Holiday Gifts that will EDUCATE.INSPIRE.CHANGE.

Team up with World Camp this Holiday season by dedicating gifts that will transform communities in Malawi. Choose the projects you want to support and dedicate your gifts in the name of loved ones. We'll send them notification of your gift with a special Holiday card and connect you to the communities you help!

TEACH A CHILD TO READ & WRITE

It's a simple solution - literacy and education are essential to escaping poverty. Basic language skills dramatically improve success in school and can lead children to a brighter future. $5 provides a child access to after school literacy workshops for a week.

Suggested gift: $25

TRAIN & EQUIP COMMUNITY LEADERS
It takes a village - leadership workshops engage all community stakeholders in the process of establishing goals and services.  Engaging and mobilizing all stakeholders builds a legacy sustained by the community themselves. $5 sponsors a community member's participation in a leadership workshop.
Suggested gift: $75

PROVIDE BOYS AND GIRLS LIFE SKILLS TRAINING

Life skills projects are designed to foster educated, valued, and healthy adolescents who are decision makers and the future leaders who will drive positive social change in their rural villages. $10 sponsors a child's participation in a four day  life skills camp.

Suggested gift: $125

SEND A CHILD WITH HIV TO CAMP HOPE

Camp Hope Malawi is the result of World Camp's partnership with the Paul Newman Foundation and the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. Built upon the Association of Hole in the Wall Camp's model this project provides HIV positive youth the social and emotional support to regain their sense of optimism, possibility and hope. Sponsor a child this Holiday and join World Camp in building the self-worth and confidence in 60 HIV+ youth at Camp Hope Malawi.

 Suggested gift: $275

Please visit our website and choose your gift that will

EDUCATE.INSPIRE.CHANGE.

African Risk Capacity Program Responds to Rise in Extreme Weather

A new report linking climate change and recent extreme weather events was released today in Kampala, Uganda by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The report is the culmination of a two-year process involving 100 scientists and policy experts and predicts that certain types of extreme weather will multiply in number and intensity as human-induced global warming increases in the future.  Specifically, the IPCC found that there is at least a 66% chance that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities, including coal-fired power plants and fuel burned through transportation, have led to an upsurge in climate extremes.  Although the report was hesitant to draw any conclusions relating human-induced greenhouse gas emissions to hurricanes, tropical storms, and tornadoes, it did cite human activity as the likely culprit for the rise in record-high temperatures, fewer record lows, and greater coastal flooding.  

Furthermore, the report stated that damage incurred through recent weather catastrophes has become exorbitant due to the “[r]apid urbanization and growth of megacities, especially in developing countries . . . [which] have led to the emergence of highly vulnerable urban communities, particularly through informal settlements and inadequate land management.”  While the industrialized world worries about economic and insured losses due to extreme weather, developing nations’ losses are typically measured in human lives and proportion of gross domestic product.  

To cope with the increased frequency of extreme weather and its effects on vulnerable populations, the African Union has created the African Risk Capacity (ARC) program.  As an alternative to the current system, which provides funding for disasters only on an ad hoc basis, the ARC would establish contingency funding that could become available automatically when extreme weather hit.  The ARC is modeled on the Caribbean Catastrophe Rick Insurance Facility, a program that “uses a parametric instrument to trigger payouts, which means that the payment is triggered by measurements of the intensity of the event rather than an assessment of damage incurred, thus ensuring quick release of funds at times affected countries need it most.”

For more on the African Risk Capacity program:
http://www.africanriskcapacity.org/about/background

For coverage of the IPCC’s report:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/report-climate-change-means-more-frequent-droughts-floods-to-come/2011/11/15/gIQAfwqHXN_print.html

To find out more about the IPCC:
http://www.ipcc.ch/

Is an AIDS-free Generation Possible?

In a speech given Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a major shift in U.S. fight against AIDS, which she hopes will lead to an “AIDS-free generation.”  Whereas the previous focus under President George W. Bush was on ABC: abstinence, being faithful, and using condoms; the Obama administration wants to concentrate on circumcision, mother-child transmission and “test-and-treat” solutions.  In other words, the strategy is no longer aimed solely at prevention, but rather at scientific intervention and treatment.

Mrs. Clinton’s speech was praised by many, including Dr. Unni Karunakara, international president of Doctors Without Borders, who called it “very encouraging to see the U.S. government wanting to turn the latest H.I.V. science into policies that will save lives while beginning to reverse the epidemic.”  Others, like Dr. Mead Over of the Center for Global Development, were more cautious, stating that “[Mrs. Clinton’s] vision for an AIDS-free generation is ambitious, but we don’t have strong evidence yet that we can achieve that.”  

While Mrs. Clinton did not address many details, such as funding, she did articulate one specific goal: to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of the disease by 2015.  She also emphasized the importance of circumcision for men, multidrug cocktails for pregnant woman, and treatment of patients from the date of infection instead of when symptoms first appear as measures to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Drug companies such as Mylan, maker of an antiretroviral drug which treats one third of HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world, are encouraged at the shift in the administration’s policy.  In reaction to Clinton’s speech, Mylan’s president Heather Bresch commented, “

While the generics industry has made significant contributions toward making HIV/AIDS medicines more affordable, we believe the focus must now turn to expanding access to treatment for more people.  As such we’re heartened that the Obama administration is embracing treatment as prevention and rallying global leaders to help end the global HIV/AIDS pandemic by making the creation of an ‘AIDS-free generation’ a policy priority.

AIDS activists across the world also applauded Clinton’s speech and the administration’s bold new scientific focus in fighting the disease, which is thought to infect nearly 34 million people worldwide.  

To read the New York Times recap:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/health/policy/hillary-rodham-clinton-aims-for-aids-free-generation.html
And for some reactions from Africa:
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?storyid=%7Bfacbe32c-ab0a-4cce-83ec-3e0dc4cbda31%7D
Watch Clinton’s entire speech at the NIH here:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid52223497001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAGWqYgE~,KxHPzbPALrFyReeXAVeKZGa43PKUv3A9&bctid=1265084101001

War on Malaria

When most people think of disease in Africa, HIV/AIDS typically comes to mind as the most severe problem; however, malaria claims more lives annually and creates a miserable yearly routine for many Africans.  During the rainy season in Malawi, which runs from November to April, many villagers end up contracting malaria multiple times.  It is difficult to find a Malawian family that is untouched by the disease, which is the leading cause of death in the country.  In a “From the Field” article on the Malaria Vaccine Initiative’s website, the Jackson family from Chakwindima, a rural village west of Lilongwe, is profiled.  Despite taking precautions, the Jacksons contracted the disease a total of 14 times between 5 family members over the course of the 2007-2008 malaria season.

“We sleep under bed nets every night,” said Jacques Jackson, 36, the father.  “But we also spend some time in the early evening outside,” a time thick with mosquitoes, which transmit the disease-causing parasite to humans when they bite them.

Mary Jackson, the mother, “prepares food for us and cooks outside.  The children like to be close to their mother, and so they are outside with her.  And maybe they even are bitten when they sleep under the nets, because they often roll right up against the nets, where the mosquitoes can get them.”

http://www.malariavaccine.org/FromthefieldSeptember2008.php

By James Ratemo, jratemo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, October 19  2011 at  15:32

In fact, malaria claims close to 800,000 lives annually, most of which are young children living in Sub-Saharan Africa, and costs African countries more than $12 billion in lost GDP.  With staggering figures such as these, it is easy to see how a potential solution to the malaria crisis could change the lives and futures of millions of Africans.  Although malaria vaccines have been in the works for decades, none have come close to the success of the recent Phase III trials of RTS,S, a drug first developed by GlaxoSmithKlein over 25 years ago to be used by the U.S. military.  More recently, the project has been backed by grant monies from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is committed to eradicating malaria worldwide.

Preliminary results from Phase III trials of RTS,S, released October 18, 2011, show that it protected nearly half of the children who received it with acceptable safety and tolerability.  Clinical trials will include tests of over 15,000 children and are scheduled to continue through 2014.

To read the entire article:

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/New+vaccine+fights+malaria+better++study+shows/-/1066/1258052/-/item/0/-/frsujp/-/index.html

And check out this video from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose $200 million grant is contributing to the development of RTS,S: