Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo

Malaria overstretching healthcare in DRC

Malaria is preventable and curable. But the poor don't have the resources. Thousands of children under five years old die each year.
Insecticide treated nets (ITN) are not available in some areas. And when they are available, their costs may put them out of reach of the poor.
Finally, the availability and cost of treatment repeats the same story.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98069/Malaria-overstretching-healthcare-in-DRC

KAMPALA, 20 May 2013 (IRIN) - Gaps in the healthcare system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are hampering the fight against malaria, a leading killer of children, say experts.
Malaria accounts for about a third of outpatient consultations in DRC clinics, Leonard Kouadio, a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) health specialist, told IRIN. He added, “It is the leading cause of death among children under five years and is responsible for a significant proportion of deaths among older children and adults.”

Kouadio continued: “Recent retrospective mortality surveys have revealed that in all regions of the country, the fever is associated with 40 percent of [deaths of] children under five.”
Malaria is also a leading cause of school absenteeism in DRC, and it may have other adverse effects. “In cases of severe malaria, children who survive face serious health problems such as epilepsy, impaired vision or speech,” he said.

According to UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, out of about 660,000 malaria deaths globally in 2010, at least 40 percent occurred in DRC and Nigeria.
In DRC, malaria accounts for about half of all hospital consultations and admissions in children younger than five, according to the government’s National Programme for the Fight against Malaria (NMCP). On average, Congolese children under five years old suffer six to 10 episodes of malaria per year, according to UNICEF’s Kouadio.

Other leading causes of death among under-five Congolese children include acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition, according to UNICEF’s 2013-2017 DRC Country Programme Document.

Highest Rate of First-Day Deaths of Newborns in Africa - NYTimes.com

Too many babies in Congo don't survive their first day of life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/africa/africa-has-highest-rate-of-first-day-deaths-of-newborns-report-says.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&_r=0

More than one million babies a year die the day they are born, and the 14 countries with the highest rates of first-day deaths are all in Africa, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The five countries with the highest rates of such deaths are Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic, according to the report, “Surviving the First Day,” from the aid group Save the Children.

“Health care for mothers in sub-Saharan Africa is woefully insufficient,” the report said. “On average, only half the women in the region receive skilled care during birth. The region as a whole has only 11 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people, less than half the critical threshold of 23 generally considered necessary to deliver essential health services.”

Cassava Linked to Mental Deficits

Holy Mental Deficits! Wow! Cassava could be mentally retarding babies and children.
Congolese babies are weaned on cassava. It's their first food. And they grow up eating it at least once a day or more.
More tests should be done. Since it acts like lead paint toxic, then what do you do for the hundreds of millions of babies and children who eat it every day?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/health/in-central-africa-bitter-cassava-is-linked-to-mental-deficits.xml

Konzo, a disease that comes from eating bitter cassava that has not been prepared properly - that is, soaked for days to break down its natural cyanide - has long been known to cripple children.
The name, from the Yaka language of Central Africa, means "tied legs," and victims stumble as if their knees were bound together.
Now researchers have found that children who live where konzo is common but have no obvious physical symptoms may still have mental deficits from the illness.
Cassava, also called manioc or tapioca, is eaten by 800 million people around the world and is a staple in Africa, where bitter varieties grow well even in arid regions. When properly soaked and dried, and especially when people have protein in their diet, bitter cassava is "pretty safe," said Michael J. Boivin, a Michigan State psychiatry professor and lead author of a study published online by Pediatrics. "But in times of war, famine, displacement and hardship, people take shortcuts."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Boivin and colleagues gave tests of mental acuity and dexterity to three groups of children. Two groups were from a village near the Angolan border with regular konzo outbreaks: Half had leg problems; half did not but had cyanide in their urine. The third was from a village 125 miles away with a similar diet but little konzo because residents routinely detoxified cassava before cooking it.

The children from the latter village did "significantly better" on tests of remembering numbers, identifying objects, following mazes and fitting blocks together, while healthy-looking children from the first village did almost as badly as children with obvious konzo.

The mental damage was like that done by lead exposure but more subtle, Dr. Boivin said.

The Right Solution for the 'Heart of Darkness'

Solar energy is the right and the only solution for the Congo. The grid is a long, long, LONG, way in the future.
Electricity is so essential development. It's lighting, refrigeration for vaccines, communication, powering devices, and much much more.
Here's the story.
Solar engineers, Barefoot style
Barefoot College: Geetanjali Krishna | Apr 19 , 2013
Last Update at 22:38 IST
It was a dusty stone building, not unlike many that one sees in the desert. Outside, all was quiet in the heat of the day. From within, however, strains of a Colombian folk song redolent of the rain forest wafted through. I followed the music to the building. In a hall that looked like a classroom-cum-factory floor, I was greeted by the sight of five groups of women - black, white and all shades in between, sitting together in perfect harmony, assembling complicated-looking circuits. I was in Tilonia's Barefoot College, and this was my first glimpse of its 10th batch of solar engineers - all illiterate grandmothers from the poorest villages of Colombia, Nicaragua, Madagascar and Panama. They were learning how to assemble, maintain and operate solar lighting equipment; so that when they returned, they could bring light to their own communities.

I watched them at work - thinking if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it was possible. "It's actually not that hard," said Ghuman Singh, their short, bespectacled teacher who has been associated with Barefoot College since 1998. "People who've had formal education often don't understand that you don't need to have a degree to be an engineer or a scientist. These ladies are living proof that anyone can be given technical training!" He showed me around the room, dominated by a large blackboard. All the components used in the circuit were clearly colour-coded. "Our training modules are all practice-based. This, coupled with the fact that every component is colour-coded, ensures that we don't have to rely on language at all," he said. So whether the trainee is from Barmer or Burundi, Madagascar or Jharkhand - "the same teacher and training module works for all".

In keeping with the Barefoot approach that has no reverence for formal degrees, Singh, too, has studied only up to class-VII. Yet, today, he is one of the most competent teachers of solar technology in Tilonia. "It fills me with wonder that the little work we do in Tilonia improves the lives of poor people halfway across the world," he said. "We live like a big family here. Every time a batch arrives, it has people who have neither stepped out of their homes, nor interacted with other cultures. I reassure them as I'd do with my own younger siblings. And every time a batch leaves, it's like seeing my own sisters leave home! They also cry and cry..." I asked him what he taught them, and he said, "It's a two-way learning process. I teach them to assemble solar equipment, and they teach me their language, culture and more."

Singh and fellow trainers have helped train about 100 grandmothers from India and 80 grandmothers from some of the least developed countries of the world. The idea behind training older women is that unlike younger women, they are rooted in their communities and, therefore, can best extend the benefits of their training.

I said - only half in jest - what these unlettered ladies had learnt about complex solar assemblies in six months, was more than what I could hope to learn in six years. Laughingly, Singh said, "Come to me for six months and I'll turn you also into a Barefoot solar engineer!" As I left the workshop, I wondered how our formal systems of education have turned technology into this mysterious entity that only an elite few can understand. It had taken the ladies in Singh's workshop to show me that making usable technology doesn't necessarily need a degree in engineering - all it takes is the willingness to forge ahead barefoot, and a teacher to lead you there.

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Munchkins, Not From The Classic Book

Recently, I read and listened to the classic book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was free courtesy of Kindle, Amazon and Audible. The Munchkins were just as memorable from my childhood when I watched the movie.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and five other African countries, smaller children are rampant. Almost half of the children in the Congo under the age of five suffer from stunting.
Uneven progress on child stunting in East and Central Africa
NAIROBI, 16 April (IRIN) - Improvements in nutrition and stronger government policies have led to a decline in childhood stunting, according to a new report on child nutrition [ http://www.unicef.org/media/files/nutrition_report_2013.pdf ] by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). However, the condition continues to affect some 165 million children under the age of five globally.

Stunting can lead to irreversible brain and body damage in children, making them more susceptible to illness and more likely to fall behind in school. Based on UNICEF's report, IRIN has put together a round-up of the nutrition situations in six East and Central African countries that are among 24 countries with the largest burden and highest prevalence of stunting.

Burundi: Under-five mortality in this small central African country dropped from 183 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 139 per 1,000 live births in 2012. This is far short of the 63 deaths per 1,000 live births necessary for the country to achieve UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) [ http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/child_mortality/en/ ] 4, which aims to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. An estimated 58 percent of children under age five are stunted, compared with 56 percent in 1987, according to demographic and health surveys from those years.

According to the UNICEF report, Burundi has made "no progress" on MDG 1 [ http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/hunger/en/ ], which aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Central African Republic (CAR): An estimated 28 percent of under-five deaths in CAR occur within the first month of a child's life; the biggest killers of children under five are malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The percentage of children under age five who are stunted has changed little since 1995, standing at 41 percent in 2010, as has the percentage of children who are underweight, which has remained at about 24 percent for the last 18 years.

There has, however, been significant progress in the number of mothers exclusively breastfeeding their infants. In 2010, 34 percent of infants under six months old were breastfed, compared to just 3 percent in 1995. According to UNICEF, infants who are not breastfed in the first six months of life are "more than 14 times more likely to die from all causes than an exclusively breastfed infant".

Democratic Republic of Congo: Africa's second-largest country bears 3 percent of the global stunting burden, with 43 percent of children under age five suffering from stunting and 24 percent being underweight. Stunting is significantly higher (47 percent) in rural areas than it is in urban areas (34 percent).

The percentage of children who are underweight dropped from 34 percent in 2001 to 24 percent in 2010. DRC's progress towards MDG 1 is described as "insufficient".
Ethiopia: The Horn of Africa nation, which bears 3 percent of the global stunting burden, has seen a steep drop in stunting levels, from an estimated 57 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2011. The percentage of underweight under-fives has also dropped significantly, from 42 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2011. Between 2000 and 2011, under-five mortality was cut from 139 deaths per 1,000 live births to 77 per 1,000 live births - within striking distance of its MDG 4 target of 66 per 1,000.

A national nutrition programme launched in 2008 has been key to reducing national food insecurity, a major cause of stunting. The country's health service extension programme [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/72371/ETHIOPIA-New-programme-boosts-village-health-service-delivery ] has also played a role in bringing nutritional interventions to villages.

Rwanda: Community interventions - such as kitchen gardens and increasing the availability of livestock, as well as measures to boost healthy infant feeding practices like exclusive breastfeeding and the provision of nutritional supplements - saw the percentage of underweight under-fives in Rwanda drop from 20 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2010. Enhanced data collection and analysis has also enabled the government to improve its planning and monitoring of child malnutrition.

The report describes the country as "on track" to meet MDG 1.
Tanzania: Bearing 2 percent of the world's stunting burden, Tanzania has made significant strides in improving child nutrition. An estimated 50 percent of infants under six months old were breastfed in 2010, compared to 23 percent in 1992. The country has also brought under-five stunting levels down from 50 percent in 1992 to 42 percent in 2010, but continues to suffer significantly higher stunting in rural children (45 percent) compared to urban children (39 percent).

Tanzania's under-five mortality rate dropped from 158 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 68 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010, putting it close to its MDG 4 target of 53 deaths per 1,000 live births. UNICEF's report says the country is "on track" to meet its MDG 1 targets.

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This report on line: http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=97853
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DR Congo is Tied for Last Place

The 2013 Human Development Index shows the Democratic Republic of the Congo tied for last place out of 187 countries surveyed.

Download HDI_Trends_2013.pdf

International Women's Day at MONUSCO

The MONUSCO office in Kananga celebrated International Women's Day at their Friday night welfare event.
Many of the female employees and the women friends of the male employees of the UN attended. They were exceptionally dressed for the evening event.
One day or night does not change the situation for millions of women in developing countries. Earlier in the week, I went shopping for rehydration solution for a friend. It was difficult task. I encountered women at three little pharmacies who spoken only the local language and not French.

French is a school-acquired language versus their mother tongue. Educating women is so important.
Celebrate and commit to women equality.

Empowering the Poor

How do help a 60 year old woman with a crooked back waiting for a dirty bowl of beans? You empower her!
Here's an interesting approach for enterprise in a refugee camp in Congo.

http://m.startribune.com/?id=169684836

”How do we treat a 60-year-old woman with a crooked back waiting for a dirty bowl of beans? Put the solution in her hands. Give her an inexpensive, durable cellphone that accepts voucher-like credits for her to buy the basics she's now given. Food, education, stove, health care, maybe child care and job training.”

People in Congo are Starving, Why?

The United Nations Development Programme's Africa Human Development Report 2012 released today said the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to become sub-Saharan Africa's breadbasket, yet it has the highest estimated prevalence of malnutrition in the world. Nearly 70 percent of the country's 68 million people are classified as under-nourished by the United Nation, and 38 percent of children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Despite good rainfall and rich agricultural potential, only two percent of the arable land and pasturelands in the DRC is under cultivation. The agriculture sector employs nearly 40 percent of the country's economically active population, but contributes only six percent to its gross domestic product and about two percent to exports.

via allafrica.com

This is the sad news about Congo. I would be happy if Congo could just feed its people. Forget feeding sub-Saharan Africa, just feed your own people!

Are Maternal Deaths a 'Right to Life' Issue?

Yes, I think it should be a right.  But how do we make it so?  Where is Capt Picard when we need him.

via allafrica.com

Picture yourself in a room with 30 other women - knowing that one of you will die during pregnancy or childbirth. That's not a concept for a macabre TV show - unless it's reality TV.

A woman who conceives a child in sub-Saharan Africa is 45 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than a woman in developed countries. Over her lifetime, a woman in sub-Saharan Africa has a one in 31 chance of dying from pregnancy-related causes.

Those stark facts are a focus of a World Health Organization report released at the 126th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union that ended on Thursday in Kampala, Uganda.