Eco Factor: U.N.’s goal is to help some of the poorest communities of Africa to cope and prosper.
A project from the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the United Nations Development Program stands as a milestone in Dertu progressing toward a better future. The Millennium Villages project designed to help some of the poorest communities cope and prosper in the harshest climates of Africa has succeeded in lifting many rural African communities out of extreme poverty. A live example of this success is Dertu in Kenya that looks toward aid and smart, simple technology to advance the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals of dramatically reducing global poverty and boosting education, gender equality and health by 2015.
Under this green initiative, Dertu has seen four new health care workers, free medicines and vaccines, a birthing center and laboratory under construction, bed nets to ward of mosquitoes. Education too has received a boost, high school scholarships, a dorm for boys and an increase in the number of students enrolling into schools points towards a better tomorrow. The school has received nine donated computers.
A new cellphone tower lets the farmers uses cellphones to know the latest market price sitting in their own straw huts. Generators and solar energy provide some basic needs, like charging cellphones. According to the project’s report, the bed net use by children under 5 has risen from 7 percent to 50 percent across the 14 villages. Malaria rates have dropped from 24 percent to 10 percent. Maize yields have increased, while chronic malnutrition has decreased. Today, the U.N. will be hosting a summit in New York to review progress since the goals were set 10 years ago.
Via: MSNBC
