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Hola FeelGood-ers! Last month, we talked about the importance of leadership and the challenges they face in coordinating and bringing social change into reality. Today I'd like to explore with you the role of leadership facing a very specific problem in developing countries- Health issues and agendas, beginning with grave injustices that silently reflect the deep gender inequalities that tie down the potential of our humanity's unleashing.
Less than 10 years ago the biggest problem in global health seemed to be the lack of resources available to combat the multiple scourges ravaging the world's poor and sick. Today, thanks to a recent extraordinary and unprecedented rise in public and private giving, more money is being directed toward pressing health challenges than ever before.
To give you an idea of the "extraordinary public and private giving", in 2005, the Bush administration invested $27.7 billion for overseas assistance, of which 33% was directed towards global health issues. The American citizens only, raised $22.4 billion; the World Bank focused $3.4 billion, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation raised $6.6 billion all for global health issues in 2005.
Can you believe the power or change that can propel this amount of resources? Now, let's talk about global health. According to the UN, the top 3 causes of death in developing countries are: 1. maternal death at child-birth, 2. pediatric respiratory and intestinal infections, 3. diarrhea. - Really? - More mothers die at child-birth than people from HIV/AIDS? One might think, I don't see t-shirts or media campaigns regarding these issues! Did you know that more than 60% of Global Health money is being channeled towards HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria? You probably at least imagined so, given the great focus that our generation and media is putting into these health problems. And they are grave problems.
The questions here are why the most urgent health problems such as the health of women and children are not being focused on as much as HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
FeelGood and The Hunger Project's focus on health truly recognizes the importance of women's health. And their focus takes us to a deeper analysis of socioeconomic issues, which are never isolated. A health problem is not only a health problem, it's a problem born out of a complex context interconnected with other problems. For example, a greater focus on maternal health, will directly impact the health of children at birth. If their mothers are also present and healthy during their infancy, they will be more capable to provide for healthier feeding, education and development as children; thus bringing a stronger generation of young adults that will be more able to work and provide for the future generations, contributing in more levels to the development of their communities, as opposed to being physically challenged by starvation and famine.
It is unacceptable in our time, that the top causes of death are so medically simple to fix! And it is quite unbelievable to realize that these health problems are a consequence of the deep gender inequalities that are STILL present in our time!
So this is where you/us leader's role comes in, in understanding and exploring the deep and complex causes of the issues we face as humanity, and in the creative roles we play in their solving. For example, the efforts that global health money is paying for are largely uncoordinated and directed mostly at specific high-profile diseases rather than at the most urgent health problems of developing countries; this presents a grave danger that the current age of generosity could not only fall short of expectations, but actually make things worse on ground.
What do you think? ? Who is choosing the agenda of global health resources, and why? Do developing countries have a say on how this money is being spent? Is this money coordinated with local resources and programs? Is our current approach sustainable?
For now I am happy to know that FeelGood supports THP's chain of development that brings the important focus on women's health. We have to tell the world! Keep up the great work! Because you are making a difference, and ending world hunger every day one grilled cheese at a time. Let's spread the word ya'll!
About a year ago, a friend asked me to review a very complete business plan for an NGO he had in mind, dedicated to the attention and education for "children of the streets" in Monterrey, Mexico. After doing a little research, we found that Monterrey is the city in all Latin America that has the lowest index of homeless children living on the streets. My friend was about to start looking for financing for this NGO he had in mind, right before we realized that such project wouldn't have been the best investment of his time, energy and resources because his vision was only a solution for something that mattered a lot to him, but that wasn't necessarily a need or socioeconomic problem most urgent to work on.
The article "The Challenges of Global Health" (Garret 2007), presents us with a great and well-founded reflection about an issue that is very similar to my friend and his NGO. Except in this case, the programs analyzed are initiatives of national governments as well as international NGO's and very important institutions dedicated to solving the problems of global health. To give you an idea of how huge this movement is, only in the past two years, 38 billion dollars were invested in this global health. It is very common to think that the most important challenge faced by the implementation of programs and public policy that aim to solving the greatest socioeconomic problems of the world, is the lack of economic resources. After reading this article, I have realized that money is only one of many factors that determine the success of such initiatives.
Over the last 20 years we have seen an important increase in the presence of NGO's and in their participation in regional and global development. Even though NGO's represent a more cost-effective way to solve problems, and many of them are conformed by very talented and prepared experts to very specific issues, NGO's as a whole are still far from reaching their full potential in their participation in society because the efforts made in different areas are still much isolated and uncoordinated with all other parallel lines of actions being taken in the world.
We are faced wtih a great need of effective LEADERSHIP at the state, national and international levels; leaders that hold a vision of coordination within the social, private and public sector that in the end, hold similar goals beginning with the socioeconomic development of their community.
Leadership, this could be the most important factor for the success of the implementation of sustainable and long-lasting change. Every day there are more great efforts and resources dispersed around the world that are working towards a common goal, though with different agendas, methodologies of action, and with partial visions of the problems they're working on solving.
The world needs ethical leaders that are able to coordinate the efforts of the many actors of development, resources, initiatives and visions in order to maximize the results of so many passionate people who genuinely work for the bettering of the world. We need leaders who know how to implement sustainable and transcending programs. Who generate solutions and promote an intelligent balance between solidarity and subsidiarity instead of perpetuating the never-ending cycles o dependency which end up always being more expensive and much less effective in the long term.
This world needs ethical leaders who take the time to understand the needs and the problematic for which they work, and at the same time innovating solutions based in the real needs of the community, and not based in their own personal partial visions or interests. We need ethical leaders who understand that the people, to whom development programs are geared to, are key agents in their own development, because this will truly unleash creativity processes that will bring together a more complete view of reality that will unchain new levels of participation and development.
We live at a time when citizen and institutional generosity is truly started to be promoted as a way o social responsability and professional ethic. In 2005, 22.7 billion dollars were donated by American Citizens for global health initiatives only. With this growing generosity, it is key that the resources are geared toward real needs and sustainable solutions, and not individual visions of how resources should be spent.
We live at a time when it's becoming imperative that we learn to coordinate our efforts and resources to produce more effective and sustainable changes. This is the beginning of an era in which the civil society sees themselves as change-agents of this world, and takes on the responsibility of participating along with governments and private organizations to better the world. May we learn quickly, because even well-intentioned actions that lack a proper vision and strategy can not only fall short of reaching their potential, but they can also even worsen the issues that they wished to improve.
Jamm'n to End Famine was SO sucessful!!!!Not only did we have tons of
fun making banners, loading sound equipment in an out (haha), making
Jamm'n Jerry sandwiches and hearing some great reggae, we raised
$4,000!!!!! That means that in ONE day we raised enough money to
donate to The Hunger Project and as Kristin calculated for us, that is
enough to empower 100 members of our human family to end their own
hunger. That, my friends, is amazing.
So what does that bring our grand total to for the semester??? A
whopping $14,000!! Our goal of raising $20,000 is within sight! That's
so exciting and feelgood would be nowhere near that goal if it wasn't
for all of you wonderful members who give your time and energy.
This week we're going to continue on the path from Jamm'n. Starting
with prep tomorrow at 6pm in the SGA kitchen on the 3rd floor of the
Davis Center.
Then we'll have our meeting at 7pm in room 422 of the Davis Center. At
the meeting we'll be eating some yummy snacks, talking about
Springfest, and most excitingly hearing speeches from our Vice
Presidential candidates for next year!
If you're interested in running for vice president please come with a
little speech prepared to the meeting, if you're unable to make the
meeting please email me a blurb to read. We're still working on
printing the applications, and we'll most likely just have them at the
meeting. Elections will start tomorrow and close on Friday at the
close of the kiosk. The ballot box will be at the FG desk and at the
kiosk when open.
I hope to see a lot of you at the meeting tomorrow night. Remember
that new people are always welcome at the meetings so feel free to
come if you haven't before or to bring a friend if you're a returner.
There can never be too many people working in the movement for a world
free from hunger:)
What an awesome article about UVM-FeelGood in the Burlington Free Press. You guys rock! The bustling activity of the deli was so vividly described that it practically jumped off the page. It was like reading in 3D!! Congratulations and thank you to all of you outrageous, inspiring cheese-grillers!!!
Jim Goodman
Regional Director - U.S. Funding
The Hunger Project
Comments
GLOBAL HEALTH AND GENDER
Hola FeelGood-ers! Last month, we talked about the importance of leadership and the challenges they face in coordinating and bringing social change into reality. Today I'd like to explore with you the role of leadership facing a very specific problem in developing countries- Health issues and agendas, beginning with grave injustices that silently reflect the deep gender inequalities that tie down the potential of our humanity's unleashing.
Less than 10 years ago the biggest problem in global health seemed to be the lack of resources available to combat the multiple scourges ravaging the world's poor and sick. Today, thanks to a recent extraordinary and unprecedented rise in public and private giving, more money is being directed toward pressing health challenges than ever before.
To give you an idea of the "extraordinary public and private giving", in 2005, the Bush administration invested $27.7 billion for overseas assistance, of which 33% was directed towards global health issues. The American citizens only, raised $22.4 billion; the World Bank focused $3.4 billion, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation raised $6.6 billion all for global health issues in 2005.
Can you believe the power or change that can propel this amount of resources? Now, let's talk about global health. According to the UN, the top 3 causes of death in developing countries are: 1. maternal death at child-birth, 2. pediatric respiratory and intestinal infections, 3. diarrhea. - Really? - More mothers die at child-birth than people from HIV/AIDS? One might think, I don't see t-shirts or media campaigns regarding these issues! Did you know that more than 60% of Global Health money is being channeled towards HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria? You probably at least imagined so, given the great focus that our generation and media is putting into these health problems. And they are grave problems.
The questions here are why the most urgent health problems such as the health of women and children are not being focused on as much as HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
FeelGood and The Hunger Project's focus on health truly recognizes the importance of women's health. And their focus takes us to a deeper analysis of socioeconomic issues, which are never isolated. A health problem is not only a health problem, it's a problem born out of a complex context interconnected with other problems. For example, a greater focus on maternal health, will directly impact the health of children at birth. If their mothers are also present and healthy during their infancy, they will be more capable to provide for healthier feeding, education and development as children; thus bringing a stronger generation of young adults that will be more able to work and provide for the future generations, contributing in more levels to the development of their communities, as opposed to being physically challenged by starvation and famine.
It is unacceptable in our time, that the top causes of death are so medically simple to fix! And it is quite unbelievable to realize that these health problems are a consequence of the deep gender inequalities that are STILL present in our time!
So this is where you/us leader's role comes in, in understanding and exploring the deep and complex causes of the issues we face as humanity, and in the creative roles we play in their solving. For example, the efforts that global health money is paying for are largely uncoordinated and directed mostly at specific high-profile diseases rather than at the most urgent health problems of developing countries; this presents a grave danger that the current age of generosity could not only fall short of expectations, but actually make things worse on ground.
What do you think? ? Who is choosing the agenda of global health resources, and why? Do developing countries have a say on how this money is being spent? Is this money coordinated with local resources and programs? Is our current approach sustainable?
For now I am happy to know that FeelGood supports THP's chain of development that brings the important focus on women's health. We have to tell the world! Keep up the great work! Because you are making a difference, and ending world hunger every day one grilled cheese at a time. Let's spread the word ya'll!
Peace,
Talis
STRATEGIC LEADERS WANTED!!
About a year ago, a friend asked me to review a very complete business plan for an NGO he had in mind, dedicated to the attention and education for "children of the streets" in Monterrey, Mexico. After doing a little research, we found that Monterrey is the city in all Latin America that has the lowest index of homeless children living on the streets. My friend was about to start looking for financing for this NGO he had in mind, right before we realized that such project wouldn't have been the best investment of his time, energy and resources because his vision was only a solution for something that mattered a lot to him, but that wasn't necessarily a need or socioeconomic problem most urgent to work on.
The article "The Challenges of Global Health" (Garret 2007), presents us with a great and well-founded reflection about an issue that is very similar to my friend and his NGO. Except in this case, the programs analyzed are initiatives of national governments as well as international NGO's and very important institutions dedicated to solving the problems of global health. To give you an idea of how huge this movement is, only in the past two years, 38 billion dollars were invested in this global health. It is very common to think that the most important challenge faced by the implementation of programs and public policy that aim to solving the greatest socioeconomic problems of the world, is the lack of economic resources. After reading this article, I have realized that money is only one of many factors that determine the success of such initiatives.
Over the last 20 years we have seen an important increase in the presence of NGO's and in their participation in regional and global development. Even though NGO's represent a more cost-effective way to solve problems, and many of them are conformed by very talented and prepared experts to very specific issues, NGO's as a whole are still far from reaching their full potential in their participation in society because the efforts made in different areas are still much isolated and uncoordinated with all other parallel lines of actions being taken in the world.
We are faced wtih a great need of effective LEADERSHIP at the state, national and international levels; leaders that hold a vision of coordination within the social, private and public sector that in the end, hold similar goals beginning with the socioeconomic development of their community.
Leadership, this could be the most important factor for the success of the implementation of sustainable and long-lasting change. Every day there are more great efforts and resources dispersed around the world that are working towards a common goal, though with different agendas, methodologies of action, and with partial visions of the problems they're working on solving.
The world needs ethical leaders that are able to coordinate the efforts of the many actors of development, resources, initiatives and visions in order to maximize the results of so many passionate people who genuinely work for the bettering of the world. We need leaders who know how to implement sustainable and transcending programs. Who generate solutions and promote an intelligent balance between solidarity and subsidiarity instead of perpetuating the never-ending cycles o dependency which end up always being more expensive and much less effective in the long term.
This world needs ethical leaders who take the time to understand the needs and the problematic for which they work, and at the same time innovating solutions based in the real needs of the community, and not based in their own personal partial visions or interests. We need ethical leaders who understand that the people, to whom development programs are geared to, are key agents in their own development, because this will truly unleash creativity processes that will bring together a more complete view of reality that will unchain new levels of participation and development.
We live at a time when citizen and institutional generosity is truly started to be promoted as a way o social responsability and professional ethic. In 2005, 22.7 billion dollars were donated by American Citizens for global health initiatives only. With this growing generosity, it is key that the resources are geared toward real needs and sustainable solutions, and not individual visions of how resources should be spent.
We live at a time when it's becoming imperative that we learn to coordinate our efforts and resources to produce more effective and sustainable changes. This is the beginning of an era in which the civil society sees themselves as change-agents of this world, and takes on the responsibility of participating along with governments and private organizations to better the world. May we learn quickly, because even well-intentioned actions that lack a proper vision and strategy can not only fall short of reaching their potential, but they can also even worsen the issues that they wished to improve.
Strategic and ethical leaders WANTED! You wanna?
Lookin' Good!
The website looks awesome, Kristin!
Jamm'n a Success
Jamm'n to End Famine was SO sucessful!!!!Not only did we have tons of
fun making banners, loading sound equipment in an out (haha), making
Jamm'n Jerry sandwiches and hearing some great reggae, we raised
$4,000!!!!! That means that in ONE day we raised enough money to
donate to The Hunger Project and as Kristin calculated for us, that is
enough to empower 100 members of our human family to end their own
hunger. That, my friends, is amazing.
So what does that bring our grand total to for the semester??? A
whopping $14,000!! Our goal of raising $20,000 is within sight! That's
so exciting and feelgood would be nowhere near that goal if it wasn't
for all of you wonderful members who give your time and energy.
This week we're going to continue on the path from Jamm'n. Starting
with prep tomorrow at 6pm in the SGA kitchen on the 3rd floor of the
Davis Center.
Then we'll have our meeting at 7pm in room 422 of the Davis Center. At
the meeting we'll be eating some yummy snacks, talking about
Springfest, and most excitingly hearing speeches from our Vice
Presidential candidates for next year!
If you're interested in running for vice president please come with a
little speech prepared to the meeting, if you're unable to make the
meeting please email me a blurb to read. We're still working on
printing the applications, and we'll most likely just have them at the
meeting. Elections will start tomorrow and close on Friday at the
close of the kiosk. The ballot box will be at the FG desk and at the
kiosk when open.
I hope to see a lot of you at the meeting tomorrow night. Remember
that new people are always welcome at the meetings so feel free to
come if you haven't before or to bring a friend if you're a returner.
There can never be too many people working in the movement for a world
free from hunger:)
Have a good night and a happy Monday!
Liz Batsford
VP UVM feelgood
Apparel 08
Yay for 08 apparel!!!! I want it!
UVM newspaper article!
What an awesome article about UVM-FeelGood in the Burlington Free Press. You guys rock! The bustling activity of the deli was so vividly described that it practically jumped off the page. It was like reading in 3D!! Congratulations and thank you to all of you outrageous, inspiring cheese-grillers!!!
Jim Goodman
Regional Director - U.S. Funding
The Hunger Project
thanks Jim! We were pretty
thanks Jim! We were pretty excited about it too!
FeelGood World Rocks!
FG is a wonderful tool for the youth of America to create social change. The potential is just fantastic :-)
Stay amazing Kristin!
Much Love,
Rhym
I can test it TOO!
YAY for blogs... and FG!