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Viewpoint: Is This the Big Solution to Failing WASH Projects We’ve Been Waiting for?
Water and sanitation projects often go something like this: NGOs show up with equipment, money, and people on hand, drill a well or install sanitation systems and then leave. A handful of locals are typically trained on upkeep and minor infrastructure repairs, but this isn’t always the case. If the wells need to be repointed or major leaks or breaks occur in the pipes, the communities are out of luck. As a result of the dig-and-dash approach, well-meaning projects end up abandoned and communities go back to contaminated water, which can lead to enteric illness and death, as well as economic setbacks.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Tags
- philanthropy
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Gates Foundation Plans Teams to Determine Causes of Child Mortality
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to create a network of disease-surveillance teams in poor countries to do “minimal autopsies” on children to plumb causes of child mortality and also possibly spot emerging epidemics, the foundation announced Wednesday.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Drone Pilots, AI, Tweets and Texts Speed Up Relief Efforts in Nepal
They are known as digital humanitarians: the thousands of tech-savvy volunteers from around the world who are both physically and virtually converging on the crisis in Nepal and digging through mountains of data to help humanitarian agencies direct their aid.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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‘Leg Bank’ Hope for Changing Amputees’ Lives
A 'leg bank' - providing life-changing prostheses to low-income people who have lost limbs - is being developed by a team including University of Strathclyde researchers.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Press Release: A Commitment to Improve Global Health Information
WHO and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding defining areas where they will work together to improve the quality and use of global health estimates to measure the world’s health challenges.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Inside the Inflatable Hospital That’s Saving Lives in Nepal
For a doctor doing surgery, the most important things to focus on (besides cutting in the right place) are being fast and clean. That’s tough enough to accomplish in a brick-and-mortar hospital—let alone a temporary operating room in the middle of a disaster zone. But that’s exactly what Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, for you stubborn Anglophones) does best, and it’s what they’ve been doing for the past week in Nepal. A surprisingly critical part of that remote rescue? Blow-up tent hospitals.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Crowdfunding Site for Global Health Projects Prepares to Launch
Over the past several years, crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Kiva have helped people all over the world raise money for a host of activities—artistic endeavors, tech startups, community or personal projects, charities, and more. Now there are plans for a crowdfunding site focused on raising money specifically forglobal public health projects—things like stocking a rural health clinic or providing a water filtration system for a small village.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- crowdfunding
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Health Gap Between Urban Rich and Poor Getting Worse
In cities, access to quality health care varies greatly between the rich and poor, from Lagos to Washington, D.C. The poorest urban children in some developing countries are twice as likely to die as their wealthy counterparts. Steps must be taken immediately to eliminate health inequality, says charity group Save the Children.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
