You’ve all heard of famous inventors such Thomas Jefferson (The Great Clock),  Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) and Benjamin Franklin (bifocal glasses), but do you know who Grace Hopper and  Stephanie Kwolek are? One of these women invented computer programming, without which it’s fair to say the world would be a very different place, and the other invented Kevlar, a material five times stronger than steel, currently used around the world to protect people from bullets! Now these are very important inventions,...
Amani ya Juu, peace from above, is a self-sustaining sewing and reconciliation project for marginalized women based in East Africa. Photo credit: Morgana Wingard. There is a lot of talk around Washington these days about trade. Congress is considering several bills on trade; much of it is highly technical and difficult for non-trade experts to understand, and it’s not always clear why trade is important to development. ONE strongly supports the quick reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act...
Photo credit: Jonathan Torgovnik We love all moms around the world! We began our Mother’s Day celebration last weekend when the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a healthy baby girl, HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. There is much to celebrate, as the new royal baby has been born into a world where more and more moms and their kids are receiving important healthcare that ensures a healthy life. While progress is being made, there are still millions of women and...
By James Nardella James Nardella is the Executive Director of Lwala Community Alliance, an indigenously founded, nonprofit health, education, and development organization that is working to increase child survival, reduce the burden of HIV, and achieve gender equity in a rural population with acute needs in western Kenya. This blog is part of a chapter in “The Mother & Child Project: Raising Our Voices for Health and Hope” book, which was compiled by Hope Through Healing Hands. One evening in 2011,...
The power of an image should never be underestimated. But why is it sometimes so difficult to find uplifting photos? The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation teamed up with Getty Images to change this situation. Last summer, South Africa-based photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik visited several communities throughout Kenya, Senegal and Uganda to take photograph and document women who are taking control of their health, their livelihoods and their ability to make choices for themselves and their families. Over 400 images were gathered...
The idea that the happiness of people should be a goal of public policy is not new. As early as 1809, Thomas Jefferson stated publicly his belief that “the care of human life and happiness… is the only legitimate object of good government.” And yet, for the lion’s share of human history, we have gauged societal wellbeing according to much cruder metrics, like national income. Of course, what makes people richer and what enables their flourishing are not always...
We believe that if we can help keep moms and children healthy worldwide, we can get at the nexus of many sustainable development goals. Moms can go back to work to combat extreme poverty; girls can stay in school to finish secondary school and potentially a university degree; we can promote gender equality, improve maternal and child health, and prevent mother to child transmission of HIV, to name a few outcomes.
Dear Mother Earth, On behalf of the rest of humanity, I’m sorry for what we’ve done to you. We’re destructive, greedy, selfish and, well, just plain nasty. That being said, I hope you haven’t lost hope in us just yet because we are a new generation about to take the reigns, and I think you’ll dig us. We are Millennials, and we’re very cool — but I’m sure you already knew that by overhearing the not-so-very-well-known music our hipsters listen to. You’re probably also a fan of the recycled bicycles we take to work that don’t pump poison into you.
Today is World Health Day and the theme for 2015 is Food Safety. Now, this may take you back to begrudgingly putting your hair up during food tech classes to avoid the stray-hair-in-your-pasta-drama, but food safety is actually about a LOT more than a strand of additional hair accidentally landing in your lunch! How important can it be you, we hear you ask? Well, we’re going to tell you! 1. Did you know that more than 200 diseases are spread through food? Millions of people...