Last updated on: November 21, 2019 at 3:27 pm By GFA Staff Writer
We have pretty much bought into the saying that, “It’s not the gift that counts; it’s the thought behind it.” But what if that is not true. Doesn’t the gift really count?
When we place more value on the intent than on the gift, it’s not long before the gift we give fills no real need of the recipient. Walk into any big box store during the Christmas holiday season, and notice how people are filling their carts with expensive but perhaps meaningless things to be able to say that it is the thought that counts.
There is one Bible passage that speaks the truth about the gift being important based on the need.
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” —James 2:15–16 (ESV)
This verses alone should be enough to change the way we think of giving. Not to mention that the Lord has offered to each of us the gift we need the most: His Son, Jesus Christ. What is more, the Bible tells us that every gift that God gives us is good and perfect.
GFA Asks How Should We Then Give?
We have, in fact, already answered that question. We should give as the Bible teaches, and in the pattern of God’s gracious giving.
Which brings us to goats.
That may seem like the ultimate non sequitur, but it is not. Our responsibility in giving gifts is to understand what is needed, then to do what we can to help meet that need. Goats are one of the best gifts to give to families stuck in abject poverty in South Asia, Africa and elsewhere. If that seems odd, it is only because we do not understand the impact goats can make for a family.
When we give goats and teach families how to care for them, those goats open a door to comparative prosperity that is beyond those families’ wildest dreams.
GFA Explains How It Works?
Goats provide a source of nutrition. Goats milk is high in protein and calcium and is more easily digestible by the human body than milk from cows. A healthy goat will give up to 16 cups of milk per day. Did you know that 65 percent of the world drinks goat milk?
Goats are an asset that can be used to generate income. Goat milk, cheese and yogurt can be sold to generate income.
If a family chooses to breed their goats, they can transform the original gift into a growing enterprise in their community.
One past recipient of a pair of goats from GFA-supported workers started a farm that today has 75 goats. By using the gift of goats wisely, that man and his family are no longer slaves to abject poverty.
Another man rejoiced when he accepted his gift and exclaimed, “When I received the goats, I told myself, ‘Here comes the freedom.'”
Some families may sell a portion of their herd to acquire other animals such as cattle and water buffalo. Or they may use the proceeds to open a small business in their village. The goats that they sell empower other families in their community with the same sustainable gift.
The gift of goats is a way to share the gift of Jesus Christ and His love for us.
Last updated on: October 26, 2019 at 9:14 pm By GFA Staff Writer
literWills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report Part 1 – Discussing the impact of education on the eradication of extreme poverty and illiteracy.When considering the issues of poverty and lack of education, an old saying comes to mind: “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Poverty and low education are each self-perpetuating: Those born into poverty (or illiterate households) often live the remainder of their lives in that same condition and have nothing more to offer their children.[1] What’s more, it is as if poverty and low education have a magnetic attraction, relentlessly pulling those who are caught in one cycle deep into the other too.
Why is that?
Kristina Birdsong, a writer for Scientific Learning, sums up the relationship between poverty and education by saying,
“Today more than ever, education remains the key to escaping poverty, while poverty remains the biggest obstacle to education.”[2]
Let’s look at one example:
With her husband out of the picture, illiterate Dayita was forced to become the sole provider for her four children.
Dayita is a mother in Asia living with four children. Poverty and illiteracy permeated her village and her life. Dayita’s husband had consumed so much alcohol that he became too sick to work or even get out of bed, which meant Dayita had no choice but to be the family’s sole breadwinner.
But she was illiterate.
What job opportunities did she have? Manual labor. She and many other illiterate women in her area collected firewood from nearby forests and sold it to provide for their families. It was physically taxing work that kept her from being with her children and still paid very little. But it was all she could do.
Education remains the key to escaping poverty, while poverty remains the biggest obstacle to education.
Dayita’s illiteracy and poverty set the trajectory of her children’s lives, too. The fight to obtain morsels of bread for their hungry tummies consumed all her strength; sending her children to school was not even something to dream about. And Dayita couldn’t teach her children anything of the alphabet or of mathematics, knowing none herself. Instead of going to school, her four kids roamed around the village, “cared for” by the eldest child, 7-year-old Kasni.
The cycles of poverty and illiteracy were continuing in Dayita’s family, and there was nothing she could do to arrest them.
These women are working on road construction project in Asia. Around the world, women are more likely to be paid less than men and to face unemployment.
Poverty and It’s Pervasive Stranglehold
Dayita was not alone in her plight.
An estimated 767 million people lived below the poverty line of $1.90 per day in 2013, according to the UN.[3] In 2014, some 263 million children and youth were not attending school, and more than 70 percent of the out-of-school children who should have been in primary or secondary education lived in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.[4] In the United States, a report revealed that in 2014, “approximately 15 million children under the age of 18 were in families living in poverty.”[5]
Living hand to mouth
KILLS DREAMS.
Many impoverished families know education is the long-term solution to their financial troubles, but it is out of reach. A family’s financial position influences more than you might think upon initial consideration.
The father who works from sunup to sundown seven days a week will have little time to mentor his children. The same could be said of the mother who labors in the fields all day.
During their most formative and vulnerable years, millions of children are left alone during the day to wander in their villages. Many will adopt poor social habits and learn nothing of respect or self-discipline. School is out of the picture for them; all the family’s energy must be focused on providing food and shelter.
Often, a family’s financial plight is so desperate that even young children must contribute to the family income. For the roughly 150 million child laborers in the world,[6] there is no school, no delving into their nation’s history, and no adventuring to museums to learn about science and art.
No money means no food, which means malnutrition and increased health problems. No money means no doctor visits, and in the case of a medical emergency, no money may mean indenturing a child to work off the incurred debt after receiving critical treatment.
“Living hand to mouth kills dreams. For many, ambition becomes unrealistic amid the ever-present fight against starvation.”
Living hand to mouth kills dreams. For many, ambition becomes unrealistic amid the ever-present fight against starvation. How many of us have asked a young child what they want to be when they grow up? In many poverty-stricken areas, however, a child might respond to that question with a look of confusion. The only future they can see is following their parents in becoming a farmer, a daily laborer or, if they’re lucky, maybe a skilled tradesman.
For the majority of children raised in poverty-stricken communities, the fruit of their harsh childhood is more of the same. When they become parents, they will raise their children as they themselves were raised—unless they can manage to find a way out, into a new way of life.
This woman works alongside her husband to make bricks, bringing her infant with her. Both men and women work hard in rural villages to try to make ends meet.
Solutions to Poverty Line Problems of the Poor & Impoverished: Part 2 | Part 3
This Special Report article originally appeared on gfa.org
To read more on the ongoing worldwide problem of Poverty on Patheos, go here.
Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.
Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 8:18 am By GFA Staff Writer
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the worldwide strategies and efforts for malaria prevention, to one day create a world where no one dies of malaria.
Bringing Hope to the World
The fight against malaria has been a multi-faceted one, receiving renewed attention in the late 1990s with the 1998 formation of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a global network to coordinate efforts among governments, UN agencies, international organizations and affected countries. Following that, the Global Fund, which fights malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis by providing grants to countries addressing those problems, was established in 2001.
Numerous charities have formed in the wake of these actions; one of the largest is Malaria No More. Its inception came at a White House event in 2006 that launched former President Bush’s malaria initiative. Nothing But Nets is the United Nations’ campaign to end malaria and enjoys broad support. Imagine No Malaria was launched by the United Methodist Church and partners with Nothing But Nets. In addition to raising money for nets, Imagine works on malaria prevention and education, including distributing malaria advocacy kits for churches.
Major Christian ministries are also active in anti-malaria work, such as Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International and World Vision. The latter’s Malawi arm announced in mid-February that it would distribute 10.9 million treated mosquito nets by the end of 2018 as part of that African nation’s malaria-control program.
“As World Vision Malawi (WVM), we have never undertaken such a mass campaign, but through close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism, we are going to achieve this,” said Charles Chimombo, WVM’s director of programs.
Among lesser-known, but no less effective, efforts on the ground are those by such ministries as Gospel for Asia (GFA). Based in Wills Point, Texas, for more than 30 years GFA has provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia.
In addition to such services as feeding and educating thousands of needy children, offering free medical care and training, and drilling clean water wells, the ministry distributed 600,000 mosquito nets in 2016.
On World Malaria Day in 2016, GFA-supported workers distributed 2,000 mosquito nets to needy families in a community in Asia. Mosquito netting is one of the most cost-effective protections from the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquito bites.
“In many cases, simple changes can create a profound difference in everyday health,” said KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA. “Christ calls upon us to care for the poor, which is why we are there to offer tools like mosquito nets, which can literally make the difference between life and death.”
One case study of a family helped by such gestures involves a couple named Jitan and Shara and their two children. Living in an area where temperatures commonly soar above 100 degrees for weeks left Jitan, a laborer in the fields, a prime target for the mosquitoes breeding in nearby stagnant ponds and water reservoirs.
Shara and her family are now protected from disease with a mosquito net.
In 2015, one of those mosquitoes bit Jitan and injected malaria parasites into his body.
Fortunately, medical treatment (and prayers from Shara and her father) enabled Jitan to recover after three weeks.
Five months later, the GFA-supported pastor at Shara’s church put her name down as one of 150 recipients for an upcoming GFA-supported mosquito net distribution. Not only did the fabric mean safety at night from mosquito bites, but to Shara it also symbolized how God saw even their smallest needs.
“My husband suffered with malaria fever,” she said. “Consequently, he is physically weak. But this mosquito net will be protection for my family now.”
The gift touched Jitan’s heart as well.
“Christians not only pray for people, but they also fulfill the basic needs of people in the community,” he said.
One night, as they crawled under the safety of their net, he told Shara: “Really, the Lord Jesus is fulfilling our basic need.”
Strategic Battle on Malaria Prevention
When the Gates Foundation adopted its “Accelerate to Zero” strategy in late 2013, it established a core set of foundational principles to make progress toward the goal of eradicating malaria, which it defined as removing the parasites that cause malaria, not simply interrupting transmission.
It sees new drug regimens and strategies as key to that goal, saying clinical cures for individuals do not eliminate the parasites responsible for transmission.
The majority of infections occur in asymptomatic people, who are a source of continued transmission. A successful eradication effort will target such infection through community-based efforts.
Emerging resistance to current drugs and insecticides is a threat to progress, which must guide the use of current tools and development of new ones. And since malaria is biologically and ecologically different throughout the world, strategies must be developed and implemented on a local or regional level.
Nearly five years later, how is the fight proceeding? WHO’s latest malaria report shows some bright spots, such as 44 countries reporting less than 10,000 malaria cases in 2016, compared to 37 nations in 2010.
A malaria researcher sorts mosquitoes. (Photo by Malaria Consortium on Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
There is also better access to tools for malaria prevention, such as insecticide-treated bednets, and the testing of suspected cases in the public health sector has increased in most regions. Except for the eastern Mediterranean region, where mortality rates have remained unchanged, all regions reported declines in mortality between 2010–2016.
Yet, despite an unprecedented period of success, Dr. Noor says the corresponding slowdowns in mortality decline in some regions, coverage gaps and lack of medical care have slowed progress.
“Identifying what is behind this trend is difficult to pinpoint,” he says. “In any given country, there may be a multitude of reasons as to why the burden of malaria is increasing. Factors impacting progress could range from insufficient funding and gaps in malaria prevention intervention to climate-related variations.”
In its latest report on malaria, WHO set global targets for 2030 to achieve its vision of a world free of the disease. The three pillars of its plan:
Ensure universal access to malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment
Accelerate efforts toward elimination
Transform malaria surveillance into a core intervention.
Accompanying each target are preceding milestones in 2020 and 2025. The four include:
Reduce malaria mortality rates globally compared with 2015 by at least 90 percent.
Reduce malaria case incidence globally compared with 2015 by at least 90 percent.
Eliminate malaria from countries in which malaria was transmitted in 2015—at least 35 countries.
Preventing re-establishment of malaria in all countries that are malaria free.
Dr. Margaret Chan, former Director-General of the World Health Organization (2006-2017). (Photo credit WHO/Pierre Albouy)
Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said a major “scale-up” of malaria responses would not only help countries reach 2030’s targets but would also contribute to poverty reduction and other development goals.
“Recent progress on malaria has shown us that, with adequate investments and the right mix of strategies, we can indeed make remarkable strides against this complicated enemy,” she said.
“We will need strong political commitment to see this through, and expanded financing. We should act with resolve, and remain focused on our shared goal to create a world in which no one dies of malaria.“
Few would argue with those words.
Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease: Part 1 | Part 2
Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 8:30 am By GFA Staff Writer
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the continuing battle in fighting malaria worldwide via mosquito netting and medical care to combat this parasitic genius.
Hippocrates (460–370 B.C.) described malaria in the ancient world.
Combating a Tough Disease
Malaria has a history extending back thousands of years. The legendary Greek doctor, Hippocrates (born in 460 B.C.), described periodic fevers. It was so common in the Roman Empire that one report said it may have contributed to the empire’s decline. At one time, it was also common across Europe and North America.
Malaria needs a combination of high population density, high anopheles mosquito density, and high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitos and vice versa. If any of the factors is lowered sufficiently, the parasite will eventually disappear from the area. However, unless eliminated entirely, it can be re-established if conditions revert to a combination favorable to the parasite.
The battle against the disease has raged for centuries. Scientific studies on malaria saw their first major advance in 1880, when a French army doctor working at a military hospital in Algeria observed parasites in the red blood cells of infected patients. Alphonse Lavern suggested that malaria was caused by this organism, which along with other later discoveries, earned him the Nobel Prize in 1907.
More than a century later, the battle fighting malaria continues. It is expensive. According to one report on research and development challenges in the health field, one drug costs $150–200 million and seven to 10 years to develop, one vaccine costs $600–800 million and takes 10–15 years, one diagnostic costs up to $50 million and takes three to five years, and one vector control product takes $60–65 million and 10–12 years. It projects the annual research and development need for malaria over a decade ending in 2022 will range from $5.5 billion to $8.3 billion.
Still, it is a war worth waging. Not only can severe cases cause lifelong intellectual disabilities, but its economic impact can cost billions of dollars annually in lost productivity. WHO says certain population groups are at higher risk of contracting malaria and developing serious disease: children under 5, pregnant women, patients with HIV/AIDS, non-immune immigrants, and mobile populations and travelers.
Young children are often at higher risk of contracting malaria. In 2012, an estimated 207 million people suffered from malaria. About 627,000 people died, and 77 percent of those deaths were among children under the age of 5. (Photo credit Nothing But Nets)
To date, vaccines have been lacking, but WHO hopes Mosquirix™ will prove to be a game changer. It will be administered to at least 360,000 children in areas of Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, with some regions selected for participation to serve as comparison groups to areas where the vaccine will not be available initially.
Developed by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and GlaxoSmithKline with support from the Gates Foundation, Mosquirix™ was engineered with genes from the outer protein of a malaria parasite, a portion of a hepatitis B virus, and a chemical component to boost immunity. The vaccine works to prevent infection by blocking the parasite from infecting the liver.
Although WHO has yet to make a policy recommendation for large-scale distribution beyond the pilot program, it saw some encouraging—though limited—results in a five-year-long trial (phase three of the program).
“In its ability to adapt and survive, the malaria parasite is a genius. It’s smarter than we are.”
The trial, which concluded in 2014, enrolled approximately 15,000 infants and children in seven sub-Saharan nations. Among participants who received four doses, the vaccine prevented approximately four in 10 cases of malaria (39 percent) over four years of follow-up and just over three in 10 cases of severe malaria (32 percent). Significant reductions were seen in overall hospital admissions and those for malaria and severe malaria.
It will be evaluated for use as a complementary tool, along with the preventive, diagnostic and treatment measures WHO recommends, such as indoor residual spraying with insecticides and the use of anti-malarial medicines.
Challenges Ahead for Fighting Malaria
Progress has been made in the past. WHO’s long-term strategy report, which outlines steps to attack the problem by 2030, says between 2001–2013 an expansion of intervention contributed to a 47 percent decline in mortality rates worldwide. That meant an estimated 4.3 million fewer deaths.
Still, malaria remains a persistent foe. The ability of parasites to evolve and develop resistance is one of the leading challenges. According to one report, a particular class of parasites has demonstrated the capability—through the development of multiple drug-resistant forms—for evolutionary change, which can affect the efficiency of vaccines and other treatments.
As malaria mutates, it can gain resistance to common drugs like this one. Photo by Arne Hoel / World Bank on Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Such possibilities surfaced recently in the United Kingdom. Like the U.S., the UK is largely malaria-free but still sees about 2,000 cases annually among travelers returning from other nations. In early 2017, researchers found a drug commonly used in the UK that had been highly effective at treating malaria, but it had failed to cure four patients who contracted the disease while visiting Africa.
Although the patients recovered after receiving alternative treatment, research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the failure was due to strains of the disease showing reduced susceptibility. It was also a possible first sign of drug resistance to a drug known as AL, for artemether-lumefantrine.
Dr. Colin Sutherland led a study on malaria’s resistance to certain treatment drugs. (Photo credit sverigeradio.se)
Dr. Colin Sutherland, who led the study, told the London Telegraph that treating patients there with AL “might need reviewing.”
“Fortunately, there are other effective drugs available,” Dr. Sutherland said. “(But) frontline doctors should be alert to the possibility of artemisinin-based drugs failing, and assist with the collection of detailed information about specific travel destinations. A concerted effort to monitor AL outcomes in UK malaria patients needs to be made. This will determine whether our front-line malaria treatment drug is under threat.”
In addition, Sutherland told the newspaper that drug resistance is one of the “biggest threats we face” in fighting malaria, and it had already started occurring in parasite strains prevalent in parts of Southeast Asia. Mutations found in genes previously implicated in drug failure in Africa warrant further investigation, the doctor said.
A GFA-supported pastor helps those affected by flooding in South Asia. Standing water after a flood provides a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and the danger of malaria can increase.
In addition to the medical challenges, there are social and environmental factors. WHO’s 15-year strategy report outlines such problems as social unrest, conflict and humanitarian disasters as major obstacles to progress. So are outbreaks of other diseases, like the Ebola virus in West Africa, which affected countries endemic for malaria and diminished their ability to control malaria.Climate change is another factor.
“Given the association between malaria transmission and climate, long-term malaria efforts will be highly sensitive to changes in the world’s climate,” the report says. “It is expected that—without mitigation—climate change will result in an increase in the malaria burden in several regions of the world that are endemic for the disease, particularly in densely-populated topical highlands.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General World Health Organization (2017-present). Photo by itupictures on Flickr / CC BY 2.0
In the 2017 World Malaria Report, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus—former health minister for Ethiopia—termed the malaria response as “at a crossroads.” He said continuing with a “business as usual” approach with the same level of resources and interventions means a likely increase in malaria cases and deaths.”It is our hope that countries and the global health community choose another approach,” Ghebreyesus said in his foreword, “resulting in a boost in funding for fighting malaria programs, expanding access to effective interventions and greater investment in the research and development of new tools.”
Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease: Part 1 | Part 3
Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 8:56 am By GFA Staff Writer
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the fight against malaria, prevention via mosquito netting and medical care to combat a parasitic genius.
Fighting Against Malaria
Though eradicated in many developed nations, malaria still claims thousands of lives around the world. One victim who survived this mosquito-borne disease compared its chills to “lying down between two blocks of ice.”
Each year, more than 400,000 people don’t survive those terrifying shudders.
As part of its long-term goal to eradicate malaria, this year the World Health Organization (WHO) is launching the first field test of a vaccine in real-world settings. Known as RTS,S, or Mosquirix™, the United Nations agency says this is the first vaccine shown to provide partial protection against malaria in young children by acting against the deadliest parasite globally. It will be made available to select residents of three countries in Africa, the continent linked to the highest number of cases. In addition to combating it, the organization hopes to train a spotlight on the need for dramatically increased funding for the fight against malaria.
Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Program. (Photo credit Malaria World Congress)
“Progress in the global malaria response has unquestionably stalled,” said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, in a letter last December.
“Clearly, to get the response back on track, increased funding is urgently needed from international donors and endemic countries. Critical gaps in access to tools that prevent, diagnose and treat malaria must be found and filled.”
To get an idea of the obstacles presented by malaria, consider the toll during 2016. Worldwide, there were 216 million cases, an increase of 5 million over the previous year. The death toll of 445,000 nearly matched that of 2015.
Although $2.7 billion was invested in the fight against malaria in 2016, WHO estimates a minimum of $6.5 billion will be needed annually by 2020.
Malaria is transmitted by infected female mosquitoes called anopheles. (Public domain)
A life-threatening disease, malaria is caused by parasites transmitted to people through bites of infected female mosquitoes, known as anopheles. In people lacking immunity—especially pregnant mothers and young children—symptoms appear 10 to 15 days after the bite. Fever, headache, chills and vomiting are among the symptoms.
Severe cases in children can include severe anemia and respiratory distress, while in adults, the disease can affect multiple organs. Without treatment within 24 hours, certain kinds of malaria can cause death.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says malaria occurs mostly in poor tropical and subtropical areas of the world and is a leading cause of illness and death in those regions. Some 3.3 billion people live in areas at risk of transmission.
Although Africa is home to the majority of cases, the problem exists across the globe, as evidenced by its presence in 91 countries. For example, to the east of the continent, CDC maps show malaria is prevalent across South Asia. That includes all of Laos, Bangladesh and India (except at higher elevations), and much of Cambodia and Pakistan (below 2,500 feet altitude). It is also present in areas of eastern Indonesia and some areas of Thailand, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar) and Papua New Guinea.
The CDC Malaria Map shows where malaria is prevalent in the world.
Even in the United States, which largely eradicated the problem in the early 1950s, the CDC says 1,700 cases are diagnosed annually. The majority are among travelers and immigrants returning from countries where transmission occurs, many from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. There were also 63 outbreaks of locally transmitted, mosquito-borne malaria between 1957 and 2015.
This fight goes on despite the awarding of five Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine for work associated with malaria between 1902 and 2015. Small wonder that a National Institutes of Health researcher once commented, “In its ability to adapt and survive, the malaria parasite is a genius. It’s smarter than we are.”
Bill and Melinda Gates discuss malaria at the Bagamoyo District Hospital in Tanzania. (Photo credit Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018 Annual Letter)
Spotlight on World Malaria Day
It isn’t just WHO focusing attention on malaria. In January, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (long involved in anti-malaria causes), the Inter-American Development Bank and the Carlos Slim Foundation announced they would provide a collective total of $83.6 million in new funding for fighting against malaria in seven nations in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
The Regional Malaria Elimination Collective is also aimed at ensuring malaria treatment remains a health and development priority. The funds are to help leverage more than $100 million in domestic funding and $39 million of existing donor money by 2022. Although Central America has seen a 90 percent drop in cases since 2000, “progress against the mosquito-borne disease has stalled and several countries in the region still have significant problems with malaria,” reported Reuters News Service in late January.
These developments occur amid the upcoming World Malaria Day (Apr. 25), which has been an annual emphasis since 2007. The international observance was established by WHO’s decision-making body to provide education and understanding of the disease and to spread awareness of strategies to curtail its spread.
Former President George W. Bush gestures during an address in honor of Malaria Awareness Day on Friday, April 25, 2008. (Photo credit George Bush Archives)
On its first year, former President George W. Bush designated Apr. 25 as “Malaria Awareness Day” and called on Americans to join the effort to eradicate the disease on the African continent.
Among the initiatives announced were a $3 million challenge grant from ExxonMobil, a fundraising promotion by Major League Soccer, a challenge by Pastor Rick Warren to 300,000 churches to take on malaria as a cause, and a campaign against malaria by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
A number of countries participate, spanning such nations as the U.S. to Germany to India, Nigeria and Uganda. In addition to governmental action, businesses, non-governmental organizations and individuals use the day as an opportunity to engage in fundraising, while many media outlets help publicize public awareness campaigns.
World Malaria Day helps shine a spotlight on prevention, a crucial strategy in reducing the incidence of the disease. WHO says that since 2000, this has played a key role in reducing cases and deaths, with the indoor spraying of insecticides and distribution of insecticide-treated nets leading the way.
What difference has this made? Across sub-Saharan Africa, just over half the population slept under nets in 2015, compared to less than a third five years earlier. During that time period, preventive treatment for pregnant women increased five-fold in 20 African nations. Globally, new malaria cases fell 21 percent between 2010–2015, while death rates declined by 29 percent. However, much remains to be done.
WHO’s global technical strategy has a goal of a 40 percent reduction in malaria cases and deaths by 2020, but less than half of the countries facing the threat are likely to meet that target.
Indeed, Dr. Abdisalan Noor, team leader of WHO’s Global Malaria Program Surveillance Unit, says the declining trend in malaria cases and deaths has slowed and even reversed in some regions over the past three years.
In commenting on the 2017 World Malaria Report issued last November, Dr. Noor said there are continued gaps in coverage of basic prevention, diagnostic and treatment tools.
“As noted in the report, less than half of households in countries in sub-Saharan Africa have sufficient bednets, and only about one-third of children in the African Region with a fever are taken to a medical provider in the public health sector,” he said.
Dr. Abdisalan Noor of the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Program Surveillance Unit. (Photo credit Wellcome Trust Blog)
Indeed, Dr. Abdisalan Noor, team leader of WHO’s Global Malaria Program Surveillance Unit, says the declining trend in malaria cases and deaths has slowed and even reversed in some regions over the past three years.In commenting on the 2017 World Malaria Report issued last November, Dr. Noor said there are continued gaps in coverage of basic prevention, diagnostic and treatment tools.
“As noted in the report, less than half of households in countries in sub-Saharan Africa have sufficient bednets, and only about one-third of children in the African Region with a fever are taken to a medical provider in the public health sector,” he said.
Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease: Part 2 | Part 3
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the horrors of modern day human trafficking, slavery and forced labor throughout the world.
Human Trafficking: Cashing In on Chaos
Like a virus, human trafficking continues to mutate. Women have long been considered to be the main victims, and that is certainly true in the sex trade, where they comprise 99 percent of those used and abused.
However, GRETA (Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings) found that, in some countries, labor trafficking has emerged as “the predominant form.” And while there are “considerable variations in the number and proportion of labour trafficking victims amongst evaluated countries, all countries indicated an upward trend of labour exploitation over the years.”
As the numbers of those trafficked for forced labor have increased over the last decade, so has the number of trafficked men, who can be subject to particularly brutal treatment. Survivors of forced labor in the Thai fishing industry have told of being made to take amphetamines to enable them to work long hours and of being dragged through the water with a rope around their neck for complaining.
Those who tried to escape were executed and their bodies thrown overboard.
Some men working on fishing boats in Thailand are subject to forced labor and brutal working conditions, according to recent Human Rights Watch research. (Photo credit Environment Justice Foundation)
Human trafficking has also grown and morphed in the wake of the refugee crises in Europe and parts of Africa and Asia.
“Refugees and unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable targets of labor and sex traffickers,” warns the UN.
Mass movements of people in times of great upheaval leave many vulnerable to being taken advantage of and provide opportunities for traffickers to move even more freely.
“In the chaos of conflict and violence, a perfect storm of lawlessness, slavery, and environmental destruction can occur—driving the vulnerable into slave-based work that feeds into global supply chains and the things we buy and use in our daily lives,” say the GSI publishers.
“Modern forms of slavery prosper in these environments of conflict, corruption, displacement, discrimination and inequality,” they add. “Given this, it is critical that national and international responses to humanitarian emergencies and mass migration take account of the very real risks of modern slavery on highly vulnerable migrant and refugee populations.”
“In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide.”
If selling trafficked bodies is grievous, then selling trafficked body parts is gruesome, but it happens. As many as 7,000 kidneys are illegally obtained by traffickers every year as demand outstrips the supply of organs legally available for transplant, says Fight Slavery Now. This organization references a refugee camp given the nickname Kidneyvakkam, or Kidneyville, because so many women there had sold their kidneys.
“A black market thrives as well in the trade of bones, blood and other body tissues,” says the organization.
A particularly disturbing aspect of human trafficking is how often perpetrators take advantage of people’s hopes and desires to prosper. Many migrant workers are lured from their home country by promises of a new life—only to find a darker reality.
Maya was 22 when she fled the fighting in her native Syria, destined for Lebanon where she had been promised a job working in a factory. But upon her arrival, she found herself forced into prostitution with many others, enduring “severe physical and psychological violence,” before finally being rescued.
It’s all too common for migrants trying to get into a new country without the proper papers to be tricked by those claiming to help them, but they are not the only ones to find they have been duped.
Hundreds of welders and pipe-fitters who were recruited to help fix oil rigs damaged by Hurricane Katrina arrived in the United States legally—some having paid as much as $25,000 in recruiting fees for the opportunity.
But upon arrival, things were very different. They found themselves in an isolated, barb-wired compound with armed guards, where they were forced to live in crowded shipping containers—as many as 24 men in one unit—and for which they were charged $1,000 monthly rent. Underfed, they had to work round the clock for virtually nothing by the time a slew of deductions was made from their wages.
After 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Signal International allegedly recruited hundreds of workers to fix oil rigs like this one—but unfortunately many of the workers were forced into terrible working conditions with little pay.
Traffickers lure their victims with false promises and then keep them imprisoned, sometimes literally and sometimes by threats of violence. When victims have been taken to a different country, they can be reluctant to go to the authorities for help for fear of being deported. As a result, traffickers may not keep their victims in locked rooms but “hide them in plain sight,” knowing they will not try to escape.
That “plain sight” may include the local hand car wash. In the U.K. there is concern that “endemic exploitation” occurs at the 20,000 such operations in the country.
“The truth is that ordinary people everywhere in the world … unwittingly come into contact with victims of modern slavery every day,” says Forrest. “We might walk past a little girl trapped in a forced marriage, a hotel cleaner that has had her passport confiscated, or touch this crime through the clothes and products made through illegal forced labor that we use every day.”
Traffickers will also play on victims’ vulnerabilities. When Gowri, who was tricked into bonded labor, tried to leave the brick kiln where she was being held, the owner attacked her children and then her.
Nigerians recruited for supposed good jobs in the U.K. have been made to take part in spiritistic practices, locked in coffins and making a blood oath not to try to escape or speak to the authorities.
Children at Risk
The widespread exploitation of children isn’t limited to working in fields and factories. Cruelly, they also may be enslaved in a place that is supposed to be a haven.
They may have ended up in care because their desperately poor parents thought they would be better cared for by others.
But that does not always turn out to be the case. Some orphanage operators have deliberately withheld food and proper living environments to keep the youngsters looking malnourished “to attract more sympathy and therefore more money via donations.”
So-called “paper orphans” are said to be used as moneymakers in countries like Nepal, Cambodia, Ghana, Uganda, Guatemala and Haiti, tapping into the growing “voluntourism” market of the West, combining travel with a dash of doing good.
And there is “a strong but largely unrecognized connection between institutionalization and trafficking.”
It is bad enough that many of those who volunteer at orphanages don’t have any credentials and that the high turnover of visiting caregivers is believed to lead to attachment disorders among the children. Yet even more alarming is that orphanages can be a rich target for pedophiles.
“Modern forms of slavery prosper in these environments of conflict, corruption, displacement, discrimination and inequality.”
For being such a large criminal operation, human trafficking sees limited disciplinary action. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons report, there were only 14,897 prosecutions and 9,071 convictions for human trafficking globally the previous year. In South and Central Asia, the number of prosecutions rose between 2010 and 2016—but only from 1,500 (with 1,000 convictions) to 6,250 (2,200 convictions).
Partly this is because of limited manpower and other resources. International Justice Mission (IJM) notes that many police departments in Asia “often lack the most basic office supplies—paper, folders, functional phones, copiers and computers—let alone forensics evidence kits, DNA testing equipment, and cameras necessary to do their job.”
Gary Haugen, Founder and CEO of International Justice Mission (Photo Credit IJM.org)
But there is a darker reason for the widespread impunity with which many human traffickers work: corruption. As the UN has observed, “most poor people don’t live under the shelter of the law, but far from the law’s protection.”
IJM founder and CEO Gary Haugen says the last half-century has seen “the almost total collapse of functioning criminal justice systems in the developing world.”
When cases are investigated, it’s not uncommon for them to be settled out of court in parts of Asia because the victims’ need for money trumps justice, allowing the offenders to continue their trade.
21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking: Part 1 | Part 3
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the present day tragedy of modern slavery & human trafficking, where there are more slaves today than at any time in history.
Around 10 million people are currently behind bars somewhere in the world. Some have yet to face trial, a few have been wrongly convicted, but most are prisoners for a crime they have committed.
Meanwhile, four times as many people are being held against their will because of a crime committed against them—they are part of the global slave population estimated to be more than 40 million.
That number is higher than the entire population of Canada. Many of these victims are literally kept under lock and key, while others are effectively imprisoned by coercion, manipulation and extortion.
Slavery: Stronger Today than Ever
Slavery may long have been officially outlawed, but difficult though it may be to believe, numerically there are more slaves today than at any time in history.
Among them:
Twin brothers, Aimamo and Ibrahim, who at age 16 left grinding poverty in their native Gambia for what they hoped would be a better new life in Libya.
Instead of well-paying jobs, they found themselves enduring beatings and threats as they labored on a farm alongside scores of other sub-Saharan Africans, locked in at night to keep them from escaping.
Forced to work from morning to night cleaning dishes and washing clothes, the small girl was beaten and slapped when she didn’t keep up. And when she fell asleep one night while massaging the legs of her “owner,” the woman smeared chili powder into her eyes as punishment.
“K,” who was sold at age 5 by family friends and then taken to truck stops along route 80, one of the busiest interstate highways in the United States.
There, anesthetized by drugs and alcohol, this little girl would be forced to knock on the doors of the trucks and sell herself to the drivers.
So concerning is the issue that it is spotlighted by not one but two of the UN’s annual international awareness days.
The World Day Against Child Labor (June 12) highlights the plight of nearly 170 million children worldwide who have to work—half of them in “hazardous” situations—and whose number includes those in bonded labor. Though the number of working children has dropped significantly since the turn of the millennium, that pace of decline has “slowed considerably” in the past few years, says the International Labor Organization.
That human trafficking relates to two UN days of awareness also hints at the complexity of the issue. Because the particularly harrowing nature of sex trafficking means it garners a lot of headlines, many people assume this is the main area of human trafficking.
However, research tells another story: Of the 25 million people ensnared in forced labor in 2016, only 5 million were involved in sexual exploitation.
Sex trafficking doesn’t only generate more headlines than other forms, though; it also generates a lot more money.
One in five trafficking victims may be sexually exploited, but they bring in two-thirds of the total global trafficking profits.
A typical woman forced into prostitution makes around $100,000 a year of profit for those who control her, six times the average profit of other forced workers.
Human Rights First says that studies have shown that sexual exploitation can yield a return on investment ranging from 100 percent to 1,000 percent, while an enslaved laborer in less profitable markets—such as agricultural work—can generate something over 50 percent profit.
Such numbers underscore how human trafficking is really big business. As with so many of the world’s major problems, the causes are complex. Politics and prejudice, commerce and corruption, disasters and discrimination are all part of the roots of this diseased tree.
“Vulnerability to modern slavery is affected by a complex interaction of factors related to the presence or absence of protection and respect for rights; physical safety and security; access to the necessities of life such as food, water and health care; and patterns of migration, displacement and conflict,” say those behind the sobering 40 million statistic.
Meanwhile, Anti-Slavery International (ASI) lists “strict hierarchical social structures and caste systems; poverty; discrimination against women and girls and lack of respect for children’s rights and development needs” among the fertilizers.
However, one thing distinguishes human trafficking from many other key global issues.
Andrew Forrest, anti-slave campaigner (CC BY 3.0 AU / Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
“This is a human condition,” says Australian businessman and anti-slavery campaigner Andrew Forrest. “This isn’t AIDS or malaria or something which is thrust upon us by nature. This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”
There are widespread efforts being made to do that, from those advocating for changes in the law to those pushing for businesses to take more responsibility for the shadow side of globalization. Others work with authorities to free people from brothels and brick factories or, like many Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers, care for and help to rehabilitate the victims left with physical and emotional scars.
Those shocked by the scale of slavery in the 21st century, imagining it had effectively been abolished in the 1800s, may be equally surprised by its many forms. They range from sex trafficking and forced marriage—some 15 million people in 2016, many of them young girls—to forced labor and bonded labor.
The latter is especially common in Asia, where exorbitant interest rates by lenders can lock generations of families into working to pay off what began as a small debt—likely for an essential such as food or medicine—that keeps mushrooming.
“This isn’t AIDS or malaria or something which is thrust upon us by nature. This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”
“Modern slavery takes many forms and is known by many names,” says the Freedom Fund.
According to Free the Slaves, today’s trade has two chief characteristics: It’s cheap, and it’s disposable.
“Slaves today are cheaper than ever,” says the group. “In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide.”
Human trafficking may be a global disease, but it is more virulent in certain parts of the world, where poverty and social inequality more readily enable it to thrive. The 2016 Global Slavery Index (GSI) found that just five countries accounted for almost 60 percent of the global slave population.
21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking: Part 2 | Part 3
Last updated on: April 30, 2021 at 8:37 am By Karen Mains
Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia Special Report (GFA) – Discussing the troubling problem of the lack of toilets – basic sanitation, and open defecation for millions throughout the world.
What If You Didn’t Have a Toilet?
So I remind myself of toilet scenarios I do know about, then extrapolate some personal situations out to extreme what-ifs. Our home, in which we have lived for 38 years, has its own septic system. During that time, when we had extreme storms, the power would go out. This meant that no water could be pumped from our underground well, and this electric outage disabled our showers, our faucets and our toilets.
I used to store plastic bottles of water so when things went black we could brush our teeth, get dressed by candlelight (since there are no windows in any of our bathrooms), and—get this—flush our toilets. If the power did not come back on for a couple days, the frozen food thawed and an excess of detritus threatened to overflow the toilet basin.
A well-cleaned squat toilet in Asia.
So I extrapolate—what if this happened all the time? What if sewer lines broke, became clogged and backed up regularly? What if I lived in poverty and there were no plumbers and no money and no electric company to call to fix our difficulties? What if I had to stand in line to use a communal latrine where flies buzzed, the floor was filthy, someone had evacuated due to acute diarrhea, and no one wanted to clean the mess? Now we’re getting closer.
In the refugee camps of the world, my travel companions and I held ridiculous discussions as to who had invented squat toilets—men or women? Someone shot a photo of me holding a rickety latrine toilet door upright while a woman co-worker trusted me to guard her privacy while she did her business inside. I am laughing, howling with laughter really, at a ridiculous situation, but this is, for most of the world, not a laughing matter.
Extrapolate. What if there was no female friend to hold the door? What if the floor around the squat toilet inside was filthy and you had to pull up your sari and rest the top half of the door against your forehead to keep it from falling? What if you believed that the little structures, dark and dank and scary inside, were really inhabited by demons?
Smelling an overflowing latrine from 20 feet away might persuade even a Westerner to think similarly, even if only metaphorically. In truth, I don’t like the few outhouses I’ve been forced to use in the States, nor many of the spooky national park public facilities, and I certainly avoid, if I can help it, those portable potties hauled in on trucks for public events or construction work sites.
When Your Septic Tank Problems Bring Embarrassment
My last attempt at toilet empathy. About 10 years after we had moved into our home in West Chicago, Illinois, our neighbor across the back yard knocked on the door and apologized for needing to complain about the standing, stinking water that was seeping into his property.
“I think you may be having trouble with your septic system,” he reported, embarrassed to have to point this out.
I called two septic companies. One told me I needed to have the whole septic field replaced; it would cost us $10,000. The other service man diagnosed another problem, but his estimate was about the same as the first. Then I went to the DuPage County Health Department and asked what septic firms they would recommend. I called Black Gold, whose reps complained about the septic map drawn by the original company that laid our field that was now leaking.
“Would the health department let us get away with a layout like this?” he asked his partner. They both obviously thought the field plan had been rendered by some septic idiot. Sure enough, after spending about 45 minutes prodding our three-quarters-of-an-acre lot with long poles, I was informed: “Lady, you don’t need no new septic field. The lines of what’s there ain’t connected to the tank.” His fee was $3,000. I made a garden out of the areas that were torn up by their repairs.
Vile, brown liquid that some in Asia count on as their water source.
So what if I lived somewhere that permanently seeped smelly, vile, germ-ridden, brown liquid? What if the river at the back of the land was a running sewer, and my grandchildren couldn’t romp and splash in it? (As one writer vividly describes: “In stagnant reaches, methane bubbles up through the grey-green water, and the stench of rotten eggs—hydrogen sulfide—wafts into homes.”) What if the fields were filled not only with animal feces but the excreta of some 300 neighbors?
You come up with your own empathy-building stories.
Communities Band Together to Improve Sanitation
A family in front of a GFA-provided local sanitation facility.
Prime Minister Modi and his teams are sold on community-led initiatives, and so should they be. Change works best when a whole population is committed to seeing it happen.
Elizabeth Royte wrote: “The Indian government is rewarding certified ODF villages by moving them to the front of the line for road or drinking-water improvements. It has launched an advertising campaign that exalts Swachh Bharat mascots, like the 106-year-old woman in Chhattisgarh state who sold seven goats to build two toilets. It has enlisted cricket and Bollywood stars to exhort people to use the new latrines.”
Community development often works best when it is exactly that: an idea that grows out of the mind of some visionary who lives within the locality that has a need, a visionary who is not only capable of strategic thinking but also feels empathy and who is moved by compassion by the people nearby—his or her neighbors. And when a whole community becomes involved in “cleaning up its act,” there are few powers on earth that can withstand such initiative.
Now what’s interesting about Gospel for Asia‘s stories surrounding sanitation is that it is the local pastor in the village, who out of concern and knowing that open defecation is a deadly disease-breeding potential, exercises his compassion to love his neighbors by being concerned about the availability of latrines.
This is an excerpt from one of Gospel for Asia (GFA)‘s stories called “Welcome to Their Toilet” that talks about how one community was forced to use the open fields to defecate because they had no other proper place.
The local GFA pastor, Vidur, understood the villagers’ struggle. He himself had been ministering in the area for more than 10 years. Knowing people’s lives were at risk whenever they used the fields as their toilet, he wished there were a way to help them.
Then he found out Gospel for Asia had started a program to promote sanitation in underprivileged areas. Excited about the opportunity to help his community, he asked his leaders to build four toilets in the village.
That’s when Janya and her husband, Lalan, gladly offered some of their land for one toilet.
In January 2013, when the villagers saw a concrete outhouse rise out of the dusty ground, they poured out their gratitude to Pastor Vidur and the church.
“[This] saved the lives of people from illness,” shared one villager.
Even the village leader expressed thanks. “[The church] is always concerned about the need of people and works hard for a brilliant life for the community,” he said.
What an extraordinary example of love in practical action.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” —Luke 10:27
For women like this tea estate laborer, having no outdoor toilet facility could mean risking assault as they go out into an open field in the dark.
“It’s not safe to send our people, our children, our wives or our daughters to the tea garden at night to use the toilet,” Iniyavan said.
Iniyavan made only 2,400 rupees a month, which was equivalent to about $37 (USD) a month. He wasn’t able to save enough money to construct a toilet.
Open defecation means there’s the risk of disease as families continually return to communal waste grounds.
GFA-supported Compassion Services teams construct outdoor toilets, also known as sanitation facilities, for people who, like Iniyavan, do not have the means to do so on their own.
“Now, since I have this toilet built in my house, I don’t have to worry. My family and I don’t have to go to the tea garden for toilet, and it is very safe here,” Iniyavan said.
On the Brink of Innovations, Change in Sanitation
Toilet technology is on the edge of remarkable, cost-effective, ecologically friendly frontiers. They’re becoming self-cleaning and solar-powered. A solar-powered toilet that converts waste into charcoal that could then be used as fertilizer.
An indoor toilet that works like a garden composter, spinning the contents and reducing odor and the number of dangerous pathogens. Portable rickshaw toilets. A community bio-digester toilet designed to convert human waste into gases and manure. Once ideas begin flourishing, there is no limit to what can happen.
I’m banking on Prime Minister Modi’s ODF Campaign to be successful. The hardest pull of any new effort is most always at the beginning, but once new ideas start rolling, they gather momentum. Some of the new toilet technologies may become catalysts as well.
In addition, there are hundreds of international organizations working on sanitation solution. They understand that one size does not fit all the variables that make up the particulars in this vast discussion, but added all together, it is a prohibitive association with evidence of remarkable dedication.
“And when a whole community becomes involved in ‘cleaning up its act,’ there are few powers on earth that can withstand such initiative.”
A Canadian doctor, one of those “creative renegades” unhappy with the condition of the world and one whom I have come to admire and love, was appointed as a Provincial Health Officer in the highlands of Papua, New Guinea.
While making an aerial survey, he and his team discovered one village that was distinctly cleaner and healthier. Far below them was the evidence of what turned out to be a pastor with some basic health training who had taught his people those lessons, and the difference could be seen from the air. That one flight changed their lives. They began to search for a more integral way of ministering and soon began using and teaching a community health evangelism methodology, which had been developed in Africa.
Sometimes we get lost in the details on the ground. We need to stand back, take deep breaths and find some way to gather broader assessments—some kind of aerial view. Progress is being made; it’s just a little harder in some places than in others. I’m proud that Gospel for Asia is one of the players. Last year, GFA helped provide 10,512 toilets for needy communities throughout Asia.
Shout Out to Toilets!
Christianity has everything to do with sanitation. We serve a God who is expecting us to help restore the world He created to its original design. That is a world, among many other things, without rampaging diseases. One day, Scripture promises, it will be a world without death and suffering. So in this interim, let’s hear a shout out for all the toilets in the world!
Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation: Part 1 | Part 2
Last updated on: April 30, 2021 at 8:05 am By Karen Mains
Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia Special Report (GFA) – Discussing the troubling problem of open defecation and the lack of basic sanitation facilities for millions throughout the world.
2.3 billion worldwide lack basic sanitation facilities and 892 million still defecate in the open, according to World Health Organization.Karen Burton Mains, author
For much of my adult life, it has been my privilege to hang out with the “renegades” of Christian missions, that relief-and-development crowd that rushes to help during natural disasters, struggles to alleviate the suffering and abasement of refugee displacement, and pays concerted attention to the everyday struggles of everyday living in the developing nations of the world.
The first trip I made around the world was at the invitation of Food for the Hungry, and I traveled with Larry Ward, the executive director at the time, and his wife, Lorraine. It was on this trip I became convinced this particular crew of crisis-ready, crisis-solving, crisis-adaptive humans was fueled solely by adrenaline (“When does he sleep?”).
The purpose of the trip was an international field survey with an emphasis on the refugee crisis in the world, which at that time in the 1980’s was the largest since World War II. We started in Hong Kong and ended seven weeks later in Kenya, Africa. My assignment was to observe with fresh eyes and to write about what I had seen.
The book I wrote, The Fragile Curtain, with the help of daily briefings from the U.S. State Department and the excellent international reporting of “The Christian Science Monitor” (as well as some generous coaching from a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter) won a Christopher Award, a national prize for works that represent “the highest values of the human spirit.”
Eventually, I brought the accumulated exposure of my world travels—some 55 countries in all—and the learning I had gathered through journalism research and the actualities of dragging through camps and slums to the board table of Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), a global faith-based health organization.
The former international field director of MAI, now working to create a coalition of some 250 mission groups and development organizations implementing the MAI teaching methodology, made a statement I thought about for years:
“I never realized,” he said, “that I would eventually measure the impact of the Gospel by how many toilets had been built in a village.”
Women and girls are often at risk when open defecation is the only option for relieving themselves. Thankfully, these precious faces can smile because a toilet facility was recently built in their village.
GFA’s Story: Fighting Open Defecation, Helping to Improve Sanitation in Asia
So what does Christianity have to do with the defecation problems of the world?
Gospel for Asia (GFA) is an organization close to the heart of my husband, David Mains, and to myself. We met K.P. Yohannan, GFA’s founder, when it was just an impelling vision in the heart of a young Indian man—one of those divine nudges that simply would not stop pushing at him. Since then, David has traveled to Asia at the invitation of Gospel for Asia (GFA) some eight times; I have visited Asia under their auspices once. We’ve watched as K.P.’s vision grew from a dream to an actuality with numbers beyond anything we could have considered possible.
GFA’s website tells its story, and its story is vast:
In 2016, some 82,000 impoverished children were fed, clothed and schooled;
829 medical camps provided hundreds of people with free medical care and advice;
10,512 latrines with dual-tank sanitation systems were constructed.
This family stands in front of a latrine or “squatty potty” that was installed by GFA-supported national workers.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) started building latrines in 2012, setting a goal of constructing some 15,000 concrete outhouses by 2016. Potable water, of course, travels hand in hand with sanitation, and in 2016, the ministry’s field partners constructed more than 6,822 “Jesus Wells” and distributed 14,886 BioSand water filters to purify drinking water. Touching vignettes on GFA’s website make the statistics personal.
“This saved the lives of people from illness,” stated one villager—and indeed, toilets, when and if they are used, do just that.
A village elder expressed thanks:
“The church is always concerned about the need of people and works hard for a brilliant life for the community.”
There, indeed, is a thread that runs through Gospel for Asia’s stories of toilets: The pastor of the church in this village or that hamlet seems to be the catalyst for health improvement.
Organizations Tackling the Open Defecation Sanitation Crisis
Matt Damon, the founder of Water.org (photo credit Water.org)
Much of the world is in a war against the perils caused by inadequate or non-existent sanitation. People as diverse as Matt Damon, a Hollywood celebrity, award-winning actor and producer/screenwriter; and Narendra Modi, the current prime minister of India, are battling uphill against open defecation (in the sewers, in running streams, by the roadsides, in the fields and the forests, in garbage dumps).
Damon, driven by a desire to make a difference in solving extreme poverty, discovered that water and sanitation were the two basic foundations beneath much of what ails the world. Through his charity, Water.org, he and his business partner, Gary White, are using the microfinance template to provide loans for underserved people to connect to a service utility or to build a latrine for their homes. Some 5.5 million people have been impacted by his approach, and the group estimates they will reach another 2.5 million by the end of 2017.
Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India. Photo by narendramodiofficial on Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Modi actually campaigned for office with the slogan “Toilets Before Temples.” Using Gandhi’s 150th birthday—October 2, 2019—as a goal, the Indian prime minister declared his intention to end open defecation in the country by that date. A campaign was framed, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), and $40 billion was allotted for building latrines and changing mindsets, while the World Bank contributed loans totaling another $1.5 billion.
Another big player in the sanitation action is the United Nations, which in 2000 established Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. While many of these goals were reached (some statisticians conclude that world poverty was halved; others, of course, disagree), progress nevertheless was erratic—great success here and there with some signee countries having few or no results.
Whereas, as Matt Damon discovered, improving sanitation along with clean water, undergirds many of the problems included in what is now being reframed by the UN as Sustainable Development Goals, the target to halve the proportion of the population living without access to improved sanitation facilities by 2015 was missed by almost 700 million people.
Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation: Part 2 | Part 3
Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 10:46 am By GFA Staff Writer
October 16, 2018, marks the 38th anniversary of World Food Day. The date was selected to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 1945. On World Food Day, people from around the globe participate to declare their commitment to eradicating worldwide hunger during our lifetime.
Hunger hurts. Numerous agencies are working to ensure that every individual around the world has continual access to nutritious meals. The United Nations cites eight reasons why eliminating hunger could change the world from the perspective of its global Sustainable Development Goals.
8 Ways Eliminating Hunger Could Change the World
Zero hunger could save the lives of 3.1 million children a year.
Well-nourished mothers have healthier babies with stronger immune systems.
Ending child undernutrition could increase a developing country’s GDP by 16.5 percent.
A dollar invested in hunger prevention could return between $15 and $139 in benefits.
Proper nutrition early in life could mean 46 percent more in lifetime earnings.
Eliminating iron deficiency in a population could boost workplace productivity by 20 percent.
Ending nutrition-related child mortality could increase a workforce by 9.4 percent.
Zero hunger can help build a safer, more prosperous world for everyone.
UNICEF is the world’s largest supplier of ready-to-use therapeutic food for malnourished children. The organization helped to increase the world’s supply of therapeutic food by more than 9,000 percent between 2008 and 2012.
Every day around the globe, 2,500 World Food Program (WFP) logistics staff members manage an average of 5,000 trucks, 30 ships and 50 aircraft; a network of 650 warehouses and a fleet of approximately 700 all-terrain trucks to support its efforts to deliver food where it is needed most.
Gospel for Asia provides healthy meals to children attending Bridge of Hope centers, widows, leper colonies, and families living in remote villages and urban slums. We do this because, as our friends at Food for the Hungry say,
“Our Christian belief [is] that every person has intrinsic value and that it is our responsibility to advocate for the poor and the marginalized.”
The goal is to end hunger and ensure access to food by all people, end all forms of malnutrition, ensure sustainable food production systems, and double agricultural productivity and the income of small-scale food producers.
The World Food Program describes the magnitude of the problem.
“The global food security challenge is straightforward: by 2050, the world must feed 9 billion people. The demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today.”
Although hopes continue to run high that the eradication of hunger can be accomplished, the 202-page Special Report from the FAO, Food Security and Nutrition Around the World in 2018, cites three growing concerns:
New evidence continues to point to a rise in world hunger in recent years after a prolonged decline. An estimated 821 million people – approximately one out of every nine people in the world – are undernourished.
Undernourishment and severe food insecurity appear to be increasing in almost all regions of Africa, as well as in South America, whereas the undernourishment situation is stable in most regions of Asia.
The signs of increasing hunger and food insecurity are a warning that there is considerable work to be done to make sure we “leave no one behind” on the road towards a world with zero hunger.
The WFP published a World Hunger Map this year that presents the prevalence of undernourishment in the world from information gathered over the past three years. The map graphically illustrates what the organization calls
“The alarming signs of increasing food insecurity and high levels of different forms of malnutrition are a clear warning that there is considerable work to be done.”
In South Asia where Gospel for Asia’s efforts are focused, the percentageof undernourished people has declined from 21.5% in 2005 to 14.8% in 2017 (considered marginally low). The total numberof undernourished people there has decreased from nearly 400 million in 2005. Yet, there are still more than 227 million who remain undernourished – the largest regionally-measured group on the planet.
Other regions and nations that fall into the same group of “moderately low” undernourishment include South Africa, China, Southeast Asia, the Dominican Republic, 10 nations in Western Africa stretching from Mauritania to Gabon, Serbia, Albania, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, and five of the form former Soviet republics.
Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Angola, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, and four Western African nations are cited as having moderately high undernourishment rates (up to 24.9%).
Eight African nations and three Middle Eastern nations are rated as high in undernourishment (from 25% to 34.9%).
Ten African nations and North Korea suffer the worst undernourishment rates of more than 35%.
World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley noted that “Conflict remains the main driver of hunger.”
On This World Food Day
We encourage you to be aware of the problem of world hunger on World Food Day. Set aside a part of the day to pray for those who are suffering from hunger.
This is Gospel for Asia’s 39th year working in South Asia. A major part of our work is providing nutritious food to many families, women, children, widows, lepers and the disenfranchised.
Pray for GFA and other similar initiatives to be able to continue to supply food to those who would otherwise be hungry and undernourished.
Pray that we will be able to expand our reach to many more in need and that in doing so, they will see our love for them and glorify our Father in Heaven.
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Instead of well-paying jobs, they found themselves enduring beatings and threats as they labored on a farm alongside scores of other sub-Saharan Africans, locked in at night to keep them from escaping.
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