A New Year Bring New Challenges, New Opportunities

Most folks tend to begin a new year with the best of intentions, feeling hopeful and optimistic, ready to take on new personal and professional challenges. It’s often a time to take stock and identify those lingering (and sometimes annoying) things we’ve pushed aside for one (usually good) reason or another and tackle them head on.

Well, the same feeling applies to life at a nonprofit agency – especially PCI, an organization near and dear to my heart.

There is so much to be excited about if you’re a supporter of PCI’s work. Because we’ve been recognized for all of our important work addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we’ve established new programs in two more African countries, Botswana and Malawi. PCI has also expanded its role in responding to crisis situations around the globe. Last year, we helped communities hardest hit by floods in India and Mexico, Hurricane Felix in Nicaragua, an earthquake in Peru, and the Southern California fires. And PCI continues to adopt an innovative approach to its core philosophy of helping people help themselves with microcredit and other economic development programs in impoverished communities around the world.

One exciting way we plan to spread the word about PCI’s efforts in the coming year is through our Seeds campaign (www.ProjectConcern.org/Seeds). The heart of this awareness effort is a simple pledge: "You have the power to change the world. By adding your name to this pledge, you'll be joining Project Concern International in planting seeds of change to help thousands of children in need escape generations of poverty."

We think and believe that collectively, we can change the world. PCI’s programs are planting these seeds of change to create a new life and to empower individuals to be self-sufficient, healthy, and hopeful. We have the resolve to effect that change – one child, one family, one community at a time.

And now that we’re at the beginning of a new year, there’s no time like the present!

Response to Flooding in Mexico

(First person account by Mark O’Donnell, PCI’s Vice President for Program Operations and Humanitarian Assitance.)

I just returned from a trip to Mexico City to meet with PCI’s Emergency Response Team for the flooding in Tabasco and Chiapas and wanted to share a few impressions.

First, I think it is important keep in mind that while the water levels have been reduced in many areas, the rains continue, causing additional damages to homes and creating obstacles to the response. Thousands of people are still in shelters and in need of ongoing assistance, especially outside of Villahermosa and in Chiapas that have not received the same amount of attention.

Second, the Mexican government and its citizens are doing an excellent job of responding to the disaster. They were on the ground very quickly, worked very efficiently, and have provided PCI access to air, water and ground support that has great assisted our efforts.

Third, our team has just been tremendous, dedicating themselves day and night to the response. In addition to some of the initial assistance with water and hygiene kits, PCI will also be providing food.

We will complete a second household survey to identify additional needs that we will be providing with the support of the US government’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA/USAID). Longer term, we will be working with individual families to provide livelihood support to help get them back on their feet.

Finally, while challenges still remain and thousands of people continue to need support, I’m proud of PCI’s involvement in this important effort to assist the people of Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico.

Tijuana, a city of 1.2 million people, is located amidst the busiest land border crossing in the world. Commerce, employment, migration and tourism bring a constant flow of millions back and forth across the border each year, and with the multitudes of people come a multitude of issues. One of the most serious issues is a growing HIV infection rate in the Tijuana border region that is estimated to be three times higher than Mexico's national average.
There a many factors contributing to the spread of AIDS in Tijuana, including a booming sex tourism industry – a business being fueled affordable prostitution rates and Americans willing to pay good money for services and will pay more if not required to wear a condom.
A study published last year by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine indicated that the rate of HIV/AIDS infections in Tijuana, Mexico are increasing and numbers are much higher than had been previously estimated.
According to the study, the number of men and women aged 15 to 49 years who are infected with HIV may be as high as one in 125 persons – a dramatic increase from 20 years ago. In turn, infection rates on the San Diego County side of the border are spiking as well.
San Diego County currently ranks third highest in the state of California for HIV infections, trailing only behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. As of October 2007, the California Department of Health Services found over 13,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS in San Diego.

Saturday, December 1st is World AIDS Day. In recognition of this annual event, here are a few things YOU can do to help fight this global epidemic:

> Be a part of the solution! Volunteer with PCI on December 1st at the San Ysidro-Mexico border port of entry as we raise HIV/AIDS awareness in our region.
> Educate yourself about the ever-present dangers of HIV/AIDS and understand that no person or region is immune from this disease.
> Talk to your partner, children, younger siblings, or other young people in your life, about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and methods of prevention (using condoms, avoiding illegal drugs).
> Learn more about PCI’s HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and India.
> Urge your government representatives to support HIV/AIDS eradication programs.
> Get tested.

Hernando de Soto is a revolutionary economist who is helping impoverished communities worldwide rise out of financial struggle. Recipient of Project Concern International’s 2007 Humanitarian Award, de Soto is the founder of Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru. Time magazine included de Soto as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the century and among the 100 most influential people in the world. In his award acceptance letter, de Soto shared the following:
"[The people who work for me see]…the economic potential in the shantytowns of Lima and every other city we work in, and thus the opportunity to really change the world – where two thirds of the people, four billion of them, are stuck in poverty. They share with me a love of the challenge of helping poor and struggling countries make the transition to modern, market economies – and convincing their Governments (and the US Government in Washington and non-profit organizations like Project Concern International) that the poor are not the problem, but the solution.
Over the past 25 years, what we at the ILD have discovered is that there is a large constituency for change in developing countries. They’re called the "poor," and what we’ve revealed about these people is that they wouldn’t survive at all if they weren’t hardworking, clever entrepreneurs. They have assets in the form of houses, property, and small businesses. But they need something else to prosper – i.e. the same legal tools that rich nations (and country elites) take for granted: property rights, legal ways to organize their businesses productively, and mechanisms to operate in expanded markets outside the confines of family and friends.
No matter what populist and anti-globalization leaders might say, we know that these entrepreneurs are eager to take their place in their national and then international markets, because, even though costly bureaucracies and just plain bad law keeps them from these legal tools, they replicate them in their underground economies: informal property titles, contracts, wills, credit – all in an effort to do business and protect their assets. But these "extralegal" practices are inadequate.
What the ILD does is to identify the bad laws and the good extralegal practices, and then help Governments make the kind of institutional reforms that will engineer an inclusive market economy under a single rule of law. That’s the only way it can be done, and the good news is that it has been done before – in Europe, the
U.S., and Japan, for example, when these were still developing countries full of migrants, squatters, and peasants trying to make a better life for their families."

Four Ways to Improve the Fight Against AIDS

"Hunger can drive decent people to take terrible risks"

Walleligne Beriye

On October 9th, Project Concern went to Washington. Well, to be fair, PCI is always in Washington. We have a fully staffed office in our nation’s capital, working closely with government officials to promote the important work we do around the world. Earlier this month, however, one of our staff had the opportunity to participate in a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on Africa and Global Health.
Entitled "The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Is It Fulfilling the Nutrition and Food Security Needs of People Living with HIV/AIDS?," the hearing was conducted with a full audience and broadcasted nationally on C-SPAN. Participating in the hearing was Project Concern’s own Walleligne Beriye, Country Director for our program in Ethiopia.
Walleligne delivered powerful testimony, describing his personal experiences working to help families struggling with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Adults that are HIV positive, Walleligne explained, can require up to 30% more food than a healthy individual. Moreover, children suffering from this disease might need twice as much food as a healthy child. HIV positive adults who are malnourished when they begin receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) are six times more likely to die after received treatment than a person receiving adequate nutrition. Thus, the effectiveness of ART is greatly diminished if the person is malnourished.
Working on the frontlines in Ethiopia, Walleligne has seen firsthand the effects of malnourishment on communities with HIV/AIDS. For example, women who are starving are more likely to engage in prostitution, further spreading the virus. Ensuring people suffering from HIV/AIDS have adequate access to food is of a key tool in preventing desperate and risky behavior.
Walleligne suggested four ways to increase food security and thus improve drug-effectiveness in the fight against HIV/AIDS:
1. Expand food programs in schools and orphanages
2. Provide meals at centers where pregnant women go for counseling and testing; these women will most likely return again.
3. Expanding food programs at treatment centers.
4. Creating economic opportunities by supporting gardens, farms, and collective businesses owned by HIV positive individuals.
The continuous danger presented by the combination of HIV/AIDS and hunger is always present, it never sleeps or takes an extended vacation. Shortly after giving his testimony, Walleligne returned to Ethiopia to once again take his post on the frontlines of this ongoing struggle.

Trial and Hope in Africa

Kamren Charpentier

Africa faces the greatest challenges of our time. A chaotic scene of deathly diseases, poverty, starvation, and war – Africa’s issues collide into a mix of desperation and despair. Each day in Africa is a true duel between hope and anguish – a battle of survival for so many it cannot be ignored, even if tried.

Yet amidst these constant struggles, there remains among Africans the greatest hope, warmth, and inspiration. In the past century we have seen some of the greatest world leaders, visionaries, and Nobel Laureates emerge from this vast continent. Africans are a people who do not beg for charity, but for empowerment; who do not cry for sorrow, but for hope; and who do want our pity, but need our support. It is in the nation’s determination that we find the greatest opportunity, hope, and ability to help restore what was once the world’s greatest civilization.

Diseases such as malaria take the lives of over 3,000 children a day in Africa. Combined with HIV/AIDS, the death toll of children, men and women rises to a staggering 3.5 million people each year. Starvation leads orphaned children to the streets to find work and food; poverty diminishes the means for education or medical services; and disease leaves many bed-ridden and debilitated with no way to make a living. When adding into the equation corrupt government and military officials, natural disasters such as drought in Ethiopia, or the genocidal war of Darfur the outcome is devastating.

The cycle of poverty and disease circulating throughout Africa is vicious. There is not one answer to these complicated problems – they require holistic, integrated solutions that lift people out of poverty and provide the access and means to health care, education and economic empowerment.

Project Concern International is working to address these issues and break the unbalanced cycle of poverty. The organization is providing access to health care for victims of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria; nutritional food, education and support programs of orphans and vulnerable children; economic development opportunities for women; and community mobilization that create strong volunteer efforts.

It is only with great conviction, unfounded dedication and unlimited vision that true change can occur. But, change does not happen overnight, it does not strike like a lighting bolt, it takes perseverance and the will to work untiringly day in and day out. It takes leaders and movement, it takes belief, and most importantly it takes each and every one of us.

Project Concern International : Tijuana
Alex Slattery

When I went to Tijuana to photograph Project Concern International’s work, I knew little about the programs there. On arrival in these poor neighborhoods, I met some of the most compassionate people I have ever come across.
I met local promatoras, or health workers, who volunteer in different communities by providing physical check-ups to children, giving vaccinations, and administering Tuberculosis medicine to patients everyday. These women travel far distances without a car or pay to do make sure people receive health care. I also met a couple who opened their home to administer vaccinations and medicine to patients that otherwise could not afford it.
There can be no other gesture of kindness greater than opening up your own home to improve the health and quality of life for others. I was amazed at how little these people had and how much they gave in return. It is important that we raise the quality of living and health for our neighbors (Tijuana) because ultimately it affects us all.
I’m glad I could assist this organization by visually capturing the amazing work Project Concern International is doing in these areas – it is truly making a difference and it showed on the faces of the children, mothers and community members who were there.