Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo

Cassava Linked to Mental Deficits

Holy Mental Deficits! Wow! Cassava could be mentally retarding babies and children.
Congolese babies are weaned on cassava. It's their first food. And they grow up eating it at least once a day or more.
More tests should be done. Since it acts like lead paint toxic, then what do you do for the hundreds of millions of babies and children who eat it every day?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/health/in-central-africa-bitter-cassava-is-linked-to-mental-deficits.xml

Konzo, a disease that comes from eating bitter cassava that has not been prepared properly - that is, soaked for days to break down its natural cyanide - has long been known to cripple children.
The name, from the Yaka language of Central Africa, means "tied legs," and victims stumble as if their knees were bound together.
Now researchers have found that children who live where konzo is common but have no obvious physical symptoms may still have mental deficits from the illness.
Cassava, also called manioc or tapioca, is eaten by 800 million people around the world and is a staple in Africa, where bitter varieties grow well even in arid regions. When properly soaked and dried, and especially when people have protein in their diet, bitter cassava is "pretty safe," said Michael J. Boivin, a Michigan State psychiatry professor and lead author of a study published online by Pediatrics. "But in times of war, famine, displacement and hardship, people take shortcuts."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Boivin and colleagues gave tests of mental acuity and dexterity to three groups of children. Two groups were from a village near the Angolan border with regular konzo outbreaks: Half had leg problems; half did not but had cyanide in their urine. The third was from a village 125 miles away with a similar diet but little konzo because residents routinely detoxified cassava before cooking it.

The children from the latter village did "significantly better" on tests of remembering numbers, identifying objects, following mazes and fitting blocks together, while healthy-looking children from the first village did almost as badly as children with obvious konzo.

The mental damage was like that done by lead exposure but more subtle, Dr. Boivin said.

The Right Solution for the 'Heart of Darkness'

Solar energy is the right and the only solution for the Congo. The grid is a long, long, LONG, way in the future.
Electricity is so essential development. It's lighting, refrigeration for vaccines, communication, powering devices, and much much more.
Here's the story.
Solar engineers, Barefoot style
Barefoot College: Geetanjali Krishna | Apr 19 , 2013
Last Update at 22:38 IST
It was a dusty stone building, not unlike many that one sees in the desert. Outside, all was quiet in the heat of the day. From within, however, strains of a Colombian folk song redolent of the rain forest wafted through. I followed the music to the building. In a hall that looked like a classroom-cum-factory floor, I was greeted by the sight of five groups of women - black, white and all shades in between, sitting together in perfect harmony, assembling complicated-looking circuits. I was in Tilonia's Barefoot College, and this was my first glimpse of its 10th batch of solar engineers - all illiterate grandmothers from the poorest villages of Colombia, Nicaragua, Madagascar and Panama. They were learning how to assemble, maintain and operate solar lighting equipment; so that when they returned, they could bring light to their own communities.

I watched them at work - thinking if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it was possible. "It's actually not that hard," said Ghuman Singh, their short, bespectacled teacher who has been associated with Barefoot College since 1998. "People who've had formal education often don't understand that you don't need to have a degree to be an engineer or a scientist. These ladies are living proof that anyone can be given technical training!" He showed me around the room, dominated by a large blackboard. All the components used in the circuit were clearly colour-coded. "Our training modules are all practice-based. This, coupled with the fact that every component is colour-coded, ensures that we don't have to rely on language at all," he said. So whether the trainee is from Barmer or Burundi, Madagascar or Jharkhand - "the same teacher and training module works for all".

In keeping with the Barefoot approach that has no reverence for formal degrees, Singh, too, has studied only up to class-VII. Yet, today, he is one of the most competent teachers of solar technology in Tilonia. "It fills me with wonder that the little work we do in Tilonia improves the lives of poor people halfway across the world," he said. "We live like a big family here. Every time a batch arrives, it has people who have neither stepped out of their homes, nor interacted with other cultures. I reassure them as I'd do with my own younger siblings. And every time a batch leaves, it's like seeing my own sisters leave home! They also cry and cry..." I asked him what he taught them, and he said, "It's a two-way learning process. I teach them to assemble solar equipment, and they teach me their language, culture and more."

Singh and fellow trainers have helped train about 100 grandmothers from India and 80 grandmothers from some of the least developed countries of the world. The idea behind training older women is that unlike younger women, they are rooted in their communities and, therefore, can best extend the benefits of their training.

I said - only half in jest - what these unlettered ladies had learnt about complex solar assemblies in six months, was more than what I could hope to learn in six years. Laughingly, Singh said, "Come to me for six months and I'll turn you also into a Barefoot solar engineer!" As I left the workshop, I wondered how our formal systems of education have turned technology into this mysterious entity that only an elite few can understand. It had taken the ladies in Singh's workshop to show me that making usable technology doesn't necessarily need a degree in engineering - all it takes is the willingness to forge ahead barefoot, and a teacher to lead you there.

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Munchkins, Not From The Classic Book

Recently, I read and listened to the classic book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was free courtesy of Kindle, Amazon and Audible. The Munchkins were just as memorable from my childhood when I watched the movie.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and five other African countries, smaller children are rampant. Almost half of the children in the Congo under the age of five suffer from stunting.
Uneven progress on child stunting in East and Central Africa
NAIROBI, 16 April (IRIN) - Improvements in nutrition and stronger government policies have led to a decline in childhood stunting, according to a new report on child nutrition [ http://www.unicef.org/media/files/nutrition_report_2013.pdf ] by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). However, the condition continues to affect some 165 million children under the age of five globally.

Stunting can lead to irreversible brain and body damage in children, making them more susceptible to illness and more likely to fall behind in school. Based on UNICEF's report, IRIN has put together a round-up of the nutrition situations in six East and Central African countries that are among 24 countries with the largest burden and highest prevalence of stunting.

Burundi: Under-five mortality in this small central African country dropped from 183 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 139 per 1,000 live births in 2012. This is far short of the 63 deaths per 1,000 live births necessary for the country to achieve UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) [ http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/child_mortality/en/ ] 4, which aims to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. An estimated 58 percent of children under age five are stunted, compared with 56 percent in 1987, according to demographic and health surveys from those years.

According to the UNICEF report, Burundi has made "no progress" on MDG 1 [ http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/hunger/en/ ], which aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Central African Republic (CAR): An estimated 28 percent of under-five deaths in CAR occur within the first month of a child's life; the biggest killers of children under five are malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The percentage of children under age five who are stunted has changed little since 1995, standing at 41 percent in 2010, as has the percentage of children who are underweight, which has remained at about 24 percent for the last 18 years.

There has, however, been significant progress in the number of mothers exclusively breastfeeding their infants. In 2010, 34 percent of infants under six months old were breastfed, compared to just 3 percent in 1995. According to UNICEF, infants who are not breastfed in the first six months of life are "more than 14 times more likely to die from all causes than an exclusively breastfed infant".

Democratic Republic of Congo: Africa's second-largest country bears 3 percent of the global stunting burden, with 43 percent of children under age five suffering from stunting and 24 percent being underweight. Stunting is significantly higher (47 percent) in rural areas than it is in urban areas (34 percent).

The percentage of children who are underweight dropped from 34 percent in 2001 to 24 percent in 2010. DRC's progress towards MDG 1 is described as "insufficient".
Ethiopia: The Horn of Africa nation, which bears 3 percent of the global stunting burden, has seen a steep drop in stunting levels, from an estimated 57 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2011. The percentage of underweight under-fives has also dropped significantly, from 42 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2011. Between 2000 and 2011, under-five mortality was cut from 139 deaths per 1,000 live births to 77 per 1,000 live births - within striking distance of its MDG 4 target of 66 per 1,000.

A national nutrition programme launched in 2008 has been key to reducing national food insecurity, a major cause of stunting. The country's health service extension programme [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/72371/ETHIOPIA-New-programme-boosts-village-health-service-delivery ] has also played a role in bringing nutritional interventions to villages.

Rwanda: Community interventions - such as kitchen gardens and increasing the availability of livestock, as well as measures to boost healthy infant feeding practices like exclusive breastfeeding and the provision of nutritional supplements - saw the percentage of underweight under-fives in Rwanda drop from 20 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2010. Enhanced data collection and analysis has also enabled the government to improve its planning and monitoring of child malnutrition.

The report describes the country as "on track" to meet MDG 1.
Tanzania: Bearing 2 percent of the world's stunting burden, Tanzania has made significant strides in improving child nutrition. An estimated 50 percent of infants under six months old were breastfed in 2010, compared to 23 percent in 1992. The country has also brought under-five stunting levels down from 50 percent in 1992 to 42 percent in 2010, but continues to suffer significantly higher stunting in rural children (45 percent) compared to urban children (39 percent).

Tanzania's under-five mortality rate dropped from 158 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 68 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010, putting it close to its MDG 4 target of 53 deaths per 1,000 live births. UNICEF's report says the country is "on track" to meet its MDG 1 targets.

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This report on line: http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=97853
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