http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Agriculture & Food) en-us Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:27:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-fighting-malnutrition-with-ancient-seeds Food prices have recently skyrocketed in the western highlands of Guatemala, and chronic malnutrition is stunting the development of children both physically and mentally. However, indigenous plants once common to the area may hold a solution. Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-health-show-fighting-malnutrition-with-ancient-seeds Guatemala, Agriculture & Food, Malnutrition, Neural development, Food security, Child development, Nutrition, Essential nutrient, Rockhopper, The Health Show >> VOICEOVER: In the western highlands of Guatemala, a silent disease is rife. Chronic malnutrition is stunting the development of children -- both their bodies and their minds. Maria Leonor and her extended family are not getting enough to eat. Most children in this house are malnourished. Higher food prices, partly due to the changing climate, results in a limited and monotonous diet of maize and beans.>> MARIA LEONOR: Everything is too expensive. The price of maize is going up and up, every day. We just eat tortillas and beans, nothing else. We can't afford to eat any other food.>> VOICEOVER: The problem is not a shortage of calories. What's missing are essential vitamins and minerals vital for these children's development. The damage done during these critical early years can never be repaired.>> DR. CARLOS ARRIOLA [Director, Bethania Clinic, Guatemala]: The lack of proper nutrition is limiting their intellectual development. It doesn't only affect their physical growth, but their brain development as well. This is a life sentence, not just for the children, but also for the country.>> VOICEOVER: Maria Leonor's thirteenth child, four-year-old Debora, is lethargic. It's a classic sign of chronic malnutrition. Her grandchild Elsa has a stomach infection, another common sign. Her daughter-in-law is desperate.>> MARIA NATIVIDAD: I am worried. I fear he is going to die. He has malnutrition. He has been like this for three months. There is nothing I can do.>> VOICEOVER: A previous food crisis prompted Sister Juana to take action. She's encouraging families to create their own kitchen gardens. Sister Juana distributes seeds to the rural communities where malnutrition hits hardest. Juana brings seeds of indigenous plants, which are resilient and highly nutritious. Popular with local people's ancestors, they slowly disappeared over the years. These tomatoes are high in vitamin C.>> SISTER JUANA [Nutrition Expert, Bethania Clinic, Guatemala]: This is the only kind of tomato that our ancestors grew. It is very nutritious. Children should learn to eat it from an early age.>> VOICEOVER: Dora has been working hard in her kitchen garden. With Juana's help, she has brought a wide variety of vegetables back to life. Chatate is a nutritious herb high in vitamin A.>> SISTER JUANA: In the past, all the gardens had chatate; it's a strong plant. It doesn't need much water; it will survive the dry season. >> VOICEOVER: Today, Juana is teaching Dora how to cook the herb Hierba mora.>> SISTER JUANA: You can mix these herbs with scrambled eggs, and you can add some onions when they're in season.>> VOICEOVER: The new dish is ready and about to face its most important test: Dora's children.>> DORA: I feel happy and proud, because I now have my own vegetables. My children haven't fallen ill; they haven't even had a fever. They are doing just fine. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-africas-last-famine This World Food Day is marked by one of the worst famines in recent history. But, with the right planning and a few new ideas, it could be the last. Get the latest from the Horn of Africa and beyond in this special report from Oxfam America and ViewChange.org. Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-africas-last-famine Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Food security, Sustainable agriculture, Oxfam, Famine, Drought, Ethiopia, Farmer, Vietnam >> VOICEOVER: Next up: as drought and famine threaten the Horn of Africa, one farmer fights to guard her livelihood against a changing climate. See who's working in Africa and around the world to prove that hunger isn't inevitable in an all-new report from Oxfam America 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: Africa's Last Famine. >> VOICEOVER: The Horn of Africa is in crisis. This season, the rains failed throughout much of the region, triggering in places the worst drought in 60 years. The result? Thirteen million people affected; 1.8 million Somalis alone displaced; families losing hundreds of thousands of animals they need to survive. Aid groups and governments around the world have scrambled to help. But with 750,000 people facing starvation, experts find themselves asking one question over and over: how can we make sure this famine is the last? The answer to that question might be captured in a single idea: resilience. For rural farmers, surviving this drought is the priority. Trying to build reserves for the next is overwhelming. But the public and private sectors have some new ideas to give rural families financial security to outlast the next emergency. Northern Ethiopia has been spared the worst of the crisis, but farmers here have seen their share of drought in the past. In one village, Adi Ha, farmers are experimenting with a new program -- one that lets them trade work for insurance against bad weather. Oxfam America has been following one farmer there for two years. Writer Coco McCabe brings us her story. >> TITLE: Medhin Reda, Oxfam America, Ethiopia >> COCO MCCABE [Writer, Oxfam America]: In my mind's eye I see Medhin Reda as I saw her one afternoon in Adi Ha a few months ago. She's heading to her field of teff. The shoots are new and fragile. But the tiny seeds they eventually produce will help feed her family. The rain has come, but the harvest is never certain. As a writer for Oxfam America, I'm often sent to cover humanitarian emergencies. But in 2009, I went to northern Ethiopia to report on a pilot program designed to help farmers cope with drought. And it was on that visit that I first met Medhin. I had gone to her village to learn about teff and the challenges of growing it in a changing climate. Teff is Ethiopia's staple grain, rich in nutrients. Farmers across the country cultivate it, and it serves as the basis of a bread called injera, much-loved in Ethiopia. It's flat, like a pancake, and made from fermented batter, which gives it a slightly sour taste. But in this rugged region of Tigray where Medhin lives, drought is always a worry. Coaxing crops from the ground is never easy and teff is labor-intensive. Though the rain was falling regularly in early August, no one knew if it would continue to the harvest. If the rain fails, so do the harvests and that means families don't eat. It's that constant uncertainty that farmers like Medhin live with, an uncertainty that can turn instantly grave because here, poverty leaves no room for mishaps. >> MEDHIN REDA [Farmer]: Teff requires a lot of effort. We have to plow it three to four times and when the soil is softer, we add seed and fertilizer. As you can see, it has fertilizer and we planted good seed and that is why it looks good. Later on, the crop is taken to a grinding mill and ground. Some of the flour is mixed with water and fermented for two or three days and finally baked and made into injera. And it becomes good food and the main dish for our life. Teff is the most pure food. >> COCO MCCABE: A single mother with just two of her five children still at home, Medhin lives in a small compound surrounded by a stone wall. She and one of her daughters hauled every stone for their house here. I listen to the pounding in her mortar and the wind stirring the stalks of corn and wonder how does uncertainty shape the life of a family, of a community? One answer is to migrate, like Medhin did during the time of a terrible famine that hit Tigray and other regions of Ethiopia in 1984. To survive, she fled to Sudan for a year with her young son and infant daughter. But another answer is in the stones of Medhin's compound. It's in her carefully weeded fields and in the trust she puts in her children. The answer is work: a determination to build, to plant, to harvest, to thrive, step by step. That work ethic runs deep in Adi Ha, and for some of its farmers hard work produces a cushion of cash. Those farmers have access to irrigation. Their harvests are guaranteed, whether it rains or not. But for Medhin, who doesn't have the benefit of irrigation, all of her work has gone into the day-to-day survival of her family. She's never had the luxury of a cushion. That's a reality that poor farmers around the world face every day. What do they do if drought kills their crops or floods wash out their fields? How do you help people soften those blows and build their resilience? That's what drove Oxfam and a group of partners to develop an initiative aimed at helping small farmers build their resilience. What they came up with not only improves farmers' access to credit, it provides them with insurance, something many of us in the developed world take for granted. >> DAVID SATTERTHWAITE [Head, Rural Resilience Initiative, Oxfam America]: Now, everything you see around you here is insured, but in many parts of the world there is no insurance. So that service, insurance, is a core building block of what we call rural resilience. In doing this work, people often express doubts that we'll be able to address the underlying causes of the crises that we see again and again, like that today in the Horn of Africa. In order to do so we need to address the core issue, which is poverty. One way to think of poverty is continual crisis. We all need to be able to plan for the future. And that's the point of this initiative: to give people the opportunity to have confidence going forward. >> COCO MCCABE: More than 13,000 farmers in Tigray bought weather insurance this year. Some, like Gebru Kahsay, also have access to irrigated land. Still, the insurance is a good investment, he told me. >> GEBRU KAHSAY [Farmer]: We bought insurance as coverage and protection during a shock period. God forbid there's a shock. We do not want drought; we want abundance throughout the seasons. But in case drought occurs, we are covered. And I believe that is why the people are buying insurance. >> COCO MCCABE: But what happens when people like Medhin are too poor to pay for a premium with cash? They can trade their labor for insurance. Mengesha Gebremichael, a program officer for the Relief Society of Tigray, told me that farmers themselves came up with that solution. >> MENGESHA GEBREMICHAEL [Microinsurance Project Officer, Relief Society of Tigray (REST)]: This idea came from the farmers. We usually use the indigenous knowledge of the farmers. So In every aspect of our project our farmers are really participatory. >> COCO MCCABE: I followed Medhin to a nursery one day where she selected a shawl full of tree seedlings to plant in a nearby watershed. The goal was to help to conserve the soil so farmers could plant there. The community work was part of her contribution toward her insurance. >> MEDHIN REDA: I bought insurance because I am poor and I have to work to sustain myself. If I am successful enough, I will support myself, but -- if not -- I have insurance to cover me and I will be compensated. I have convinced more than seven people of how insurance can benefit all of us. >> COCO MCCABE: But even before a payout, there is a tangible benefit and it has to do with a new feeling of confidence this initiative has inspired. Medhin's hard work was paying off. I could see her corn was growing tall. She owned a small herd of goats and both her youngest daughters were in school, something Medhin never had the advantage of herself. And because of the insurance, the fruits of her labor were not at risk. This time, when she gets ahead she can stay ahead. I was thinking about the miles of dirt track she treks each day to fetch water, to reach her fields, so many steps to ensure her family's security. I can't forget the answer Medhin gave when I asked how she was, two years after we first met. Hope was the answer she gave me. We have hope, Medhin said. >> VOICEOVER: So far this year, Medhin has been lucky -- Adi Ha has gotten enough rain and farmers are predicting a good teff harvest. But many other Ethiopians have been less fortunate, and most don't yet have the option of an insurance policy. So is weather insurance the silver bullet for avoiding these crises before they hit? According to Oxfam, it's part of a larger plan to give farmers a cushion when they need it most. As this animation explains, it's all a matter of managing risk. >> VOICEOVER: Nine hundred and twenty-five million people on our planet are hungry. That's more than the population of the US, Canada, and the European Union combined. And within the next four decades, up to 200 million more people could face hunger as a result of climate change. Climate change brings uncertainty: sometimes too much rain, or too little. It means unpredictable harvests. And for many farmers, a healthy harvest is their only source of food and income. Without reserves, one failed harvest could mean families go hungry, kids drop out of school, and people sink deeper into poverty, making it harder for families to plan for the future. Through a new partnership, Oxfam and the World Food Programme are tackling that problem together with Swiss Re. The program is called R4, the Rural Resilience Initiative. It gives rural families the opportunity to manage their own risks, harvest to harvest. It's based on the fact it costs less to manage risks than it does to provide relief in a crisis. The Rural Resilience Initiative: it encourages farmers to save, it improves their access to loans, and it provides them with a common tool many people in developed countries take for granted -- insurance. The insurance provides farmers with compensation for their crops when rain fails to fall. Originally called HARITA, the program started in Tigray, Ethiopia, with REST, one of the founding members. It offered weather insurance for 200 households that conventional wisdom said were too poor to afford it. The initiative allows the poorest farmers to pay for their insurance by working on community projects that improve local agriculture, reduce the impacts of disaster, and help them adapt to a changing climate. Through insurance for work they build irrigation systems, which help crops thrive during dry spells. They make compost to fertilize the fields. They reclaim the degraded environment by planting trees. And since work is one of a farmer's surest assets, by trading it for insurance, farmers with little else can build and protect their future. Farmers can grow their savings to cushion the hard times. They can secure the credit they need to buy the equipment and drought-resistant seeds that promise bigger and better crops. They can launch small businesses that will help feed their families and ensure their children stay in school. So when you invest in rural resilience, you•re helping farmers, their families, and their communities become stronger. What started with 200 households has reached 13,000 over three years and will expand to three more countries, growing village-by-village, border-to-border. Managing risks costs less than managing a crisis. Rural resilience. It just makes sense. >> FRANCES MOORE LAPPE [Writer and Activist, author of "Diet for a Small Planet"]: I say there's no food crisis because, in fact, there's enough food in the world for us all to eat well. There's actually more food per person produced today than when I began focusing on this 40 years ago. In fact, there's more than enough for us all, even on the leftovers - after waste, because people are too poor to store their food; or we throw it out, in the industrial countries, we don't eat it; so waste accounts for about a third of the possible food. But on top of that, only about half of the grain produced in our world goes directly to feed people. The rest of it goes first through livestock or now into producing fuel. So we have a tremendous amount of waste that is built into our food production system. So the real crisis is a crisis of the quality of human relationships -- how we share in power, so that all of us have a voice over the most essential things of life, including food. >> VOICEOVER: Don't go away: when we return, farmers in Vietnam prepare for drought or flood using some new techniques that will help them feed their families either way. >> VOICEOVER: The drought in the horn of Africa may be the center of attention today, but it's not the only region grappling with an unpredictable climate. Farmers in Vietnam are used to dealing with seasonal floods, but thanks in part to climate change, droughts are a fact of life now too. Vietnam is a prime candidate for the insurance programs being tested in Ethiopia, but in the meantime, uncertainty reigns here. This short from Oxfam shows how farmers are learning to weather droughts and floods alike. >> TITLE: Hardest Hit: Vietnam, Oxfam America, Vietnam >> HUYNH KHANH HOA [Water Management Expert, Bac Ai]: In the future, with more changes in the climate, there will be more droughts. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY [Aid Worker, Vietnam]: Because of the climate change, droughts almost happen every year, with different levels of severity. The people suffer a lot. >> CHAMALEA BAC [Community Leader]: I'm highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change. The weather changes make it hard to determine when it is time to plant crops. >> TITLE: Vietnam: Bac Ai >> VOICEOVER: Southeast Asia is known for its floods. But the unpredictable weather caused by climate change has also led to devastating droughts. In Vietnam, farmers who depend on rainfall to irrigate their crops struggle to earn a living and feed their families. The situation is especially difficult in the Bac Ai district in the Ninh Thuan province. This area has the hottest temperatures, least rainfall, and some of the worst poverty rates in all of Vietnam. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: Bac Ai is one of the 61 poorest districts in the country, which received special attention from the government. More than 60 percent of the people in this district are living on an income of less than 12 dollars per month. >> CHAMALEA BAC: I have lived here for more than 30 years; my family is a farming family. I am highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change, because it has not only affected me, but also my community. Everybody is affected. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people, an ethnic minority who make up most of the Bac Ai population, are among the hardest hit. >> PI-NANG THI GIAO [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: My husband and I have a rice field, but we do not get much from it. We have five months of dry season and only two to three months of rainy season. Sometimes it rains too much, and sometimes it rains too little. >> VOICEOVER: While many Vietnamese people are accustomed to managing floods, the Rag Lai people find dealing with droughts to be the real challenge. >> PI-NANG THI MAI [Commune Chairwoman]: Climate change affects the people here, especially those who depend on agriculture for their incomes. When it's too sunny, there's no grass for the cows. Rice and corn die when there's too much sun. The water resources are drying out. >> CHAMALEA BAC: After the drought, our family lost two and a half acres of corn and two and a half acres of rice. We lost two cows. People didn't have fresh water, so we had to take water from the streams, which is a little more than a half-mile walk from here. The quality of the water was bad; it caused skin diseases and stomach disease. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people are working to adapt to harsher growing conditions. With the help of the government, they are bringing more clean water to their communities, and they are learning how to cultivate crops and raise animals that can survive dry spells. >> HUYNH KHANH HOA: When this reservoir is completed, we can be in more control: increasing the water for irrigation when it is needed, or reducing it when it is not. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: The local government provides the construction of the big reservoir, and from Oxfam's side, we support them with training to the local people to enable them to manage the water system effectively. >> VOICEOVER: The local farmers are growing hardier crops, like certain varieties of rice, cashews and corn. >> KATOR CHUONG [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: In the morning, my wife and I work on the rice field, and later we work in the cashew garden. Most of our food comes from the rice field. Oxfam's training showed us a technique for growing rice. I know more now. Before, I didn't know when it was the best time to plant the rice in the ground, and when to stop planting. >> VOICEOVER: And in Bac Ai, they're also raising different breeds of livestock that need less water and fodder. >> PI-NANG KHUYEN [Cow Farmer]: My name is Pi-nang Khuyen, I'm 22 years old and I'm a cow farmer. I don't have much education because my parents are poor. I'm happy to have the cow; once she gives birth, life will be easier. I chose to raise a cow because it is easier to take care of than other animals. The cow survives the dry season better here. I have to feed other livestock and give water three to four times a day. But for the cow, it's only two times a day. >> VOICEOVER: For communities that have worked the land for generations, these strategies have helped make responding to the changing climate conditions easier. Using their new skills, the reservoir, and irrigation canals, farmers can continue to provide for their families doing what they know best: farming. >> CHAMALEA BAC: We are learning how to adapt to climate changes. We are beginning to understand how to change our farming and crops. People are learning better ways to plant and raise livestock. All of this has contributed to increasing the incomes of the local people. >> VOICEOVER: As World Food Day arrives, the famine in Somalia takes on a new symbolism. With food surpluses in so many parts of the world, famine in Africa or anywhere else seems simply unacceptable. Insurance is one tool to fight hunger, but there are so many more: fair access to land and water, an aggressive focus on climate change, and a pledge from governments and companies to invest in local farmers. The rains in Africa may or may not fall next season, or the season after, or the season after that. But perhaps by then, farmers there will have the resilience to endure it all. >> FRANCES MOORE LAPPE: Let's be really clear that hunger is not a place, a place in Africa, or any place somewhere. Even in the richest country in the world, in the United States today, one in seven of us are dependent on food stamps. So let's think of hunger as a set of relationships that have just gotten completely out of whack. And we can right those relationships, we can help empower ourselves so that others can be empowered too, because the world produces more than enough for all of us to thrive. >> VOICEOVER: Want to learn more about drought, climate change, 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 400 more from around the world, at ViewChange.org/TV. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/orange-fleshed-sweet-potatoes Sometimes the best solution to a complex problem is the simplest. In the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania, communities are tackling the root causes of blindness and malnutrition by switching from white-fleshed to orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:58:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/orange-fleshed-sweet-potatoes Tanzania, Agriculture & Food, Malnutrition, Blindness, Vitamin A, Africa, Vitamin A deficiency, Subsistence farming, Lake Victoria, Sub-Saharan Africa >> TITLE: Helen Keller International >> TITLE: Complex problems, simple solutions: eat orange for sight and life-saving vitamin A. >> TITLE: Lake Victoria Region, Tanzania >> MARY KABATI [Coordinator for HKI's Local Partner]: The sweet potato is very important to a Tanzanian woman, especially one who comes from around Lake Victoria. Sweet potatoes have been there for years, but they are mostly white-fleshed. Those are the ones that you commonly see at the market. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are quite different. They have good color; you want to eat them. In addition, they have an added value of vitamin A. >> TITLE: Complex problems, simple solutions: vitamin A deficiency is the number one cause of childhood blindness and also compromises the immune system, increasing risk of death. HKI promotes the production and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods like orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to reduce vitamin A deficiency. >> MARY KABATI: When we heard about the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and their importance to health, we thought that now is the time to move from white-fleshed and introduce the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to our target communities. >> MARGARET BENJAMIN [HKI Nutrition Coordinator]: We think that promoting orange-fleshed sweet potatoes will be a very good idea, since it is a nutrient-rich crop with a lot of vitamin A. Our children will be having a double advantage: they are having a vitamin A-rich food as well as getting the calories that they need for the day. >> THERESA KIYEGA [Mother and Farmer]: At first we were surprised because we had different potato seeds. But after we harvested, they were all the same - sweet and soft. We like them. >> MARY KABATI: We found out that they were very popular among women and children. >> THERESA KIYEGA: We planted the seeds on the fourth of January, and after one month we weeded, and we weeded again one month after that. In April, the potatoes were ready to be harvested. In May we were taught to cook them differently. Now we cook them on our own. >> MARY KABATI: With the orange-fleshed sweet potato, you can prepare a variety of dishes. You can prepare good weaning food like porridge. You can prepare some samosas, cakes, biscuits, crisps, which also can be marketable. If you want to have a good income, instead of just selling fresh roots, you can sell products. >> THERESA KIYEGA: Now that we have completed the training, we see that this program will bring us great benefits if we receive it well and work on it. We will improve the income in the family. If I roast the potatoes, we will be able to sell the chips. >> MARY KABATI: Once the communities were told about the benefits of vitamin A, they nicknamed the potato, "medicinal potato," because it does so many things for the body. I think we can make it so that the children will not be deficient in vitamin A anymore. >> TITLE: Helen Keller International, www.hki.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-master-the-art-of-farming Varsha Jawalgekar reports on a group of inspiring women in Patna who have mastered the art of traditional farming and are collectively doing everything that was once done by men only. Now, they can sell their produce and make money for their families. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:59:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-master-the-art-of-farming India, Agriculture & Food, Gender, Agriculture, Patriarchy, Gender equality, Farmer, Collective farming, Patna district, Bihar >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR [IndiaUnheard, Bihar]: From history, it is apparent that women discovered agriculture. But, neither in India nor elsewhere are women recognized as farmers. They don't have access to agriculture. In farming, the hardest process is controlling the plough. And in most places in India, women are prohibited from holding the plough. In Bihar, women have never been recognized as farmers. Social organizations based in Bihar's capital city Patna, namely Ekta Parishad and Praxis, conducted a piece of participatory action research where it was found that only one percent of women in Bihar have ownership of land. >> PRADEEP [NGO Worker]: The practice of giving women a low status in a patriarchal society should be abolished. The image of women as farmers needs to be established in the society so that women have access to land and are able to sell their crops in markets. >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: Coming from a background with such disparities, Munnadevi seems a ray of hope. She is a woman farmer. She is from Bara village in Patna district. >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: How did you start collective farming?>> MUNNADEVI [Bara Village]: I organized a meeting of all the women in this village and collected two rupees from each one. I thought of using this money for the benefit of the women. I also took some help from my brother (an activist from the Ekta Parishad NGO) and decided to start farming for a living. So we got seeds and started sowing them. Since there is not much rain here, we started irrigating our land by renting a water motor. >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: What is your opinion about women taking up farming in your village?>> RAGHUNI MANJHI [Bara Village]: Good to see every girl and woman from this village being part of this collective effort. >> DHORA CHOWDHARY [Bara Village]: There are always gains and benefits. >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: How do you feel about this initiative?>> DHORA CHOWDHARY: I feel nice. This collective farming will definitely yield fruits in the future. >> MUNNADEVI: These women like to work hard to earn money for food. >> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: What do you have to say when men laugh at you?>> MUNNADEVI: They should continue laughing while we will continue farming. >> SUBHASH: In Bara village, women started collective farming in 2008. Taking inspiration from this, women from neighboring villages have taken up collective farming.>> VARSHA JAWALGEKAR: Munnadevi has decided to farm. Once again, there are changes afoot in Bihar. I'm Varsha, reporting for IndiaUnheard from Bihar. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-youth-empowerment-through-agriculture In a space where most saw a dumping ground for debris in the 2008 post-election violence, one community-based organization in Kibera saw the potential for an urban farm. Now they are re-educating youth in agricultural techniques and increasing food security in a dense urban setting. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-youth-empowerment-through-agriculture Agriculture & Food, Africa, Kenya, SIFE, Urban agriculture, Community development, Kibera, Nairobi, University of Nairobi, KiberaTV >> TITLE: KiberaTV >> ALICE MOTIERI [Reporter]: Down in Darajani Kambimuru, youths have joined together to start a greenhouse project to provide the community with greens. This site used to be a dumping place, but now it has been transformed into a garden. >> MOHAMED ABDULLAHI MOHAMED [Organizing Secretary, Sulphur Blue Youth Reforms]: I'm the organizing secretary of Youth Reforms, which is the oldest CBO [Community-Based Organization] in Kibera. It was started in 1995, and Youth Reform has come a long way. The youth were commiting a lot of crime in this area, in the neighborhoods, and we knew it was not a good idea to do muggings, to rob people. That's why we put our heads together and started up projects that will help the community and help us. So far we have done a lot of things. First of all, right here where we are now was a dumping site in 2008 due to post-election violence. We had money, and all the markets were brought down, the shops and the houses. So we decided it was an asset that was here for all those years. We decided to put up a farm, so at least we would have food right at our doorstep. Our main aim is to help our community, and the youth specifically, to go back to agriculture. We are in urban settings, and a lot of people have migrated here from rural areas. Most of them have forgotten agriculture. So one part of it is education. Secondly, we are trying to provide them with food. So we are trying to utilize each and every space that we have to put up a farm. >> ALICE MOTIERI: The youths depend on this project for their livelihood and they are very much determined to produce as much as they can despite the challenges. >> MOHAMED ABDULLAHI MOHAMED: The biggest challenge is to maintain it. If you don't maintain it, that will be a challenge. Another will be to keep people out when we are using pesticides. When we had a farm here, before we put up the greenhouse, a group called Kibera Youth Initiative for Community Development was supporting it. We got some funding, and we have a partnership with the University of Nairobi. They call themselves SIFE, Students In Free Enterprise. They are the ones who we are in partnership with right now with this greenhouse. >> ALICE MOTIERI: Reporting for KiberaTV, Alice Motieri, Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-challenging-hunger Chronic hunger affects one billion people around the world on a daily basis. How are aid groups, rural farmers, and other innovators working together to feed the planet? Find out in this special from Bread for the World and ViewChange.org. Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-challenging-hunger Agriculture & Food, Bread for the World, Mexico, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Microfinance, Water & Sanitation, Drought, Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank >> VOICEOVER: Next up: two migrant farmers get a new chance to grow their own food, to make a living wage, and to return to Mexico and their families. From Ethiopia to Bangladesh, see how aid groups and entrepreneurs are working to put hunger out of business in this special report from Bread for the World and ViewChange.org.>> VOICEOVER: Having enough to eat is a basic human right, one that almost a billion people don?t have. That?s a billion people who go for days and weeks without enough food to feed themselves and their families. In the poorest regions of the world, chronic hunger is a steady drumbeat of life. >> TITLE: Hunger around the world: Asia/Pacific: 578 million, Sub-Saharan Africa: 239 million, Latin America/Caribbean: 53 million, Near East/North Africa: 37 million, Developed Countries: 19 million. >> VOICEOVER: And it?s a situation that becomes even direr in emergencies. Right now, across the horn of Africa, droughts have triggered a food emergency so desperate that more than ten million people are relying on food aid. But chronic hunger doesn?t have to be the status quo. Smart investments from governments and aid groups are helping the hungry to weather the worst emergencies and become resilient against future crises. And the ripple effects of hunger are huge. Take Mexico, for example. Every year, thousands of migrants see the US as the last option for finding work to feed their families. But in this story from Bread for the World, two men are given a new choice: to stay in their country.>> TITLE: Stay, Bread for the World, Mexico>> TITLE: Chiapas, Mexico>> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS [Comitan, Chiapas, Mexico]: I was happy yesterday. You know why? I was waiting in the street outside the hospital, and a group of students said, "Come! Have a little bit of coffee and some bread." If society had the same attitude, the world would be better.>> TITLE: Oaxaca, Mexico>> SANTIAGO CRUZ [San Miguel Huautla, Oaxaca, Mexico]: Unfortunately, the government has abandoned the Mexican countryside. The results are never good. I decided to migrate [to North America] because I have a large family and there isn't any money in this community, there are no sources of income, nothing. >> TITLE: Sixty percent of unauthorized immigration to the US comes from Mexico. They come to escape poverty. In 2009, 96 percent of US foreign assistance to Mexico went toward military and drug enforcement. Investing in rural areas of Mexico instead can help reduce the pressure to migrate.>> TITLE: Stay: Migration and poverty in rural Mexico>> TITLE: Permanecer: Migración y pobreza en el México rural >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: The reason I went to the US was because I wanted to progress. Not that I didn?t have work here, but peoples? stories made it sound so much easier to earn money in the United States. That was the reason my family agreed it would be better to try my luck there. And I went there for the first time in 1998. My wife Victoria stayed here with the kids. I made it across the border, but it was a really bad experience. For example, when I was at the border, when I was crossing, I was robbed by bandits, "cholos." It was a bitter experience. I had different jobs. I picked tomatoes. I picked chilies. And in six months, I was able to save 8,000 pesos [USD$675]. Eight thousand pesos, here in Mexico, I couldn?t make that in six months.>> TITLE: After returning to Mexico due to health issues, Marvin and his wife bought land in Chiapas with the help of a US nonprofit called AGROS. Today, Marvin and his wife grow the crops that support their family. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: We found land that we can work on. Victoria and I were excited about this from the very beginning. It was a project to help people help themselves. It hasn?t been easy. We need more resources.>> TITLE: Marvin?s wife, Victoria, is a community activist who sometimes works out of town for many days. Which means Marvin is often the family?s primary caretaker. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: She has had responsibilities that have been difficult for me. Now that my children are older, it?s easier. But when they were smaller I had to take care of them. I had to cook or change their diapers. There were moments when they were little that I had to carry them because they were crying or feeling bad. Sometimes people were saying, ?Why are you doing domestic work, women?s work?? And I said: ?I feel good. Both of us are parents to these children. We both have to take care of them.? I want to do a lot of things. But unfortunately, there are some barriers that don?t let us develop.>> SUSAN BIRD [Program Officer, Ford Foundation, Mexico]: What we see more and more is this - the rite of passage, this idea that young people, specifically, can no longer make it in their communities and it's no longer interesting to them. My name is Susan Bird. I'm a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Mexico. And so they kind of wait for the day that they can leave. That's the saddest thing I think, is the cultural loss. You know, you see communities, entire communities made up of children and grandparents and there's a whole generation that is missing. >> SANTIAGO CRUZ: I hope most of my children don?t migrate. Most of them would live here in my town. In our grandparents' time, our land was more productive. They harvested more. Now the land is deteriorating, depleted. We need more ideas, more techniques, and more innovation to be more productive. It?s difficult, you know? This is a very poor, rural area of Mexico. That?s why I decided to migrate. I looked for the possibility of migrating legally. And I made it to Canada. >> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ [Santiago's Wife]: So, he had the opportunity to go. And he left, but I was left behind alone with my children. Among all of us, we divided his chores. That was very hard.>> SANTIAGO CRUZ: The first season was very difficult. I was very lonely. It was very difficult to get used to another country, another culture, you know, the customs. It was difficult.>> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ: We were not accustomed to being without him. It felt like he was gone a very long time.>> TITLE: When Santiago returned from Canada in 2008, he and Victoria got involved with CEDICAM http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-community-jiko-in-kibera Residents of Nairobi's Kibera slum live in a community faced with a history of waste management issues and a constant need for cooking fuel. One locally based organization is tackling both problems at once with an innovative community oven fueled by solid waste. Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:47:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-community-jiko-in-kibera Kenya, Agriculture & Food, Kibera, Technology, Laini Saba, Hot Sun Foundation, KiberaTV, Poverty reduction >> TITLE: KiberaTV >> ROY OKELLO [Reporter]: Waste management is a major problem in all of the informal settlements in the country. Heaps of garbage are the order of the day everywhere in Kibera, the world's second largest slum. Laini Saba, one of the villages in Kibera slum now becomes the first community in the world to develop a cooker that burns solid waste to produce heat for cooking. Ushirika wa Usafi, a community-based organization, have posed themselves as the leading sanitation and solid waste managers. With support from collaborators and partners, they have managed to set up a community cooker that burns solid waste like rags. During sorting, organic waste is used as fertilizer in sack gardens. The metals and plastics that cannot burn in the cooker are sold to scrap metal dealers and the money goes back to the organization. The cooker is a blessing to the residents who now enjoy cheap cooking as compared to cooking with kerosene. The cooker uses used oil and water mixed in a tap then dropped in a chamber to catalyze the burning, reaching up to 800 degrees Celsius. The cooker is used to bake, roast, boil water, and cook all different types of food. Five liters of used oil costs only 150 shillings and is used for a whole month. The community cooker has transformed the way people handle solid waste in the community. Roy Okello, reporting for African Inspirational TV, KiberaTV, Nairobi. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-one-good-idea <strong>"ViewChange: One Good Idea"</strong> presents four stories about individuals and organizations who are taking on the biggest global challenges:<br /><br /><strong>India's Free Lunch</strong>&nbsp; Since 2001, all Indian primary schools have provided pupils with a free midday meal. Since then, truancy rates have dropped and child health is soaring. <br /><br /><strong>Project Peanut Butter</strong>&nbsp; In Malawi, children with malnutrition are being given a radical new treatment that is cheap and very effective: fortified peanut butter. Best of all, mothers can administer the ready-to-use food at home, eliminating the need for hospital stays.<br /><br /><strong>Banking on Change</strong>&nbsp; J.S. Parthibhan is a bank manager with a difference: he's interested in people, not numbers. Through micro loans, he's helping villagers in rural areas of India develop a sense of entrepreneurship and self-respect. <br /><br /><strong>Vidiyal</strong>&nbsp; Village women in Tamil Nadu are using mobile phones and computer technology in innovative ways to benefit their agriculture-based businesses. <br /><br />Watch on NDTV Profit or profit.ndtv.com Saturday 10pm / Sunday 5pm IST.<br /> Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:26:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-one-good-idea India, Agriculture & Food, Microfinance, Technology, Change Makers, Malnutrition, Malawi, Link TV Presents the World, NDTV Profit, Poverty Big problems versus a little inspiration...a surprisingly fair fight. See what happens in India, Malawi, or anywhere else, when you take one good idea, big or small, and run with it. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seed-warriors The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is much more than just a place to store seeds. It has been designed to withstand almost any disaster, and it could play a vital role in ensuring continued food supplies and biodiversity for future generations. Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:36:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seed-warriors Environment, Biodiversity, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Jens Stoltenberg, Kenya, Prime Minister of Norway >> TITLE: By 2050 the temperatures worldwide are expected to rise by at least 2 degrees. This will cause major losses in food production -- as much as 30 percent in some places. By this time, global food demand will have doubled. How will we feed the world?>> TITLE: Seed Warriors>> TITLE: Longyearbyen, Norway. Close to the North Pole. >> TITLE: February 26th, 2008. Opening Ceremony, Svalbard Global Seed Vault. >> JENS STOLTENBERG [Prime Minister of Norway]: Scientists and politicians had a wish: to make use of this harsh climate and these harsh conditions to serve humanity by providing secure storage for the seeds of the world. >> JOSE MANUEL BAROSSO [President of the European Commission]: If there is a tragedy, a disaster in one of our countries, mainly in the developing countries, then they can come here. It is a back-up, a possibility to have these seeds to restore their crops. >> CARY FOWLER [Executive Director, Global Crop Diversity Trust]: We have a fairly unique mission. Well, not fairly: it's completely unique. And that is to conserve the diversity of our crops, agricultural crops, forever. It's to figure out a system, install a system, and fund a system for conserving that part of biodiversity in perpetuity.>> OLA WESTENSEN [Coordinator, Svalbard Global Seed Vault]: So it has become one of the world's absolutely biggest singular collections of crop diversity. We are not managing the seeds, we are only keeping them, like a bank box, if you want, for the gene banks that are actually out there in the countries working with agricultural researchers, and, eventually, with the farmers. >> SIGN: National Genebank of Kenya>> ZACHARY MUTHAMIA [Director, National Genebank of Kenya]: When we had the political clashes it's happened that there was youths who came almost close to the Genebank, and if they had actually entered and they made some damage then it would have been very catastrophic. When we were approached by the Global Crop Diversity Trust we were more than happy to take that opportunity to duplicate some of our important materials in Svalbard. It's an idea that has come at the right time. The duplication is very important because it takes care of our back-up, it takes care of issues that in case something happens to our regional set of germplasm, you can go back to your duplicate set. >> MARIANNE BANZIGER [Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT]: I'm responsible for the international public research on maize in this world; maize is the most, is the globally most important crop, the crop with the largest production worldwide. We have other issues coming up like scarcity of land, of water, and fertilizer. And if I look ahead, I have sleepless nights over what happens in 10 to 20 years when the scarcity of water, the scarcity of fertilizer, land, really hits us, on top of climatic change. These maize rows, each row is a different variety, yeah? They have about 20 plants. So this is a different variety from this one. And this maize hasn't received any water since it was about this tall. So imagine you have 10 percent of the plants, you have drought, and only 10 percent of the plants have ears. You have to eat for two months?>> BREEDER: Yes, one bag probably, or a half. >> MARIANNE BANZIGER: Yeah, that wouldn't feed your family for long. You have in that field, you have this variety, you have on two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve cobs, you have six times more yield. This would bring you through the year, simply because you grow a different variety. A lot of the varieties that are in the seed vault, we know very, very little about them. We don't know, are they resistant against certain diseases? Are they drought tolerant? Drought tolerance is a complex trait, we have them characterized for what type of drought tolerance do they carry? So essentially, what we have is a black box, the vault is a black box. We know we have a large diversity, but it's completely uncharacterized.>> TITLE: One year after the opening>> INTERVIEWER: Do you feel on this first anniversary this is a special day in a way for the whole world?>> DAVID BATTISTI [Climatologist, University of Washington]: Huge, huge, huge. One is because I think it's one of the few very tangible, very visible things that shows a sense of cooperation and the vision you need to do this, because you can't be thinking short-term. It can't be one politician's political cycle, like, what can I do now to keep, to be elected? This is something that has to be planned out now, that's got to be carried out over several human generations. And I think the last time, you think about that, where people had to think that far in advance what they were going to do, you're talking about building the pyramids or building St. Peter's. I mean, these are things that are planned on scales that are crossing human generations, and we don't do that any more. So this is, I think, the first visible sign that that's what's required. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women In the rural, cane-growing region of Fiji, a new enterprise is revolutionizing the lives of the local community by providing an income for women who previously relied on their husbands, helping them scale up production and save money, and financing the country's only senior citizens center. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women Fiji, Microfinance, Gender, Agriculture & Food, Poverty, Poverty threshold, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count, Chutney >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Determined Women>> VOICEOVER: In the rural cane farming communities of Fiji, women have always been the homemakers and not the breadwinners. But the role is slowly reversing. Until a year ago, Anshu Mala took care of her home and two daughters while her husband farmed their cane land. When they started to struggle financially, Anshu used what knowledge she had of the traditional task of chutney-making to help to earn their living.>> ANSHU MALA: We weigh the mangoes and wash it. After washing it, we peel and grate it. And then we weigh the grated mangoes, put it in the pot, mix it with sugar and cook it for about one hour.>> VOICEOVER: She plays a leading role in the area's chutney production, an enterprise initiated by the NGO FRIEND.>> ANSHU MALA: Before we had land, we had a sugarcane field. But when our lease expired it was taken over by the native mataqali, so it was very hard for my husband to support the family. I have two daughters and my mother-in-law to look after. So it's very helpful when I work too. I support my husband.>> VOICEOVER: Vijay Latchmi's chutney recipes are used to fill these jars, now ready for sale at local stores and in the near future for export.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I made some pickles and sweet mango chutney. These were tested at the FRIEND office and then they asked me to work with them.>> VOICEOVER: While FRIEND provides the kitchen, Vijay employs staff and secures a mango supplier. And with the income she gets for each jar of chutney, she is able to pay her workers.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I came here and got work so I could earn money. When I wasn't working I didn't have any money. Now I can save money and buy the things that I want. I don't have to ask anyone for money.>> VOICEOVER: Tamarind chutney sales have financed the country's only senior citizens center. In this cane-farming town, everyone in this kitchen and this center plays a role in the chutney-making process and reaps the rewards.>> SASHI KIRAN [Co-founder, FRIEND]: Older people are able to take out the tamarind, so the center is able to buy from them. These women are earning money out of that, at the first level. And the center employs women and they are making money. And eventually all the proceeds are then [put back into the center]. That money is used to provide services to the older persons, and it may be a whole range: community outreach, wheelchairs, to just a cup of tea for the seniors.>> VOICEOVER: But the challenges remain.>> SASHI KIRAN: If you you're not monitoring, the quality drops. If you're not monitoring or supporting them or encouraging them throughout then the production may not be there. Because our reality is that the people we are dealing with are extremely poor or have been battered most of their life, and to build their esteem and to get them to a stage will take time. It's a process.>> VOICEOVER: At home, but making a difference, the villagers of a cane farming community are learning to save what little they have for a rainy day.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU [Group Leader, Save Scheme]: The source of income is just catching crab in the mangroves. Some are cane farmers but majority don't have land, they are just cane cutters.>> SASHI KIRAN: In Fiji, we have a culture of borrowing, and for the first time we wanted to set them up to save on their own.>> VOICEOVER: These women don't do paid work; they are the homemakers. But they put aside a dollar or two each week from their husbands' earnings as savings for their future.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU: I think they save only one or two dollars but for us that's something. We can save at least one dollar a week. >> SASHI KIRAN: We identify the skills needed when we help them get started and when they continuously keep coming back and telling us how they've used their money. They go through our budgeting lessons and then they start putting money away, and it's wonderful to see. We may not be reaching the entire country right now because of lack of resources, but we see hundreds of people every week where this has made an impact in terms of their income.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-kosovo-women-of-krusha Nineteen-year-old Ardiana Shehu has worked on her family's farm in the village of Krusha e Vogel, in southwest Kosovo, since she was 12. She, her mother, and her sisters do all the farm jobs that were traditionally men's work. Why? Almost 70 percent of Krusha's male population is still missing after the 1999 Serbian military offensive in Kosovo. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-kosovo-women-of-krusha Kosovo, Balkans, Agriculture & Food, Ethnic conflict, Agriculture, Pristina, Gender, Genocide, LinkTV Picks, tve >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Women of Krusha>> VOICEOVER: In rural Kosovo, farming is still regarded as a man?s job -- and it?s not just pepper farming. Almost all other work outside the house is seen as men?s work. But Ardiana Shehu, from the village of Krusha e Vogel in southwest Kosovo, has been doing this job since she was 12. She is now 19. Ardiana and her sisters do all the outside work that only a few years ago was considered something a woman could never do.>> ARDIANA SHEHU: This work is very difficult because we are all woman. And as there is no one else to do this work, we have to do it. In my family, my father and my two brothers are missing and there are no other men who can take care of these things, so we women have to do them.>> VOICEOVER: It was in the spring of 1999 in the nearby mountains that Ardiana saw her father and two brothers for the last time. The men were separated from the women of the village by Serbian military forces and were taken to an unknown destination, while the women fled to neighboring Albania. She never saw them again. Since the end of the war seven years ago, when Ardiana, her mother and her sisters returned to their houses, they have had to take on all the work that their father and brothers used to do. But in Krusha e Vogel, Ardiana?s situation is not exceptional. Around 120 men, almost 70 percent of the total male population of the village, are considered missing. So far only six bodies have been found. Witnesses claim that all of them were slaughtered, leaving the village inhabited almost only by women and children. Ardiana?s cousin, Bedri Shehu is one the few men from Krusha e Vogel to survive. At the time of the massacre, he was studying in the capital, Pristina.>> BEDRI SHEHU: They have a lot of courage, because in the beginning it was very difficult for them to adapt to the work that had been done exclusively by men. Women?s work was in the house -- that has been the custom for generations. But as time passed they realized that they could not survive without working, and so they committed themselves to it and found the courage to carry on.>> VOICEOVER: The women now make a modest living growing peppers to sell at the market. They didn?t know anything about this business until after the war. But thanks to a Kosovan Non Governmental Organization, Sisters Qiriazi, the women received training in farming and learned to drive the tractor. After the war ended, the coordinator, Marta Prekpalaj, started working in Krusha e Vogel.>> MARTA PREKPALAJ [Regional Coordinator, Qiriazi Sisters]: First I went from house to house with all my staff. We stayed with the women and ate with them too. Then we started organizing meetings in the school building, and talked with the women and girls who they gave us their ideas. We renovated a private house and opened the Qiriazi Sisters Center. Then the women gave us more suggestions and we publicized what had happened in Krusha e Vogel through the media and the Internet. Through this exposure a lot of donors came. It was the women themselves who came up with the ideas for the training courses.>> VOICEOVER: The Qiriazi Sisters didn?t just teach the women of Krusha about farming and how to drive -- they also taught them other professions. Lavdije Shehu also lost her husband, and now she is the sole breadwinner for herself and her two sons who are at primary school. >> LAVDIJE SHEHU: If I hadn?t learned how to be a tailor I wouldn?t have been able to survive, I wouldn?t have been able to support my family. My children wanted to go to school and I would?ve let them down.>> VOICEOVER: In Kosovo today, around 60 percent of the population are women, but only 30 percent of them are part of the general work force. On average, they are paid four times less than men.>> MARTA PREKPALAJ: Very often those of us who are working towards gender equality and on gender issues are seen as feminists and only working for women. We work for both genders. Without prosperity for men and women alike, Kosovo cannot develop.>> VOICEOVER: Despite this huge tragedy, and all the difficulties that they?ve been through, the children in the village look happy. This would not have been achieved without the love, courage and hard work of their mothers, the women of Krusha.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-igor In the midst of the chaos of Rio de Janeiro, a group of people is fighting back against the environmental degradation caused by big agrobusiness. Igor has devoted his life to urban farming, and is proving that there is a sustainable way to feed a growing planet. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-igor Brazil, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Urban agriculture, Rio de Janeiro, tve, Farmer, Family farm, LinkTV Picks, Element: Action on Earth >> WOMAN 1: Put one hand like this and make the other rigid. >> IGOR: Rigid?>> WOMAN 1: And grab with this, like this.>> IGOR: Like this? Like this? She?s a very good teacher!>> WOMAN 1: More or less. >> IGOR: I am kidding. >> TITLE: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil>> IGOR: Here is chaos. It is a crazy city to live in. A lot of cars, a lot of people, a lot of bad things happen. We have big social inequality. One of the only things I like in the city is the capoeira. >> TITLE: Igor>> IGOR: And urban farming. Urban farmers are people that live in the cities and grow food in their homes, in church, wherever they can. This land used to be a factory. Maybe people think that it?s a garbage dump, but it?s not. Almost all the terrains in the city are destroyed, so we have to restore their life. >> IGOR: I?m better at food gardens. >> IGOR: When I first heard about this from the university, I thought, "Food gardens! Great idea! Why not? Let?s do it!" In the cities, people sell their work. And with this money they buy poisonous food planted with the destruction of nature. We don?t have to live like this. >> IGOR: Who is going to help me water the plant?>> BOY 1: Me! Me! Me!>> IGOR: So get the watering can. Today was a really good day. Now we only need a little more plants from other urban farmers to put here. Our relationship with these farmers is not an economical relationship. It is a mutual aid relationship. >> IGOR: We have to cut all this grass. It?s going to be a little hard, because of the sun. This grass is too thick. I think we are not going to finish today. When we need seeds to plant in other places, we can come here and pick up some for free. It?s very nice to have them as a friend. It?s sweet. They?re tired. This is the rural university. I?m trying to graduate. Always busy. >> IGOR: Food is the basis of everything. What is happening in Brazil -- all the food that comes from the big owners of land goes outside of the country. The big farmers cut down the trees in the rainforest and then they plant soy to feed the European cows. And I think it?s very bad. Our planet needs this rainforest. I was born in the city. And I didn?t know the powerful things I know now. We have to go after this knowledge. >> IGOR: Mr. Ze Ferreira was a normal farmer. But then he started to look differently at nature. He?s trying to show the people there is another possibility of agriculture. In agroecology we have a lot of different plants renewing the land and the soil and the nature, and we have family farmers helping each other. Everything we do, we learned with the family farmers. I love Mr. Ze Ferreira -- he is my real teacher. Before I used to watch television, play video games, and go to the mall. Now I do food gardens. It would be very nice to stay in the countryside. But there is still a lot of work to do in the cities. >> MAN 1: You are infantile. You are childish. >> IGOR: The capoeira players and the family farmers are survivors. They are fighting for their survival. I think I am going to stay in Rio, because this city needs a lot of food gardens. We still have a lot of work to do.>> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: www.element-tv.net>> TITLE: For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-bombay-jungle Khurshida Bano and her family live in a slum that is being demolished by the government because of its proximity to a national park. Architect P.K. Das works with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of Bombay to relocate the slum residents. Will they be able to navigate a bureaucratic system filled with corruption to successfully relocate people like Khurshida? Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-bombay-jungle India, Slum, Governance & Transparency, Water & Sanitation, Mumbai, A Dollar A Day, Poverty reduction, Poverty, Electricity, Economic development >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present>> TITLE: A Dollar A Day: Bombay Jungle>> TITLE: A film by Frank Vellenga>> VOICEOVER: Within the city of Bombay, or Mumbai as it is now called, a battle is waging. Like many megacities around the world, as populations grow, space becomes more and more precious. In Bombay, the battle lines are drawn between the "nobodies" and the "somebodies." Ironically, their battlefield is the border area of a vast national park, a hilly area populated by wild animals, and thousands of people who cannot afford to live elsewhere. But now, due to a political decision to reclaim the forest, lifelong squatters are being violently uprooted and forced to move. And unless they can prove they are "somebodies", they have no rights, and no access to shelter and other basic needs.>> MAN 1: The people tried to stop the bulldozers. But they broke our homes. They beat a lot of people. My son also broke his leg. That's what happened.>> MAN 2: On March 27th around 10:30 am the bulldozers came from up there. The people were there by the rim. People from the Congress Party had come. Both men and women had come and formed a human chain. Until about 1 pm they didn't do anything. After that, the police started to beat the people and they started bulldozing. >> P.K. DAS [Architect]: What we have is the city of Mumbai, which is surrounded by sea on almost three sides of it. And you have a profile that then has creeks, and in the heart of it, actually, which is amazing because Mumbai is one such city that has a national park within it, within its boundaries. Now, what is happening is that this national park has been encroached by slums over the years. Some of them have been actually here for over fifty years. The High Court gave a ruling that the national park needs to be protected, and therefore ordered for eviction of over 80,000 families.>> VOICEOVER: Even in the poorest slum areas, systems are created by dwellers to accommodate their basic needs: water, shelter, and a clean spot to relieve themselves. To be evicted from a slum is to be denied even these primal rights.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Here you can still make ends meet. Two square meals a day are what we barely make. We don't have any land back in the village. Nor do we have anything here. Just this house. We depend on this house only. We all live in this house. Where else can we go? Where will we stay? We don't have that much money. We cannot rent a house. We all live together, even with our grandchildren. Our two sons do everything and look after us.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Please, give me a bit of bread.>> P.K. DAS: Sadly, the court did not consider the rehabilitation as being important. That's why housing rights organizations like ours got in the picture of demanding rehabilitation as necessarily being a condition prior to demolition. What we finally did was, we negotiated with a private owner who has a piece of land here. This happens to be an exhausted quarry. This rehabilitation is carried out under the principles of the state government. Three players are responsible. The state government contributes sanctions and other facilities of infrastructure. The private developer brings in the investment required for construction. And you have the community of the slum dwellers who are affected. These three form the alliance of the partnership for the slum's redevelopment.>> RAMESH SHAH [Real Estate Developer]: Here we are going to build three towers with two apartments on each floor. This is also for upper-class people. It is a three or four bedroom apartment. Each apartment is about 200 to 260 square meters in size. The total number of people that can live here is 300 to 400 people can live here basically.>> SUMER SHAH: I have to see it first. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?>> VOICEOVER: For Ramesh and his father Sumer, the trade-off for the right to build a luxury apartment complex is to also build low-cost housing for uprooted slum dwellers.>> SUMER SHAH: It is lying with you, what can I tell you? The invitation is with you, so what can I say? Yes, send it to me. My chap is sitting there, so let him take the invitation with him. Yes, send it to me at my residence.>> VOICEOVER: This Bombay "jungle" is not only about the land, it is also about the bureaucratic system that has put the cart before the horse. Long before completing the low-cost housing, bulldozers began the slum demolition, further compromising already shaky living conditions.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: This wall was broken at that time by those bulldozers. The house is totally unbalanced now. It can fall on us any time. This house is not stable anymore. We are staying here at a big risk. The three walls are out of balance, in the living room as well. We are at great risk. We live in fear.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Mohammed, how much did you pay for the chickens? How much did you pay?>> MOHAMMED: It's 60 kilograms.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Have you worked out the calculations?>> MOHAMMED: Let me sell some and we'll see.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: But how will you work it out?>> MOHAMMED: Let the sale happen.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Will we at least break even? We owe people money. How will we manage to get rice and flour?>> MOHAMMED: We will return the money, but let's first earn and then pay back.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: How will we do this? At least work out the logistics.>> MOHAMMED: Let's at least make some sale. We can pay them back once we've made some money. We cannot sell at a loss, you know that.>> SAIRA BANO: Water leaks from everywhere, it's a big problem. I keep vessels here and there. I also cover the roof with plastic, but it is of no use as water seeps in from everywhere. We have been here for a long time now. My husband passed away here. I have two children, they both work. I came here because of my aunt Khurshida, and because of the bad situation in my village. Things were bad there. So I thought why not come to Bombay. Maybe I will be somebody, my kids will have a good life. It was a very poor situation over there. That's why we left.>> TITLE: Chandivali - relocation site for slum dwellers>> P.K. DAS: Look at Mumbai's demography. It's a city of approximately 12 million people. Of the 12 million people approximately 60 percent, that's about 7 to 7.5 million people, live in slums. They constitute the majority of the city's population. Unfortunately, due to lack of planning, we have not provided adequate land for housing of the urban poor.>> RAMESH SHAH: The level is up here. This is seventy-two. This is fifty-nine. The difference is one to one and a half meters.>> P.K. DAS: The idea of clusters, that's what we are working on. In clusters people will live as communities, or as groups together, the way they're used to living in their present areas. Apart from the clusters, we also have little neighborhoods with their own open spaces. Multiple open spaces form the main idea of this plan.>> UJJWAL UKE [CEO, Slum Rehabilitation Authority]: Suppose a railway, a road, or any vital public project has to be built. In such a situation the slum dwellers have to be shifted from that spot to another spot. Here we are having a situation where a whole complex is coming up with various facilities all earmarked for the people of the Sanjay Ghandi National Park. The land is needed by the Forest Department, because encroachments in the forest have to be removed. Instead of keeping them homeless, since these people have been staying here since first January 1995, it is the duty of the government to give them alternative accommodation, as per law.>> P.K. DAS: Let's say this is a slum pocket, filled up with slums. The policy says that the builder, who comes in and re-houses the slum dwellers into a part of this land, provides housing to them. The balance land that is available is then developed and sold in the open market. The profits provide housing for the slum dwellers. This is the logic, the principle. >> UJJWAL UKE: For a period of time the city does need the watchmen, it needs the postmen, the paper deliverymen, the taxi driver. These people can't afford housing of 600 rupees and above. They need houses of a smaller size.>> RAMESH SHAH: In 1990 we started this project. The last two are the end of number one and two Sumer Tower. Then we started with number three and four, and this is number five. I am going to build there also; we've already built Wimlachal Tower. On the next road we are building an identical tower, 22 floors high.>> TITLE: High Court>> VOICEOVER: In order for slum dwellers to be eligible for relocation, there?s a catch -- they have to prove that they?ve lived in the slum since 1995. And in order to prove that, they must verify their identity through official paperwork. The many who cannot produce documentation that proves their status as "somebodies" are caught in a desperate conundrum. Lawyer P.A. Sebastian sees the glaring flaw in a system that defeats the very citizens it relies upon to serve the privileged, and is passionate about helping them get access to their basic needs and fundamental rights as Indians.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN [Lawyer]: There's a system that generates slums. The people who stay in the slums are not responsible for that. The people who denounce them as criminals, trespassers, they are responsible. Their system has generated the slums, because it suits them. It gives them cheap labor and luxury. On 2000 rupees, no person can live in a place of his own which he legally possesses or owns. You can't do that. He has to live. You can demolish their houses because they are illegal. But you can't deport them. If you deport them, if you throw them out of the city, then there is no India. India ceases to exist.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We did have electricity every now and then, but we do not have a meter here. Sometimes the electricity was given to us directly by the meter people. Then the forest wallahs cut the electricity lines. Now, we haven't had electricity here for three months. Not only in this house. The whole of Krantinagar is without electricity. The Forest people say, "Don't give them water and electricity." Because they are afraid that, once given to these people, they will not move from here anymore.>> VOICEOVER: By denying people shelter, water and electricity, authorities are actually denying their existence. The responsibility is on each individual to prove his or her identity. >> SAIRA BANO: I have to go to that meeting, but I don't have proof of any kind.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Of course you should go there.>> SAIRA BANO: But how?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You will not achieve anything sitting at home.>> SAIRA BANO: That's true.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You need a voting card. Otherwise nothing will happen. You have two kids. You really should go there. Now you don't have a ration card and you are not registered.>> SAIRA BANO: But no one ever told me anything. I have no idea what to do.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: You should go there. Otherwise nothing will happen.>> SAIRA BANO: But who will listen to me?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Sitting at home, nobody will give you a house. Nobody is going to say, "Here is a house." You have to make an effort. >> VOICEOVER: People who have lost their papers, like Saira, feel so disenfranchised that the extra efforts that have to be made seem overwhelming.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN: They always complain. Residents have no place to walk on the sidewalk because trespassers, illegal occupants, occupy it. They say that the people in the slums pollute the air, and citizens can't breath good air, fresh air, clean air. Which means: They are citizens and residents, but the people in the slums are not citizens and residents. In the last three months not much progress has been made, but in Chandivali houses are being built. How many houses are being built there?>> MAN: Around 16,000 houses is the target. Of which 8,000 will be allocated as soon as possible.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: They have taken the money from us, by fooling us.>> P.A. SEBASTIAN: You can say this in court: That it is has been three months now, and there is still no water or electricity.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I don't think the court will listen to us. The city just couldn't give us water and electricity. After we paid them, they came to threaten us.>> MAN: They think that you will refuse to move out when they give you water and electricity.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: How can we move away from here when we have nowhere to go?>> VOICEOVER: P.A. Sebastian encourages his clients to keep fighting for their rights and to be sure their papers are in order. Khurshida and Saira heed his advice by checking their status at the Rehousing Registration Office. >> TITLE: Rehousing Registration Office>> KHURSHIDA BANO: These are my papers.>> MAN: Your number is 715.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: That's right.>> MAN: Where is your voting number?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: The voting list is here. There is one from 1990 and one from 1992.>> MAN: And 1995?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We voted then, but we don't have a receipt of that.>> MAN: Where is the 1995's voting receipt?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I think this is 1990.>> MAN: There is a verdict by the judge. They will check whether you're on 1995's list as well. You have 1990, but do you have 1995's voting number?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We have made an application for that.>> SAIRA BANO: My house was demolished, but I rebuilt it. I still live there.>> MAN: Have you paid money?>> SAIRA BANO: Money?>> MAN: To the Forestry people?>> SAIRA BANO: No.>> MAN: But you have a number?>> SAIRA BANO: My papers are -->> MAN: Did they put a number on your house? Even though bulldozers ruined it, you had to remember the number. The Forest guys gave a number to every house. That is, put it in their register. This authorizes a person to a house.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: During the tear down of our homes, there were a lot of police that beat us. They broke all the pots and pans into little pieces. >> MAN: This is forest land. You don't have any rights. The court decided: 1995.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: But they did not even listen to the court. They just started bulldozing. People have died. When Shabana came, they stopped. Thanks to the support we got, we are still here.>> MAN: Listen to what I have to say: I don't want anything from you. When your house is demolished, we will give you a new accommodation. We do it in a different way than the people of the Forestry Department. The Forestry people collected 7,000 rupees and filled their pockets. Their attitude is, "Just drop dead.">> KHURSHIDA BANO: I will look for them. I need those papers to take care of everything. Here they are. These papers need to be laminated. Will you keep an eye on the place?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: I would like to have these two documents laminated. How much will it cost?>> MAN: Twenty rupees.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: When can I get them back?>> MAN: In fifteen minutes. You really have to take care of these papers.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Yes, that's why I'm having them laminated.>> P.K. DAS: We opposed forced evictions. We demanded that a viable or an acceptable rehabilitation scheme must precede eviction. People have not merely come here to just get a house. They have come to work in the city and earn their living, which they can't earn back in their villages. So it's a question of livelihood. They can't be displaced from their income. It is a basic human right.>> SIGN: Slum Rehabilitation Authority - Reception>> UJJAWAL UKE: The Chief Secretary has given an affidavit in the High Court, and I will also be making an affidavit. Next week we meet and we take a final decision on this matter, because I don't think I can afford any further delays on this project.>> P.K. DAS: But Mr. Uke, this is a very unique example and -- one second. Let's discuss a few larger issues. This is a very unique project. It is a very interesting tripartite. This is going to be a model example for slum rehabilitation, at the same time, clearing up an area of the national park, which needs to be protected.>> UJJWAL UKE: In the past we've always had the SRA and the developer, the SRA and the NGO. This is the first time the three of us have come together for the benefit of the citizens of this city.>> VOICEOVER: While striving to reach their common goal in this unique joint project, tensions arise as each representative protects his organizational interests. Meanwhile, the community continues to wait for decisions to be made.>> MOHAMMED: 250 grams costs you twenty rupees.>> MAN: Give him five rupees. Are you happy now?>> VOICEOVER: As project delays continue, the slums also continue to expand, reaching deeper into the national forest and clashing with its wild inhabitants.>> SIGN: Wild animals in forests dislike sound of mobiles. Please switch off your mobile>> ASHOK KHOT [Ministry of Forestry]: By the end of March we have to remove them. Before that we removed already 20,000 encroachments. All these 60,000 people, when they encroached, along with them the dogs came, the chickens came. Then sheep, goats, then cows, buffalo, all these animals came. Leopards, like any animal, if they can get an easy prey, and for leopards the dog is one of the easiest preys. There were a number of dogs in the area where the attacks were taking place. About fourteen incidents of leopard attacks have taken place, in June. A lot of these attacks were taking place only in a remote place and late at night. I don't think anyone should enter in the forest. In another case, an early morning walker, he went into the deep forest at three o'clock in the morning. He was trying to do yoga. That is not a place to do yoga. Unfortunately he was killed while sitting there. This leopard doesn't attack a large animal, or a man who's walking. If a person is sitting, or if a small child is there, then he doesn't see the difference between a human being and an animal. He wants his prey, so it attacks. It is not the leopard's fault. It is the human being that is encroaching. The men, they're at fault.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: We are the residents of India. We have a right to be here. Everywhere in India, in Maharashtra, Delhi, Calcutta. Since we are born in India, we have every right to stay anywhere freely. Who are these people from the Forest Department to tell us to leave? Is it the property of the people from the Forest Department by birth? Indira Gandhi said India belongs to us all. We made her Prime Minister. She said that the whole of India is ours. Who are these Forest Department people to say that this land belongs to them? Has God decided that?>> WOMAN 1: They release tigers.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: And now our children suffer.>> WOMAN 2: These tigers are not from a circus. The Forestry people release them. There are a lot of tigers there. One tiger is enough to frighten people. They deliberately starve the tiger to death, so that it will attack.>> MAN: We all come from Krantinagar. Our neighborhood has been destroyed. This new housing project is taken shape under supervision of the Nivara Association. These clusters are numbered from one to six. A cluster consists of 16 buildings. On each floor there are seven apartments. The work starts early in the morning. Bamboo scaffolds are there for plastering that starts tomorrow. This means that 80 percent of the work is completed. Please, follow me.>> VOICEOVER: Ramesh pushes to complete the luxury towers. He is doubly invested in finishing them, since he and his father will profit greatly from them and will also live there themselves.>> RAMESH SHAH: This is going to be my living room, and this is going to be my dining. For formal occasions. This is going to be a guest room. This is going to be a regular dining room. A regular dining room for every day. This is going to be for every day and formal dinners over there. The view is excellent. From the Oberoi Hotel to Narriman Point you can see the buildings. I am going to stay here myself also. Nowadays I am staying with my parents. After all, my father is the owner of the house. So, I am going to stay with him. He is not going to stay with me.>> VOICEOVER: While Ramesh makes the luxury building construction his priority, Khurshida and her community must wait, and wait, and wait.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Sonu, please get me some milk and tea.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: They gave us false hope. They keep on saying we're getting a house soon, but we've been waiting five years. How much longer? We should be informed, for the sake of the future of our children. How much longer will it take? Today they say this, the next day something different. I really don't understand it anymore. I might go crazy here.>> MAN: The mafia and the police are in it together. Both knew precisely to whom this land belonged. Listen to me. Whose place is this? The police. Why would a cop want to sell this place? The mafia and the police let us build our home after taking a bribe from us. I'm telling you the truth.>> SAIRA BANO: We stay until we are being kicked out. When they start to demolish, we will see. Until then we will stay and live here. I don't have any other place to go anyway.>> SIGN: Slum Rehabilitation Authority, Fifth floor>> UJJWAL UKE: This is a joint scheme between the NGO, the developer, and the slum dwellers. You can say this is an agreement between us and the developer. Certain payments have to be made; on behalf of the developer, we are making these payments. We'll receive the check. But you have to pay this gentleman. There he is.>> P.K. DAS: Speaking about the devil.>> UJJWAL UKE: Come in. We were talking about certain things, which was short. Keep it off the record, please. While in this transition, we were talking about certain things, which I'm not officially supposed to tell.>> RAMESH SHAH: Mr. Das, this project we started in 2003. You know you too have to pay money sometimes. Why are you taking so much time? Because of this, the project is delayed.>> P.K. DAS: I'm sorry Ramesh; this decision to delay the project has arbitrarily been taken by you. Let me complete. I'm sorry to intervene.>> RAMESH SHAH: One second. We are talking about money from March and from January.>> P.K. DAS: I've got your point. You have arbitrarily decided to delay the project. This project is not singularly yours. This is a State Government approved scheme in the larger public interest, for the social priority of clearing the National Park and to start rehabilitation.>> RAMESH SHAH: You are saying, I am a developer. So what's that question about misleading?>> P.K. DAS: One second. The contribution that the slum dwellers are going to make is not for the total value of the project. It is less than about 10 percent of the total value of the project.>> UJJWAL UKE: My only concern is, we have to go on with the project, it has to be completed.>> P.K. DAS: We have come to an understanding.>> UJJWAL UKE: You have to narrow down the differences.>> RAMESH SHAH: And you pay! That's all. That's my only request.>> UJJWAL UKE: I believe that now, that you've narrowed down your differences.>> RAMESH SHAH: From their account, already, from my pocket, I have paid.>> UJJWAL UKE: I would not like to go into whatever your accounting differences are. My only request and desire is that you narrow down the differences and come down to a level by which you can see eye to eye, and start the project in earnest.>> VOICEOVER: Of course, all of this infighting eventually lands on those waiting to be relocated, year after year.>> RAMESH SHAH: That's not the issue. Okay, okay. I'll get back to you by the evening.>> VOICEOVER: Although Saira has not yet been able to qualify for relocation, she still has hopes that she can come through, for the sake of her children.>> SAIRA BANO: Our dream is to get a house, so we could all live there. My children are afraid that their mother will die just like their father. Once I can get my two children to marry, I can die peacefully.>> RAMESH SHAH: For slum people this location is too expensive. People are squatting here on the sidewalks. In principle, it is very costly to live here. Today the squatters are not paying anything for maintenance, for electricity. They are not paying any water taxes. They will have to start paying the water taxes and the electricity and all. Today they are getting it all for free.>> VOICEOVER: Expressing an attitude that is felt throughout the world, Ramesh represents the "haves," who simply don?t want to see those "have-nots." Not in their neighborhoods, not in development deals, nor anywhere in their community, except when they are needed to perform a service. But even if Saira?s dream is invisible, she is not. Nor are the basic needs of millions like her, regardless of their official status.>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Come, I'll show you the apartment that they're going to give me. I've seen it once already. It's in here. It's from here on. You can go in here. Come along, we're going inside.>> SAIRA BANO: Is there no door?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: This is the living room and this is the kitchen. This is the toilet.>> SAIRA BANO: But the toilet in the kitchen? Isn't that unhygienic?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: There will be an extra door. And there's a tap and all.>> SAIRA BANO: Two doors?>> KHURSHIDA BANO: Here you can open the doors and air it out.>> VOICEOVER: While Khurshida has a chance to step out of poverty, Saira?s future remains in question. When her home is bulldozed, where will she go? Without an official identity, the system that needs her labor denies her existence. She has no rights -- not to shelter, water, or electricity. Certainly not to her dream. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-running-out-of-control-2 In the mid 1980s, scientists unlocked the genetic keys to manipulating our world. Suddenly everything seemed possible! There would be no more hunger or malnutrition; diseases would be vanquished and poverty wiped out. But twenty years on the situation looks very different, especially in India. Watch the trailer on this page or the full documentary live on NDTV Profit or <a href="http://profit.ndtv.com/" target="_blank">profit.ndtv.com</a> 9/10 July Sat 10pm/Sun 5pm IST. Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-running-out-of-control-2 India, Biodiversity, Genetically modified organism, Agriculture & Food, Seedbank, Environment, Navdanya, NDTV Profit, Link TV Presents the World http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hope-in-a-changing-climate For more than ten years, John Liu and the EEMP have been identifying the best methods for the large-scale restoration of damaged or destroyed ecosystems. One such place, the Loess Plateau, was transformed from a barren, brown landscape into a functioning, green ecosystem where rainfall infiltrates, water is retained and crops are readied for export. Wed, 18 May 2011 08:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hope-in-a-changing-climate Environment, Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Reforestation, Water & Sanitation, Ecosystem, Erosion, China, Ethiopia, Rwanda >> JOHN LIU: This is China's Loess Plateau. Until recently, this was one of the poorest regions in the country, a land renowned for floods, mudslides and famine. But with the fanfare comes the hope of change for the better. My name is John D Liu. I've been documenting the changes on the plateau for fifteen years. I first came here in 1995 to film an ambitious project where local people were constructing a new landscape on a vast scale, transforming a barren land into a green and fertile one. The project certainly changed my life, convincing me to become a soil scientist. The lessons I've learned in the last few years have made me realize that many of the human tragedies that we regularly witness around the world -- the floods, mudslides, droughts, and famines -- are not inevitable. Here on the Loess Plateau, I've witnessed that people can lift themselves out of poverty. They can radically improve their environment and, by doing so, reduce the threat of climate change.>> TITLE: Hope in a Changing Climate>> JOHN LIU: When I first came to the Loess Plateau, I was astounded by the degree of poverty and degradation, and I wondered how could the Chinese people, the largest ethnic group on the planet, and my fathers and my own ancestors, come from a place that was this barren. >> JOHN LIU: China's Loess Plateau is a region that stretches for 640,000 square kilometers across north-central China. Unspoiled valleys in neighboring Sichuan show us how it might once have looked. It's the sort of natural abundance that is necessary to support an emerging civilization. How could a landscape with such potential have been reduced to this? When Chinese scientists and civil engineers began to survey the area, they realized that several thousand years of agricultural exploitation had denuded the hills and valleys of vegetation. The relentless grazing of domestic animals on the slopes meant that there was no chance for young trees and shrubs to grow. The rainfall no longer seeped into the earth but simply washed down the hillsides, taking the soil with it. Over millennia, this progressively destroyed the region's fertility. When this happens over an area as extensive as the plateau, millions of tons of silt are swept down into the Yellow River, which gets its name from the color of the fine Loess soil. The mounting quantities of silt clog up the river, impeding its flow, contributing to the floods that give the river another name: China's Sorrow. In some areas, creating floating mud mattresses that attract passing tourists. A local problem becomes a national problem. In the dry season, the light unprotected soil is swept up in the winds, causing the dust storms that are blown over China's cities and beyond its borders. On the plateau, the researchers realized that progressive degradation of the environment trapped the local population into a life of subsistence farming. It's a process that has occurred throughout the world in places where poor agricultural communities find themselves overusing their land in order to survive, depleting its fertility and thus further impoverishing them. >> JOHN LIU: One thing that became apparent early on is the connection between damaged environments and human poverty. In many parts of the world there's been a vicious cycle. Continuous use of the land has led to subsistence agriculture, and generation-by-generation this has further degraded the soils. The vital question we have to ask is, can this be destructive process be reversed? >> JOHN LIU: Fifteen years ago, Chinese and international experts were confident it could be. They decided that to prevent further erosion it was necessary to cease farming on certain key areas to allow the trees and shrubs to grow back. But this could not happen without the consent of the farmers themselves. They took some persuading.>> TA FUYUAN [Chief Engineer, Water Protection Bureau]: Of course a lot of people didn't understand the project, they weren't thinking in the long term.>> MAN 1 [Farmer]: They want us to plant trees everywhere, even in the good land. What about the next generation? They can't eat trees.>> JOHN LIU: What eventually convinced the local people was the assurance that they would have tenure of their land, that they would directly benefit from the effort they invested in the new project. >> TA FUYUAN: The goal was to give a hat to the hilltops, give a belt to the hills as well as shoes at the base. The hat meant that the top of these hills had to be replanted with trees. The belt meant that terraces had to be built, which would be used for crop planting and also for trees. The shoes were dams, which we had to build so that the hills could grow back to life and our economy as well as our lives could improve. >> JOHN LIU: Hills and gullies were designated as ecological zones to be protected. Farmers were given financial compensation for not farming on them and keeping their livestock penned up. When I first filmed Mr. Ta Fuyuan and his colleagues back in 1995, I had no idea that this initiative could achieve such dramatic results. The effort that people put into converting their slopes into terraces has resulted in a marked increase in agricultural productivity. The higher yields are directly related to the return of natural vegetation in the surrounding ecological land. Now when it rains, the water no longer runs straight off the slopes. Trapped by the vegetation, it sinks into the ground, where it is retained in the soil, taking weeks and months to gently seep down and irrigate the fields and terraces below. Restoration has occurred over an area of thirty five thousand square kilometers. The impact of such an enormous addition of vegetation goes far beyond the plateau itself. There's been a significant reduction in the soil rushing down into the Yellow River. >> JOHN LIU: As I've been travelling around the Loess Plateau, I've seen extensive changes. The vegetation cover on the hillsides, on the tops of the hills, and down in the valley; everything has changed. It has changed the lives of the people, and in fact, the people themselves have done this. They were the ones who changed their behaviors, terraced the fields, improved the soils, and learned to protect the marginal areas. The changes are not simply on the hillsides. On the plains, you can see greenhouses that are filled with vegetables. This extends the growing season; it's very high value produce. >> JOHN LIU: The abundance and variety of new produce can be seen in the local market. Follow-up studies have shown that incomes have risen three-fold, and scientists point to a more global benefit. Plants, through photosynthesis, remove carbon from the air, countering the effect of human greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. >> PROFESSOR CAI MANTANG [Beijing University]: In terms of climate change, we can say that the project made a double contribution. Firstly the project was successful in recovering vegetation on a large scale. So many trees and so much vegetation grew up, and this definitely helped take carbon out of the atmosphere. Secondly, because the health of the Loess Plateau's ecosystem has been so much improved, the region will be better able to resist the negative impacts of climate change. >> JOHN LIU: As a result of its success, the lessons learned from the Loess Plateau rehabilitation are now being applied all over China. But could such projects work elsewhere in less centrally controlled societies with fewer resources and different soils? Ethiopia, perhaps more than any other country, has come to symbolize the vulnerability of humankind to environmental catastrophe. This is a country whose problems have been increased by war and civil conflict. And now, human-induced climate change is predicted to make matters worse. As on the Loess Plateau, centuries of subsistence farming practices have stripped the land of natural vegetation. The dry gullies bear the scars of flash floods.>> JOHN LIU: These gullies are evidence of the enormous power of runoff during the rainy season. Without vegetation cover on the hillsides, when the rains come the water doesn't soak into the ground but flows away in a flood. Then it's not available for agriculture during the rest of the year. This leads to drought and, famously for Ethiopia, famine. But just as I've witnessed in China, there is hope that the situation here can be reversed. In just six years, Professor Legesse Nagash and local villagers have transformed a severely eroded terrain by planting indigenous trees and plants. Almost miraculously, a clear flowing stream has emerged where once there was a muddy trickle.>> JOHN LIU: How is it that it's possible for you to get the stream to flow throughout the year?>> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH [Founder, Center for Indigenous Trees, Addis Ababa University]: It is because of the vegetation cover that has been regenerating on this mountain. This water is maintaining the landscape because as soon as rain falls, on the canopy on this vegetation, that rain then infiltrated gradually into the ground, ending up with this steady flow of this river. Water is life. Without water nobody can do anything. I'm amazed: as short as five years, six years, you get clean water like this, provided you work hard for restoring this degraded landscape. >> JOHN LIU: About a thousand kilometers further north, in the village of Abraha Atsebaha, another near miraculous phenomenon is occurring. Farmers are finding water at the bottom of their wells, despite the poor rains this year. The famine of 1984 struck the people of this valley very hard. Many migrated, many died. Now the people are returning. The village chairman Gabre Giday remembers well how life used to be.>> GABRE GIDAY [Village Chairman, Abraha Atsebaha]: Ten years ago I'd say, even five years ago, I'll tell you what the situation was: it was absolutely terrible. The sun, the drought, the wind, it was dry like the desert. There was a refugee program for our village. So we had a choice -- leave the valley or do something.>> JOHN LIU: With government support, they applied the same principles as the Chinese: setting land aside land for natural vegetation to return. In the ravines they built small dams, which are now fed by underground springs. And like Professor Legesse's stream, rain that fell weeks ago now slowly seeps through the subsoil, replenishing the supply of water. >> GABRE GIDAY: The eroded land has become fertile; it's changed for the better. In the drought, our fruit trees dried up. Now they're coming back, and we're growing even more varieties. These are the real benefits we've seen. We have food security and our children can go to school. Our lives have improved. We no longer need to beg the government for aid, thanks to the changes that we have made. Even wild animals that disappeared are returning, even the leopards.>> JOHN LIU: These villagers are now better able to withstand the impact of climate change. With International assistance, their achievement could be repeated across the country. The benefits, as Professor Legesse points out, would spread far beyond Ethiopia's borders.>> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH: The most important issue for Africa, and I consider this Africa's twenty-first burning issue, is restoration. No matter what we do -- we might be good at rocket science, nuclear science -- but the environment, restoring this huge, vast degraded landscape, is critical for Africa, particularly for Ethiopia. Half of Ethiopia is mountain, and this mountain system is degraded. This degradation of this huge landscape, huge mountain chain of Ethiopia, is critical not only for Ethiopia but also for the entire region. Consider Egypt or the Sudan, where 86 percent of the Nile flows to these countries. How can you support life in Egypt without restoring Ethiopia's mountains? So this is regional, national, and international.>> JOHN LIU: Environmental degradation is not only a problem for the dry regions of Ethiopia. It can be just as devastating for countries like Rwanda, where rainfall is plentiful. This tiny country is grappling with the problem of a growing population, trying to eke out a living on a finite amount of land. As in China and Ethiopia, over-farming on the hillsides caused serious erosion and a decline in fertility, forcing poor farmers to move into protected areas such as the Rugezi wetlands, a wildlife site of international importance.>> JOHN LIU: When farmers drained this marsh to try to grow more food, they not only damaged an important wetland ecosystem, they also had a significant impact three hours drive away in Kigali, the capital city. The water that pours from the marshlands is a vital source of hydropower for Rwanda's capital. As the wetlands began to dry out, power stations below couldn't generate enough electricity. The Rwandan government rented diesel powered generators to make up the shortfall. Dr. Rose Mukankomeje took me to see them.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE [Director General, Rwanda Environment Management Authority]: So what is happening here is that we are renting the generators from this company, and we are obliged to rent them especially when we degraded the wetlands and we lost twenty megawatts of electricity. To run those machines we're paying 65,000 US dollars a day.>> JOHN LIU: Sixty-five thousand dollars a day. That's multi-millions of dollars per year.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: Yes, it is millions of dollars, and as you might know, Rwanda is not a rich country. Some of that money has been borrowed from the bank; some is from taxpayers.>> JOHN LIU: How does this affect the climate?>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: Of course those machines, they're run on diesel. When you burn the diesel up you are producing greenhouse gases.>> JOHN LIU: Environmentally damaging and more expensive. Locals had to pay three times as much for their electricity. So government policymakers focused on how to restore the Rugezi wetlands. If people were the problem, they could also be the solution.>> H.E. PAUL KAGAME [President of Rwanda]: We had to take a careful look at what had actually been happening that damaged this system, and therefore had to reverse that again with the human action. And this is why it is important to look at how human actions can destroy or can reverse what has been destroyed or even protect our environment.>> JOHN LIU: The government decided to help the farmers leave the wetlands and to restore the degraded slopes above them, improving the croplands and encouraging trees and shrubs to grow back, capturing the rain.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: We have been supporting them by doing terraces, specifically there on the hills, where they can increase and improve the productivity. The most important thing is to have people with you on your side.>> JOHN LIU: The wetlands are now recovering. Great volumes of water once again cascade down to power the hydro stations. Carbon-free electricity is replacing the diesel generators and electricity prices have stabilized. Restoring and preserving natural ecosystems like the Rugezi wetlands benefits everyone. And so much more could be achieved. >> H.E. PAUL KAGAME: If we had more involvement by different institutions coming in to help with available resources, Rwanda could do more, much more, and benefit much more, but so would other countries, if such partnerships and support were provided.>> JOHN LIU: What the Rwandans recognized is that the marshlands are far more valuable as a natural system, providing water for energy, than as farmland. This principle is the same for the remaining hillsides and ravines. >> JOHN LIU: What we're seeing here is very interesting, because it's a line between human activity and natural systems. In the human activity, we've been able to value the productivity from agriculture and give it a monetary value. But in the natural systems, we haven't been able to value the trees, the biodiversity, and the water that's absorbed into the biomass and into the soils. And there's another vital service that trees and plants provide: photosynthesis. Vegetation reduces the greenhouse effect by taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. >> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH: Climate change is better withstood with trees. Humans, no matter how intelligent we are, no matter how capable we are with all our technologies, we are helpless in the face of climate change. We have not yet properly understood the miracles performed by trees. >> JOHN LIU: A measure of what restoring nature can do has been shown here on China's Loess Plateau, where farmers have continued to prosper despite the worst drought in decades. Since the beginning of the project, the soil that nurtures their crops has been accumulating organic material from plants and animals. This holds the moisture and contains carbon. >> JOHN LIU: What's interesting about this is all these root materials, all this other stuff, this is organic material and this organic material is mixing together with the Loess, the geologic soils here, and it's making a living soil. This is where the moisture resides. Yesterday it rained and there's still moisture in this soil. This is where the nutrients are recycled so that each generation of life emerges here, and this is where the carbon is. What's interesting about this is that they made this field, this is new, and so they're helping to sequester carbon. >> JOHN LIU: Living soils like this retain, on average, three times more carbon than the foliage above the ground. If we were to restore the vast areas of the planet where we humans have degraded the soils, just think what an impact we would have in taking carbon out of the atmosphere. As much as a quarter of the world's land mass has been degraded and much could be rehabilitated in the way we have seen on the Loess Plateau. And we've only just begun to recognize the real value of natural capital. Surely, investing in the recovery of damaged environments is a cost-effective way of solving many of the problems we face today. >> ACHIM STEINER [Executive Director, United Nations Environment Program]: Why do we not invest an equal amount, if not more, into a shovel-ready technology, so to speak, which is nature's way of sequestering and storing carbon. It is actually by investing in our ecological infrastructure and ecosystems and expanding the ability of nature to sequester and store carbon that we have the greatest opportunity to do something. And the wonderful thing is, it's not only carbon sequestration, we're also faced with loss of ecosystems that will affect our food security, our water security, we're losing species on an unprecedented rate. So maintaining, restoring, protecting, expanding natural ecosystems has multiple benefits. Immediate in terms of climate change, but also fundamental to the future of many of the services that we simply take for granted from nature. >> JOHN LIU: My hope is that the developed countries, those most responsible for climate change, will recognize the enormous potential of restoration.>> JOHN LIU: What we've seen in China, in Africa, and around the world, is that it's possible to rehabilitate large scale damaged ecosystems. If we can transfer the capital, the technology, and empower the local people to restore their own environment, it'll have enormous benefits. Restoration can sequester carbon, reduce biodiversity loss, mitigate against flooding, drought and famine. It can ensure food security for people who are now chronically hungry. Why don't we do this on a global scale? http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-hassan-and-the-graduates Hassan has a degree in business, but he doesn't commute to an office every day. His place of work is a farm 200 kilometers from Cairo. And it isn't even land in the fertile Nile Delta. Strangely, it seems, Hassan has chosen to farm in the desert. Fri, 13 May 2011 09:44:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-hassan-and-the-graduates Egypt, Agriculture & Food, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Middle East, Cairo, Nile Delta, Agriculture, Life on the Edge, tve, LinkTV Picks >> VOICEOVER: Hassan is giving orders again. He?s telling the hired hand how to lay the irrigation pipes. Hag Saad has worked in agriculture all his life, like his family before him. But Hassan? Well, he is a little new to all this. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: I can?t say I?m a farmer. Originally I was not a farmer. Farmers have experience I just don?t have. >> VOICEOVER: Hassan?s no weekend farmer, no city boy turned landowner. He?s one of a new breed. His story is the solution to one of globalization?s greatest dilemmas. Or is it? >> TITLE: Hassan and the Graduates>> VOICEOVER: Back home, you might think Hassan was a simple man. He lives with his new wife and children in a modest two-room home. Yet he lives a life that his old friends might envy. When he goes back to his place in the city, well, he likes to show off a little. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: My neighbors back there in the city envy me and can only dream of what I have now. I took some apricots from here and gave them to my neighbors. They asked me where I got them. I told them from my land in the desert. They wanted to get land too but now they can?t because it is very expensive. So they can only dream of having land. >> VOICEOVER: Hassan is a university graduate. His degree is in business. But he doesn?t commute to an office every day. His place of work is a farm 200 kilometers from Cairo. And it isn?t even land in the fertile Nile Delta. Strangely, it seems, Hassan has chosen to farm in the desert. And he doesn?t always get it quite right. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: I know I?m late planting but there is nothing I can do. Actually there are some benefits in delaying. When you plough the field, it is exposed to sunshine, which sterilizes the soil and kills fungus and bad microbes. >> VOICEOVER: The next morning, a bus ride. Today Hassan is being trained in the most basic art of all round here: irrigation. The instructor talks about conserving water, of vital importance in a country that?s almost all desert. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: I have been flooding the whole field, but today I learned how to give water to just the green areas. So while usually I give several liters per acre, here they told us to water according to the size of the green area and the size of the plants.>> VOICEOVER: Hassan lives in Al Yashaa, in what looks like a normal village. But take a closer look. These are not the farmers they appear to be. The truth is, it?s not just Hassan. Almost all the men and many of the women in the village are graduates. And it?s not just here. Throughout the desert east and west of Cairo dozens of villages are made up of thousands of graduates who?ve come to farm. Many without any farming experience at all. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: We had no idea what we were doing. Any little problem became a puzzle for us. >> VOICEOVER: Desert? Without electricity or water? No idea of how to farm? What are Hassan and the graduates doing here? Cairo is where Hassan came from. Few capital cities better represent the modern globalized metropolis. Its cafes are teeming with young people. They make up a massive percentage of Cairo?s population, as they now do throughout the Middle East, where two in three people are under the age of 25. In Egypt, many are the newly educated children of poor families, pouring out of universities and vocational schools. >> DINA EL MOFTY [INJAZ Education Organization]: Hundreds of thousands are graduating every year from the education system and from vocational schools, and over seven hundred thousand jobs have to be created every year to meet the intake of these graduates. >> VOICEOVER: Young people, like twenty-five-year-old Tareq, are the people in danger of being seen as liabilities by the government. >> TAREQ NABIL: What I earn now is barely enough to meet my minimal personal needs. I can?t begin to think about taking steps like marriage, or moving into my own apartment, not at all. >> VOICEOVER: Tareq?s plight could have been Hassan?s. He is, in fact, a land surveyor. But after years of trying to find work, he now takes whatever low paid job he can find. His fate, the one Hassan avoided. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: I had a good salary, a comfortable job. But when China started to export things to Egypt our industry became less competitive and my income started to decrease once again. So I began to think maybe agriculture was a better option for me than business. >> VOICEOVER: It was 20 years ago in Cairo that Hassan?s life changed. He was just reading a newspaper. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: A national newspaper announced that the government was trying to solve the unemployment problem for young graduates and there were several options. One was to take out a government loan and start a business; another was to get a car. But I didn?t like the loan or the car. I preferred the third option: to buy some cheap farmland that you repaid over thirty years. >> VOICEOVER: And so today Hassan in his fields is the product of a remarkable and largely unnoticed historic experiment. A whole colony of graduates like him, nearly 40,000 over two decades, have headed into the Egyptian desert. Here they became farmers and put behind them the notion of a government job. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: When I took possession of the land, I drove my wife to the spot. My wife looked out of the window from the car and said, ?Where is the land? I can only see the sky connected to the desert.? I said, ?This is it.? Well, she refused to even get out of the car! >> MAN 1 [School headmaster]: Before the school was built, it was just desert. There wasn?t any life here. It was an empty place. After the graduates came, life blossomed. Today the students come to the school and make friendships, all the parents know each other too, and the village has become strong. >> VOICEOVER: Hassan has had some financial success selling his apricots and mangos. Now he wants to plant these grape vines. He?s waiting for a tractor to arrive to dig trenches. >> ABDELHAMID ABDOULI [International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)]: There have also been improvements to livestock. People now have milk for their children and they can sell the surplus. All of these things generated economic growth in the desert communities.>> VOICEOVER: Despite these successes, the government has decided not to renew its long-sighted experiment on helping graduates back to the land. That is unless they have agriculture degrees and are willing to join forces with larger investors. So this fairy tale is over, at least for most new entrants. >> MOHAMED GOMAA [Head of Land Reclamation, Ministry of Agriculture]: What we found was that out of all those graduates who were lucky enough to get the land, those who had agricultural backgrounds were more successful as farmers than the others. What we plan in the future is to make sure that all graduates who take part have a background in agriculture. >> VOICEOVER: Some may say that?s a pity. At last Hassan is starting to get the hang of things. Especially now the long promised tractor finally arrived. In a village where eight in ten are graduates, this social experiment has amounted to a successful community. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: Living in this village with the graduates is special. We were almost all the same age when we received the land. The graduates who stayed faced the same problems and when they had difficulties, they supported each other. So now it?s like a big family here. >> VOICEOVER: All of this activity only makes Hassan?s decision to give up a career in business and toil in the desert sound that much smarter. Even so, Hassan still doesn?t call himself a farmer. >> HASSAN ABDUL RAHMAN: I cannot say I am a farmer. Farmers have experience on the land. I don?t have that. My experience mainly comes from the training I have had, so now I can help other people too. >> VOICEOVER: Maybe the government never intended it quite this way. But it seems Hassan and the graduates may have got lucky after all. They?ve made money on their investment and helped others too. As for the millions of other graduates who can?t find stable jobs in the global economy, they may yet have to wait for their own fairy tale. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/pastures-for-the-future-kyrgyzstan Formerly nomadic livestock herders in Kyrgyzstan have been rocked by massive changes to their livelihoods in recent times, first adjusting to the centralized Soviet system and now facing a transition to the global market economy. A team of international experts, assisted by the United Nations University, is helping these herders make the transition while maintaining the natural environment. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/pastures-for-the-future-kyrgyzstan Central Asia, Environment, Kyrgyz, Livestock, Agriculture & Food, Kyrgyzstan, Land degradation, Agriculture, United Nations University >> TITLE: United Nations University>> TITLE: The Pamir-Alai mountains in Kyrgyzstan and the adjacent Pamir ranges in Tajikistan are global biodiversity hotspots increasingly affected by land degradation.>> VOICEOVER: A spring morning in Josholu. Kyzgaldak is baking bread while her husband Jengishbek is herding their animals out for the day to graze in the pastures surrounding the village. Like many other herder villages in the Alai mountain range, Josholu has changed a lot since Kyrgyzstan independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.>> NEVELINA PACHOVA [Researcher, United Nations University]: During the Soviet time pastures were managed. There was a quite sophisticated system of pasture rotation with improvement of the pastures. This system collapsed with the collapse of the centrally planned economy.>> VOICEOVER: Nevelina Pachova is researcher at the United Nations University and an expert on environment and development issues in mountain regions. She has been working for several years with these Central Asian communities. She is part of a team of Kyrgyz, Tajik and international experts and officials on a mission to help these communities preserve their environment during their difficult transition into the global market economy. They have taken Jengishbek and Kyzgaldak?s house in Josholu as a base for their work. >> TITLE: Project team: Sustainable Land Management in the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains.>> VOICEOVER: They gather valuable information by talking to villagers and local leaders about their animals and pastures, the things that matter most to them. Today the team is exploring the pastures around the village. With the help of Professor Orunbek Kolanov, Dean of the Biology Faculty of Osh University, the team is getting organized on the appropriate methods to carry out their research and is already finding out what is the current state of the land. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, livestock has been increasing in Kyrgyzstan. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV [Dean, Biology Faculty, Osh University]: Comparing the data of the last 10 years, we see a significant increase in the quantity of livestock.>> VOICEOVER: Together with this increase, the current system of land-use control over where livestock graze is only loosely regulated.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: The people mainly take their animals to graze in the pastures close to the village. That is why the degradation can be seen mostly there, on nearby pastures.>> VOICEOVER: In the village, the herders are getting ready to move to the summer pastures by making new felt covers for the temporary dwellings they will be using there. It?s the end of spring, and the Kyrgyz herders are on the move. The Kyrgyz have been nomads since antiquity, well before the time of the Soviet Union, and used to move all the time between numerous pastures without harming the environment. Since independence however, they only move their animals from their village to the fresh grass of a single summer pasture. For most Kyrgyz herders, it?s not a long trip, and for the herders of Josholu, the summer pasture is only 10 kilometers away from the village. >> TITLE: Zymdan summer pastures>> VOICEOVER: Professor Orunbek Kolanov is visiting the herder's camps in the summer pastures.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: How are you?>> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA [Livestock herder]: I am fine. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: Do you remember how the grass used to grow so high? >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: You cannot compare the grass we had in our childhood with the grass we have nowadays.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: A landslide happened there. Probably, it was entirely green 15, 20 or 30 years ago.>> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It was fine just 10 years ago. It's been just five years since that landslide.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: So it is more recent. >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It's been two years since that other landslide.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: I can tell it is very recent.>> VOICEOVER: Overgrazing mainly causes land degradation. It exposes bare land to the harsh weather conditions of this region, reduces the capacity of the land to feed the animals people depend on for their livelihoods, and endangers fragile mountain ecosystems. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: How can we protect this now? This will become a rocky cliff if we have more landslides. >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It depends on God's will. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: Of course, it depends on God's will.>> VOICEOVER: Jengishbek and Kyzgaldak?s family camp is not too far away. And today they are having a special celebration.>> KYZGALDAK BAZARKULOVA: My son turns one today, so it is his birthday. We are happily enjoying it. It is much more enjoyable at the summer pastures.Here everything looks special.>> JENGISHBEK ESENKULOV [Livestock herder]: I am slaughtering a sheep for my child and as an offering to God. Twenty years ago, very few families went out to the summer pastures because there were fewer animals. Before, during the time of the Soviet farms, people were obliged to turn in meat, pay taxes and other things. The more animals you had he more meat you had to turn in whether you liked it or not. So the livestock did not increase. Now people don't turn in meat to a collective farm. You just pay tax for use of the pastures and nothing else.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: So, here you cannot do anything other than livestock breeding? >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: No, you cannot. Here in the mountains, our livelihood is livestock breeding. The animals are extremely important for the Kyrgyz. We use their dung to provide heat. Milk products are consumed without any waste. From cow?s milk, we prepare butter, yogurt, dry cheese and cream cheese. We ferment the mare's milk. We Kyrgyz also ride the horses, slaughter sheep to eat and sell them for money. For the Kyrgyz, livestock is very good indeed.>> JENGISHBEK ESENKULOV: Now there is abundance of everything. If you want to buy clothes, educate your children, or build a house, you need money. So you sell animals. Everything is based on the animals. There is no other income! There is nowhere we can work, there are no jobs. Earlier, when the collective farm still operated, you could live off the collective farm salary.>> VOICEOVER: As night falls in the summer pastures the animals return home.Day after day, and year after year, the efforts of the Kyrgyz herders repeat in cycles. As they strive for a better future, it is essential to find ways to take care of the land their lives depend on.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: I hope that our actions will have a significant effect and make a positive contribution to the development of the economy of this region while at the same time preserving the natural environment. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/protecting-the-ownership-of-indigenous-knowledge-in-india As herbal medicine becomes more and more popular, there is a growing rise in bio-piracy throughout India. The UN Development Program has hailed an agreement with the Indian Kani tribe that led to the commercialization of an herbal drug as a global model for benefit sharing. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:38:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/protecting-the-ownership-of-indigenous-knowledge-in-india India, Agriculture & Food, Traditional knowledge, United Nations, Commercialization of traditional medicines, Indigenous peoples, Herbalism, Kani (tribe), Convention on Biological Diversity, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library >> VOICEOVER: Found deep in the forest of southern India, this wild plant holds the power to fight fatigue and to improve the human immune system. For centuries, the Kani tribe has kept this plant a secret. Recently, they were persuaded to share their knowledge in exchange for benefits. Dr. Pushpangadan is the scientist who found out about the properties of the medicinal plant while on a field survey. >> DR. PUSHPANGADAN: At one point in time, my team got exhausted and we stood under the shade taking rest, but not these Kani boys. They said, "Sir, if you try these seeds, you'll get plenty of energy.">> VOICEOVER: And it wasn't easy to convince the Kani men to reveal the source of the plant. >> DR. PUSHPANGADAN: They said, "This is our secret, why do you want to know it?" I told them, "I tried it and it's very good. It will be even better for humanity. I want to share it with humanity." I made an agreement with the tribe that they would benefit.>> VOICEOVER: After reaching an agreement with the Kani, the commercialization of the herbal drug, "Jeevani" took seven years of intensive experimentation headed by Dr. Pushpangadan. The drug is an energy booster that also relieves stress and protects the liver. P.K. Parameswaran is the manager of the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. >> P.K. PARAMESWARAN: It really is a wonder drug. No doubt at all.>> VOICEOVER: The Kani, once a nomadic people living an isolated and impoverished life in the forest, now receive half of the royalties from the sales of Jeevani, and their lives are improving. They have put the money in a trust fund for the benefit and welfare of the tribe and they have purchased a jeep. There is now a road connecting them to the outside world. The Kani have also built a community center, and for the first time they have a place to meet and discuss problems. Rajendran is the secretary of the fund. >> RAJENDRAN: We could not have accomplished all that without the income from these plants. We are all very happy.>> VOICEOVER: The Kani tribe is only one of the more than five hundred tribal communities in India. As herbal medicine becomes popular, there is a growing interest in their knowledge of wild medicinal plants. There's also a rise in bio-piracy. Their knowledge is often taken without their permission. In New Delhi, the government has set up the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. It documents the medicinal properties of native plants in five international languages, aiming to ensure that patents are granted to the proper parties. V.K. Gupta is the head of the Library. >> V.K. GUPTA: Once we make it accessible to international patent offices, it will definitely prevent bio­piracy of the contents available in the library.>> VOICEOVER: The library, the first of its kind in the world, is a 30­million page encyclopedia that comprises only traditional knowledge taken from ancient written texts, not oral knowledge. >> V.K. GUPTA: We need another Traditional Knowledge Digital Library for undocumented traditional medicines.>> VOICEOVER: The United Nations Development Program hailed the agreement with the Kani as a global model for benefit sharing. The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, ratified by over one hundred and fifty countries, calls for the protection of the ownership of indigenous knowledge. The task of documenting thousands of years of traditional knowledge, and ensuring access and equity in the distribution of benefits is a daunting challenge. Patricia Chan and Alan Spector prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/community-enterprise-in-india The Gram Mooligai Company Limited in India is owned entirely by rural villagers who gather and cultivate medicinal plants. Their work promotes sustainable harvesting and ensures community benefits. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:38:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/community-enterprise-in-india India, Agriculture & Food, Tamil Nadu, Herbalism, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations, Bangalore, Gender, Microfinance, South Asia >> VOICEOVER: In rural communities in India, gathering medicinal plants is a common way of making a living for village women who have no land or cattle. They worry about their future. But Kathammal is not worried. Six years ago, she invested USD$1 and bought 50 shares in a local company. Her investment has paid off. >> KATHAMMAL: In the first year, they gave us 1,000 shares. I'm hoping that the company will do well and I'll make more money.>> VOICEOVER: Founded in 2001, the Grama Mooligal Company Limited, or GMCL, procures medicinal plants from dozens of villages in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Most of the goods go to Bangalore to big manufactures such as Himalaya Herbal Healthcare, one of India's leading companies in this field. R. Manjunatha is a representative of the company. >> R. MANJUNATHA: We prefer buying herbs from GMCL because of the quality of the herbs they supply us. Secondly, they have a sustainable harvest, and thirdly, for the rural empowerment of women.>> VOICEOVER: India has over 6,000 species of medicinal plants known to local communities. Grama Mooligal Company Limited was created as part of an effort to conserve these plants by promoting sustainable harvesting and ensuring community benefits. Villagers like Kathammal have learned to avoid picking young plants, and have come to understand the standard of quality required by the market. >> KATHAMMAL: Our customers want us to separate the roots, remove the sand and stones. We sift through them to make sure that all of it is clean. >> VOICEOVER: Kathammal is one of the 800 stockholders of GMCL. This village enterprise, entirely owned by gatherers and cultivators, is an initiative conceived by the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions and is supported by the United Nations Development Program. The company offers villagers a guaranteed price and comes directly to them to pick up their goods, a great convenience that saves the villagers from exploitations by market agents. The company wants to do more, says one of the directors, Adichi. >> ADICHI: We want to provide good quality medicinal plants and medicines to the world. This is our dream.>> VOICEOVER: The villagers have hired G. Raju, who is based in Bangalore, to manage their business. >> G. RAJU: We find that there is very little money in it. So we ventured into products.>> VOICEOVER: The company now produces seven kinds of medicine. >> G. RAJU: Our medicines are for cold and cough, for fever, for joint pains, which seem to be the set of health conditions that are affecting the poor.>> VOICEOVER: The company sold about USD$200,000 worth of herbal medicine last year, and hopes to sell half a million dollars worth this year. The medicinal products, ranging in price from less than five cents to a little over two dollars, are available in over 300 stores in Bangalore. Profits benefit villagers like Kathammal directly. >> KATHAMMAL: I have no worries about money or food today. If something bad happens, I can go to the company and get my money.>> VOICEOVER: This community-based enterprise has improved the lives of the villagers. Perhaps more importantly, they now have a sense of ownership and financial security with which to face the future. Patricia Chan prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-school-for-aids-orphans-in-mozambique The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program have set up an innovative school system with a focus on agriculture for AIDS orphans in Mozambique. There are thought to be more than 470,000 orphans in this country, and in these schools they are given the chance to learn farming skills so they will be able to grow their own food in the future. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-school-for-aids-orphans-in-mozambique AIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, Subsistence farming, Food and Agriculture Organization, AIDS orphan, Agriculture, Africa, Agriculture & Food, Education >> VOICEOVER: The beat of a drum, dancing, and singing -- a brief escape from a harsh reality. These children here in rural Mozambique are but a handful of the 11 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. What happens to them now, with no parents to teach them how to farm their land and no parents to protect them? A key to their survival is subsistence farming, and that's exactly what they're learning here at one of the nearly 30 "Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools" throughout central Mozambique. Kids learn hands-on lessons in agriculture: how to prepare fields, sow, irrigate, and harvest. Tradition is passed on as they're taught about indigenous crops and the power of medicinal plants. It's all about becoming independent and self-sufficient, say these classmates. >> ZACARIAS MANUEL: Since we've been learning new things here we've been doing them back home too, and we're getting good results. >> VICERNE BAPTISTA: So now we are teaching other people too. >> VOICEOVER: But the children here are taught about more than just the basics of farming. Through counseling and dance, they're learning to build new self-esteem and a new type of family. And lessons in basic business skills offer a first step toward a future as working farmers. It's a model that has seen early success, a model that has now spread to Kenya, Namibia, and neighboring Zambia. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations prepared this report. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/fao-honors-small-farmers-in-jordan Jordan has introduced modern farming technology to overcome the challenge of feeding its population of five million. Only five percent of Jordan?s land is arable, yet with assistance from the government and FAO, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the country can now feed its population and export produce to more than thirty-three countries in the Middle East and Europe. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/fao-honors-small-farmers-in-jordan Middle East, Food security, Agriculture & Food, Jordan, Food and Agriculture Organization, Agriculture, Arable land, United Nations, Technology >> VOICEOVER: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan faces an enormous challenge -- how to feed its five million people when only five percent of its land is farmable. Spending nearly two hundred million dollars a year just to import food, Jordan knew it had to find a solution, and quickly. And it did just that. How? By harnessing the power of the small farmer. In a move that's part innovation and part miracle, Jordan managed to turn small rural farms into major food suppliers and in so doing, changed the life of local farmers in ways they could never have imagined. It's all part of a multimillion dollar national strategy, a joint effort of the government and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO. Awni Taema, Director-General of Jordan's Ministry of Agriculture, says all the farmers needed were up-to-date training, and a small investment. >> AWNI TAEMA [Director-General, Jordan's Ministry of Agriculture]: We face a challenge in Jordan. We have to use new technologies and modern farming techniques to utilize these small farmable pieces of land to produce enough to secure food for the whole country.>> FIDDAH IBRAHIM AL-DAYAAT [Farm Owner]: They have brought in agricultural engineers who come with us into the field and teach us how to farm. >> VOICEOVER: Fiddah Ibrahim Al-Dayaat is just one of thousands of farm owners now taught modern and cost-effective farming techniques, like how to harness the sun as a non-chemical pesticide and how to use easily available fertilizers to boost their crops. And she's just one of thousands to receive a small loan to modernize and expand their farms. With a few thousand dollars, Fiddah built a pond to create year-round irrigation and constructed ten green houses in which to grow vegetables in controlled conditions. So just how successful is Jordan's campaign? The country has seen its food production increase by nearly fifty percent in less than five years. Today, it exports its agricultural products to more than thirty-three countries throughout the Middle East and Europe. As for Fiddah, it also brought her something deeply personal -- in 2003 she was made "Farmer of the Year" and awarded a medal for dedication and productivity. It was an unexpected honor for a woman who only a few years ago worried about putting food on her table. United Nations Television prepared this report. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-vietnam Climate change in Vietnam means more frequent droughts and unpredictable weather. Farmers from Bac Ai, who have worked the land their whole lives, must adjust on the fly to shifting weather conditions. Oxfam America and the local government are helping farmers adjust by building a new reservoir and providing training sessions on new farming techniques. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-vietnam Vietnam, Climate change, Ninh Thuận Province, Agriculture, Bác Ái District, Water & Sanitation, Oxfam, Environment, Agriculture & Food >> TITLE: Hardest hit: Survival strategies form the frontlines of climate change>> TITLE: Narrated by Majora Carter>> HUYNH KHANH HOA [Water Management Expert, Bac Ai]: In the future, with more changes in the climate, there will be more droughts. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY [Aid Worker, Vietnam]: Because of the climate change, droughts almost happen every year, with different levels of severity. The people suffer a lot. >> CHAMALÉA BAC [Community Leader]: I?m highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change. The weather changes make it hard to determine when it is time to plant crops. >> TITLE: Vietnam: Hanoi: Bac Ai>> VOICEOVER: Southeast Asia is known for its floods. But the unpredictable weather caused by climate change has also led to devastating droughts. In Vietnam, farmers who depend on rainfall to irrigate their crops struggle to earn a living and feed their families. The situation is especially difficult in the Bac Ai district in the Ninh Thuan province. This area has the hottest temperatures, least rainfall, and some of the worst poverty rates in all of Vietnam.>> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: Bac Ai is one of the 61 poorest districts in the country, which received special attention from the government. More than 60 percent of the people in this district are living on an income of less than 12 dollars per month. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: I have lived here for more than 30 years; my family is a farming family. I am highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change, because it has not only affected me, but also my community. Everybody is affected. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people, an ethnic minority who make up most of the Bac Ai population, are among the hardest hit. >> PI-NANG THI GIAO [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: My husband and I have a rice field, but we do not get much from it. We have five months of dry season and only two to three months of rainy season. Sometimes it rains too much, sometimes it rains too little. >> VOICEOVER: While many Vietnamese people are accustomed to managing floods, the Rag Lai people find dealing with droughts to be the real challenge. >> PI-NANG THI MAI [Commune Chairwoman]: Climate change affects the people here, especially those that depend on agriculture for their incomes. When it?s too sunny, there?s no grass for the cows. Rice and corn die when there?s too much sun. The water resources are drying out. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: After the drought, our family lost two and a half acres of corn and two and a half acres of rice. We lost two cows. People didn?t have fresh water, so we had to take water from the streams, which is a little more than a half-mile walk from here. The quality of the water was bad; it caused skin diseases and stomach disease. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people are working to adapt to harsher growing conditions. With the help of the government, they are bringing more clean water to their communities, and they are learning how to cultivate crops and raise animals that can survive dry spells. >> HUYNH KHANH HOA: When this reservoir is completed, we can be in more control: increasing the water for irrigation when it is needed, or reducing it when it is not. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: The local government provides the construction of the big reservoir, and from Oxfam?s side, we support them with training to the local people to enable them to manage the water system effectively. >> VOICEOVER: The local farmers are growing hardier crops, like certain varieties of rice, cashews and corn. >> KATOR CHUONG [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: In the morning, my wife and I work on the rice field, and later we work in the cashew garden. Most of our food comes from the rice field. Oxfam?s training showed us a technique for growing rice. I know more now. Before, I didn?t know when it was the best time to plant the rice in the ground, and when to stop planting. >> VOICEOVER: And in Bac Ai, they?re also raising different breeds of livestock that need less water and fodder. >> PI-NANG KHUYEN [Cow Farmer]: My name is Pi-nang Khuyen, I?m 22 years old and I?m a cow farmer. I don?t have much education because my parents are poor. I?m happy to have the cow; once she gives birth, life will be easier. I chose to raise a cow because it is easier to take care of than other animals. The cow survives the dry season better here. I have to feed other livestock and give water three to four times a day. But for the cow, it?s only two times a day. >> VOICEOVER: For communities that have worked the land for generations, these strategies have helped make responding to the changing climate conditions easier. Using their new skills, the reservoir and irrigation canals, farmers can continue to provide for their families doing what they know best: farming. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: We are learning how to adapt to climate changes. We are beginning to understand how to change our farming and crops. People are learning better ways to plant and raise livestock. All of this has contributed to increasing the incomes of the local people. >> TITLE: oxfamamerica.org/climate http://www.viewchange.org/videos/one-in-six One billion people in the world face hunger and malnourishment on a daily basis. The international community has long sought to tackle this problem. But what if everything we thought we knew about how to erase hunger was wrong? Concern Worldwide and Valid International brought their innovative ideas and faced off against entrenched interests to change people's perceptions of this problem. The result was a sea change in how the world looks at hunger. Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:52:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/one-in-six Malnutrition, Agriculture & Food, Concern Worldwide, Africa, Water & Sanitation, Foreign Assistance, Non-governmental organization, Tom Arnold (economist), Community Therapeutic Care, Food security >> VOICEOVER: Every night, almost one billion people go to bed hungry. Global economic chaos and ongoing climate change is pushing that figure even higher. But in the last decade, thanks to the efforts of a group of courageous and determined people, the lives of those worst affected by starvation have been transformed. Hundreds and thousands of lives have been saved. Of all the continents, Africa carries the heaviest burden of hunger, and of all the people, African women bear by far the heaviest load. To most of us this is wrong. But to some, it is simply unacceptable.>> TOM ARNOLD [CEO, Concern Worldwide]: I think for most of us, who actually have never really been hungry for a sustained period of time, it can be hard to convey how awful this is as a daily reality. But it is a daily reality for maybe close to a billion people in the world. Everybody, as a basic human right, has a right to food. It's almost as basic as life itself.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS [Director, Valid International]: All I know is that starvation is an obscene fact in the modern world. People should realize that people are starving unnecessarily. There's enough food in the world. We can put probes on Mars, you know, we can definitely treat hunger with basic food, you know, it's not rocket science.>> TITLE: One In Six>> VOICEOVER: Over the past 20 years, Steve Collins, a medical doctor who specializes in nutrition, has worked in every major famine emergency in Africa. Nowadays he works from a small farm on the southwest coast of the last European country to have experienced famine: Ireland. >> VOICEOVER: In 1998, Steve was awarded an MBE for his work in adult malnutrition. But it was when he teamed up with Concern Worldwide in 2000 that the way the world viewed and treated malnutrition was challenged and changed for good. They sought a new way to treat an old problem, and they found it in the form of Community-based Therapeutic Care, CTC. It is a remarkably simple, yet revolutionary, idea that restored the treatment of malnutrition to African mothers.>> WOMAN 1 [Mother]: I become anxious when there's no food in the house. I don't have enough money, I wander here and there and then I give up and I can't do housework. I have no energy.>> WOMAN 2 [Mother]: I feel bad when my child is ill and refusing food. I don't eat either because I feel sad.>> WOMAN 3: It's miserable when you're hungry and there's nothing to eat. Your vision is blurred and even your heartbeat changes.>> VOICEOVER: Until recently, these mothers and their babies would have been treated in centralized feeding centers. Traditionally, these centers were set up to administer famine relief to starving people, and were considered the gold standard in treating malnutrition. To overturn this system, Steve Collins and Concern would have to take on the medical and aid establishment and prove that their approach was more effective. In 1996, Steve Collins went to Liberia to set up a traditional feeding center. What followed was an outbreak of cholera, which was to herald the end of these centers for good.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: Liberia was a difficult situation. We were trying to set up nutritional treatment centers across two front lines. There were so many factions in Liberia -- it was 1996 -- so we arrived to lots of death, lots of destitution, and we started setting up a center. At the beginning I asked, you know, "Is there cholera?" and people said, "No, there's no cholera." And I actually asked the wrong question. I'd asked a sort of close-ended question. I asked, "Is there cholera?" and they said no because there wasn't cholera that week. But actually cholera's endemic there. Had I asked, you know, "What do people usually die of?" They would have said, "Oh, cholera." But I hadn't asked the right question. And that one mistake meant that I didn't-- because can't do everything at once, you prioritize different things-- so I prioritized the feeding-- because I'd seen people dying of malnutrition-- over putting more effort into the water and sanitation. So, when people arrived for the treatment, it meant that you had a lot of people who didn't know the village, they didn't know where people normally drank, so they started to drink downstream of the village, of course getting all the polluted water. And so, the day it started we had two cases; the next day, I think we had ten. And then we were treating about thirty cases the next day. And the war started up, and we could actually hear the shooting in the background, and we had to leave. And we couldn't go back for two days. And when we came back, I think there were twenty dead people. And that made me realize there are so many dangers involved in having centers that I started to try and look for a different way of doing it.>> VOICEOVER: Around the same time, Anne O'Mahony, who has worked in emergency situations with Concern since the 1980s, was struggling with the shortcomings of feeding centers in Sudan.>> ANNE O'MAHONY [Concern Worldwide]: Our dilemma was that if we set up centers to cater for these malnourished, we would be open to aerial bombardment. We were also worried about ground attacks, and we felt that by setting up a center it would be an attraction in itself to insecurity. And I suppose more and more, it became clear that center-based care wasn?t the solution. Up to then, I suppose, the big constraint to having community care or enabling women to feed their babies in their homes, malnourished children, was the fact that there wasn't suitable food that could be used in this circumstance. Anything we were giving out had to be mixed with water.>> VOICEOVER: In 1996, a French nutritionist, Andre Briend, invented a product called Plumpy'nut, a peanut butter-like supplement rich in vitamins and minerals. This was a major breakthrough in the fight to prove the value of the community-based approach.>> DR. ANDRÉ BRIEND [Nutritionist]: My hope when I was developing this product was to start a revolution in the management in acute malnutrition, because the solution before that was quite unsatisfactory. So this is what we wanted, to have something that could be used at home. Developing the food was not enough. It?s a little bit like inventing the computer without adapted software. We needed some program adapted to that, and Steve Collins was very much involved in program management, and he was a key person to change the approach.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: I think the invention of Plumpy'nut was a key breakthrough. It's an oil-based product, there's no water in it, and so bacteria can?t breed in it, and so having this perfect nutritional product that could be used safely at home really facilitated CTC.>> VOICEOVER: But in order to develop a more community-based approach, Steve Collins knew he needed to have a thorough understanding of the people, and in particular the women, he wanted to help. If the mistakes of Liberia had taught him anything, it was to ask the right questions.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: So is the pump broken? How long has the pump that is in the village been broken? One of the key things that struck me when we were developing CTC and looking at life in Ethiopia was the incredible workload that women have. We did lots of studies looking at how women spend their days, because obviously that's vital, you have to know what women are doing. If you're going to say you?ve got to come for a day to a center, you have to know what they're going to miss. >> HEKUAT KAHSAY FANTA: I wake up at about 5 AM and I clean my house. I grind grain until 8 AM. Then I work in the field. Carrying stones, plowing the soil and preparing the land. When it gets dark, I work by lamplight.>> VOICEOVER: Hekuat Kahsay Fanta lives with her family in a remote part of Tigray in northern Ethiopia. She is a mother of six and, like other African women, is busy from before dawn until after dusk working in the fields and looking after her house and family.>> HEKUAT KAHSAY FANTA: My daughter is 14 months old. She started coughing and getting sick last year. Maybe it's because I didn't feed her properly. I worry that this could be the cause of her illness. I think about this all day long.>> VOICEOVER: When one of her children is sick, Hekuat struggles to get them the care they need. The isolation of her home and the fact that she has no form of transport means that any journey she undertakes is long, arduous, and on foot. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: I realized from very early on that the main limiting factor wasn?t the medical care; it was how people could get into the program. And so to do that you have to talk to people, you?ve got to find out, "where do you live? Are there rivers in the way?" Or, "how many children have you got, what happens if you leave your children behind, who?s going to take care of them?" Obviously if it?s harvest time, people don?t want to have to walk for two days and miss their harvest because someone might steal it, or birds might come in. So all these questions about what are their lives like? What is their reality?>> ANNE O'MAHONY: Well, very often, when we go to visit the villages, we do find that Mother X?s child died last week. You ask her why she hasn?t brought in her child, and she would say there was nobody to look after the children. And we got that, story after story. And that?s quite common. And taking a mother out of their home scene leaves a huge gap. So who's going to feed the other kids? Who's going to provide the care and nutrition and nourishment that the rest of the family needs in the absence of the mother? And very often it doesn't happen. It?s a question of mothers making these decisions that are so difficult, that no mother should be asked to make. >> WOMAN 4 [Mother]: I feel very bad when I see my baby sick, I feel depressed.>> WOMAN 5 [Doctor]: If you go to the hospital with this child, what will happen in your home if you're not there?>> WOMAN 4 [Mother]: My children are very small and there is nobody that can prepare food for them. If I leave my other children at home, I close the door on them. To save one life, I can lose the rest of my children.>> WOMAN 5 [Doctor]: Do you want to ask your husband what to do?>> WOMAN 4 [Mother]: He doesn't care.>> VOICEOVER: With a better understanding of the difficulties confronting these women, it became obvious to Steve why so many mothers did not make it to feeding centers. Plumpy'nut made it possible to develop a program that would allow malnourished children to be treated in their own communities. By using a simple band to measure the width of a child?s upper arm, Steve argued that anyone could tell if a child was malnourished. The child could then be admitted into a CTC program to receive ready-to-use food and drugs. Instead of having to leave their family and livelihood for up to six weeks to stay in a traditional feeding center, mothers could return home and make weekly visits to the health center for monitoring and therapeutic food. Children who had lost their appetite completely could still be admitted to a hospital for care until they too could be sent home with the necessary supplements. This system made it possible to reach and support far more women and children. But many people had put a lot of time, energy and investment into the traditional feeding center model, and were far from convinced by this new approach.>> ANNE O'MAHONY: When children are sick, especially large numbers of children who are sick with malnutrition, there?s a tendency to keep them all together, to give them food, to give them medicine, to bring them back under our care so that they can then be released back into home. And the idea of CTC was, sending these children home with the correct food and the care that went with it so that the mothers could actually take care of them themselves. This was a mind-blowing idea in some ways.>> VOICEOVER: Many of the more clinically minded professionals had ethical problems with the radical nature of what Steve was proposing, people like Professor Michael Golden, a world-renowned nutritionist who lives on the northwest coast of Ireland.>> PROFESSOR MICHAEL GOLDEN [Nutritionist]: To me there is an ethical problem about taking risks. If you know there?s a risk, you do it step by step, and you do it extremely carefully, and you do it with a few children that you know, and then you build on that. You don?t suddenly tear down everything and go out and create a whole structure, involving thousands of children, which may or may not work. I don't think that we have the right to take risks with other people. We take risks with ourselves, but I mean why should we take the responsibility ourselves of taking a risk with someone else's life?>> VOICEOVER: Despite Steve Collins' conviction that his new community-based approach to treating malnutrition, CTC, could save hundreds of thousands of lives, he needed proof. He happened to be working in the Walta region in Ethiopia in 2000, when in the middle of yet another desperate famine he saw an opportunity to try CTC out. The government had banned the setting up of traditional feeding centers, as they believe them to be ineffective. Concern was working in a neighboring district, and when Steve suggested that they try CTC and study the results, they agreed. >> TOM ARNOLD: In a way, when the CTC idea come along, it came along at the right time, because a sufficient number of people were asking questions about the effectiveness of the traditional model of dealing with malnutrition. So then the challenge was that over a period of time, could you actually demonstrate, with evidence, that this was indeed a better way of dealing with it? And that?s what we set out to do.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: And so, we worked together to design another CTC program in the district where Concern was working. And in this one, we put in some extra monitoring, so that we could actually start to produce concrete data. That program ran, I think, for eight or nine months, and was a success. The mortality rates were 4.5 percent, whereas the standard you aim for in emergencies is 10 percent, and the norm in a developing country hospital is 20 to 30 percent mortality rate-- that?s twenty to thirty percent of every child that?s admitted dies-- whereas our mortality rates were only four percent. So it was obvious it was working, and the numbers were quite high. She's feeding him three times a day. And what will she feed them at lunchtime? Will people here still be eating teff? Is there still enough to eat? After 2000, after the two trials we had in Ethiopia, I realized that CTC would work, and that it would be the future. And in a way I became a bit obsessed by it, I think. So I actually went round to all the agencies I could think of-- I went obviously back to MSF [Médicins Sans Frontières], I went to Oxfam, I went to Save the Children, Action Contour la Famme-- all these different agencies saying this is the future, this is what we should be developing. Unfortunately, I think it was too threatening at that stage; it was too much of a change, and probably, to be fair, at that stage there probably wasn?t enough evidence.>> VOICEOVER: But one person who did agree with Steve that there had to be a better way was Concern's director of policy and evaluation, Howard Dalzell.>> HOWARD DALZELL [Concern Worldwide]: I suppose when Steve first put it to us, I don't think he realized the full potential of it. And I don't think he realized what would be involved in actually getting it accepted internationally. And he wanted to do quite a small trial, and I actually said to him, "Steve, I think you're missing the point. I think you're being too conservative. If you really want to make it work, we've got to have loads of evidence in loads of different places, and therefore we need to do big trials, not small trials.">> DR. STEVE COLLINS: He was the first person who really realized the potential for this change. He realized it needed to be a coherent research program. In the month before I'd gone to DIFID, the UK government donor, with a project proposal for a hundred thousand. And they had refused, and it was Howard that saw that actually you need a program, you need a research program.>> VOICEOVER: What Howard understood was that in order to make real progress, they would need more than just nutritionists in the research team. They would need food economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and social workers who could mobilize a community. But Howard believed in Steve's ideas, and agreed to support him in his search for the necessary funding. >> TOM ARNOLD: Well, Howard came to me with this idea about CTC, and he explained it and the principles underpinning it. He was very convinced that this was a potentially important way to deal with hunger, and particularly severe acute malnutrition. And he then had the idea that in order to get further support, we would try and get support from Irish Aid, and he went and spoke to Irish Aid, and said critically we?re prepared to put some of Concern?s money in this, and would you, Irish Aid, put your money in it, and we would work together. And obviously crucially the core idea that was from Steve Collins.>> BRENDAN ROGERS [Director General, Irish Aid]: So when Howard came to me and said, "Look, we have an innovative project here, we think that through CTC we can change the architecture of emergency response," my eyes lit up, of course. In the early part of this century, thousands and thousands of people were coming together because of the results of conflict, or the results of natural disasters, and the UN system and NGOs had put in place a system that was very well-run logistically, providing food, shelter, water and sanitation to thousands and thousands. Yet, there were great dangers in that. People were coming long distances, particularly women and children could have lost their lives in those journeys, and there was the possibility of cross-infection, of communicable diseases, the issues of HIV and AIDS and of sexual exploitation with large amounts of food being distributed in situations of great famine. So we wanted to challenge that, we wanted to determine, "Could we address those issues closer to people's homes, closer to their communities?" But this essentially was a real challenge to the accepted wisdom. We took that risk.>> TOM ARNOLD: Equally important at this time was the support of USAID and the Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance. They had come to the same conclusions as Irish Aid about the potential impact of CTC, and their support at this time allowed the expansion of the program into Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Malawi. So it was the combined effect of the Irish and US funding that really catalyzed the expansion of CTC, and led to the increased acceptance and legitimacy of this program in the wider international community. >> CAROLINE ABLA [Public Health Advisor, USAID]: Once we had enough evidence that this new approach really does work, it was time to bring it up to scale if we could. And we'd been working with Concern on the pilot phase, and having had Concern basically write the manual of how to do CTC, they were the best partners that we had to go ahead and scale it up.>> VOICEOVER: In 1999, Steve Collins had set up Valid International to research and evaluate the effectiveness of aid programs. With the success of the trials in Ethiopia, and with funds from the Irish government and Concern, Valid assembled a team of research specialists who, together with Concern, were finally able to take CTC to Malawi in southern Africa. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: We started implementing in Malawi. There we had another key person who got involved, Theresa Banda, who was the Ministry of Health nutritionist. She has worked in malnutrition for many, many years, and she'd seen the problems with centers, and she was willing to stake her reputation and take a chance on giving us a district where we could do a pilot.>> THERESA BANDA: We were in the process of reviewing national guidelines. When Dr. Steve Collins came in, we had a meeting with him in the office, and he brought in some evidence from Ethiopia. So that really got us interested. At that time we were looking for innovative ways to improve nutritional status, innovative ways to deal with the influx of malnutrition due to the food crisis. We decided as a ministry that we should use one district to implement this and learn from it.>> VOICEOVER: With the go-ahead from the Malawian government, Concern and Valid had for the first time a real opportunity to gather hard evidence. They were assigned the Dowa district in Malawi, where they treated almost two thousand children within the first year.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: Has she seen it used before?>> WOMAN 6 [Interpreter]: She has not seen anybody use this.>> VOICEOVER: But it was the work of sociologists and anthropologists that uncovered the most significant and far-reaching obstacles to treating malnutrition.>> EMMANUEL MANDALAZ [Anthropologist]: One main issue was the cultural issues surrounding malnutrition with, for example, people believe that malnutrition is caused by parental sexual behavior. If a father goes out and sleeps with some other woman, that brings a spell on the child. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: When the child had the problem with the stomach before, she took the child to a traditional healer who burnt the child. What did the traditional doctor say to her? What did the traditional doctor tell her to do about this illness? >> WOMAN 7 [Interpreter]: He said it was abdominal parasites.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: Abdominal parasites. I think that the fact that she's waited for a month now... >> EMMANUEL MANDALAZ: Usually, mothers, even if there's treatment at the health center, they wouldn?t bring the child immediately, they would wait. First of all, they would try to consult a traditional healer until they have failed. That?s when they will come back to the program. So, later on, we try to engage with these traditional healers. Say if a mother sees a child maybe in the nearby vicinity, whose child is malnourished, they would encourage them. And that's one of the secrets with CTC: there's mother-to-mother transmission of information about treatment, where to go get it, and all those things, and how best they can take care of their children.>> GRACE NIKHOMA: The child was sick. He was refusing to eat and had diarrhea. He was looking malnourished and my friends helped me to get CTC. There was a great change when he started receiving peanut butter. The loss of appetite and diarrhea stopped, even his malnourished appearance improved. It took the child one month to change.>> VOICEOVER: In the two years following the program in Malawi, the team developed a database of over 23 thousand cases. They had run 21 programs in four different countries. Their mortality rates remained under five percent, but more importantly they reached over 70 percent of those in need, a massive improvement on the old system, which never reached more than 10 percent. They were ready to present their findings to the international community, and push for change in international policy.>> HOWARD DALZELL: We felt we had enough evidence, enough strong evidence to go public. And we obviously needed to convince the rest of the international nutrition community that these results were solid. So we organized a conference in October 2003, to present the results, and to have a discussion with the rest of the nutrition community.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: The Dublin conference was really the turning point, I think. We really wanted to get the data on CTC to the agencies in a more formal manner, and give them a chance to respond and feedback.>> HOWARD DALZELL: That turned out to be a tension-laden conference. I would have to say it generated more heat than light. There were people who'd worked for two or three decades on refining and improving therapeutic feeding centers, and then there was the new fringe doing the community therapeutic care approach.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: Treating starving children is a very emotive subject, and here were we, saying that we could actually do so much better, and there's an implied criticism of what was going on before.>> PROFESSOR MICHAEL GOLDEN: I think that there was a resistance by some NGOs for everyone to jump into bed and do the same thing and abandon what they were doing. They wanted to see how the risks that were being taken would pan out before they did the same thing. So there was a reticence for everyone to copy and say, "We're going to abandon everything that we've done in the past, and we're all going to do exactly the same as Concern.">> DR. STEVE COLLINS: A lot of opposition came from large agencies based around volunteers, and I think they probably felt a little bit threatened that we were saying that the volunteer model, as well, didn?t really fit with CTC, where you actually only need one professional, and it?s much better if they're a local person who knows the environment, rather than a lot of enthusiastic volunteers. >> TOM ARNOLD: There were still people on both sides of the argument at that stage. But what was beginning to emerge was that the evidence was beginning to accumulate. And with that, of course, the argument began to tilt towards the CTC.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: After the Dublin meeting, when they had seen the strength of our data, I think people realized that they could no longer use just ideological objections, and I think they realized in a way that the CTC train was leaving the station, and they were either on board or they were left at the station.>> HOWARD DALZELL: Well, after that conference we continued to do trials, and we also extended the work to other agencies, so it wasn't just Concern doing it: MSF was doing it, Tearfund was doing it, Save the Children was doing it, so other agencies following that conference decided that they were going to give it a real try, and see could it work for them, and it did.>> VOICEOVER: It isn't just children, however, who benefit from CTC. It has also transformed the lives of thousands of people with HIV/AIDS. In 2005, Ortiz Primetime visited Malawi and met Akim, who was then close to death. He had been abandoned by his family and had even been moved to a hut close to the graveyard. >> AKIM BONZO: I go searching on my own for food, my relatives are not interested in me.>> VOICEOVER: Less than three years later, Akim has a new life, thanks to the potent combination of Community-based Therapeutic Care and antiretroviral drugs.>> AKIM BONZO: At first, when I started receiving therapeutic food, I used to have abdominal pains and diarrhea. After taking the food, I picked up and I could feel energized. The difference between then and now is that I can work on my garden and at home.>> MUONERETU BANDA [Akim's Wife]: The happiest time is when we chat together. If there's food, we cook and eat together and spend time in the garden. >> AKIM BONZO: The most important thing is to have love. Loving your partner the way you love yourself. I think that attitude keeps us together as a family.>> VOICEOVER: But the real success of CTC could only be measured when and if the United Nations and the World Health Organization endorsed it. This was the next crucial and defining step. In 2005, a meeting was held at the WHO headquarters in Geneva that would decide whether or to replace the traditional feeding center model. Although some trenchant resistance remained, the majority of those present supported the more community-based approach, but there was still one main stumbling block: the way child malnutrition is measured. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: The evidence has always been extremely strong that Middle Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) is a great predictor of mortality in young children. But there is a large group of people who thought, "No, no, we need to do mathematics, we need to do weight and height, basically because that's what we've always done," I think.>> DR. ELIZABETH MASON [World Health Organization]: The factor that you could consider is perfect being the enemy of the good. So if we consider weight for height, and you get Z scores, standard deviation, you've got the the perfect gold standard. But on the other hand, you have a simple upper arm circumference that, yes, it's not perfect, but it is a good measure to use for a community screening. And when we're looking at public health and when we're looking at options for the community, then we will choose the good over the perfect.>> VOICEOVER: In 2006, only six years after the initial trails were carried out by Concern and Valid in Malawi, CTC received the ultimate endorsement from the United Nations. This achievement was the culmination of years of work by the staff of Concern and Valid, and of many other agencies, such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, Save the Children, and the Tearfund. The pressure was now on African governments to adopt the new approach. Malawi was the first to take up the challenge. But Concern and Valid realized that local manufacture of ready-to-use food was critical. To achieve this, Concern supported the setting up of Valid Nutrition, a new kind of charity based on ethical business practices. With no shareholders, all profits are reinvested into local production and economies. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: We want to produce a whole range of ready-to-use food, both for treating severe starvation, but also for treating moderate starvation and preventing malnutrition, from this factory, made locally in Malawi, by local Malawi people, using ingredients grown by local Malawian farmers. Effectively, you've got a local system to address malnutrition rather than having to depend on external interventions. >> DR. MARY SHAWA [Department of Nutrition, Malawi]: The advice I can say to everybody who is interested in this is traditionalize the CTC program, have the highest political commitment, and make sure that the private sector is also given room to take part in the production of the product. We have 201 facilities running the CTC program. Our target is to cover the whole country. And we believe if we can do that, we'll reduce the problem to zero. And that's our target: we want zero malnutrition in Malawi.>> VOICEOVER: Community-based Therapeutic Care, the radical new approach pioneered by Dr. Steve Collins and championed by Concern Worldwide, has transformed the treatment of severe acute malnutrition throughout the world. Although this required conviction, courage, and dedication, and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, it is only part of the picture. Severely acute malnourished people make up only 10 percent of the world's hungry. The other 90 percent, the chronically malnourished, are far less visible. These are the hidden hungry, people who may not be in immediate danger of dying, but who are nonetheless suffering the effects malnutrition. Apart from the daily torment of going without food and all that entails, these people are also burdened with the life sentence of stunting, the affects of which only become apparent later in life.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: When a child is born, its nervous tissue grows fastest. And if you don't have the right nutrients in the first couple of years of life when the brain is being wired, then the brain never reaches its full potential. So a child that was born to be an Einstein ends up not being able to cope with primary school. And once you miss that two years, and you miss that brain development, it's gone forever. You can't get it back by good nutrition.>> DR. ELIZABETH MASON: In the Western countries, we're now used to opening a jar or putting a whisker in the food and actually having energy-rich complementary feeds. So the first feeds the child gets are very energy-rich. Whereas the first feeds that the baby gets in many African countries is diluted porridge.>> PROFESSOR MICHAEL GOLDEN: There are 40 important essential nutrients, at least 40 essential nutrients. You need every one of them, all 40 of them, to be healthy. All you do is miss one of those 40 out, and you will not be able to resist disease, you will become sick, you will lose your appetite. You just sit there like a zombie. One of the worst things about malnutrition is that the child doesn't cry. How do you know if your child is hungry? He cries. How do you know if he's thirsty? He cries. If your child doesn't cry, and you think, "Oh, I'm a wonderful mommy, I love my child but my child doesn't need for anything, I can go about my other work, I can go and collect the wood, I can prepare the food," and the child just sits there. So the mother doesn't stimulate the child. So you have these two things. You have the stimulation, and you have then the nutrients that have to make those connections in the brain. But the connections won't be made if it's not stimulated, so you need both. You need good food, and you need stimulation.>> TOM ARNOLD: Stunting is something that I don't think enough is known about. Stunting means you're cutting off somebody's life prospects. You're reducing the economic future of many of these countries. And countries themselves need to know that, unless they've worked to prevent stunting, they're actually putting a burden on their own potential for decades to come. >> WOMAN: I ask God to give my children and me a healthy life and for the means to feed my family, to give me grace, health and to help me lead a decent life.>> TOM ARNOLD: Preventing hunger is actually a good investment for individuals and for countries. Now what to be done, where should the policy focus be? It should definitely be on better nutrition for pregnant women and children under two, massive intervention programs to deal with that problem.>> VOICEOVER: CTC provided a window into the world of the severely malnourished, and in doing so revealed the shocking reality of the daily lives of many African women. Most importantly, it highlighted how their unequal status is contributing to their own and their families' vulnerability to hunger. Not only are they fully responsible for the care of their children and home, they also do 80 percent of the agricultural work. They have few rights and even less choice. They are usually the last to eat at meal times, and the first to go without food when it is scarce. They are often anemic during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and their babies are frequently born underweight, perpetuating the vicious circle of malnutrition.>> ALICE GANDIWA [Concern Worldwide]: Most mothers, they work very hard in the fields, and they grown enough food, probably in the end that food may be sold and the children may not be fed enough. They suffer inwardly. They wish they could have done better for their children, but probably they don't have the means or they don't have the knowledge to do it. At times it's the feeding practices. At times it's the cultural practices. But inwardly, the mother would want a healthy child. Every mother would want a healthy child.>> BRENDAN ROGERS: There's no doubt about it, African women are very much second-class citizens. That's the fact. And while at the UN we pay lip service to equality and gender equality and gender empowerment, it's not happening underground. And there is that gap, and it's being increasingly recognized at every level of society. But if we want to improve the lives of women, if we want to improve the lives of children, if Africa wants to produce enough food to sustain itself, there has to be a refocus on agriculture and rural livelihoods. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: Most of the hungry people are actually living on small farms. So one key way to get around it is not that the state comes and brings food to them, it's that they are enabled to produce the food themselves. And that requires big changes in the importance of agricultural policy, in government giving more support to farmers and to the rural areas so that farmers can produce and can trade. >> HOWARD DALZELL: The development of CTC has been unusual in that a private sector research organization (Valid International), an NGO (Concern), and a public sector body, such as the Irish government, work together to make it happen, and none of us could have done it by ourselves, but the public-private partnership worked.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: In the world today, there are 300 million children with chronic malnutrition. We know that that can be prevented with just 40 grams of a high-quality food complement each day, given over a period of 18 months. So this is a problem that is treatable.>> HOWARD DALZELL: And we are convinced that the sort of principles of food signs that are in our ready-to-use foods can be used to make not just therapeutic foods, but supplementary and complementary foods that can go into the marketplace and that parents can buy for their children. It'll keep them growing, it will keep them healthy, and it will prevent malnutrition. >> DR. STEVE COLLINS: I think to date, large companies haven't really targeted the so-called bottom of the pyramid, the poorest of the poor, because I think they felt that these people just haven't got enough money to buy the kind of products they want to sell. But when you get to a really simple, low-cost nutritional supplement, the market is so big (300 million people) that if they each spend 10 dollars a year only on a quality nutritional product, that's a market of three billion dollars a year. Now that's a substantial market. If multinationals start to create properly designed nutritional products, and they price them at an affordable level, you're going to have a whole generation growing up who are capable of using their brains better, and capable of helping themselves more. So, as a foundation for development, the changes that are now happening are profound, and can have real implications in the alleviation of poverty.>> HOWARD DALZELL: It surprises companies when they hear that an NGO and a not-for-profit humanitarian company are actually following business principles. They don't expect us to want to manage costs very clearly, to want to show a surplus that then gets reinvested. They see charity and business as very different, and this whole concept of a not-for-profit company, Valid Nutrition, with a humanitarian mission following best business practices, is just unusual.>> TOM ARNOLD: We are clearly moving into a more difficult economic situation, where people have many legitimate fears about their future, about their future livelihoods. But at least so far, people in this part of the world are not at least fearful of going hungry, and long may that continue. But that is not the reality for a sixth of the world's population. And I think those of us who have escaped that fear of going hungry do need to think about that sixth of the world's population who still have that fear and that daily reality.>> VOICEOVER: The Irish government taskforce report, published in the autumn of 2008, stated clearly that there had been a collective failure at international and national levels to prioritize ending global hunger. Community-based Therapeutic Care demonstrated that when there is a genuine desire for change, solutions can and will be found. And yet, every night, one in six go to bed hungry.>> DR. STEVE COLLINS: This idea that we're doing it because we're compassionate-- that's not-- people have a right to health, a right to good nutrition, they have a right to education, they have a right to security. It's not doing good to ensure those rights are maintained and upheld. It's their rights! So it's a work, you know, you have to do it. I don't want people to do it because they're such nice people; I want people to do it because they can create change and because that's what they should do.>> HOWARD DALZELL: Child death through serious malnutrition is probably the greatest blasphemy in the world today. It simply shouldn't be allowed to happen. It's morally unacceptable. And I think what will actually stop it happening is moral indignation. Slavery was seriously tackled 180 years ago. It wasn't tackled because women in America had dishwashers, and Hoovers, and fridges, and microwaves, so that they didn't need slaves in their kitchen. It was blown out the water because people said this is wrong, our fellow human beings shouldn't be treated like this. It was a moral victory, not a technical victory. We have the technical answers to malnutrition. But to get rid of that blasphemy requires conviction and advocacy, and acceptance of everybody's right to food. It's as simple as that.>> TITLE: Tonight, almost a billion people will go to bed hungry. Most of them are women and children. We have the power to change this. Visit www.concernusa.org 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/stay-migration-and-poverty-in-rural-mexico Faced with a lack of opportunity in their homeland, Mexican farmers Marvin Garcia Salas and Santiago Cruz have both been forced to migrate north to provide for their families. Now, thanks to several organizations that are responding to the root cause of illegal immigration by working towards sustainable development practices in rural Mexico, they are able to stay home. Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/stay-migration-and-poverty-in-rural-mexico Mexico, Illegal immigration, Agriculture & Food, San Miguel Huautla, Comitán, Chiapas, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Environment, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Chiapas, Mexico>> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS [Comitan, Chiapas, Mexico]: I was happy yesterday. You know why? I was waiting in the street outside the hospital, and a group of students said, "Come! Have a little bit of coffee and some bread." If society had the same attitude, the world would be better.>> TITLE: Oaxaca, Mexico>> SANTIAGO CRUZ [San Miguel Huautla, Oaxaca, Mexico]: Unfortunately, the government has abandoned the Mexican countryside. The results are never good. I decided to migrate [to North America] because I have a large family and there isn't any money in this community, there are no sources of income, nothing. >> TITLE: Sixty percent of unauthorized immigration to the US comes from Mexico. They come to escape poverty. In 2009, 96 percent of US foreign assistance to Mexico went toward military and drug enforcement. Investing in rural areas of Mexico instead can help reduce the pressure to migrate.>> TITLE: Stay: Migration and poverty in rural Mexico>> TITLE: Permanecer: Migración y pobreza en el México rural >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: The reason I went to the US was because I wanted to progress. Not that I didn?t have work here, but peoples? stories made it sound so much easier to earn money in the United States. That was the reason my family agreed it would be better to try my luck there. And I went there for the first time in 1998. My wife Victoria stayed here with the kids. I made it across the border, but it was a really bad experience. For example, when I was at the border, when I was crossing, I was robbed by bandits, cholos. It was a bitter experience. I had different jobs. I picked tomatoes. I picked chilies. And in six months, I was able to save 8,000 pesos [USD$675]. Eight thousand pesos, here in Mexico, I couldn?t make that in six months.>> TITLE: After returning to Mexico due to health issues, Marvin and his wife bought land in Chiapas with the help of a U.S. nonprofit called AGROS. Today, Marvin and his wife grow the crops that support their family. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: We found land that we can work on. Victoria and I were excited about this from the very beginning. It was a project to help people help themselves. It hasn?t been easy. We need more resources.>> TITLE: Marvin?s wife, Victoria, is a community activist who sometimes works out of town for many days. Which means Marvin is often the family?s primary caretaker. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: She has had responsibilities that have been difficult for me. Now that my children are older, it?s easier. But when they were smaller I had to take care of them. I had to cook and change their diapers. There were moments when they were little that I had to carry them because they were crying or feeling bad. Sometimes people were saying, ?Why are you doing domestic work, women?s work?? And I said: ?I feel good. Both of us are parents to these children. We both have to take care of them.? I want to do a lot of things. But unfortunately, there are some barriers that don?t let us develop.>> SUSAN BIRD [Program Officer, Ford Foundation, Mexico]: What we see more and more is this - the rite of passage, this idea that young people, specifically, can no longer make it in their communities and it's no longer interesting to them. My name is Susan Bird. I'm a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Mexico. And so they kind of wait for the day that they can leave. That's the saddest thing I think, is the cultural loss. You know, you see communities, entire communities made up of children and grandparents and there's a whole generation that is missing. >> SANTIAGO CRUZ: I hope most of my children don?t migrate. Most of them would live here in my town. In our grandparents' time, our land was more productive. They harvested more. Now the land is deteriorating, depleted. We need more ideas, more techniques, and more innovation to be more productive. It?s difficult, you know? This is a very poor, rural area of Mexico. That?s why I decided to migrate. I looked for the possibility of migrating legally. And I made it to Canada. >> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ [Santiago's Wife]: So, he had the opportunity to go. And he left, but I was left behind alone with my children. Among all of us, we divided his chores. That was very hard.>> SANTIAGO CRUZ: The first season was very difficult. I was very lonely. It was very difficult to get used to another country, another culture, you know, the customs. It was difficult.>> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ: We were not accustomed to being without him. It felt like he was gone a very long time.>> TITLE: When Santiago returned from Canada in 2008, he and Victoria got involved with CEDICAM http://www.viewchange.org/videos/breaking-down-borders Nine entrepreneurs from Latin America attended Milan's international trade fair, where they marketed their goods and built relationships for future trading opportunities. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, was instrumental in organizing the group. Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/breaking-down-borders South America, Microfinance, Entrepreneur, International Fund for Agricultural Development, United Nations, Latin America, Agriculture & Food, Change Makers, Textile >> VOICEOVER: Crowds have already begun to fill Milan's historic Victorio Emanuelle II shopping arcade. People come here from every part of the world to shop. But not this group of entrepreneurs from Latin America. They've come to get a first hand look at the competition and to sell their products. All nine have come with the hope of breaking into this lucrative European market for clothes and textiles. It would be a major breakthrough and could mean success for the poor rural artisans like Dely Surco Coyla. >> DELY SURCO COYLA: We produce the same as these but with even more complicated designs, like flowers and other designs typical of our culture.>> VOICEOVER: With assistance from an innovative program called PROMER, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, each of these entrepreneurs has been given an opportunity to bring the best of what their groups produce to Milan's International Fair. This event draws more than two million people from across northern Italy. Waldo Bustamante Pena, coordinator for PROMER, says these people face greater challenges than most. >> WALDO BUSTAMENTE PENA: Obviously, they face bigger challenges than other entrepreneur would. The first challenge is that they are very dispersed and isolated in the countryside, which makes it difficult for them to work together to access markets.>> VOICEOVER: The biggest challenge is getting to this level -- outside their communities and countries, selling their goods in lucrative western markets and establishing contacts for the future. >> WALDO BUSTAMENTE PENA: At events like these they learn a lot about the real world of business.>> VOICEOVER: So how did members of the group do at the end of the fair? Amazingly well, since Milan is the fashion center of the world. Adrianna from Brazil sold 80 percent of her embroideries, even though her greatest competition was in Milan. Jorge from Colombia sold 95 percent of his silks and made three contacts with Italian companies. Dely and Susana from Peru sold 60 percent of their products, about average for the rest of the group. The most successful participant was Macario from Guatemala. Although illiterate and unable to speak Italian, he demonstrated a special talent and sold all the fabrics he had brought with him. Over the next few years, the PROMER project will continue to help micro entrepreneurs in poor rural communities reach beyond their borders through a number of innovative methods, including an e-commerce web site and business centers that will assist in exporting goods. James Heer prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso With drought prevailing in areas bordering the Saharan desert, farmers in Burkina Faso are exploring alternative ways to generate income. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports a program that provides training and support to people with ideas that could be transformed into successful business ventures. Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso Africa, Microfinance, Agriculture & Food, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Burkina Faso, Entrepreneur, Sahara, Subsistence farming, United Nations >> VOICEOVER: Ninety-five percent of the people in Burkina Faso -- a small landlocked African country -- depend on agriculture to earn a living. Koudougou Lamoussa is the father of six children. He was a subsistence farmer, barely surviving on these drought-prone lands bordering the Saharan desert. He strongly believed that there was another way to make a living. He wanted to start his own business. In Burkina Faso, donkey carts had become an affordable and popular way of transporting goods and people. No one was manufacturing them in the village. Koudougou wanted to be the first. >> KOUDOUGOU LAMOUSSA: I could never earn enough as a farmer to pay for all my family's needs. I was certain with this kind of metal work, I could earn more money and buy everything we needed. >> VOICEOVER: Koudougou knew little about business. He had no money and no hope of getting a bank loan. Mamadou Sanou, an industrial technologist, helped him.>> MAMADOU SANOU: It's a vicious circle. We can't borrow money so we can't develop our business ideas. We go around in circles and stay eternally poor.>> VOICEOVER: With a USD$1,800 loan, Koudougou bought the materials to make donkey carts for his first batch of customers. After one year, he added four more workers and expanded his business. Now he manufactures desk frames for local schools. Entrepreneurship could spark economic growth by creating new job opportunities. Now, a number of new programs are unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit among the poorest segments of the population. This one in Burkina Faso is known as PAMER. Supported by IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, it provides farmers with training and support needed to turn ideas -- like this milling operation -- into profitable businesses. These women were encouraged by Koudougou's success. They began to bring the raw paddy to be husked at the new mill. They are now much better off because the rice fetches a higher price on the local market. The profits are small but it makes a huge difference for them. >> MAMADOU SANOU: What we do in this project is awaken the spirit of business. We give people the sense of what an entrepreneur is. After that they say, what I learned gives me the power to do something for myself.>> VOICEOVER: The PAMER project is now being duplicated in other parts of Burkina Faso, with the expectation of assisting more than 2,500 entrepreneurs within three years. James Heer prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/niger-food-crisis The West African nation of Niger is on the brink of a major food shortage. Concern Worldwide is implementing several innovative projects on the fly in order to prevent a catastrophic scenario. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:09:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/niger-food-crisis Agriculture & Food, West Africa, Niger, Cash transfers, Food security, Health, Tom Arnold (economist), Concern Worldwide, Community development, Aid >> VOICEOVER: This is Niger, the gateway to the Sahara Desert. Ninety percent of the country?s population depends on subsistence farming. Millet is the crop that keeps most people alive. But last year the rains failed, leading to massive crop failure, and now the country is facing a potentially catastrophic food crisis. In 2005 food shortages led to a large-scale humanitarian emergency that affected three million people, causing high rates of severe malnutrition and death amongst children. This year, the situation is even more severe, with over seven million people now facing hunger. That?s over half of the country?s population.>> BOULE [Mother]: Food has become scarce. Sometimes my family and I go for two days without anything to eat. >> VOICEOVER: Concern Worldwide, an international aid agency, is responding early, trying to reach the most vulnerable before malnutrition rates spike to emergency thresholds. >> NIALL TIERNEY [Concern Worldwide Country Director, Niger]: This year we have launched a multi-pronged program. We are trying to stabilize the health situation, re-inforcing the Ministry of Health?s capacity to address malnutrition.>> VOICEOVER: Learning from the tragedy of 2005, aid agencies are better prepared. This year, interventions must reach families before it?s too late, before the food runs out. >> DR. SAHADI [Pediatrician]: This happens a lot when there has been a bad harvest. Whenever we approach this period, cases of children who are malnourished begin to be reported. >> AMANDA MCCLELLAND [Concern Worldwide Emergency Program Co-coordinator]: We have four hundred volunteers working at the moment in the various villages that actively go around and look for children with malnutrition. By having these mobilisers in the village we?re getting to the children early and quickly, which means the recovery is much quicker and much better for the family and of course much more cost effective. >> VOICEOVER: Children suffering from malnutrition are screened by health workers and are either admitted for inpatient treatment, or referred for outpatient care. The results of the treatment are clear to see. >> HAMSATOU [Mother]: We have been here for a week and the health of my children is better than before we arrived. The vomiting and diarrhea is less. >> ZALFA MOUSSAOU [Mother]: My daughter is much better now, you can see for yourself she?s even smiling. The doctors have told me she?s not starving anymore, that I can take her home. If she develops any problems, I?ll bring her back. >> VOICEOVER: But this is only part of Concern?s three-pronged approach to the emergency in Niger. As well as working to prevent severe malnutrition in children, Concern has been distributing drought resistant seeds in preparation for the oncoming rainy season. >> NIALL TIERNEY: The rain cycle here has become more erratic and shorter. The type of seed that we?re giving out matures approximately one month faster than the type of seed that they would get from the local market. So, if rainfall is limited this year, people still stand a better chance of getting a better harvest than if they hadn?t had that variety of seed given to them this year. >> AMSATOU [Farmer]: I received millet, beans and fertilizer; I also received 20,000 francs, bought more millet with my money so I can have a larger harvest. I?m very grateful. >> VOICEOVER: Traditionally, responses to food emergencies involve large-scale distributions of imported food aid. But Concern has introduced a groundbreaking new solution: text messages, mobile phone technology, and cash. >> NIALL TIERNEY: There?s food available in the region, it?s just not necessarily available on the markets in Niger and if it is available on the markets in Niger, often people don?t have money to buy it because their own crops failed, they didn?t generate enough revenue. So we?re trying to address that vicious cycle. What we?re doing is, we?re supporting 10,000 households with cash on a monthly basis through the period of April through the end of September, which is traditionally known as the hunger period. When the traders know that the people have purchasing power they?ll continue to supply food. >> ABDULLAH MAMAHDOU [Concern Worldwide Food Security Manager]: Here we have five villages, which are going to benefit from our manual cash distribution today.>> VOICEOVER: Targeting the poorest women, the program gives each recipient four monthly installments of 20,000 francs (about $44 USD), which amounts to about 80 percent of an average family?s annual income. An elated Assouma is glad to get her share. >> ASSOUMA SOULEYMAYNE [Mother]: I have a family of five and this money is going to help me buy food for them. Thank you, thank you very much. >> VOICEOVER: Manual emergency cash transfers are not new, but Concern is breaking new ground in its use of mobile phone technology. Jenny Aker, a renowned expert in mobile cash transfers is carrying out research for Concern on the effectiveness of both manual and mobile cash interventions.>> JENNY AKER [Fletcher School of International Affairs]: These mobile money programs have been arising through a variety of countries since 2005 and the best known is M-Pesa in Kenya. But in West Africa it?s really becoming online and through one of the mobile service providers, Zain, they have the ZAP program, which allows people to transfer money to other individual users. >> VOICEOVER: Unlike manual cash transfers that require money to be collected from the bank, a security escort, a long drive and several personnel just to hand it out, all a mobile money transfer requires is a mobile phone and a cash dispensing station. >> HAWATOU OHONE [Mother]: Receiving money has helped my six children and I. Before the ZAP and Concern programs, we couldn?t afford to buy food. But now our situation has improved.>> VOICEOVER: Initial results from the program and research show that mobile phone cash transfers are faster and more cost effective, and that getting aid to people in remote areas is much easier. The phones also bring additional benefits. >> ZEINABOU HAROUNA [Concern Worldwide Community Development Advisor]: The phones have brought a great change to the women?s lives. Before they got their own phones they had to travel far to make phone calls to their husbands and relatives. Now that they have their own phones they are able to communicate and keep in touch with their husbands and relatives at any time and they don?t have to travel far to make a call. >> VOICEOVER: Women who have received the mobile phones and the cash installments from Concern can now buy food in the market to protect their children from hunger. They are also empowered by having their own resources and the ability to make choices about their own needs. Concern?s program is the first of its kind ever in Niger or in any French speaking country in Africa. No one in Niger wants to relive the tragedy of 2005. But to stop the massive crisis that is unfolding, the world must respond with the most innovative interventions possible.>> TOM ARNOLD [Concern Worldwide CEO]: What we?re facing here is a massive task in the next few months and I think that more needs to be done. There needs to be a greater level of international effort to make sure that that this situation does not become a lot worse. >> VOICEOVER: Niger faces a huge threat, but Concern?s research here could provide evidence that will change the way the world fights hunger, making long food lines a thing of the past. >> TITLE: Concern Worldwide http://www.viewchange.org/videos/feast-and-sacrifice Deya and his large extended family live in a tiny village in Senegal, on the ragged edges of globalization and immigration. Questions of work and ambition arise as the family prepares for Tabaski, the biggest holiday of the year. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:19:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/feast-and-sacrifice Senegal, Agriculture & Food, LinkTV Picks, Education, Immigration, Gender, Dakar, Women's work, Cattle, Gender equality >> DEYA: This is Saare Muudu, Senegal. I was born here. This is the only place I know. This is the cow pasture. Cows are like money, like cars. Cows are everything. Here, there are lots of problems. After the farming season, no one works. They don't earn money. If you have problems, there's no money. Instead, you sell a cow. If I sell a cow this month, next month I'll have another problem and sell another cow. Before long, I'll be all out of cows. >> VOICEOVER: Deya's household, one of four in the village, includes Deya's two wives, each of Deya's two brothers? two wives, fifteen children, seventy-seven cows, and dozens of sheep, goats, and chickens. Today the family is preparing for the biggest holiday of the year: Tabaski, the Islamic Feast of the Sacrifice. >> TITLE: Feast & Sacrifice >> KANNI: It's a big celebration, the Tabaski holiday. Everyone's happy. People buy clothes, buy shoes. Everyone buys a ram. On Tabaski, they kill it. They go to town, buy bread, buy potatoes, sweet potatoes, seasoning, macaroni, buy everything, lots of pepper. Cook until it's good, the whole family eats. >> VOICEOVER: To see how big Tabaski is in Senegal, you have to go to the capital, Dakar. At Tabaski, it?s a religious, and social, expectation for Muslim households to buy and slaughter a ram. >> MAN: You've got ones for $40, $50, $60, $100, $165, $185, $200, $300, $400, $1000. >> VOICEOVER: In Senegal, where a day?s wages, if you have work, are around three dollars, this is a big deal. And for Deya in Saare Muudu, where paid work is scarce, the Tabaski ram and other holiday foods are major purchases.>> DEYA: This is what's in my bag today. >> INTERVIEWER: How much is that?>> DEYA: $10.50.>> INTERVIEWER: $10.50 is enough to buy food?>> DEYA: Not enough. I'll sell some grain. I'll have more cash here, and then I'll buy food. With this, I can buy oil, two liters, then it's done. This here, this can buy tomato paste. One can, I think, is $1.25. That leaves 60¢. I can buy salt.>> KANNI: I think my sauce will be tasty today, if Allah wills it.>> WOMAN: It better be good, you've got lots of vegetables. >> VOICEOVER: The household relies on money from Deya?s two brothers, Maliki and Alahji, who are working in Spain. >> VOICEOVER: Alahji, Kanni?s husband, was the first of Deya?s brothers to leave. >> ALAHJI: I left Senegal in 1999. I came here seeking something. I?m helping my children until they can live a good life. >> KANNI: My husband?s in Spain. I miss him! If we don?t have grain, they can send money. People can buy rice, buy grain, they?ll eat. >> VOICEOVER: Maliki, Kanni?s brother-in-law, is visiting for Tabaski. He went to Spain in 2003, but returns almost every year to visit the family. >> MALIKI: Look at our household: it?s full of people. But only three people work. Maliki, Alahji, Deya. You know women don't have work. The women, what work do they do?>> INTERVIEWER: They work...>> MALIKI: They don't work at all. >> KANNI: Women's work? Women pound grain. Women cook. Women pull water. Women sweep. Women clean. Women collect firewood. Women pull water. Women wash clothes. Women have a lot of work! >> INTERVIEWER: Men refuse to help the women? >> DEYA: They don't help!>> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> DEYA: That's just how people do it in this country. Senegal, that's just how it is. >> AADAMA: You know the holiday work? We?ll cook sauce. We?ll eat till we?re full! We?ll cook so much sauce! >> GIRL: What about seasoning? You have money?>> AADAMA: We'll buy a box of seasoning. I'll save one packet. That night, we'll buy macaroni. We'll cook sauce with onions. >> MALIKI: We left the country and we went to Spain. We work there, earn a little. We bring it here. But really, farming's better. We know farming's better for us. >> USUMAN: Boys, they don't want to farm! If I go to Europe, Spain, I'll go, go, go, until I get to Spain. In Spain, I?ll get lots of money. I'll take everyone here and build floors way up high! I'll build floors way up! I'll have a house in town, a house in Dakar. I?ll go to Dakar and relax. >> MALIKI: If you say it?s hard [in Spain], they think it?s just talk, but it?s not really hard. If someone says, ?I want to go,? you tell him, ?Stay here and work. Here?s better than there.? He?ll say, ?Why don?t you stay here? If here?s better, you stay here, too!? But you can?t stay! . >> MALIKI: Why are you doing it like that? It's spilling.>> KANNI: So it doesn't spill? You just pick it up.>> MALIKI: Who picks it up? >> KANNI: Everybody does! Every time it spills, I pick it up!>> MALIKI: You know this happens, you're a grown woman. You shouldn't be lazy.>> KANNI: Do you do this work? Can you say what shouldn't spill?>> MALIKI: That's not true. Put a sack down to catch what spills.>> KANNI: I couldn't even find a tiny bag, I looked.>> WOMAN: Usuman, turn it down! He said to turn your radio down!>> MALIKI: All is well there? >> MALIKI: You?re all healthy? Praise Allah. I can?t talk, my phone credit will run out. >> TITLE: Market Day>> VOICEOVER: It is the day before Tabaski, and Kanni?s going to town to buy food for the holiday with the money Deya has set aside. >> DEYA: Abdoulaye, bring me my bag! Go buy what that'll get you. >> VOICEOVER: The cost of the holiday foods, vegetables, macaroni, adds up quickly. >> SHOPKEEPER: This is $6.50. >> KANNI: $6.50? Only $6, Daouda! This here, how much now?>> SHOPKEEPER: All of it? $11.07. >> KANNI: $11.07?>> SHOPKEEPER: Yes.>> VOICEOVER: Usually, village meals are predictable. Millet couscous. Corn couscous. Peanut sauce. More peanut sauce. Very few vegetables. Saare Muudu started a vegetable garden three years ago. It was part of a Peace Corps development project, requested by the village.>> KANNI: We grew a lot there! Mint, okra, hibiscus. But men don't garden. Only women water it, tend it. But last year women couldn't garden. Gardening's hard work, you know? Me, I was pregnant. Bomel was pregnant. Fanta was pregnant. Bamba's household, you see? Bobel, Kumba, all of them. Sambajo's two wives. One gave birth, one was pregnant. Tuuta's household, Juulde, Aljuma, Kaijel. They were all pregnant. You can't do garden work if you're pregnant. Last year I was so sick, I thought I'd die. >> VOICEOVER: In 2008, Kanni?s then16-year-old daughter, Maymuna, left the village to live with her father, Alahji, in Spain. >> TITLE: Cassa de la Selva, Spain>> MAYMUNA: In Saare Muudu, you?re fourteen, or fifteen and they say, ?She?s grown! Give her a husband!? That?s what they told me. I said, ?No. Me, I don?t want a husband. Bring me to Spain, I?ll work. I?ll get a husband there.? Because, you see, in Africa, you get a husband, you get a lot of babies! If little kids have husbands, it?s bad. >> VOICEOVER: But for Aadama, Maymuna?s little sister, these are open questions. >> INTERVIEWER: How old are you now?>> KANNI: No, leave your shirt alone! Say six years old. Say you're six years old. >> AADAMA: Six years!>> KANNI: Six.>> INTERVIEWER: When Aadama is a little older, she'll go to Spain?>> KANNI: Aadama? I don't think she'll go to Spain. Aadama won?t go. >> INTERVIEWER: She'll go to school, or she'll get married?>> KANNI: I think she'll go to school because Deya said she will marry her cousin. I think she'll go to school until she's big. That's good. >> INTERVIEWER: And how old will Aadama be when she gets married?>> KANNI: I think she'll be 18. >> INTERVIEWER: And you, when you were married?>> KANNI: Only 15 years old! Fifteen years old. I had a husband. >> INTERVIEWER: You were a little kid.>> KANNI: Just a little kid! I was just a little kid. Only 15 years old. I had a husband. >> INTERVIEWER: But you agreed to it?>> KANNI: I hadn't studied, I didn't know anything. I'd never gone to school. Back then, if your parents said they gave you to a husband, you said yes. You were afraid to refuse. >> TITLE: The Day of Tabaski>> VOICEOVER: On the morning of Tabaski, Maliki buys bread as a breakfast treat. New clothes are given out as presents. >> MALIKI: Allah requires the ram. A long time ago, a prophet wanted to sacrifice a ram. >> DEYA: He wanted to, but he didn't have a ram. He said he'd use his child. He asked his child, "Do you agree?" The child said, "Yes, I agree. Do it." Allah removed the child and put a ram there instead. Now everyone does this. >> MALIKI: When I was a little kid, there weren't many problems. There were only two concerns: farming and herding. Not a single other problem. There were lots of people, but no lack of grain. Every year, the rains were good. People, their hearts were alive. You understand? Their hearts were alive. Work was all they wanted. They didn't dream of going anywhere. They didn't dream of going overseas. They didn't dream of anything. If the rains just came, everyone dreamed, "If I work, I'll have lots of grain." >> IMAM: Allahu Akbar.>> MALIKI: Now, people want money. To wear good clothes, wear good shoes. They want everything. Everything. There's no work, who can do that?>> DEYA: Sadu! Come on! Stop, Mahamadou. There. >> VOICEOVER: The ram slaughter follows religious guidelines. The ram lies with its neck facing Mecca, and the men say a blessing as the throat is cut.>> MAYMUNA: That's Kanni's field. Senegal's better, to me. >> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> MAYMUNA: Why? Because here, you stay at your house. You don't go out, don?t know many people. I go to school, I come back, I cook, I eat, I sit and watch TV. When that's done, I sleep. But in Senegal you don't sit around. You go to all the households, like one family. >> KANNI: Mamadou, in Dakar. >> AADAMA: That's Mamadou?>> KANNI: That?s Mamadou, that's me. This is Aadama. This is Maymuna, here. That's the only photo, I don't have any others of Maymuna. Here's Alahji on a motorcycle, going to town. I was on the motorcycle! I took the photo! Kids have gone to Spain. If they go to Spain, if they study, they can work some, they can help their father. >> INTERVIEWER: But you aren't going to go? >> KANNI: Me, I won't go. >> INTERVIEWER: Why not?>> KANNI: I can't go! The kids can't take me, their dad says I won't go! I'll only be here. Their dad refuses. He says he'll only take kids. >> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> KANNI: I don't know why. Because I think they only like to take kids. >> WOMAN 1: You put in macaroni?>> WOMAN 2: I already did!>> VOICEOVER: For the Tabaski meal, people eat in groups. All the girls, the boys, the men, and the women travel to each compound to share some of each family?s food. >> WOMAN: Come on, let's go! >> INTERVIEWER: Later on, do you want to live in Spain?>> MAYMUNA: No, I want to go home. >> INTERVIEWER: Tell me about that.>> MAYMUNA: Because if you only live here, it?s no good, because your family is there. My mom had a baby, he won?t know me. He?ll say, ?Who?s Maymuna?? I?ll stay here until I?ve helped my whole family, then I?ll go home. >> INTERVIEWER: Soon, or a long time from now?>> MAYMUNA: A long time from now. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-price-of-cotton Factors such as government subsidies, overproduction, and even currency exchange rates are steadily depressing the price of cotton worldwide. Ultimately, it is farmers living in places like Mali and Texas who are impacted the most. But can they do anything to change the situation? Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-price-of-cotton Cotton farmer, Mali, Fair trade, Cotton, World Trade Organization, Adjusted world price, West Africa, Agricultural subsidy, Market price, Nangola >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present>> TITLE: A Dollar A Day>> MAN: The cotton farmers got together to discuss the price of cotton. They wanted to charge a higher price. Otherwise they would stop growing cotton. They refused to sell their crop to the government even if the cotton were to simply lie and rot instead. We blockaded the road where the truck comes to pick up the cotton. We put trees across the road. There were soldiers in the truck. They cleared the road. We said that the truck couldn't go any further. The soldiers began to beat us up. They were hitting us very hard. It was God's will that my father was beaten the worst. Especially his head got badly smashed. When he came out of hospital we gave him traditional medicine, but that didn't help. In the end he died from his injuries.>> TITLE: The Price of Cotton>> TITLE: A film by Karin Junger>> TITLE: Lubbock, USA>> RADIO COMMERCIAL: It's time to ignite a change in cotton! Light a fuse that smokes weeds, not cotton, with new Ignite Herbicide and LibertyLink Cotton. Apply it over the top, up to 70 days before harvest. Ignite is the only herbicide that annihilates tough weeds, like morning glory, Johnson grass, big weed, and single pod, without touching your cotton. In fact, LibertyLink Cotton is resistant to all?>> JAMES MACHA: This is one of the particular fields that we have that's the higher production farms. This particular farm has tapes buried under the ground and it waters it from underground.>> INTERVIEWER: All this is yours?>> JAMES MACHA: Yes.>> INTERVIEWER: It's big.>> JAMES MACHA: This is 80 acres. I don't know how many hectares that would be, but it's Deltapine 555. It's a genetically altered seed that has both insect and herbicide resistance. These are the varieties that bring a better price in the market.>> VOICEOVER: Historically, cotton has played a controversial role in the lives of millions of people around the world. >> TITLE: Molobala, Mali>> VOICEOVER: The continuing controversy now centers around the price of cotton in the global marketplace, and represents the larger world trade battle for access to fair markets.>> SEDOU DEMBELE: The government is not fond of us farmers. The government has never helped us. That's always been the case. It must be God's will.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: The problems started once the cotton was sold on the world market. Then the price went down. The price dropped because the United States give subsidies. But cotton growers aren't that important in the United States. But the African countries, who farm to survive, don't have a chance as a result. There is a large organization that coordinates the world market. Within that organization subsidies are discussed. This organization is called the WTO. Have you ever heard of it?>> SEDOU DEMBELE: No, never.>> NEWS REPORT: The institute for agriculture is organizing a conference on the use of biotechnology in agriculture. Recently, biotechnology has made it possible to cultivate genetically modified organisms. This gives hope, but also controversy.>> MAN: And finally, cotton. And, of the major players, perhaps the one that's of most immediate interest. Of those who chose to plant it, you can see that herb control -- uh, weed control, excuse me -- in general, is the major reason for planting such a crop. And, of course, it is the whole point of the technology. However, greater yield would be a secondary reason, or the desire to control specific weeds.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: My name is Ibrahima Coulibaly. I am a farmer. I am a member of the AOPP, the farmers' union of Mali. I am very happy to be present at this meeting. I only heard about it yesterday. It seemed a good idea to attend because what will be discussed here is particularly important for farmers. Eighty percent of Malians are farmers. Eighty percent of the Malian farmers are illiterate. Political decisions affecting them are made without any consultation. But this time we have decided that our voice will be heard. It is not about us wanting biotechnology or not. Give the farmers water, give them manure and equipment. Fifty-five percent of the farmers don't even have plows or oxen. That is the real problem, not biotechnology.>> SEDOU DEMBELE: I got married last year, in 2003. I want to marry other women as well. I will have more children that way. We want many children. It's good to have many children. The kids will then have to work on my land.>> TITLE: Bamako, Mali>> VOICEOVER: The educated son of a civil servant, Ibrahima Coulibaly is angry at the unfair cotton market, and that it was imposed on Malian farmers at the expense of growing other crops they need. He is determined to give his countrymen a voice.>> SIGN: Association des Organisations Professionnelles Paysanne (AOPP)>> MAN: Shall I arrange a meeting with her?>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: No, you talk to her. I don't have time.>> MAN: Okay, this is it.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: "Petition for fair trade." We want to collect 300,000 signatures for the next WTO convention in Hong Kong.>> RADIO COMMERCIAL: We live where you live, we're State Farm neighbor in your neighborhood. We share the same hopes, the same dreams. We face the same challenges. That's why when it comes to helping you protect all you work for, nobody does it better than your neighborhood State Farm Insurance.>> ROGER HALDENBY [Vice President of Operations, Plains Cotton Growers]: I work for Plains Cotton Growers, and Plains Cotton Growers is the organization that represents cotton producers in the high plains of Texas. There's about four and a half million acres of cotton production in this area with, we think about 25,000 cotton farmers, and we work to represent them with legislative activities in Washington and Austin. Austin's the state capital of Texas. So that we work for them, representing them, in all legislative and regulatory issues and then we communicate back with them what's going on in the world outside of Texas.>> TONY ST. JAMES [Radio Announcer]: This is the Agribusiness Report from the farm station All Ag All Day, 900 KFLP. Tony St. James, and joined today by our special guest. He's the Vice President of Operations for Plains Cotton Growers in Lubbock: Roger Haldenby. Roger, welcome back to the show.>> ROGER HALDENBY: Well, thanks Tony. As always, it's a pleasure to be with you.>> TONY ST. JAMES: Roger, today we wanted to focus on an area I think that most cotton producers are very interested in, and very concerned with, the recent WTO dispute panel ruling in favor of the Brazilians against the US cotton industry. And there's some concern right now, so let's start by identifying some of the support that ... well, all of the support that's there, right now, through the cotton subsidies. What are those?>> ROGER HALDENBY: Well, one of the major areas of support that other countries are calling subsidies is the loan program, and that's where the American cotton farmer is guaranteed the equivalent of 52 cents on base-quality cotton for every pound. And that's achieved that whenever the adjusted world price is down lower than that loan price of 52 cents, what's called a loan deficiency payment is made. Currently, with the world price at around 34 cents, that means 18 cents a pound in support brings the price to the farmer back up to a base price of 52 cents. And then there's a couple of other kinds of payments, which get a little bit complicated to explain. But a direct payment, which stays steady, of about six or so cents per pound, and then what's called a counter-cyclical payment, which while prices are low, it's at its maximum. Then as the market price goes up, gradually, that counter-cyclical payment disappears, Tony. So there's those three forms of support that have been deemed by the folks in the World Trade Organization in some other countries as being unfair because they don't have the same system in their own countries.>> SOULEMAN DIARRA: Ibrahima Coulibaly, I'd like to ask you something. It's about the farmers and those who support them: What would you like to do for them? What are your plans?>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Souleman Diarra, thank you. You know the farmers are organized in the AOPP and the CNOP. The largest unions of Mali now work together. We are going to discuss the problems in Mali and the regions. In Africa we are making a plan to tackle the problems. Many countries are united in an organization called the WTO. This organization controls the world market. Last year, a WTO summit was held in the city of Cancun, in Mexico. In Cancun we discussed problems relevant to the cotton sector. The organizations active in Cancun have started a campaign to collect 100 million signatures. Everybody has to understand what's at stake. Why are we not succeeding in escaping from poverty? This is because the international market is not fair. That's why poverty is on the increase. We have to take a stand against this. These are the forms. People who can't write can put their fingerprints. You can hand them out and start collecting signatures. This is how we can mobilize people and make them aware. You will get cassettes in your own language to distribute. In Bambara, Sonrai, Peul. This one is in Peul. This is Bambara and that one is Sonrai. You can get them in French too.>> TONY ST. JAMES: We've already talked about the criticism, some of it coming from Brazil, which brought the WTO dispute in the first place, but there are also others who continue to criticize that. From the farmer's perspective, is that criticism fair?>> ROGER HALDENBY: Looking at the cotton farmer in Mali or Burkina Faso or Benin or other African countries, they're working under a completely different system and political regime than we're working under, but our farmers and their farmers face the same personal problems on a daily production level. It's the political regime that's in place and the help that America gives its farmers, is something that folks in other countries are, basically, probably jealous of.>> VOICEOVER: For farmers like Sedou Dembele, there is no basis for comparison, because he knows neither the history nor the current reality of the global cotton market. Limited information, infrastructure, communication networks and a high rate of illiteracy combine with harsh conditions and primitive technology to deny Sedou access to fair pricing. >> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Colonial governments needed cotton for their growing textile industries. Africa had the right climate for cultivating cotton. That's why farmers were forced to cultivate cotton. Often people were beaten when they didn't supply enough cotton. That's how it started. Independence offered us the chance to make a strategic choice to liberate the African farmer. But it never happened. The elite, educated during colonialism, that came to power never developed an alternative. They did the same as the colonizers. We cultivated cotton and sold it to the former colonizers to help develop its national economy. Farmers in Mali cultivate cotton, not because they want to but because otherwise they can't get a loan for manure and herbicides and whatever else they need to produce their own food.>> FELIX MACHA [James's Father]: When I was a kid, we lived way out in the country, was a long ways from town. We didn't have a car. We had horses and wagons and some farm equipment. The family used to pick the cotton, we'd go out in the fields and pick cotton and Dad would hire some help. We thought we did pretty good. We had what our neighbors had, and shucks, we were happy. The standard of living just kept going up, you know, and up, and that was good. We didn't worry about the price of cotton and stuff, much. We pretty well had ... knew we had a profit in it; all we had to do was raise it, you know. So we felt pretty comfortable that way. But now it's a different ballgame. You can raise all you want, but, if you can't get a price for it ... well, it's kinda like this: nothing times nothing is still nothing, you know.>> JAMES MACHA: Our textile mills are closing here in the United States, so we're no longer producing materials here. Our raw product has to go elsewhere, has to be exported, in order to find a market for it. There's no local market, or ... it has to go on the international market now. And that's a concern. I don't see it getting any better. So I would say that I'm ...>> FELIX MACHA: A little bit pessimistic. >> JAMES MACHA: I fear for the future of farming in the United States.>> VOICEOVER: While James fears for the future of farming in the U.S., Ibrahima fears for the future of his continent. Like many poor countries, Mali must export its cash crop, cotton, to pay off its international debts, leaving little at home to support its own industries, basic infrastructure, and, thereby, the wellbeing of its people. >> TITLE: Nangola, Mali>> VOICEOVER: This deep concern keeps Ibrahima constantly on the move. While farmers work the fields, he travels from village to village, seeking leaders, spreading information, building a network, encouraging action, and sometimes stealing a moment of respite to escape the scorching heat. When night falls and the heat subsides, Ibrahima gathers farmers by firelight to eat, to learn, and to strategize.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: The USA is turning the world upside down. They want to control everything.>> FARMER: Exactly.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: They want to own the whole world. They do anything to make a profit. They want more cars, TVs, and refrigerators. That's why they want to control the world. But you can't cause such damage only to better yourself. They want everybody to be their slave. They are using our leaders as well and they are manipulating you. We have to stop voting for leaders who don't care about us. We must stop voting against our own interests.>> FARMER: Yes, we are stupid asses.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: No, but knowledge comes gradually. Nobody is an ass. Everyone is equal. Farmers are always asses.>> FARMER: Now is the time to say that's not true. We need to work together for a better future. That's what we are trying, but others don't think it's necessary. They are the real asses.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: But we are slowly moving forward.>> FARMER: I'm not going to live long enough to see that happen.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: It will be alright. All countries are slowly making progress. We are collecting signatures. All the farmers are signing. We're going to present the signatures to the government. This is a petition. Everybody should sign with his surname. If you can't, just sign with a fingerprint. If many people sign this petition the government has to listen to us. They do the same in Europe and America.>> TONY ST. JAMES: I think one of the big criticisms is that the subsidies distort the world marketplace, the price of cotton. How would the U.S. farm industry come back and argue against that?>> ROGER HALDENBY: Well, I think that I would argue back that any intervention by any government is going to have some effect on the price, and I'm sure that the American cotton support has some effect. But so does the way that China manipulates its currency for its own benefit when it's buying cotton on the world market. The way that in Mali and Benin and Burkina Faso that farmers are paid for their cotton is not based on a world market price, it's based on a price that the government decides to pay. So it's a matter of all of these government supports, of one form or another, in all of these countries, whether it's Brazilian support, Chinese, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan. There is some form of government intervention in all of those countries which are ... is upsetting the free market situation. >> VOICEOVER: For the average cotton farmer like Sedou, who owns seven acres, the annual profit is around $200 after usual expenses such as fertilizer, pesticides, and a sprayer. From his meager income, he must repay his loans, buy and maintain his equipment, livestock, and household items, and pay for food, transportation, and medical costs. And, in this arid country, if the rains don't come, farmers are left with only hopes and prayers. >> SEDOU DEMBELE: You're a sacrifice to the spirits, chick. We need a tractor. I hope that we'll get one if we sacrifice you.>> MAN: Alright, ready.>> FAMILY: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Bless us, oh Lord, and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen.>> MAN: Alright. Dig in.>> VOICEOVER: Ibrahima has refused to grow cotton, both because it does not yield profits, and because of his strong political stand. Instead, he has chosen to grow bananas.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Every child who has had the opportunity to get a good education should serve his country. Not by way of charity but it is his duty. A country can't develop if the majority of its people live in poverty. Since independence, our countries have actually been in a decline. We underdevelop ourselves. The standard of living of farmers is going down. People can't afford any food containing animal proteins. Some can't afford a kilo of meat in a whole year. They try to compensate a bit with beans and vegetable proteins. I think it's disgraceful.>> SEDOU DEMBELE: This cotton is 15 days old. But there hasn't been any rain. That's why the plants are so small. The roots are very weak. They stay small. It doesn't rain.>> VOICEOVER: Ibrahima is only one man, but his message is carried through the farmers' grass roots organization he helped establish. Via word of mouth and homemade tape recordings, his determination and courage become the voice of many and stir them to take action in demand of their rights.>> SOULEMAN DIARRA: With respect to the farmers and the people who support them: What would you like to do for them? What is it all about?>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Souleman Diarra, thank you. You know that the farmers are organized in the AOPP and the CNOP. The largest unions of Mali now work together. We are going to discuss the problems in Mali and the regions. In Africa we are making a plan to tackle the problems. Many countries are united in an organization called the WTO.>> MAN: If you want to show your anger, you have to take action. This is our weapon. That's how our leaders can see that we will stand up for ourselves. And if they see that we will stand up for ourselves they will take steps. This is the paper. We have listened to the cassette. Everybody understands. This is the paper. Everybody puts down their surname. I sign because I agree with what it says here.>> INTERVIEWER: If the subsidies are abolished, what happens to you?>> JAMES MACHA: We're through, pretty much. It ... there won't be any agriculture out there other than what you see. Where it's cotton, it'll probably be pasture.>> INTERVIEWER: And what would you do?>> JAMES MACHA: I haven't got that far yet.>> INTERVIEWER: Are you afraid of that?>> JAMES MACHA: Oh, yeah. And it's a very real possibility. But it's one that I hope we don't ever have to see.>> VOICEOVER: For James, who manages approximately 6,000 acres of cotton watered by a costly irrigation system and planted and harvested by dozens of heavy-duty machines, his capital expenses are enormous. So even with a 20 percent government handout amounting in some cases to over $300,000 a year, farmers like James depend on that subsidy to make a profit.>> JAMES MACHA: It's always in the back of your mind. Continuously, you wonder what's gonna happen, but like I say you don't ... you can't worry about it all the time. Otherwise you wouldn't get anything done. You just wait and see what's gonna happen.>> INTERVIEWER: And what do you think of the criticism? They say the U.S. growers get so much support, and that distorts the market. It's not fair because, for instance, African farmers do not get this support.>> JAMES MACHA: Right. Well, if you have what your neighbor has, you should be happy. It wasn't until television was invented that anybody knew what was going on in other places. I think if you can make ... if you can continue to produce and provide a living for your family, well, that's fair and equitable. But it would ... if we're no longer allowed price support, well, we can no longer provide for our families here. So, that's not fair either.>> VOICEOVER: Ibrahima has discovered a viable seed crop called "bisap," a byproduct of the hibiscus flower that yields a tasty and healthy drink akin to lemonade, is a soil nutrient effective in crop rotation, and yields a healthy profit. >> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: This is bisap. In the Bambara language we call it "dablenie" and it's like garden sorrel in English. Another word for it is "carcade." The leaves are used in cooking, especially in sauces. It makes for a slightly sour or tart taste. And the flowers are used to make a refreshing, red-colored drink. The color of grenadine. This plant is gaining in popularity in Africa. We feel that it needs neither fertilizers nor pesticides. It's an eco-friendly crop and so a good alternative to cotton. Because in this area, agriculture has become dependent on cotton. And since cotton has encountered problems on the world market as a result of actions by the U.S. for instance, life has become very hard for us. The association of farmers' interests has decided to try out alternative crops, testing them and then selecting the crop that give the best results. Amara, I have good news. I told you about bisap. That's why I bring you these seeds. The seeds I have here I give to you. You have to hand them out to the rest of your community. Everybody who wants to join can have some. I'm not saying we have to stop growing cotton, but this is more profitable.>> MAN 1: Five, six, seven, eight, nine. They're not fair shares. What about you? >> MAN 2: I'll take this.>> MAN 3: May God bless us and give us much water. In the name of God and the prophet Mohammed.>> PRIEST: Let us rise and show that we are one family in joining our hands together.>> CHURCH GOERS: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and deliver us from evil.>> PRIEST: Saint Paul says in the Corinthians we should try to be grateful for everything. That means everything. As well as for our computers, as well as for our TVs, as well as for our beautiful tractors, for all the equipment that we use in the cotton field, for everything that God has blessed us with, we should be grateful. It was a big difference in the days to work in the cotton field and to fill a bag with cotton, to strip it with your own hands. We are so grateful to God for this bumper crop of the cotton this year. Because we need the rain in everything that we needed for this year. We were looking forward for the greatest harvest. But now, we are kind of waiting. Will God bless us with some sunshine, as today, that we are able to bring this beautiful harvest in? Not only that we hope that the cotton harvest will be great, we also hope that it is a good price. Because also God blessed China with a great bumper crop. So we are in competition.>> CHOIR: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth. Lord God, heavenly king, almighty God and Father. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth. We worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth. You are seated at the right hand of the Father, receive our prayer, receive our prayer. For you alone are the holy one, you alone are the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth. Amen.>> COTTON PICKERS: It is not good to be selfish in Mali. It is not good to be selfish in Mali. Father says that the good times are over. It is not good to be selfish in Mali. Once we were slaves, but not any more. Democracy has come and Mali is waiting for prosperity. Democracy has come and Mali is waiting for prosperity. Our concern was the price of cotton. Let us solve our problems together. Where can we find dignity in Mali? We find dignity by working the land. We find our dignity in our education. We find our dignity in the education of the elders. We derive dignity from paying tax. >> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: How do you do? Very nice to meet you. Hello, Sahel Vert crew. Thank you for picking the cotton. The sun is blazing and the work is tough. Growing cotton is not an easy life. Together we have to show the government that we want change. We need 100 million or 200 million signatures to show at the next WTO meeting that we don't agree. You are the eldest. That's why I hand you this cassette. You can listen to it and tell others about it.>> MAN: The government decides on the price. We have no say.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Only you can change it. If we keep on waiting for help, nothing will happen.>> MAN: We have to pay the price ourselves.>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Everyone is waiting for things to get better, but no one dares to speak out. We have to organize ourselves. We have to form a large union, otherwise it will all go wrong.>> VOICEOVER: The struggle for fair market prices becomes moot in the face of worldwide overproduction of cotton, which causes its constant reduction in value. For the Mali cotton farmer, it's a desperate situation, since the issue is not profit, but simply survival. Who is going to listen? When? >> INTERVIEWER: What will happen if this doesn't work? If you don't achieve any success?>> IBRAHIMA COULIBALY: Then Africa will disappear. I have no illusions about this. Since gaining independence, Africa has encountered more and more problems. The soil can't feed the growing population. There are no jobs outside agriculture. If agriculture collapses there will be war everywhere. It isn't strange that warlords in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, and Zaire can form such large armies. People can't live from agriculture. It's as simple as that. Anyone with a sufficient income will not fight. People with nothing to eat pick up weapons and follow warlords. If our leaders can't understand these simple things and continue to follow guidelines from the U.S. and the EU although they don't do us any good our countries will slide into an apocalyptic war.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/nursing-the-mangroves This film explores mangrove forest depletion in the Indus River Delta on the Pakistani coast. This fast-deteriorating and unique forest provides a habitat for marine life, protection from cyclones, and a way of life for a large community of fishermen. See what environmental activists are doing to conserve the mangroves and save these vast life-giving forests. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:54:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/nursing-the-mangroves Pakistan, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Mangrove, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Karachi, Indus River, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Nursing the Mangroves, by Nameera Ahmed>> TAHIR QURESHI [International Union for Conservation of Nature]: Now you?re going to the western part, the extreme part of the Indus Delta, the western part. And the Indus Delta used to be the hunting grounds of the Mirs.>> MAN: Unfortunately they are deteriorating really fast. Once they were close to 600,000 hectares. Now, they only cover around 80,000-90,000 hectares.>> TAHIR QURESHI: First of all, they cut living mangroves to build the terminal. They have to open a channel through which their pipes can pass the dredge material from that, they dumped onto the mangroves. If they overlook the environment then how can we expect a poor man who lives here, he will definitely cut the trees to burn firewood and needs fodder for his goats.>> MOHAMMAD ALI SHAH [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: Karachi, which does not have any forests nor trees, and there is a lot of pollution here, so the mangroves perform a very important function which we the dwellers of Karachi are not even aware of, they are our oxygen factories. The carbon dioxide of Karachi is absorbed by these mangrove forests, giving us oxygen in return. The other function the mangroves perform is protecting us from cyclones and tsunamis, forming a protective wall.>> WOMAN: Timar (mangrove trees) not only protect us from storms, but Timar also provides us with nurseries for our fish and shrimp, including other marine animals. Because fish and shrimps lay their eggs among the roots of the mangroves.>> RUQQAIYA USMAN [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: I come from a family of fishermen. When they used to go in the olden days to catch fish they used to come back with a lot more fish. Now, there are no more fish and shrimps in the sea. If they go for three days to the sea, their families remain hungry. They wait for them expectantly, hoping they will get some fish and money.>> TAHIRA ALI [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: The treasure of fish in the sea has been depleted. The main reason is pollution. The sewage of Karachi is released into the sea. Besides this, garbage is dumped by KMC trucks into the sea. The sewage of Karachi should be treated before releasing into the sea.>> TAHIR QURESHI: Do you think that the Arabian Sea is a garbage dumping ground?! Is it not a living water body where there is a life?! >> MAN: We have, all along the Pakistan coast, grown these mangroves. We have planted mangroves on 30,000 hectares.>> MOHAMMAD ALI SHAH: Whether they are fishermen, farmers, or laborers, until there is a social movement of these sectors, and until an activism develops, until then their voices will not reach the parliaments of the government.>> Certain situations have developed which have not only destroyed our nurseries, but our fishermen as well. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/whos-the-farmer Women in India often spend most of their lives working on their husband's farm while never being able to own the land. This film looks at an organization that's attempting to redefine women as farmers and landowners. Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:10:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/whos-the-farmer India, Agriculture & Food, Gender, Gender equality, Agriculture, Uttar Pradesh, Farmer, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Kisaan Kaun? Analyzing Women's Roles as Farmers >> VOICEOVER: Who is the farmer in your family? >> WOMAN 1: My husband. >> VOICEOVER: Who is the farmer in your family? >> WOMAN 2: Both of us. >> MAN 1: The head of the household is the farmer. >> WOMAN 3: Well, I do the work but my husband is known as the farmer. >> VOICEOVER: What does a man do on the farm? >> MAN 1: The farmer ploughs his land. >> WOMAN 1: A woman does all the work in agriculture. She goes to the fields and does the digging, irrigating, reaping and weeding. A woman does all of the work in agriculture. >> NEELAM PRABHAT [State Coordinator, Aaroh Abhiyaan, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, Uttar Pradesh]: From ancient times, life has been based on agriculture. So this agriculture based lifestyle includes not only men but women too. Looking at the past, we have understood one thing completely. That women are not only doing this much in various parts of the country, but are also ploughing their fields, driving tractors, catching fish, taking the produce to the market, going to the Mandi committee. So when women are doing all the work, why are they not recognized as farmers? >> VOICEOVER: Is your land in your name? >> WOMAN 1: No. >> WOMAN 2: I don't own the land. >> WOMAN 3: No, I don't have any land. >> MAN 1: My father owned it earlier. He died. Now I own it. >> VOICEOVER: Does your wife work on the farm too? >> MAN 1: Yes she does. >> VOICEOVER: So shouldn't she own the land? >> MAN 1: No, my wife doesn't own it, its mine. >> NEELAM PRABHAT: The biggest need right now is to define and redefine women's land rights, legally and constitutionally. The land laws should be amended. The Succession Act should be amended. The inheritance law should be amended. Now a new legislation should be passed for a law to ensure that a wife gets joint ownership of her husband's farmland. >> NEELAM PRABHAT: The land which is our own, the house in which we spend 40-50 years of our lives, for which we have worked so hard, why don't we own that house, that land, that property? Women are farmers too. They are the pride of the nation. >> TITLE: A Special Thanks to Vilma, Simlo, Rekha, Tripta, Gayatri, Jagori Grameen, WAVE http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-cambodia Some food-insecure Cambodian villagers survive on one meal a day for up to six months a year. HEKS, a Switzerland-based Protestant aid organization, is providing Cambodian farmers with low-interest seed loans, setting up seed banks, and creating nutrition programs. The farmers now pay only five to ten percent interest on their seeds, compared to over 240 percent before, and have diversified their crops. Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:02:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-cambodia Cambodia, Health, Food security, Southeast Asia, Nutrition, Seed, Agriculture & Food, Kampot Province, Rice, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: HEKS Cambodia Program, Kampot Province, Cambodia >> VOICEOVER: In rural Cambodia, food security remains a distant goal. More than 84 percent of the population lives in poverty. The villagers rely entirely on agriculture to sustain them, but few can afford seeds or farming tools. Poor health, malnutrition, inadequate housing, and illiteracy are constant. >> LOT MIRANDA [Country Director, Cambodia Program, HEKS-Swiss Interchurch Aid] Like any poverty and hunger-stricken village, they have really nowhere else to can go but relying on what they can get in the village. Definitely, in these food insecure villages, entire populations go one meal a day for up to six months during the year. >> VOICEOVER: Despite these conditions, the HEKS Cambodia program is making great strides through a community-based approach in 68 rural villages. Two specific initiatives, the Rice Seed Credit Bank and the Health and Nutrition Resource Improvement Campaign, vastly improve food security in these villages by helping people to provide for themselves. Before HEKS' involvement, farmers in this village had to pay as much as 240 percent interest on rice seeds purchased at the beginning of each planting season. Faced with no option but to pay this high interest rate to local lenders, farmers found themselves further and further in debt. >> LOT MIRANDA: This specific project is about Rice Seed Credit Bank. It is about supplying sufficient and appropriate seeds to the farmers during the planting season. >> VOICEOVER: The rice bank lends seeds to farmers at the beginning of the planting season. At harvest time, the farmers will return the seeds plus interest of five to ten percent, 20 times less than the paid before the project began. With adequate supply of seeds, the farmers tend to their land for the planting season. This season, they will be able to produce enough rice to feed their families plus save enough to pay back their loan. The Health and Nutrition Resource Improvement Campaign is another aspect of HEKS' Cambodia program. Nutrition officers work with villagers to provide education and skills training. Villagers attend classes on nutrition, where they learn to grow vegetables to help counter various health problems. The women in the Nutrition Improvement Campaign have had a significant effect on the health and well being of their families, and they've learned skills, which let them continue to have an impact, locally and independently. HEKS' Cambodia program has worked by providing education and resources to help villagers improve their lives on their own. >> LOT MIRANDA: I would say, compared to the time we started, there is more food, but to that they're food secure is a long way to go. I mean, so much misery, poverty, and hunger -- something can be done, and things can become better, slowly, and I hope it can get faster. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-colombia Many Colombian farmers face a period of hunger from June to September when there are no crops to harvest. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture works with the community and small-scale farmers to research and develop strategies and solutions. Find out how these innovative farmers are combating hunger and climate change through groundbreaking research.<br /> Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:02:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-colombia Colombia, Agriculture, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Food security, Latin America, Farmer, Agriculture & Food, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Seed, Maize >> TITLE: International Center for Tropical Agriculture Participatory Research Program, Cauca, Colombia >> VOICEOVER: CIAT, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, works directly with farmers in Latin America to improve food security. Farmers and scientists work together to research technologies and solutions that are best suited to the community. Using a hands-on approach, solutions are developed that are adaptable to diverse local situations. >> SUSAN KAARIA [Senior Research Fellow, International Center for Tropical Agriculture]: These are farmers that live, first of all, on hillsides. It's highly eroded land. The rainfall may not be really high. They're living, really, on the margins of society. They're really poor. They live in very harsh environments, and, basically, the idea is to develop technologies that are applicable with the scarce resources that they have, so that they are able to adopt them. >> VOICEOVER: The program works with the community to develop a local agricultural research committee. The committee, called a CIAL [Comite de Investigacion Agricola Local, Committee for Local Agricultural Investigation] in Spanish, is comprised of local farmers. A trained facilitator and modest funding help to support the CIAL's activities. The committee identifies problems they are having with their crops, then conducts research to find solutions. These solutions, developed within the community, have been much more successful than those coming from outside institutions. El Jardin is a CIAL in Colombia that is conducting research on bean and corn varieties. Research on crop varieties and farming methods teach the community how to produce more food. The farmers of El Jardin have been very successful in finding solutions through research. >> SUSAN KAARIA: There's this long period of time, which is called the hungry season. It's from about June to September. This is the period after they've harvested, eaten their food, sold, and so it's before they can start harvesting the next season. The community identified this as a big problem, food insecurity and having a very wide hungry period, and what the CIAL did was they tested a lot of different seeds, and they identified this maize variety and planted that. The best part about it is that it's an early-maturing crop that matures in, like, 70 days, so the CIAL is able to plant twice a year. >> MAN [Farmer]: Before the research project, we produced very little. Now we are always producing. We have good beans and corn almost all year for our families. >> VOICEOVER: The project is successful on many levels. Not only is the community able to produce more food, but the people have discovered the power to solve their own problems. >> SUSAN KAARIA: What I hope for the future is for the communities to take charge of their lives. When a group of farmers, like the CIAL, is able to see it and become like scientists, you build the capacity that's incredible, and, for us, that's really the essence of what we want, is that these community members are left with this capability at the end of the day. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/black-woman-sets-example-for-young-winemakers-in-south-africa Ntsiki is a rising star in South African wine, winning Woman Winemaker of Year in 2009. Her presence as a successful black woman is a new horizon in the traditionally white, male winemaking industry. Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:32:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/black-woman-sets-example-for-young-winemakers-in-south-africa Ntsiki Biyela, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Winemaker, South African wine, Anti-Apartheid, Gender equality, Africa, Winemaking, Stellekaya Winery >> TITLE: Spark Africa: New Business Perspectives >> VOICEOVER: Spark Africa is always looking for new businesses and surprising initiatives. Today, we report from the wine fields in South Africa. >> TITLE: South Africa. Population: 49.1 million. GNP per capita: US$10,313. Wine production 2008: 763 million liters. >> VOICEOVER: Ever since the 17th century, wealthy white men have dominated the local wine industry. Now, a talented 28-year-old black woman wants to shake things up. >> ANDREA WILLEMSE [Spark South Africa]: I'm in one of the most fertile and productive areas in South Africa, the vineyard of Stellenbosch. Winemaking in the country has very strong European roots, but recently, more and more emerging winemakers have entered the South African market. >> VOICEOVER: The number of black winemakers in South Africa's wine industry is increasing. The frontrunner of these winemakers is Ntsiki Biyela. She has been connected to the Stellekaya vineyards for over five years. This talented winemaker is the company's pride since she won the Woman Winemaker of the Year in 2009. That makes Ntsiki the first black woman in South Africa who has earned this title. >> NTSIKI BIYELA [Woman Winemaker of the Year, 2009]: The Woman Winemaker of the Year award, for me, it's more of a step toward something that I'm doing, and it was a good thing to get appreciated for what you've done in your industry. >> LINDIE SMITH [General Manager, Stellekaya Winery]: We've always referred to Ntsiki as our rising star, but I think she's no longer a rising star. She is the brightest, biggest star at Stellekaya, and we're exceptionally proud of her. >> PHILIP VAN ZYL [Editor, John Platter's SA Wine Guide]: I think she'd be a fantastic ambassador for her winery, in the first instance, and then for South African wine in general. >> VOICEOVER: Ntsiki was born in the village of Ulundi in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Before, she worked as a cleaner to pay for her education. After, she got a scholarship and studied winery at the agriculture department of the university of Stellenbosch, from where she graduated in 2003. Currently, she is an enthusiastic promoter of the wines of Stellakaya, especially of her winning wine. >> NTSIKI BIYELA: This wine, specifically, the cabernet sauvignon, it's a fruity wine. It represents. You get all the character that you need in a cabernet sauvignon. Most people, when they taste it, they say it's very juicy. People will say to me they don't drink cabernet sauvignon because it's big and this and this. I always give them Stellekaya cab, and they always go, okay, from now on, I'm going to drink cabernet sauvignon. >> VOICEOVER: But Ntsiki isn't there yet. Being very scrupulous, she treats every wine like it's her own child that she needs to raise and take care of. Only perfection will help her conquer the world of wines. The Woman Winemaker of the Year award is good motivation to Ntsiki and other young, talented winemakers. >> NTSIKI BIYELA: I think I have become a role model for, actually, the young people coming up, not only black people, even the white youngsters, I've become a role model for them, because for them to see someone who comes from a different background getting into something that they didn't know before and also being successful in it. So, for the consumers out there, to say that it's not just for the elite to be in the wine industry. It's now for everyone. >> ANDREA WILLEMSE: Obviously, a woman's touch is having a profound influence on South African wine. Gesondheid! [Cheers] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-mapping-local-solutions In Bangladesh, the rains no longer come on a predictable schedule, and local people are struggling to grow enough food. But new community-based methods are helping Bangladeshis adapt to the new reality of climate change. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:48:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-mapping-local-solutions Bangladesh, Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Environmental protection, Bay of Bengal, Non-governmental organization, United Nations University, International Union for Conservation of Nature, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Monsoon >> TITLE: Bay of Bengal; India>> TITLE: Kapasia, Bangladesh>> TITLE: OurWorld 2.0>> VOICEOVER: Kuhinor is a teacher at the local kindergarten in the village of Fulbaria, Bangladesh. Together with her husband and daughter, they grow some vegetables and fruits to feed themselves and make extra income for their family. Over the past several years, the rain patterns have become erratic and the region is facing both dramatic increases and decreases in their water supplies. >> KUHINOR: Because of droughts and floods, our fields are infected by insects and our paddies are damaged. The eggplants are infected with insects. When the fog comes, the buds of mangoes and lychees are ruined. For this reason, we face several problems. Yesterday, I went to the beel [marsh] area, where I own some land. In that land, I had a fishery project. When there was water, we could catch fish. Now there is no water. We used to sell the fish or eat them. It was profitable. Now, our profit is decreasing, and our income is decreasing. There are many problems in agriculture, and because of this many people are going abroad.>> VOICEOVER: But Kuhinor is not giving up on the land her ancestors have lived on for generations. She is taking action by participating in a community mapping workshop -- a joint project of the United Nations University and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. >> AHSANUL WAHED [IUCN Bangladesh]: If you are involved in agriculture and know agricultural problems, explain those problems. If you know the problems of fisheries because of disasters, please explain those too. Okay? We will make a list of all these problems, and with this list, we will put it to a vote. Then we will discuss how we can solve these problems.>> CHUN KNEE TAN [United Nations University Researcher]: What are the climate problems they're still facing?>> AHSANUL WAHED: Insect infestation, dense fog, then flooding, but it does not occur every year...>> VOICEOVER: United Nations University researcher, Chun Knee Tan has been assessing the gap between government policies and their implementation at the local level.>> CHUN KNEE TAN: The main purpose of this whole exercise is to actually bring the communities to come in, to explore their own problems, and also we try to explore what are the resources they already have in the community that they can further utilize to solve their own problems. In the mean time, we ask them to map out spatially so that they will be able to visualize their problems. Then we ask them to really look into what are the changes in the past, and the present and what you want to do in the future. How you want your community to be, moving forward. So we help them to visualize using the tools such as mapping. >> CHUN KNEE TAN: In adaptation normally we have NAPA, which are the national adaptation policies that have been set by the government. Then a country like Bangladesh is the first one to submit their NAPA proposal to the Climate Change Convention. However, last year when we came to study what is really happening on the policy level and also the ground level, we found that there's a lot of gaps. We noticed a lot of the action being mentioned in the NAPA is not really being implemented and the worst is most of the communities, still they don't have a very clear idea on what is climate change. >> KUHINOR: Yesterday, I participated in a workshop where I learned about my problems and the problems of others. Then I also learned how to solve these problems. Because of these problems, we need training from the government and NGOs. If we get help, we can be saved from these disasters.>> CHUN KNEE TAN: We have started to look at how this community-based adaptation can really help to build the capacity of the local people to be really adapted to climate change. Then we will put them in one report that will convey that message back to the local governance or even to the national governance. It will help bring their message up, and this is very important to interlink between the top-down approach, the policy level, and also the bottom-up approach. >> VOICEOVER: As the workshop concluded, two assessments were made. One was the need to build a canal from the neighboring ward to meet their irrigation needs. The other was the need to cultivate medicinal plants to deal with the health problems occurring due to the fluctuating temperatures. With this newfound understanding, Kuhinor hopes that policy makers will listen directly to the needs of the local people.>> KUHINOR: I'm unsure about my daughter's future because our situation is uncertain. I have a big dream. I hope I can educate my daughter as much as possible. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-fishermen-cope-with-rougher-seas In Bangladesh, some of the world's most vulnerable people are being adversely affected by climate change, particularly more intense and frequent storms. But Mohammed Illias, a fisherman on the Meghna River, has adapted his boat with help from a local NGO to make it stronger and more resilient. Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-fishermen-cope-with-rougher-seas Fishing, Bangladesh, Boat, Storm, Bay of Bengal, Noakhali District, Meghna River, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Non-governmental organization >> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.>> JOHN KASAONA: In Africa we say, "God gave the white man a watch and gave the black man time." >> TITLE: February 2010. Long Beach, California>> JOHN KASAONA: I think, how is it possible for a man with so much time to tell a story in 18 minutes. I think it will be quite a challenge for me. >> TITLE: Namibia: Wildlife and communities back from the brink>> JOHN KASAONA: Most African stories these days, they talk about famine, HIV and AIDS, poverty, or war. But my story that I would like to share with you today is the one about success. It is about a country in the southwest of Africa called Namibia. Namibia has got 2.1 million people, but it is only twice the size of California. I come from a region in the remote northwest part of the country. It's called Kunene region. And in the center of Kunene region is the village of Sesfontein. This is where I was born. This is where I am coming from. Most people that are following the story of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will know where Namibia is. They love Namibia for its beautiful dunes, that are even taller than the Empire State Building. Wind and time have twisted our landscape into very strange shapes. And these shapes are speckled with wildlife that has become so adapted to this harsh and strange land.>> JOHN KASAONA: I'm a Himba. As I'm standing, you might wonder, why are you wearing these Western clothes? I'm a Himba and Namibian. A Himba is one of the 29 ethnic groups in Namibia. We live a very traditional lifestyle. I grew up herding, looking after our livestock: goats, sheep, and cattle. And one day, my father actually took me into the bush. He said, "John, I want you to become a good herder. Boy, if you are looking after our livestock and you see a cheetah eating our goat, cheetah is very nervous. Just walk up to it. Walk up to it and smack it on the backside. And he will let go of the goat and run off." But then he said, "Boy, if you run into a lion, don't move. Don't move. Stand your ground. Puff up and just look it in the eye and it may not want to fight you." But then, he said, "If you see a leopard, boy, you better run like hell. Imagine you run faster than those goats you are looking after." >> JOHN KASAONA: In this way, I actually started to learn about nature. You know, in addition to being an ordinary Namibian and in addition to being a Himba I'm also a trained conservationist. And it is very important if you are in the field to know what to confront and what to run from. I was born in 1971. We lived under apartheid regime. The whites could farm, graze, and hunt as they wished, but we black, we were not regarded as responsible to look after, to use wildlife. Whenever we tried to hunt, we were called poachers. And, as a result, we were fined and locked up in jail.>> JOHN KASAONA: Between 1966 and 1990, the U.S. and Soviet interests fought for control over my country. And you know, during wartimes, there are militaries, armies, that are moving around. And the army hunted for valuable rhino horns and tusks. And they could sell these things for anything between UDS$5,000 a kilo. During the same year almost every Himba had a rifle. Because it was wartime, the British .303 rifle was just all over the whole country. Then in the same time, around 1980, we had a very big drought. It killed almost everything that was left. Our livestock was almost at the brink of extinction. [inaudible] We were hungry. I remember a night when a hungry leopard went into the house of one of our neighbors and took his sleeping child out of the bed. It's a very sad story. But even today, that memory is still in people's mind. They can pinpoint the exact location where this all happened. >> JOHN KASAONA: And then, the same year, we almost lost everything. And my father said, "Why don't you just go to school?" And they sent me off to school, just to get busy somewhere else. And the year I went to school, my father actually got a job with a non-governmental organization called IRDNC: Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation. They actually spend a lot of time a year in the communities. They were trusted by the local communities like our leader, Joshua Kangombe. Joshua Kangombe saw what was happening: wildlife disappearing, poaching was skyrocketing, and the situation seemed very hopeless. Death and despair surrounded Joshua and our entire communities.>> JOHN KASAONA: But then, the people from IRDNC proposed to Joshua: What if we pay people that you trust to look after wildlife? Do you have anybody in your communities, or people, that know the bush very well and that know wildlife very well? The headman said "Yes. Our poachers." "Eh? The poachers?" "Yes. Our poachers." And that was my father. My father has been a poacher for quite a long time. Instead of treating poachers' debt like they were doing elsewhere in Africa, IRDNC has helped men reclaim their abilities to manage their peoples, and their rights to own and manage wildlife. And thus, as people started feeling ownership over wildlife, wildlife numbers started coming back, and that's actually becoming a foundation for conservation in Namibia. With independence, the whole approach of community getting involved was embraced by our new government.>> TITLE: 1. Blending the old and new>> JOHN KASAONA: Three things that actually help to build on this foundation: The very first one is honoring of tradition and being open to new ideas. Here is our tradition. At every Himba village, there is a sacred fire. And at this sacred fire, the spirit of our ancestors speak through the headman and advise us where to get water, where to get grazings, and where to go and hunt. And I think this is the best way of regulating ourselves on the environment. And here are the new ideas. Transporting rhinos using helicopters I think is much easier than talking through a spirit that you can't see, isn't it? And these things we were taught by outsiders. We learned these things from outsiders. We needed new boundaries to describe our traditional lands; we needed to learn more things like GPS just to see whether can GPS really reflect the true reflection of the land or is this just a thing made somewhere in the West? And we then wanted to see whether we can match our ancestral maps with digital maps made somewhere in the world. And through this, we actually started realizing our dreams and we maintained honoring our traditions but we were still open to new ideas.>> TITLE: 2. Focusing on the solution>> JOHN KASAONA: The second element is that we wanted to have a life, a better life where we can benefit through many things. Most poachers, like my father, were people from our own community. They were not people from outside. These were our own people. And sometimes, once they were caught, they were treated with respect, brought back into the communities and they were made part of the bigger dreams. The best ones, like my father -- I'm not complaining for my father -- they were put in charge to stop others from poaching. And when this thing started going on, we started becoming one community, renewing our connection to nature. And that was a very strong thing in Namibia.>> TITLE: Stopping poaching is quite different than catching poachers>> TITLE: 3. Creating lasting partnerships>> JOHN KASAONA: The last element that actually helped develop these things was the partnerships. Our government has given legal status over our traditional lands. The other partners that we have got is business communities. Business communities helped bring Namibia onto the world map and they have also helped make wildlife a very valuable land use like any other land uses such as agriculture. And most of my conservation colleagues today that you find in Namibia have been trained through the initiative, through the involvement of World Wildlife Fund in the most up-to-date conservation practices. They have also given funding for two decades to this whole program. >> TITLE: WWF helped us scale a small program>> JOHN KASAONA: And so far, with the support of World Wildlife Fund, we've been able to scale up the very small programs to a national program today. Namibia, or, Sesfontein was no more an isolated village somewhere, hidden away in Namibia. With these assets we are now part of the global village.>> JOHN KASAONA: Thirty years have passed since my father's first job as a community game guard. It's unfortunate that he passed away and he cannot see the success as I and my children see it today. When I finished school in 1995, there were only 20 lions in the entire northwest, in our area. But today, there are more than 130 lions. So please, if you go to Namibia, make sure that you stay in the tents. Don't walk out at night. The black rhino: they were almost extinct in 1982. But today, Kunene has the largest concentration of black rhino, free-roaming black rhinos, in the world. This is outside the protected area. The leopard, they are now in big numbers but they are now far away from our village, because the natural plain has multiplied, like zebras, springboks, and everything. They stay very much far away because all these other things has multiplied from less than a thousand to tens of thousands of animals.>> JOHN KASAONA: And, what started as very small, community rangers getting community involved, has now grown into something that we call conservancies. Conservancies are legally instituted institutions, by the government, and these are run by the communities themselves, for their benefit. Today, we have got 60 conservancies that manage and protect over 13 million hectares of land in Namibia. We have already reshaped conservation in the entire country. Nowhere else in the world has community-adopted conservation at this scale. In 2008, conservancy generated USD$5.7 million. This is our new economy, an economy based on the respect of our natural resources. And, we are able to use this money for many things. Very importantly, we put it in education. Secondly, we put it for infrastructure. Food. Very important as well. We invest this money in AIDS and HIV education. You know that Africa is being affected by these viruses. And this is the good news from Africa that we have to shout from the rooftops.>> TITLE: Bay of Bengal. India. Noakhali, Bangladesh>> VOICEOVER: Mohammed Illias has been fishing the Meghna River from the age of 12. Like his father and relatives before him, he depends on the waters of Bangladesh to provide for his wife and four children. Now a boat owner, Mohammed hires a handful of fisherman to go out to sea for 10 days at a time to fish for hilsa. He has noticed changes in the weather over the past several years.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS [Fisherman]: When I went fishing as a child, storms happened but the wind and waves were less frequent. Now the waves are frequent. Our situation is more critical. We are more endangered than before.>> VOICEOVER: The livelihood of a fisherman has become an increasingly dangerous one. Stronger storms and more frequent tropical cyclones along the coastlines of Bangladesh are said to be result of climate change. These traditional fishing boats are made entirely of wood. While they have served the fishermen well for generations, they no longer can cope with the growing intensity of the changing climate. In 2008, Mohammed's boat was badly damaged in a storm.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS: When the accident happened there were 8 to 10 fishermen onboard. Our ship capsized. We were saved by boats nearby. I thought that I was going to die. My cousin and uncle lost their lives in a disaster like that. We never found their bodies.>> VOICEOVER: With a broken boat, Mohammed had no way of making money to support his family.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS: How can I educate my children? How can I provide for my family? How can I keep my business going? I had many worries. My wife told me not to be stressed because many people die of stress. >> VOICEOVER: In order to repair his boat, Mohammed took out a loan. However, his worries persisted. Even if he were to build a new boat, it still ran the risk of sinking again in Bangladesh's increasingly turbulent storms. Mohammed heard of an initiative offering assistance to build storm-resistant boats. International and local NGOs are working on the ground to implement climate change adaptation strategies to assist fishermen like Mohammed in rebuilding their boats.>> LUTFUN NAHER AZAD [Socio-Economic Development Programme/IUCN Partner]: We selected five of the most vulnerable boat owners. Their boats were repaired with the use of metal clamps. With the clamps, they can face any sudden storms. It will prevent the boat from flipping over. We provided some training on what to do. Because of this training, I think they are doing very well. Since their boats were repaired with this new technology, they have overcome their fears. >> VOICEOVER: While he still owes an equivalent of USD$1,500, he has been able to repay his debt little by little.>> MOHAMMED: My previous boat was weak. When I went to the sea I worried. What should I do if the waves and storms become stronger? Now, there is an iron belt around the boat. It is strong and I don't worry any more. The boat is strong. I used to fish near the shore and could not catch very many fish. Now that my boat is strong, I can go farther and catch much more. It will be good if the other boats are made stronger like mine. They will be safe from danger.>> VOICEOVER: With climate change a growing reality for the people of Bangladesh, adaptation projects such as this one are becoming a necessity. For now, Mohammed is grateful that he can now fish the rougher waters of Bangladesh without fear.>> TITLE: Our World 2.0>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-egypt-daily-bread Millions of Egyptians suffer from poor nutrition, including birth defects and miscarriages. Now, a food fortification program is making an edible difference. One family's newest member is living proof. Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:14:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/living-proof-egypt-daily-bread Egypt, ONE Campaign, Egyptians, Living Proof, Food fortification, Luxor, North Africa, Folic acid, World Health Day, Flour >> TITLE: Challenge: Millions of Egyptians suffer the effects of poor nutrition, including preventable miscarriages and birth defects.>> TITLE: Solution: Add micronutrients to baladi bread, the staple food of poor Egyptians.>> TITLE: Can their daily bread save lives?>> TITLE: Luxor. The Nile.>> TITLE: Sombol Mohamed makes his living ferrying tourists across the Nile. He shares a home on its banks with his mother and sister and wife, Mona, who is nine months pregnant. Her first pregnancy ended badly.>> MONA: First I was pregnant with twins, but I went to the doctor and he told me: "They've been dead in your belly for 21 days." So I had to have an operation to get them out. >> OM SOMBOL [Mother]: My daughter Dalal had two miscarriages because she didn't take folic acid. Twice! Once at three months, and the other at two months, I swear.>> DR. AZZA GOHAR [Egypt National Nutrition Institute]: Iron is one of the vital elements that a mother needs during her pregnancy. So, if she's iron deficient or folic acid deficient, that's a problem. It compromises her health and her child's. The baladi bread program is a national program. We add iron and folic acid to the baladi bread flour. The population is 80 million and they depend on the bread. Even if somebody cannot afford anything else, he can afford to buy bread. >> TITLE: El Etihad Flour Mill, Luxor>> MOHAMED ABDOBASHA [Mill Manager]: We began the iron fortification program last year, meaning 2008. We mix the iron and folic acid in the machine, and the computer regulates how much nutrient is released into the flour.>> TITLE: Every day the Luxor mill ships 125 tons of fortified flour. Most of it goes to neighborhood bakeries, where it is transformed overnight into baladi bread for the people.>> NOUBY ABDELHAMEED [Bakery Owner]: My share is seven sacks of flour a day. We come in to mix the yeast around 11 at night. Half a pack of yeast and half a sack of flour. We mix them in the kneading machine, and we leave them till morning. Around seven o'clock in the morning, the bakers come in to make the dough and bake the bread.>> TITLE: Citizens can buy 20 loaves for one Egyptian pound. There are always more customers than loaves.>> TITLE: Twenty million Egyptians now have the benefit of iron and folic acid in their daily diets, including pregnant and soon-to-be pregnant women.>> DR. AHMED ABDEL MONTELB [Obstetrician]: With folic acid we're protecting coming generations; we're protecting an entire generation, a new generation with fewer birth defects and miscarriages. >> TITLE: Two weeks later, Sombol's wife, Mona, gave birth to a healthy baby boy.>> SOMBOL MOHAMED: I'm so happy with my son, my first, which is a special love. Hopefully, God will give me many more.>> OM SOMBOL: This is my first grandchild and I'm so happy with him. I'll get him gold tokens that ward off the evil eye, and I'll make him so happy.>> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress.>> TITLE: Food fortification is one of the world's most cost-effective public health tools. Global partners support food fortification in over 25 countries, aiming ultimately to reach 1 billion people>> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. www.one.org/livingproof http://www.viewchange.org/videos/tanzania-growing-a-better-future-with-sweet-potatoes Maria Mchele is a mother and farmer in Tanzania who relies on farming for food and income. Through a local agricultural program, Maria learned about a new crop of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, specifically bred to thrive in sub-Saharan Africa, and how to maximize her earning potential. Programs like this have helped farmers increase their incomes by up to 400 percent. Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:14:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/tanzania-growing-a-better-future-with-sweet-potatoes ONE Campaign, Tanzania, Sub-Saharan Africa, Living Proof, Africa, Agriculture, Extreme poverty, Agriculture & Food, Crop, Sweet potato >> TITLE: One billion people throughout the world live in extreme poverty. Most rely on agriculture for their food and income. >> MARIA MCHELE [Mwasonge, Tanzania]: I was born here in Mwasonge. I am 43 years old and have five children and four grandchildren. I used to sleep on a rug on the floor with my children. Then I met Mwanaidi.>> TITLE: Mwanaidi Rhamadani is a trained farmer. She taught Maria about a new kind of crop, a nutritious orange-fleshed sweet potato that was specifically bred to thrive in this area.>> MARIA MCHELE: Mwanaidi gave me new seeds and taught me how to farm this orange sweet potato. She taught me about soil irrigation, about crop multiplication, about dividing vines, the things we didn't know before. She also taught me about selling my crop. Customers ask me why my potatoes are different in color. I try to explain to them that they are orange because they have vitamin A, which provides protection in the body, and are good for kids and adults growing. So customers get excited and buy from me. Now, we sell seeds, chips, biscuits, donuts, flour, and even pancakes, all made from sweet potatoes. >> MARIA MCHELE: I work happily, knowing that I will be getting out of poverty by doing what I am doing. And, when I sleep, all I think about is the potatoes. The dream is always the same: to finish the house I am building of brick stones; to sleep in a comfortable place; and to raise the standard of living for my children and grandchildren, and send them to school. I am happy the sweet potato farming is helping my dreams come true. >> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. >> TITLE: Maria is now a leader in her farming group and teaches others what she's learned. Investments in programs like this one have helped farmers like Maria increase their income by up to 400 percent and harvest a better future.>> TITLE: Living Proof: Real Lives. Real Progress. www.one.org/livingproof http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-better-harvest-through-drip-irrigation Modern agricultural techniques tend to focus on helping farmers with large fields (and more money to spend), but an innovative, inexpensive drip irrigation system, developed with investment from the Acumen Fund, is helping smallholder farmers in India dramatically increase their crop yields. Mon, 01 Nov 2010 07:45:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-better-harvest-through-drip-irrigation Drip irrigation, India, Agriculture, Irrigation, Acumen Fund, Water & Sanitation, Agriculture & Food, Chili pepper, Foreign Assistance >> TITLE: Acumen Fund. Health, Housing, Water, Energy, Agriculture>> TITLE: KB Drip Irrigation Systems>> PRAHLAD LAXMAN GOREY [Farmer]: Look at these chili plants. They don't have any fruit on them. My neighbor's plants have started growing chilies, but my plants haven't even flowered yet. This is probably because of better irrigation on his farm. You can see the difference between these two crops even though they were planted right next to each other. Drip irrigation seems to increase flowering and improve yield. >> MACHINDRA BHOJE [Farmer]: To see how drip has helped, you can look at these two chili crops planted side by side. Some of his plants have flowered, some have not; my plants, on the other hand, have ripe chilies on them. His plants don't have any on them. That's the benefit of drip. >> INTERVIEWER: Did you get help installing it?>> MACHINDRA BHOJE: I didn't ask anyone. I went to him. He had a piece of drip tape and showed me how to install it. I came home and, well, he said that if I paid him Rs 200 for labor, he would send someone to do the installation for me. >> INTERVIEWER: You did it yourself?>> MACHINDRA BHOJE: I said I can just do it myself. This year, I planted early and used drip. This year with bad rains, it's unlikely that anyone would have had a similarly good harvest without drip irrigation. It's thanks to drip that I have such a good harvest this year. >> TITLE: Tell a friend: acumenfund.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-empowered-strength-in-numbers Small village banks aren't just helping Africans to save money and invest in their communities, they also empower women and help families break the cycle of poverty. This film profiles two microcredit success stories from Malawi. Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-empowered-strength-in-numbers Latin America, Malawi, Microfinance, CARE, Phil Borges, Poverty, Microcredit, Africa, Gender, Agriculture & Food >> TITLE: Beginning in the 1970s, microcredit loans enabled millions of people in Asia and Latin America to break the cycle of poverty.>> TITLE: Unfortunately, the microcredit revolution stopped short of the poorest continent in the world: Africa.>> TITLE: Millions of hardworking people don't have a safe place to save money. Most of them can't get an affordable loan. Another way had to be found.>> TITLE: Strength in Numbers>> PHIL BORGES [Documentary Filmmaker and Photographer]: I've spent several years documenting humanitarian issues throughout Africa. I'd heard that very poor African women were being encouraged and even coached to open their own banks. I really didn't get it. How could someone who is struggling to feed their family save, let alone lend money to someone else? So, in 2008 I went to Malawi to see for myself how these so-called "village savings and loan" [VS&L] programs really worked. Most of the people in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, are subsistence farmers living on less than a dollar a day. >> TITLE: Jinesi Mafuta, Kandaya village>> PHIL BORGES: Jinesi, her husband, and daughters were one of those families. She and her husband Eya could not even afford the clothing to send their daughters to school. Food itself was a luxury item for several months out of the year. Jinesi clearly remembers that day eight years ago, when CARE came to her village to present the VS&L program. Seventy people went to that meeting, but it wasn't long before Jinesi and 60 others walked out. CARE offered no grants, no loans. Jinesi was just very skeptical.>> JINESI MAFUTA: At first, I went to join the group without much confidence. I was the one discouraging my friends from joining VS&L. I had a change of heart when I saw what was happening with my friends, and decided to go.>> PHIL BORGES: Once in the group, Jinesi committed to save 20 cents a week. She stuck with it, and today, five years later, the results I saw were almost unbelievable. In the very first year, she took out a loan to buy fertilizer. That crop fed her family for the entire year. This caught her husband's attention. He started giving her money from his carpentry business to save. Today, their three daughters are in school. They've not only purchased an ox cart and livestock, but they've also purchased farmland, and land to build rental houses. As in so many developing countries, women here grow the food, they collect the firewood and water, they take care of the children and animals, but rarely do they handle the family's income. Yet it's women's discipline to save and repay loans that makes VS&Ls such a success. And it's women's tendencies to invest in their families that make VS&Ls so effective in fighting poverty.>> EYA MAFUTA [Farmer, Carpenter]: At first, getting cash was like hand to mouth. Once they got the money they would use it immediately. But now that the women started saving in VS&L, they are able to keep a lot of money and use it to achieve bigger things in life. The people in this community -- almost every person -- are really interested in VS&L after seeing what the women are doing. The community now respects the women.>> PHIL BORGES: Now, that's progress. Eight years after CARE started that very first VS&L group in Jinesi's village, 25 groups have started on their own, without depending on any outside support. The benefits, which are visible to everyone, just keep the groups multiplying.>> TITLE: Elise Mdzuma, Kaundama village>> PHIL BORGES: Elise is the treasurer of one of the 65 groups in her community. She became a member of a VS&L group in 2006, and has never looked back.>> ELISE MDZUMA: Before the VS&L program came to the area, I was so destitute. I was nobody. Soon after the introduction of VS&L, my life really improved, from zero to somebody.>> PHIL BORGES: When I met Elise, her group was getting ready to take the next step. They were pooling their money to start a poultry business. And they wanted to make their community the poultry capital of the whole district.>> ELISE MDZUMA: When we have a group business, it not only means our own households are better off, but the whole community is stronger. Kaundama will be known for where the women have a poultry business.>> PHIL BORGES: Now, after visiting over 40 groups, I realize that the VS&L process not only tackles poverty, but it instills pride. And it strengthens relationships between women, and relationships between husbands and wives. And, most importantly, it empowers and it builds respect for women. And women's empowerment is so central in the fight against poverty.>> ELISE MDZUMA: I could never imagine having a cell phone, buying iron sheets for the roof, and pigs. In my heart I have peace. Everything I want in my life is available.>> TITLE: The VS&L process is brilliant in its simplicity. CARE has an ambitious goal to enroll 30 million VS&L participants in the next decade.>> TITLE: Seeing how fast these groups spread once the seed is planted, I think it just might be possible -- Phil Borges http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jacqueline-novogratz-a-third-way-to-think-about-aid The debate over foreign aid often pits those who mistrust "charity" against those who mistrust reliance on the markets. Jacqueline Novogratz proposes a middle way she calls patient capital, with promising examples of entrepreneurial innovation driving social change. Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jacqueline-novogratz-a-third-way-to-think-about-aid Patient capital, Jacqueline Novogratz, Pakistan, Drip irrigation, TED, Acumen Fund, Foreign Assistance, Economics, South Asia, IDE India >> TITLE: TED Partner Series presents TED@Slate>> TITLE: Remarkable people, unmissable talks, now free to the world>> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading>> TITLE: TED@Slate: New Ideas for a Better World>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Clearly we're living in a moment of crisis. Arguably the financial markets have failed us and the aid system is failing us. And yet I stand firmly with the optimists who believe that there has probably never been a more exciting moment to be alive. >> TITLE: June, 2009. Washington DC>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Because of some of technologies we've been talking about. Because of the resources, the skills, and certainly the surge of talent we're seeing all around the world, with the mindset to create change. >> TITLE: Recorded at U.S. State Department>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: And we've got a president who sees himself as a global citizen, who recognizes that no longer is there a single superpower, but that we've got to engage in a different way with the world. And by definition, every one of you who is in this room must consider yourself a global soul, a global citizen. You work on the front lines. And you've seen the best and the worst that human beings can do for one another and to one another. And no matter what country you live or work in, you've also seen the extraordinary things that individuals are capable of, even in their most ordinariness.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Today there is a raging debate as to how best we lift people out of poverty, how best we release their energies. On the one hand, we have people that say the aid system is so broken we need to throw it out. And on the other we have people who say the problem is that we need more aid. And what I want to talk about is something that complements both systems. We call it patient capital.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: The critics point to the USD$500 billion spent in Africa since 1970 and say, "And what do we have but environmental degradation and incredible levels of poverty, rampant corruption?" They use Mobutu as metaphor. And their policy prescription is to make government more accountable, focus on the capital markets, invest, don't give anything away. On the other side, as I said, there are those who say the problem is that we need more money. That when it comes to the rich, we'll bail out and we'll hand a lot of aid. But when it comes to our poor brethren, we want little to do with it. They point to the successes of aid: the eradication of smallpox, and the distribution of tens of millions of malaria bed nets and antiretrovirals. Both sides are right. And the problem is that neither side is listening to the other. Even more problematic, they're not listening to poor people themselves.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: After 25 years of working on issues of poverty and innovation, it's true that there are probably no more market-oriented individuals on the planet than low-income people. They must navigate markets daily, making micro-decisions, dozens and dozens, to move their way through society. And yet if a single catastrophic health problem impacts their family, they could be put back into poverty, sometimes for generations. And so we need both the market and we need aid.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Patient capital works between, and tries to take the best of both. It's money that's invested in entrepreneurs who know their communities and are building solutions to healthcare, water, housing, alternative energy, thinking of low income people not as passive recipients of charity, but as individual customers, consumers, clients, people who want to make decisions in their own lives. Patient capital requires that we have incredible tolerance for risk, a long time horizon in terms of allowing those entrepreneurs time to experiment, to use the market as the best listening device that we have, and the expectation of below-market returns, but outsized social impact. It recognizes that the market has its limitation. And so patient capital also works with smart subsidy to extend the benefits of a global economy, to include all people.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Now entrepreneurs need patient capital for three reasons. First, they tend to work in markets where people make one, two, three dollars a day and they're making all of their decisions within that income level. Second, the geographies in which they work have terrible infrastructure. No roads to speak of, sporadic electricity, and high levels of corruption. And third, they are often creating markets. Even if you're bringing clean water for the first time into rural villages, it is something new. And so many low-income people have seen so many failed promises broken, and seen so many quacks and sporadic medicines offered to them, that building trust takes a lot of time, takes a lot of patience. It also requires being connected to a lot of management assistance. Not only to build the systems, the business models that allow us to reach low income people in a sustainable way, but to connect those business to other markets, to governments, to corporations -- real partnerships if we want to get to scale.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I want to share one story about an innovation called drip irrigation. In 2002 I met this incredible entrepreneur named Amitabha Sadangi from India, who'd been working for 20 years with some of the poorest farmers on the planet. And he was expressing his frustration that the aid market had bypassed low-income farmers altogether, despite the fact that 200 million farmers alone in India make under a dollar a day. They were creating subsidies either for large farms, or they were giving inputs to the farmers that they thought they should use, rather than that the farmers wanted to use. At the same time Amitabha was obsessed with this drip-irrigation technology that had been invented in Israel. It was a way of bringing small amounts of water directly to the stalk of the plant. And it could transform swaths of desert land into fields of emerald green. >> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: But the market also had bypassed low-income farmers. Because these systems were both too expensive, and they were constructed for fields that were too large. The average small village farmer works on two acres or less. And so Amitabha decided that he would take that innovation and he would redesign it from the perspective of the poor farmers themselves. Because he spent so many years listening to what they needed not what he though that they should have. And he used three fundamental principles. The first one was miniaturization. The drip-irrigation system had to be small enough that a farmer only had to risk a quarter acre, even if he had two, because it was too frightening, given all that he had at stake. Second, it had to be extremely affordable. In other words, that risk on the quarter acre needed to be repaid in a single harvest, or else they wouldn't take the risk. And third, it had to be what Amitabha calls infinitely expandable. What I mean is with the profits from the first quarter acre, the farmers could buy a second, and a third, and a fourth.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: As of today, IDE India, Amitabha's organization has sold over 300,000 farmers these systems and has seen their yields and incomes double or triple, on average. But this didn't happen overnight. In fact, when you go back to the beginning, there were no private investors who would be willing to take a risk on building a new technology for a market class that made under a dollar a day, that were known to be some of the most risk-averse people on the planet, and that were working in one of the riskiest sectors, agriculture. And so we needed grants. And he used significant grants to research, to experiment, to fail, to innovate and try again. And when he had a prototype and had a better understanding of how to market to farmers, that's when patient capital could come in. And we helped him build a company, for profit, that would build on IDE's knowledge, and start looking at sales and exports, and be able to tap into other kinds of capital.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Secondarily, we wanted to see if we could export this drip irrigation and bring it into other countries. And so we met Dr. Sono Khangharani in Pakistan. And while, again, you needed patience to move a technology for the poor in India, into Pakistan, just to get the permits, over time we were able to start a company with Dr. Sono who runs a large community development organization in the Thar Desert, which is one of the remote and poorest areas of the country. And, though that company has just started, our assumption is that there too we'll see the impact on millions.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: But drip irrigation isn't the only innovation. We're starting to see these happening all around the world. In Arusha, Tanzania, A to Z Textile Manufacturing has worked in partnership with us, with UNICEF, with the Global Fund, to create a factory that now employs 7,000 people, mostly women. And they produce 20 million lifesaving bed nets for Africans around the world. LifeSpring Hospital is a joint venture between Acumen and the government of India to bring quality, affordable maternal health care to low-income women. And it's been so successful that it's currently building a new hospital every 35 days. And 1298 Ambulances decided that it was going to reinvent a completely broken industry, building an ambulance service in Bombay that would use the technology of Google Earth, a sliding-scale pricing system so that all people could have access, and a severe and public decision not to engage in any form of corruption. So that in the terrorist attacks of November they were the first responder, and are now beginning to scale, because of partnership. They've just won four government contracts to build up their 100 ambulances, and are one of the largest and most effective ambulance companies in India.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: This idea of scale is critical. Because we're starting to see these enterprises reach hundreds of thousands of people. All of the ones I discussed have reached at least a quarter million people. But that's obviously not enough. And it's where the idea of partnership becomes so important. Whether it's by finding those innovations that can access the capital markets, government itself, or partner with major corporations, there is unbelievable opportunity for innovation.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: President Obama understands that. He recently authorized the creation of a Social Innovation Fund to focus on what works in this country, and look at how we can scale it. And I would submit that it's time to consider a global innovation fund that would find these entrepreneurs around the world who really have innovations, not only for their country, but ones that we can use in the developed world as well. Invest financial assistance, but also management assistance. And then measure the returns, both from a financial perspective, and from a social impact perspective.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: When we think about new approaches to aid, it's impossible not to talk about Pakistan. We've had a rocky relationship with that country and, in all fairness, the United States has not always been a very reliable partner. But again I would say that this is our moment for extraordinary things to happen. And if we take that notion of a global innovation fund, we could use this time to invest not directly in government, though we would have government's blessing, nor in international experts, but in the many existing entrepreneurs and civil society leaders who already are building wonderful innovations that are reaching people all across the country.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: People like Rashani Zafar. Who created one of the largest microfinance banks in the country, and is a real role model for women inside and outside the country. And Tasneem Siddiqui who developed a way called incremental housing, where he's moved 40,000 slum dwellers into safe, affordable community housing. Educational initiatives like DIL and The Citizen Foundation that are building schools across the country. It's not hyperbole to say that these civil society institutions and these social entrepreneurs are building real alternatives to the Taliban. I've invested in Pakistan for over seven years now and those of you who've also worked there can attest that Pakistanis are an incredibly hard-working population. And there is a fierce upward mobility in their very nature.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: President Kennedy said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. I would say that the converse is true. That these social leaders who really are looking at innovation and extending opportunity to the 70 percent of Pakistanis who make less than two dollars a day, provide real pathways to hope. And as we think about how we construct aid for Pakistan, while we need to strengthen the judiciary, build greater stability, we also need to think about lifting those leaders who can be role models for the rest of the world.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: On one of my last visits to Pakistan I asked Dr. Sono if he would take me to see some of the drip irrigation in the Thar Desert. And we left Karachi one morning before dawn. It was about 115 degrees. And we drove for eight hours along this moonscape-like landscape with very little color, lots of heat, very little discussion, because we were exhausted. And finally at the end of the journey I could see this thin little yellow line across the horizon. And as we got closer its significance became apparent. That there in the desert was a field of sunflowers growing seven feet tall. Because one of the poorest farmers on Earth had gotten access to a technology that had allowed him to change his own life. His name was Raja. And he had kind, twinkly hazel eyes, and warm expressive hands that reminded me of my father. And he said it was the first dry season in his entire life that he hadn't taken his 12 children and 50 grandchildren on a two-day journey across the desert to work as day laborers at a commercial farm for about 50 cents a day. Because he was building these crops. And with the money he earned he could stay this year. And for the first time ever in three generations, his children would go to school. We asked him if he would send his daughters as well as his sons. And he said, "Of course I will. Because I don't want them discriminated against anymore." >> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: When we think about solutions to poverty we cannot deny individuals their fundamental dignity. Because at the end of the day dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth. And what's exciting is to see so many entrepreneurs across sectors who are building innovations that recognize that what people want is freedom and choice and opportunity. Because that is where dignity really starts. Martin Luther King said that love without power is anemic and sentimental. And that power without love is reckless and abusive. Our generation has seen both approaches tried, and often fail. But I think our generation also might be the first to have the courage to embrace both love and power. For that is what we'll need as we move forward to dream and imagine what it will really take to build a global economy that includes all of us. And to finally extend that fundamental proposition that all men are created equal, to every human being on the planet.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: The time for us to begin innovating and looking for new solutions, a cross sector is now. I can only talk from my own experience. But in eight years of running Acumen fund, I've seen the power of patient capital, not only to inspire innovation and risk taking, but to truly build systems that have created more than 25,000 jobs and delivered tens of millions of services and products to some of the poorest people on the planet. I know it works. But I know that many other kinds of innovation also work.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: And so I urge you, in whatever sector you work, in whatever job you do, to start thinking about how we might build solutions that start from the perspective of those we're trying to help. Rather than what we think that they might need. It will take embracing the world with both arms. And it will take living with the spirit of generosity and accountability, with a sense of integrity and perseverance. And yet these are the very qualities for which men and women have been honored throughout the generations. And there is so much good that we can do. Just think of all those sunflowers in the desert. Thank you. >> TITLE: TED: New TED Talks each week at www.TED.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-cambodias-great-lake The Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia is among the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world. But the lake is being threatened by deforestation, illegal fishing practices, and pollution, so the local communities who depend on the lake for survival are working together to protect the lake's resources and improve their livelihoods. Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:36:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-cambodias-great-lake Cambodia, Tonlé Sap, Siem Reap, Conservation, Environment, Kompong Phluk, Fishing, Phnom Krom, Fishery, Mekong >> TITLE: Saving Cambodia's Great Lake>> TUY RAAN [School Principal, Chong Kneas]: The Tonle Sap Lake was rich in fish when I was young. People went fishing and usually brought back enough fish to support their families. But I've seen that our Tonle Sap has changed. Now the lake is poorer, with fewer fish and less forests.>> VOICEOVER: In Cambodia today, there is growing awareness that the Tonle Sap Lake and its remarkable wetland habitat must be protected before it's too late. Flooded forests of tall trees, shrubs, and plants thrive in this magical watery world. The Tonle Sap is the largest and most important freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, covering over 12,000 square kilometers at the height of the flood season. The profusion of vegetation nourishes a rich biological diversity, including over 400 species of fish, as well as reptiles, mammals, and birds. The sanctuary at Prek Toal is the last the last haven in Southeast Asia for large water birds such as pelicans, egrets, darters, cormorants, as well as rare, endangered storks. In 1997, the Tonle Sap was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO to ensure the long-term conservation of its vibrant ecosystem. Throughout the ages, the lake's rich resources have attracted human settlement. On the hilltop of Phnom Krom stands an ancient temple overlooking the lake, a relic of the powerful empire of Angkor that dominated the region for 600 years. The center of the kingdom, the temple city of Angkor, is very close to the lake. In the Bayon temple, stone carvings depict daily life on the Tonle Sap, and the flora and fauna, which sustained early Khmer civilization. Today, the lake continues to nourish the nation, a vital source of food in one of Asia's poorest countries. The Tonle Sap is among the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world. The annual catch provides protein for two out of three Cambodians, whose diet is mostly rice and fish. With the lake yielding such plenty, Cambodians feel that the Tonle Sap is truly the heart of their country.>> H.E. NGY CHANPHAL [Ministry of Rural Development]: Without the lake, it would be difficult for Cambodians to survive. 1.2 million live around this lake. It's not a small number. 200,000 to 300,000 tons of fish have been captured every year to supply a major role to us in terms of development, preservation, conservation, and a natural resource for the people.>> VOICEOVER: The secret of the lake's riches lies in its unique hydrological cycle of seasonal flooding. From the lowest level in the dry season to the highest point of the flood season, the lake rises by eight or nine meters. During the dry season, water flows out of the lake, down the Tonle Sap River, and into the Mekong, the major river system of the region. However, the Tonle Sap River reverses direction in the rainy season under pressure from the floodwaters of the Mekong. Water flows back into the lake, which swells to five times its dry season size. Arrow-shaped traps lure fish in the floodplain. As water inundates the lake, fish migrate from the Mekong River to spawn and flourish in the vegetation of the wetland. When the water recedes, a layer of silt is deposited on the floodplain, fertilizing fields planted to crops in the dry season. The people who live on the Tonle Sap have long adapted to the annual cycle of flooding. Many live in floating houses. As the lakeshore moves, so do the people. During the dry season, when the water is low and muddy, the floating villages of Chong Kneas cluster on the lake. But during the wet season, villages are relocated along a channel in the floodplain, as the lakeshore moves more than five kilometers to the foot of Phnom Krom. The Cambodian people depend on the lake's resources, but how long can it last? The Tonle Sap has become an environmental hotspot, threatened by human encroachment, and degraded as never before. Cutting and clearing of the flooded forest for farmland and fuelwood are harming fish spawning grounds. It's estimated that the lake's forests once covered 10,000 square kilometers of the floodplain. Today, two-thirds of the forest is gone.>> PATRICK EVANS [Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN]: Protection of the flood forest ... This is critical habitat for fish production. It's been under lots of pressure from farmers moving down to this area, wanting more land for dry season rice cultivation. But, as the forest goes, so does fishery spawning grounds. Fish productivity is directly linked to this flood forest vegetation. People see the resources disappearing before their eyes.>> VOICEOVER: The health of the Tonle Sap is threatened in other ways. After years of civil strife in Cambodia, peace has led to a rapid growth in the number of people settling around the lake to seek a livelihood. Fish stocks are threatened by over-exploitation and illegal fishing practices. Increasing pollution and erosion of soil from the watershed are accelerating the lake's demise. >> VOICEOVER: The situation at Chong Kneas on the northwestern shore is a microcosm of the problems occurring on the lake. Chong Kneas is a crowded, chaotic landing for fish, goods, and tourists from the nearby town of Siem Reap. Chong Kneas has been a port and a gateway to the region since Angkorian times. The constant pressure of human settlement has taken a heavy toll on the lake's ecosystem. The floodplain around Chong Kneas has long since been denuded, leaving a dusty landscape of scrub bushes exposed in the dry season. In the flood season, Chong Kneas is transformed. The quaint, colorful life of this floating village, however, masks a deeper reality. Despite the extraordinary riches of the lake, most people in Chong Kneas are very poor, barely surviving on less than a dollar a day. In fact, poverty is worse here than in the nation as a whole. Like most residents of the floating village, Yim Pha and her family depend on fishing for survival.>> YIM PHA [Chong Kneas Resident]: Today I only caught 10 kilos of fish. It is not enough to pay for fuel for the boat. Our house is broken, but we have no money for repairs, no money to buy medicine or clothes for the children to wear.>> VOICEOVER: The population of Chong Kneas has tripled during the past decade to over 6,000 people. Huts crowd the embankment. Chong Kneas has become a magnet for migrants, mostly destitute families of landless farmers. They eke out a living as petty traders, or as porters unloading the boats. They cast their nets in the channel for the family meal, even in the shallow pools left behind in the dry season. As Chong Kneas grows, so does the pollution. Plastic bags and other garbage from the fish market, as well as human waste, go straight into the channel. The Tonle Sap has become a sewer for the expanding urban centers near the lake like Siem Reap. Waste discharged into the Siem Reap River, which flows through the town, ends up in the lake at Chong Kneas. With Siem Reap now in the midst of a construction boom fueled by tourism, the volume of waste going into the lake is a serious concern. At Chong Kneas, poor families have little choice but to use the polluted water in the channel for cooking and bathing. Inevitably, young children sometimes take a drink, and may get sick as a result. Waterborne diseases are rampant among the children of Chong Kneas. The local health clinic treats four times the number of young children with diarrhea compared to other villages in the district. It's the leading cause of death among children under five. >> VOICEOVER: The widespread poverty at Chong Kneas is closely related to the decline of fishing as a viable livelihood of the growing population. To try to get a decent catch, residents must travel an hour or more. Every day in the dry season, Yim Pha and her family head out to fish on the lake. It's the height of the fishing season, and the family hopes the catch will be plentiful. The livelihood from fishing used to be good, but now, she says, it's tough to make ends meet.>> YIM PHA: About 20 or 30 years ago there were plenty of fish, but not now. I could catch about 100 kilos, but this year, we're lucky to get 10 to 50 kilos a day. It keeps getting worse, especially with the commercial fishing operators with big nets and small holes, who start fishing in November. They catch all the fish.>> VOICEOVER: The family lands a few small fish. Their catch for the day is only 10 kilos for 10 hours' hard work. Yim Pha blames the big commercial operators that control the best fishing grounds on the lake, where crews can pull in one ton in an hour. The commercial lots are exclusive fishing areas auctioned by the government to the highest bidder. These large-scale commercial fishing operations are very effective in exploiting the fishery, harvesting most of the total annual catch from the lake. But they're also a source of conflict with small fishermen. Miles of fencing and nets surround the vast fishing domains to keep fish in and other people fishing out. No one can fish there without the lot owner's permission. It's now November in the flood season. At this time of year, fishing usually takes place at night, using kerosene lamps to attract the tiny fish, which are the scooped up in a net attached to the bow of the boat. At home, on her small floating house in Chong Kneas, Yim Pha plucks last night's catch from the net. The fish caught at this time of year are mostly small varieties, which will serve as feed for fingerlings she is raising in a bamboo cage. Many families have fish cages to earn some income during the lean season.>> YIM PHA: We leave here at 5pm before dark. We travel about two kilometers. We return at 3am. We usually catch about 100 kilos of small fish. Then, I leave home again at 5am to sell in the market. When I get home, I do chores like chopping fish, cooking rice, and looking after my grandchild The fish we caught won't even cover the cost of running the boat. When I'm short of money, I just borrow from other people to buy fuel for the next trip.>> VOICEOVER: As the livelihood from fishing becomes more and more difficult, Yim Pha worries about the education of her children.>> YIM PHA: I would like my children to continue to go to school, but we are poor. I want my daughters to study one more year. I hope they will become tour guides. If they learn English they can be translators. I'm worried about my youngest boy. I worry about accidents because of the motorboats. I dare not let him take the boat alone.>> VOICEOVER: Yim Pha has cause to be concerned. The wake from passing boats can easily swamp and sometimes overturn the small skiffs. In fact, drowning is the second leading cause of death among small children in Chong Kneas. School regulations stipulate that children cannot be enrolled until they've learned to swim. It's one reason why half of the children here do not attend school. What does the future hold for Yim Pha's family and the hundreds of other poor families in Chong Kneas who depend on fishing for survival?>> EM MANN [Chairman, Chong Kneas Commune]: We are very worried about the future here in our place. Our people are fishermen. What hope is there for our fishermen if there are no fish to catch? How are we going to survive? There is no other work that could replace fishing to provide for our future. This is really our biggest concern right now.>> VOICEOVER: If the Tonle Sap Lake is further degraded, Cambodia faces an environmental disaster. However, there are hopeful signs that this can be averted.>> IAN FOX [Asian Development Bank]: The lake is under attack on many fronts, but there are some reasons for optimism. The government for the first time is taking concerted action at different levels in a coordinated manner: promoting alternative livelihoods to take pressure off the lake's resources, increasing public awareness, making changes in laws and institutions. The type of community involvement we see around the lake -- people coming together to solve problems affecting their livelihoods -- this is a vital component of an overall management strategy for the lake.>> VOICEOVER: Just 20 kilometers from Chong Kneas is Kompong Phluk. Kompong Phluk is a very different world of houses built on stilts: practical in the dry season, with a lower floor for work and storage, yet high enough for the second-floor living area to be above the high waterline in the flood season. Unlike the shifting villages of Chong Kneas, Kompong Phluk is a permanent site located along a river channel not far from the open lake. During the dry season, the water level is too low for boats to reach the village from the lake. Temporary dwellings are built out on the lake and dismantled when the lake rises again and stored for next year. Kompong Phluk is remarkable in other ways. It's surrounded by the largest closed-canopy gallery forest left on the Tonle Sap. This is the community's most valuable resource, and residents are determined to preserve it at all costs. Ng Mi is patrolling the forest, on the lookout for anyone illegally cutting trees.>> NG MI [Fishery Management Committee, Kompong Phluk: We have to be on the lookout for people cutting trees to clear land to plant rice in the dry season. And the other problem is cutting firewood. People just don't care how they cut the trees. In the dry season, sometimes they cut the whole tree, which destroys our forest.>> VOICEOVER: Ng Mi is a member of the community fishery's management committee of Kompong Phluk. He's responsible for patrolling the forest and the village fishery. Mi explains how the forest has been divided into zones under a plan that allows villagers to cut firewood for cooking and fish processing. Cutting areas are rotated from zone to zone to allow the forest to recover. Each household is allowed to cut seven cubic meters per year. Only the ends of branches can be cut so the trees are preserved.>> HEOURING HAK [Kompong Phluk Resident]: We look for the big trees with many branches as big as our wrists, 10 to 20 branches. Then we cut four to five, but we don't cut the big ones, only the small ones. The forest is where fish spawn. When there's a storm from the lake, the forest protects our houses.>> VOICEOVER: The community has established a fish sanctuary, and works with the government fisheries officer to intercept boats in the area using illegal nets and other harmful fishing practices. In 2000, the government released to communities half of the private commercial fishing lot areas on the Tonle Sap. A new fisheries law and regulations that reflect this far-reaching change are before the national assembly. Now, with access to half a million hectares of good fishing grounds, poor fishing families have a real opportunity to improve their livelihood, provided the lake's resources are managed well. The village longboat team practices for races to take place during the annual water festival. This important festival celebrates the reversing of the Tonle Sap River and the opening of the fishing season. Taking advantage of the occasion, education officer Nok Nak paddles through the community spreading his message. >> NOK NAK [Education Officer]: I've been responsible for education since the beginning of the community fisheries committee. We sensitize people about the importance of the flooded forest as a sanctuary for fish to multiply. We also teach them not to use illegal fishing tools to ensure the sustainable supplies of our fish. We do this so that we will have fish to catch in the future. It's not the fisheries committee who set the rules; it's the people themselves, so they dare not go against what they themselves decided. We all have to stick to our rules and regulations. If someone breaks a regulation, they deserve to be fined. It's fair, because the people themselves made the rules.>> VOICEOVER: In Kompong Phluk, the differences with Chong Kneas are clear to see: sturdy houses, a plentiful catch, healthier children. It comes down to safeguarding the resources which provide people's livelihood according to a community leader.>> SOK PLONG [Chairman, Community Fisheries]: If you compare fishing here with Chong Kneas, the two places are very different. Here, we have protected the flooded forests, so lots of fish come and live in the forests. But in places that are not protected, there are few fish. If you compare living standards, there are more rich people in Chong Kneas, but there are also a lot of poor people. In Kompong Phluk, it's not like that. There are a few rich people but there are also very few poor families who do not have enough food. Their living standard is in the middle, not high, not low. Everyone at least has enough to survive in our community. >> VOICEOVER: Community management of the lake's resources is a new trend. But the experience in Kompong Phluk shows its promise. Pioneered in Siem Reap Province by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this grassroots approach is being extended by the government to villages all around the lake. >> H.E. NGY CHANPHAL: The involvement of the community, it's a major change. It's a catalyst for change in terms of preservation, and they understand: not only the older people but the younger generation. This is not for us now, it's for the future.>> VOICEOVER: Schoolchildren gather around a pile of firewood for a lesson on the loss of the flooded forest. Creating awareness, especially among children, about the need to protect the Tonle Sap Lake may be the best hope to conserve this wondrous wetland for generations to come.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/zambia-seeing-is-believing <p>Many people in Zambia don't consume enough vitamin A, which leads to blindness, infant mortality, and a host of other health problems. However, the Zambian government has initiated programs to ensure its people receive the nutrition they so desperately need.</p> Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:49:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/zambia-seeing-is-believing Nutrition, Zambia, Vitamin A deficiency, Lusaka, Luapula Province, Health, Agriculture & Food, Journeyman Pictures, UNICEF, Africa >> VOICEOVER: On Lake Mweru, in Zambia's northern Luapula Province, fishermen are bringing in the day's catch. But, for local people, a plentiful diet of fish has had unexpected consequences. A survey showed that 57 percent of blind people in Zambia come from Luapula Province. The cause: lack of vitamin A, a lethal public health problem, which also has a significant effect on child deaths, as well as increasing the risk of women dying in childbirth. >> TITLE: Seeing is Believing >> VOICEOVER: On the shores of Lake Mweru, Dr. Kunda runs a child health clinic serving the fishermen's families. >> DR. SIMON KUNDA [Kabuta Rural Health Centre]: People here regard fish as the only nutritious type of food, so they deprive the children of other foodstuffs, giving priority to fish. Dietary supplements are so low. Most of the mothers go for fieldwork in the morning. They come back very late, so feeding is compromised. We usually detect that when there is diarrhea, and when a patient comes with eye problems, that's when we see that surely there is a vitamin A deficiency. The impact of vitamin A deficiency, it has brought in high mortality and morbidity. We need to encourage these mothers to be giving their children vitamin A supplements. As you can see, if you look at the conjunctive of the child, it's very, very red. So, measles also affects the eye, so it's very easy for these children, especially if they are malnourished, to get blind. >> VOICEOVER: In Zambia's capital, Lusaka, Freddy Mubanga is responsible for increasing vitamin A intake, both in Luapula Province and throughout the whole country. >> SIGN: The National Food and Nutrition Commission >> FREDDY MUBANGA [Acting Executive Director, National Food and Nutrition Commission]: We started investigating the micronutrient deficiencies in 1985, when we undertook a survey in one of the provinces, Luapula, which had recorded high levels of blindness. It was found that about 16.2 percent of children 6 to 72 months had subclinical vitamin A deficiency. That, of course, gave way to start thinking of some strategies to see how we can reduce the levels of deficiencies. >> VOICEOVER: Since the 1995 survey, Zambia has implemented vitamin supplements for children at child health clinics, both throughout the country and in the capital, Lusaka. >> SIGN: George Clinic: Family planning services available here. >> NURSE: George has got a very big catchment area, and we see a lot of children. It's a really highly populated place, and it's a very busy clinic. We have a lot of underweight, malnourished children. We give vitamin A to the under fives. >> WOMAN [Mother]: I think for my baby to be healthy, I need to be coming here to get medicine for her to be protected from various diseases. Breastfeeding's the best, and it's cheap, very cheap. You can buy vegetables. You eat. When the baby feeds, she gets all the nutrients. It's very cheap, in fact. I like it. >> NURSE: Five or six months? >> WOMAN 2 [Mother]: Five. >> NURSE: Yes, they can get it through breastfeeding, yes. In case they don't get enough through the foods, then we supplement at the clinic by giving you vitamin A capsules. >> FREDDY MUBANGA: Following the national survey on Vitamin A deficiency in 1997, we realized that the problem is so immense, so we have to look at other options. In addition to supplementation, we thought of moving into sugar fortification. We looked around [at] what food vehicles we can use, and sugar seemed to be the one that was produced centrally, and it was found in almost every part of the country. >> VOICEOVER: To add vitamin A to sugar, the government needed the cooperation of Zambia Sugar, a private corporation and the country's sole producer. >> JAMES MUKUKWA [Production Manager, Zambia Sugar]: It was a program that was introduced by the government to the industry, so it was very new to us. We knew literally nothing. People working with the government, they had contacts in Guatemala who were really the founders of VA fortification of sugar. So the best way to undertake that project was to go to the source, to the experts, and me being the production manager, I had to go there because eventually I had to come and implement that project. Zambia Sugar agreed to help out with the national health problem that the whole country faced as a sign of goodwill, so it's actually doing it for free. The company bears the cost. It's very expensive: every year, we spend almost USD$1 million to buy the VA, the vitamin A. >> VOICEOVER: USAID has also been a major supporter, and initiator, of the sugar fortification program. >> JAMES MUKUKWA: Since we implemented the fortification program at Zambia Sugar in 1998, we've had several delegations coming from other countries: Uganda, South Africa, Malawi, and Kenya last year. They've been here to inquire and familiarize themselves with the VA fortification, with a view of them also going the same way. >> VOICEOVER: It may cost USD$1 million a year to fortify all of Zambia's sugar with vitamin A, but the cost per bag of sugar is just a few cents. And even that pales into insignificance when you add in the number of lives saved and the huge health benefits of vitamin A fortification for all Zambians. >> FREDDY MUBANGA: Last year actually the Zambian government passed regulations to say all the sugar that has to be consumed in households has to be fortified with vitamin A. Since we started enforcing that, the border areas -- Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and so forth -- their sugar is still coming in. So it becomes a bit difficult to enforce, or to control, the influx of this. But all the sugar that enters through the border points, it has to conform to the regulations. >> SIGN: Customs and Immigration: Entrance >> CHILUBA MWAPE [Plant Health Inspector, Chirundu Border Post]: This is brown sugar coming from Zimbabwe. Now we've got one truck carrying sugar, brown sugar, 30 metric tons. Yes, from Zimbabwe. When the truck comes which is carrying sugar from Zimbabwe or South Africa, we take samples. When we get these primary samples, we submit them to Lusaka for further analysis at the food and drugs laboratory. >> SIGN: Ministry of Health Food and Drugs Control Laboratory, Lusaka >> MRS. SONGOL [Food And Drug Control Laboratory]: We have the food and drugs regulations, where the levels of vitamin A in sugar are stated. So we make sure that, from the analysis, we check whether the levels do conform to the standard. We receive the samples form all over the country. We also get samples from Zambia Sugar company itself. Part of their quality control program is actually to bring the samples here for analysis. We discovered that some samples of sugar were actually indicating that there was no vitamin A, but when they were analyzed at the factory, they were finding some vitamin A. But after storage the levels of vitamin A were going down, until at one point we were finding actually zero. From that time on, there's been regular sampling to make sure that that problem does not occur again. We have to keep on checking on the quality of food, because we can't relax and say, "Well, since we've been testing so far, maybe now we should stop." No, it's an ongoing process. ++++1154 >> VOICEOVER: Although fortification of sugar has been a success in Zambia, it reaches only 52 percent of the population in comparison to Zambia's staple food, maize, or mshima, which is consumed by over 90 percent. >> FREDDY MUBANGA: We felt that probably we need to diversify the food base for fortification, and one sort of food that we thought of was maize, because it's highly consumed in Zambia. >> VOICEOVER: In Lusaka's Chawama township, government scientists are testing the adding of vitamin A supplements to maize at the local Hammer Mill. Unlike sugar, which is produced at one single source, 40 percent of maize produced in Zambia is ground in local mills used by people in poor urban and rural areas. Simple methods had to be found to ensure local people would mix vitamin A into their own maize meal. While Zambia has expanded fortification of foodstuffs with vitamin A, evaluating its impact can be difficult. >> WARD SIAMUSANTU [National Food and Nutrition Commission]: It's ideal to do the impact study now because the baseline was there in 1997, and now it's almost like six years. We could actually find what has been happening. However, we have malnutrition levels very high. We have HIV problems we're going through. It will be very difficult actually to tease out which component has vitamin A supplementation has actually affected in our population. It's very difficult because the amounts that are put in sugar are very minimal, so you need to, at the same time as you are looking at fortification, you have also to look at dietary levels, which might take longer. It's one of the most important things to follow. Let's change our people's diets so that we don't even bother fortifying, supplementing. From the diet they could eat, you could have a lot of vitamin A. >> VOICEOVER: Back in Luapula Province, nutritionists are working on improving people's diet and preventing future cases of blindness, illness, and death. >> DON KAYEMBE [Provincial Nutritionist, Luapula Province]: Even us as nutritionists, we are promoting that you can take fruit, you can take vegetables, for vitamin A, but as long as there's no presence of oil, so it can't be absorbed by the body. These palm oil trees are imported by the producer from Costa Rica. We brought them because naturally they are along the Luapula Valley, we have got the traditional ones, so those ones are not bearing much fruit, and even the fruit which are received are not giving us as much oil as expected. So these improved seeds, they are helping to give us more and more cocoa oil from one bunch. When they grow, after at least one year, when they become like these ones, we start now giving out to the communities. Now, the communities, there are some who are accessing them at very low cost, just to promote this and to give them ownership. So far I think we've distributed 57,000, and what we've imported so far could be 65,000 or so since we started in 1997. >> VOICEOVER: It takes four years for the palms to bear fruit. In local villages women have been learning how to make palm oil. Mrs. Eskembene of Sensima Village was sent to Ghana to study palm oil production. >> MRS. ESKEMBENE: We used to process palm oil before, but for no particular reason. Sometimes people would use it, others not. But, after we knew the benefits of it, we decided to increase production. >> DR. STELLA GOINGS [UNICEF Representative, Zambia]: Zambians were quick to realize that vitamin A deficiency was contributing to an intolerably high rate of morbidity and mortality, especially for children, and they were also quick to understand the importance of supplementation, fortification, and diversification programs. Zambia is a country that is confronting a food crisis this year. This is forcing [the] government to reconsider the way they look at food and the way they handle food. A part of this -- we hope that UNICEF will play a very active role -- will be making certain that mothers and people who are in charge of preparing food for the household are equipped to establish and maintain household gardens, and that we provide the education that's necessary for ... so they know how to prepare the foods. >> VOICEOVER: Back at Dr. Kunda's clinic, mothers are now taking cooking classes to learn how to prepare vitamin-rich foods. >> DR. SIMON KUNDA: We've started a program where we encourage mothers to be using the local variable foods, like green vegetables, yellow fruits like pawpaw, oranges, and here, we are lucky because we have these palm trees. Now, research has discovered that these things are very rich in vitamin A, so we encourage mothers to be using the oil from palm trees. >> VOICEOVER: For the people of Luapula Province, adding vitamin A to their fish diet now promises a healthier, brighter future. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rising-voices-the-flowing-river David Zamora Munoz attends a UNICEF-sponsored child-friendly school in Nicaragua. While many of its defining characteristics are things kids in developed countries take for granted -- gender equality, running water, a friendly atmosphere -- in Nicaragua the school is being seen as a model for the future of the country's education system. Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rising-voices-the-flowing-river Nicaragua, Child-friendly school, UNICEF, Palacagüina, Central America, Agriculture, Education, Latin America, Elementary school, Poverty >> TITLE: Rising Voices >> TITLE: The Flowing River>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: My name is David Zamora Munoz. I am 10 years old. I live in Punto Arena, and I like it a lot. >> TITLE: Palacaguina, Nicaragua>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: It is really pretty. There are trees, and animals such as hens, dogs, cows, bulls. I live with my mother, my father, my two brothers, and me right here. Our house is really tidy. We have nice things. Every day I have to walk to get to my studies at school. It takes me an hour to walk to school. I look at the trees, the birds, everything around us: parakeets, magpies, great-tailed grackles, and white doves. My school, The Little River, is a Child Friendly School. I like everything about it, the garden ... I like everything there. I feel really good with my friends who are there. We don't fight because we are all friends, and we all study together in the same school.>> CHILDREN: Hail to thee, Nicaragua. On thy land roars the voice of the cannon no more. Let peace shine beautiful in thy sky.>> TITLE: El Riito Elementary School, 65 students, Child Friendly School since 2002>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: This is my teacher. Her name is Angeles Karina Garcia Cruz. She is great with us. She teaches us a lot. She teaches us with kindness, love, and respect. She is respectful with all of us.>> SIGN: School is my second home>> ANGELES KARINA GARCIA CRUZ [Teacher]: For me, a Child Friendly School is one that provides all that children need physically to be students, including a pleasant atmosphere where the walls speak.>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: This is my headmaster. His name is Yader Jose>> YADER JOSE CRUZ [Headmaster, El Riito School]: This school is totally different from other schools today, because others don't have all the accessibility we have. This school is committed to gender equality and the inclusion of children with special needs. It does everything to provide a caring, high-quality education. Another of the components this school has is that we have running water. We teach personal health and hygiene so that the children wash their hands, because later they will go over to the kitchen and get their lunch. They have all been taught to use soap and a towel after they've used the bathrooms. >> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: Before we eat, we have to wash our hands, because when you play you get dirty, and then if you eat without washing, you can get sick. >> YADER JOSE CRUZ: The first thing you see when you come through the school gate is the wheelchair-accessible ramp. We have here another ramp that leads to the bathrooms, where we have two sets of toilets, one for the girls and another for the boys. This is the only school around here that has all the components that together make a Child Friendly School and has a sanitary environment.>> MARTA [Parent Body President]: I am the school parent body president, and I am a mother who's very involved in the school. The mothers are part of the school, and they run the food committee. She is here today because it is her turn. The mothers prepare the food from Monday to Friday. Today is not my day, but I always am here, involved with the activities that are going on. This is chicken liver. We're cooking it with potatoes and white cabbage. She chopped the cabbage to add it to the chicken, so we bulked it up with two types of vegetable, potatoes and cabbage.>> WOMAN [Mother]: Come get a tortilla!>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: The food is very good. I like what we ate today, and other delicious things.>> YADER JOSE CRUZ: The people here are poor, but what there is here is so much love for the community and for the school, and they want their children to get ahead in life, that's why they are so organized, but in real terms they are poor. It isn't that people here have many chances. We can find houses here made out of mud. The good living conditions that you could have in a city are not offered here. Here, life is basic: people work to scrape together a daily living.>> MAN: And to stop, you push the red again. Now, film Robbie.>> TITLE: Children's footage.>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: I'm going to record this. My mom's ironing. This is my dad. This is my dog. He's called Savage. These are my kittens, Dolly and Cutey. This is my brother Francisco. He's 11 years old. This is my brother Deybin, and he's 12 years old. My father is 61 years old. He's a tenant farmer. I like to help him gather the corn we grow. I help him. We help him to finish more quickly so that we don't waste any time. My mom works here in the kitchen and takes care of everything. When we come home from school, she is always working here and has food ready so that we can eat right away. She prepares everything for us. Almost every day they give us homework. It is nice to finish it.>> CELESTINO ZAMORA MUNOZ [David's father]: The children's studies are really important to me because they are more advanced than we were at their age. They have more knowledge of the sciences.>> FRANCISCO ZAMORA MUNOZ [David's brother]: This is the universe.>> CELESTINO ZAMORA MUNOZ: Their schooling is so different from mine because we were exposed to so little. I was one of eight children, nine, ten with my parents. My father was a farm worker like me. I followed in his footsteps, pretty much: working six in the morning until six at night. I didn't do much in the way of studies. I didn't like it. It weighs on me now. I see there are ways to get ahead, and life is difficult for me. I am learning from my sons, though. They teach me words. They say to me, "Papa, you missed something here," "Papa, you left out a little dot there." They correct me. I learn words from what they tell me. They tell me how to write words. I tell them there's a better life, not one with a machete, not farm work, different work, that in their lifetime they will be able to earn more than I do. All that I earn from one day's pay here, I spend. I imagine they say they are going to study and then work. They'll decide when they're older what they want to do. I give them the word of God. I work as a missionary. Today, we have a week of community Bible study. A whole week.>> CECILIA ROSA MUNOZ [David's mother]: One of them says he wants to do the same kind of work as his father. One of them says he'd like to study to be a doctor. Another says he would like to be a musician for the choir in the Catholic Church. They are very studious. They are fascinated by their studies. They never want to miss a day of school because they say they will miss some of the subjects that are taught.>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: Quiet, quiet. We sleep here. This is where the three of us sleep, my two brothers and me, and my mom and dad sleep here.>> FRANCISCO ZAMORA MUNOZ: Shine the light on the Virgin, Deybin! >> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: I like sharing a bed with my brothers because we snuggle up the three of us, and also I like it a lot because we're not quiet in bed. We chat about what we are learning at school and stuff like that. She gets up at four in the morning to make our breakfast. >> FRANCISCO ZAMORA MUNOZ: "Goodbye, and lots of love.">> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: This is my brother Francisco's teacher, Consuelo.>> FRANCISCO ZAMORA MUNOZ: "Signed, Francisco Jose Zamora Munoz.">> CONSUELO OLIVAS JOYA: [Francisco's teacher]: A Child Friendly School is one that provides an education with quality and warmth. A child that attends a different kind of school has a different kind of childhood. Before, there were not the opportunities they have now, because it was very difficult to go to school. Now, education is free. Does anyone think there is enough water in this river? Look at all that empty space over there. They have a lot of support now. They are given pencils and exercise books and so on. And our Ministry of Education helps out by giving desks and books. Conditions are better. Before, the school wasn't like it is now, it was small, a long time ago it was made of clay, then it was rebuilt, with big classrooms and all the facilities we have now.>> CHILD 1 [Student]: They don't bite, do they? >> CHILD 2 [Student]: Yes, they do.>> CONSUELO OLIVAS JOYA: Before, there was no drinking water, no sinks. It was a little school, and now it's not. It's big with everything that children need. The children have the opportunity to express themselves freely and to say what they think. It is a way of life not only for the pupils but the teachers, too. I'm really happy working here. It's my first year in the school. We work hard, and because it is a Child Friendly School you cannot be the kind of teacher who's a clock-watcher. We stay on in the afternoons to work with the children, and with the parents. I feel really relaxed and satisfied working here.>> KARINA [David's teacher]: Is everyone drawing a picture? What does the dove mean to you?>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: Nature. >> KARINA: Yes, nature, what else?>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: We are studying with my teacher. We have classes in civics and social studies.>> KARINA: Are we better off in Nicaragua today? Is there discord? What is life like now? We are united, the country has united, and what do we call this? What does the white dove mean? The white dove is a sign of peace, freedom. We live now in a time of peace and freedom, and we have freedom of expression. Your picture is very pretty. What have you learned in this class? >> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: We are preserving the traditions of Nicaragua.>> KARINA: We are preserving our traditions. What else have you learned?>> CECILIA ROSA MUNOZ: The government has made a difference. There's been a lot of special programs. They've made a lot of changes. Everything today is so different. Everything has changed. When I was little, we lacked a lot of things. School wasn't like it is now. Today, the schools are very nice, and the children have fun. There is more love in the school.>> ANYOLI SANABRIA LOPEZ [UNICEF Education Specialist]: In a country as poor as Nicaragua and in communities as poor as this one, education is very important. Education is a key factor in helping people get out of poverty, and the Child Friendly Schools, we believe, are contributing to achieving this.>> NERYS DEL ROSARIO RODRIGUEZ VIDEA [Municipal Delegate, Ministry of Education]: Using this school, we have begun to extend the model to other schools, so we took the teachers that established it as a Child Friendly School, with the Ministry of Education's authorization, and we transferred the teachers to another school. The teacher who was here at this school with a mixed-grade class went to be the principal of another school with 1,000 students. So we are scaling up the model. We are able to put into practice in other schools the achievements we are getting in this Child Friendly School. We are very interested in quality and warmth in education, because that is our goal. >> ANYOLI SANABRIA LOPEZ: Historically, self-esteem is not something that has been part of the culture in Nicaragua, and poverty limits people's views. This kind of school sets out to release all of the children's potential, to get them to believe in themselves and in their abilities, and to realize their dreams. We believe that a school like this one is doing just that.>> DAVID ZAMORA MUNOZ: I want to be a doctor or a teacher, whichever would be the easiest to accomplish and to learn later on. Being a doctor is good because you learn about diseases and you can help your family. You can give them medicines for the illnesses they have. If they have a headache, you can give them a little pill to make them better. Before, we didn't know anything about our bodies, about the land, the world. I can't imagine life without school, because we wouldn't learn anything. We wouldn't know if there were cars, cows, and other countries. We wouldn't have any knowledge of these things. We wouldn't know anything. Life without our school would be terrible. It is great to study so that we can learn more, and there will always be things we can learn in the future. >>TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ethiopia-insuring-against-famine <p>Can risk management techniques from global financial markets help people in the developing world avoid the worst effects of famine? The World Food Programme's new director of business planning thinks this approach could revolutionize the aid industry.</p> Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:59:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ethiopia-insuring-against-famine Ethiopia, Weather insurance, World Food Programme, Drought, Richard Wilcox, Famine, Meteorology, Emergency management, Insurance, Risk management >> TITLE: Insuring Against Famine >> VOICEOVER: It's something we're used to: pictures of Africans made destitute and desperate by drought, displayed on our TV screens to raise money. Weeks later, the funds are forthcoming; months later, the aid arrives and people receive what they need to survive. The United Nations has tried to address this over the years but UN agencies like the World Food Programme have been operating in the same way for decades. But change is in the air. Richard Wilcox is out to shake it up. He was a member of Bill Clinton's administration, and was invited into WFP with the aim of blowing a fresh wind of commercialism and financial discipline into the business. >> RICHARD WILCOX [Director of Business Planning, WFP]: The big idea behind this project is financing, humanitarian financing. Until we really started this project in its first incarnations about two years ago, the entire aid industry worked on one business model which is, you wait for a crisis to happen, you try to forecast and anticipate as best as you can. But then, when a crisis happens, you go out and assess the damage, you go out and ask for funds, and only when those funds become confirmed to you -- essentially the donors give it to you, they either sign a contract or they move the cash into your bank accounts -- then you start moving. And, in so doing, we found that it's a very inefficient way of responding to disasters, because people need the assistance right then when disaster strikes. So, the solution to that is financing. >> VOICEOVER: It's a USD$2 billion business. Yet, he says, WFP financing is nothing but bookkeeping. He's gathered a team of economists around him to change that. All under 40, all with commercial financial experience, they're something quite new for WFP. >> ULRICH HESS [Chief of Business Risk Planning, WFP]: My name is Ulrich Hess, I am Chief of Business Risk Planning at WFP. Previously I was with the World Bank with a commodity risk management group as senior economist. >> YOSHIKO MAKINO [Contract Lawyer, WFP]: My name is Yoshiko Makino. I am a lawyer qualified in the UK and New York. My area of specialty is finance law, particularly in the field of project finance, asset finance, and securitization. >> JOANNA SYROKA [Quantitative Strategist, WFP]: I'm Joanna Syroka. I'm a quantitative strategist specializing in weather risk management. >> RICHARD WILCOX: Julie, the evaluation team is coming at two. >> VOICEOVER: Introducing radical new financial processes means Richard driving through new methods of working across WFP, and shaking up the whole way people think about the jobs they do. >> RICHARD WILCOX: Planning, thinking through contingencies, trying to anticipate how much funding would come in, really thinking through your business plan over the course of an operation: that placed a whole new burden on our managers, and it's been difficult, but we're finding we're attracting new people because it's an exciting new approach to it. And a lot of the old people actually do have the skills, just never challenged to really use them in this way. >> VOICEOVER: As you'd imagine, it's being looked on with suspicion in some areas of the organization, and by some of the donor governments who provide the funding for WFP. >> NEIL GALLAGHER [Director of Communications, WFP]: In any bureaucracy, you're going to have a certain amount of resistance to new ideas. I think WFP actually is fairly receptive, because 85 percent of our work is emergency based and we have to be flexible. In the end we may find out that WFP is quite receptive, but the donors are a little bit skittish about it. It's too early to say at this point. >> VOICEOVER: The team is into blue-skies thinking, and they're experimenting with various financial techniques. Their latest radical idea is to insure Ethiopia's poor subsistence farmers on the international financial market. They want to take out a weather insurance policy on behalf of people in villages like Waja Washboula. >> RICHARD WILCOX: When our executive director took over in 2003, he challenged us to think through what sort of private sector analogies are relevant for WFP. What is this organization? Yes, we know it's an international organization, it's an aid organization: what does that mean? Are we a global logistics organization? Well, right, like UPS for the poor, right, or FedEx. Are we a project manager like Bechtel, or are we an insurance company? And, from a financial perspective, we really are an insurance company. We need to have funds ready in order to be effective when disaster strikes. >> VOICEOVER: In Ethiopia every eight or ten years there's a calamitous drought that destroys millions of farmers' livelihoods and brings them and their families to the point of starvation They can be left destitute for years. Richard has these people's livelihoods in his sights. At a hotel in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, local government and donor bigwigs have come to hear Richard explain how he hopes weather insurance will work. It starts from a very simple premise. >> RICHARD WILCOX: This line of reasoning essentially is, we need to have funds available when they're needed, when they're needed by the beneficiaries and not when they're mobilized. And, essentially, in the past, all we were able to do, really, in any large-scale form, was to make funds available whenever we were able to mobilize them, which is obviously not the same time that beneficiaries will need the support. >> VOICEOVER: Ulrich Hess explains that the team plan to pilot the weather insurance project for 70 million farmers. He says that that despite the UN presence on the ground, these farmers are still carrying the risk of disaster on their own shoulders. >> ULRICH HESS: We should be managing risks instead of managing crisis. I think this really sums it up, this is where we are trying to help increase up front, a priori, again, smallholder productivity and resilience against drought. >> VOICEOVER: Yoshiko Makino, the corporate lawyer, explains the weather derivative market. It's not well known as it's only been operating for eight years and is still at the cutting edge of financial trading. It's a bit like high-stakes gambling. >> YOSHIKO MAKINO: It's a futures contract. It's because you are forming a contract today about something that might or that might not happen in the future. A farmer may want to take an insurance against lack of rain. On the other hand, for example if you're a construction company and there's a lot of rain, you can't work, you make a loss, so then a construction company may want to insure your risk against too much rain. So what's interesting is, there are lots of people out there with opposing risks that will balance the risk out. >> VOICEOVER: But the farmers in Ethiopia face more than a fall in productivity or profit: bad weather can mean mortal danger here. Some members of the audience are skeptical, but so far they're willing to look for the positive >> MAN: Transferring the risk to the other body, so, in terms of money, we are valuing the climate information in terms of money, and this is ... for me this is an advancement. >> VOICEOVER: Farmers in villages like Waja Washboula are going to be in the pilot project. Hammou Waticha has 15 children. Like all farmers around here, he's regarded as relatively well off. He has two hectares of land, and with reasonable rainfall his family can support itself. >> HAMMOU WATICHA [Farmer]: With good rains I can get six to seven hundred kilograms of grain each year. If there's less rain, then I get less grain. >> VOICEOVER: Hammou knows he faces risks. He, like heads of families across the world, tries to insure himself and his family against them. He diversifies, spreading his assets, not just relying on his land. He keeps as many animals as he can. Farmers here don't have access to banks, so he buys livestock as a form of savings. He puts any extra income into his animals, which he can sell when times get hard. It is a form of insurance against crop failure. To further diversify in case of agricultural failure, he has a tiny shop that his wife runs to earn extra cash. But even this forward planning is not enough when the rains fail completely as they did in 1984 and 2002. >> HAMMOU WATICHA: In the 2002 drought, the cows died and the cattle died and the family went hungry We got less than 200 kilograms from the land that year. When I realized the rains had failed, I sold my cattle and even my oxen, but the price was very low. I got less than 500 for my ox. But then the donors came, gave us food to eat. >> VOICEOVER: These are the droughts that Richard is speaking of. Everyone in the area is affected, along with Hammou and his neighbor, Dalou Waya. The value of livestock plummets as everyone tries to sell at the same time. If you don't sell, the animals die. But selling the oxen they'll need to plough the land once the rains return could leave these farmers completely destitute. >> DALOU WAYA [Farmer]: Before the drought, I had ten different cattle. Because of the drought, some died, and I sold the rest. Even up till now, I've only been able to get back three dairy cows and one ox. And one ox is not enough to plow; you need two oxen to plow. >> VOICEOVER: It is exactly this downward spiral of continuing destitution that weather insurance should prevent. Hammou and his family would receive money immediately the rains fail, before they started suffering, as the insurance company would be contractually compelled to pay up >> RICHARD WILCOX: Charity is a good thing, but it ultimately relies on us advertising other people's misery at their worst moments in order to motivate people to help them. If we can advertise them as productive human beings who have a future but who need help in dealing with shocks that have not yet occurred, but will occur at some point in the future, then it's a much more dignified approach than using their misery to pass around the begging bowl later. >> VOICEOVER: So the question is, can a developing country like Ethiopia enter the weather insurance market? >> VOICEOVER: The World Food Programme is planning to insure vulnerable Ethiopian farmers against drought so that cash for food is available at the time it's needed. But it's not just the farmers who will benefit. It is also better for aid organizations to have access to resources as early as possible. Rushing mountains of food to starving people to keep them alive is expensive. The earlier the money arrives, the cheaper it is to deliver what's needed, and you won't end up providing for destitute families indefinitely. >> RICHARD WILCOX: The 2002-2003 response was as good, as a traditional response, as it gets in Ethiopia, and very few people died as a result of what was the second-worst rainfall year in recent history. But, at the same time, somewhere between one and two million more people fell into destitution, and those people now have become wards of the government and of the international community, which is, leaving aside issues of dignity we just touched upon, is just a terribly expensive proposition. >> VOICEOVER: But first you have to get a company to take on the risk and guarantee the payout. Dr. Jo Syroka has the job of creating a contract, which will quantify the farmer's risk in a way that can be used and trusted by financiers in high-rise offices on the other side of the world. >> JOANNA SYROKA: Everyone around the world knows what a millimeter of rainfall is. So one millimeter of rainfall here in Addis means exactly the same as one millimeter of rainfall in New York or in London. So when we're beginning to transfer ... talking about transferring risk, if we can index it to something like rainfall that both parties understand, we're on a common field and we can begin to really talk about how we can move risk from vulnerable populations to the financial markets. >> VOICEOVER: There are obvious links between a weather risk, its human consequences, and the humanitarian aid needed when the event happens. But, according to Jo Syroka, the emergency aid community is better at managing crisis than managing risk. She's the World Food Programme's link to the international weather risk market, and she's been dispatched to find out if reliable rainfall data can be collected in the rural areas they want to insure. This will form the basis of the contract. International finance is wary of developing countries like Ethiopia because it requires high-quality data, and a lot of it. But rainfall data is internationally recognized, and Jo is sure that Ethiopia has the capacity to fulfill international demands. She's here in Zewai to meet the local meteorologist. >> JOANNA SYROKA: There are many other risks that a farmer faces -- pests, fertilizers, bad seed -- but drought is the biggest one. And there are many ways we can correlate rainfall that happens in the station to the production a farmer expects to get on his field. >> VOICEOVER: Zewai weather station is one of 26 the team chose to provide data for their initial pilot scheme. It's one of the better ones in Ethiopia and the meteorologist does provide reliable rainfall data. The contract stipulates data has to be collected every day at exactly 9am. Then that data has to get to the insurance company within a set number of hours. That's quite a big deal in a country like this where communications are poor. First it's radioed to the Meteorological Headquarters in Addis Ababa. Here, data from all 26 stations will be collated and sent on daily to the insurance company. Ethiopia's history of weather risks means they're well experienced in collecting weather data. At the meteorological agency's archive there's more crucial information. The records go back 50 years, and just like any car insurer checking your previous claims, this detailed archive is used to assess the probability of an extreme weather event and help them calculate the premium. >> MAN [Meteorologist]: We have about 1.8 million charts. We have also about three billion station observations which have been collected since half a century ago. >> JOANNA SYROKA: Although we don't ask these vulnerable beneficiaries to pay a premium like we do in normal insurance -- for example, for your house insurance you pay a premium, for car insurance you pay a premium - there is an inherent obligation in our work to turn up and help these people when they need our assistance, be that food, be it for other agencies shelter, be it some kind of healthcare. And our mandate, if anything, is stronger than an insurance company's, because the timeliness of our aid means people are in mortal peril. >> VOICEOVER: Commercial farmers in Ethiopia, like this large-scale cattle farmer, can afford to take out insurance premiums on an individual basis. But the majority of farmers can't. For them, WFP food handouts have always been like a last-resort insurance. But is it acceptable to rely on this last-minute begging bowl culture? >> JOANNA SYROKA: Insurance is there to help you deal with risks that don't happen often, but when they happen, are really important and dangerous to you. In this case, this is essentially the role WFP has, that the beneficiaries don't pay the premium but we still have that mandate, and we should ensure that we fulfill that mandate as well as possible. We've made promises to essentially assist these people, and we should really make good on that promise. And I think one way of doing that is making sure we manage our risk appropriately for us to do that. >> VOICEOVER: Back in Europe, the contract is ready and the team have presented it to the international insurance companies. Nothing like this has ever been done before, so they were unsure of the outcome. >> JOANNA SYROKA: I think what they were very surprised by is actually we were at such a stage to be ready to transact, and they were incredibly supportive, I think. I don't have to sell this idea to these people. They know that, in the context of risk management, weather risk management, they know this is something that people in America and Europe use to manage their risk. And why shouldn't we? Why shouldn't people here in Africa use the same tool? I mean, that's the whole objective of our work, is to take things that people in America or in Europe take for granted and can benefit, you know, can capitalize on, and bring them here, because here they probably have more impact than back home. >> VOICEOVER: In fact, six international finance houses offered to take the risk. In the end AXA won the contract >> YOSHIKO MAKINO: What was wonderful was on the night I closed the transaction with AXA, and really the absolute enthusiasm coming from them of, really this is the beginning of perhaps a new phase of financing, you know, something to come. So I think there's a huge amount of enthusiasm I've seen from the private sector. And also, I have to confess, in this process I was a little bit worried that maybe I'm not going to get the terms that are essential, and I have to tell you that when we opened the envelope, really it was a very, very good premium, a market standard type of premium, that I was really extremely happy. >> VOICEOVER: So is this the start of a new form of humanitarian funding? >> YOSHIKO MAKINO: From the, I think, the positive response that we've got so far, and the details of the response to the terms in the tender that we have, yes, I think so, I think I can be very optimistic that it is something that's possible. Definitely. >> VOICEOVER: For Richard Wilcox, it's been an achievement to prove that the international financial market will take on the risk of some of the world's most vulnerable people. But this is only one of many tools he plans to use to bring even greater efficiency into the humanitarian aid world. >> RICHARD WILCOX: It's a tool one uses for a humanitarian end. It's a modern tool, and we're actually quite proud that we've been able to tap into quite such a modern tool, something that wasn't around even eight years ago. And it's our responsibility in trying to make the most out of the funds that the donor community is able and willing to make available for our beneficiaries, to essentially have a relentless search for innovation of what can we do to make this work better. And for that, we should be tapping into the most advanced services and tools we can find. >> VOICEOVER: Richard's team are looking to the future. They've started the ball rolling on behalf of the world's poorest. Now they hope that the ideas they're piloting will bring an end to the begging bowl and ad hoc nature of aid provision for vulnerable peoples worldwide. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coffee-awakens-a-national-economy <p>Coffee has become a powerful economic driver for Rwanda, but how have the country's farmers managed to transform their crop into a premium product that can command top prices? The answer lies in washing stations and bicycles.</p> Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:26:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coffee-awakens-a-national-economy Coffee, Agriculture, Rwanda, USAID, Kigali, East Africa, Butare, Coffee bean, SPREAD, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Green Living Project presents "Coffee Awakens a National Economy" SPREAD >> TITLE: East Africa, Rwanda, Kigali, Butare >> SIGN: SPREAD National University of Rwanda >> TIM SCHILLING [Executive Director, SPREAD]: I'm Tim Schilling, and I'm the director of the USAID SPREAD project. This is a project with the single objective of raising the incomes of rural Rwandans, and to do that, we have targeted the specialty coffee sector, because we know that, with 500,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda, and an average family size of seven, that anything that we could do to increase the price of coffee would actually affect the livelihoods of one half of the population of Rwanda. >> TIM SCHILLING: Five hundred thousand farmers were processing coffee in 500,000 different ways. The common denominator there is always going to be poor quality. The challenge was, well, gee, with so many different farmers, how are we going to organize it to produce a quality product? So, the answer to that was the centralized coffee washing station. We are able to sort, select, and purchase only high-quality cherries. The downside of that is the fact that once you have just one center, that means all these farmers now have to travel in to that center with their cherries rather than just taking them home. Five to 12 kilometers with a 30-kilo load of coffee cherries on top of your head can take five, six, even up to eight hours to make it to the coffee washing station. During that time, the coffee in the cherry starts degrading, the quality degrades. There's a fermentation process that starts taking [place] inside the cherry imparting off flavors to the coffee bean that's inside, and that degrades the quality. Degrading the quality obvious degrades the price, so you lose value like that. >> JOSH [Volunteer, University of California]: It all started when Tom Ritchey, one of the creators of the mountain bike, came here in 2006, I believe, and he saw these wooden bikes that a lot of people use to carry coffee here -- it's basically like a scooter -- and he saw that and thought, "Jeez, if they had a decent bike to carry this coffee, they could make a huge difference." So he went back to the States. He's been building bike frames for 30 years, and came up with this design, talked to Schwinn and Dahon, and got them to let us use both their factories in China. >> TIM SCHILLING: But as the farmers pay for those bikes on a three-year microcredit loan, that money goes into another separate account, which is set up to buy more bikes, or things like maybe a school, or something like that, so it goes back to the cooperative. >> MAN [Coffee farmer]: To bring the cherries to the washing station is very easy. You don't need to pay someone to help you to bring the cherries to the washing station. If there's no rain, you can take 100 kilograms without a problem. >> PASCAL KALISA GAKWAYA [Coffee Regional Coordinator, SPREAD]: Because here we are in the cupping lab, they roast the samples from the coffee washing station, and after roasting, they ground, because they want to test each load from the washing station and score it. You push it around the mouth, and you have to do it because if the coffee is around the mouth, you can feel the body and the chocolate around the tongue. >> TIM SCHILLING: The coffee quality itself is just so high, it's so unique in its character, that it has become sought after. So as soon as we expose it or unveil the true quality of the coffee, the coffee industry, the specialty coffee industry picked it up immediately and started to source high-quality coffees out of Rwanda, and, of course, they're paying top dollar for it, and that top dollar makes it back to the farmer, which is what it's all about. >> TITLE: Green Living Project www.greenlivingproject.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/climate-change-hardest-hit-empowered-women-of-ethiopia Southern Ethiopia is being hit hard by climate change, and the region's women often bear the brunt of hardships caused by unpredictable weather patterns and drought. But these women are reacting by empowering themselves, partnering with a local organization to share information and improve their living conditions. Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:39:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/climate-change-hardest-hit-empowered-women-of-ethiopia Ethiopia, Oxfam, Rain, Water, Climate change, Africa, Borena zone, Drought, Agriculture & Food, Agriculture >> TITLE: Climate Change Hardest Hit: Empowered Women of Ethiopia >> TITLE: A film by Alan Catello Grazioso>> TITLE: Narrated by Majora Carter.>> TERUFUA BAGAJO [DEWS Data Collector]: The climate is changing. Every year the amount of rain is decreasing. What all people are feeling is fear, fear of what they will face tomorrow.>> LOKO DADACHA [Community leader]: There is an acute shortage of water, especially clean water. Our children are suffering from hunger. >> TITLE: Ethiopia, Addis Ababa>> MAJORA CARTER: Human life began in this region of Africa. While the people of Ethiopia have always had to cope with droughts, climate change is making things even worse, bringing about more unpredictable weather and more frequent and severe droughts.>> TITLE: Ethiopia, Addis Ababa>> TITA MEKONNEN [Aid worker, Ethiopia]: In the last major rainy season, this area received rain only for five days, so the ponds are not storing enough water, not enough pasture is growing, and the crops are failing. If the natural resource is not doing good, the livestock cannot survive, and if the livestock cannot do good, the people cannot survive.>> MAJORA CARTER: The Borena people who live here are herders and depend on their animals for food and income. >> LOKO DADACHA: During the dry season it takes six hours a day to gather water. Over the years, rainfall has decreased.>> MAJORA CARTER: Villagers must rely on water from the same pond where animals drink.>> ADI TADHICHA [Community member]: We need to rehabilitate the pond and keep it clean.>> MAJORA CARTER: One new strategy this community has undertaken is a drought early warning system called DEWS. That helps turn the deep knowledge women have of their communities into action. It's a partnership between villagers and a local group called the Gayo Pastoralist Development Initiative. >> TEREFUA BAGAJO: My name is Terefua Bagajo. I'm a data collector. Every month I come to this area and collect data from five women and report that to Gayo. My questionnaire has 25 questions on sanitation, clean water, food, livestock, and pasture, as well as health. In our community, women are the first to feel the effect of drought. They know best about problems in the home, with children and the cattle. They know about shortage of food and water. They know what it means to have something and then lose it. That's why we collect data from them.>> MAJORA CARTER: That information gets plotted on a graph, and when spikes reveal trouble, that triggers action. The community is key to identifying solutions.>> KALICHA CHACHU [Community elder]: Sitting idle is good for nothing. It does not sustain or change your life. So we rehabilitate ponds. We are also clearing invasive bushes and preparing rangeland.>> MAJORA CARTER: Local solutions include deepening and repairing ponds so they'll hold more water, distributing drought-tolerant goats to help families rebuild their herds, and improving public health by building latrines.>> LOKO DADACHA: We benefitted from these projects and were able to make it through the last drought. If you're asking me what I wish, it's to get enough rain and grass and pasture. I wish to become self-sufficient.>> TITLE: oxfamamerica.org/climate Oxfam America http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-futures-saving-lives-the-story-of-project-peanut-butter <p>Children with malnutrition are being given a radical new treatment that is cheap and incredibly effective: fortified peanut butter. Best of all, mothers can administer the ready-to-use food at home, eliminating the need for hospital stays, and empowering families to treat themselves.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:40:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-futures-saving-lives-the-story-of-project-peanut-butter Malnutrition, Project Peanut Butter, Malawi, Peanut butter, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Foreign Assistance, Change Makers, Child mortality, Health, LinkTV Picks >> VOICEOVER: Malnutrition. Every year, malnutrition kills twice as many children as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Yet there is hope. An inexpensive, revolutionary therapy is saving children's lives right now. >> TITLE: Project Peanut Butter >> VOICEOVER: Since 2004, Project Peanut Butter has been treating children in Malawi, a country with one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world. As a faculty member at Washington University Medical School, Dr. Manary founded Project Peanut Butter to bring the most effective malnutrition therapy to the children who need it most. >> TITLE: Alefa. Age: 7 months, 4.4 pounds underweight. Day 1 of treatment. >> VOICEOVER: Alefa is seven months old. She is just entering the critical six-month- to two-year-old window where children are most vulnerable to the impact of malnutrition. >> JASON REINKING [Medical student and volunteer]: Alefa is severely malnourished and marasmic, as you can see from the extremely small arms. >> VOICEOVER: Severely malnourished children at this age are at great risk. Untreated, more than half will die. >> TITLE: Pilirani. Age: 2 years. Severe edema. Day 1 of treatment. >> VOICEOVER: Pilirani is two years old. Severely malnourished kids often swell up with edema, a painful buildup of fluid under the skin. Pilirani's swelling is so severe he can barely walk. Until recently, the best treatment available for Pilirani and Alefa was one to two months of hospitalization. But, even in the best rural hospitals, only 25 to 40 percent of children fully recover. Project Peanut Butter gets much better results by distributing a special, ready-to-use, therapeutic food to the mothers, who will take it with them and treat their own children at home. Ready-to-use, therapeutic food is powerful medicine. This peanut-based formula is effective, easy to use, and empowers mothers, and most kids love it. It's more than just peanut butter. Over years of careful experiments and testing, Dr. Manary and his colleagues developed a new formula. It's a precise blend ideal for bringing children back from the edge of starvation. >> TITLE: Milk powder. Roasted peanuts. Vegetable oil. Sugar. Vitamins. Minerals. >> VOICEOVER: The results are dramatic. Six weeks after their first visit, Alefa and Pilirani return for one of their checkups. >> JASON REINKING: What we've seen over the course of the last six weeks has been really good progress, so we're hopeful that she'll come completely up to a healthy weight for this child. >> ALEFA'S MOTHER: I want the peanut butter program to keep going. Without it, my children would probably be dead by now. >> VOICEOVER: After six weeks of treatment, Pilirani is on a promising path. He is now likely to remain healthy and avoid lingering consequences. >> DR. MARK MANARY [Founder and Director, Project Peanut Butter]: Ninety-five percent of these children are recovering. Ninety-five percent. That is really something powerful. >> VOICEOVER: And this success rate comes at a fraction of the old therapy's cost. Today, saving one child costs the project a total of about USD$25. Project Peanut Butter has an ambitious vision: to save over 2,000,000 children from severe malnutrition by 2015. >> ROSEMARY GODWA [Lead Nurse, Project Peanut Butter]: I wish Project Peanut Butter to grow like a baobab tree, which starts small, and grows big, big, big, bigger, and biggest, so it can reach every needy child. >> VOICEOVER: You can make a difference. Please, go to projectpeanutbutter.org. Learn more about this urgent, life-saving work. Remember, there is hope. >> TITLE: www.projectpeanutbutter.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/vidiyal-ict-for-development <p>Groups of women in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu in India are using mobile phones and computer technology in innovative ways to benefit their agriculture-based businesses.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/vidiyal-ict-for-development Information and communication technologies, India, Vidiyal, Mobile phone, Information technology, Theni district, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Tamil Nadu, Agriculture, SMS >> JYOTHIKA: My name is Jyothika. >> GIRL: I listen to music on the computer >> BOY: Painting, internet. >> JYOTHIKA: I want to become a doctor. >> BOY: Keyboard. >> TITLE: Using ICT [information and communication technologies] to build Social Capital. The Vidiyal Experience. >> VOICEOVER: Vidiyal works with women in four villages of the Theni district of Tamil Nadu, under the self-help group [SHG] model helping them in, among other things, procuring loans for various income-generation activities. But when, in 2008, 300 women applied for a loan of 43,500 rupees to buy 10 female goats and one male goat to augment their incomes, they also added a rather unusual component to their loan amount: the cost of a mobile phone and a SIM card. Here's why. >> VOICEOVER: Every day, each of the women who will sanction the loan for goat rearing must, in addition to looking after their goats, also wait for and listen to the five audio SMSs sent in. Delivered in Tamil, these audio SMSs give information about goat rearing. Next, they must get this information written out in these special notebooks given to them, so that each of the SMSs can be discussed in the next group meeting. The idea is to make sure that the women have all the requisite information to take care of the goats. The best part of the SMSs is that they are recorded each day in Theni itself, using nothing but a regular mobile phone. Once recorded, the message is sent as an SMS to a central server in Delhi from where it is beamed to all those who have the special SIM card. >> SIGN: Village Knowledge Center >> VOICEOVER: Vidiyal has also helped the women SHGs in setting up village knowledge centers, or VKCs, in four different villages. Equipped with a couple of computers, a printer, electricity, and an internet connection, these VKCs help the women earn some extra money. They also help children of the villages get acquainted with computer technology. Some of the VKCs also have this special touchscreen kiosk, which contains prerecorded information on different subjects, such as agriculture, health, and livestock, that can be accessed even by an illiterate person. >> LAKSHMI [SHG Leader, Badralipuram]: We get crop-related information on fertilizers and other such things. We also get updated information on the prevailing prices in the market, which helps us decide on where to sell our crops. >> VOICEOVER: The VKCs are now also being used by the women of the SHGs for weekly legal counseling sessions, through the free-to-use Skype software. Skype allows face-to-face interaction with the local, government-appointed lawyer, without the women having to leave their villages. Poor, uneducated women -- and yet completely at ease with technology. The Vidiyal experience has shown that, with the right training, and the right grassroots approach, ICT can be harnessed fruitfully to improve lives of the poorest of the poor.