Video: The Girl Effect

We have covered advocacy campaigns by nonprofit organisations in the past. Here is a very simple non-pretentious video by The Girl Effect.

Simple is powerful.

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Italy biggest donor in "Adopt a Clitoris" campaign

The charity "Clitoraid" is the most popular with the Italians, who account for 26.88% of the donations in 2009, according to the organisation's financial statement. This makes Italy the largest donor for the "Adopt-a-Clitoris" campaign.

I am not sure how to bring this news to you, as I don't know how it was meant. Female sexual mutilation is a crime. Punto.

How to react to the name of the charity and their campaign? I hope they actually meant it to be eye -or- ear catching and provocative.

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The state of the world on Mother's Day

Save the Children’s eleventh annual Mothers’ Index compares the well-being of mothers and children in 160 countries.

Norway, Australia, Iceland and Sweden top the rankings this year. The top 10 countries attain very high scores for mothers’ and children’s health, educational and economic status. Afghanistan ranks last among the surveyed countries. Seven from 10 bottom-ranked countries are from sub-Saharan Africa. The United States places 28th.

Conditions for mothers and their children in the bottom 10 countries are grim. On average, 1 in 23 mothers will die from pregnancy-related causes. One child in 6 dies before his or her fifth birthday, and 1 child in 3 suffers from malnutrition. Nearly 50 percent of the population lack access to safe water and only 4 girls for every 5 boys are enrolled in primary school.

The gap in availability of maternal and child health services is especially dramatic when comparing Norway and Afghanistan. Skilled health personnel are present at virtually every birth in Norway, while only 14 percent of births are attended in Afghanistan.
A typical Norwegian woman has more than 18 years of formal education and will live to be 83 years old. Eighty-two percent are using some modern method of contraception, and only 1 in 132 will lose a child before his or her fifth birthday.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, in Afghanistan, a typical woman has just over 4 years of education and will live to be only 44. Sixteen percent of women are using modern contraception, and more than 1 child in 4 dies before his or her fifth birthday. At this rate, every mother in Afghanistan is likely to suffer the loss of a child.

On the children’s well-being portion of the Mothers’ Index, Sweden finishes first and Afghanistan is last out of 166 countries. While nearly every Swedish child – girl and boy alike – enjoys good health and education, children in Afghanistan face a 1 in 4 risk of dying before age 5. Thirty-nine percent of Afghan children are malnourished and 78 percent lack access to safe water. Only 2 girls for every 3 boys are enrolled in primary school. (Full report)

Picture courtesy Logan Abassi(MINUSTAH)

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Picks of the Week: War jewelry, Seychelles and Africa...

It has been a while since I published my "Picks" or "Links" of the week, so time to catch up:

• Project Diaspora is all about empowering Africa by Africans. Read their moving pledge.
  
• WikiGender is a Wiki aimed at exchanging and improving the knowledge on gender-related issues around the world.
  
• On a lighter note: Africa goes webcam with this Kilimanjaro webcam.

• And even lighter: Gado is one of the true great African cartoonists.
  
• The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organisations at Harvard University now features its own blog with some in depth coverage of international justice and human rights.
  
• It is great to see blogs, as a social media advocacy tool, to go mainstream. My list of nonprofit blogs became so large I could not feature them on The Road anymore, so I collected them on a Delicious bookmark list. I tagged them differently for organisations, individuals, magazines, teams and projects.
  A collection of the latest articles of these blogs, you find on nonprofitblogs.info.
  
• One example of a UN agency using a blog to propagate the work they do is the UN World Food Programme's Logistics blog. UNDP does similar on their blog too.
  
• During our holiday in the Seychelles, we got bedazzled by the beauty and diversity of its nature. WildLife Direct, which hosts dozens of nature conservation blogs, now features a project blog of Nature Seychelles, a local NGO. Get bedazzled too...
  
• For some truly inspirational pictures, try Open Photo...
  
• Something special to end: Lovetta Conto, a 16 year old war survivor combines high fashion with heartfelt compassion. She makes gorgeous jewelry from bullets used in the Liberian civil war that affected her directly and uses the profits to help rescue other displaced young people. She was a finalist for the International Children's Peace Prize, given by Desmond Tutu at the Hague in December. Check out Akawell...
  

More Picks of the Week on The Road.

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