VOASE1209_Development Report

09 December 2007

More People Hear Call of Mobile Activism
MobileActive.org seeks to share knowledge of people using mobile phones to effect change.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Pro-democracy activists in 2006 listen to parliament proceedings on a mobile phone in Katmandu, Nepal

Activists fight for different things. But one thing many activists around the world hold in common is their use of mobile phones as a tool for their work.

In South Africa, for example, AIDS activists are using text messages to direct people to the nearest H.I.V. testing station.

In Argentina, activists used their phones to get city officials in Buenos Aires to support a waste reduction campaign.

Politicians are often a target of mobile activism.

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This is a ringtone popular among Filipinos in the last two years. It came, supposedly, from a phone call between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official. Opponents said the call showed that she cheated in the two thousand four elections. The Philippine government said the call was recorded illegally and then falsified.

These and other examples of mobile activism can be found at MobileActive.org. MobileActive describes itself as a community of people who are using mobile technology in their work to make the world a better place. So far, two thousand people have become members of the site.

MobileActive.org offers free information about mobile-related tools and services. It also has resource guides on how to sign up voters, organize campaigns or raise money using mobile technology.

Nokia, the mobile phone company, gave the group money to create its resource guides. Other partners have helped build its Web site and organize small training events. MobileActive hopes to hold its next meeting in July in Johannesburg.

Katrin Verclas helped start MobileActive in two thousand five. She lives in New York but we reached her on her mobile phone in Amman. She was in Jordan for a meeting of nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups. They were discussing uses for mobile technology in observing elections.

She noted that in many countries, mobile phones are the least costly way to communicate, and far more common than the Internet.

More than three billion people worldwide use mobile phones. And Katrin Verclas says people keep finding new uses for the technology. The goal of MobileActive, she says, is to collect their stories and experiences and then spread that knowledge.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1202_Development Report

02 December 2007

Group Works to Build Peace Through Medicine
Physicians for Peace sends teams of volunteers to developing countries to provide medical training and care.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

How do you define diplomacy? For the group Physicians for Peace, diplomacy is all about bringing medical education and care to places where they are needed most.

A young patient in Rwanda

This nonprofit organization brings together medical volunteers from different cultures and opposing sides of conflicts. Its message is "building peace and international friendships through medicine."

Physicians for Peace is based in the American state of Virginia. Doctor Charles Horton, a plastic surgeon known for his humanitarian work, established the group in the nineteen eighties.

More then five hundred teams of doctors, dentists, nurses and others have gone to nearly sixty countries. Some programs have lasted for years. For example, Physicians for Peace has had a program to treat burn victims in Nicaragua since nineteen ninety-two. Other developing nations use this program as an example for their own burn care programs.

In Africa, the group is active in Liberia, Senegal, Mali and Malawi. And, in January, Physicians for Peace will launch a class in pediatrics and general surgery in Eritrea.

Thirteen medical students will learn about treating children and performing operations. In the future they will train others. The project involves a partnership with George Washington University Medical Center in Washington and the Eritrean Health Ministry.

In the Philippines, Physicians for Peace is helping to provide eye care to people who have never had their eyes examined before. The group is also helping to fit replacement arms and legs for people who have had limbs removed.

The group is also helping rebuild a pediatric hospital in Sri Lanka that was destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami in two thousand five. And two times a year, it sends medical volunteers to the West Bank.

Charity Navigator, a service that rates nonprofit organizations, gives Physicians for Peace its top rating. Health care providers from the United States donate their time and pay their own travel costs. The group had a budget last year of thirty-five million dollars. Most of that was the value of donated medical supplies.

Ron Sconyers, a retired Air Force brigadier general, is the chief executive officer of Physicians for Peace. He tells us that the group goes only where it is invited. He says it receives more requests for assistance than it can meet, but works hard not to turn anyone down.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1125_Development Report

25 November 2007

A Cool Way to Keep Food From Spoiling
Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system.

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A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity.

Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.

Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system

But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one.

The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system.

Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving.

The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.

People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for his own community and five villages nearby.

In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being.

A committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects.

The award is given every two years. The next one will be given in two thousand eight.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about the Rolex Awards at rolexawards.com. And you can learn more about technology and the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1118_Development Report

18 November 2007

A WiLD Idea: Wireless Long-Distance Internet for Rural Poor
Researchers in California have developed a way to extend the reach of Wi-Fi technology. WiLDNets have been set up in several countries.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Eric Brewer at the Intel Research Berkeley Lab

Eric Brewer is a busy man. He is a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also director of the Intel Research Berkeley Lab. There, he leads a team of students and Intel company researchers on projects with new technologies.

One of their creations is a WiFi-based long distance network, or WiLDNet. Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity. Wi-Fi connections, or hot spots, can be found in airports, hotels, coffee shops and many other places.

But Wi-Fi is designed for short distances. Eric Brewer predicts that most WiLDNets will only need to cover several kilometers of territory. Yet, in Venezuela, a network using WiLDNet technology and special software reaches over three hundred eighty kilometers.

Each endpoint in a WiLDNet uses a router that takes only about seven watts of power. It can be powered by car batteries, energy from the sun or electricity from a local provider.

The routers cost about four hundred dollars. But Eric Brewer tells us the price should be less once the technology is finalized for mass production. The networks use antennas aided by relays in places where they cannot be stationed in direct line of sight of one another.

WiLDNets can be used for humanitarian or business purposes or both. The hope is that companies will expand connectivity in rural markets.

Rural schools in Ghana and the Philippines are using WiLDNets to connect to the Internet. And in Guinea-Bissau, networks are being used to link community radio stations.

In southern India, a WiLDNet connects eye-care centers in poor villages to an eye hospital in the city of Theni. Villagers receive care from doctors at the hospital through videoconferencing. So far, thirty thousand patients have been examined this way. Eric Brewer says three thousand patients with especially serious vision problems now are able to see much better as a result of their care.

One more thing about Professor Brewer: he is a former billionaire. He and a Berkeley graduate student formed the Internet search company Inktomi in nineteen ninety-six. It became profitable. But the dot-com crash and rising competition from Google shook the company and it was sold to Yahoo in two thousand three.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

VOASE1111_Development Report

11 November 2007

Shining a Light on Water to Prevent Infections
Some water purifiers use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms.

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Viruses, bacteria and other organisms in dirty water sicken hundreds of millions of people every year. Yet there are many different water-treatment technologies available.

Some systems use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms. One product that disinfects water with UV light is called AquaStar, made by Meridian Design.

The American company says most UV water-purification systems put into homes have one or more filters. These use carbon or mesh to catch impurities. The filters are added to improve the taste and smell of water.

But the company says a complex system like this is often not needed in situations where the aim is just to make water safe to drink.

The AquaStar device is a one-liter bottle with an ultraviolet lamp inside. The user pushes a button and the light goes on for about a minute and a half. The lamp is powered by two small batteries.

Two electrical engineers, Dan Matthews and Kurt Kuhlmann, designed the system. They brought it to market in January of two thousand five. Since then, they say, Meridian Design has sold about two thousand devices a year, at a price of eighty-nine dollars.

Meridian's newest water treatment device is called the mUV ("move"). This micro-UV device floats and is small enough to use in a glass. It works like the AquaStar purifier but has a rechargeable battery. Dan Matthews says it can be connected to almost any battery for enough of a charge to clean twelve liters of water.

He tells us that Meridian Design is currently supporting a project by the Mexican nonprofit organization Niparajá. The group is producing containers that disinfect water with UV lights powered by the sun. The containers hold fifteen liters.

The device is called the UV Bucket, and it won an award last year from the World Bank. Families in parts of Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in Guatemala are using it.

Meridian Design is also working with several partners on a solar-powered version of its AquaStar purifier. This has already been developed and is now being tested. Dan Matthews says the goal is to be able to sell it at a low price.

Meridian Design is also working with a partner to develop a different kind of solar-powered purification system. This one would make a chlorine-based disinfectant out of salt added to water. The goal there is to be able to store large amounts of water and keep it disinfected.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about water treatment, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1104_Development Report

04 November 2007

Keeping Count of Who Enters the World or Leaves
A campaign is launched to make sure all of the world’s births and deaths are recorded.

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Governments may be accused of keeping too many records on their people. But no one seems to argue with recording births, deaths and marriages. This is called civil registration.

Birth and death records help governments count populations and know how long people live and what they die from. This information is important for planning schools, hospitals and other services.

A birth certificate is also important for another reason. That piece of paper is legal proof that an individual exists.

Yet the World Health Organization believes that almost forty percent of all births go unrecorded. It estimates that one hundred twenty-eight million babies are born each year. So one way to look at this is to say that every year close to fifty million people are denied legal identities.

And in the least developed countries the rate could be as high as seventy percent.

The situation is no better for death records. Every year fifty-seven million people die. But perhaps only one-third of these deaths are counted.

The W.H.O., the United Nations health agency, has one hundred ninety-three member states. Yet it receives dependable cause-of-death information from just thirty-one countries.

Researchers say most developing countries have limited civil registration systems or none at all. Now, a partnership supported by the W.H.O., called the Health Metrics Network, will try to improve the situation.

Last week it launched a campaign to register all of the world’s births and deaths. The effort was announced at a conference in Beijing, the Global Forum for Health Research.

The director general of the W.H.O., Margaret Chan, said no single U.N. agency is responsible for making sure births and deaths are recorded. Yet without these numbers, she says, who knows if one hundred twenty billion dollars in official development aid each year is being spent wisely?

The campaign began with four papers published in The Lancet medical journal describing the situation. Also, the Health Metrics Network is launching intensive efforts to help six countries. The group has already started to work with Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Syria. By the end of this year, three more countries will be identified for help to make sure everyone gets counted.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about civil registration, go to voaspecialenglish.com.

VOASE1028_Development Report

28 October 2007

Science Journals Examine Poverty and Development
Last week, journals around the world joined together to publish articles related to the subject.

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An Afghan begger sleeps on a street in Kabul. By 2015, the United Nations hopes to cut in half the number of people living on less than one dollar a day.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Last Monday, science journals around the world published what was called a "Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development." Organizers at the Council of Science Editors said the project involved two hundred thirty-five journals from thirty-seven countries.

The council said the goal was to increase interest and research in the subject and to spread the results as widely as possible. It said the journals were publishing more than seven hundred fifty articles involving eighty-seven countries in all parts of the world.

A partial list of the articles is on the Council of Science Editors' Web site. The group has urged all journals that published articles to make them available free to the public.

This is the third time a global theme issue has been published. The first issue in nineteen ninety-six dealt with worldwide threats from diseases. Thirty-six journals published articles. The second issue in nineteen ninety-seven was on aging. Articles appeared in ninety-seven journals.

The editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, organized the two earlier issues. JAMA published several articles for the newest one. The research examined how knowledge about effective health interventions can be put to use locally to help the poor.

Other widely read journals that published articles included Science, Nature and The Lancet. The project also included journals on medicine and biology from the Public Library of Science. That nonprofit organization publishes its journals free of charge on the Internet.

The United States National Institutes of Health held an event to launch the Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. A group of experts from N.I.H. and the Council of Science Editors chose seven articles for recognition. The subjects included childbirth safety, H.I.V./AIDS, malaria treatment and the effects of influenza on children.

The United Nations recognized the link between health and development in the Millennium Development Goals approved in September of two thousand. But many experts believe the targets for health improvements will not be reached at current rates of progress.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the list of journals that took part in the global theme issue, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1021_Development Report

21 October 2007

Hunger: New Causes for Same Old Problem
Poverty, disease and conflict have always threatened food security, but now risks also come from rising food prices and climate change.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Three out of four of the world's hungry live in rural areas

The United Nations says more than eight hundred fifty million people do not have enough food. For this year's World Food Day observance last week, VOA reporters examined the current causes of hunger.

Poverty, disease and conflict have historically threatened food security. Now, rising food prices and issues like climate change add to these threats.

A new study warns of future losses in world food production because of crop damage from changes in the weather. William Cline wrote the study from the Center for Global Development in Washington. He says countries closest to the equator will be hardest hit.

For example, he predicts that if nothing is done, global warming could cut India's food production by up to forty percent by the year twenty eighty. Africa and Latin America could lose twenty percent or more.

Governments concerned about global warming and dependence on oil are investing in biofuels from corn and other plants. But Lester Brown at the Earth Policy Institute in Washington says demand for fuel crops is pushing up food prices. He says the world's eight hundred sixty million automobile owners are now in direct competition with the two billion poorest people.

This comes as grain supplies are at their lowest level in years. Experts see a number of reasons. These include not enough investment in agricultural technology. A loss of farmland to development. Droughts and floods made worse by climate change. And, growing competition for water.

Population growth also means a greater demand on food supplies. The United Nations predicts a population of more than eight billion by the year twenty thirty.

By that time, demand for animal products could double, led by growing economies like China and India. Francois Le Gal of the World Bank says climate change and the globalization of trade raise the risk of spreading animal diseases. Experts say most countries are not ready for a health crisis caused by a disease jumping to humans.

And, finally, they say the growing population of cities is adding to the world's hunger problem. Danielle Nierenberg at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington says the poor can spend fifty to eighty percent of their money on food.

She points out that city people do not have farm animals to sell in times of need. So they are especially threatened when prices go up.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

VOASE1014_Development Report

14 October 2007

Finding New Ways to Feed the World’s Hungry Children
Doctors Without Borders is calling for the expanded use of ready-to-use food, which it says could reduce child deaths.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

October sixteenth is World Food Day. The campaign chosen for this year by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is "The Right to Food." The aim is to demonstrate that human rights are increasingly recognized as an important part of ending hunger and poverty.

Worldwide, the United Nations says more than eight hundred fifty million people do not have enough food. Every year an estimated five million children under the age of five die of nutrition-related causes.

Ready-to-use-food helps prevent malnutrition in children

When it comes to food aid, quantity is important but so is quality.

To help children at risk, the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has launched a worldwide appeal. The group is calling for the expanded use of what is known as therapeutic ready-to-use food to treat severely malnourished children.

It also wants this kind of food added to children's diets to prevent malnutrition from ever happening.

Ready-to-use-food is usually a sweet spread made with peanuts, dry milk, sugar, vegetable fat, minerals and vitamins. The food does not have to be mixed with water, which in many countries may be dirty. And families do not have to go to feeding centers. Individual servings come ready to eat.

Doctor Milton Tectonidis is a nutrition expert with Doctors Without Borders. He tells us that traditional methods of fighting hunger in children are not meeting their needs.

Enriched flour or a mixture of corn and soy are commonly used to improve children's diets. But he says this kind of food aid lacks enough calories and nutrients to prevent malnutrition.

The group is doing research in Niger. Doctor Tectonidis says this research has shown that ready-to-use food is more effective in keeping children from becoming severely malnourished.

The World Health Organization estimates that twenty million children at any given time suffer from severe malnutrition. Doctor Tectonidis says only three percent of them will receive ready-to-use-food this year. Doctors Without Borders is urging donors, United Nations agencies and governments to increase support for ready-to-use food.

In addition, Doctor Tectonidis says more research is needed to create new forms of it. And not just to help children survive and grow, he says, but even to support the diets of pregnant women.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

VOASE1007_Development Report

07 October 2007

New Findings About Husbands, Wives and AIDS
A study shows that in some African countries, in a majority of couples where only one partner has H.I.V., that partner is the wife.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

A common belief about AIDS and marriage is that husbands are more likely to infect wives than the other way around. Generally speaking this may be true. But a researcher has found that women may be responsible for more infections than experts have thought.

Vinod Mishra at Macro International, a research group in the United States, led a study of married couples in Africa. He studied what are known as discordant couples. This meant one partner had H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, while the other did not.

He examined population records and medical information from eleven African countries. He found that in four of these eleven countries, women were the infected partners in a majority of cases.

This was true in sixty-two percent of couples in Ivory Coast and Kenya. Wives were also the majority of infected partners in Ethiopia and Cameroon.

Lesotho had the smallest percentage of couples where only the wife was infected. Yet even there it was thirty-four percent.

How does Vinod Mishra explain these findings?

More women could be entering marriage already infected, he says. Or they could be getting H.I.V. from non-sexual causes. Maybe they received an injection with a needle that had been used before on someone with H.I.V.

But the researcher does not think these are the main explanations. He says there is clear evidence that a majority of women are getting infected within marriage from a person other than their husband.

AIDS prevention campaigns to change behavior have been aimed mostly at men. After all, men have generally been considered the main source for the spread of H.I.V. This thinking has been guided in part by the theories of AIDS investigators based on people's own reports about their sexual behavior.

But Vinod Mishra says one possibility is that women are not fully reporting their sexual history. He says more research is needed before there can be any firm theories about H.I.V. infections and marriage. This issue is not about who is to blame, he tells us, but instead about saving lives and developing the best AIDS programs possible.

He presented his findings in June at a meeting in Rwanda. The event was organized by the American effort known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about AIDS, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep ONeal.

VOASE0930_Development Report

30 September 2007

Project Aims to Raise Demand for Laptops for Poor Children
A "give one, get one" marketing campaign will seek donations from Americans and Canadians for two weeks in November.

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Computer used in the One Laptop per Child program

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The project known as One Laptop Per Child has a new campaign to bring its computers to children in developing countries.

The campaign will urge people in the United States and Canada to spend just under four hundred dollars for two laptops. One will go to a child in a poor country. The other will go to the buyer.

The "Give One, Get One" campaign will start on November twelfth for two weeks only. Project officials think the donations may help persuade governments of developing countries to buy more.

The green-and-white machines are specially designed for children in the developing world. The laptop, called the XO, does not use very much power. And if no electricity is available, users can charge the battery by hand by turning a crank.

The computer uses the free, open-source operating system Linux. The color display can change to a black-and-white image so users are able to see it even in bright sunlight.

Also, the laptops are able to connect wirelessly to each other, as well as the Internet if local service is available. They have a camera. And they are built to resist dirt and moisture.

Mass production is expected to begin in October, once a final design is approved. The XO laptop is currently being tested in Cambodia, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru.

Walter Bender is head of software and content for the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project. He says officials hope to establish a process through the United Nations for countries to make proposals to get free laptops.

Donations may be necessary to launch a laptop program in some poor countries, he says, but governments are needed to keep it going. Partnerships between nations could also help. Italy, for example, has agreed to buy fifty thousand laptops for Ethiopia.

The project is led by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was waiting for three million orders, but so far that has not happened.

In two thousand five he announced the idea for a computer that would cost one hundred dollars. Right now, the cost is almost one hundred ninety dollars.

Several countries in Africa and South America have already placed orders. Walter Bender says countries that buy laptops could still receive others through donations.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE0923_Development Report

23 September 2007

Child Deaths Found at Record Low
The U.N. Children’s Fund says the worldwide number has fallen below 10 million a year for the first time.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

UNICEF says a record low number of children are dying before the age of five. The United Nations Children's Fund has records back to nineteen sixty. It says the number has dropped below ten million a year for the first time.

By comparison, there were almost thirteen million deaths in nineteen ninety.

The newest report says nine million seven hundred thousand children under five died last year. Almost half were in southern Africa. Just over three million were in South Asia.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman called the new findings historic but still unacceptable. She says most of the deaths are preventable.

A child receives a shot of measles vaccine in Banyusoco village, Indonesia

UNICEF says much of the progress is the result of increased efforts for early health interventions. One example is feeding babies only breast milk for the first six months. Also, vaccinating children against measles has saved many lives. So has the use of vitamin A to strengthen children's immune systems, and chemically treated bed nets to prevent malaria.

Morocco, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic have reduced child deaths by more than one-third since nineteen ninety-nine. Madagascar has cut its rate by forty-one percent; Sao Tome and Principe by nearly half.

UNICEF says progress in Asia, especially in China and India, has helped drive the worldwide reduction since nineteen ninety. Death rates have dropped sharply in Latin America and the Caribbean, former Soviet republics and countries in East Asia and the Pacific.

Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have also made considerable gains. Malawi’s under-five death rate dropped by twenty-nine percent between two thousand and two thousand four. Reductions of more than twenty percent were reported in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda and Tanzania as well.

In nineteen ninety, Asia had the most child deaths. Now, rates are highest in west and central Africa. Gains in child survival have fallen to the spread of H.I.V and AIDS. By two thousand fifteen, Africa south of the Sahara could have almost sixty percent of all deaths in children under five.

But UNICEF says Latin America and the Caribbean are on a path to reach a U.N. Millennium Development Goal. The goal is to reduce the death rate in children under five by two-thirds from nineteen ninety levels -- and to do that by two thousand fifteen.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember

VOASE0916_Development Report

16 September 2007

New Web Site Targets World's Unsafe Drinking Water
Scientific groups launch drinking-water.org in five languages, with information including treatment methods.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

More than one billion people around the world do not have clean drinking water. Their water supplies are unsafe because of natural or man-made pollution, such as industrial chemicals or human and animal wastes. Water-related diseases, like cholera and guinea worm, kill millions of people each year, mostly children.

Last week the United States National Academy of Sciences launched "Safe Drinking Water Is Essential." This Internet-based resource, at drinking-water.org, is presented as the first tool of its kind. The aim is to provide high-quality scientific information about improving the safety of drinking water supplies.

The information is provided in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. Some information is presented in short video documentaries.

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"In rural areas that lack adequate distribution systems, treatment can be applied at the point of use, using household treatment technologies. Some of these technologies have fairly low cost and are used in areas around the world. Some common treatments used in the developing world include chlorination, filtration and solar disinfection. With many treatment options available, there is no one-size-fits-all solution."

The nonprofit Global Health and Education Foundation in San Francisco provided money for the project. Almost one hundred thirty science, engineering and medical academies worldwide are also involved. These organizations will share information about the new Web resource with policy makers in their countries.

Also, ten thousand free copies of DVD versions of the information will go to nongovernmental groups working to improve water quality.

Organizers say the Web site is meant to provide international decision makers with technical answers to drinking water problems. The information will help users learn about the causes of unsafe drinking water and technologies that can improve water quality.

The site also has world maps that show the levels of availability of safe drinking water from country to country. Users can compare information from nineteen seventy and two thousand two.

Peter Glick is a member of the scientific committee that developed the Web site. He says the failure of the world to meet basic human needs for water is a crisis that can be solved. He says education is central, and the hope is that this new Internet tool can be part of the solution.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the site, at drinking-water.org, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE0909_Development Report

09 September 2007

UNICEF to Work With a Private Group to Fight AIDS
Partnership with Family Health International will provide services to women and children in Guyana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Baby girl infected with HIV in India

UNICEF is joining with a nonprofit group to bring H.I.V./AIDS programs to more women and children in five countries. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, will work with Family Health International. The new partnership will be established at first in Guyana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia.

One of the goals is to improve care for babies infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Another is to prevent the spread of H.I.V. from mother to child.

Activities will depend on the needs of each country. In some cases, anti-retroviral drugs will be provided to infected parents of children. Women and children living in rural communities will receive most of the services.

Steve Taravella is the head of communications for Family Health International. He says the partnership is separate from UNICEF's international campaign against AIDS but will support the goals of the U.N. agency.

Both UNICEF and Family Health International say they hope to expand their partnership into more countries in the future.

Family Health International has been working on public health issues since nineteen seventy-one. The organization is based in North Carolina and has programs in seventy countries.

It does research on infections diseases and reproductive health, and also provides services. More than half of its yearly budget of about two hundred forty million dollars comes from the United States government.

Experts say an important part of fighting AIDS is political will. One example they point to is Cambodia. That country has been getting attention for its progress in reducing some of the highest infection rates in Asia.

Experts praise the government for supporting public education efforts and programs to give condoms to sex workers. Prostitutes are taught to enforce a policy of "one hundred percent condom use" at sex businesses.

But there are warnings that H.I.V. rates could still rise among men who have sex with men and among users of injection drugs. Rates could also rise among so-called indirect sex workers -- women who work in bars and clubs.

Today about eighty percent of all people infected with H.I.V. in Cambodia receive life-saving drugs for free.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about H.I.V. and AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com.