.
The
Watered Down Truth: Africare tells
all on World Water Day Washington, DC.> One day a year,
advocates from every corner of the globe
unite to remind the world just how
important clean water is for human
survival. Next to food and shelter,
water is considered one of the essential
elements of life. And while every
person needs it, just over 60 % of the
world has access to it on a daily and
consistent basis. Leaving the
consequences of water-born diseases like
cholera, as well as poor sanitation on the
shoulders of more than 2.9 billion
people&emdash;300 million of which are
concentrated in Africa. More New
Hollywood film digs up international
debate; Africare stands ready to connect
the past to present and future efforts in
Sierra Leone . Africare
has backed recently inspired discussions
to increase aid and awareness in Africa 's
Sierra Leone through several local and
national partnerships. On Thursday
December 14, 2006 from 5:30 &endash;
8:30pm , the Africare House in Washington
DC will open its doors to one of DC
Metro Area's premier non-profit
organizations, the Sierra Leone Fund, and
host a community discussion about Sierra
Leone 's newfound international buzz
sparked by Friday's release of the film
"Blood Diamond." Confirmed attendees
include representatives from actor Isaiah
Washington's Gondobay Manga Foundation,
ABC Channel 7's Sam Ford, and
award-winning Sierra Leonean filmographer,
Sorious Samura. The event aspires to
unite a community in its efforts to
increase aid and awareness to Sierra Leone
. "It
speaks to Africare's mission in general,"
comments Travis Adkins, Program Manager
for East and West Anglophone Africa.
"We help in Sierra Leone … but also
there's a way for us to give assistance
here; Even if it's something as small as
lending our space in this case. It
helps in terms of grass roots assistance,
in terms of capacity building, in terms of
people helping people." That
same helping hand first entered Sierra
Leone in 1984 when Africare was requested
by the Ministry of health to replicate a
similar program they had developed in
Gambia . Their goal, in partnership
with UNICEF and the World Bank, was to
improve management distribution of
essential drugs to rural areas. Alan
Alemian was a member of that team, and a
key player in the emergency relief
programs developed to aid refugees when
civil war erupted in 1991. "We
should be very, very proud of what we did
in Sierra Leone ," comments Alemian.
"We saved lives and we kept people
productive." The
emergency camps, in addition to food
distribution and medical assistance,
developed agricultural relief programs
that provided land for displaced refugees
to produce their own subsistence crops and
reduce dependence on food aid. These
programs continued throughout the duration
of the war before transitioning into
post-conflict programs like
CORAD. "CORAD
stands for Consortium for
Rehabilitation and Development," notes
Adkins. "It focuses on health and
revitalization of livelihoods…
because a lot of people lost their
livelihoods during the
war." Sierra
Leone is one of twenty-five countries in
Africa currently benefiting from self-help
programs like CORAD set up by Africare
staff. Jeneba Ghatt, co-founder of
The Sierra Leone Fund, says her non-profit
aims to develop similar programs in Sierra
Leone that specialize in health,
education, sanitation and
nutrition. "I
co-founded the Sierra Leone Fund with
another expatriate who wanted to finally
do our part to help out our native country
rather than passively wait for others to
do it for us," said Ghatt. Ghatt
will use Thursday's debut of the Sierra
Leone Fund as an opportunity to reach out
to international awareness, philanthropic
and giving communities to garner support
for aiding change in Sierra Leone . The
Africare House proudly hosts the event,
harboring a 36-year legacy of community
and global partnerships. An
invitation is extended to members of media
organizations to meet emerging and past
leaders of development work in Sierra
Leone . The reception begins at 5:30pm at
the Africare House in Washington DC
on Thursday, December 14th. Africare
is leading a non-profit organization based
in Washington D.C. , currently
providing over 150 development programs to
25 nations in Africa . The
organization has delivered over $480
million in assistance to the continent
since it was founded in
1970. Africare 440 R
Street, N.W. Washington
, D.C. 2001-1935 USA Farmers
in Mali celebrate biodiversity with a seed
fair This past November, USC's country
office in Mali &endash; USC Afrique de
l'Ouest &endash; organized a seed caravan
and seed fair. About 130 farmers from 68
villages around Mopti and Douentza in
central Mali joined a five-day caravan to
travel about 200km to a seed fair in the
village of Douentza. They exhibited a
range of cultivated and uncultivated plant
samples at the fair. The fair gave Malian
farmers and USC a chance to celebrate
farmers' ingenuity and the crop diversity
fundamental to a stable food supply
system. Great
Telephone:
202.328.5362 Fax:
202.387.1034 E-mail:
neley@africare.org
MALI SEED CARAVAN
USC
NEWSLETTER WEBSITE
