This is a Cross-Post from The Minnesota Daily

French archaeologist Paul Veyne struck proverbial gold when he quipped, “When one does not see what one does not see, one does not even see that one is blind.”

In the great spirit of enlightenment and awareness, one should know that today, October 8, is World Sight Day. Even in this great age of progress, with all humanity’s power of knowledge, technology and medicine, simple blindness still hinders many. According to the World Health Organization, there are 314 million people living with low vision and blindness. Even more appalling, 80 percent of blindness is preventable or treatable.

Vision 2020, an advocate for this annual awareness event, states that these current numbers are actually a drastic improvement compared to past years. In 1985 the number of people affected by blinding trachoma was roughly 70 percent higher than it is today. But this major reduction cannot stop here, as the group also claims that if major intervention in the situation does not continue to take place, the current number of people with blindness will almost double in 10 years.
Cataracts and trachoma are two of the most common causes of impaired vision, and parts of the extended list of ailments that Vision 2020 aims to eliminate entirely by the year 2020.
They believe they will be able to follow through with this plan by implementing a combination of three different elements: cost effective disease control, human resource development and the use of infrastructure and technology.

The goal of eliminating preventable blindness and the steps that Vision 2020 has outlined are commendable, but another part of me is always skeptical of such lofty goals. I feel like if I’ve never heard of these harsh realities, neither have a lot of other people. Wouldn’t it be hard to end a world crisis without the help of the public donating and acting as advocates? But on the other hand, the progress already made is indisputable, and this was done largely under the radar.

Yet, in addition to the work being done by Vision 2020, there are a number of other organizations contributing to the aim as well. ORBIS International, a fully equipped teaching hospital operating within a traveling airplane, has made great strides in treating avoidable blindness. Since 1982, they have directly treated 9.2 million patients with blindness-related illnesses. In addition, they have also trained more than 234,000 ophthalmologists, nurses, biomedical engineers and other health care workers to aid in the treatment and prevention of sightlessness. With some optimism, these advocates will be able to reduce the scourge of blindness among children, as well. Read the rest of this entry »

This film by Simon Sticker introduces three projects that the Baobab Family, a Germany-based nonprofit, carries out in Mombasa, Kenya. The Baobab Family cares for 31 kids at its orphanage, teaches tailoring skills that enable community members to earn an income, and supports people affected by HIV/AIDS while raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. Sticker says, “Even when a film could not give you the experience — the smell in the slums, the sounds and the feeling of being in these little huts — … maybe it could give a glimpse of a feeling for it. And of what could actually be done.”

BAOBAB from Flow Media on Vimeo.

Simon Sticker
Baobab Family

In this episode, documentary producer Trent O’Donnell was sent to Nepal to capture the essence of a World Expeditions voluntourism trip. He joined 13 travelers on a trek into one of the most remote parts of Nepal. During their stay they refurbished the Saramthali school and repaired a retaining wall that were constantly threatened by the harsh climate of the Himalayas.
This is a story of traveling with a purpose and the effect it has on all people involved.

Positive Footprints - Nepal from WorldNomads on Vimeo.

Positive Footprints
Footprints Network
World Expeditions

This is a cross-post from Twin Cities Daily Planet by Douglas McGill

Immigrants to Minnesota from eastern Ethiopia are being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom payments to support an Ethiopian security force that tortures and kills thousands of innocent Ethiopians.

Under an extortion scheme run by the Ethiopian army, soldiers in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia abduct men, women and teenage boys and girls, holding them without charge in one of scores of military jails in the region, which borders Somalia.

Knowing that many Ogaden families have relatives who live in Minnesota, the Ethiopian army tells the prisoners’ families that their loved ones can be freed upon payment of ransoms ranging from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

Hating to pay the money but having no other choice, the Minnesota refugees empty their personal bank accounts and pass the hat to raise ransoms to release their husbands, wives, sons, daughters and friends from overcrowded jails where torture, rape, beatings and killings are common.

Destruction of Villages

“It is a booming business for the Ethiopian army,” said Mohamed, a Minnesota school teacher who immigrated from the Ogaden in 1993. “It happens every day in the Ogaden, and every day someone in Minnesota is sending money.”

Mohamed and other Ogaden immigrants quoted in this story declined to give their full names for fear that their families and friends living in the Ogaden would be jailed, tortured or killed in retribution for their openness.

In recent years, one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises has unfolded silently in the Ogaden region, where a vicious counter-insurgency campaign by the Ethiopian government has wiped out scores of villages, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced tens of thousands or more to refugee camps in Ethiopia and northern Kenya.

About 5,000 Ogaden refugees have found their way to Minnesota, which has one of the largest refugee populations from the Ogaden crisis in the world. They Ogaden refugees in Minnesota are settled mainly in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Willmar, St. Cloud and Faribault. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a cross-post from World Vision U.S. by Simon Peter Esaku, World Vision Uganda, and Rachael Boyer

Franka, 17, sits with her baby, Sharon, in front of the Pader Girls Academy. Photo | Simon Peter Esaku/World VisionShe was born at the Kalongo Hospital in northern Uganda in 1992. Fifteen years later, Franka Aneno was back in the same ward, this time to deliver her own child — a baby girl named Sharon.

What Franka had thought was only a little adventure with a boyfriend became a life-changing situation. “When my mother found out I was pregnant, she whipped me,” Franka recalls. Then, adding insult to injury, Franka’s head teacher expelled her from school.

After her baby was born, Franka lived at home with her mother and 10-year-old sister, helping grow food and caring for baby Sharon. A Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed Franka’s father in 2003.

Franka’s ray of hope

When her baby was about a year old, Franka found out about a program that might help her continue her education. It gave her a reason to hope. “In April [2008], I applied for World Vision to give me a scholarship to learn vocational skills in Pader Girls Academy,” says Franka. “My application was successful, and I reported to the academy in August.”

With Sharon securely wrapped to Franka’s back, the young mother explains, “I am learning tailoring and knitting, and I will complete my course in May this year.” Read the rest of this entry »

Getting to work with passionate, documentary photographers is one of one of the perks of NEED. One such photographer, Anna Kari, donated images for our arguably most difficult article to date, Issue 2’s child soldiers story. We are proud to share Anna’s latest project which has been featured in TIME magazine with you.

>>view the photo story

Anna Kari

This is a cross-post from Peter Casier’s blog The Road to the Horizon

Video courtesy of WFP

I regularly get emails from people asking more information on how to join one of the humanitarian organizations, either full time, part-time or as a volunteer.

One of the goals of this site is to provide people with inspiration, and -if possible- make them think about humanitarian issues. So, getting that amount of queries is really great, and I try to give sufficient information to get them on their way.

If you have been interested in this field of work, but never dared to ask the question, then today’s post, is your post: “How to become an aid worker, in 1-2-3″ or something like that.

I write this with the fear of being grossly incomplete and vague. But it should set you on your way.

1. On the crossroads of life?

Many of the people who wrote to me, talked about being on the crossroads of life. Looking for a new challenge, a new meaning-full job. Have a read how I got into this work … .

2. What is “Aid Work”? What is “Development Work”? How Does It All Work?

Before we start, you should definitively have a look at this excellent eLearning tool from Alertnet. You might also have a look at this excellent introduction manual from All-In Diary.

3. What kind of people are these humanitarian organizations interested in?

or “Do I have to be a doctor or a nurse to work in the humanitarian field?”

Well, let’s compare a humanitarian organization to something we all know. A company. Say, a construction company. The activities in a construction company -like in any company-, you can split in two parts: the internal support part and the external part.

The latter deals with the external world within the specialty of that company. For instance, in a construction company, the external part would be the architects, engineers, construction workers: all people specialized in the core business of that company: “construction.” Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends at Think MTV blogged about the “screwtheman - savetheworld” campaign. Read it here.

This article was cross-posted from Okinawa Marine

Lance Cpl. Stefanie C. Pupkiewicz PURSAT PROVINCE, Cambodia (May 22, 2009)
Cambodian Medical personnel with 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, stand with members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and nongovernmental organizations during the opening ceremony of the Cambodian Interoperability Program May 11 at a Buddhist temple in Pursat Province, Cambodia. Photo by Lance Cpl. Stefanie C. Pupkiewicz.

U.S. Navy medical personnel from 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, here, participated in Cambodian Interoperability Program 2009, a medical and dental capabilities exercise which started May 11.

The program, which began in 2007 as a combined medical exercise between U.S. and Cambodian forces, is designed to increase the interaction and ability of both forces in responding to a humanitarian crisis. For this year’s exercise, an estimated 10,000 people received medical and dental assistance.

An opening ceremony was held May 11 at Wat Bakan, a Buddhist temple, here. Hundreds of people assembled outside the temple where medical and dental services were administered by 3rd Med. Bn. sailors, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and local nongovernmental organizations.

“This combined medical exercise is designed to keep the sailors combat ready and to coordinate with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to treat the people of Pursat Province,” said Maj. John Cherry, the Cambodian foreign affairs officer for the III MEF. Read the rest of this entry »

This article was cross-posted from Scarlett Lion: Liberia

I’ve been working with UNICEF on a project about Liberian girls for the past few weeks. On Tuesday, I posted about Ruth, and yesterday some portraits, and over the next view days, I’ll put up photos and text about Joseta and the workshop.

All of the photos are already up on www.glennagordon.com. 
Read more about UNICEF’s project “I have something to tell you.”

Photos are of Janice at work, school and youth group. Text refers to when she addressed the workshops sponsored by UNICEF. 

Read the rest of this entry »