World Vision/Australia – Effective Aid: Helping Millions

Australian Aid Saving Millions of Lives: Report

April 12, 2011

A new report released by aid organisation World Vision claims that Australian aid dollars have contributed to significant declines in child deaths, gains in school enrolments and the provision of clean water and sanitation for the world’s poorest people.

And World Vision CEO Tim Costello has used the report to put pressure on government ahead of next month’s Federal Budget to honour its commitment to boost Australia’s level of overseas aid to 50 cents in every $100 dollars by 2015 – something the report says could save an extra 500,000 lives each year.

The report Effective Aid: Helping Millions calculates the impact of aid over the past 20 years and shows that significant progress has been made in combating poverty in the 10 countries that receive the most aid from Australia – with the exception of conflict-torn Afghanistan.

Costello says the report shows that despite rich nations only spending one third of one percent of their income on aid each year, even this small investment is having a big impact.

Costello says the amount spent on soft drink each year is greater than the amount spent on aid for poor countries.

Costello says that according to the report, since 1990 global aid efforts have helped prevent 45 million child death and an additional 1.8 billion people have gained access to improved water sources.

Zimbabwe: building user-friendly toilets for the disabled

THE Disablement Association of Zimbabwe (DAZ) has started building user-friendly Blair Toilets for people with disabilities. It also plans to improve access to ablution facilities in Bulawayo after a realisation that the authorities were taking too long to act. Insiza and Matobo districts in Matabeleland South have been chosen for the programme which is supported by World Vision.

Speaking at the recent launch of the association, DAZ executive director David Zulu said the programme was part of efforts to address health concerns of people with disabilities. He said they tended to be left out of national programmes yet they were equally affected by challenges such as outbreaks of diseases emanating from poor sanitation.

“In the urban centre of Bulawayo we are involved in assessing the accessibility if public ablution facilities on how the current structures can be modified so that people with disabilities have better access to them,” Zulu said.

However, WVZ humanitarian emergency affairs director, Daniel Muchena said the programme had been affected by the negative attitude towards people with disabilities inherent in society. “For example under Protracted Relief Programme 1, in Matobo district some community members are not willing to assist people with disabilities in constructing user friendly Blair toilets and engage in other productive activities.

DAZ was registered as a trust in 2006 after it was formed by trustees Ronald Ncube, Edmore Hute and Davis Mazodze to represent people with disabilities at grassroots level.

For more information on this topic see:
WEDC – Water supply and sanitation for disabled people and other vulnerable groups

Source: Zimbabwe Standard / allAfrica.com, 29 Aug 2009

Myanmar: Promoting hygiene in cyclone-affected areas

With the rainy season almost over, health officials are concentrating on providing sanitary facilities in the cyclone-affected areas in Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions.

“Most of the cyclone-affected people are using unsanitary latrines …We need to help them build sanitary latrines to promote good hygiene practices,” Prasad Bhagwan Sevekari, WASH cluster coordinator for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.

When Cyclone Nargis hit the delta on May 2-3, [2008] leaving up to 140,000 dead or missing and more than 2 million affected, most of the latrines in Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions collapsed, while others are still unsafe.

According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, damage to latrines was extensive, with up to 40 percent of respondents in Yangon, and up to 45 percent in Ayeyarwady divisions, having switched from pit latrines to open defecation.

[...] In an effort to help build the sanitary latrines, [UNICEF] and its partners [like World Vision] are providing latrine kits. People prefer bamboo-based latrines as they cost less compared with brick and wood-based latrines, Sevekari said.

Read more: IRIN, 22 Oct 2008