Results tagged “FEED”

Living in today's globalized world, we learn endless ways to describe our differences. This type of learning is critical to our survival since it allows us to understand which aspects of a situation are worth taking to heart. Having grown up in various places throughout the world, I find that the infinite degrees of difference which distinguish us from one another also give way to splotches of similarity. For example, even though people throughout the world have different culinary traditions, we all require the same basic nutrition. Similarly, even though different diseases and conditions claim the livelihoods of people throughout the world, we all require the same basic health services. While the need for basic nutrition for all garners agreement, many continue to disagree that a basic package of community-based health services is needed at all. Many experts find the differences between people too overwhelming to agree upon services that meet common needs. In the communities where I work, I have found that when groups of people share their diverse challenges, a common strength emerges. This is no truer than in the process of systematically bringing community-based health services to everyone in the world.

I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, and when my family moved to the United States, my brother and I became first generation immigrants, just as my parents had been when they migrated from India to Kenya. One of the great advantages of moving around is that we keenly looked for similarities between communities to feel at home while carefully noting the subtle differences that made each place unique. One thing that I appreciated throughout my travels from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Indiana was my mother's work as a Montessori school teacher. Watching adults pushing themselves to learn more about the world around them and then convey that knowledge to their children had a profound influence on my interest in community health. After all, it is when communities teach and learn from each other that healthy relationships are formed. Everywhere we went, we were amazed by the diverse array of skills and talents that parents brought via their children to her classroom, which were shared between children and then passed along to other parents in the process.

These days, the communities I work in appear to look very different from those I grew up amongst. Working with the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) and Columbia University's Earth Institute, I travel across sub-Saharan Africa through 15 clusters of villages in 12 countries where we collaborate with communities to improve the education, nutrition, health and livelihoods of approximately 400,000 people using an integrated, evidence-based, cost-effective approach to development. These experiences, coupled with earlier work with the International Rescue Committee supporting refugees in conflict and post-conflict zones, has highlighted the diverse ways people find common ground to survive, even during difficult circumstances.

I started this work while I was a student in medical and graduate school. In graduate school, my PhD work on neural and genetic systems always seemed distant and separate from the issues of urban and rural poverty. Slowly, I realized that what I sought was a set of systematic approaches to delivering community based health services that could adapt to local environments. As I learned more about the role of Community Health Workers (CHW), commonly known as "barefoot doctors", in rural communities, it became clear that they were at the front line of health system development. This formed the basis of the Program for Health Systems, Development and Research, which I currently direct. The work of developing CHW programs in collaboration with communities and national governments in 12 countries has required a thoughtful approach to development that finds advantage and strengths in difference through an adaptive implementation process. Additionally, one of the most rewarding parts of this work has been learning from the contributions of students and professionals in other fields who have formed the rich community who continues to support the development of the CHW programs.

Some say that it is the trials and tribulations of life that make us grow stronger. I believe this to be true, and my life experiences have taught me that difficult situations can be catalysts for change. The first time this dawned on me was when I was in my sophomore year in college, and the provision of my family's basic needs became threatened. Financial difficulties made even our basic needs unaffordable, and I found myself too preoccupied with finances to focus on my education. However, difficult situations become opportunities for growth and this experience pushed me to take control of my destiny, which eventually led me into the field of business and leadership. Nearly a decade later, I found myself at an intersection, pulled between my job as an investment banker that promised financial security and an opportunity to lead Community Lab, an innovative, meaningful nonprofit that had yet to raise money to pay a salary.

I became involved with a team of volunteers who were working with a scientist named Prabhjot Dhadialla at Columbia University's Earth Institute and who were passionate about economic development work. They were developing a health worker program that would strengthen the health systems in several villages in Africa by empowering community members to deliver medical services to millions in need. I was inspired by how organically this team had formed, and while at that time there was no official organization surrounding their work, their unique approach to using crowd-sourcing to parse work to volunteer teams attracted me. While volunteering with this team, the need to formalize this approach became evident and I was presented with the opportunity to become the CEO in order to structure this initiative into an official nonprofit organization, which became Community Lab. Captured by the opportunity to transform the sustainable development space with this innovative approach, I made the decision to leave my career in finance for the nonprofit world.

Day Five - Travel from Uganda Back to Kenya

Six hours of driving to the airport in Entebbe from Rhira, followed by a one hour flight, and then a three and a half hour ride from the airport (which should have taken 30 minutes). Traffic in Nairobi is horrible. As we were stuck literally for two hours on one small stretch of road leading out of Kenya, locals trying to sell soccer balls, maps, inflatable chairs and more swarmed all the cars stuck on this road. But then three little kids approached our car selling packets of peanuts; they were the sweetest looking Kenyan boys. One was so little that his head could not reach the window, just his little fist holding his peanut bags. It is these moments that tug at your heart, and you cannot help but break down all cultural barriers and empathize completely. We ended up giving them money and not taking the peanuts.

Day Five
Early morning wake-up and a hot shower before we crammed back into the van and headed off from Ruhiira back to Entebbe to fly back to Nairobi. It was really cool to see the countryside all the way in the daylight and I got out about halfway to Entebbe to get a photo on the Ugandan Equator! It was an especially funny pic because it was sort of chilly and I was wearing a jacket and a scarf, which make it look like winter at the Equator! We made it through Kampala and smoothly on to our flight back to Nairobi. All-in-all Uganda was a great host for our few days there and we were thrilled to see the FEED Health backpacks in action.

Day Four

Up a bit later and to the office for an 8:45am departure to the field. We went out with a few goals in terms of getting footage to show people more of what the CHWs are doing to provide health care on foot to thousands of people! We again stopped at a crazy supermarket to get more water and digestive fiber cookies (YUM!!). We went straight to the main health clinic in Ruhiira, took a quick tour, used the pit latrines they had in the back of the clinic and went out for a few more home visits. The first one was a mother caring for six children... one of them, Francisco, who must have been between 2 and 3, was a little charmer. We got attached to each other immediately and he held my hand and sat on my lap as the CHW spoke with the mother of the family about family planning. They showed her the various options and she opted to take three months of birth control pills... it was pretty cool to see the same old pill packets being distributed to women in rural Uganda... and it seems she needed the pill with six young kids running around!

The next family was a grandmother and mother with her six kids... and we went around the back of the house to observe the CHWs give the women a lesson in proper sanitation for the kids. It was really interesting how they referred to pictographs in the manual to show what they have identified as the key actions for sanitation: hand-washing, clipping finger nails, covering mouth when coughing, and regularly bathing. Seems simple, but for these people its a lot more difficult to access the clean water you need to keep clean.

The last home visit was with a mother and her four young kids. The baby was sick and the CHWs was following up on the baby's progress. Clearly, the baby was still sick and the health worker suggested a malaria test. As we were under the overhang of the solid brick house, there was a light drizzle that was seeming to get progressively less light... and it made me think that with all the rain and standing water around us: should we be getting the malaria test too??? Luckily, we had been taking the prophylactic Malarone, which prevents malaria but makes you have intense dreams... especially when you wake up to the bed net gently resting on your face.

After about 15 minutes of anticipation by us, the baby's mother and siblings and a few neighbors who had come by to watch our spectacle, we learned that the results were negative. Great news that the baby does not have malaria, but the health workers and mother are left still concerned as to why she is so sick. At least the CHWs are aware of the sick baby and can come back for check-ups!

After the visit was finished, we used the unbelievable setting of the house and yard on the hillside to get some footage of us talking about the bags and the program we are supporting. This would have been the perfect spot for filming had the light drizzle not slowly turned into a downpour. One of the highlights of the blooper real will be Lauren standing in the increasingly heavy rain trying to maintain her composure while discussing the wonders of the FEED Health backpack!!

Day Four - Ruhira, Uganda

The day starts at the Ruhira health clinic. We get to this health clinic up the same windy dirt road we took yesterday. At parts of this drive the view is breathtaking looking both ways on top of a ridge into fertile valleys of banana trees and a scattering of dirt huts. The irony is that if this land were in America, it would be prime real estate.

The health clinic consists of two buildings, one for examinations and deliveries and the other for lab tests. The doctor who shows us around is very professional and kind, introducing his staff of midwives and nurses. He is the only doctor at this clinic. To say that supplies are lacking is an understatement. There are a few beds with some old bed nets hanging over them. In the medicine room, there is a limited supply of anti-malaria meds, ARVs (used to treat HIV/AIDS), and other drugs that I don't recognize. The lab room technician is a woman and explains how she runs crucial tests for Malaria, HIV, and other blood diseases. There is no electricity or running water. I think this is as basic a health facility as you can get. Some community health workers are present at the clinic today. They work with local clinics like this one to refer patients to come in when extra care is needed. Dr. Martin, the only surgeon in the area, explained that CHWs alleviate the work of the clinics because they are able to go out into the community and deliver medical care. In essence, CHWs create a mobile health care system for people who may not have access to the clinics.

Next, we ventured out into the village, again to tag along with two community health workers as they make some of their house rounds. At the first house, the woman had six children and the female CHW went over her family planning, birth control options- condoms, pills, etc... She does this with use of her training manual, which has drawings depicting all of these options. After some discussion (in Ugandan) she chooses birth control pills. The CHW pulls out of her FEED Health backpack a pack of pills that will last the woman for three months. This is an amazing exchange on many levels. Firstly, that in the middle of rural Uganda, women are getting birth control, and secondly, that a CHW, a village peer, has been empowered to give this woman the information and care she deserves. With this help, perhaps women will have fewer children in the village, and the children they do have will be better cared for, better educated, and better fed.

At the second house we visit there were two older women, one grandmother and one mother, with five little ones. The kids are all covered in dirt, and sitting side by side in a little bench outside their hut. The amazing thing is that they are all silent and obedient. Perhaps we were such a spectacle to them (as I'm sure we were with white skin, clean clothes, and a camera) that they thought it best to just quietly take in the moment. The Community Health Worker brought out her manual and started talking to the mothers about good hygiene practices. It was all very orderly and official.

In between houses, a gathering of children would inevitably gather into a curious gang of onlookers. One little girl, maybe 4 years old, wearing a green dress was holding her sleeping brother on her back. The boy must have been half her age, and yet she was entrusted to take care of him She shifted and buckled under the weight on her back. One thing I love to do with kids is to take their picture with my digital camera and then show them their images. They love it, and gradually become more comfortable with me until there is practically a laughing mob of kids surrounding me. I used to bring with me on trips a Polaroid camera, which I would use to take pictures and hand out as a keepsake for people I met on my travels. Most of the time this is the only picture they have to keep of themselves. Polaroid has since gone out of business, so film is hard to come by. And kids, once they realize they get to keep the pictures, start grabbing them right as they come out of the camera. Chaos ensues...

Day Three
Late to bed, early to rise. Pretty tired this morning, after the blaring night-club music until 12:30 and then a 7am wake-up call. At least the shower was hot, or, should I say, the drip from the hand-held showerhead was warm water. We ate a quick and good breakfast and got in the van to meet up with Dr. Jot and the team at the Millennium Villages offices in town... typical to UN/aid offices they were very nice and had all the amenities you would need. Nothing crazy, but internet and flush toilets. As the MV staff was giving us a very comprehensive briefing on what they do, a torrential "rainy season" downpour started and we thought this might be the harbinger a ridiculously muddy day. The MV team gave us all men's size 10 rubber rain boots, which we were happy to take. Traveling with us was Malcolm the videographer, Marc the photographer, Dr. Jot and Chrisestome, the local Ugandan who trains and monitors CHWs in Ruhiira. We loaded up into a side-seated UN Land Rover, and after stopping in the center of Mbarara to buy some "lunch items" at the local supermarket (cookies, peanut butter, jam, and about 500 mini-bananas), we let Malcolm take the front seat and we strapped in on the side of the truck. After a few minutes on a paved (yet potholed) road, we turned off onto the real "road" to Ruhiira, a red dirt ribbon through ripples of highlands and lowlands, speckled with small-holder farms and little, one block village centers. The road was wet, windy and cratered... so after the hour and a quarter drive, we were green and queasy.

The trip was well worth it, though, the scenery in the MV region was spectacular. So green and lush and mountainous... it's amazing how people live and farm on the steep slopes, but their views are priceless. After a brief stop at an MV office on a neat town rotary, we continue up into the highlands until we came across Doreen, a beautiful Ugandan Community Health Worker who was doing her rounds... and she was WEARING THE FEED Health Backpack!!!! Seeing her with the bag on, doing her work was amazing! She has written on masking tape the different supplies that she had with her (TONS of stuff fits in the bags) and labeled each pocket of the bag for our benefit. Watching her take out de-worming medication for three young kids and Vitamin A supplements to give to nursing women and then laying each thing carefully on the mat from the bottom of the bag was so cool... and even better because she speaks flawless English and is a great spokesperson for the important work she is doing. It was really a joy to spend a few hours with Doreen as she was visiting her patients and to see how she nudges them towards healthier lives... she made each kid wash their hands before taking the pills, she weighed an infant in the hanging scale she carried around and she took detailed notes of all of it for record-keeping and follow-up.

We then followed two other groups of CHWs on their visits over very steep terrain to see patients. The visits included young pregnant mothers who were making birth plans since the clinic is very far away and they needed to go there a few days before their due date to ensure they would be at the clinic for birth. We watched as a young woman filled a large jerry can with completely brown water and then throw it up on top of her head to take home. Wow. We then went to the main health clinic in Kabuyende. It was run by two doctors who, together with a few nurses, see all of the cases and perform all the medical services for thousands of people. The facilities were pretty decent considering how remote it was...and the health care workers were amazingly professional and knowledgeable, they also seemed very appreciative of the CHW program, so that there are trained professionals going out into the community to find the people who really needed the clinic's care and direct them to it.

We drove back to Mbarara pretty late and ate dinner at the Agip hotel... veggie pizza and beer for the second night. It was really good! Then we passed out under our bed-nets pretty fast!

Day Three
Two days of straight travel, and we are finally ready for our first day in "the field." We head out of our Lakeview hotel, named appropriately, as it is located on a very small lake, or as we would probably categorize it, a pond. We go directly to the UNDP office in town for a briefing. As we sit around a large conference table, we are given instant coffee and a PowerPoint presentation on what we are about to see. It is explained that there are approximately 50,337 people living in what is considered the Uganda Millennium Village, and to services this population there are 48 community health workers. The whole premise of the Millennium Villages, which is economist Jeffery Sachs' brainchild, is that by targeting poverty in a specific area from the viewpoint of infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, and enterprise, there can be a sustainable impact. To target all these different areas requires $110 per person per year living in the villages. This money comes from the community, government, local partners, and donors. And with it, various programs are paid for, roads are constructed, schools are repaired, business loans are given, and community health workers (CHW) are trained and hired to service their communities through household visits.

The latter is precisely what we are here to learn about and see happen. So we pile into a UN Land Cruiser, and off we go in a downpour up windy and very bumpy mountain roads. An hour later, we are told we are now in "the village." We meet up with a CHW named Dorine, who is proudly sporting her new FEED Health backpack. This was an amazing moment to see her proudly carrying her full pack. Next, we got to follow her into hut after hut as she spoke with families, mothers, and children about their various health issues. She weighed two babies on what looks like a meat hanger to make sure they were growing properly, she gave out Vitamin A to nursing mothers, she gave out de-worming pills to little kids, and much more. She was compassionate and knowledgeable, and her backpack was full of many helpful things. In it she had carried a training manual, a scale, Vitamins, pills, Malaria tests, birth control injections, gauze, bandages, and much more. It reminded me of a Mary Poppins bag with all necessary and wonderful things magically coming out of it when she needed them. Dorine was extra organized as she had labeled the pockets of her backpack; for example, medication was in the left side pocket and water was on the right side pocket, and manual was in the front pocket.

Getting a glimpse into how the Ugandan people living in the Millennium Village in Rhira operate their lives, seeing their tiny dirt huts, seeing their makeshift kitchens, and their lush fields of bananas, gave me a little insight into what daily life is like here in rural Uganda. But it is so foreign from what I know and where I come from that it is quite a culture shock. But seeing how the CHWs operate in their community was truly impressive. The villagers are literally living without electricity, cars, running water, most any and all modern luxuries, and yet they are being given the services of household visits by trained health workers. Obviously if someone requires a real medical doctor, the CHWs refer them to the health clinic, but so much can be treated at home saving families the difficult trek to the nearest clinic. This also encourages villagers to get help, when they might not otherwise because of money, proximity to clinics, stigmas, etc... But CHWs make it so easy for them to receive the most basic medical advice and care, and it is all with no charge to the villagers. All and all it is amazing program, and I am so proud that the FEED Health backpack is making the CHWs crucial job a little bit easier.

Day Two - Nairobi, Kenya/ Entebbe, Uganda
It is morning and we have missed our early morning flight. I find myself at the airport café drinking a Masala tea listening to a screaming evangelical preacher on a nearby TV. This is not how the morning was meant to go. Left to our own devices, Ellen and I are not the most timely airport-goers. But to our credit, the staff at the Nairobi airport, who made us wait in a 30 minute security line, have not been the most helpful either. Our plan now is to wait until the next flight that takes off at 1pm, but now the issue is that they only had one available seat. The lottery system of the computer gave that seat to me, but I obviously will not take it unless Ellen, who is on stand-by, gets on also.

While sitting at this café, I have browsed through The Standard -- the local Kenyan paper. I turned immediately to an article titled "Answer to food security lies in long term sustainable policies," written by Kenneth Marende, the Speaker of the National Assembly. He makes a compelling argument for why measures must be taken so that ten million Kenyans suffering now from hunger do not anymore. He writes, "It is our collective duty as Kenyans to do the bit that we an contribute to the feeding and search for a lasting solution to the problem of food security within our borders. The most basic human right is the right to that quality of life that assures regular access to food." Not only is it important for the international community to address issues of world hunger, which organizations like the UN World Food Program are doing to the best of their abilities; but it is even more important that countries, like Kenya, prioritize this issue as a key one for the long term success of their country. It seems like Speaker Marende is definitely on the right wavelength.

So here we sit sipping Masala tea, waiting for the next flight to Uganda. Fingers crossed...

Day One - Nairobi, Kenya

Tonight Ellen and I arrived in the Nairobi airport around 9pm Kenya time, mid- afternoon USA time. After two long flights from NYC to London and London to Kenya, I am oily and exhausted, having spent the last nine hours vertical, sleeping in a middle seat (43J), one row from the very last row of the plane. The saving grace of movies on demand and the Samsonite head pillow I purchased in London Heathrow airport, made both of these journeys bearable and somewhat enjoyable at times. I watched the sweetest Audrey Hepburn movie -- Love in the Afternoon, on the first leg. It is one of those movies that transports you back in time to elegant Paris, where petite Audrey Hepburn has fallen for an older, "playboy" type, and all ends happily ever after. It is confusing to be in limbo -- dreaming about the 1950s at the Ritz in Paris, coming from hectic 21st Century NYC, and heading to unknown and underdeveloped Africa. It is not logical, and leaves me just having to go with the flow (which I tend to be good at), because "getting in the mind-set" for Africa is not something I feel capable of doing.

Day One
We arrived in Kenya at 9pm, after a day's travel, which was honestly not that bad. Seriously, neck pillows are a ridiculously smart invention.

We were met by three UN security guys, whose name I had not been briefed with, so I have to be honest, despite his taking us directly to the "Government VIP Lounge" and knowing that we were meeting our World Food Program contact Gabrielle outside, it was a little weird to give them our passports and bag tickets and $50 for the visa!! But, of course, it all worked out flawlessly, as the UN has consistently showed us, and by the time he walked us outside to the land rovers, our bags were already loaded. (The UN was helping us because the second half of our trip was to visit UN-fed schools in Nairobi, which we are supporting through sales of our FEED bags).

The driver, Charles, told us to lock our doors, but I certainly did not feel unsafe driving through the streets of Nairobi. One thing that you notice in the developing world is that street lights are just not quite as bright... actually no lights are, unless you are in a western hotel. Even in the airport, the lights for the duty-free shops are fluorescent white bulbs that are definitely not as white as they would be in NYC.

Nairobi at night is pretty damn nice. Wide, organized streets and roundabouts and a good amount of Sat. night traffic, I can't wait to see it in the daylight.

We arrived at the Tribe Hotel in the Gigiri area of the city, where the UN compound is, and this place is amazing. We were greeted by General Manager Mark Somen, who is just starting his new job here after a stint at the SOHO house in NYC. I mean, really??? We come all the way to Kenya to meet someone who used to work 10 blocks away from us... of course we played the name game and we now know we have friends in common.

Riccardo, the dark and hardened Italian photog we worked with in Rwanda, met us and Gabrielle, the UN WFP public information officer, for a light bite at the Tribe's beautiful restaurant. Gabrielle and Ric avoided all pleasantries as the convo was quickly a debate about aid work in general and the realities of the neighboring Somalia.

We are headed a short sleep, before our flight to Uganda tomorrow. I have heard amazing things about Uganda and can't wait to see it!!!

My journey to FEED started when I was a student. I knew what hunger was only through volunteering at soup kitchens with my family, but nothing could have prepared me for my first trip with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to Guatemala in 2003 as their honorary spokesperson. For me, it was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. To see poverty and hunger firsthand, and only a three-hour flight from my home, was shocking. Food is so essential that it is unbelievable that every minute 16 people die worldwide of starvation, most of whom are under 5 years old.

Through my education and my travels, I was moved to find a way to fight world hunger in a measurable and substantial. And I had an inkling that other people, would enjoy a meaningful and tangible way to do something as well. But how does one take a problem as big as world hunger and break it down so everyone can be apart of the solution? The answer I came up with was as simple as a bag. Each FEED 1 bag sold would feed one child in school for 1 year- and the bag would double as a reusable, eco-friendly bag and cool badge of honor for whoever might buy one. I designed the first FEED 1 bag to look like the bags of grain being distributed around the world by WFP. Thus people are connected aesthetically to the cause, as well as by the measurable donation each bag makes.

Now fast forward four years, and FEED Projects the company is born. I partnered with Ellen Gustafson, who was working at WFP at the time -- and with sheer enthusiasm and idealism we began selling FEED bags! Today, FEED has sold over 500,000 bags which equates to over 50 million meals, and we are still striving to "create good products that FEED the world," which is our company mission statement.

Let's be honest. World hunger sounds like something that a beauty contestant uses as her "platform": a far away, insoluble, and intractable problem. Hunger is ugly and unglamorous, certainly not something that the fashion world, of all places, seems poised to address. Actually, most global problems affecting the most impoverished and voiceless among us, like access to healthcare or clean water or education, seem distant and overwhelming. But, if you look at them that way, then, well, they are.

Our world is too small and too connected to think that the fact that a child dies every 5 seconds, because they are hungry, is distant. And, if we know that our actions locally can really affect change globally, international problems can become less overwhelming.

I came to the humanitarian field through an interest in security. I had heard the African adage that "a hungry man is an angry man" and thought it was pretty spot-on. I am angry when I'm hungry; so I can imagine what people might do who are food insecure for weeks on end and are watching their children die.

In 2006, I started working as a Communications Officer for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). What they do is pretty unbelievable. They feed people in 80 countries, including giving a free school meal to 20 million children. WFP gets food to the people most affected by natural disasters and conflicts and focuses on the women and children who hurt the most. The school feeding program is modeled after ours in America: all children get a nutritious meal in school, so they can focus on learning and improving their lives. School feeding is not distant or overwhelming at all, it's actually quite simple.