Kenya

RECENT POSTS

March 13, 2012 | 10:20 AM | By

PATH gets sexy to save lives in Kenya

Sex sells, everyone knows, so PATH is selling it to save lives.

Shuga: Love, Sex, Money – Official Trailer from MTV staying alive on Vimeo.

The Seattle-based global health organization has recently launched a steamy six-part television series in Nairobi, Kenya, called Shuga: Love, Sex, Money aimed at preventing the spread of HIV, the AIDS virus.

“This is pretty racy for Kenya,” said Rikka Trangsgrud, PATH’s long-time country programs director for Kenya. “There are some fairly explicit scenes and themes … We are really pushing the envelope here but the idea is to prompt important discussions.”

Or as PATH says on its website: Shuga, which features a cast of red-hot African actors and an Oscar-winning directing team, addresses the thorny issues of sexual health head-on, confronting taboos such as rape and sex-for-gifts through the tangled love lives of its characters.

The TV series is, in effect, paid for by American taxpayers through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (widely regarded as one of President George W. Bush’s most successful international endeavors). PATH has been the facilitator, administering the affiliated Partnership for on HIV-Free Generation program in Kenya and launching a commercial youth branding scheme G-Pange.

“One of our partners on this project is MTV,” said Trangsrud. The first goal of this project is to be entertaining and provocative, she said, with the aim of capturing the attention of young people in order to get them talking about these issues.

“It has to be appealing,” Trangsrud said. “It’s sexy.”

And, if it works, will save lives.

FILED UNDER: Health, HIV-AIDS, Kenya, media, PATH
October 26, 2011 | 10:28 AM | By

Does chasing down terrorists in Somalia help or hurt famine relief effort?

DFID

Refugees in East Africa

The deadly famine in East Africa continues and now conflict involving the Islamist extremists known as al-Shabab could make a terrible situation much worse.

Aid workers are getting kidnapped, the Kenyan military invaded Somalia to search for the extremists (who deny the kidnappings), which then prompted a claimed member of al-Shabab to explode grenades in Nairobi – prompting Somalia’s president to ask Kenya to back off.

This, in turn, caused officials in the U.S. and Europe to urge Somalia to allow Kenya in to pursue al-Shabab.

Meanwhile, as Voice of America reports, those most in need are figuratively caught in the crossfire as the military campaign undermines the relief efforts.

The United Nations says recent military activity along the Kenya-Somalia border is restricting famine relief efforts and preventing Somalis from fleeing to refugee camps in Kenya. The U.N. Refugee Agency said Wednesday that only 100 Somali refugees entered Kenya last week, down from 3,400 in the previous week.

To combat the tendency for the American public, and the media, to forget about this ongoing catastrophe, USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) has launched a PR campaign together with the Ad Council called “We are the relief.” I think they could have come up with a better theme, but at least they’re trying. Here’s some of what USAID is putting out:

USAID

Comparative catastrophes

FILED UNDER: Basics, al-Shabab, famine, Kenya, Somalia, USAID
September 26, 2011 | 3:25 PM | By

Plant a tree for Wangari Maathai

Green Belt Movemen

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, has died at age 71 after battling ovarian cancer.

Maathai was often described as an environmentalist, a Kenyan activist who started Africa’s Green Belt Movement — an effort dedicated to planting trees as a means to protect biodiversity and against habitat destruction.

But calling her an environmentalist doesn’t quite cut it.

Maathai was a bold political activist, an academic, a feminist, a fighter for social justice and someone intensely focused on the needs of the poor. For her work she was imprisoned, beaten and ostracized.

In short, she was an environmentalist only in the sense that she realized how all of these forces in a society — environment, human rights, equity — are intimately interwoven.

Maathai was also someone who constantly stressed that a single person, like a single tree, truly can make a difference. Here are some good articles describing Maathai and her work:

TIME: The legacy of Wangari Maathai, Nobel environmentalist

CNN: World mourns passing of true African heroine

New York Times: Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies

GlobalPost: Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first woman Nobel laureate

FILED UNDER: Basics, Justice, environment, Kenya, Wangari Maathai
August 24, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

The heroic humanitarian narrative: A force for good or bad?

Flickr, Stephen Poff

The heroic narrative is almost irresistable as a storytelling strategy.

But many in the aid and development community think it frequently does more harm than good:

  • By implying individual, private efforts (i.e., DIY or “Do-It-Yourself” aid) are somehow superior to large-scale organizational or government-run programs when the evidence (one rebuttal to DIY aid) suggests otherwise;
  • By disguising a poorly functioning program (e.g., Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea scandal) or perhaps advancing a commercial interest (e.g.,TOMS shoes) through compelling personal stories that may do more for the hero than those he/she is supposed to be helping;
  • Or by simplistically glossing over the complex political, economic and social problems that often contribute to the problems of poverty, disease or inequities these humanitarians say they are trying to solve.

It is the dog days of August, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a fairly strong negative reaction based on these kind of concerns to a recent column by the New York Times’ David Brooks. Other such tales — though usually well-intended — tend to really irritate those working out there in poor countries for humanitarian organizations actually trying to help poor people.

NYT

David Brooks

Brooks, who is traveling in East Africa, wrote about The Rugged Altruists in which he — perhaps taking a cue from his NYT colleague Nick Kristof, champion of DIY aid — celebrates the good work of some individuals he’s encountered on his trip. Brooks opens by saying:

Many Americans go to the developing world to serve others. A smaller percentage actually end up being useful. Those that (sic) do have often climbed a moral ladder. They start out with certain virtues but then develop more tenacious ones.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, David Brooks, development, DIY aid, foreign aid, Kenya, Nick Kristof
May 30, 2011 | 12:06 PM | By

“On the ground” reality vs rhetoric regarding Obama’s Global Health Initiative

I wonder if anyone, other than those who want money from it, is paying that much attention to the Obama Administration’s once-ballyhooed grand vision known as the Global Health Initiative.

So far as I can tell the vision seems to be still a bit blurry and shrinking, from the original pledge of $63 billion over six years to maybe more like $55 billion, give or take a billion. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Chris Elias, Ethiopia, Global Health Initiative, GlobalPost, Kenya, Lois Quam. Kaiser Foundation, Obama
April 4, 2011 | 9:04 AM | By

Signs of regress in the global AIDS fight

IRIN, Allan Gichigi

Condom dispenser, Kenya

Okay, this is an incredibly disturbing story that should scare the bejeebers out of everyone.

IRIN News reports, kind of matter-of-factly, that in Kenya “Condom recycling highlights gap in HIV prevention programming.” The story tells about men in rural northern Kenya:

“… washing condoms and hanging them out to dry; the men said the price of condoms meant they could not afford to use them just once. Other men in the village said when they had no access to condoms, they used polythene bags and even cloth rags when having sex.”

Remember when we were celebrating (last week, I think) how many more people with HIV are receiving treatment with anti-AIDS drugs?

If we can get malaria-preventing bed nets out to almost everyone who needs them, how is it we are still failing to make sure everyone has access to something so cheap and basic as a condom?

FILED UNDER: Health, condoms, HIV-AIDS, Kenya