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Upper Mohawk Valley Model United Nations 2005 Virtual Foundation Projects to be Funded 1.Reducing Children's Exposure to Chernobyl Radiation
2.Dairy Farming for Foster-Families of AIDS Orphans Region: Africa 3.Earthworms to Recycle Agricultural Wastes from Coffee Production Region: Central America, Latin America, Nicaragua Reducing Children's Exposure to Chernobyl Radiation Region: Belarus, Central and Eastern Europe Explanation :The Chernobyl disaster is an on-going trauma, and the psychological consequences are severe. Therefore it is necessary to lift a psychological block, or ‘victim mentality’, from many in the contaminated areas. Active participation in community life is natural, important and therapeutic for both children and adults. Community as a whole has suffered, due to the Chernobyl disaster. One teacher said that "We should get people who want change together. We can then develop hope and spread it around." Self-help and advocacy are elements in community building. Objectives of the project
Description of the problem The Province of Gomel is contaminated with radiation as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. The main contaminants, Caesium 137 and Strontium 90, released into the atmosphere from the ruptured Chernobyl reactor and came down on Belarus, will take some 600 years to decay. Radioactive atoms are entering food chains. The internal exposure from radioactive nuclei that enter the body through foodstuffs is nine times more dangerous than external exposure. Often the levels of radioactive substances in children of high schools tested were many times higher than internationally allowable levels. To reduce their exposure to radiation significantly, schoolchildren and everyone else need to be taught about the danger, and be motivated to avoid them. They must be educated in the effects of radioactivity in their surroundings, and learn the rules for living safely. It is important to teach people the steps that can be taken to reduce the dangers. Learning and education in a community can be seen as a useful and invigorating tool. People can learn its advantages and how to make use of it as an impulse toward safer living and a factor in social action, and change for the better. Also information can have a calming effect and can lead to the right solutions. Description of expected outcome: The main outcome of the project will be to decrease significantly the levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in the bodies of schoolchildren living in the zone of Chernobyl contamination. The International Committee for Radiation Protection considers that there is a linear dependence between the dose of irradiation and the risk of cancer or other diseases. In other words, if the child has a lower level of radioactive substances in his or her body, his or her risk of disease will be lower as well. Methods of implementation
Duration of the project - five months in each town First month - Granting to the school popular literature on radioecology and safety measures and dosimeters. Training the teachers to use dosimeters. Radiometric tests of food. Second month - Carrying out initial tests to measure the levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in the bodies of schoolchildren. Discussion of the results obtained in schools. Third month - Carrying out lectures and providing consultations on safety measures and radioecology. Implementation of health measures. Fourth month - Carrying out the second round of tests to measure levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in organisms of schoolchildren. Discussions of the results. Fifth month - Discussion of the results obtained with the help of dosimeters. Creating in each school a database on levels of contamination of foodstuffs and other natural objects in the territories, contaminated by radio-nuclides. Information about our organization:Centre Action is a non-profit organization with educational and ecological aims. Its main goals are: 1. to run a program of events for people living in the areas that were contaminated by the fall-out from Chernobyl in order to increase their awareness of the dangers and to know how to minimize them; 2. to make the inhabitants of these areas aware of their rights and their opportunities to live productive and healthy lives. Centre Action consists of teachers and lecturers from schools and higher educational institutes in Gomel province, Belarus. Our activities take place in Gomel province. Target group: rural residents from the affected areas. We receive support from Milieukontakt-Oost Europa, which is based in the Netherlands. Budget for the town of Grebeni, located in Leltchitsy district
Note: This is the budget for one town. To carry out the project in all five towns would cost a total of $5445. We are prepared to implement our work in all five towns, but understand that it is easier to raise the money for one town at a time. Thank you for your consideration of our project. Note from the Virtual Foundation Program Manager: Now, fifteen years after the accident, a United Nations report, "The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident - A Strategy for Recovery", is calling for international attention. Dairy Farming for Foster-Families of AIDS Orphans Region: Africa About the Kagera Region of Tanzania The Kagera region is located in the northwestern corner of the United Republic of Tanzania, sharing boundaries with Burundi and Rwanda to the west, and Uganda to the north. Lake Victoria is on its east. The region has a population of 2.5 million people. It is divided into six Districts: Bukoba Urban, Bukoba Rural, Muleba, Biharamulo, Ngara and Karagwe. The districts are sub-divided into 25 Divisions, which again are sub-divided into 154 Wards and 540 registered villages for political administration purposes. The region has a total area of 28,517 square kilometers (11,010 square miles). The people in Kagera are mostly small holder peasants, each household having about a hectare or two of land on which coffee, primarily robusta, is grown for cash earning, whereas bananas, maize (corn), sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and other legumes are grown for subsistence. On a small scale, tea is grown in Muleba and Bukoba rural districts, and cotton in Biharamulo district. There are sugar estates in Missenye, Bukoba rural district, where the Kagera Sugar Factory is operating. Other small industries include the Pepsi Cola Bottling Plant, Bukoba Coffee Curing Factory, Tanzania Instant Coffee Factory, and Maruku tea factor located in Bukoba township. The Chato ginnery is in Biharamulo district. Kagera region is a severely disadvantaged part of the country. The per capita GDP in Kagera region is about 125 US Dollars, 50% lower than the national average of 250 US Dollars. Kagera is currently the poorest of all 20 Tanzanian mainland regions. Kagera has an unemployment rate of over 30%. The evidence of widespread poverty is everywhere in Kagera region, particularly now that the coffee prices have slumped. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is increasingly taking a heavy toll in the region, where there are also over 450,000 orphans, largely as a result of the disease. Women represent over 50% of the total population, and are a large socially and economically underprivileged group within the society. Although women tend to work harder and longer than men, yet they remain inferior to men in education, literacy, access to essential services and participation in politics and decision making. In Kagera region, youth represent another underprivileged group with the society, although there are large numbers of them (50% of the total population is below 18 years of age). Unemployment, boredom and abject poverty push many young men and women to leave their village and migrate towards urban centers in the hope of ridding themselves of their economic and social distress. Some of them get jobs in the informal sector as unskilled laborers, and the rest often turn to crime in the attempt to survive. The informal sector in Kagera provides employment and sources of income to growing numbers of people. As a result, this sector makes significant but unrecognized contributions to the overall regional economy, although it is still weak and rather fragile. The many artisans, craftsmen, self-made business men and women small entrepreneurs and occasional contractors who make up this sector are in desperate need of guidance, skills and capital. With the appropriate kind of support, this sector's possibilities in a large diversity of fields (handicrafts, cottage industries, horticulture, bee-keeping, tailoring, small scale product assembly, etc.) are almost endless. Development of the informal sector in the rural areas of the region is essential for curbing the migration of youth to towns in search of labor opportunities. Situation of Orphans in Kagera Region The first three cases of AIDS were reported in Bukoba district in 1983. Since then, the pandemic has spread throughout the region, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of youthful men and women who have left behind lots of distressed children. Traditionally, when children lose their parents, they usually are cared for by the patrilineal group to which they belong. However, even if the patrilineal group should function as a care taking system, orphaned children are still faced with many disadvantages which force many of them to seek wage employment in their childhood. Fostered orphans do not always get the same treatment as the biological children of their guardians, especially when it comes to schooling. If the guardian is unable to meet educational expenses for all the children in the family, he usually opts to give priority to the education of his own offspring. As a result, the disciminated orphans get disgruntled and very often run away to look for petty jobs. Sometimes, the patrilineal group members dishonestly and by force acquire the ownership of the orphans' inherited property, especially land. The loss of their inheritance puts the orphans in an awkward situation socially and economically. The aggrieved children often drift to town in search of employment for survival. At the household level, the impact of HIV/AIDS manifests itself in the shortage of farm labor, that leads to a decline in production of food and cash crops; a decline in household income and loss of assets and savings; an increase in the dependency ratio due to the increase in the number of dependants relying on a smaller number of productive family members; disorganization and weakening of social, commuity and extended family coping mechanisms due to increased numbers of orphans, widows and widowers, and declining health and nutrition of households. It is in such households, which have been terribly enfeebled and incapacitated by AIDS through elimination of their youthful and strong economic and social supporters, that most of the orphans are found. These are the households headed by elderly grandparents, widow-headed households, and orphans-alone households. Because of abject poverty, households which have been devastated by AIDS are unable to provide their dependants with their basic needs, such as food, bedding, clothing, medical care, decent shelter, etc. Orphaned children are, therefore, forced to work to earn some income to pay for their personal needs and for domestic requirements. In most cases orphans also have to earn money to pay for their education and even for the medical treatment of a sick family member. Moreover, household food security is undermined as income and productive capacity fall. Rural households often shift from producing and consuming more nutritious types of food to less nutritious but more easily grown food crops. As a result, malnutrition in vulnerable children and adults increases, leading to early deaths from diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea and tuberculosis. This accounts for the high mortality rate of children in Kagera region. Project Goal and Objectives The principal goal of this project is to improve the nutrition in both children and adults in households affected by HIV/AIDS in Kagera region, through the introduction of dairy cattle keeping, under the "Take A Cow, Give A Cow" scheme. Specific Objectives
Project Implementation The "Take A Cow, Give A Cow" scheme has been proposed by the members of UOA-T (Ukimwi Orphans Assistance Trust Fund) as a viable and effective means of steadily improving the economy of foster-families of AIDS orphans, and to enable them to provide adequately for their dependants. Under this program, three foster-families selected by the UOA-T members in Izigo Ward will be given one Frisian hybrid heifer each, bought from Kikurura National Ranch. The basic condition will be that the recipient of the heifer will hand on the first calf produced by that heifer to another selected foster-family. In this way, there will be a multiplication of foster-families dairy farming. Project Activities a) Training in Cattle Husbandry b) Cultivationof Fodder-Grass c) Construction of Cow-shed d) Procurement of Supplementary Feeds Projected Future Developments a) Dairy Farmers Association b) Marketing of Dairy Products c) Improvement of Food Production Anticipated Results a) The health of foster-families will improve. b) Food production by foster-families will increase. c) The economic standard of foster-families will rise. d) Foster-families will be able to provide adquately for the AIDS orphans in their care. e) The population of Izigo Ward will enjoy the spill-over of the benefits of this project. Monitoring and Evaluation Apart from the project monitoring by the Livestock Extension Officers, UOA-T executive staff will visit the beneficiaries regularly in order to monitor their activities and to provide them with more assistance where necessary. Evaluation will be done through a questionnaire in order to establish the state of the social and economic life of foster-families before the introduction of the project, and to compare with their state of life after the project is in full swing. Project Budget
Contribution by the Beneficiaries The major contribution by the beneficiary families will be in terms of labor. The recipient foster-family will have to cultivate at least an acre of fodder grass and also build a cow-shed using lcoally available materials like poles, timber and log off-casts. The training fees and transport cost to and from Kikurura ranch will be paid by the families. Moreover, the system of zero-grazing for milk-cows will demand a great deal of labor input. Beneficiaries will have to collect grass and draw water to feed the cow, and also keep the shed tidy every day. They will also have to buy supplementary feeds like mineral salts, molasses, grain bran and cotton seed-cakes. Top of Form Bottom of Form Earthworms to Recycle Agricultural Wastes from Coffee Production Region: Central America, Latin America, Nicaragua Objective Justification Coffee production is one of the major economic activities of the Municipality of San Ramon. Coffee processing provokes serious water contamination in the rivers where many low income families fetch water for domestic use. Impacts on human health and wildlife are serious. Implementation This project will take place in the community of Yukul, Municipality of San Ramón, Matagalpa. SAKR will coordinate the projects and provide assistance to two small producers in this community through training, support for the construction of worm-raising facilities (raised beds), and laboratory analysis to test the quality of the fertilizer. The red Californian earthworm (lombriz roja californiana) will decompose the coffee pulp and cattle manure into fertilizer. These earthworms will also be used to create a worm bank in order to distribute earthworms to other farmers who wish to produce organic fertilizer as well as to feed poultry. SAKR works to preserve the environment and improve the quality of life of local communities by fostering community participation, promoting an integral approach to development, and executing projects in response to local needs. SAKR will use these pilot projects to demonstrate the benefits of recycling natural wastes through composting, both for agricultural enhancement and for the protection of the environment. The plan is to replicate these practices in other communities. Maintenance and contribution from the beneficiaries Benefits
This project complements SAKR activities in the region and will strengthens its strategy to increase the sustainability of local small-scale farming among 30 communities in the region of Matagalpa (Municipalities of Sébaco and San Ramón). Project Execution and time-line
Budget
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