New York, U.S.A. — The U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s flagship Trick-or-Treat campaign, which has raised more than $167 million for children in need around the world, is getting a new look this year. For the first time in the campaign’s 62-year history kids will have a chance to design their own collection boxes. Original designs for the “Create-a-Character” contest may be submitted online at trickortreatforunicef.org. Winning designs in three categories will become part of a limited edition collection for next year’s campaign.

The box design contest will run from September 1 through October 26.

“Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF helps kids, parents and educators celebrate Halloween by raising money and learning about children in other parts of the world,” said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “This year, we want to tap into children’s imaginations by letting them bring their own creativity to the traditional Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF boxes.”

Original box designs may be submitted online at trickortreatforunicef.org beginning in September. A winning design from each category (children ages 4-8, 9-12, and 13 years and older) will be chosen and announced on Halloween, October 31.

Participants who prefer a finished box have new choices this year, too. The traditional Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box has been given a new look, with six spooky new character boxes – a monster, black cat, princess, pumpkin, vampire and a witch. Fundraising kits containing the character boxes, the blank collection box for design and new educational resources may be ordered online with free shipping at trickortreatforunicef.org.

Begining in 1953, volunteers wore armbands featuring a silhouette of a child drinking milk and carried small orange boxes. The collection boxes have become an iconic symbol of the organization as millions of children have gone door-to-door each Halloween to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is grateful for the support of our National Sponsors Key Club International and Starcom MediaVest Group; along with Promotional Supporters American Airlines and Coinstar, Inc.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon brought a radical shift in the global fight for the elimination of hunger recently when he announced the ‘Zero Hunger Challenge’ at the launch of the United Nations conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Zero Hunger Challenge calls for the participation of all the countries of the world, making them work for a future in which no individual is lacking the means or proper access to adequate nutrition. Also, all food systems will be elastic.

Ban Ki-moon envisaged a future where there will be no hunger at all, and said, “In a world of plenty, no one – not a single person – should go hungry.”

The Zero Hunger Challenge is supported by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme, (WFP), UN Children Fund (UNICEF), Bioversity International and The World Bank.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director Jose Graziano da Silva greatly welcomed the announcement and said, “Big problems call for bold goals. The Zero Hunger Challenge can help us mobilize political commitment, the first step to eradicate hunger,” at a meeting in Brazil.

Ban Ki-moon further said, “I am not proposing a new goal. I am sharing my vision for the future. A future where all people enjoy their fundamental right to food; where people’s livelihoods and food systems are resilient and able to withstand a changing climate.”

Here are world hunger facts from the WFP:

• 65 percent of the world’s hungry live in only 7 countries: India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• 10.9 million children under the age of 5 die each year in developing countries.
• 925 million people don’t have the provision for adequate food, and 98 percent live in developing countries.
• More than 70 percent of children in the world are underweight and mostly live in 10 countries.

Eradication of global hunger had been at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals projected in the year 2000. It looks like this global call for the eradication of hunger by Ki-moon is an attempt revitalize global hunger reduction efforts.

Zero Hunger Challenge will exert tremendous pressure on governments, especially of those nations where the proportion of hunger is greater, leading to implementation of more stringent and highly effective anti-hunger measures.

Of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, the Eradication of Hunger had been considered most significant and had been ranked the first priority. Inspiration for launching the Zero Hunger Challenge for Ban Ki-moon came from the outstanding work accomplished by Spain’s national Zero Hunger campaign. Brazil had been operating an anti-poverty program called Fome Zero, which was highly successful in lifting around 28 million people out of acute poverty.

The Zero Hunger Challenge may bring a new dawn and let poverty, hunger and starvation remain in the books as the dark era of history in the hope the pulse of poverty and hunger will stop soon.

Image Courtesy of  specialoperations

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The sixth edition of the International Journalism Festival (IJF) in Italy has just started. For five days, from April 25 to 29, the city of Perugia will become “the capital of journalism” hosting journalists, bloggers and media organizations from all over the world, with over 200 volunteers and thousands of guests coming from every corner of Italy and from abroad.

More than 500 speakers, 250 accredited journalists, 200 free entry events, not to mention workshops, exhibitions, documentaries, awards;  the International Journalism Festival is a goldmine for enthusiasts of media and communications, and for those interested in and concerned about the future of journalism, freedom of speech and the right to information.

The issues to be discussed are plentiful, from journalism ethics to journalist activism, from civic media and citizen journalism to democracy, from the use of mobile phones and videocameras for reporting to economic sustainability, from hacking to social networking, and much more. A rich and varied program based on participation, discussion, free exchange of ideas, confrontation between experts and citizens, professionals and students, researchers and users.

The International Journalism Festival is a five day journey into the world of media and journalism, a look into the mass media of tomorrow, strategies, tools, and platforms of reporting and into the endless possibilities of civic engagement offered by new media and social networks.

Among the guests of the IJF 2012 are:

• Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson
• Aron Pilhofer, New York Times
• Robert Philomé, France 24
• Simon Rogers, The Guardian
• Dan Nguyen, Propublica
• David Aaronovitch, The Times
• Adam Baker, Blottr
• Tony Curzon Price, openDemocracy.net
• Clive Edwards, BBC
• Ibrahim Hamdan, Al Jazeera
• Hada Messia, CNN
• Riccardo Noury, Amnesty International Italy
• Mohamed Ali Zakaria, photo-reporter
• Wolfgang Blau, Zeit Online
•  Ali al-Bouazizi, political activist
•  Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks
• Martin Dawes,  UNICEF
• Herman Burt, Storify & Hacks/Hackers,
• Mark Johnson, The Economist
• Per Mikael Jensen, Metro International

For the complete list of speakers please visit http://www.journalismfestival.com/speaker-list/2012.

Founded in 2006 by Arianna Ciccone and Christopher Potter with the aim “to set up an event which would break the mould” and to create “an opportunity for you to engage with leading journalists from all over the world”, the IJF is an informal and accessible festival open to everybody completely free of charge. A chance to discuss a wide range of current interest topics, to aggregate and involve a broad variety of media organizations, journalists, aspiring journalists, experts, and all those curious persons interested in media and its role in society.

Located right in the heart of Italy, Perugia is a beautiful medieval city of Etruscan origins and an artistic center situated on a hilltop, with a reputation for fine cuisine, beautiful landscapes and rich history. The Umbria’s capital is also famous for its universities, University of Perugia and University of Foreigners, which host more than 40,000 students every year. The perfect perfect place to enjoy food, arts, landscapes and, why not journalism.

For more information on the International Journalism Festival visit www.journalismfestival.com.

To see the whole program www.journalismfestival.com/programme/2012

For updates you can follow IJF on Facebook and Twitter and if you want to watch IFJ events from the web, go to webtv.festivaldelgiornalismo.com/

Image Courtesy of   International Journalism Festival

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New York, U.S.A. – As malnutrition reaches emergency levels across the Sahel region of West and Central Africa affecting at least one million children, UNICEF partner UPS has sprung to action to provide transport for the first aerial shipment of lifesaving UNICEF supplies to Mauritania this year, a country within the affected region.

The UPS flight, departing from Cologne, Germany on April 22 early morning contained 102,000 pounds of critical UNICEF relief supplies including nutrition, health, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene items.

UPS worked quickly with UNICEF to coordinate the shipment of relief items from various locations including UNICEF’s Supply Center in Copenhagen, in addition to Madrid, Lier, and Toulouse for delivery to Nouakchott, Mauritania on Sunday, April 22. Flying in supplies dramatically reduces the delivery time to affected communities.

“UPS understands that during humanitarian emergencies, the need to move supplies quickly is essential and can mean the difference between life and death,” said U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern. “We are extremely grateful that UPS has once again donated its expertise and services, this time to help UNICEF deliver lifesaving supplies to the one million children at risk in the Sahel region, and for their ongoing support in times of emergency.”

UPS has consistently supported UNICEF’s preparedness and emergency relief efforts, responding to the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 by offering volunteers, logistician experts, and transport services. They also donated a charter flight carrying 24 metric tons of critical UNICEF relief supplies last November from Copenhagen to Nairobi for children affected by the severe drought in the Horn of Africa.

“Logistics plays an incredibly vital role whenever a humanitarian crisis occurs, which is why UPS has lent its expertise for many years to bringing critical logistical support to areas of the world affected by disease, drought, and other disasters,” said UPS International President Dan Brutto, a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

“For example, we just completed a temperature-controlled move of flu vaccine from the U.S. to Laos.  With this drought situation in the Sahel region, millions of lives are at stake and UPS is proud to be working with our partners at UNICEF to provide timely, life-saving supplies to the people of West and Central Africa.”

An estimated 15 million people are affected by the drought in eight countries across the Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and northern Cameroon, Nigeria, and Senegal. UNICEF needs more than $60 million for immediate relief operations to save children’s lives and prevent a humanitarian disaster from unfolding.

During a recent visit to the region, UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake called for an urgent escalation of humanitarian efforts to bring about an end to the crisis. Women and children in the Sahel are suffering from the impact of multiple threats—poor harvests because of drought, high food prices, and insecurity in parts of the region. Due to recent unrest in Mali, approximately 200,000 people have been displaced to neighboring countries – including Mauritania – exacerbating the hunger crisis there.

In January and February, tens of thousands of children were treated for severe acute malnutrition at nutritional rehabilitation centers that are filling up fast with the start of the “lean season”—the period between harvests that is traditionally the worst time of the year in a harsh environment with difficult logistics.

How to help: To make a tax-deductible contribution please contact the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Website: www.unicefusa.org/sahel
Toll free : 1-800-FOR-KIDS
Mail: 125 Maiden Lane, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10038

Image Courtesy of   hdptcar

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Thousands of participants, 140 ministerial delegations, more than 80 ministers, and members of hundreds of organizations are gathered this week in Marseille, France for the Sixth World Water Forum. The week-long forum aims to bring water crises facing communities, governments, and regions across the world to the forefront of political agendas.

More than 780 million people worldwide lack safe drinking water, according to a 2012 UNICEF/WHO report. Approximately 2.5 billion people in 2010 lacked improved sanitation, and 15 percent (1.1 billion) of the world’s population practice open defecation. The recently released UN World Water Development Report (WWDR4) cites that 3.5 million deaths per year are linked to insufficient sanitation, hygiene, and water supply.

“For the past fifteen years, the World Water Forums have advanced the understanding of issues related to this important topic … Things have moved too slowly, and we must now move up a gear to achieve our common goal,” said France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon in his speech on Monday at the forum.

Meeting every three years since 1997, the forum provides a platform for debate through grassroots citizen involvement and the participation of experts and decision makers.  It also acts as a foundation for authorities to make commitments toward lasting solutions to global water challenges.

On Tuesday, forum participants announced that 2013 is going to be the “International Year of Water Cooperation.” Led by UNESCO, along with four other UN agencies, 2013 will focus on the successes achieved thus far in water cooperation, along with the span of water challenges still facing communities worldwide.

As a component of the Rural Water Supply Initiative in Africa, Chad, France, Italy, Ivory Coast, Niger, Republic of Congo, and Switzerland pledged $80 million. The Fourth African Water Week is scheduled in Cairo, Egypt for May 14-18, 2012.

During Wednesday’s Arab trialogue session, “Water and Energy,” Dr. Abid Thyab Al Ajeeli from the Arab Parliament predicted, “Currently 18 of the 22 Arab States suffer from water scarcity and by 2050 this will turn into water distress.” Holding only one percent of the planet’s fresh water, the Arab world contains five percent of the world’s population.

The panel discussion focused on desalination, already widespread in the Gulf States, and renewable energies as alternatives to the current fossil fuel reserves powering desalination plants. Zaher bin Khalid Al-Sulaimani, Director General of Projects for the Public Authority for Electricity and Water-Oman, stated that Oman relies on the sea for 80 percent of its population’s drinking water. During the next four years, Oman plans to invest in 200 MW of renewable energy projects.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/iucnweb/

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Amid growing deficits of food supplies in North Korea, which is under new leadership, the country recently elected for a new and surprising turn of diplomacy toward the United States. As previously reported by Toonari Post, the North Korean leaders has agreed to halt nuclear enrichment and missile tests in exchange for food.

According to the agreement, which was finalized in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, enrichment of uranium, missile launches, and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

This rebirth of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea took place at a time when North Korea has been under the tight grip of dwindling food supplies. North Korea is evidently attempting to mend the nation’s food supply gaps with this nuclear deal. In return, the otherwise closed and secretive country will receive 240,000 tons of food supplies, an agreement that was in the pipeline since the last days of their late “Dear Leader”.

There had been a long standing promise that the year 2012 would mark the dawn of a new era and prosperity, according to reports by British paper The Guardian.

Admiral Robert Willard Commander of the US Pacific Fleet told the senate committee soon after North Korean announcement its diplomatic intentions that preconditions for food assistance “now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon [reactor].”

The most eligible aspect of this agreement is that North Korea has agreed to allow inspectors from IAEA inside their borders, after years of resistance where inspectors were expelled, negotiations around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 was abandoned and nuclear devices tested in 2006 and 2009.

Over the last decade, diplomatic relations especially with the US were badly affected due to rigid behavior and continued arrogance over development of nuclear weapons, perhaps leading to the food crisis that blew out of proportion when the nation’s economic isolation intensified.

Bijaya Rajbhandari, UNICEF’s representative in North Korea, said in a statement a few months back, “If the funding does not arrive, and we are unable to keep our nutrition program to treat those children who are severely malnourished, these children will suffer irreversible consequences on their growth and development capacity.”

UNICEF’s spokesman, Chris Tidey, have told Reuters that “one in five children in North Korea under the age of five suffers from moderate malnutrition, which can cause stunting and also hamper their cognitive development.” The North Korean food crisis multiplied at its current speed due to the turnaround in policy by South Korea and the US, which ended the food supplies to North Korea in 2008.

Newly enthroned Kim Jong-un seems to have taken a step forward in fulfilling the promise of prosperity and dawn of a new era in North Korea, keeping aside political and diplomatic arrogance for now.

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Lenny Kravitz – GRAMMY award-winning singer-songwriter, record producer and actor—is using his voice and talent to do more than dazzle the stage and screen. He is throwing his support behind the global push by UNICEF and its partners to help save and improve the lives of millions of children and their families around the world by providing them with access to clean water and adequate sanitation.

“I was born in New York City and have always taken access to clean water as a given,” said Kravitz.  “No child should die of diarrhea from drinking dirty water. That thousands of children under the age of five continue to die every day because they lack clean water and basic sanitation is simply unacceptable.”

On March 6, UNICEF announced that the world has met the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water, with 89 percent of the global population now with access. However, that still leaves more than 780 million people, mainly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, without access.  In addition, around 2.5 billion people—almost half the developing world’s population—lack access to improved sanitation. This all adds up to bad news for the children who are being left behind.

Kravitz will be appearing in Public Service Announcements and take to Twitter and Facebook with a message that all children can—and must—have access to clean water and adequate sanitation. Kravitz, who recently released the album ‘Black and White America’, and who will be starring in ‘The Hunger Games’ later this month, is joining forces with UNICEF to help mark World Water Day (March 22) and will send a global message of the importance of investing in children and providing them with clean water and sanitation.

In the United States, Kravitz will be lending his support for the UNICEF Tap Project by encouraging his fans and dining patrons across the country to pay $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free during World Water Week, March 19 – 25. With $1, UNICEF can provide a child with access to clean, safe water for 40 days, or 40 children with access to safe water for one day. Funds raised through the 2012 UNICEF Tap Project will provide children and families with clean drinking water in Viet Nam,Togo, Mauritania and Cameroon.

Poor sanitation, water and hygiene have serious repercussions on a child’s health, often causing diarrhea and other easily preventable diseases.  Children, particularly girls, often miss school, because they are responsible for gathering water for their families, which can require many hours of their time. In addition, many schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities for girls, causing them to drop out of school. Without safe water, sanitation, and good hygiene, sustainable development is difficult to achieve.

Since 1990, UNICEF, governments and partners, have helped more than 2 billion people gain access to improved water sources and 1.8 billion people gain access to improved sanitation facilities. The efforts include drilling wells and installing water pumps, helping communities build latrines and teaching lifesaving hygiene to schoolchildren and mothers, and providing safe water and sanitation to communities during emergencies.

Image Courtesy of   vilena makarica / Shutterstock.com

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The humanitarian situation in South Kordofan that has garnered international concern, and which some have now exploited to push an agenda of intervention, prompted the formation of a joint assessment team composed of UN agencies (UNICEF, WFP, WHO, FAO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGOs. Their report just concluded that the humanitarian situation in the region is at “Normal levels” and that food security is “good” and stable for the conflict-affected population of 53,220.

The survey covered a sample of 53 villages in the region and found the levels of malnutrition among children under the age of five to be at 4.4 percent, a figure that is far below 15 percent which constitutes the United Nation’s rate of emergency. These sobering findings emphatically refute and contravene the claims of imminent catastrophe claimed by scaremongers.

These encouraging statistics are a function of the humanitarian interventions dispensed by the Government and partners aimed precisely at mitigating the impact of the conflict on the population. The assessment further notes the need for coordination between the humanitarian actors and recommends an extension of the period of food assistance in order to avoid shortages while concurrently generating programs for supplementary and therapeutic diet.

It also calls for creating quick impact projects in host communities to support farmers, pastoralists and traders. While the government and partners continue to provide assistance, there ultimately remains a security threat posed by the rebels who continue to launch attacks against civilians and deliberately destroy their livelihoods. Still, this stresses the need on all stakeholders and the peace-loving to pressure the rebels to abandon this destruction and pursue peace.

Sudan continues to call on South Sudan to recognize its negative role in this crisis and cease its support to the rebels. And in order for the U.S. and those pushing for an intervention to play a constructive role, they must look at the facts on the ground not the exaggerated allegations.

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In an effort to avert a large-scale loss of life due to malnutrition and disease, UNICEF is ramping up its operations in eight countries in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. An initial $67 million is urgently needed for UNICEF’s relief operations to save children’s lives and prevent a humanitarian disaster from unfolding.

It is estimated that across the region more than one million children will suffer in 2012 from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that requires immediate treatment. The period between harvests, also known as the “lean season,” is expected to arrive earlier this year than is typical.

Throughout the Sahel, poor rainfall has exacerbated food insecurity and loss of livestock, increasing malnutrition. The rise in food prices is also affecting the ability of households to buy food and other necessities and increasing the strain on their livelihoods, jeopardizing children’s lives.

“When humanitarian agencies and the international community are able to act in time to prevent disaster, they can save a tremendous number of lives,” said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “The lessons of the emergency in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa are crystal clear: when the warning signs of a crisis are there, as they are now in the Sahel, we need the resources to respond immediately to prevent death and human suffering. We are determined to avoid a catastrophe for children and their families.”

The Sahel nutrition crisis and UNICEF’s emergency response cover the entire countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal. Niger, where an estimated 331,000 children will face severe acute malnutrition this year, is the hardest-hit. UNICEF’s response will focus on the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition, together with emergency efforts in health, water, sanitation and hygiene, HIV, education, and child protection.

Under-nutrition poses the greatest risk factor for mortality and morbidity among young children, accounting for at least 35 percent of all child deaths per year in the region. While it is crucial to combat malnutrition across the Sahel in order to save lives, an effective response also needs to tackle the underlying and structural causes of malnutrition.

Malnourished children are more likely to fall pretty to infectious disease compared to non-malnourished children, as they have weaker immune functions. In turn, infectious disease lowers a child’s nutritional status, thus spurring a vicious cycle of malnutrition and disease.

Past experience in the region shows that in times of emergency, women and children face multiple protection risks. As population movements increase during the lean season, so does exposure to violence, abuse and neglect.

In addition, as part of their survival strategies, children from vulnerable households may be forced to drop out of school in order to work in agriculture, mining and other economic activities. Boys may be sent to beg in the streets of towns and cities, and girls may get involved in petty trading or domestic work to support their families.

Working in the Sahel for decades, UNICEF increased its delivery of life-saving interventions to more than 700,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition across the region last year and mounted a massive response to save lives during the food crises in 2005 and 2010.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/

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Some people have all the luck. At an early age, Milla Jovovich was acting, modelling, and writing and performing music. In each case, she received strong reviews. At any moment, she might be featured in film, fashion magazines and events, on the soundtrack to another film, and promoting a charitable cause.

Ms. Jovovich appeared as Milady de Winter in the adaptation of ‘The Three Musketeers,’ directed by her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, as well as in four other films this year, and will return in at least two films scheduled for next year.

Ms. Jovovich rules the fashion world: she co-founded a fashion line, Jovovich-Hawk; she has appeared in hundreds of magazines, TV-commercials and other fashion and cosmetics promotions; she is a spokesmodel for L’Oréal, one of the highest profiles for models. She also sponsors a number of charities, such as cancer research, AIDS research, wildlife societies, UNICEF and UNESCO.

Her only music album, ‘The Divine Comedy,’ was released in 1994, when she was 16; she had written it the year before. She had a band for a short time, called Plastic Has Memory, which never made an album but made music and has a song on the benefit CD, ‘Hollywood Goes Wild.’ Ms. Jovovich continues to produce music for screen and for anyone via her web-site, www.millaj.com.

While the music was well received, it is not as widely known as her work in the fashion and film industries. Ms. Jovovich has a rare versatility in her styles: she can dramatically change her look and still keep a distinctive presence. This has served her well around the world. Her film work has extended around the globe as well, with this year’s ‘Lucky Trouble’ coming from Russia. Ms. Jovovich is multi-lingual.

Most of her fans know her from the film franchise, ‘Resident Evil.’ The four films, and a fifth next year, are based on a popular video-game and are directed by Mr. Anderson. He is not the first of her director-husbands: she was also married to Luc Besson, who directed her in her breakthrough, ‘The Fifth Element’ (1997), as the “perfect being,” and ‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc’ (1999).

She has appeared in the weighty ‘Chaplin’ (1992) and the fashion-comedy ‘Zoolander’ (2001). But it is her action roles that have made the biggest mark. Her Alice in ‘Resident Evil’ (2002) helped garner a following, and four sequels have followed so far. She does many of her own stunts.

Milla Jovovich is beautiful; she can act; she can sing and write songs; she plays the guitar; she speaks several languages; she works for charities. She presents herself well in interviews, and has a fun and accessible demeanour. She is also a mother. She is more the saviour than damsel in distress, though she can exude vulnerability, and always femininity. Her daughter will be another to watch.

cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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Predicted high tides this weekend have caused thousands of Bangkok residents to evacuate the city for drier ground after the government announced an official five-day holiday. Three months of unusually heavy rains have left 381 dead and 110,000 displaced. An estimated 4.6 to 16 billion dollars in property destruction has also been wrought in areas of northern and central Thailand.

Although the major commercial areas of Bangkok have remained less affected, some residential areas are heavily submerged. On Sunday, water levels were expected to reach 2.6meters, or over 8 feet. Despite the destruction, many breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the economic core of Bangkok, and major world producer of computer hard disk drives, is still intact.

However, Bangkok officials are hesitant to admit victory over the deluge when flood waters offer an ideal breeding ground for diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Clean drinking water has also become limited, and many international governments are issuing travel advisory statements.

Some residents outside of major cities have become cut off from relief efforts and supplies. UNICEF is providing thousands of mosquito nets to limit the spread of disease, and the Red Cross is donating bottled water and relief kits.

The Washington Post notes the vast environmental differences concerning flooded and dry sections of Bangkok, home to over 9 million people.

“The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality — from night-owls drinking cocktails in red-light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.”

CNN.com reports, “Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has urged stores not to stockpile goods, amid concerns that panic buying was leading to a shortage of essential items.” The government warns citizens that although they are trying to speed the process of draining flood water into canals and the sea, it may take over a month for water levels to return to normal.

This method of coping has not left everyone satisfied. Frustrated by the lack of concrete information being dispersed by the government, filmmaker Kriangkrai Vachiratamtorn created a viral animation that explains why the floodwaters are particularly high this year.

Vachiratamtorn likens the floodwaters to a pod of 50 million whales trying to make their way through Bangkok to the Gulf of Thailand. The video series has already seen over 700,000 hits and can be watched with English subtitles at: http://www.youtube.com/user/roosuflood#p/u/4/b8zAAEDGQPM

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On 12th January, 2010 Haiti experienced a new drama. An earthquake seven points of moment magnitude shocked the country leaving after it a trail of devastation and worst of all a stealth battle of ruthless numbers.

At the beginning of 2011, one year after the disaster, the Haitian government increased the initial death toll from 220.000 over 300.000 while the international community set a number lower than 100.000. They did it unexpectedly, without any previous comment and not defining the parameters and methodology used for the estimation.

Maybe they thought two hundred were not enough to boost international aid, and a bigger new headline of misery would have helped them to raise more funds. The math is obvious for Haitian rulers: higher victims mean more pity and shame which tends to increase international aid flowing into the country.

According to Inter-American Development Bank the earthquake caused damage estimated near 14 billion dollar, more than the country GDP, and somehow they need to put pressure on international donors both to increase the amount pledged, 5.3 billion dollars, and to speed the deliver into the country up.

It is believe that Haitian government had added into earthquake victims, among other, the subsequent 200.000 cholera infected and 4.000 dead. A rate that is still growing as of March 2011 rises to 300.000 with 5.000 deaths reported by WHO.The first cholera case appear months after the earthquake, it was reported on 14 October 2010 in the department of Artibonite, the country largest department located in the north-west side of the island, from where the disease quickly spread through Artibonite Rive affecting other departments.

Cholera is an infection of the intestine caused by a bacterium that causes diarrhea and vomiting which in severe cases can lead to death by dehydration due to an untreated patient may produce 10 liters of diarrheal fluid a day. The last cholera epidemic in Latin America started Peru in 1991, during the 7^th pandemic and after reach other countries but not Haiti, a country with none recorded cases previous 2010.

The earthquake caused massive population movements inside the country as in Cité l’Eternel, a neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince, home for tens of thousands of families who live crammed together in tiny shacks with no running water or proper sewage facilities. The mounds of garbage and the open sewers full of human waste are breeding grounds for cholera, typically transmitted by either contaminated food or water.

After a rapid spread the worst part took place between mid November and January, usually with more than 10.000 cases per week throughout the country, uncontrollable sometimes like the first week of the year when 14.000 cases just in Port-Au-Prince were reported.

While all this misery happens in Haiti, in the neighboring Dominican Republic were just 200 reported cases during the whole year, confirmed along the borderline, a gap which can be explained by their citizens’ wealth.  The GDP per capita is eight time higher in Dominican Republic than in Haiti, where just 96 dollars per year an person can be spent in health care.

Thus creating a risk profile for cholera within a population where 60 percent suffer from prevalence of undernourishment, 40 percent has no access to improved drinking water and just 20 percent has access to improved sanitation before the earthquake. The World Health Organization states also that cholera is one of the key indicators for social development.

While the disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standards of hygiene, it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed. Almost every developing country faces cholera outbreaks or the threat of a cholera epidemic. As it can be imagined Africa nations head the rank.

With this outlook after the earthquake just NGOs were able to contain the epidemic, but it should be emphasized that dying by cholera is not easy with a minimum sanitation care. Around 75 percent  people infected do not become ill, but when illness does occur, 80 to 90 percent of episodes are of mild or moderate severity which can be treated with a simple treatment of oral hydration solutions, mere sugar and salt mix to be ingested costing about 10 cents the sachet.

For severe dehydration cases intravenous rehydration is necessary with mortality rate lower than 1 percent but untreated it raises over 50 percent. Moreover currently in the market two preventive vaccines are available; Dukoral and Sanchol, both with a protection close to 8o percent for the first two years and a cost between 1.50 to 5 dollars a dose.

Still, the cruel reality is that there is no money for everything and priorities have to be done. That is why some experts argue that a vaccination campaign would be neither feasible nor cost-effective, and advocating putting forth other measures. According to UNICEF NGOs have been deploying several initiatives to prevent, contain and reduce the epidemic.

In partnership with the Ministry of Health they are working to raise awareness about cholera through radio, television and text messages targeting at least 80 per cent of the population.

Through neighborhoods they have been putting up posters to help teach people how to protect themselves and giving information about the disease in schools, health centers, market and even door to door, with an aim to ensure that households have at least one person who knows how to prevent cholera and what to do in case symptoms occur.

Furthermore they install public water points where water tankers provide free and pure potable water where water purification tablets and soap are free handing out too. Without this facilities cholera spreading would have been unstoppable because in water kiosk 5 gallons of drinkable water cost up to one dollar when most of the population is surviving with less than a dollar per day, so is unaffordable for almost everybody.

A complete sanitation and potable water system for 1000 people during a year costs 18.000 dollars or more, so many times is too expensive as well. That is why they seek for other sustainable alternatives like wells, another effective and cheap way to allow easy access to safe water. After the well is constructed the NGOs put in charge a different committee for each site to makes sure it keeps running effectively.

Owing to the lack of resources NGOs try to do their best in a very difficult situation. Now that media focus has been diverted to the nuclear crisis Japan and Somalia famine the donatives have been critically reduced and foreign aid tends to displace to hot points. Under these circumstances nobody can be sock by the macabre game played by Haitian government.

Headlines are more important now than ever to keep the attention over a country where still 600.000 people live in displacement camps and 40.000 new cholera cases per month. Unfortunately more people are dying by starvation in Africa and like in a Machiavellian chain this triggers off mass media interest; giving television, radio and press space.

The chain continues with international donors, as foundations or governments seeking for recognition or NGOs seeking for promotion, increasing their efforts in the hot spot and therefore reducing staff and money from other projects. Likely the organizations in Haiti will be able to steadily reduce the monthly cholera cases and deaths into a situation under control, but not capable of eradicating it.

The country is struggling right now against a new endemic disease, they can win or they can lose and resign themselves to counting dozens of deaths per month. Everything depends on international help, Haiti is totally crippled, but these days developed countries are bailing banks out with tons of dollars used to make up a financial balance instead constructing a well for potable water that actually could save lives.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishredcross/

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It’s well known that yoga has a lot of curative properties and has physically and mentally helped a lot of people since its origin. With this in mind, a non-profit organization called Project Air thought that maybe this alternative medicine would be a very beneficial discipline to help more than 400 HIV positive women that survived the widespread rape that occurred during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Due to its positive effects, what began with a temporary project four years ago, now is a basic activity that helps hundred of Rwanda women and their families in the city of Kigali every day.

Yoga instructor and author Deirdre Summerbell still remembers the faces of skepticism and confusion that women had at their first yoga lesson.  However, as she said to the Huffington Post, the positive results were huge and immediate.

“After the third lesson, a shy woman came up to me, took my hands and said that she had slept for the first time in the 14 years since the genocide,” Summerbell said. “She wasn’t alone. Women will tell you that before yoga, they were crippled with aches and pains; they felt old. Now they crave yoga because when they feel physically stronger, they feel more confident and optimistic.”

In 1994 an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days, and hundreds of women were raped, as the Hutu majority tribe tried to eliminate the Tutsi minority. Since then their minds were full of war and terrible memories, that made them feel older than they actually were and without any life hope.

As Summerbell said to the Huffington Post, at the end of her first class a 28-year old Rwandan woman told her that yoga was for younger people not for them. Regarding this issue Summberbell said Project Air yoga classes have allowed women who have felt stiff and elderly to experience dramatic and immediate emotional benefits, as they jump and play joyfully during the class.

According to the outlet media, when the non-profit Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment told Summerbell about the project in 2007 she didn´t believe in it.

“I thought that it was silly and the last thing these women would probably need,” Summerbell said.

Their battlefield traumas, different culture and the fact that this type of physical activity is taboo in Rwanda, created obstacles to reaching great success from the very beginning. As Summerbell said, she saw her students’ symptoms, including disrupted sleep patterns and poor appetites, improve.

Despite the fact that not all the HIV cases were a consequence of the genocide in 2004, Amnesty International reported that that conflict contributed notably to the spread of the disease.  As this non-profit organization estimated more than 67 percent of the victims contracted HIV and AIDS at that time.

The U.K. based Survivors Fund reported that many of the infections were planned, and that HIV positive men were used deliberately as a weapon of the genocide.According to a study by the Rwandan Ministry of Health, around one out of three Rwandans suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the genocide.

Project Air started at 2004 as one aspect of the holistic treatment offered by the non-profit organization called WE-ACTx, with the intention of amending the physical symptoms of HIV and AIDS disease and the PTSD.  With the same purpose WE-ACTx integrates the mental health.

”Many of the women who have also attended [Project Air] yoga sessions say that the support they get from doing this with other women as well as the strength they gain from the physical exercise of the manipulation of yoga allow them to feel like they are able to move on and move forward from their PTSD,”  said Dr. Mardge Cohen, the medical director of WE-ACTx

So far this is the first yoga initiative certified by the United Nations and is the only yoga project to be partnered with UNICEF. The organizers’ main goal is to expand the yoga program to other warring and post-conflict countries.

“The lucky ones eat every day, the unlucky every other day, and you can’t ask people with a low caloric intake to do yoga. So we feed them,” Summerbell said. “They couldn’t afford underwear, so we quickly regrouped and provided trousers.”

Project Air does not participate with only the yoga program. Since Rwanda is a very expensive country, coupled with a high poverty level, Project Air also feed people and provides them with clothing.

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