Here is an excellent blog post from Duncan McNicholl, an aid worker with Engineers without Borders Canada, that explores how photos taken in developing countries can be used to portray people in very different ways depending on the photographer’s intent. The entire post is well worth reading, but in particular this paragraph seems to hit the nail on the head:

The truth is that the development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive.  Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public.  I found it outrageous that such an incomplete and often inaccurate story was being so widely perpetuated by the organizations on the ground – the very ones with the ability and the responsibility to communicate the realities of rural Africa accurately.

I miss these places. Scenes from Kenya - The Big Picture

I’m pretty much on a blogging spree today (obviously I’ve spent the majority of the day studying and I desperately needed a distraction). There is a possibility my internship in Geneva this summer will be working with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). I get goosebumps just thinking I could contribute in a small way to global eradication.

A New African Land Grab? →

I first ran across this on Good.is, and I was immediately struck by how familiar the scene in the left panel looked. Sure enough, the pictures come from Kenya. I’m willing to wager the pictures were taken in Kibera, a massive slum in Nairobi. Kibera is home to some 600 thousand to 1.2 million people (nobody really knows for sure) who live in makeshift shacks of wood, iron sheets, and whatever else can be found. There are lively markets, churches, a few charity clinics, but mostly shacks stretching out in every direction.

Toileting is a problem in Kibera. There are nearly no flush toilets: people rely upon privately-owned pit latrines (‘choo’ is Kiswahili for toilet). People pay a fee to use them, 3 shillings or about 4-6 cents. The cost is restrictive for many people living in poverty — this leaves several options. Some people will defecate in plastic bags and then throw them as far away from their home as possible. This creates a problem with ‘flying toilettes’, especially at night. Others will utilize a bed pan and dump it into the muddy streams flowing between the shacks. Children will often find a corner, drop trow, and defecate openly.

Anders Wilhelmson, a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur, seems to have come up with a novel solution: the Peepoo bag. What makes this bag different from an ordinary plastic bag is a layer of urea crystals which break down the waste into fertilizer and kills pathogens in feces. The bag can be tied off, buried, and safely disposed off. It’s such a simple idea, the cost is low (3 cents per bag), and it has the potential to really combat childhood diarrhea.

The Peepoo website is great, I would definitely recommend checking it out. I do have some doubts about the bag’s efficacy in killing fecal pathogens though. The company claims complete decontamination after 4 weeks at moderate temperatures (24C) and faster times at high temperatures (34C). The temperature in Nairobi rarely gets that high, and I wonder how long pathogens would remain in the bags. A really good sealing mechanism would be needed, especially during the rainy season. All that said, it will be very interesting to see what happens with this.

The first picture was found here, the rest were taken last summer or Fall 2008.

Every child has the right to clean water and sanitation so they can be as healthy as possible.

Watch Caroline’s Story via UNICEF

Sigh..

I hope very much that I am not guilty of presenting the ‘single story’. I started this blog in part to discuss the health challenges in East Africa, not to paint a picture of universal poverty, suffering, hunger, and disease (I know that many of my posts focus on these issues). In my limited experiences in Kenya I have time and time again met dedicated, well-educated, clever Kenyans working to solve the their countries’ health problems. They face an enormous challenge, but I’ve seen firsthand the progress they continue to accomplish. They deserve all our recognition and support. This video is nice reminder to tell their stories too.

A greater effort to present the ‘whole story’ rather than the ‘one story’ is very much needed.

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between the people living on the left side of the yellow line and the people living on the right side of the yellow line?

If you’re thinking “Well damn, I have no idea. It looks like somebody just arbitrarily drew a line across the land” you would be nearly right. Specifically, it’s the border between modern day Kenya and Somalia — a border that (to my limited knowledge) was arbitrarily drawn by European colonialists carving up Africa. Granted there are significant cultural differences between Kenyans and Somalis, but these people never recognized a strict border drawn across the land.  The people living on either side of the line were nomads who frequently crossed back and forth without even knowing a line had been drawn.

As Kenya and Somalia transitioned from colonial rule to self-government, the line grew in importance. Somalia suffered under the nightmarish-rule of Siad Barre and later dissolved into near anarchy, whereas Kenya remained relatively stable, though it also had its share of corrupt and inept government bureaucrats. While religious factions, rival clans, and warlords (some of which were supported by the USA) fought a for control of Somalia, hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees fled to Kenya. The border has now become increasingly militarized and immensely important for Kenyans and Somalis living near it — but it has also remained porous as the ill-equipped Kenyan border patrol is unable to police the 400+ mile border.

The conditions in the Kenyan refugee camps along the Somali border are atrocious. Malnutrition is rampant. Lack of clean water commonly leads to massive outbreaks of water-bourne illnesses such as cholera. Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes about her encounter with one of these camps — she writes of children dying of dehydration and people getting stung by snakes and scorpions. It’s a testament to how terrible conditions must be in Somalia that people come to these camps at all. I can’t imagine the suffering that they’ve been put through.

That’s part of the reason why this article irked me. I don’t have time to post my full reaction today, but I’ll get to it soon..

(photo borrowed from Reuters)

The food crisis is deepening in East Africa. The World Food Program (WFP) has announced it is closing 12 feeding centers in Somalia, despite estimates that over half the Somali population requires assistance. The crisis comes at a time in which tens of thousands of Somalians have been displaced by violence. The food situation in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Uganda has also deteriorated, and assistance has been limited there as well.

It is shameful to allow this to happen. You can go here to help make it stop.