Environmental issues for people living in extreme poverty in urban areas are just as important in their constraining effects as for those in rural areas. There are nearly one billion people living in slums across the world. They live in appalling conditions often with waste and excrement in open sewers that boost the spread of deadly diseases.
This video shows us a project supported by UK charity Christian Aid that cleaned up a slum area, and provided much needed sanitation, improving the health of the whole community. Because the control of the project was in the hands of the community, it meant that they could direct the funds towards what would most enhance their lives, and then, once the project had been set up the income was spent according to the wishes of the whole community to further enhance their environment and find them a new home away from the control of landlords.
It’s thanks to projects like this that UN-Habitat recently reported that 227 million people have moved out of slum conditions since 2000.
But, despite this progress, the influx of people to the cities has meant that, on a practical level we have not made a difference to the numbers of people living in these conditions – the total number of slum-dwellers increasing from 776.7 million in 2000 to some 827.6 million in 2010.
People migrate into cities and end up in slums for many reasons – foremost amongst them looking for work and escaping discrimination or conflict. We’re unlikely to see a change to this trend, so to improve conditions and prevent even more people from being forced into life in the slums, we need to work on both political and economic stability as well as carrying on the excellent work that is improving access to water, sanitation and better housing. We can do our bit to help change things by campaigning for change in the politics of our own countries as well as donating to charities that work in slums.
In the developing world millions of people are dependent on their immediate environment for their food, livelihoods, sanitation and shelter. This makes them very vulnerable when changes in their environment occur. An unpredictable environment can be catastrophic, for example millions of people rely on seasonal rains to water crops, refresh wells, lakes and rivers. When they are late or fail the consequences are widespread and disastrous.
The seventh Millennium Development Goal – ensuring environmental sustainability – is about trying to reduce the control that a person’s environment has over their life, by improving the environment and ensuring that it is preserved for future generations.
An important part of this is about having clean water to drink and sanitation facilities.
The video shows how improving Stidia’s environment, through the provision of clean water to her village, truly changed her life. This Tearfund project meant that, as well as improving her family and community’s access to water, she was no longer open to attack when walking for miles to collect water. The time saved meant she was able to go to school, improving her future prospects immeasurably.
Beyond the time saved by the water-tank, Stidia and her family are also now less at risk of drinking dirty water. Diahorrea caused by dirty water kills almost 2 million children every year.
Clean water and improved sanitation can also mean fewer intestinal parasites – what we often think of as worms. There’s some fascinating research that suggests that worms are one of the biggest factors preventing children from attending school. Therefore, by improving sanitation we would not need to spend so much on antibiotics and medical treatments for such conditions, and we could improve the numbers of children in education significantly.
These examples are an important reminder that one intervention to fight poverty can have important follow-on effects.
The good news is that we are on course to meet the 2015 target of halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water. But – the same can’t be said for sanitation, where half the population of developing regions still lack basic sanitation facilities like toilets. Our governments need to know we care about these problems, and that when we target water and sanitation, we make it easier to meet the other MDG goals.
I met Professor Alan Fenwick at a 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation in May at Imperial College in London. Before the presentation we were chatting about the way that money gets allocated to fight disease around the world, and the shocking fact that we allow some of the simplest and easiest to treat diseases to persist.
We were talking about the neglected tropical diseases – a group of infections like Trachoma, Schitsosomaisis and worms which affect one billion people on our planet. They’re not formally part of the Millennium Development Goal framework, but they’re an essential element of the fight against poverty.
Yet, as this video shows, many of them are easily treatable and preventable. It costs just 50p – that’s less than one US dollar – to treat the seven most common neglected tropical diseases for a year. It’s not sophisticated, it’s not complicated – it’s just basic medicine.
As Professor Fenwick says in an article he wrote for the journal Science, “The current generation of children in many countries could soon be free of parasitic worm infections, better nourished, and better able to attend school and perform in class.”
What is needed to make this a reality is support for initiatives like this, both from members of the public and from government – which you can do at http://50pence.org/.
‘The way I was feeling in May, it was like I was already dead’: The Lazarus Effect
This remarkable half hour film documents a modern phenomenon called the Lazarus Effect.The film’s title comes from the biblical figure of Lazarus, who was brought back to life by Jesus after four days dead.
In reality, a similar type of miracle is happening all over the world, in the form of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS.
This video, produced in collaboration with the (Red) campaign provides us with an insight into living with HIV in the developing world. It shows people of all ages at very serious stages of their illness, all whom are able to make a rapid recovery. The incredible part is that it shows you exactly how far along you can progress with the disease and still almost do a U-turn after taking ARVs. With these drugs, less and less people are deemed a lost cause.
The drugs work, so why is that people are still dying? In other words, what are the complicating issues? Money is one. More free ARVs are becoming available, but in places where the drugs are not free, it is often a choice between buying the medicine or feeding your family.
Social stigma is another problem. Where the subject is not spoken about openly, people with HIV receive no support in the community. Alone and afraid, sometimes it feels better to pretend it is not happening at all.
General lack of information about HIV and ARVs means that many people do not get tested at all. I’ll confess that until I did a bit of research (readily available on the internet), I didn’t really know much about antiretrovirals. How long does it take before you feel better? Are there any circumstances in which they don’t work? Do they work in preventing mother to child transmission during pregnancy?
With all these questions, and no official information its would be easy to make incorrect assumptions which might result in not taking the drugs on time, or not getting tested at all. To those who don’t know about ARVs, having HIV equates to a death sentence.
Work is being done to overcome these obstacles. The video features a woman named Constance Mudenda, who works tirelessly in Zambia to create a network of support for HIV sufferers. Having lost all three of her children to the disease, she no longer wants people to have to endure that kind of grief.
Initiatives such as Constance’s support group, help to eradicate the social alienation of being HIV positive. All the peer educators in her clinic are HIV positive, so they can speak from experience, gain the patient’s trust and talk openly about the disease.
People can turn their future around once they start taking ARVs, but this does not happen without the right environment. People need accurate information, support, and a forum to communicate with others. If the information is there but no one is receiving it, then it may as well not exist.
The Lazarus Effect is truly a miracle of science, and thankfully more people are living longer with HIV. However, there is always the human aspect to consider. Aid programs that distribute antiretroviral drugs must also factor in the importance of creating an enabling environment, in order to effect the change they want.
With the upcoming replenishment of the Global Fund, there's an opportunity for all of us to contribute to making sure that we have the funds to scale up the fight against Malaria. That's why we've teamed up with our partners at RESULTS UK, and are giving people the in the UK the chance to write to your local MP about the Global Fund. If you're in another country, you can use the same information as the base to contact your local politicians to ask them to ensure that your government does their bit too.
If you’re reading this there is a good chance you have seen our 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation, and you will be a little familiar with the west African country of Ghana - a vibrant country with a growing economy and a emerging democracy and certainly one of Africa’s most dynamic nations.
It should continue to progress, but like many of its neighbours, Ghana is still plagued by endemic diseases like malaria. According to the World Health Organisation, malaria kills around a million people each year, and reduces a country's GDP by as much as 1.3% because of people being sick.
We know that Malaria can be largely prevented by widespread use of mosquito nets, and efforts to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds - stagnant pools of water. In Malaria endemic areas, you can think of a bednet likea toothbrush; an essential piece of health equipment.
This video shows how Malaria No More UK, working with Nets For Life, are working to ensure that communities in Ghana can have access to bednets. They recognise that delivery alone is not enough to get people to use nets, so they are training up local people to speak about why it is so important to use the nets, and use them properly.
Unfortunately, Malaria isn’t just about people dying. Even if a child recovers from Malaria the chances are, they’ve missed a fair bit of school. If when they do return they are put in a lower grade, they may feel embarrassed and drop out all together. This is surprisingly common problem.
Or, for adults, a week off work after a malaria induced fever means a weeks less income to look after your family. That's less money to put into kids education, savings for the future, or less money to get the essentials of food and clean water.
The good news is that thanks to efforts like those of Malaria no more, we're seeing a significant decline in the disease in many parts of the world. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership - the global coordinating mechanism in the fight against Malaria - has calculated that 25 countries - including Eritrea, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe - halved Malaria cases an cases and deaths between 2000 and 2007.
With the upcoming replenishment of the Global Fund, there's an opportunity for all of us to contribute to making sure that we have the funds to scale up the fight against Malaria. That's why we've teamed up with our partners at RESULTS UK, and are giving people the in the UK the chance to write to your local MP about the Global Fund. If you're in another country, you can use the same information as the base to contact your local politicians to ask them to ensure that your government does their bit too.
This video, produced in collaboration with the 
