear friend, Ayush. And with me is ...>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Your dear friend Swarnima. I'm perfectly able to welcome my dear friends myself. Friends, for my part, I welcome you all to the program as well ...>> APSARA: I started listening to the radio when I was 10 years old. I listened to "Chatting with My Best Friend" a lot because it broadcast stories and dramas about our problems. >> PRENUM: Whenever I listen to "Chatting with My Best Friend," I make sure I have paper and pen with me so I don't miss anything important. >> SANJU: In "Chatting with My Best Friend" everything's shared. They're sharing problems that people are going through, and I like that. They say people who are suffering can also do something. I like that the most.>> TITLE: In Nepal, "Chatting with My Best Friend" attracts 6 million listeners every week.>> TITLE: Letter Discussion Session >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: We receive hundreds of letters each week. One very major factor which leads us to the content of the show is the letter themselves. The letter discussion session, we have those meetings every week. We have to discuss which letters are we going to air and, like, what can be said to those letters. Reading each letter is like meeting a new person you know. The letter has everything about the person, it's like meeting each one of them individually. We sit and we read them out and we discuss them sometimes for hours. Sometimes we even like fight.>> MAN 1: But you have to keep your skills up to date.>> WOMAN: Obviously.>> MAN 2: Because everyone is not lucky.>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: They're writing about their lives, the most sacred of their problems, and they're sharing, thinking that, like, we are their best friend.>> TITLE: Kavre District, Nepal. The Foothills of the Himalayas>> SANJU [age 14]: I haven't written a letter yet. If I write, first I want to write about my pain, my parents troubles and what we've gone through up till now, and what my sister's gone through. That's what I would love to write. People used to say many things about my sister, like why is she going to school when she's supposed to get married? I used to feel hurt. I used to feel, I wish my sister would do something in this village, show them that a girl can do something, too. Then nobody would point to her and gossip. Some people still tell me even now that my sister should get married. But I tell them that my sister has a different destiny. So everyone shuts their mouth. >> SUJANI [Sanju's Sister]: People have this negative thought about sending girls to school. If they educate the boys, they will be successful and will look after their parents later, whereas a girl will get married and go live in someone else's house. The parents think, what are we going to gain from that? I'm a girl and I'm doing something for my family.>> SANJU: My big sister pays for my computer class and exam fees. Now my parents understand. Now that my big sister has proved herself, they say, why talk to the younger ones about marriage? Me? I'm 14. I'm studying in Class 8. Today the forest is open so we are going to collect dry leaves for the fire. I've always liked science. I've read about the lives of great scientists. Sometimes I wish I could do something like that. That I could be a scientist, too. But because I'm poor it's probably a dream. If I were rich I'm sure I would become a scientist. >> TITLE: In Uganda, the Girls' Education Movement has over 1,000 clubs. GEM is also active throughout East Africa.>> TITLE: Abim, Uganda>> JOEL OKIDI [Inspector of Schools, Abim]: In our district, here, we have our local GEM chapter, known as "Adige." That is, Abim District Initiative for Girls' Education movement. This day, that we are organizing, the "go back to school" walk, it is the Adige members who are so much on the ground mobilizing. >> MARGARET OUMA ARIOKOT [Abim School Headmistress]: The school walk is good. When these girls move, they're smart. And they're herding other children who have not gone to school to come to? School. >> CHILDREN: Teachers had to go to school, so concentrate until you finish. Nurses had to go to school, so concentrate until you finish. The time has come to go back to school! These days take your education seriously. Father and mother! Listen to me. I don't have any clothes and yet you're drinking alcohol. I have no books but still you're drinking alcohol. I have no pen but still you're drinking alcohol. >> SIGN: Both boys and girls have equal opportunity towards education. When you educate a girl, you are educating the whole nation. Give us good guidance and counseling. Back to school, stay in school and complete your studies. Give us time to stay at school. Girls who are outside come back to school.>> MAN: Can we now line up and we'll start our school walk?>> VOICES: Left, right.>> JOEL OKIDI: They will have a bit of marching within the area to inform the people that we are now in school.>> CHILDREN: Our day. Our day. Our, our, our, our day. Our day. Our, our day. Our, our, our back to school. Our day. Our day. Our, our, our, our day. >> MARGARET OUMA ARIOKOT: They have the songs. That helps them to educate. And then helps other children when they stage it. And the children say, "Aaah. It is good to go to school.">> MATHEW OMAR [District Education Office, Abim]: Before we started this type of strategy the enrollment was low. >> JOEL OKIDI: Since we started it has helped to improve enrollment and even the retention has improved greatly. >> SIGN: Give the girl a second change to go to school.>> JOEL OKIDI: The number of girls that are entering the school and completing have also improved.>> CHILDREN: Parents, parents! Please take your children back to school.>> WOMAN: Please give me your attention. Thank you for coming. We're here at the marketplace to encourage you to take your children back to school on Monday. Take your children to schools so that they can start Primary 1. If your daughter dropped out of school because she gave birth, if the baby is weaned, let her come back to school. When your daughter is educated, when your daughter is educated, her bride price equals three dowries. >> ACIENG IRENE: Okay! My name is Acieng Irene. I left school for two years but now I have gone back and I am beginning to see the value of education. When you educate your daughters it's like you are educating the whole world. Thank you parents, take your children back to school starting Monday. Thank you so much. >> WOMAN: While you are here, buy books and pens. Buy uniforms and let your children go back on Monday. Thank you so much.>> SARAH: Try that one on. We came to buy a uniform for Mercy. On Monday I will take her to school. This will be the first time Mercy goes to school. She'll start P1.>> TITLE: In both Uganda and Nepal, enrollment numbers for girls and boys are steadily rising due to the efforts of groups like GEM and Young Champions. High drop-out rates remain an issue.>> TITLE: Bara District, Nepal>> TITLE: Manisha>> UPENDRA: It's my job to get girls to go to school. I'd talk with Manisha, and she would tell me that she feels ashamed to go to school >> MANISHA: If I get the chance I'd go to school. But if I go, people will make fun of me for being too old. >> UPENDRA: For girls like Manisha what we do is we accompany them to school for a few days and it helps make them less hesitant to go.>> TITLE: The Young Champions movement is active throughout South Asia. There are 500 Young Champions in Nepal alone.>> UPENDRA: Who's houses are there? >> VOICE 1: Mine here and his there.>> MAN: This is a river. This road goes straight to school from there.>> UPENDRA: Where's Raju's house?>> VOICE 2: Over here.>> UPENDRA: We are mapping this village. How many girls go to school and how many stay at home. Look, this is the stamp for a house. How many children are in houses are written in this one. How many sons and daughters go to school is shown here. How many sons or daughters don't go, it's shown here. I'm marking a house here. We are Young Champions. We go to parents and try to convince them to send their children to school.>> WOMAN 1 [Young Champion]: Do you want to go to school?>> GIRL: But I'm not enrolled.>> WOMAN 1: If you go to school, you'll be enrolled.>> UPENDRA: Why didn't you send this child to school? What were you thinking?>> MOTHER: The kids say the teacher hits them and they're scared to go.>> WOMAN 1: Why don't you go to school and talk to the teacher?>> MOTHER: The teacher says why send kids so young to school? They don't pay attention.>> UPENDRA: These children are not too young to study.>> WOMAN 2 [Young Champion]: If you teach them from a young age, they'll learn.>> UPENDRA: So will you send her?>> MOTHER: Okay, I'll send her. >> UPENDRA: We went to meet the principal and talked to him about how the children are disciplined. Children shouldn't be given corporal punishment, because they run away. They should be taught with care and not with hitting. So things are improved now. When I go to the village and tell them to educate children and people say, "No, it's time for marriage, I will get her married," I use myself as an example. I got married at 13. At the time I was a child. I just did whatever my parents told me. So I tell people, look I got married and could only study so far. If I hadn't gotten married, I would be in a better position. >> WOMAN 2: From birth, rather than sending girls to study they're told to look after the kitchen. It's still the custom to discriminate between a girl child and a boy child >> UPENDRA: Doesn't your mother say to go to school?>> GIRL: Yes, she does.>> WOMAN 2: Why don't you go, then? Your mother asks you to go?>> GIRL: Yes. >> WOMAN 2: Then why don't you go?>> UPENDRA: Please send her to school every day. Once a month doesn't do anything.>> MOTHER: Whenever there's school, the child goes.>> WOMAN 2: School is open every day, we're coming from there. You should send her now.>> MOTHER: Okay, take her.>> UPENDRA: Go, get your books. Let's go to school. Come walk with us. This way. So the new madam teaches very well?>> GIRL: Yes.>> UPENDRA: Let's go to new teacher's place. We'll take you there. Sit near the teacher. Erase this and start again.>> WOMAN 2: Write it again and read it. Read it aloud. Now write it again. Try again. If you practice you'll get better at it.>> KOFI ANNAN: From issues of morality to issues of mortality, the denial of girls' rights begins early in childhood. When a choice has to be made between educating a boy or a girl, girls are more likely to be kept at home. When the family needs income to be supplemented, girls are more likely to be sent to work. Even when girls do go to school, they will often have to do housework at the expense of homework. When they become pregnant school policies force them to drop out. When parents consider their daughter's future, they often see education as a hindrance to successful marriage and motherhood. Girls are more likely than boys to care for a sick family member and keep the household running. Nothing illustrates this burden more amply than the impact of HIV/AIDS. When catastrophe strikes, whether in the form of illness or conflict, displacement or hardship, women and girls from 65 to five years old are more likely to shoulder the burden of keeping family and household together.>> TITLE: Mercy's First Day of School>> SARAH: Do you have the uniform?>> WOMAN: Where is Mercy's uniform?>> SARAH: Where did you put the uniform?>> WOMAN: Let's check and see if it's here.>> SARAH: Maybe Mercy put it here.>> WOMAN: Where could the uniform be?>> SARAH: Mercy, come out!>> WOMAN: The uniform is not here.>> MERCY: My uniform was lost and that's why I was upset. Some lady accidentally took it. On the way to school somebody was sent to check, found it, and brought it to us.>> MARGARET OUMA ARIOKOT: What's your name?>> MERCY: Alimo Mercy.>> MARGARET OUMA ARIOKOT: Alimo Mercy. She looks a bright girl. The way she moves, the way she looks. You see when someone looks you direct, then that's a bright person.>> SIGN: GEM Slogan. Girls on the lead. Boys as allies. Adults provider of wisdom>> MARGARET OUMA ARIOKOT: Poverty level is high. That is the state of the children in this school. Come and see the classrooms. If you go around all these classes you will realize that its only P7 class that have benches. The rest are on the floor. And to make it worse it is a bare floor with dirt, dust. That even affects the handwriting. That even affects the concentration of a child. If the teachers come, you get up, clap your hands, and sing. One, two, three ... The lazy one just sits, the lazy one just eats. But then the lazy one opens his eyes. ... Good. Let's sit down. Thank you, now your teacher will come. Wait for your teacher, she will come. Sit and wait for the teacher. I'm supposed to have 14 teachers. But yesterday there were only three. My hope for the child, truly my hope for the child would be that they would all, first of all, complete primary 7.>> TEACHER: After you ask the teacher and go to the latrine, what do you do?>> MERCY: You open the door.>> TEACHER: Then you open the door without knocking?>> MERCY: We knock on the door.>> TEACHER: Before you get back to class, what do you do? What do you do?>> MERCY: I wash my hands.>> TEACHER: Good, sit down. Put your hands together for her!>> TITLE: Radio drama rehearsal>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Every week we select like a certain issue, then make a radio drama based on that issue and also air a letter, which is related.>> MAN [Actor]: Now listen to me. Starting tomorrow you are not going to school anymore. You can read the alphabet, there's no need for a girl to study further.>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: This week we are, like, focusing on girl-child education, the issue of empowerment related to a girl-child education.>> TITLE: Kavre District, Nepal>> APSARA [age 17]: When I was in Class 8 I thought the radio hosts would solve my problem, so I wrote a letter to them. "Dear respected brother and sisters. Greetings. There is talk of marriage going on in my house. But I don't want to get married now. How can I stop my marriage and how can I improve my studies. Please, friends, what can I do to solve my problem?" I remember how I felt then. I felt tortured mentally. I simply could not concentrate on my studies. And I could not talk to my parents or anyone else about it. In return for my letter I got some life skills booklets and a letter. I showed the booklet to my parents and read the letter to my family. I developed my self-confidence and managed to convince them.>> FATHER: She wrote a letter to this "Chatting with My Best Friend," and they wrote her back saying that it's not the right time to get married, so we decided not to proceed further. They say it on the radio all the time that boys and girls are equal. If you cut a daughter's hand it will bleed just like the son's. There's no difference right?>> APSARA: My future would've been dark. If I can afford it in the future, I want to become a doctor, a heart specialist.>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Sometimes we find one letter that it's so touching it has the whole story in it and then, like, we feel like we must work on this.>> WOMAN: Okay. I'll read this letter. It's even highlighted. "Friends, as you know our society is a male-dominated one." >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: A girl is writing to us saying that, so that her brother can go to school, she has to sacrifice. They're prioritizing the son not the daughter.>> PRENUM [age 20]: I guess I was 15 years old. My brother and I used to study in the same class. Both of our school fees were due but we weren't in the position to pay both of them. My parents decided to pay only my brother's fees and not mine. After that I left school for two years. What I wrote in that letter was that I dropped out of school in Class 7 but then continued school thanks to the information I got from the show. >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: But now she's facing the same problem. She's writing us, and, you know, you've helped me the first time, you can help me this time as well.>> WOMAN: "Friends, what can be done about my problem? I feel if you don't solve my problems, I can't do anything in life.">> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: We receive those kinds of letters all the time. >> VOICES: Dear friends I don't know if this is right but one of my teachers acts in a very unusual way. One day he kissed me. I was utterly shocked and kept silent. / Dear friends, due to our low economic condition I am frequently pressured to leave my studies. I want to continue with school so that I can do something in life and be independent. / Dear friends, my parents are pressuring me not to go to school. I don't have time to study because of my household chores. / But it's hard for me to travel two hours to reach school. / I am 15 years old. / I studied to Class 5 but I was married off when I was 16 years old. / Dear friends, our country was in conflict. No matter how hard I try, I simply can't forget. I'm mentally traumatized and this has also affected my education. I hardly can concentrate on my studies. The picture of conflict is still fresh in my eyes.>> TITLE: Nepal and Uganda are both emerging from years of civil war.>> TITLE: The war in Uganda -- as in Nepal -- affected not only students who feared kidnapping at school, but teachers who were often intimidated or killed by combatants.>> TITLE: Gulu, Uganda>> SIGN: Title: Pillar of peace. Artist: Kigozi David>> VOICES SINGING: Oh Uganda, may God uphold thee. We lay our future in thy hands. United, free, for liberty together we'll always stand.>> TITLE: Sarah, age 17>> ISAIAH [Sarah's Grandfather]: Sarah's parents were shot by the LRA rebels. She'd just started her studies when her parents were killed.>> HEADMASTER: Good morning colleagues. I would like to sincerely welcome you back to Gulu high school 2010 term one. I would also like to congratulate ourselves for coming back in one piece. This will be a year of hard work. A year of seriousness. >> SARAH: I remember. The rebels came from behind the house. My father was inside. It was mid-afternoon. They said: Get out! I thought the neighbors were calling him. Then they seized him and tied his hands with a rope behind his back. Then my mother ... they called her out, too. They gave her a very heavy bag of peanuts to carry. She couldn't manage. They said if she could not carry it, they would kill her. Then she struggled to carry it. My mother and father were both killed.>> ISAIAH: She was going crazy. We started counseling her slowly and now she's okay.>> ELVIRA LALOCH [Sarah's Primary School Headmistress]: Gulu District have lost lives of so many of their relatives. They've lost even their homes and properties. They've also lost the thread of life. And even education was so low because they had lost hope, as they would say, in life. That is the time when Sarah dropped out. >> TITLE: Coo-Pe IDP Camp. Gulgu, Uganda>> ELVIRA LALOCH: This is the camp where Sarah lived when she was in primary.>> SARAH: Life in the camp was difficult because when you stay in the camp you see how people live. Some do not want to be educated, and they do bad, useless things. >> ELVIRA LALOCH: The culture was not followed. There was nothing to do. They could not even go to the village to dig because there was insecurity. Especially the children who are just looking at those bad things like drinking, fighting, early marriages, forced marriages also. In 2005 there was a club called "Girls' Education Movement" club. Their main objectives of the Girls' Education Movement club is to promote quality education for both boys and girls. For girls to exercise their rights in solving issues concerning them. Promote sense of leadership in girl child. Promote education of girls. So this GEM club came to the camp. For girls who are in difficulties they could bring them here, talk to them and so on. We are talking about girls' education through talk shows, drama, songs.>> GIRLS: GEM has brought education, free education. It makes me very happy. Take advantage of education. >> ELVIRA LALOCH: Sarah took interest.>> GIRLS: So you can grow and become sophisticated.>> ELVIRA LALOCH: And she told us that she had liked the GEMs club. She wanted to resume. She has taken education as a priority.>> TEACHER: Divided by nine. So you have three equals five F, minus one-sixty, all over nine.>> SARAH: School and making friends takes your mind off of things. It helps you forget. Also, when you're reading a book, you concentrate on other things.>> TEACHER: One point six times ten to what power?>> ISAIAH: The way I see it, she should become a doctor. But if that fails, she should be teaching, but at a higher level. Not primary. >> SARAH: I know my future will be good because all my thoughts are focused on education. In the future, I'll have my own family.>> TITLE: Kavre District, Nepal>> SANJU: Pucchi is my niece. At home she's a troublemaker so she's staying with us. She goes to the same school as we do.>> SANUMAYA: I haven't studied at all. When I was small my brothers were sent to school because they would look after the family later. I didn't even know where the school's gate was.>> JAGAT: I haven't studied. I can write my name and sign. But my children are doing well in school. >> SANUMAYA: During our days as the tradition went, we did exactly as told by our parents. We married who they chose and were always suppressed by our husbands.>> SANJU: Don't be naughty in class.>> SANUMAYA: I used to think that this was how life was for girls. But then I took some adult training and realized that I could do something. And then I understood that even girls should be sent to school, so that they too could do something. After realizing this I decided that even if become like a blind buffalo, I'll educate my daughters and build their futures.>> SANJU: May I come in, sir? In science no one could get better marks than me.>> TEACHER: The first planet is ... ?>> CLASS: Mercury!>> TEACHER: The last one ... ?>> CLASS: Pluto!>> TEACHER: There's more to learn about them.>> SANJU: But as I got older I started to worry and now I'm down to fourth position.>> TEACHER: Okay, Sanju, stand up.>> SANJU: When the teacher makes me stand alone, I feel tense inside. Even if I know the answer, it can be hard to say it aloud.>> TEACHER: What is the temperature of an orange star?>> SANJU: Four thousand degrees Celsius. Now that I'm in higher class, it's getting difficult.>> RAM PRASAD ADHIKARI [Sanju's Principal]: She's extremely hardworking and enthusiastic. And she's inquisitive about science. She's disciplined and has a wonderful learning nature. But, given her financial situation, she will face many obstacles. School isn't in a position to support her, either. >> SUJANI: Sanju is my youngest sister. She's the most studious of us all. We don't have to help her with her schoolwork. We'll have to get her into a good high school.>> SANJU: To educate a girl, you have to have the support of the family.>> CLASS: Eleven thousand degrees Celsius.>> TEACHER: And a yellow star?>> SANJU: Six thousand degrees Celsius.>> TITLE: End of Mercy's first day of school >> SARAH: Welcome back, how are you? What did they teach you?>> MERCY: We wrote today.>> SARAH: What did you write?>> MERCY: We wrote our names twice.>> SARAH: Twice? What is this?>> MERCY: This is where I tried to write.>> SARAH: But there's nothing written here.>> MERCY: Everything's not written.>> SARAH: It's not correct. >> MERCY: I was just trying. But I wrote nothing.>> MERCY'S SISTER: Why didn't you start from here?>> SARAH: You should start writing from here then continue on other pages, just like this, till you finish. Take her books inside. Go and sit on the mat.>> MERCY: You brought me water, even though I didn't even ask for it.>> SARAH: Wash your hands. Did you play today at school?>> MERCY: No, we didn't.>> SARAH: You didn't? You didn't even have PE? Let's pray.>> MERCY: Kabila, bring your food and eat here.>> SARAH: Who took you to class?>> MERCY: Madam showed us all the classrooms, even the latrines for girls.>> SARAH: Did she show you the one for boys too? Do you know now which one you have to go?>> MERCY: Yes. Teacher told me to squat on the latrine and I did.>> KABILA: She sat on the boy's latrine.>> SARAH: You didn't understand?>> MERCY: I did understand, but she told me to squat there!>> SARAH: So now you can show your friends where to go?>> MERCY: No, it smells bad there.>> SARAH: Listen Mercy! You take your friend but you stay away. Then you show them, this is your latrine.>> MERCY: But it stinks!>> SARAH: You have to stand far away, you hear me?>> MERCY: Kabila, can't you tell some stories? I'm finished with mine.>> SARAH: Mercy did you fight with somebody at class?>> MERCY: I didn't want to. A boy tried to beat me. It was Adolo who was fighting with some boy. Adolo can't lose, you know how she fights.>> SARAH: Did you try to separate them?>> MERCY: No, her brother was there, he would've hit me bad.>> SARAH: You shouldn't fight in school, do you hear? >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Morning. The show has made quite an impact you know. Because you feel that the show is talking to you about your issue. Then certainly that is going to motivate you. >> TITLE: Day of recording session>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: I'm just finalizing the script, you know. The retouching and everything so that we'll have final refined script. It'll be from the line, "What's wrong with you today?" and then you say, "There's one free," and then I'll get more irritated, and then, "There's not one but two dramas today.">> AYUSH: Hello, what's up Sadi? >> VOICE: Hey listeners, I have a letter for the show, It's here! It's here!>> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Ayush, I have a letter in my hand. "Friends, I have a big problem right now. My financial situation at home is not good, so I don't know how I'll be able to continue my studies. Friend, how can I solve my problem? >> PRENUM: When I heard my name aired along with my letter I was so happy. >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: Before you were only in the seventh grade. Now you've passed your middle school exam. And based on that our friend can do some work.>> AYUSH: Friend, we used to have a hard time, too. Because my family didn't have money, either. But then my neighbors told me that I could teach their children. So I started tutoring them. >> SWARNIMA SHRESTHA: We have full faith that you'll be able to solve this problem, too.>> PRENUM: As I'm a student of education, I have to know about the ways to teach. I'm in Class 11 right now, and I can teach the lower grades. Thank you, sit down. >> CHILDREN: Thank you miss.>> PRENUM: Right now I'm working as a volunteer teacher in the school where I used to study. "Once upon a time, all the animals gathered in one place." In the future, after completing my education, my goal is to work in my community. I think I'll be a teacher later on. I'll be a very good teacher, a sincere teacher. Okay, we'll finish the chapter tomorrow. Please be good.>> KOFI ANNAN: It is often said that education empowers girls by building up their confidence and enabling them to make informed decisions about their lives. For most of the world's girls it is about escaping the trap of child labor or the perils of going into labor of childbirth while still a child yourself. About ensuring that your children in their turn are guaranteed the right to education. It is about being able to earn an income when women before you earned none. About protecting yourself against violence and enjoying rights which women before you never knew they had. About taking part in economic and political decision-making. Finally, it is about educating your children to do the same and their children after them. It is about ending the spiral of poverty, which previously seemed to have no end.>> BHUKIYA: Manisha is good at everything. Though she left her studies she still remembers what she learned. If I give her something now, she can even read it properly.>> UPENDRA: If Manisha goes to study, she won't have to work. She will learn many things in school, and tell all the girls of her neighborhood to go to school.>> FATHER: Upendra says that we need to educate our children. He often comes to our place. He's the one who told us to take the children to school. Now I'm encouraging her to study.>> TITLE: After missing several years, Manisha returned to school, joining her younger sisters. She now attends Class 3.>> TITLE: The number of children out of school worldwide has decreased from 110 million in 2000 to 72 million today. Now just slightly more than half of them are girls.>> TITLE: [end credits]>> HER MAJESTY QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH: What does it take to educate a girl? The support of families, the cooperation of governments, and the tireless work of educators, volunteers, and nonprofit organizations. Some of the efforts you've seen in this film are having a dramatic impact. The Young Champions volunteer movement in Nepal is active throughout South Asia. And GEM, the Girls' Education Movement, now has nearly a thousand clubs in Uganda alone. It has expanded to include boys who work towards gender equality in their communities. The radio show "Chatting with My Best Friend" reaches an astonishing six million listeners every week. Though there is still much to be done, awareness is expanding, enrollment is up, and more women around the world are taking control of their lives. Why is this massive effort so necessary? Because the rewards are real. Girls' education lifts lives. A girl in school means her family in better health. A rise in girls' education means a fall in population growth and infant mortality. As educated women, they send their children to school more, earn more, survive and thrive more, amidst poverty, disease, and conflict. I'd like to leave you with this proverb: If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a nation. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-sorie-k-and-the-mdgs Musician Sorie Kondi, the Stevie Wonder of Sierra Leone, is trying to make it as a world musician in part because he needs to pay his daughter's school fees. He's hitting the road to investigate what's happening with girls' education ten years after the civil war. Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:40:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-sorie-k-and-the-mdgs Sierra Leone, Education, Millennium Development Goals, Freetown, Mateboi, Life on the Edge, Gender, Female education, West Africa, tve >> TITLE: Sorie K and the MDGs>> VOICEOVER: Sorie Kondi, Sierra Leone's Stevie Wonder. He's on iTunes and YouTube, but still struggling to make it. Foreign acclaim does not pay his bills. Sorie pays his eight dollars a month rent by busking the streets of the capital, Freetown. His wife Sally is also blind. She makes and sells soap to help out. >> SORIE KONDI [Musician]: London, America, UK...one day, sometime, we'll go there. >> VOICEOVER: Busking the streets also helps keep his daughter in school. Getting 14-year-old Zeinab through school is a big struggle for Sorie. Primary education is free in Sierra Leone, but there are extra fees demanded by poorly paid teachers and other costs. Somehow Sorie always finds the money. But keeping Zeinab out of trouble is more difficult. >> COUSIN 1: When did you get pregnant? >> COUSIN 2: Form Two. >> VOICEOVER: Zeinab lives with her cousins who have all left school early because of pregnancy. >> SORIE KONDI: Zeinab's not safe. Look at what's happening in this house. Her cousins only made it up to Form Two and got pregnant. So I do worry that someday it will happen to her, you see?>> VOICEOVER: We asked Sorie Kondi to help us make a road movie looking at what's happening with girls' education around the country ten years after civil war. Sorie's trusted aid is 23-year-old Foday P, who helped with production on Sorie's first album. Sorie Kondi's barely ventured out of Freetown since the civil war started 18 years ago. It's a two-week trip around the country. Just Sorie, Foday P -- now "Foday the Roadie" -- and whoever else they pick up on the way. Theophilus needs a lift to Makene. He's a primary school teacher. What's making him angry? Ghost teachers. It's estimated the government has been paying the salaries of thirty thousand phantom teachers who don't exist, the money going who knows where. Ghost teachers are a drain on the budget. But the government's now started a roll call of teachers to make sure the money's spent properly. Theophilus says it's an urgent problem. >> THEOPHILUS [Primary School Teacher]: Teachers do retire, some die. But heads of schools and principles, they still maintain their names in the register. The money goes in their pockets, forgetting the fact that they need to delete those names from the register. So there are ghost teachers all over. >> VOICEOVER: Sierra Leone spends almost four percent of its GDP on education. Sorie is beginning to wonder how much of it finds its way to the children. One of the problems for girls in rural areas is the long walk to school. But they're lucky. Over a quarter of a million children don't go to primary school at all. And most of them are girls. >> TITLE: Mangay Loko Village>> VOICEOVER: Sorie Kondi's village is Mangay Loko. Back home, Sorie's a success story. His old friend Hassan used to be a small time trader. Hassan did pass his school exams, but no more. Now he's a "UU", an unqualified, untrained teacher. The villagers pay him what they can when they can, and it's often not much. Almost half of Sierra Leone's teachers are UUs and often have second jobs to survive. We've heard stories of schools down the road. Sorie's off to learn more. They're all on their way to Mateboi. The school here has an impressive list of former pupils, including some major public figures. Sorie Kondi wants to put on a performance, but the kids get there first. >> TITLE: Mateboi Village>> VOICEOVER: Free primary education has seen a huge increase in pupils here -- it's up by half. Now the school has 425 students but only five teachers and three classrooms. >> FODAY P. FOFANAH [Music Producer]: If you could see them, you would see that the children are having difficulties. They have no desks, and have to put the books on their laps to write. >> VOICEOVER: Half the classes are under mango trees. There just aren't enough buildings. >> SORIE KONDI: So, no benches then? >> FODAY P. FOFANAH: They do have benches to sit on but they haven't got anything to write on. >> VOICEOVER: When the rains come, the problems really start. Children from the mango tree classrooms pile into the school building classrooms and the entire school comes to a halt. For nine-year-old Fatima, that means losing up to forty days a year of school. >> FATIMA [Student]: When I come to school in the morning and it rains heavily, my books and uniform get completely soaked. >> VOICEOVER: As Sorie leaves -- burnt out ruins of buildings. A reminder of civil war; over twelve hundred schools were destroyed. And in contrast, the new roads of reconstruction that take us to Koidu, the center for blood diamonds. There is money around here. And money can be a problem, as Sorie's next encounter shows. Sia Elizabeth Tongu belongs to a women's group that campaigns against teenage marriage. >> SIA ELIZABETH TONGU: Our young girls face a lot of challenges. We're concerned about teenage marriages, "early marriages" we call them out here. People with money will lure them out of school. It still happens. >> VOICEOVER: Mariama didn't get a chance to finish her schooling. At sixteen her parents wanted to marry her off to an older man. She ran away, but in the end she did marry him and had three kids. Like many girls in Sierra Leone, Mariama was married before she was eighteen, which is illegal here. Now, ten years on, she's being divorced and her husband has claimed back the bride money and expenses from her family. >> SORIE KONDI: Seeing as your father, your parents, were the ones who arranged your marriage, they should have helped you out, not left you to sort it out alone. Why, when bad things happen, do they leave you to fend for yourself? Why? >> MARIAMA: I don't know. >> TITLE: Kenema>> VOICEOVER: Kenema, the economic heart of eastern Sierra Leone, the country's diamond trading center. Juliette is a primary school teacher, volunteer radio journalist, and a single mother. Juliette runs a youth program and opens the phone lines every Saturday morning. >> JULIETTE YUKIE [Eastern Radio Presenter]: I most of the time try an open phone line, I ask people to contribute. But they ask questions about teenage pregnancy. And most questions that used to come to our studio whenever I'm presenting this program, people say the teenagers themselves are responsible for the problems they usually face. I'll blame the parents, the guardians, I'll blame the teenagers themselves. And I'll blame also the schools that these teenagers are attending. >> VOICEOVER: Back to Freetown, where Foday will be helping Sorie record his new album. >> FODAY P. FOFANAH: I think education is very, very important, because if it hadn't been for education I would not have been what I am today. >> VOICEOVER: There's a lot riding on Sorie Kondi's new album: his career, and Zeinab's future. >> SORIE KONDI: Zeinab's my child, but she has a mind of her own. Even though I really hope she finishes her studies, it's up to her. I am praying to God that she finishes her education because I believe it will be good for her. If I get money I will send her to college. If I get money, I believe God will provide. >> TITLE: For more information, please visit: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-scent-of-the-streets Nigeria has had some success in getting more women into government and business. But what about those in the crowded and often violent slums of Lagos? Meet three girls from one of the city's poorest and toughest neighborhoods, all looking for their chance to escape. Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:40:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-scent-of-the-streets Nigeria, Slum, Lagos, Area boys, Gender, Poverty, Millennium Development Goals, West Africa, Gender equality, Life on the Edge >> TITLE: Bisayo (Age 25), Onyinye (Age 18), Gift (Age 22)>> VOICEOVER: Bisayo, Onyinye, and Gift are "area girls" in Lagos, Nigeria. Area boys, well they play rough and dirty, though some do make it good. But what is an area girl? Something cool, or just a girl without a job? And in a difficult world can they "make it good" too? There?s evidence everywhere if you know where to look.>> TITLE: Scent of the Street>> VOICEOVER: In the commercial capital of oil-rich Nigeria, Ajegunle is one of the poorest and toughest neighbourhoods; like many big city slums still struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Neighborhoods here are called "areas" and some girls are called "area girls." Including Onyinye. >> ONYINYE: My name is Onyinye. My friends have this funny name they call me, Shenkes. I?m an area girl -- for now. And, well, I?m not an area girl because I choose to but -- An area girl, you can't actually classify it into one person. It?s different ways. You have some girls that are area girls but not because they do anything, but because they?re just rough. They are just rough and tough. They like trouble. They like, you know, anything trouble. >> VOICEOVER: Onyinye left school at twelve. No qualifications. What she does have: brothers and sisters. >> TITLE: The family>> ONYINYE: I have ten siblings altogether, from the same mom but from different dads. My growing up wasn't nice, it wasn't nice. My mum has to carry almost all the responsibilities alone: school fees, feeding, clothing and all that. So I?m growing up and I can?t just be depending on my mum for almost everything when I know she doesn?t have. This area that I stay, it?s kind of common, it?s almost what we do here. We, you know, we date men. So it?s basically what I do for now. That?s what I do for now. My sisters, my family, they know about it, they know everything about me actually. So, it?s not like they are comfortable with it, but I have to do it because I don?t want any of them to do it. >> VOICEOVER: Instead of relying on boyfriends, Onyinye wants to work.>> ONYINYE: When you are in your house, you can be free. You can do whatever. But when you are on the streets you have to give them this mean impression like you?re scary, because if you act like one "botty" they climb you.>> TITLE: "Botty" = softy. "Climb you" = rip you off. >> ONYINYE: We are headed to the cafe where I do most of my research. It?s just a stone throw from this place.>> VOICEOVER: Onyinye?s off to the neighborhood cybercafé. Some are looking for jobs; some are looking for the training and self-help courses that are on offer around here. Onyinye is looking for a modeling agency. >> ONYINYE: I search for modeling agencies. So I try to send emails. If they reply to my email then I go, and if I get the phone numbers I call. >> VOICEOVER: What sets the tone for area girls? Area boys. >> ONYINYE: The area boys come out in the evening, that?s when they come out. That?s when they pick their pockets. If you are nice to them, if you are free with them, they can be nice with you. If you get into their wrong hands, they?ll beat you. They?ll beat you very well. >> VOICEOVER: So are area girls all under the sway of area boys? Well, not quite. Meet Bisayo, an area girl who's graduated. Not cum laude, not to be a CEO. This natural born leader's become Onyinye's "area mother." >> TITLE: The area mother>> ONYINYE: When you have an area mother, definitely an area mother has to be somebody whose legs are very strong. >> VOICEOVER: Protection? She?ll stand in front of you. Bisayo will settle arguments, win games, could have been a diplomat. Instead she is an area mother.>> BISAYO: When you are the area mama for your house or for you territory, people will respect you and they will respect you persona? My guy, am I lying? >> MAN 1: It's true mama. >> VOICEOVER: What marks Bisayo out here, she says, she?s literally graduated.>> BISAYO: I studied history and international relations -- a diplomat. >> TITLE: A diplomat>> BISAYO: I come from a wealthy home so my parents assisted me to go to school, but for the fact that I just want to be an area girl. I see myself as a star in my area. >> BISAYO: Do you feel me? >> MAN 2: Mama, mama, mama!>> BISAYO: I protect my territory. >> TITLE: I protect my territory>> BISAYO: Maybe if I should see any outsiders who want to come and obtain my territory, in my cabal, I will overtake. When I graduated I searched for a job but I couldn't get work. So I play lotto to meet my daily needs. I win, I don't win, it's okay by me. >> VOICEOVER: Bisayo is a leader, the kind you might want in the boardroom. Today she?s greeted as hero in the medicinal bar. >> BISAYO: This is where I make my happy day, this is my "shepe joint" and these are my guys. >> TITLE: "Shepe joint" = my hang out>> BISAYO: This is where I enjoy my life. All my life! Shepe for life! And this is our mama, mama gangan. Come to this cabal. Everyone is welcome. You'll get everything. Even palm wine for life! Everything goes on my fingertips, because if I tell them to do something they will do it. So with that I believe I am being respected in the society and I can become a leader in the future. My destiny is to help the society. >> TITLE: Become a leader>> TITLE: Boundary market>> VOICEOVER: So can a hardworking girl with more modest ambitions be an area girl too? Gift only went to primary school. Today she's buying ingredients for the "akara", or bean cakes, she sells. Work worth having. >> GIFT: My name is Gift. In this area I'm an area girl, but I don't care what people think. I don?t get involved with the others. From my understanding, what makes me an area girl is the way I live. I don?t have time for trouble but if you want to find my trouble I?ll give it to you. I'm the one that brings in the money for the family. I help my family. I used to hawk, walking around selling stuff but I didn?t want to meet boys because they?d say, "Come sleep with me!" I don?t need that, and if you don?t do what they say -- Sometimes I?d go to the market at four, I?d walk to Apapa, come back after eight, they?d meet you on the road and rape you, all those kind of things. That?s why I stopped hawking and found a place to sell my akara.>> VOICEOVER: This area girl is working a 16-hour day to help make money for her family. And she's running her family too. >> GIFT: I go to the market, buy everything, come back and cook my food. I go out anywhere I like but when it?s time I return. You feeling me? It's not easy!>> VOICEOVER: Gift has moved from selling goods from literally the top of her head to the street corner. Now she wants to move on to the next stage -- her own stall. >> GIFT: If I get the opportunity, I?ll use the skills I learned from hawking and I?d go the market where I bought things to hawk. Sell them in a stall. I can't be an area girl forever. If I see a chance I will change, just leave all those things. >> TITLE: I will change>> VOICEOVER: It's true area girls are what some girls choose to be, but most don't want to remain forever. Our area girls stay on the right side of the law. Some don't. All have the talent and appetite for a decent day's work -- one of the Millennium Development Goals that remains elusive. Of course paid work could mean being an area girl no longer.>> ONYINYE: The only thing you should know is that it's not funny; it's not nice at all. Most of us go through a lot of things in here that we are not proud of, so if we are given the chance, the opportunity, to change, we will chance. >> TITLE: Since we filmed, all three area girls have completed courses in Life Skills, IT and Leadership. Onyinye is enrolling with a fashion school, Gift is finding the backing for a stall and Bisayo is learning Leadership Skills. >> For more information please visit: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/haiti-obstacles-to-education-reform Haiti faces the enormous challenge of recruiting qualified teachers and providing adequate infrastructure to students. The country has never had a strong tradition of universal public education. Meet the people who are fighting to create a new culture of education. Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/haiti-obstacles-to-education-reform Haiti, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Education, Teacher, Sustainable development, Millennium Development Goals, Port-au-Prince, Caribbean >> MARYSE KEDAR [Director, Prodev Haiti]: Something went wrong in this country. Something is wrong, that today when you turn around you see what you see. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT [School Teacher, Educational Consultant]: Haiti has remained such an isolated country; and has grown a people that have come out of nothing, slavery and isolation, totally without any frame for the past 200 years. Education is one of the most important factors in the future development of Haiti. >> CHARLES TARDIEU [National Education Minister, 1990-?91]: Now, post January twelfth, things are getting worse. We Haitians have to decide that we are going to rebuild our country, and then we can look for help from other countries. >> PIERRE BONY [Chief Inspector of Schools, Kenscoff District]: There is no sustaining development in Haiti without education. Our government does not have the means to properly address education, even though it?s definitely a need. In the case of January twelfth, it?s not the earthquake that kills people. It?s not the concrete that kills you; it?s the lack of education. Young people didn?t know what to do. >> MARYSE KEDAR [Director, Prodev Haiti]: The education sector in Haiti is in a very bad situation. >> CHARLES TARDIEU: Teacher training and teacher qualification is one of the major problems in the system. The teacher force is about 65-70,000, and out of that, you have 35-40,000 who are not trained to do the job they are doing right now. They are just there because there are no other people to do it, and because you need somebody to be standing in front of the class. >> PHIDLITO DIEUDONNE: My name is Phidlito Dieudonné. I?m studying at teacher?s college. This kind of education is very important for teachers because, hopefully, we?re going to be armed with the tools to do the job correctly and professionally. >> CHARLES TARDIEU: So we cannot divide within political lines, within ideological lines. I think we definitely have to bring everybody together, whatever the position you?re coming from. Are you interested in rebuilding Haiti? Yes? Let?s go for it. Let?s do it. >> SIGN: ?School?>> MARYSE KEDAR: If we want things to really happen and to be sustainable, the decision has to be made with Haitians, and in the most part, by Haitians. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/education-in-haiti-a-teachers-passion-and-vision-for-change A former private school headmaster in Haiti, Alzire Rocourt was deeply affected by the earthquake. Her school was destroyed in the disaster, but now, she tackles the challenges of working in a tent city. The educator now teaches music classes in efforts to bring hope to Haitian youth. Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/education-in-haiti-a-teachers-passion-and-vision-for-change Haiti, Education, Sustainable development, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Developing country, Port-au-Prince, Primary school, Millennium Development Goals, Birth certificate >> ALZIRE ROCOURT [Teacher]: Our children are extremely eager to learn. They seem to have, even though they are small, an intuition that this might be a way out of misery and poverty and isolation. My name is Alzire Rocourt. I am a teacher but mostly a musician, really. Our first concern after the earthquake was to provide some frame for these kids that had gone through such a trauma. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Every parent must have a birth certificate. If you don't have your child's birth certificate, we won't grant admission. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Even now, eight months after the earthquake, I believe our authorities are talking too much. Just talking too much, just planning too much. There are times in life when you have to stop planning and act, do something. >> MAN 1: We can only take five people at a time.>> ALZIRE ROCOURT: And they are not even providing a chance for the Haitian people who would like to act to do so. We feel paralyzed. The way we have been dealing with education for the past fifteen years, we are ending up with a nation where everyone is a child. They are just at first grade level, second grade level, and no one can move beyond. Is that an aim for a nation? Integrate everybody so everyone learns. We have seventy-five years to make it; if we don't make it we are going to disappear. And I'm not one that believes that countries don't disappear. If they say, for those that still say it, that our independence was a great deed, what have we done of it? Eight million people that are swimming in poverty in no way proves that we are a nation. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: So these are the kinds of things you will learn in high school music classes. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: I love my people. I want them to become a normal people; I want them to become a respected people. For me it is a matter of national survival. >> ALZIRE ROCOURT: Now when you listen to the radio you can understand classical music. Do you understand? Thank you for listening today. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-the-prince Rafeh Malik, the young prince of a powerful Pakistani family, was given the poverty-stricken village of Ratrian on his eighteenth birthday. He is attempting to implement the UN's Millennium Development Goals in the village, yet soon finds out that resources and determination might not be enough to challenge the status quo. Mon, 16 May 2011 08:25:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-the-prince Pakistan, Millennium Development Goals, Governance & Transparency, Water & Sanitation, Health, Islamabad, Education, South Asia, Poverty, Life on the Edge >> VOICEOVER: This is the beginning of a fairy tale. It might not end like one. The prince has come to sell his people a dream.>> RAFEH MALIK: A group of the world's nations have come together and agreed on eight basic targets for development that all countries should achieve. We can achieve these targets.>> VOICEOVER: The question is, are they interested?>> TITLE: The Prince>> VOICEOVER: Our prince is Rafeh Malik. His kingdom is Ratrian, a poverty-ridden village in the North of Pakistan. He inherited the village from his vast family estate on his 18th birthday. Rafeh is the only scion of a powerful family, both in terms of the land they own and the political influence they wield. Any attempt by him to change the status quo here will lead to a dilemma: how to modernize without alienating his father, his friends, maybe even the villagers.He spends most of his days and nights about two hundred kilometers south in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. He's an outward-looking man. His friends include TV journalist Shehryar Mufti. In their many evenings together, an idea came up. Why not try and implement the Millennium Development Goals in Rafeh's own village? The MDGs are eight ambitious development targets signed by world leaders in 2000. The deadline: 2015. The prince has some catching up to do. We asked Shehryar to film Rafeh's progress. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI [Television journalist]: So you do think that your family's political legacy might actually depend on the success of this project?>> RAFEH MALIK: Oh yeah. Political legacy entirely will depend on its success. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: So aren't you afraid that this might not work? Aren't you scared?>> RAFEH MALIK: I am scared, but I'm willing to take the risk.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: First you've got to get past your dad. How do you think that's going to happen?>> RAFEH MALIK: Well, I'll sell him the idea; tell him how it is. It'll be quite difficult. >> VOICEOVER: A visit to Rafeh's family home lends some insight into his dilemma. Life for Rafeh's family here has never really begged for drastic change. For generations, this house has been the headquarters from which Rafeh's family has practiced politics. Today his father, Malik Atta Mohammad, is hosting a meeting of other influential men from nearby villages. This is also a training session of sorts for Rafeh, although his lack of facial hair renders him almost out of uniform. The guests are uneasy at the presence of what they see as a film crew representing the "Western media." They're also uneasy that development agendas like the MDGs may reflect a misplaced sense of superiority in the West. >> MALIK ATTA MOHAMMAD: What the West is projecting; I do not know what they have in their mind when they are trying to propagate this policy. Because I met a lot of NGOs; so they say we have told them how to wash hands and how to -- in Islam, you see, we are supposed to wash hands five times a day. We call it ablution, 'wuzu.' So we do it five times. So who the hell are they to tell us how we should keep ourselves clean? We know how to keep ourselves clean! >> VOICEOVER: Malik Atta doesn't openly oppose his son's plan. But he does question how he can make it happen.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: In a way, for you to take this initiative now would almost be an admission of guilt, in the sense that: why hadn't you done it earlier? Do you think that'll be a problem?>> RAFEH MALIK: It's not a problem that we could have done it earlier. But over the years, certain things came one way or the other; we weren't able to fully implement them, due to political repercussions. >> VOICEOVER: These are the people of Ratrian. Their standard of life, even in comparison to that of other village-dwelling Pakistanis, is pretty low. Rafeh's uncle's political connections paved the way for an erratic electricity supply here a year ago. Life otherwise hasn't changed much for these people for generations. The only local source of water is an occasional hand pump. This young man is idly walking the dung-ridden streets of Ratrian at the peak of the school day. There is a school in Ratrian, but he's not playing truant -- the teacher is. >> SIGN: Welcome>> VOICEOVER: It's padlocked and desolate. The only signs of life here are pages of notebooks and textbooks strewn about. Even the hand pump here is dry. With an estimated ninety percent of livelihoods here depending on sharecropping, poverty is rampant. The tenants earn enough in food not be malnourished. But having money in their pockets is, for most, a distant fantasy. They don't blame their local royal family for their poverty, at least on camera, but they do believe the family has the power to change things.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: So what if they decided to get these problems solved? Could they?>> MAN 1 [Villager]: Of course, absolutely.>> VOICEOVER: And so Rafeh calls the men, as well as the women, of Ratrian to talk about life and how it can be made better. Rafeh wants to know what they think it might take to achieve these goals. Despite finding themselves in a completely unrecognizable situation, the villagers begin to open up. Water is a popular topic of conversation, as is the state of literacy in the village.>> MAN 2 [Villager]: We need a hospital and a school for girls. If something could be done about the drinking water, we'd be grateful. >> VOICEOVER: Women speak openly of their worries for their children.>> WOMAN 1 [Villager]: One day it's diarrhea, the next day it's fever, the next day vomiting. >> RAFEH MALIK: Their query about electricity and all, I made it clear to them that I couldn't help them with that, that's the government's thing. But I will aid them with that as well, but our major primary concern is about the UN Millennium Development Goals, and implementing them over here. So, I think when I told them this would be a humble beginning, I was being honest with them. I think that was the turning point. >> VOICEOVER: Back in the big city, Rafeh begins the critical journey from good idea to solid plan. He makes contact with the Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation.>> ALI ASGHAR [Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation]: I mean, how do you sit with them? Do you sit on a charpai? You know? Have you got a special position over there? Have you got extra takiyas behind you? Or are you sitting on the ground with them and sort of, you know, talking to them?>> VOICEOVER: The village would have to be studied closely by people with no vested interest in it. They volunteer the services of their own organization, an offer that Rafeh accepts. Ratrian will be profiled. This village profile is a missing piece in the puzzle for Rafeh. He has met with people from the government as well as the World Bank. Both have identified a village profile as a critical document central to the whole plan. Maybe even a prerequisite to having one. The Bank has also recommended that he visit a water supply project in nearby Balkassar. At the meeting, several new possibilities are discussed. Rafeh is told of a widely implemented development program. Villages can be rewarded with safe drinking water hand pumps. To qualify, they must end the practice of defecating in the outdoors. It sounds achievable enough, but Ratrian will need help. Several other opportunities are identified and contacts are exchanged. By the end of the meeting, the mood is upbeat.>> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: Do you feel you've bitten off more that you can chew?>> RAFEH MALIK: I don't think I've bitten off more than I can chew. It's just that I need patience. I need perseverance. >> MUMTAZ [NGO team leader]: We're here to help you identify your needs. The point of today is to make a plan, the plan for Ratrian. >> VOICEOVER: As activities commence, the villagers seem to be somewhat bewildered. A handful catches on quickly. They proceed to help Mumtaz's team to construct what is the first ever map of Ratrian. >> MAN 1 [Villager]: If you're ready to do things, we're ready for them to be done. People come, conduct their surveys, and then just disappear!>> VOICEOVER: The village profile is now firmly on track. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: You're not used to this, are you? Knocking on doors and stuff like that.>> RAFEH MALIK: No, things were different; we never really went about it this way. >> SHEHRYAR MUFTI: How's your father taking this whole thing?>> RAFEH MALIK: Well, so far he's just standing by me.>> VOICEOVER: Malik Atta Mohammad speaks for himself.>> MALIK ATTA MOHAMMAD: I don't think I can help him much. Of course, the connections that I have, he can benefit from them. And where politically we're opposed, he will face the same music. You see, somebody could say this is a crazy lot, talking about millennium goals when people are suffering. Unless you see something happen before you, something concrete, only then you will believe it. At present it is all in the air. >> VOICEOVER: You'd think meeting the MDGs is a matter of resources and will. But it's not that simple. The prince is caught between two worlds. Should he risk disrupting a society that, for better or for worse, has at least functioned for centuries? It's a tough choice. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-trawler-girl Johanna Kwedhi is Namibia's first female trawler captain. Namibia signed up to the Millennium Development Goals, which include specific targets for women on education, reproductive health and equality. Johanna is an example of targets fulfilled, but what about her friends and relatives in the rural area where she was raised? Fri, 13 May 2011 08:44:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-trawler-girl Namibia, Millennium Development Goals, Gender, Africa, Gender equality, Reproductive health, Maternal death, Namib Desert, Health, Life on the Edge >> VOICEOVER: We?re at the edge of the Namib Desert, on Africa?s southwest coast. A world of drought, danger, shipwreck -- but also, fish. Luderitz Harbor, an old port rebuilt for fishing boats. The industry is one of the pillars of Namibia?s economy. It?s a man?s world. Johanna Kwedhi is going aboard the Kanus, one of the fleet?s largest vessels. Except, Johanna is not coming on board as a guest. Johanna is Namibia?s first female trawler skipper. >> TITLE: Trawler Girl>> JOHANNA KWEDHI [Trawler captain]: At the bridge we are three: me as the Captain, a Chief Mate and a Second Mate. >> VOICEOVER: Men are not used to a woman at the wheel. Women don?t normally chart the course, literally or metaphorically. Or give orders, however pleasantly. And the crew knows their lives are in her hands.>> AARON ALWEENDO [Chief mate]: I have been working with Miss Johanna Kwedhi, who is my captain, for two years. She is the one who gives an order, what has to be done for the day, everything like that. So the orders come from him -- I mean, from her. >> VOICEOVER: For the older fishermen, it is a novelty to have an educated black Namibian as skipper.>> MAN 1: We had never seen a black person in charge of a ship. It has always been a Spanish person. Now that black people are here in command we are very proud. Since we do not know the foreign languages they can now communicate on our behalf. Today, I can just ask Johanna for anything. >> VOICEOVER: Back on land, Johanna is like any other woman -- at least, one with a paid job. But she?s not only shopping for herself, she is taking care of her small family.>> JOHANNA KWEDHI: I have a young boy of 14 months. He is lovely. This is my cousin, Aguste. So she is taking care of my boy when I am out at sea. The attention I get at sea is more than what I get on shore, because they pass by, they say, ?Hi Miss Johanna!? But here on shore when I say ?Hi? it?s just ?Hi.?>> VOICEOVER: Namibia signed up to the Millennium Development Goals, the MDGs, which aim to cut poverty by half by 2015. The goals include specific targets for women -- on education, reproductive health and equality. Johanna?s an example of targets fulfilled. But going back home, how about her friends and her relatives? En route to her aunt, Johanna?s reminded of her humble beginnings when she first came to Luderitz. Most people flock to this coastal town in search of job opportunities. Once here, they are forced to live in shantytowns with no running water or electricity and no proper toilets, at least until they can make a better life for themselves. >> JOHANNA KWEDHI: This is the room, the place where I stayed for six years when I came to Luderitz. For six years I stayed in this house where is no electricity, there is no bathroom and no toilet. We used to go out to the mountains. With peace of mind I was just happy with this. People said to me, ?Wow! An officer living in the shantytown!? But I say, ?No, I am here with peace of mind and I have health.? Life goes on like that.>> VOICEOVER: But Johanna's a child of the villages, not the shantytowns. And her journey home is fifteen hundred kilometers. More than 70 percent of Namibians are subsistence farmers and live close to the land, including Johanna's parents. Her grandmother, who still has a big influence on her, raised Johanna. >> JOHANNA KWEDHI: This is my grandmother, on my mother's side. She taught me many things, traditional things. >> VOICEOVER: Forty-three percent of Namibia's unemployed are considered 'homemakers.' And 70 percent of homemakers are women. Most women remain trapped in the rural poverty cycle. But women like Johanna are quietly breaking the mold, and helping her family back home. >> JOHANNA'S GRANDMOTHER: Now, like they say, a chick also needs to learn how to fend for its mother. Now she is taking care of me.>> JOHANNA KWEDHI: The big challenge in this country for young people is falling pregnant at an early age. So they say, 'No, just try abortion!' Without education your life is meaningless. >> VOICEOVER: Johanna was born at home, but her mother developed complications during birth and had to be brought to Onandjokwe, the local hospital. Many aren?t so lucky: maternal mortality?s proved one of the hardest Millennium Development Goal for Namibia to meet. A recent report suggests maternal deaths actually increased. That may be because of HIV, but many poor women still have problems accessing medical care during pregnancy and childbirth, and the newborn death rate is still one in 50.>> JOHANNA KWEDHI: Here in Namibia the death rate of small children is caused because young people, during their pregnancy, don?t go to the clinic. Some of them do not know the importance of going to the clinic during their pregnancy. Some have financial problems and they can?t go, because the hospital is very far. And some just ignore it. They ask, ?What for? I can even deliver at home. My mom and my grandmother delivered here at home, I can?t waste my money there.? They are not working and they did not plan for that. >> VOICEOVER: The neighbors came out to greet Johanna. So has one of her former teachers.>> HOSEA IPINGE [Johanna's former teacher]: I met Johanna just when she completed her Grade Seven at our school. We also happen to be neighbors too. She was a hard working student and that is why she has managed to achieve so much. >> VOICEOVER: Johanna used to walk 14 kilometers to Onyeka School. She learns there are now more girls enrolling than boys, and there are also more girls completing secondary education. >> HAFENI KAPENDA [Principal, Onyeka School]: How can I help you?>> JOHANNA KWEDHI: So there are more boys than girls at this school. >> VOICEOVER: School enrolment is critical, but the lesson from the captain is that you have to finish too. >> HAFENI KAPENDA: She is the first female captain. Do you know boats? >> VOICEOVER: Most girls here will most likely end up as teachers and nurses. Most boys will probably remain at the cattle post, taking care of the family's animals. For girls and boys, Johanna's a role model. >> BOY: When steering a boat, does your boat have rear view mirrors like in a car to help you look in front and at the back?>> JOHANNA KWEDHI: No. A boat has no rear view mirrors. The bridge has windows on each side to make your view easier, also windows at the back. It is big, just like this room.>> VOICEOVER: Johanna's stories are a reminder of the value of education. Coming home has shown Johanna the problems that still confront other women, even if her story proves they can be overcome. Johanna's time on land has ended. She just wants to catch fish, earn a living, and bring up her child. But in a man's world, she's also making a point not everyone wants to hear. >> JOHANNA KWEDHI: We have to do it. Just do it. Among men, you are there on top operating the wheel, they are down there. Some are saying, ?What, a young lady?? I feel -- yes! It?s a way of showing men that we women are capable of doing something at the end of the day. I enjoy it. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-the-mothers-index Being a new mom is rewarding and challenging. But what extra burdens do mothers in poor and rural communities face? Take a tour of the world's best and worst places to be a mom, in this report from Save the Children and ViewChange.org. Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-the-mothers-index Save the Children, Maternal death, Child mortality, Childbirth, Pregnancy, Ashta no Kai, Education, Gender, Nepal, Malawi >> VOICEOVER: Next up: an all-new mother's day special. Being a new mom is rewarding and challenging -- but what extra burdens do mothers in poorer countries face? Come take a tour of the world's best and worst places to be a mom, in this new report from Save the Children and ViewChange.org.>> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: The Mothers Index.>> VOICEOVER: You've heard the term "lottery of birth." More often than not, children born in rich countries win it, while those in poor countries lose. A child's life expectancy, health, education, and so much more hinges on where he or she happens to enter the world. But there's also a lottery of motherhood, and expectant moms in developing countries are facing the toughest odds. Every year, more than 350,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth -- most, simply because they don't have access to basic delivery care. >>WOMAN: Push hard!>> VOICEOVER: And the ripple effect is dramatic: when a mother dies, her children are more likely to be poor, more likely to die before the age of five, or to drop out of school if they survive. But private aid groups and governments are working hard to change the odds in the lottery of motherhood. In Sierra Leone, a place that Save the Children ranks as one of the very worst places to be a mom, a new government program is trying to turn the tide, as we see in this short film from ViewChange.>> TITLE: Where Every Pregnancy is a Gamble. Lauren Malkani and Ami Vitale, Sierra Leone>> VOICEOVER: After a brutal decade-long conflict, Sierra Leone has the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world.>> FATIMATA KONTE [Expectant mother, Kroo Bay]: My name is Fatimata Konte. I'm 36 years old. We women suffer too much. Women in Sierra Leone suffer too much! I've lived in Kroo Bay for four years. When I wake up at 5am I get out of bed, and the kind of pain that I feel is from my waist bone down to the bottom of my belly. I cough and I'm very sick. I'm really sick but it's like this for all women. From the day a child is born, she must work. Every day I must go to the market. There I have to bargain for fruits. It's a strain to go to the market. I must sell the fruit to have money to buy food to sell for the next day. It's all I can do to survive. I work for my daughter so she can go to school. She is in class four. I want her to learn. Let her learn. I want her to be somebody.>> DR. TAGIE GBAWRU-MANSARAY [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: When a woman is educated she can take care of herself, she can take care of the children, she can take care of her husband, her home. It benefits the population, the family, and it will help Sierra Leone in the long run. I'm a medical doctor, house officer here at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. When you're in school and you're studying to become a doctor, you read about all the fanciful techniques, all the wonderful drugs, the magic pills that you give to patients, all the different things that you can do as a doctor. When you come into the real world and you see that even basic things we don't have here -- the basic drugs, simple equipment -- and you are limited. At times you see a particular case and you think to yourself, if only I had this, if only I had that, I would have been able to save a patient's life.>> VOICEOVER: One in five children die before their first birthday, and one in eight women die during pregnancy.>> FATIMATA KONTE: I have two children and I've lost five, so this is the eighth pregnancy. So right now, I am remembering the past. I am worried this one can die too. My biggest fear is that this child will die.>> VOICEOVER: The one referral hospital in the capital of Freetown services a population of over 400,000 people.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE [Doctor, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: Hello, good afternoon. My name is Dr. Ibraham Thorlie. In this hospital we have four gynecologists. One doctor can serve over 100,000 people.>> VOICEOVER: Though the hospital is severely understaffed, it is not the only reason so many people are dying.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: The delay starts from home. If a woman is pregnant, she wants to give birth, and the husband is not around, she cannot be taken anywhere without the husband coming, because he gives the money. If you come too late, we cannot help you.>> VOICEOVER: And, often, those patients who come too late are very close to death.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: It's a big dilemma. If the patient can pay you, then it's good. But when they cannot pay you, you need to help them.>> VOICEOVER: Rather than watching their patients die, many doctors and nurses like Rebecca pay for the worst cases from their own small salaries.>> REBECCA MASSAQUEI [Nurse, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital]: I'm a poor nurse. I don't have money to take care of this baby. But the baby should have died, because there was nobody to take care of the baby. So that's why I decided to take the baby. He will live to tell this story. So he's the victory child. That why I call his name Victor.>> VOICEOVER: Victor is one of the few lucky survivors in a place where so many die. However, the government has just launched a program providing free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five.>> DR. IBRAHAM THORLIE: Now things are picking up with the pronouncement of the free healthcare system. It's a big incentive and we hope that will surely bring a difference. But to sustain it is not an easy thing.>> FATIMATA KONTE: We women are all very happy that women will finally get treated.>> TITLE: On April 16, 2010 Fatimata Konte gave birth to a healthy baby boy.>> TITLE: [end credits]>> VOICEOVER: So where are the best and worst places to be a mom? For its "State of the World's Mothers" report, Save the Children studied 164 countries, and compiled a "mothers index." At the top of the index, women have what they need to thrive: excellent medical services, plenty of skilled health workers, and opportunities for education and advancement. But the gap between the top- and bottom-ranked countries is stark. At the bottom, one in three children suffers from malnutrition, and one in 30 women will die from pregnancy-related causes. And how does the United States stack up? Number 31. America's maternal mortality is the highest of any industrialized nation. >> VOICEOVER: But the study is also clear about solutions that work. And the very best solution for helping moms and children? More health workers on the front lines. The equation is simple: more doctors, more midwives and community health workers means more mothers and children surviving childbirth and the early years of life. Nowhere is this more clear than a place like Nepal, which is ranked 133rd on the Mothers Index. This ViewChange short film from Living Proof tells the story. >> TITLE: In one of the world's poorest places, the day a woman gives birth is the most dangerous day of her life, and her child's life. Can one woman and her baby beat the odds?>> TITLE: Dangerous Day. Living Proof, Nepal>> TITLE: Western Nepal >> TITLE: People scratch out a living in the Himalayan foothills, and life is hardest for women>> MAHESWORI: My name is Maheswori. I'm 19 years old. My husband went to India to work. Here there is no food, no rice, no nothing. Around here, there's no work. >> TITLE: Maheswori is pregnant and past due.>> MAHESWORI: I am very, very scared. Everyone has been asking about it, and that makes me even more scared. My first child was breech born, and I might just die this time. If I will live, I will live. If I will die, I will die. >> TITLE: The nearest hospital is four hours away. >> MAHESWORI: Some said take her to the hospital, some said drive her down. Everyone had opinions. But how would you get a car without money?>> TITLE: She plans to deliver in the same place she gave birth before.>> MAHESWORI: In November my daughter was born. I had the baby in our cow shed. >> TITLE: By local custom, mother and child are quarantined as "unclean.">> MAHESWORI: For 12 days after the birth, the baby and I were kept in the cow shed. On the 13th day we were allowed out. You can't take a newborn in the house, God gets angry. You're better off in the cow shed. >> TITLE: Because of Maheswori's high-risk pregnancy, an aid worker traveling with the camera crew makes a case to village elders. They consent to having a birth attendant, and she won't give birth in the cow shed. >> MAHESWORI: I am going to die. Oh my mother! I am dying ...>> WOMAN: Get me the gloves, quickly.>> MAHESWORI: I am dying ... am dying. Please ... I can't.>> WOMAN: It's a complete breech situation. Push hard!>> INDUKA KARI [CARE Program Officer]: She was completely unaware of the fact that she would need medical care because her first child was breech born. >> TITLE: She gives birth to another daughter, Seema. >> INDUKA KARI: If she hadn't gotten proper care by a trained birth attendant, she would've died. >> MAHESWORI: I'll rest for seven days, but then it's back to work. I have to pound the rice, carry water, cut grass, and chop wood. Life is tough here. >> TITLE: Living Proof. Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: In Nepal, 80 percent of births occur at home with no skilled birth attendant like Maheswori had. But support from global partners is helping train Nepal's 45,000 female health volunteers, and they are dramatically improving Nepal's health outcomes. >> VOICEOVER: If there's one overwhelming success story in maternal and child health, it can be found in Malawi, where almost half the county -- 40 percent -- lives in poverty. But, for years, the government has been investing in all sorts of new plans for life-saving care. The result? The number of deaths in children under five has been cut in half over the past 20 years. Malawi's striking results are strongly linked to efforts on the ground, house by house, community to community, to give mothers the support they need. Living Proof has this success story from Malawi>> TITLE: Grandparents Shaping Safe Childbirth. Living Proof, Malawi >> TITLE: Wacapati = Pregnancy>> TITLE: In Malawi, the word for pregnancy also means 50/50. Conventional wisdom says there is just a 50/50 chance a woman will survive childbirth. >> TITLE: Agogo = Grandparent>> TITLE: Agogos are known as the guardians of wisdom and are responsible for passing on tradition.>> TITLE: Can agogos help improve the odds of wacapati? >> TITLE: Ekwendeni, Malawi>> LYTON CHAWINGA: My name is Lyton Chawinga, and I have six grandchildren. I was born at home, in 1948. In previous days, pregnant mothers were using unsafe methods. Some would have their babies in grass huts. After giving birth, they would leave babies on the ground in the cold. We didn't know better. We had a lot of deaths. One day, hospital workers asked us to be a part of the Agogo Program.>> TITLE: The Agogo Program teaches village elders about proper natal care and helps agogos pass along those messages to their communities. >> LYTON CHAWINGA: We go to their house. We talk to both the man and the woman. We are here to chat with you about the importance of going to the hospital when you are pregnant. We show them pictures and tell them what can happen if they give birth at home. That the mother or baby can fall sick or die. >> WOMAN [Agogo]: After three months, start going for checkups. Escort each other. Many husbands refuse to escort their wives, which is not good. >> TITLE: Agogos also use traditional methods to teach modern messages. >> WOMEN: Pregnancy doesn't kill, the hospital is good, and all our children should be taken there.>> LYTON CHAWINGA: Deaths have decreased, diseases have decreased, and life has improved. I am really happy because if the student fails you are not a good teacher. I see fruits of what I teach and I am proud that I am a good teacher.>> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: With support and funding, 4,000 agogos have been trained in Malawi.>> TITLE: As a result, Ekwendeni Hospital has seen a 60 percent increase in pregnant women seeking antenatal care.>> TITLE: To accommodate them, the hospital is building a new, larger maternal ward.>> VOICEOVER: Access to health care isn't the whole story, of course. Helping women must include an investment in education. In rural Bangladesh, communities are learning the real value of empowering women. This film from Save the Children shows that giving girls a voice can be the most powerful solution of all. >> TITLE: Shilpi's Story. Save the Children, Bangladesh>> TITLE: This is Shilpi's story. Tiler Char, Barishal, Bangladesh.>> VOICEOVER: Shilpi's father died when she was very young. Her mother worked as a maid to support Shilpi and two younger sons. She earned only enough to feed them one meal a day. When Save the Children started the Girls' Voices project nearby, Shilpi joined. She met with other teenage girls to build self-confidence and learn new skills, like making a budget and saving money. Shilpi realized she could help support her family, even without working outside the home. She started her first business weaving mats. >> SHILPI: Later, I thought about how I could use the money I earn from weaving mats to do more. So I bought a small cow. After a year it gave birth. At that time we got 2 to 2.5 liters of milk from the cow every day. I sold that milk and used the money for my family. Later, when I had earned more money from weaving mats, I saved it. Our house was very small. It was awful to live there during the rainy season. So I decided we should build a new house. I sold the calf and used the money from my savings to build this house. If I had not joined "Girls' Voices" I would have been married by now, like all the other girls. Then I would not have been able to build such a big house or buy a cow. Now my plan is to buy a piece of land since we do not have any. The other plan I have is for my brother. Because he is handicapped, I am supporting his studies. That way he can get a job and earn his own living. My mother used to think if I had been a son instead of a daughter our life would have been much easier. But now she thinks "my daughter has done more for our family than a son would ever do.">> VOICEOVER: Around the world, communities are coming together, not only to save the lives of mothers and children, but to improve them. To give women real opportunities to change the courses of their lives. Basic health care can solve the most urgent crises, but a bigger sea change -- one that empowers women to learn, to marry later, and to decide when to have children -- will ultimately close the gaps in the odds that mothers face. Those changes are happening every day, country by country, and girl by girl. Sometimes, in places like India, something as simple as a bicycle can make all the difference.>> TITLE: Hubub Films Presents>> TITLE: Sone Sangvi, India>> TITLE: Pedal=Sight. Jacob Seigel-Boettner, India >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: My name is Bharati Phakad Date. I am 14 years old. I live in Sone Sangvi. I am going to Nimgaon Bhogi High School. I am learning in the ninth standard [grade]. My favorite actor is Mithun Chakrabothy because he always plays a humanitarian, someone who helps other people. My favorite actress is Rani Mukherjee. I like her husky voice. There are a lot of people who live on the streets. I will help them. There are so many people in this world who do not even get one meal a day. I will help them. >> TITLE: Pedal = Sight>> ARMENE MODI [Director, Ashta No Kai]: For about a couple of years, we only focused on adult women and literacy for them, and I noticed many of the girls who came to the class were very, very young girls with mangalsutra, which is a gold-and-black beaded necklace, around their necks, which in India is a symbol of matrimony, and they had babies on their hips, and I started to ask, "What's going on?" and, "Why are such young girls married off already?">> BHARATI'S MOTHER: My life, my generation, was full of darkness. I have to make sure that my daughters get a good education. It is our duty. If you are uneducated, then it is as if you only have one eye. >> ARMENE MODI: In many villages, there were only schools until seventh grade. There were no high schools. So we worked in 10 villages at that point of time, and there were only three high schools. So then I asked the parents, the mothers, "Well, what happens to the boys? How do you send the boys to school?" And they said, "Well, we give them bicycles." And I said, "Well, what about the girls?" And they said, "Oh, no. It's a waste of money to give a bicycle to a girl. She's going to turn around and get married." There's a famous Indian saying: Why water a plant that's going to grow in a neighbor's garden? So, I thought, my God, if it's only a bicycle that's keeping girls from going to school, let's go ahead and give it to them. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: The bike has been really useful. Now, the time that I save commuting to school can be used to study. Also, now I can ride to school with my friends. It's a lot of fun. I used to have to walk to school. >> BHARATI'S MOTHER: Initially, she had to walk to school. It took her more than an hour. Now she can ride to school in 15 minutes. She now feels very motivated and enthusiastic to attend school. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: I want to become a District Supervisor, because then I can make big decisions, and also have the power to implement them. I would be able to make decisions regarding the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. I would be able to help transform society. My name is Bharati Phakad Date. I am 14 years old. I live in Sone Sangvi. I want to eradicate poverty from this country. >> TITLE: [end credits]>> VOICEOVER: Like what you saw? Then visit ViewChange.org, Link TV's brand new multimedia website. Watch over 200 stories about new solutions to the developing world's biggest challenges, get involved with the issues, share the stories with friends, and help change the world, all at ViewChange.org>> VOICEOVER: To read the full 2011 "State of the World's Mothers" report, and to learn more about Save the Children, visit savethechildren.org.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/un-supports-clam-cooperatives-in-morocco Women living in rural agricultural areas in Morocco have begun to boost their incomes through clam farming in the country's local lagoons. The Moroccan government and the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, have created a project to teach women essential skills allowing them to manage profitable businesses. Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:08:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/un-supports-clam-cooperatives-in-morocco Morocco, Gender, United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, Cooperative, Agriculture & Food, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality >> VOICEOVER: In a rural village, framed by the ocean along the peaceful Atlantic coast of Morocco, tensions are flaring. Earning a living is hard in this region, especially for women, who rarely receive an education. But there is something these women are doing that is making them a lot more prosperous, and it certainly has caught the men's attention. Kaboora Moutaki, and her sister Halima, grew up here. >> KABOORA MOUTAKI: We never had a chance to go to school. The only thing for us to do is work with our parents, or in the lagoon. >> VOICEOVER: These sisters, like other women in their village, have few options other than to work long days on the tidal flats, ankle deep in mud, gathering clams at low tide, and selling them at local markets. Their income is an average of less than 50 dollars a year. But now, the government's Ministry of Fisheries and the Rural Women's Development Association created the Women's Clam Association project. Its goal is to teach women to turn clamming into a profitable business. First, women learn the basics of shell fishing. They're taught how to separate out the large clams ready for immediate sale, and how to nurture the small ones into maturity for future sale. To do this, they create beds of mud, place these clams in the dirt, and cover them. After a year, they're ready for sale, and the women are ready to do something most have never done before - enter a classroom. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, created training programs that help teach women how to market their products and how to negotiate with clients like restaurants and wholesalers. Emmanuel Dierckx de Casterlé is the UNDP representative in Morocco. >> EMMANUEL DIERCKX DE CASTERLÉ: We have to tell them how to organize the commercial products and the commercial marketing of all this. >> VOICEOVER: Women also develop literacy and math skills, useful for pricing and business management. The program has been a big success. Last year, the women more than doubled their usual haul and sold their shellfish at record prices, more than tripling their income. Today, Kaboora is the president of the Women's Clam Association in her community. >> KABOORA MOUTAKI: We share the profits, and then we put aside a certain amount in savings. >> VOICEOVER: For Kaboora and her sister Halima, and the other women in their cooperative, this means having financial independence for the first time in their lives. For the men in the community, it means big changes. Now many men are demanding a piece of the action. They want their own cooperatives and their own training programs. >> MAN: We can earn a living if we have a cooperative. >> VOICEOVER: The UNDP and the Moroccan government are considering expanding their programs to include men. But in the meantime, both sides must learn to adjust to the many changes taking place. Kamil Taha prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-loans-in-egypt In Egypt, more and more women are heads of household and are seeking new ways to improve their standard of living. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, has introduced a microcredit project called Microstart for women who are interested in turning unique ideas into business opportunities. Miscrostart is playing a major role in breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering women in Egypt. Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:25:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-loans-in-egypt Egypt, Gender, Microfinance, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality >> VOICEOVER: Women in Egypt are searching for new ways to improve their standard of living. Many of them depended on their husbands who were once the sole breadwinners. Seven years ago, Umtouba lost her husband. As a young girl, Umtouba helped her family to produce rope made from palm leaves. This was a family tradition. She continued the craft of rope making after she got married. Now, with the death of her husband, she finds herself working alone to raise her three daughters and three sons. This is not an easy task because her husband did everything for her. >> UMTOUBA: I would never go outside to buy these leaves. He would go to the market and bring everything here. He would bring things in the car. I would sit here and work. He would bring things to me as I sat here.>> VOICEOVER: Women who are the heads of households find themselves in vulnerable situations. Umtouba's neighbor, Sahar, says that there is need for caution when women negotiate with customers. >> SAHAR: She used to sell to the merchants. He might or might not pay her. He could cheat her.>> VOICEOVER: Sahar works for Microstart, a scheme developed by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP. Microstart's main focus is to break the cycle of poverty. It targets female-headed households. Many women have received loans ranging from 80 dollars to 300 dollars. Sahar's job is to build a trusting relationship with the women before their loans are approved. >> SAHAR: If she needs anything, she asks me. I answer her questions. I try to be a friend to her before she receives the loan. I get to know her. I get to know where she's from, everything about her home.>> VOICEOVER: Umtouba finally received a loan of 80 dollars with Sahar's help. She fixed up her house and sent one child to school with the money. The Microstart project has helped over 6,000 people find jobs in Fayoum by approving five thousand loans. The project is tackling two of the Millennium Development Goals established at the United Nations Summit in 2000: empowering women and reducing poverty. Beshir Shousa and Mary Ferreira prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg3-empowering-african-women As the second decade of the 21st century dawns, the United Nations Development Programme and the African Union are placing an emphasis on advancing women's rights and gender equality throughout the African continent. Meet some of the women who are leading this push and laying the foundation for the "decade of African women." Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:54:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg3-empowering-african-women Africa, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality, Gender, TrustAfrica, African Women's Development Fund, Education, ViewChange Online Film Contest, African Union, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf >> TITLE: UN MDG 3: Empowering African Women: A Success Story. >> SANDRA ZERBO [MDG3 Coordinator, TrustAfrica]: Many countries in Africa are going to reach their 50th year anniversary of independence, which means it's been 50 years since they've been nation-states. In a nation-state, we have to consider gender equality. There is no way around it. The African Union has tagged the period 2010 to 2020 as "the decade of African women" to really use this time to put women at the forefront of many of the fights that we carry out. This time is crucial, and it is a time that we can use to really push the MDG3 agenda forward. >> MARIETTA WILLIAMS [Executive Director, UMWAEO]: My name is Marietta M. Williams, Executive Director of the United Muslim Women Advocacy and Empowerment Organization. The problem that we actually have is illiteracy. The illiteracy among our rural women is 95%. >> WOMAN 1: We are learning. We didn't read before, but they came in and taught us how to read and write. To even sit down among two or three people to speak. It was hard on us, but we thank them. They've been teaching us our ABC's and our rights. Your rights in the community, your rights with your husband, rights with property, your rights as a woman. And how to take care of your child to go to school. >> MARIETTA WILLIAMS: Things have improved; women are now talking for themselves, they now know about their rights, their responsibilities. They know they have the right to own property, they have the right to go to school, and they have the right to engage in businesses. They have the right to meet as a group to discuss issues that are affecting them in the communities. >> WOMAN 1: They told us about the group. They said they were going to come to empower the women. They came and helped to open our eyes. >> WOMAN 2: Men can respect women now. >> SANDRA ZERBO: In terms of women's political participation, we are establishing internships to give the opportunity to emerging leaders to participate in the activities of organizations that work on that issue. And then we are also trying to set up exchange trips for women leaders to learn from each other in another environment. There has to first be some sort of political will to move women forward, which is probably what we've seen in Rwanda. There has been a lot of political will to have gender equity in parliament, which they've reached. >> SARAH MUKASA [Director of Programs, African Women's Development Fund]: We would like to see more women in governance and leadership. As presidents, we have Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who's doing a wonderful job in Liberia. We hope to see more of those kinds of examples on the continent.>> SANDRA ZERBO: All in all, I think that the opportunities are there and that these challenges can be overcome. And we've seen so with Liberia, where we have a woman president, and also in Rwanda, where parliament is a 50-50 share. We care about the MDG3 because we care about mothers. In taking care of mothers, we take care of children. It's clear that children are the future of our continent, so if we take good care of their mothers, if a child doesn't see his or her mother beaten up at home, then your child grows up in an environment that makes him a leader for tomorrow. We have international organizations like the UNDP that really help improve the capacity of women. There are a lot of women's groups and women's advocates that lobby not only at the national level but also at the international level to say to the world that, you know, this is not fair and we need the situation to change. Over the years things have improved, and we have to recognize that and acknowledge the fact that there have been a lot of civil society organizations, a lot of women advocates, who have fought for the cause and who have done a great job at it. >> ADHIAMBO ODAGA [Representative, Ford Foundation - West Africa]: Things are moving, you know. Africa is on the move. Everyday, somewhere, people are organizing and making life better for themselves and for their families and their communities. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/womens-bank Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghathan is a "Women's Bank" NGO based in Kutch district in western India. This award-winning, locally-run microfinance project has not only helped village women achieve financial aptitude, but it has also boosted their confidence, helping them overcome social problems. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/womens-bank India, Microfinance, Gender, Gujarat, Kutch District, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality, International Women's Day >> TITLE: Women's Bank>> MS. VEENA JOSHI [Project Coordinator, KMVS, Bhuj]: It was started in Mundra Taluka (Gujarat) in August 1994 while in Nakhatrana Taluka in May 1995. In Bangladesh, it was successful to reduce poverty, like that it also started in our country. ?Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghthan? (Kutch Women's Development Organization, KMVS) was already working in these villages.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA [Vice President, Ujas proj.]: We learned a lot in this program since 1994. Our objective was to give relief from sahukars (moneylenders) debt and to give low interest loans.>> MS. VEENA JOSHI: If there are 20 individuals in a group, their savings capacity must be less, so a microcredit program would be useless. We thought, why don't we go into the concept of a Women's Bank.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: We didn't know what a "bank" was.>> MS. VEENA JOSHI: After one year, we all got together for a meeting. It would not work in small savings like 5 to 20 rupees with few villages. So we decided to include more villages, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30... and we created a chain of villages. We fixed 30 rupees for the poor, with a minimum of 30 rupees and a maximum as they wish. So we will have more savings.>> WOMAN 1: I have saved since it started.>> WOMAN 2: Without savings, the bank would not work.>> WOMAN 3: More savings is only good for us.>> MRS. JASMIN GOGARI [Loan beneficiary and cloth merchant]: Yes, I saved first and I got the loan. Now I am a loan borrower of more than 37000 rupees.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: If individuals and leaders take responsibility, then we would only approve loans. We are working for those who are not in reach of banks.>> MS. MALSHREE GADHAVI [Field coordinator]: They faced the dislike of men while they disclosed issues like alcoholism and domestic violence, and they tried to stop this union.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: We never worked in pressure. >> MRS. JASMIN GOGARI: I took a loan only when I needed it, and I earned and paid them back. We all are ahead because of this bank. >> SIGN: This is to certify that "Ujas Mahila Sangathan, Gujarat" had participated in the Microfinance Process Excellence Awards, 2006>> TITLE: Concept & Created by Ankur Vora http://www.viewchange.org/videos/water-pressures Average rainfall in the Thar Desert region of Rajasthan, India, can be as little as two inches a year. Having access to water in the area determines the difference between getting an education and living a life that revolves around spending the majority of the day walking to get water. A local NGO has teamed up with villagers to build wells and provide the local population with clean, safe drinking water. This has given many young people the freedom to learn and grow. Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:33:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/water-pressures India, Rajasthan, Water & Sanitation, Women's rights, Water security, Millennium Development Goals, Drinking water, Environment, Millennium Villages Project, Freshwater >> TITLE: Water Pressures >> TITLE: Deja Bi: 98 years. Water is her story. Saltwater. Since 12 years old, Deja Bi has walked nearly 6 hrs a day to fetch water. Neither Deja Bi, her children, nor grandchildren attended school. Water and work have always been priorities. Water they DO have access to is salty and causes illness. >> TITLE: Manju: 18 years. Manju also fetches water. Sweet - fresh water. Manju's well is 50 feet from her home. It is covered and clean. Water is just the beginning of her story. >> KANUPRIYA HARISH [Executive Director, Jal Bhagirathi Foundation]: Manju is one of our community producers. From about fifteen, twenty girls she was interviewed, she was selected. >> TITLE: The Jal Bhagirathi Foundation provided the wells for Manju's village and school >> TITLE: They also provide media training for Manju and other students interested in telling community stories >> KANUPRIYA HARISH: She was a very, very shy girl. I mean the Manju that you see now is someone who's developed over six months. >> TITLE: Only 20 minutes separate these two women >> TITLE: But 80 years and a world of opportunity stand between them >> TITLE: Saltwater >> DEJA BI: My stomach hurts from the saltwater. I get diarrhea. I can't drink it. I don't have time here. This is the time of dying. So, I shift to the graveyard - to the grave. >> TITLE: Sweetwater >> KANUPRIYA HARISH: She's a different girl. She was a different girl when she had come her, but now she's very different, very confident. >> MANJU: I especially enjoy roaming the villages, talking to villagers. Whatever main issue the villagers speak of, that is what we make our film about. Mostly they speak about water problems. But things ARE improving greatly. >> TITLE: The difference is water. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-malawi-kangaroo-mother-care A very simple idea is helping pre-term babies survive in Malawi. Kangaroo mother care, supported by USAID and Save the Children, teaches mothers to increase the body temperatures of their newborns by wrapping the babies to their bare chests. Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:33:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-malawi-kangaroo-mother-care Kangaroo care, Malawi, World Health Organization, Developing country, Millennium Development Goals, Child mortality, International Women's Day, Health, ONE Campaign, Infant >> TITLE: Challenge: Every year in developing countries, almost one million pre-term babies die in their first month of life. Hypothermia, infection, and feeding difficulties are among the leading causes. >> TITLE: Solution: Provide critical newborn care using natural heat. >> TITLE: Can the human body replace an incubator? >> TITLE: Malawi >> GRACE NDOTO: It took me nine years to get pregnant. I was seven months pregnant, but all of the sudden my blood pressure was just high. The doctors said the case was very serious. They decided to deliver through operation. The chances were just 50/50 to be alive or not. >> TITLE: Every year in Malawi, 20,000 mothers like Grace lose their pre-term babies due to low birth weight. >> GRACE NDOTO: Imagine, after nine years without a child. I felt bad. Tuntufye was born at 820 grams. >> TITLE: 820 grams = 1.8 pounds >> GRACE NDOTO: She was less than a packet of sugar. It was then when some nurses advised me to go for kangaroo mother care. >> TITLE: In kangaroo mother care, mothers wrap babies to their bare chests. >> GRACE NDOTO: I went there, and my child started growing. >> TITLE: Skin-to-skin contact helps reduce hypothermia, improve feeding, and promote bonding. >> GRACE NDOTO: She was adding grams every day. When a baby is premature, it needs three important things: that is heat, food, and love. You provide heat with skin contact. You provide food easily. When the baby is here, the love is also there. There is strong bondage between you and baby. Kangaroo mother care really assisted my daughter to be alive today, to see her today, to talk with her today. It saved my baby's life. Now, I am visiting people in my community, in my church, at the hospital, preaching about the kangaroo mother care. I spend time with my fellow mothers, telling them the benefits of kangaroo mother care. Tuntufye now is three years old. When she grows up I will tell her the story. She's my love, she's my only, and I am a living example. Yeah. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: Since 2002, 11 countries have introduced kangaroo mother care units in their hospitals. In 2003, the World Health Organization formally endorsed kangaroo mother care as an effective treatment to protect newborns. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. www.one.org/livingproof http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-malawi-grandparents-shaping-safe-childbirth In Malawi, agogos (grandparents) are responsible for passing on tradition. Through the Agogo Program, they are educating future parents on proper pre- and post-natal care to help increase the odds of safe childbirth.<br /> Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:33:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-malawi-grandparents-shaping-safe-childbirth Malawi, Pregnancy, Millennium Development Goals, Maternal death, Child mortality, Living Proof, ONE Campaign, Sub-Saharan Africa, Home birth, Childbirth >> TITLE: Wacapati = Pregnancy >> TITLE: In Malawi, the word for pregnancy also means 50/50. Conventional wisdom says there is just a 50/50 chance a woman will survive childbirth. >> TITLE: Agogo = Grandparent >> TITLE: Agogos are known as the guardians of wisdom and are responsible for passing on tradition. >> TITLE: Can agogos help improve the odds of wacapati? >> TITLE: Ekwendeni, Malawi >> LYTON CHAWINGA: My name is Lyton Chawinga, and I have six grandchildren. I was born at home, in 1948. In previous days, pregnant mothers were using unsafe methods. Some would have their babies in grass huts. After giving birth, they would leave babies on the ground in the cold. We didn't know better. We had a lot of deaths. One day, hospital workers asked us to be a part of the Agogo Program. >> TITLE: The Agogo Program teaches village elders about proper natal care and helps agogos pass along those messages to their communities. >> LYTON CHAWINGA: We go to their house. We talk to both the man and the woman. We are here to chat with you about the importance of going to the hospital when you are pregnant. We show them pictures and tell them what can happen if they give birth at home. That the mother or baby can fall sick or die. >> WOMAN [Agogo]: After three months, start going for checkups. Escort each other. Many husbands refuse to escort their wives, which is not good. >> TITLE: Agogos also use traditional methods to teach modern messages. >> WOMEN: Pregnancy doesn't kill, the hospital is good, and all our children should be taken there. >> LYTON CHAWINGA: Deaths have decreased, diseases have decreased, and life has improved. I am really happy because if the student fails you are not a good teacher. I see fruits of what I teach and I am proud that I am a good teacher. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: With support and funding, 4,000 agogos have been trained in Malawi. >> TITLE: As a result, Ekwendeni Hospital has seen a 60 percent increase in pregnant women seeking antenatal care. >> TITLE: To accommodate them, the hospital is building a new, larger maternal ward. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. www.one.org/livingproof http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-egypt-newlyweds Reaching out to Egyptian women and couples as they are about to get married, a new program educates newlyweds and women about pregnancy, labor, and newborn healthcare. This vital information is improving infant health outcomes. Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:33:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-egypt-newlyweds Egypt, Reproductive health, Community health worker, Millennium Development Goals, Child mortality, North Africa, USAID, Maternal health, Health education, Pregnancy >> TITLE: Challenge: Many Egyptian women lack proper pre- and post-natal care >> TITLE: Solution: Make weddings a time to discuss maternal and newborn health. >> TITLE: Can teaching newlyweds make healthier babies? >> TITLE: Traditional wedding celebration, Village of Gayera, Upper Egypt >> VIKKI STEIN [USAID]: Young couples in Egypt want to try to have a family or begin their family right after marriage. So, within a very short amount of time, women and men are experiencing their first pregnancy, they're experiencing their first birth, and they're raising their baby. These are all very critical health moments for a family, and women as a group when they're having their pregnancy, are seen as a high-risk group. You see women giving birth outside the medical facility. You see malnutrition, you see underweight babies, and so the newlywed initiative looks to give young families, young couples, the information they need to get off to a healthy start. >> MEDIHA ATTEYA [Newlywed]: It taught me the danger signs during pregnancy. Like, if I started bleeding, if I don't gain weight, or if I get a fever, I have to go to the doctor right away. >> VIKKI STEIN: A couple like Saad and Mediha and Kenna, participate in this program on a number of levels. They have a community health worker come and visit them and bring them information about the community health program, and also invite them to participate in community activities. >> WARDA HAMED ALY [Community Health Worker]: Don't have kids, one right after another. Space them out. We've made progress. In the past, our mothers used to have kids by the dozen, and that's why this country has so much poverty. >> HAJJA OM EZZ ABDU MAHMA [Saad's mother]: In my day, it was different. I had nine children at home: six girls and three boys, just like that. I didn't have a doctor. >> SAAD MOHD SAYED: Everyone goes to the hospital now. >> MEDIHA ATTEYA: Having a baby at home is dangerous. What if I start hemorrhaging? Nothing but the hospital will save me. >> TITLE: Newlywed Initiative women's meeting >> DOAA MEABED SAYED [Instructor]: I welcome you once again to the Arab Women Speaks. >> VIKKI STEIN: In the Arab Women Speak Out classes, women are taught about women's empowerment issues. They're taught men and women both need to be involved, and they both have an important role. >> DOAA MEABED SAYED: If a younger brother is thirsty, the mother says, "Get up, girl, and get your brother a glass of water." Is this the way to bring up our children? The most important thing I focus on is to make a happy family. We're here to modify everyone's behavior. To make happier and healthier families. >> MEN: Congratulations! >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: Since the Newlywed Initiative began in 2004, 30 percent more pregnant women have proper prenatal care, 14 percent more mothers have medically assisted births, 27 percent fewer babies and young children are underweight. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. www.one.org/livingproof http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-on-aid-versus-trade Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister of Nigeria, sums up four days of intense discussion on aid versus trade on the closing day of TEDGlobal 2007, and shares a personal story explaining her own commitment to this cause. Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:39:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-on-aid-versus-trade Africa, Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Private sector, Infrastructure, World Bank, TED, Mo Ibrahim, Millennium Development Goals, Biafra >> TITLE: Remarkable people, unmissable talks, now free to the world>> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: It's very, very difficult to wrap up -- to speak at the end of a conference like this. Because everyone has spoken, everything has been said. >> TITLE: June, 2007. Arusha, Tanzani>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So I thought that what may be useful is to remind us of some of the things that have gone on here, and then maybe offer some ideas which we can take away and take forward and work on. That's what I'd like to try and do. We came here saying we want to talk about "Africa: the Next Chapter." But we are talking about "Africa: the Next Chapter" because we are looking at the old and the present chapter -- that we're looking at -- and saying it's not such a good thing. The picture I showed you before, and this picture, of drought, death, and disease, is what we usually see. What we want to look at is "Africa: the Next Chapter." And that's this: a healthy, smiling, beautiful African. And I think it's worth remembering what we've heard through the conference right from the first day, where I heard that all the important statistics have been given -- about where we are now, about how the continent is doing much better. And the importance of that is that we have a platform to build on.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So I'm not going to spend too much time -- just to show you, refresh your memories -- that we are here for "Africa: the Next Chapter" because for the first time, there really is a platform to build on. We really do have it going right, that the continent is growing at rates that people had thought would not happen. After decades of 2 percent, we are now at 5 percent, and it's going to, projected, 6 and 7 percent even. And inflation has come down. External debt, something that I can tell you a long story about because I personally worked on one of the biggest debts on the continent, has come down dramatically. You know, as you can see, for almost ... from almost USD$50 billion down to about USD$12 or USD$13 billion. Now this is a huge achievement.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: You know, we've built up reserves. Why is that important? It's because it shows off our economies, shows off our currencies, and gives a platform on which people can plan and build, including businesses. We've also seen some evidence that all this is making a difference because private investment flows have increased. I want to remind you again -- I know you saw these statistics before -- from almost USD$6 billion we are now at about USD$18 billion in 2005. Remittances: I just took one country, Nigeria ... you know, skyrocketing ... skyrocketing is too dramatic, but increasing dramatically. And in many other countries this is happening. Why is this important? Because it shows confidence. That people are now confident to bring ... if your people in the diaspora bring their money back, it shows other people that, look, there is emerging confidence in your country. And instead of an outflow, you are now getting a net inflow.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Now, why is all this important? To have to go really fast? It's important that we build this platform, that we have the president, Kikwete, and others of our leaders who are saying, "Look, we must do something different." Because we are confronted with a challenge: 62 percent of our population is below the age of 24. What does this mean? This means that we have to focus on how our youth are going to be engaged in productive endeavor in their lives. You have to focus on how to create jobs, make sure they don't fall into disease, that they get an education, but, most of all, that they are productively engaged in life, and that they are creating the kind of productive environment in our countries that will make things happen. And you know, to support this, I just recently ... one of the things I've done since leaving government is to start an opinion research organization in Nigeria. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Most of our countries don't even have any opinion research. People don't have voice. There is no way you can know what people want. One of the things we asked them recently was what's their top issue. Like in every other country where this has been done, jobs is the top issue. I want to leave this up here and come back to it. But before I get to this slide, I just wanted to run you through this. And to say that for me, the next stage of building this platform that now enables us to move forward -- and we mustn't make light of it. It's only five, six, seven years ago [that] we couldn't even talk about the next chapter because we were in the old chapter. We were going nowhere. The economies were not growing. We were having negative per capita growth. The macroeconomic framework and foundation for moving forward was not even there. So let's not forget that it's taken a lot to build this, including all those things that we tried to do in Nigeria that Dele referred to. Creating our own program to solve problems, like fighting corruption, building institutions, stabilizing the macro economy.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So now we have this platform we can build on. And it brings us to the debate that has been going on here: aid versus private sector, aid versus trade, etcetera. And someone stood up to say: one of the frustrating things is that it's been a simplistic debate. And that's not what the debate should be about. We are ... that's engaging in the wrong debate. The issue here is how do we get a partnership that involves government donors, the private sector, and ordinary African people taking charge of their own lives? How do we combine all this? To move our continent forward, to do the things that need doing, that I talked about: getting young people employed, getting the creative juices flowing on this continent, much of what you have seen here. So I'm afraid we've been engaging a little bit in the wrong debate, and we need to bring you back to say, what is the combination of all these factors that is going to yield what we want? >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And I want to tell you something. For me, the issue about aid -- I don't think that Africans need to now go all the way over to the other side and feel bad about aid. Africa has been giving the other countries aid. Mo Ibrahim said at a debate we're at that he dreams one day when Africa will be giving aid. And I said, "Mo, you're right. We have ... no, but we've already been doing it! The UK and the U.S. could not have been built today without Africa's aid." It is all the resources that were taken from Africa, including human, that built these countries today. So when they try to give back, we shouldn't be on the defensive. The issue is not that. The issue is how are we using what has been given, what is being given back. How are we using it? Is it being directed effectively? >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: I want to tell you a little story. Why I don't mind if we get aid, but we use it well. From 1967 to '70, Nigeria fought a war: the Nigeria-Biafra war. And in the middle of that war, I was 14 years old. We spent much of our time with my mother, cooking for the army. My father joined the army as a brigadier, the Biafran army. We were on the Biafran side. And we were down to eating one meal a day, running from place to place, but wherever we could help we did. At a certain point in time, in 1969, things were really bad. We were down to almost nothing in terms of a meal a day. People, children were dying of kwashiorkor. I'm sure some of you who are not so young will remember those pictures. Well, I was in the middle of it. In the midst of all this, my mother fell ill with a stomach ailment for two or three days. We thought she was going to die. My father was not there. He was in the army. So I was the oldest person in the house. My sister fell very ill with malaria. She was three years old and I was 15. And she had such a high fever. We tried everything. It didn't look like it was going to work. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Until we heard that 10 kilometers away there was a doctor, who was able ... who was giving ... looking at people and giving them meds. Now I put my sister on my back, burning, and I walked 10 kilometers with her strapped on my back. It was really hot. I was very hungry. I was scared because I knew her life depended on my getting to this woman. We heard there was a woman doctor who was treating people. I walked 10 kilometers, putting one foot in front of the other. I got there and I saw huge crowds. Almost a thousand people were there, trying to break down the door. She was doing this in a church. How was I going to get in? I had to crawl in between the legs of these people with [inaudible] my sister strapped on my back, find a way to a window. And while they were trying to break down the door, I climbed in through the window, and jumped in. This woman told me it was in the nick of time. By the time we jumped into that hall, she was barely moving. She gave a shot of her chloroquine, what I learned was the chloroquine, then gave her some ... it must have been a re-hydration, and some other therapies, and put us in a corner. In about two to three hours, she started to move. And then, they toweled her down because she started sweating, which was a good sign. And then my sister woke up. And about five or six hours later, she said we could go home. I strapped her on my back. I walked the 10 kilometers back and it was the shortest walk I ever had. I was so happy that my sister was alive. Today, she's 41 years old, a mother of three, and she's a physician saving other lives.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: Why am I telling that? I'm telling you that because when it is you or your person involved, you don't care whether it's aid. You don't care what it is! You just want the person to be alive. And now let me become less sentimental, and say that saving lives -- which some of the aid we get does on this continent -- when you save the life of anyone, a farmer, a teacher, a mother, they are contributing productively into the economy. And, as an economist, we can also look at that side of the story. These are people who are productive agents in the economy. So if we save people from HIV/AIDS, if we save them from malaria, it means they can form the base of production for our economy. And by the same token, as someone said yesterday, if we don't, and they die, their children will become a burden on the economy. So even from an economic standpoint, if we leave the social and humanitarian, we need to save lives now. So that's one of the reasons, from a personal experience, that I say, look, let's channel these resources we get into something productive. However, I will also tell you that I'm one of those who don't believe that this is the sole answer. That's why I said the debate has to get more sophisticated. You know, we have to use it well.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: What has happened in Europe? Do you all know that Spain, part of the EU, got USD$10 billion in aid from the rest of the EU? Resources that were transferred to them. And were the Spanish ashamed of this? No. The EU transferred 10 billion. Where did they use it? Have you been to southern Spain lately? There are roads everywhere. Infrastructure everywhere. It is on the back of this that the whole of southern Spain has developed into a services economy. Did you know that Ireland got USD$3 billion in aid? Ireland is one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union today. For which many people, even from other parts of the world, are going there to find jobs. What did they do with the USD$3 billion in aid? They used it to build an information superhighway, gain infrastructure that enabled them to participate, or enables them to participate, in the information technology revolution. And to do ... create jobs in their economy. They didn't say, "No, you know, we're not going to take this." Today, the European Union is busy transferring aid. My frustration is if they can build infrastructure in Spain -- which is roads, highways, other things that they can build -- I say then, why do they refuse to use the same aid to build the same infrastructure in our countries? >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: When we ask them and tell them what we need. One of my worries today is that we have many foundations now. Now we talk about the World Bank, IMF, and accountability, and all that. And the EU. We also have private citizens now who have a lot of money. Some of them in this audience, with private foundations. And, one day, these foundations have so much money, they will overtake the official aid that is being given. But I fear -- and I'm very grateful to all of them for what they are trying to do on the continent -- but I'm also worried. I wake up with a gnawing in my belly. Because I see a new set of aid entrepreneurs on the continent. And they're also going from country to country, and many times trying to find what to do. But I'm not really sure that their assistance is also being channeled in the right way. And many of them are not really familiar with the continent. They are just discovering. And many times I don't see Africans working with them. They are just going alone. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And many times I get the impression they are not really even interested in hearing from Africans who might know. They want to visit us, see what's happening on the ground, and make a decision. And now I'm maybe being harsh. But I worry because this money is so important. Now, who are they accountable to? Are we on their boards when they make decisions about where to channel money? Are we there? Will we make the same mistake that we made before? Have our presidents and our leaders -- everyone is talking about -- have they ever called these people together and said, "Look, your foundation and your foundation, you have so much money, we are grateful. Let's sit down and really tell you where the money should be channeled and where this aid should go." Have we done that? The answer is no. And each one is making their own individual effort. And then, 10 years from now, billions will again have gone into Africa, and we would still have the same problems.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: This is what gives us the hopeless image. Our inability to take charge and say to all these people bringing their money: "Sit down." And we don't do it because there are so many of us. We don't coordinate. We've not called the Bill Gates and the Soros and everybody else who is helping and say, "Sit down. Let's have a conference with you. As a continent, here are our priorities. Here is where we want you to channel this money." Each one should not be an entrepreneur, going and finding what is best. We're not trying to stop them, at all, but to help them help us better. And what is disappointing me is that we are not doing this. Ten years from now, we will have the same story, and we will be repeating the same things. >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: So our problem right now is, how can we leverage all this good will that is coming towards our way? How can we get government to combine properly with these private foundations, with the international organizations, and with our private sector. I firmly believe in that private sector thing, too. But it cannot do it alone. So there might be a few ideas we could think of that could work. They said this is about proliferating and sharing ideas. So why don't we think of using some of this aid? Well, why don't we first say to those helping us out: don't be shy about infrastructure. That health that you're working on cannot be sustainable without infrastructure. That education will work better if we've got electricity and railroads and so on. That agriculture will work better if there are railroads to get the goods to market. Don't be shy of it. Invest some of your resources in that, too. And then we can see that this is one combination of private, international, multilateral money, private sector, and the African that we can put together as a partnership, so that aid can be a facilitator. That is all aid can be. Aid cannot solve our problems, I'm firmly convinced about that. But it can be catalytic. And if we fail to use it as catalytic, we would have failed.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: One of the reasons why China is a bit popular with Africans now -- one of the reasons -- is not only just that, you know, these people are stupid and China is coming to take resources. It's because there's a little more leverage in terms of the Chinese. If you tell them, "We need a road here," they will help you build it. Don't shy away from infrastructure. In fact, the Chinese minister of finance said to me, when I asked him what are we doing wrong in Nigeria. He said there are two things you need only: "Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. And discipline. You are undisciplined." And I repeat it for the continent. It's the same: we need infrastructure and discipline. So we can make aid catalytic to help us provide some of that. Now I realize ... I'm not saying, health and education: no. You can also provide that as well. But I'm saying it's not either or. Let's see how aid can be a facilitator, in partnership: one idea. Second thing, for the private sector: people are afraid to take risks on the continent. Why can't some of this aid be used as a kind of guarantee mechanisms, to enable people to take risk? >> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: And finally, because they are both standing at my ... I guess I'm out ... I'm out of time. Am I out of time? Okay, so let me not forget my punchline. One of the things I want everybody to collaborate on is to support women, to create jobs. A lot has been said here about women, I don't need to repeat it. But there are people, women, creating jobs. And we know, studies have shown that when you put resources in the hand of the woman, in fact, there's an econometric study, the World Bank Review done in 2000, showing that transfers into the hands of women result in healthier children, more for the household, more for the economy and all that. So I'm saying that one of the takeaways from here ... I'm not saying the men are not important. Obviously, if you leave the husbands out, what will they do? They'll come back home and get disgruntled, and it will result in difficulties we don't want. We don't want men beating their wives because they don't have a job, and so on.>> NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA: But at the margin, we also -- I want to push this -- because the reason is, the men automatically, they get ... not automatically, but they tend to get more support. But I want you to realize that resources in the hands of African women is a powerful tool. There are people creating jobs. Beatrice Gakuba has created 200 jobs from her flower business in Rwanda. We have Ibukun Awosika in Nigeria, with the furniture, the chair company. She wants to expand. She needs another 20 million. She will create another 100 to 200 more jobs. So take away from here is how are you going to put together the resources to put money in the hands of women in the middle who are ready: business people who want to expand and create more jobs. And, lastly, what are you going to do to be part of this partnership of aid, government, private sector, and the African as an individual? Thank you. >> TITLE: TED: New TED Talks each week at www.TED.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-melinda-gates-what-nonprofits-can-learn-from-coca-cola <p>At TEDxChange, Melinda Gates makes a provocative case for nonprofits taking a cue from corporations such as Coca-Cola, whose plugged-in, global network of marketers and distributors ensures that every remote village wants&mdash;and can get&mdash;a Coke. Why shouldn't this work for condoms, sanitation, vaccinations too?</p> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:40:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-melinda-gates-what-nonprofits-can-learn-from-coca-cola Melinda Gates, TED, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Africa, HIV, Coca-Cola, Non-governmental organization, Health, Marketing, Development aid http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-hans-rosling-the-good-news-of-the-decade Hans Rosling reframes 10 years of UN data with his spectacular visuals, lighting up an astonishing&mdash;mostly unreported&mdash;piece of front-page-worthy good news: We're winning the war against child mortality. Along the way, he debunks one flawed approach to stats that blots out such vital stories. Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-hans-rosling-the-good-news-of-the-decade Millennium Development Goals, Africa, Hans Rosling, TED, Mortality rate, Change Makers, Statistics, Child mortality, Health, Western world http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ticad-towards-a-vibrant-africa <p>The Tokyo International Conference on African Development is more than just a conference. It has become a major global framework for Asia, Africa, and the UNDP to collaborate in promoting Africa's development. Here are five projects working to improve people's everyday lives throughout the continent. Produced by <a title="UNDP" href="http://www.undp.org/" target="_blank">UNDP</a>.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ticad-towards-a-vibrant-africa Africa, United Nations Development Programme, Tokyo International Conference on African Development, United Nations, Development aid, Social equality, Education, Empowerment, Community development, Gender equality >> TITLE: Towards a Vibrant Africa: A Continent of Hope & Opportunity >> TITLE: Tanzania Bed Net Factory (Japanese/Tanzanian joint venture) >> TITLE: More than 1 million people die of malaria each year >> TITLE: Mosquito nets are an effective and economical method of preventing the disease >> ELIREHEMA MANGA [resident of Manyata village]: I often suffered from malaria before we got the nets. I couldn't cultivate my land because I was often sick. The difference is huge because now I feel healthy and strong. I'm feeling so much better that I'm able to work, make a little money, and go to the market. Everyone's earnings have improved because we can all work hard to cultivate crops. >> TITLE: Mosquito Net Factory [Arusha, Tanzania] >> BINESH HARIA [Chief Operating Officer, A to Z Textile Mills]: What we want to do here is save lives, by manufacturing these products in Africa, and also reduce poverty. We've already created 3,200 direct employment. >> LUCY THOMAS [Employee, A to Z Textile Mills]: Before, I was living with my parents. But now I can afford to live alone and pay for my brother's school fees. I'm truly proud of the work I do, because it's helping prevent malaria. >> BINESH HARIA: What we are producing is a product which is going to be sold in Africa, and that is why I say Africa for Africa. What we want is: Africa should be able to sustain itself. >> ELIREHEMA MANGA: Since receiving the nets, all our lives have improved. My fellow villagers and I are very grateful. >> TITLE: Sierra Leone Schools & Community Centres ("Arms for Development" project Japan/UNDP) >> TITLE: After 11 years of devastating civil war, Sierra Leone is now recovering from conflict >> TITLE: Now former combatants are encouraged to surrender their arms in exchange for community development projects >> SOLDIER: The entire region is now arms free. >> TITLE: Community centres and schools are at the heart of the recovery effort >> MARYLEEN BANGURA [Resident of Binkolo Village]: I was seven years old when the rebels came in Binkolo. They attacked us here, and my mother was carrying me on her back, holding my sister on her hand. We had to run to the bushes where she damaged ... her lip had a cut. >> ANGELA BANGURA [resident of Binkolo Village]: I was bleeding profusely and I was feeling dizzy. I fell for the first time, second time, and then the third time she suggested that I should put her down. She always watched my movements. When I crawled, she also crawled. When I got up and tried to run, she followed my footsteps. That's the way we traveled the worst of the night, until we arrived in the next village the next morning. It's a night I pray that I will never repeat in my lifetime. >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: I don't like to hear about this past war, because it caused many damages in our country. Arms and feet of people were cut off. Houses were burnt. Some were killed. Some, when they killed, gave it to another human being to eat raw flesh. So I don't want to hear about it. I always like to think about my future than listen to the past. >> TITLE: School supported by Arms for Development Programme >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: The best part of my life now is that I'm going to school. All of the school lessons are free for everybody, so they have the opportunity to attend. I'm really concentrating on my education because I want to be somebody in the future, like I want to be a lawyer. That's my dream, and I know my dream is going to come true. >> TITLE: Community centre supported by Arms for Development Programme >> ABBAS A. BANGURA [Chairman, Masamanke Development Association]: Life is changing rapidly here. When this community center wasn't around life was really difficult here. But now we can see so many kids every day are meeting here. >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: For my future, I'm seeing that it's going to be successful for me. Because I'm now attending school. I'm with my parents, they encourage me to learn. And for the country, I know my country is going to develop. >> TITLE: Burkina Faso Multifunctional Platform (The UN Trust Fund for Human Security) >> TITLE: Over 95 percent of rural households in Africa lack electrical power >> TITLE: A unique electric generator helps villagers with their daily lives >> IDANI ABIBA (resident of Komboari Village): Before the multifunctional electric generator, my life was very difficult. I had to wake early to pound millet, fetch water, and cook. Now I have more time to spend on other activities. >> OUOBA B. BENOIT [Tin Tua Association]: In our country, the difficulty of getting drinkable water and pounding the millet take up the women's entire day. With the introduction of the multiplatform generator, this changed. >> TITLE: Multifunctional platform (electric generator) >> OUOBA B. BENOIT: Now woman have more time. >> IDANI ABIBA: We now have time to learn to read and write. This opens our minds and makes us happy. With the generator, we also have many services. We used to have to go far to repair broken equipment. But now we can do welding in town. Because of the electric generator, everyone has free time to spend on other activities. Thanks to the generator our lives have changed for the better. >> TITLE: Uganda Millennium Village (The UN Trust Fund for Human Security) >> TITLE: More than 40 percent of the population of Africa lives on less than USD$1 a day >> TITLE: The Millennium Villages project empowers communities to break the cycle of poverty >> FRIDAH TUMUHIMBISE [resident of Ruhiira Millennium Village]: My family never used to have enough food to eat. But ever since the Millennium Village project, my family is able to cultivate enough food. We used to spend a lot of time preparing food for the children. But since they now eat at school, we have time to do other things. There's also a clinic where people are treated, and in case of complications an ambulance takes us to another hospital. It [the project] has helped by starting a village bank where women can borrow for our businesses. I bought sheep and goats, sold two of their offspring, and bought iron sheets to build a kitchen. >> DAVID SIRIRI [Millennium Village Coordinator]: The thing about this project is empowerment of communities. It's about involving communities in taking leadership, in ensuring that they have a say in their destiny. It's not just coming and dropping something on the ground; you have to get the villagers involved. This project has given a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging, a sense of leadership. The communities can stand up and say, "Yes, this is our project." They are seeing the impact of the interventions. People are now flocking [to] the health centers. Before you only used to have one or two people, now you have 150 people coming to the health units. Water was a major problem. Now the water is clean. Now we have students attending school right from P1 up to P7 without dropping out. All these things have brought new hope and it's a new way of rural devolvement that had never happened here. >> FRIDAH TUMUHIMBISE: If the project continues another 10 years, we can better our situation, we can educate our children and really improve our lives. >>TITLE: Nigeria Woman Empowerment Project (UNDP/Japan WID Fund) >> TITLE: In Nigeria, woman are traditionally disadvantaged, lacking access to resources and skills >> TITLE: Encouraging female enterprises is key to development and social equality >> NFON (GRACE) ETETE ITUEN [resident of Onna Village]: When my husband died, my children were very young, so I had to struggle a long way for them to go to school. And to eat was very difficult. But I thank God now that it's getting improved. Now under community partnership I can do these buns, chin chin [cookies], egg rolls, which people come in and buy. I have a little money every day. >> SIGN: Onna Woman Development Centre >> MRS. NSE UDOH [Director, Community Partners for Development]: The project has really affected the lives of the women in Onna local government area. They've been empowered to the extent that they can actually assist the family in basic feeding and clothing. After the training they've been able to replicate what was taught. They now make the products by themselves. They go and sell them in the town, and are able to market their product. We are hoping that, eventually, when the mill starts in full swing, they will be able to do large quantities, and send it out to many other local government states. The women now meet on their own, monthly, so the excitement they have, coming out to share issues with each other ... Women, as you know, especially in our own society, have been relegated to the background for years. And it's only now that they are now given the opportunity to comment, to air their views. >> NFON (GRACE) ETETE ITUEN: Everyone around me is improving because all of us are now busy in doing what we're supposed to do. As the community progresses, I'm sure it will be better. >> TITLE: [end credits] >> TITLE: UNDP Produced by the Office of Communications for TICAD http://www.viewchange.org/videos/parteras <p>Midwives in Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state, represent the front line in a nationwide battle to improve the lives of women. They are helping to reduce domestic violence and improve education, while also working hard to maintain a maternal mortality rate of close to zero.</p> Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:52:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/parteras Developing country, Midwifery, Maternal death, Domestic violence, Women's rights, Pregnancy, Chiapas, Mexico, Health, Millennium Development Goals >> TITLE: Nearly 60 women die for every 100,000 live births in Mexico. >> TITLE: The UN Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce maternal deaths to 22 by 2015. >> TITLE: In Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state, the maternal death toll exceeds 100. >> TITLE: In this highland community, the rate is close to zero. >> MANUELA LOPEZ LOPEZ [Midwife]: We're here in Carmen Zacatal. This is my hometown. Well, I work here. My name is Manuela Lopez Lopez. I work as a midwife. >> WOMAN 1 [Midwife]: Here, we are nine midwives. Of the nine midwives, we each have our own patients. Right now, I have 12 patients. >> WOMAN 2 [Midwife]: If there weren't midwives in every community, the majority of pregnant women would die, because there wouldn't be anyone to care for them, to see them, or to give them checkups. >> WOMAN 3 [Anthropologist]: Midwives have an ancestral knowledge, from generation to generation. We saw in earlier studies that the highest rates of maternal mortality were in the northern zone of Chiapas, but we began to see that in the places where the midwives have been given training, the rate is going down. We think this is the result of midwives and health workers having better tools but also that there is a better understanding among the community and a stronger coordination with health institutions. The idea is that, when the community makes a joint effort, the women will not die. >> WOMAN 2: We as midwives are organized, and we team up with a group of young men who work as volunteer health workers. We have a social network of health workers, midwives, and rural assistants. We all work together. We give talks to the local women. We tell them to defend themselves [from domestic abuse] and to not have more kids -- that, with two or three children, a small family lives better. >> WOMAN 2: I am looking for the baby's head. We'll see if the baby is well and positioned normally. I am also adjusting the baby so that it moves, or better said, I am waking it up. It's fine. >> WOMAN 4 [Mother]: This will be my last baby before I have an operation. What happened is that my first baby has a bad heart, so I have a lot of expenses. >> WOMAN 1: We feel very alone, and we are a marginalized community. We don't have materials to work with. Our community has no ambulance or a car for the drive to the hospital. Sometimes, we can't save women in time, and it is our weakness. But together we can take a sick woman out. We also partner with neighbors and local authorities. We can do it, and we give each other a hand, and now, thanks to God, there is hardly any maternal mortality here. >> WOMAN 2: Before, there was a lot of domestic abuse, but it is decreasing because of the talks and the workshops that we give, and that is what we're focusing on now. Now is not the time to be abused. Now is the time that we defend ourselves as women. >> WOMAN 5 [Midwife]: We save lives. We save two lives. >> TITLE: Midwives are the lifeline for impoverished women in these rural towns. >> TITLE: They are the first line of defense against maternal mortality. >> TITLE: A film by Captured Life Productions http://www.viewchange.org/videos/carina-water-wells-project <p>When a new water well and rainwater harvesting tank are built at Kwihala village and Isukamahela School in Tanzania, the villagers are taught how to manage and look after them, a key component for empowering them towards self-sufficiency.</p> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/carina-water-wells-project Tanzania, Water well, Millennium Development Goals, Drinking water, Tabora, Subsistence farming, Rainwater harvesting, Water supply, Agriculture, Fundraising >> TITLE: Carina Water Wells Project. Tabora, Tanzania. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE [Project Coordinator]: I grew up in Tanzania from 1949 to 1970. In December 2003, I returned to visit Tabora in central Tanzania for the first time in 38 years. I was married there in 1963 and my daughter Carina was born in 1964. The population has tripled since then, and the majority of villages still haven't got a clean source of water. The area's economy is dependent on agriculture, subsistence farming using a hand hoe. The Tabora Anglican Diocese has been implementing water sanitation projects since 1997, but funding sources had dried up. They asked me to assist by finding more money for additional projects. Although I now live on the other side of the world, in Maui, Hawaii, I rose to the challenge. Funds were donated by a business associate and the first Carina Water Well was installed at Inonelwa village in February 2005. Inonelwa village has since become a part of the Millennium Development Goals. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: Tabora district is fortunate because the underground water is close enough to the surface in places to allow for hand-dug wells. The well at Kwihala village is 18 feet deep; the one at Inonelwa village is only 13 feet deep. Women and children are the most affected by water issues, because they're responsible for finding it. They often have to walk up to 5 kilometers daily to find water which is dirty and contaminated. It took four more years to raise money for the second Carina Water Wells project. It's located at Kwihala village close to Dr. David Livingstone's museum. The well and a rainwater harvesting tank at the village school were funded by the Rotary Club of Maui in 2009. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: Christopher Nyamwanji, has over 15 years of experience working on water sanitation projects in Tabora District. The program is very well planned and implemented, involving the villagers at every phase of development. The wells are hand dug. Molds for the concrete rings are brought to the site and the concrete is mixed right there. The rings are then placed in the well cavity manually, and with the use of ropes. It takes about six weeks to complete construction of a well, including the water sanitation education phase. Approximately 250 to 350 people use the wells. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: The village water committee is responsible for fundraising within the community to establish a water fund to maintain the well structure, and for resolving any inadequate water supply problems. Thus, the villagers both own and sustain the wells and rainwater catchment tanks. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: The Carina Water Wells project provides enough funds to include water sanitation promotion and hygiene education to the villagers. Raising the level of awareness within the communities, to understand good hygiene and sanitation practices for their improved health, is crucial to the success of the projects. An additional rainwater harvesting tank was built at Isukamahela School, in Tabora district. The American Society of Dowsers sponsored the project. A staple diet of maize meal is cooked at the school for the children. Having access to a water supply close by makes their lives much easier. School attendance during the peak of the dry season is about 70 percent, but jumps to 98 percent attendance in the rainy season. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: I plan continuing my efforts to raise funds for more Carina Water Wells Projects. Without water there is no life. >> TITLE: "If real development is to take place, the people have to be involved." Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and Development), 1973 >> TITLE: www.carinawaterwells.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/forging-the-future-girls-education-in-koraro-ethiopia <p>In Koraro, Ethiopia, many factors prevent girls from obtaining an education. However, girls like Regbe are now able to attend secondary school because of scholarships provided by the Millennium Villages Project. The girls previously would have married at a young age into a poor family. Now, they have a brighter future.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/forging-the-future-girls-education-in-koraro-ethiopia Education, Ethiopia, Millennium Promise, Millennium Villages Project, Millennium Development Goals, Africa, Extreme poverty, LinkTV Picks, Primary school, High school >> TITLE: Millennium Promise: Extreme poverty ends here >> TITLE: Forging the Future: Girls' education in Koraro, Ethiopia. March, 2010 >> REGBE GEBREMISKEL: My name is Regbe Gebremiskel. I am in grade six. My father is a farmer. I like to go to school. >> VOICEOVER: In the remote Ethiopian village of Koraro, life is difficult, especially for the women. But the futures of girls like Regbe are looking brighter. Most now get a primary education, bringing much-needed skills to the community, and the Millennium Village Project in Koraro is also working to make sure that girls carry on learning despite high fees and a 30-kilometer walk to the nearest secondary school. >> TEKLAY BERHE [Director, Koraro Primary School]: There are many obstacles facing the girls to go on to secondary school. One, economic problems; second, parents' influences and early marriage. >> VOICEOVER: Supported by a scholarship, Smret Gabrickados is one of over 50 girls from Koraro primary who have cleared these hurdles and gone on to secondary school. >> SMRET GABRICKADOS [Student]: I was born in Koraro, and now I live in Hawzien. From grade nine up to grade twelve, I have been assisted by the project. If I am not supported by the project, I would already be married because my family are not educated people, meaning that they haven't any knowledge about education. >> TITLE: Soon to finish grade twelve, Smret will be the first girl from Koraro to finish secondary school and apply to university. >> SMRET GABRICKADOS: I study all the time in order to be a doctor. >> TADELE ATAKELTI [Education Coordinator, Koraro Millennium Village Project]: If a girl from Koraro doesn't go to secondary school, her fate will be to marry young and have a low standard of living as a farmer. Entering into high school will make the girls' future bright. It will create an opportunity to look for jobs, which will help the girls to help themselves as well as to serve their community. Out of the existing 52 girls in the program, if the scholarships were not there, not one of them would have come to high school to continue her education. So this is changing their lives. These students have a goal, a certain hope. >> VOICEOVER: The successes of the girls at secondary school at Hawzien are inspiring their sisters and friends at Koraro primary school. >> REGBE GEBREMISKEL: I want to be a doctor. I would like to study hard. > VOICEOVER: With continued support, Regbe's dreams and those of thousands of girls in Koraro can turn into reality, which, in turn, will ensure that the entire community can benefit. >> TITLE: More than 70 million children are not enrolled at primary school. >> TITLE: Hundreds of millions cannot afford to attend secondary school, even when they pass qualifying exams. >> TITLE: It costs as little as USD$40 a month for a girl or boy to attend secondary school. >> TITLE: Let's ensure that every girl and boy has the same opportunity as Smret to attend secondary school and achieve their dreams. >> TITLE: Millennium Promise: Extreme poverty ends here. Join us today at www.millenniumpromise.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-7-ensure-environmental-sustainability <p>Climate change is already having a serious impact on low-lying islands such as Kiribati, which is why the Australian government is helping the tiny Pacific nation to preserve its shrinking fresh water resources and adapt to face an uncertain future.</p> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-7-ensure-environmental-sustainability Kiribati, Millennium Development Goals, Climate change, Current sea level rise, Extreme weather, Global warming, Anote Tong, Greenhouse gas, Pacific Islands, President of Kiribati >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) >> TITLE: 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability. The world is attempting to reduce the emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. However, climate change is already increasing pressure on the environment and making sustainable development more challenging. Unaddressed, climate change is likely to exacerbate food shortages ... and erode recent gains in poverty reduction. >> TITLE: Target. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs. Halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. >> TITLE: Kiribati. >> VOICEOVER: Climate change is already affecting many countries, particularly in the Pacific. It's exacerbating current environmental and development challenges and, if left unaddressed, holds the potential to stall and reverse progress towards the MDGs. Kiribati, which already suffers many environmental challenges, is one of the most vulnerable countries in the region. >> ARTA ARBAIANG [Kiribati Elder]: I feel that the sun is getting hotter and at the same time I feel there has been an increase in the level of seawater. >> VOICEOVER: The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, believes his island could become uninhabitable in as few as 20 years, in part due to the effects of climate change on the fragile natural environment. >> ANOTE TONG [Kiribati President]: Previously I thought 2060, would be a safe ... maybe getting too close to the edge. But now it seems that it might be a lot earlier; I think 2030 might be more realistic. But I think the response has to be much earlier than that. >> VOICEOVER: Extreme weather events, like cyclones, contribute to coastal erosion, putting settlements at risk. The main source of reliable fresh water in the capital comes from an underground lens. The combined effects of population pressures and saline intrusion are putting water supplies at risk. >> MARELLA REBGETZ [Water Engineer, Kiribati Adaptation Project]: There's no above-ground water in Kiribati. It's all in the water lens, which makes it very fragile. >> VOICEOVER: Australia is helping Kiribati to address the sustainability of their water supplies by working with locals to better manage water resources, monitor groundwater quality, and improve sanitation to reduce groundwater pollution. While uncertainty remains over the future of Kiribati, President Tong is focused on ensuring his people are equipped to migrate if this becomes necessary. Australia is assisting by supporting training programs aimed at providing skills in demand in other countries, such as a Maritime Training College for sailors and the Kiribati Australia Nurses Initiative being run through Griffith University in Queensland. >> TITLE: What is Australia doing? Providing AUD$150 million, through the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, to help vulnerable countries in our region increase resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. Working to improve understanding of current and projected climate change impacts to help Pacific Island countries make informed adaptation decisions. Funding monitoring stations to ensure Pacific Island countries have access to accurate data on sea level rise. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-5-improve-maternal-health <p>More than half a million women die every year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and almost all of these could be avoided with access to professional health care. Which is why Australia is helping to train the next generation of midwives and providing specialist surgical services and training in East Timor.</p> Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:40:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-5-improve-maternal-health Reproductive health, East Timor, Maternal death, Childbirth, Millennium Development Goals, Healthcare, Birth rate, AusAID, Australia, Developing country >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) >> TITLE: 5. Improve maternal health. In developing countries births attended by skilled professionals have increased by more than 25 percent. However, more than half a million women still die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Almost all of these could be avoided with access to professional health care. >> TITLE: Target. Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio. Achieve universal access to reproductive health. >> TITLE: East Timor. >> VOICEOVER: East Timor is one of the countries in our region trying to address high maternal death rates. >> KIRSTY GUSMAO-SWORD [Former First Lady of Timor-Leste]: There has been great progress made in the last seven years since independence in terms of providing basic health infrastructure. It's still very rudimentary if you compare it with Australia, of course. >> VOICEOVER: Australian-born former first lady Kirsty Gusmao-Sword worked to established the Alola Foundation, which is making a difference by increasing awareness of antenatal and postnatal care. With the assistance of Australian Government funding, other programs are in place to train more doctors and midwives. Another complication is the high birth rate, with an average of seven children per woman >> KIRSTY GUSMAO-SWORD: Timor has one of the highest rates of infant-maternal mortality in the world, something like 200 times the rate of under-five mortality compared with Australia. Alarming statistics. >> KATE OLIVIERI [Australian Volunteers International]: It's a kind of insurance: if a woman has six children and then has a difficult birth with the seventh and dies of an infection because she couldn't get proper midwife assistance, then at least the father still had six children. >> FERNANDA BORGES [East Timor Parliamentarian]: The quicker we have jobs, the quicker we educate our young women in primary schooling in high schooling, we will be able to then see a new cohort of young women come through with different needs that are not so focused on having big families. >> VOICEOVER: It will take time, but East Timor is heading in the right direction. >> TITLE: What is Australia doing? Helping to train the next generation of midwives and providing specialist surgical services and training in East Timor. Supporting outreach clinics, which target remote and rural villages with information on health, nutrition, and family planning. Helping to fund maternal and reproductive health activities in developing countries across the region and in Afghanistan. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-4-reduce-child-mortality <p>With Australian support, more birth attendants are being trained in rural and remote parts of Papua New Guinea, helping to reduce infant deaths.</p> Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-4-reduce-child-mortality Child, Millennium Development Goals, Health, Rural area, Mortality rate, AusAID, Papua New Guinea, Kokoda Track, Healthcare, Clinic >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) >> TITLE: 4. Reduce Child Mortality. The death rate of children under five has declined steadily from 12.6 million in 1990 to 9 million in 2007. But the rate is still too high -- one death every 3 seconds, mostly from preventable causes. >> TITLE: Target. Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. >> TITLE: Papua New Guinea. >> VOICEOVER: Often one of the challenges in reducing child deaths is reaching the large populations that live in remote areas. So health teams like this one in Papua New Guinea trudge for hours on muddy tracks through mountainous countryside to set up health clinics in villages like this one in Kanga, not far from the Kokoda Track. >> LEON SIME [Health Action Officer]: My work in here, being a health action officer, we were trained especially to work in the rural areas, like a doctor that does clinical duties in the hospital, we do the same in rural areas. That includes the family health and immunization patrols, doing family planning, antenatal care, I coordinate that within the health center. >> VOICEOVER: Village volunteers are also trained to provide basic medical assistance and advice. >> LEON SIME: They have also been trained to identify and refer those cases to the health centers and hospital for treatment, and also they've been trained to do antenatal care for mothers who are pregnant and they can estimate the date of birth and refer them in, encourage mothers to come in for deliveries in here. >> VOICEOVER: Better access to healthcare, immunization, and education are keys to keeping children healthy. >> MICHAEL LUCAS [Kanga Village Chief]: When health program is an educational program like this, trying to educate people, I think that will help us, will change our living and also people will change from when they're young, too. >> TITLE: What is Australia doing? Training more skilled birth attendants in rural and remote PNG to help reduce infant deaths. Increasing births supervised by skilled staff is an important focus of the PNG-Australia Partnership for Development. Working with governments and other donors to improve the supply of vaccines and immunization globally. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-2-achieve-universal-primary-education <p>The Australian Government has made education a flagship of its Laos aid program. Already the number of children, especially girls, staying in supported schools to grade 5 has doubled.</p> Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:14:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mdg-2-achieve-universal-primary-education Millennium Development Goals, Education, Laos, Primary school, Southeast Asia, AusAID, Government of Australia, Child, School >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) >> TITLE: 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education. The number of primary school-aged children who are out of school has declined from 115 million in 2002 to 75 million today. But this is still too many and, despite improvements, there are still fewer girls than boys in school. >> TITLE: Target. Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. >> TITLE: Laos >> VOICEOVER: This school in a remote area of Laos is one of many benefiting from an education program aimed at increasing the number of children, particularly girls, enrolled in school. >> DOKKEO PHONTHACHIT [Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Education]: We can see that now there are more and more girls in school. That's very impressive that the parents can realize that education is so important for the children. >> VOICEOVER: Australia has also funded the construction of new schools as well as a comprehensive teacher-training program to improve the standard of education across the country, particularly in remote areas. >> MS. INVANH [Teacher, Ban Dakduang]: It is important that they now can learn to read and write. When I started teaching they couldn't read and write and speak Laos, but since their reading and writing has improved they feel more motivated to come to school. >> BAN CHALING [Village Chief]: Yes, it has been easier for the village to encourage kids to come to school, and kids are willing to come to school because they like the new building. >> VOICEOVER: There are also innovative support programs aimed at keeping the children in school, such as providing nutritious snacks, training teachers in child-centered teaching techniques, and grants to schools. >> DOKKEO PHONTHACHIT: Significantly education can contribute a lot of support to poor families. I think education is the key for their success in the future. As schools are built, teachers are trained, curriculum is developed, those interventions will help. >> TITLE: What is Australia doing? In Laos a school feeding program is an added incentive for over 89,000 children to attend school. The number of children, especially girls, staying in school to grade 5 has doubled in Australia-supported schools. The Australian Government has made education a flagship of the aid program. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/good-fortune-silva <p>What impact are the Millennium Development Goals having on inhabitants of Kibera, a massive shantytown in Kenya? This film about local midwife Silva Adhiambo examines some of the tensions that exist between aid organizations and the people they are trying help.</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/good-fortune-silva Kenya, Kibera, Millennium Development Goals, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Africa, United Nations, Shanty town, Foreign Assistance, Good Fortune, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Scenes from the feature documentary: Good Fortune >> TITLE: Kibera Nairobi Kenya >> TITLE: Kibera is one of the largest informal settlements in Africa, with an estimated population of up to 1.2 million inhabitants. >> FRANCIS OMONDI: My name is Francis Omondi. I'm secretary of the Settlement Executive Committee, which is in charge of the slum upgrading. UN Habitat has something called Millennium Development Goals. One of the goals of the Millennium Development is that by the year 2020, they should provide better housing for at least 100 million people living in slums like the one we live in. So the plan is to move people being evicted from here into temporary housing. Do you understand? >> SILVA ADHIAMBO [midwife]: This is government land. Every time they threaten to build on it we get worried that we'll lose the only place we can afford to live. >> SARA CANDIRACCI [United Nations Program Manager]: Kenya Slum Upgrading Program is a joint program, it's a partnership with the government of Kenya and the main purpose is to improve the livelihood of people and the situation of people and the infrastructure of slums. >> TITLE: The United Nations is partnering with the Kenyan government to build modern housing in Kiberia. >> SARA CANDIRACCI: So many institutions, small organizations or big organizations go in there and do these small projects but at the end the impact is very low. I mean, you need to go there with a big project working together with the community to have a big impact. Now the challenge is a lot of people need to be relocated. >> TITLE: During the first phase of the project, 20,000 families will be moved to temporary housing >> SARA CANDIRACCI: All the strategy to move people and to bring them back is still not clear so I prefer not to ... you know. I can give you my opinion but maybe it's better if I don't. You know, it's like this: when you work with people it's not easy, never easy. You know, the infrastructure is the soft work. The hard work is dealing with people, it's dealing with the government, it's dealing with the community, it's dealing with all the institutions, all the interests, so it's dealing with people is, like, the hard work. >> SILVA ADHIAMBO: If they demolish these houses and evict us, I won't have a place for these women to give birth. That's the problem with leaving Kibera, it will be like losing my job. If I move from here, then that's it. I won't be able to carry on the work I've been doing in this house here in Kibera. >> FRED ODHIAMBO [Silva's husband]: The problem is that the people who send aid don't know where it's going. In Kenya it's difficult for aid to reach the common man. When foreign aid reaches the grassroots then we shall improve. >> TITLE: www.goodfortunefilm.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-aid-traders <p>Kids in developing countries need vaccines, but will the world's wealthy financial markets really help to deliver them? A deal brokered by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has so far raised nearly $2 billion for just that purpose. It's called the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), and author Aminatta Forna wants to know how it works.</p> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:07:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-aid-traders GAVI Alliance, IFFIm, Vaccine, Immunization, Africa, Vaccination, Millennium Development Goals, Sierra Leone, Health, Development aid >> TITLE: Kill or Cure >> VOICEOVER: The heartland of Sierra Leone, the country in which Aminatta Forna grew up. She's watching local mothers bring their babies to be weighed and immunized >> AMINATTA FORNA: Every woman with young children has turned up for this, there's almost a festive atmosphere. >> VOICEOVER: It's very different from the world that Aminatta, as a London-based writer, now inhabits. >> AMINATTA FORNA: You'd never see this in the West. I've never seen this in the West. But here it's really quite typical. I think everyone, apart from the kids, is enjoying themselves a lot. >> VOICEOVER: Everyone's making the most of the vaccinations. But what they don't realize, is that most of the money used to buy these jabs comes from places thousands of miles away, like Canary Wharf in London, Aminatta's home town. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Most of the money that funds vaccination programs in the developing world is raised in places like this. But we couldn't be further, perhaps 6,000 miles and a million light years away, from my family village. >> TITLE: The Aid Traders >> VOICEOVER: Aminatta Forna, a writer who grew up in Sierra Leone, has just arrived at the country's main airport. She's on her way to the capital, Freetown. >> AMINATTA FORNA: From the airport to Freetown isn't easy. There's theoretically a road round but it's impassable. So you can go by ferry if the ferry's running, sometimes it isn't, or you can rely on the helicopter. Just a matter of scrambling to find out which one's working, if any of them are working at all. >> VOICEOVER: Aminatta was born in Scotland to a Sierra Leonean father and British mother. But she grew up here. Today, she and her husband are on one of their regular trips back to the country. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I enjoy coming back. I always feel, for me, I was born between two cultures, on the crossroads of cultures. I was born African and European. [Shouting in helicopter: "That's Freetown!"] We came here when I was six months old so I actually learnt to swim in the Atlantic Ocean, that's what I remember. >> VOICEOVER: But Sierra Leone's beauty belies its troubled past. For the last two decades, it's been consistently ranked by the United Nations as one of the worst place in the world to live. From 1991 to 2002, civil war killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Sometimes I've referred to Sierra Leone as a flawed paradise, because it seems to me that so much of the essence of life really is still, in Africa, in the developing world, where a place as beautiful like this is also a place where children die very young, where death is an everyday experience for most people. >> VOICEOVER: Aminatta is preparing for a trip to her family's village, Rogbonko, a four-hour drive from Freetown. It was one of the worst-affected villages during the war, cut off behind rebel lines for over a decade. >> AMINATTA FORNA: The rebels came on a particular day, the first invasion of the village. The women were raped, every woman in the village was raped. From then on, the rebels came back regularly for money, for food, there were various atrocities committed. When I first came back to the village in 2002 there was quite literally nothing. >> VOICEOVER: Since the end of the war, Aminatta has returned twice a year. She's set up a school and helped with a farming project. But this time, she's looking into something a little different. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I'm not absolutely certain the kids are being vaccinated. There's a hospital nearby, but I'm not certain what kind of level of coverage we have in the village. >> VOICEOVER: She wants to see if vaccines are reaching the remote areas of the country like Rogbonko. Because she's heard about a new initiative which could be helping them. It's called the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, and it launched thousands of miles away. >> VOICEOVER: It was in London, in 2005, that the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, or IFFIm, was launched. Six European governments pledged USD$5 billion to help fund immunization projects run by the GAVI Alliance in over 70 of the world's poorest countries. IFFIm's aim was to make those future aid pledges available now. But how? >> AMINATTA FORNA: So how it works is a government pledges a certain amount of money for immunization projects in the future. IFFIm say, "OK, we'll raise that money now by issuing investments bonds," bonds that you or I could go out and buy, or our pension funds could go out and buy, and that makes the money available now for programs in the field. It's called front loading and it's something I'd like to know a lot more about. >> VOICEOVER: The IFFIm chairman is Alan Gillespie. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Can you tell me what the trigger was to getting IFFIm started? >> ALAN GILLESPIE: When we look back at the last 50 years, there've been endless attempts to bring effective development assistance to the poorer countries. The [United Nations] Millennium Development Goals called for a very different approach. The [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation and a number of European governments said: What can we do to step in and make a dramatic difference to the way in which healthcare is delivered to the poorer countries? >> VOICEOVER: In order to make the money pledged by governments in the future available today, IFFIm borrows the money from investors. They aren't donating money, they're investing: they get their money back, plus interest. It's proved popular and it's something about which Aminatta has questions. >> AMINATTA FORNA: So the money that is paid to investors actually comes from future aid donations? >> ALAN GILLESPIE: That's correct. The money that will be used to pay interest coupons on the bonds is pledged by eight wealthy governments over the next 20 years, and that is a little piece out of their forward aid commitments which will be used to pay the interest on these bonds. The average interest rate over all the bonds we've issued in the market is 2.3 percent. >> AMINATTA FORNA: When I first heard that the money that was paid to investors came out of future aid donations, it made me feel uncomfortable. And I just wondered whether ... how you feel about that? >> ALAN GILLESPIE: If we're creating healthier children today, going forward that will mean a far lower healthcare burden in those poor countries and on us in assistance. Secondly, our governments are all the time borrowing in the capital markets. So the principle of paying interest to do something is in-built in how our society works. And so one way or another we're going to pay interest on that in the future. >> AMINATTA FORNA: So are you saying it's reality and actually it's a price worth paying? >> ALAN GILLESPIE: It is undoubtedly a price worth paying. And when I think we have been able to mobilize over USD$2 billion on an interest cost of just over 2 percent that is a remarkable financial accomplishment in order to advance the cause of child health. >> VOICEOVER: Over the next two decades, more than USD$5 billion will be made available to IFFIm by the governments of the UK, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and now South Africa and the Netherlands. So far, IFFIm have raised more than USD$2 billion of that on the capital markets to be used now. The press have hailed it as innovative and unique. Aminatta goes to meet Andrew Jack, from the London newspaper, The Financial Times. >> AMINATTA FORNA: How innovative an idea do you think it was to raise the money in this way? >> ANDREW JACK: I think it's been an exciting idea, it's innovative. No one else has really come up with alternative mechanisms for delivering large numbers of vaccines, to making good that lag between what's available and what's actually delivered to the world's poor countries. This is probably about the most efficient way you can do it financially. >> AMINATTA FORNA: So everybody wins? >> ANDREW JACK: I think there is perhaps a broader philosophical question, if you like, because what a government is doing today by taking part in IFFIm is pledging future generations to paying money up front today. It's restricting their ability to maneuver on future development aid. >> VOICEOVER: The government pledges are legally binding and managed by IFFIm's treasurer, the World Bank. But should governments commit funds 20 years into the future? Aminatta asked the financial secretary to the British treasury, Stephen Timms. >> STEPHEN TIMMS: Well I think the prize is in doing things now, rather than in 10 or 15 years time, because we'll have healthy children in the future thanks to immunization now rather than sick children. So I think actually the case for spending money now and using this mechanism is a very, very compelling one. >> AMINATTA FORNA: What IFFIm are doing, in raising money for vaccines through the world of finance, is imaginative and interesting. But I think actually implementing it, on the ground, with all of the challenges that there are in Africa, is going to be quite different, and that's what I want to see. >> VOICEOVER: Back in Sierra Leone, Aminatta is almost at the end of the four-hour drive to her father's village, Rogbonko. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I normally come to the village about twice a year, but it's been a whole year since I've been back. I was here this time last year, I wasn't able to come at the end of the year. So I'm really excited. I'm actually just excited to be home. >> VOICEOVER: The feeling appears to be mutual, with every member of the village turning out to greet her. But this isn't just a social visit. Aminatta wants to find out whether vaccines paid for out of the IFFIm initiative are reaching remote areas like this. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I'd really like to know if all the kids in this village are being immunized, because that will absolutely change things around ultimately and forever. >> TITLE: Kill or Cure. >> VOICEOVER: Aminatta Forna is writer who lives in London, but grew up in Sierra Leone. She's staying in her father's village looking into the work of a vaccine initiative called the International Finance Facility for Immunisation. >> AMINATTA FORNA: My father was a doctor, I myself was immunized by him, and I grew up in a clinic with people coming and going with different ailments, so I've always had an innate understanding really of not only how important healthcare is in a country like this one but also what the challenges of delivery are. >> VOICEOVER: Poor roads and tiny budgets are just two of the reasons why Sierra Leone's health system struggles to cope. When Aminatta arrived in the village a few days ago, she learnt that her cousin Ibrahim had just lost a daughter to tetanus. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Can you tell me, at any of the hospitals, did they tell you what was wrong with your baby? >> IBRAHIM: Well I'm not a doctor, but I know when a baby is dying. You look out for signs like shivering. But we were told it was tetanus, so we took the baby to Makeni. After a while, I was told the baby had died. >> FATMATA: I was devastated. I loved that child. >> TRANSLATOR: He told me, indeed, he believed that she had not been given a tetanus vaccination and this is not the first child that has died in this way. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Of theirs? >> TRANSLATOR: Yes, of theirs. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I'm so sorry this happened. >> IBRAHIM: After everything I've been through, I never want to go through that pain again. Any life that is lost leaves a family devastated. >> VOICEOVER: It's unlikely these children were immunized against tetanus, a vaccine-preventable disease. Ibrahim isn't sure if they had been or not. >> AMINATTA FORNA: In so many parts of the world tetanus is virtually an eradicated disease. I mean, I can't remember the last time I heard of anybody in the Western world either contracting or dying of tetanus and yet it happens here all the time. Ibrahim and Fatmata had lost not one, but two children to tetanus. >> VOICEOVER: The next morning, Aminatta is taken by another of her cousins to the nearest vaccination centre. There are a lot of villagers -- and Fornas -- in the vaccination register. >> AMINATTA FORNA: So this is the list of vaccines that they've had and then you put the date according to which vaccine it is. >> VOICEOVER: IFFIm money has helped to increase routine vaccination coverage here from just 40 percent to over 60 percent. In-country estimates indicate that figure is still climbing and could be as high as 85 percent by the end of the year. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Yeah, I can see lots of people from Robonko here. >> MARY [vaccination center nurse]: They are very attentive. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I didn't know that anyone from my village came here. I thought that those kids that were vaccinated were actually going to the big hospital in Magburaka, which is much further away. So I was really impressed. >> VOICEOVER: Normally, the villagers come here for vaccinations. But today, the nurse is taking the vaccines to the village to make sure every child is up to date. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I guess for people in the West, taking your kids to be vaccinated is a routine and rather mundane activity: you go into a hospital, it gets done, you leave. But here, well you can see, it's such a festive atmosphere, it's like a party in here. Everybody has come together today, and they have actually decided to make a bit of a day of it. I don't think all the kids here actually need to be vaccinated but everyone's brought them anyway. One of the reasons the nurse is checking the records so carefully is to make sure that she doesn't accidentally double up and that's because people have got such a strong belief in medicine, free medicine, that they come anyway. >> VOICEOVER: Until 2007, none of these babies would have been protected against the child killers Hib [Haemophilus influenzae type b] and Hepatitis B. IFFIm money helped to include vaccinations against them into the national program two years ago. By front-loading the money pledged over the next 20 years by donor governments, IFFIm has raised USD$6 million to be spent each year in Sierra Leone. The GAVI Alliance is the organization which distributes IFFIm funds. According to the World Health Organization, its support of vaccination programs has averted 3.4 million deaths worldwide. Aminatta meets visiting representative Arianne Leroy. >> ARIANNE LEROY: We're funding a number of various vaccines and the most recently introduced vaccine is a vaccine called the pentavalent, which is a very new vaccine, and it's actually extraordinary to think that the pentavalent vaccine, which is a vaccine that is available in Western countries, is now available to all the kids in Sierra Leone for free. What we're trying to do is to give the same chance to all these children in Sierra Leone as Western children to start off their life healthy. >> VOICEOVER: Rogbonko is just one of millions of villages around the world being helped by GAVI and IFFIm money, which supports immunization programs for half the world's population. In Sierra Leone, GAVI has committed funds until 2015. But what happens then, when the money is spent? >> ARIANNE LEROY: We're trying to make sure that the countries are self-sustainable at some point. We are now requiring all countries to co-finance their vaccine, meaning that Sierra Leone is starting to pay part of the vaccine they are getting, and increasingly they'll have to pay for more and more as time goes through. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Is it just the vaccine itself that GAVI funds in Sierra Leone? >> ARIANNE LEROY: GAVI funds the vaccine itself but it couldn't just fund the vaccine otherwise nobody would be trained to use the vaccine, families would not know that the vaccine is there to get their children vaccinated, so GAVI is also strengthening the national health system so that people are trained, people know about the vaccine, the infrastructure is in place, and the vaccines can be administered. >> VOICEOVER: Back in the village, it becomes apparent why this additional support is so vital. It transpires some of the women had, in the past, been charged for their free vaccinations. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Can you tell me how much money you'd have to pay for this? >> WOMAN [via translator]: Five hundred leones [SLL]. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Five hundred leones for what? >> WOMAN [via translator]: Five thousand leones. >> AMINATTA FORNA: Five thousand leones, for the card. We went round asking different women, we asked about 20 women, and they all told us exactly the same story that the previous nurse had been charging them all 5,000 leones for their immunization card, for something that should by rights have been given to them free. It transpires that some of the officials did know, they are onto it, they are stamping it out, so that was reassuring. It also demonstrates actually why GAVI money is needed for more than just the immunizations themselves, that actually monitoring the systems is as much part of it as delivering the vaccines. >> VOICEOVER: The next morning, the village holds a meeting to discuss what has happened. >> AMINATTA FORNA: This is a village meeting in the barrie and the representative health worker has come to talk to them about vaccinations and why they're so important. There's clearly more to an immunization program than simply sending over batches of vaccines, and I think that it's tremendously important that GAVI is and continues to spend money on the entire infrastructure, on the personnel, on the systems, on delivery, on giving the right messages. >> HEALTH WORKER: The reason I am here today is to tell you about vaccinations. We want you to know that all vaccinations are free. You never have to pay for the vaccination card. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I don't think the villagers have any real understanding that the money for their vaccines is coming from IFFIm and GAVI, I don't think those acronyms mean anything to them at all. But they do understand, now, that the vaccines are free, that's been made absolutely clear today. >> VOICEOVER: The villagers have had their questions answered. And so has Aminatta. >> AMINATTA FORNA: I didn't really know what to expect when I first began to look into this whole area. I knew about the challenges of delivering aid to a country like Sierra Leone but I knew absolutely nothing about financial institutions. I think there's a natural suspicion, which I've always shared, about capital markets, about the world of finance and business. It's been really interesting for me to see that there are times when that can be harnessed in a way which is productive, and in this particular case it's produced something enduring and really beautiful, and that is a child's life. >> VOICEOVER: On the other side of the village, at the school Aminatta started, it's time for their annual photo. >> AMINATTA FORNA: With the school that we run, what people love so much about giving to us is, if they give a pound, they see a set of pencils arrive; there's a very, very direct correlation. So I think with the IFFIm program, it's vaccinations. You're getting something that's very measurable back. If that's what you're investing, that's what a child at this end gets. >> TITLE: [end credits] >> TITLE: Rockhopper TV http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-palestinian-teens-find-unicef-sponsored-community UNICEF is currently supporting 40 teen-friendly learning centers in the West Bank and Gaza to help adolescents overcome hopelessness and provide meaningful programs outside of school. See how these centers are reaching out to marginalized youth and building self-esteem. Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-palestinian-teens-find-unicef-sponsored-community Palestinian territories, Education, UNICEF, West Bank, Gaza, Community centre, Jabalia, Learning, Adolescence, Millennium Development Goals >> VOICEOVER: Faced with severe economic difficulties, border closures, and political unrest, life for many in the occupied Palestinian territory grows more difficult by the day. Particularly children and adolescents feel the effects of these hardships. Their schooling is disrupted, their living standards are deteriorating. Anxiety and uncertainty are taking their toll on these young adults. UNICEF is currently supporting 40 adolescent-friendly learning centers in the West Bank and Gaza to help adolescents overcome their hopelessness and to provide meaningful programs outside schools. One of these centers is the Jabalya Community Center, located in the Jabalya refugee camp. The center provides services to the most disadvantaged children. The camp is suffering from a high level of poverty and unemployment. The youth clubs feature sports and music and ensure the participation of adolescent girls. Both girls and boys like learning the traditional dance, called Dabkeh. >> HANIN MASAOUD [16 years old]: Before coming here I was always feeling shame. But now I am able to face people and interact with them. I have learned how to express my opinions and have my right to be around people. >> MOHAMED MURAD [15 years old]: The things I love most are music, band, Dabkeh and sports. They are very important in helping me build my body and activate my thinking. It taught me a lot of things. This center is the only place that gives me the opportunity to learn and widen my knowledge. >> VOICEOVER: Adolescent-friendly learning centers are expected to reach out to marginalized adolescents in remote areas with help from cooperative partners. >> REEM TARAZI [UNICEF Project Officer]: UNICEF, in cooperation with the Tamer Institute, has established a number of adolescent learning centers that provide education, sports, and recreational activities for adolescents. It gives them the opportunity to participate peacefully and to express themselves. It increases their skills and education to improve their achievement in school, particularly the participation of girls. >> VOICEOVER: UNICEF hopes to establish more adolescent-friendly learning centers to benefit around 16,000 needy adolescents, an important step in restoring their sense of well-being in this troubled time. This is Amy Bennett, reporting for UNICEF Television. Unite for children. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0878 <p>When it comes to lifting themselves out of poverty, the residents of one Malawian village have discovered that their most valuable resource is knowledge. Armed with new ideas, they are growing more food, creating enterprises, and improving life in their community.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 28 May 2010 21:20:37 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0878 Malawi, Millennium Development Goals, United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, Food security, Lilongwe, UN in Action, Agriculture & Food, Education >> VOICEOVER: In a modern supermarket in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi in southeast Africa, shoppers are paying premium prices for packs of oyster mushrooms. They're prized for their flavor and nutritional qualities. The increasing popularity of these mushrooms has given a Malawi village hope that it can lift itself out of poverty. Just five kilometers from the Zambian border, Ndawambe is a poor hamlet of 330 households. It barely survived the recent drought, and food security is always a major concern for everyone in the community. Besides tilling the land, villagers here have few resources to develop alternative ways of making a living. Maize is the principle crop. And, traditionally, villagers have used the husks as soil fertilizer. But recently they discovered that they could also use the husks to grow mushrooms. From a training workshop sponsored by the UN Development Programme, UNDP, they've learned to rely on their own resources to breed oyster mushrooms. Zahra Nuru Is the UNDP Resident Coordinator in Malawi. >> ZAHRA NURU: They are also using the husks of maize, cutting them up and growing mushrooms. They know that instead of waiting for the rainy season to get mushrooms once a year, as they usually do here, they can get mushrooms every five weeks. >> VOICEOVER: And it takes farmers only one week to learn the entire process, from building the mushroom houses to creating the bases in which the fungi grows. It's a profitable business with few overheads. Farmers need only pay for the building materials for the huts and the seedlings. The project is part of a UNDP pilot program underway in the village to help improve living conditions. Aquaculture is another major activity. Farmers receive training in preparing the ponds, as well as the fingerlings that will grow into adult fish, ready for harvest. In addition, the village now owns an oven given by UNDP, making food more readily available. Since the pilot project started three years ago, life in the village has greatly improved. People particularly appreciate the knowledge they have gained. Leoson Hara is the village Headman. >> LEOSON HARA: The projects have changed our livelihoods. We now know of many things that we never knew before. The village now has more food and more income. >> VOICEOVER: Oyster mushrooms have also become one of their favorite foods. The success of the project has encouraged other small enterprises to mushroom too. For these Malawian villagers, the transfer of knowledge and know-how is the best tool they can have to fight poverty, one of the main UN Millennium Development Goals. This report was prepared by Kamil Taha and Patricia Chan for the United Nations.