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EARTH COUNCIL GENEVA CONTINUES WORK WITH IMC IN ETHIOPIA
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Thanks to Earth Council Geneva’s generosity, International Medical Corps began designing and executing a backyard gardens pilot project in April 2019, in nine kebeles villages of Gursum woreda in East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. These communities requested assistance with gardens during feedback sessions conducted as part of our Positive Deviance (PD) Hearth program, which we have been implementing for the past four years.
I. Background and Context
The UN’s July 2019 report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, states that 149 million or 21.9% of under-five children are stunted or low-height-for-age, caused by long-term chronic malnutrition. The impact of stunting is irreversible and jeopardizes a child’s survival and development because of impaired physical growth and cognitive development. One goal of the Government of Ethiopia’s National Nutrition Program 2016-2020 is to address the deep-rooted causes of malnutrition and reduce stunting prevalence among under-five children from 40% to 26%, through high-impact coordinated interventions like Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programming. The specific target for participation of under-five children in the health system’s Growth Monitoring and Promotion (GMP) program based in health facilities is 80% by 2020.
The PD/Hearth solution for underweight children 6-59 months is a cost-effective, sustainable way of preventing future malnutrition within a targeted community by changing norms in childcare, feeding and health-seeking practices, and by building community-managed early prevention and rehabilitation mechanisms for malnutrition. Our objectives for this program are therefore to 1) improve the nutritional status of underweight children in the targeted locations; 2) make these improvements sustainable at the individual household level by educating their mothers/caregivers on how to use locally available, affordable and culturally accepted foods; and 3) prevent future malnutrition by positively influencing community norms and behaviors.
To date, International Medical Corps has organized 184 “hearths” in Gursum woreda – since 2015 in Awbere, Garawedaja and Gafra Guda; since 2016 in Biyonegya, Odanegeya and Goroseyo; and since 2017 in Diferes, Harish and Buna. Each 12-day hearth enrolls 10-12 underweight children under five and their mothers or caregivers, for a total of 1,579 children. To date, 98% have gained a minimum of 200g at the end of the hearth and experienced continuous weight gain over the following six months thanks to better feeding and improved hygiene practices in the home. These children’s siblings and neighbors have also benefited.
II. Gardens for Food Security and Revenue
International Medical Corps is collaborating closely with the government of Ethiopia’s woreda-level Agriculture and Health offices on all implementation phases of this project.
Training
Our first step was to facilitate a basic backyard gardening skills training in all nine districts from August 7-16, 2019. The participants included 107 “health development army” volunteers (all women), eight community leaders (all men) and 18 development agents (16 men and two women), who link farmers with the Ministry of Agriculture. Topics focused on site selection, initial plowing and manuring, seed bed preparation, seed rate, sowing depth and spacing, cover grass and watering, cultivation for weeding, harvesting and utilization. The training refreshed the knowledge of the development agents and enhanced the community members’ awareness of improved agronomic practices of selected vegetables, so that they can train mothers in their groups and monitor their activities.
Seeds, Gardening Materials and Planting
The next step was to procure seeds based on the Agriculture office’s advice and the area’s land type, as well as the communities’ dietary characteristics: Swiss chard seeds (26kg), carrot seeds (79kg), cabbage seeds (20kg) and tomato seeds (81kg) for all 1,579 households; and to procure watering cans and plastic sheeting for 685 households. As of September 2019, International Medical Corps had distributed seeds to 1,146 households (73% of the total) and 284 households (18%) had started planting.
Ethiopia Project Review - OCTOBER 2018
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The Earth Council Geneva has been in partnership with International Medical Corps (IMC) of Los Angeles since April 2009. Our 9 e-learning courses developed by ECG, which yielded thousands of students in over 80 countries, was then “substituted” by Al Gore, Google etc. and we decided to concentrate our efforts on projects with more tangible results. The decision to focus on “fresh water for children in underdeveloped countries” was embraced both by our Board at a Geneva meeting, as well as by our partner IMC. ECG would help to develop projects and provide financing, while IMC would implement projects in the countries we mutually selected.
After assisting IMC in their efforts to eliminate the Ebola Virus, to bring water to Syrian Refugee Camps and to help Philippine-victims during the first years of our partnership, we worked out a project in 2012 to bring fresh water to schools in Ethiopia, where water is scarce and often contaminated. Since then this endeavor, in a collaborative approach, has been implemented in well-defined steps and resulted in very satisfactory results. We have also been fortunate to enlist the help of both Dow/Dupont as well as IBM Corporation.
The work is in progress, the results are amazing. Here is how it works:
Step one:
For defined areas in the countryside of Ethiopia - together with the Ethiopian government, cement slabs to set up toilets are produced. (First toilets in those areas!) The sanitary issues are addressed with training, training training and education of the hygiene issues.
Step two:
Drilling holes for water in schools. Children walk 10 to 20 hours to schools - carrying 20-30 kg containers with water. Clean water at the school allows much more time for education. Again, training and education is key. Indeed, most schools now have “wash clubs”,
with older kids educating the young ones (and their parents) as to when and how to wash their hands and how to use water.
Step three:
Schools on nutrition for children, once breastfeeding ends. Classes for women shows them how to better use their vegetables, with fresh water, and how to incorporate nuts and fruits to increase balanced nutrition. (And not only small kids love that ’new' food!)
It is all built to ensure sustainability - through training the trainers, explanation and education.
The cycle of the programs relating to the project are extremely well thought-out and executed: a) Toilets to curb unsanitary conditions, b) access to, and understanding of clean water, and consequently c) healthy food preparation in a clean environment.
Local people are trained to teach principles throughout communities to ensure SUSTAINABILITY.
One of the modest hospitals in this area 10 years ago had over 500 in and out patients during this time of the year. At this time they afd down to 25 patients! The death rate through hygiene is falling dramatically.
The Earth Council Geneva is making a difference - albeit small - in the context of humanity. But many many villages are following these programs and enjoy a huge change in their lives.
We are proud to be a partner of the International Medical Corps.
DEMOGRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) FACING NEW OUTBREAK OF EBOLA
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THE EARTH COUNCIL GENEVA is helping our partner "International Medical Corps" with resources to eradicate the decease, particularly by providing fresh water, sanitation and hygiene support.
Ebola is rapidly spreading in the DRC. The Ministry of health (MoH) reported a total of 73 cases of hemorrhagic fever in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, including 46 confirmed as EBOLA and 27 as probable. There have been a total of 43 deaths already, and rapidly expanding.
The International Medical Corps emergency Team is in North Kivu, where most cases have been reported.
The screening and referral units across a dozen health sites are crucial to provide staff with training, resources and infrastructure to safely screen every patient, visitor and staff member with no-touch temperature checks and rapid assessments for Ebola-like symptoms each time they enter a health site.
Timing is of utmost importance, with Uganda and Rwanda in close proximity to the outbreak.
Proper WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE care to further prevent the spread of the virus are provided. Dr. Joseph Fair, member of IMC, has worked with great success in West Africa to eliminate EBOLA earlier, and thus brings the experience necessary to the DRC.
ETHIOPIA PROJECT UPDATE – JANUARY 12, 2018
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Thanks to the support of Earth Council Geneva, International Medical Corps is currently rehabilitating water points at six primary schools in Damot-Pulasa and Boloso-Sore woredas. IMC decided to focus on providing potable water at schools as children often miss class due to illness caused by diseases associated with unsafe water, or because they need to travel far distances to find and collect water for their families. Our partner IMC is currently installing piping to bring water community-based sources to the schools, where water points are now functional, and training the members of six special committees on how to maintain them.
To help promote behavior change for proper hygiene among the children, the six schools now have water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) clubs. IMC's approach, using games, exercises and role-play, takes advantage of the natural attributes that children have: less knowledge and experience, fewer responsibilities and an eagerness to learn. They have created action plans for their schools and we have noticed a change in student personal hygiene, including the proper utilization of latrines and hand washing after their use. Solid waste is also now being properly managed by installing dust bins. The bins and hand-washing stations have both been made by students using local materials such as bamboo and disused plastic Jerry cans.
In summary, each of the six primary schools identified for improvements in access to safe water, have also seen improvements in terms of attitudes, behaviors and practices related to environmental sanitation and proper hygiene.
- 9,872 students, and 170 faculty and staff, will have access to safe water by the end of the project
- 100 key influential political, community and religious leaders—40 of whom were women—have been engaged through advocacy
- 180 WASH club members and 26 school staff received training and materials
- 56 members of the six committees associated with the primary schools are receiving training on the maintenance of the new safe water systems
WASH club training at Gurmukoysha Primary School in Boloso-Sore
WASH club training and solid waste management at Olola Primary School in Damot-Pulasa
WASH committee training sessions in Damot-Pulasa and Boloso-Sore
Our Board Member Giovanni Picone elected as Mayor of Bacoli, Metropolitan City of Naples. Gianni also holds the title of President Earth Council Italia
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We are delighted to hear of Giovanni's victory in recent's election and are proud to add our congratulations. We look forward for further productive cooperation on our programs and projects.