USDA program commits to feeding about 400,000 kids in Afghanistan and Haiti

The McGovern-Dole Program is administered by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, which has fed over  22 million children since 2002, just announced that they will be sending 11,000 tons of rice, vegetable oil, yellow peas and lentils to feed hungry children in Afghanistan and Haiti. The program was founded to 'promote education, child development, and food security for some of the world’s poorest children. It provides for donations of U.S. agricultural products, as well as financial and technical assistance, for school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects in low-income countries'. Hey, here's a good chunk of our tax money being very well spent!

Image: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A team of health care professionals teach people to avoid and treat disease

Image: The Rotary Foundation

Members of Rotary International based in Pennsylvania have traveled to Ghana, training local health care professionals in the prevention and treatment of such diseases as lymphatic filariasis, diabetes, and leprosy.  
The training includes proper nutrition, causes of disease, self-care, and obtaining and using therapeutic devices and medicines. 


The Rotary Foundation allocated $46,340 for the trip to Accra, and sent eight health care professionals from around the world. They are devising a manual that they can leave behind to help future prevention and treatment efforts as well.

Scientists gain new understanding as to why deaf people often have extraordinary visual acuity

Image: Cerebral Systems Laboratory

A research team led by Stephen Lomber at the Center of Brain and Mind, University of Western Ontario, discovered more about how the human brain adapts for deafness. They used cats in the study, which is the only other animal besides humans that are born deaf, and found that part of the brain normally dedicated to detecting peripheral sound rededicates itself to pick up peripheral motion instead.

“The brain wants to compensate for the lost sense with enhancements that are beneficial. For example, if you’re deaf, you would benefit by seeing a car coming far off in your peripheral vision, because you can’t hear that car approaching from the side; the same with being able to more accurately detect how fast something is moving,” says Lomber. “The brain is very efficient, and doesn’t let unused space go to waste.”


Lomber is looking into whether this same adaptation occurs in people who were born hearing and became deaf later as well.

Man turns his own speech disorder into a opportunity to help others like himself

Image: University News, Appalachian State University

Many people who have speech disorders are bullied as children, become reclusive and shy, and settle for jobs they don't like because of speech disorders.

One of these, a former journalism hopeful, turned his stutter into motivation to help others like himself overcome these obstacles. Joe Klein decided to pursue a career studying speech and language disorders, trying to better understand symptoms and causes, and to develop new techniques for treatment, based on his own experience. Stuttering, like many other speech disorders, is not well understood; it is difficult to treat or to overcome on one's own, and can greatly impact the social life and job prospects of sufferers. As assistant professor, he now helps to train speech-language pathologists at Appalachian State University.

innovative chain of 'health stores' bring quality medicines and business opportunities to Kenyans

Image: The HealthStore Foundation

Hey everyone, it's great to be back! My phone line and DSL service was own of commission for a week, so it's been a little while since I've been able to share stories with you. Here's a great one:

The HealthStore Foundation is the brainchild of Scott Hillstrom, a Minnesota lawyer and entrepreneur. He conceived his unique hybrid of for-profit franchise and non-profit humanitarian effort when he learned how an inefficient and sometimes corrupt governmental system made it difficult to obtain affordable and effective medicines from knowledgeable staff. He hit upon the franchise model because it would incorporate a system that thoroughly trains pharmacy owners, and holds every franchise accountable to strict guidelines of quality and effectiveness in order to stay open.


While the HealthStore Foundations chain of pharmacy/clinics CFW Shops (Child and Family Wellness Shops) are for-profit businesses for local entrepreneurs, no one is turned away. Rather, those who can pay do, and the difference is covered by these small profits and additional funds donated by the Foundation. 


To date, CFW shops have treated hundreds of thousands of people, saving lives from preventable diseases such as malaria and respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. They also offer advice and tools in order to prevent disease. 

In-Home Companion Services helps senior citizens, the disabled, and otherwise homebound adults become involved in their community

Image: Doing Good

As a story by National Geographic indicated, it seems that one of the most important factors in living a long, healthy life, is that people stay involved in their communities. In-Home Companion Services helps people to do just that. It's fully staffed by volunteers, and provides a variety of outside activities such as entertainment, current event discussions, and pursuing their hobbies and interests, all focused on interacting with others in their community.


What this wonderful group is doing is of especial importance to me personally: I feel that one of the major ways that Americans and many other communities fail in kindness and justice, is to pay enough respect and attention to the elderly in our communities. These are the people in most need of love and attention and are yet  the most neglected, while we owe them the most: almost every thing we enjoy and rely on is there because of those who came before us: our farms, our laws, our music, our science, our art and literature, our roads... our entire history! 


For more about In-Home Companion Services, check out their website at http://www.inhomeservices.org/index.html

Image: Wikipedia

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race. 
- E.M. Forster