The TARGET PROGRAM and the ENVIRONMENT
At the FAWCO Conference in March 2009 in Vilnius, the FAWCO TARGET Program was introduced. Its goal is to involve all of FAWCO’s members in a concentrated effort to make a change for the better on one global issue.
The Target Program aims for a focused strategy of education and project fundraising to help highlight an issue and look for ways to solve the problem and, in so doing, assist in attaining the UN Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.
Inspired by FAWCO’s bed-net drive in 2005-2006, the goal is not to give a small amount to many different problems, but to focus our efforts on one issue in order to really make an impact.
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How will this work?
There are basically two phases in the Target Program:
- Selecting an issue, or Target and then educating and raising awareness,
- Selecting - and hitting! - the Bulls-eye. That means choosing a fundraising project and focusing on it for a 2 year period
Although there are many different global problems, with all the grave environmental problems facing our planet today, the Environment Team hopes that an environmental challenge can be chosen for our target issue.
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But – seriously – if we don’t do better with the environment, it may not matter how well we do anything else! We think the global issue chosen MUST be an environmental one! And, we have a suggestion.
While at the Conference in Vilnius, Environment co-chair, Anne van Oorschot, talked to people from many different clubs about a possible Target goal and one issue kept floating up...water.
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One of the UN’s MDGs aims to, “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.” Because the UN recognizes the importance of resolving water supply issues, they are currently sponsoring the initiative, Water for Life Decade. While water is one of the necessities of life for everyone and everything, there are many worldwide problems caused by, and connected to, water. Water problems affect half of humanity. Some facts:
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- Close to half of all people in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits. Slide
- There are some 1.8 million children who die each year as a result of diarrhoea. Slide
- In developing countries, women and female children are frequently the main providers of water for household use. Millions of hours each day are spent collecting water, which leaves little time for education or other activities that could improve their lives. Slide
- There are 443 million school days lost each year due to water-related illnesses.
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The Environment Team feels the Target Program should focus on increasing the supply of safe and secure water globally. Because water affects so many aspects of life… Slide
…focusing on water will impact many of the other global concerns that FAWCO supports. Allow me to give you some examples of this interconnection.
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Water and food production are innately connected with each other: two sides of the same coin. Without a safe, secure and adequate water supply, we will not have adequate food. This issue must be addressed in an organized and global manner to be effectively solved. Clean, fresh drinking water is essential to human and other life forms on the planet.
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- In most countries, the agricultural sector is the predominant consumer of water. It accounts for 70% of all water use globally and up to 95% in some developing countries. Slide
- In many cases, irrigated agriculture has been a major engine for economic growth and poverty eradication. Slide
- Increasing the efficiency of water use and enhancing water productivity at all levels in the food production chain is becoming a priority in a rapidly increasing number of countries. Slide
- As population and development increase, the demand for ground & fresh water will increase. This will intensify the pressure on water resources, leading to tensions, conflicts among users, & excessive pressure on the environment. Slide
- Food security is affected by water availability.
Hopefully this makes it clear that improving access to a safe water supply would have a big positive effect on the global food supply.
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WATER & women’s issues
Millions of children around the world - usually girls – arrive late in their school classrooms. They are dirty, hot, tired, and hungry and they struggle to focus on their lessons. Millions of others stay home from school because of illnesses. An occurrence as normal as menses in adolescent girls disrupts or even terminates the education of millions. The source of this crisis is…a growing, universal lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
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Globally, women and girls spend an average of three hours each day collecting water.
Keeping girls in school is of vital importance to their well being since girls who attend school have better knowledge of nutrition and basic health care. As girls mature, this translates into better maternal care and a decrease in pregnancy-related trauma to their children.
Programs to achieve good health, hygiene and nutrition at school are, therefore, essential to the promotion of basic education for all children.
But when women and girls must spend hours each day collecting the water needed by their family, there is little time left for a “non-essential” such as school.
While water issues are inexorably related to the opportunities girls and women have to be educated, they are also a cause of their gender inequality.
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In water issues, women...lack a public voice.
Water gathering teaches women essential skills about hygiene, water hazards and water management, but they are often not consulted in decision-making. Women understand that their families need safe, clean water, but their concerns are too often ignored. Even though many communities depend on the subsistence farming done by women, they may not be allowed to attend public discussions or may be too intimidated to speak. Slide
In water issues, women...face serious health risks.
Gathering water can be dangerous, especially to women who are ill or pregnant. Women risk injury from the heavy burden, drowning and attack, In some areas, the need to gather water puts them in danger because they have to get too far away from their village to find water. Slide
But, in water issues, women...can be given empowerment.
A study of women in four different countries found that when they have a well close to home, they have better self-esteem, are harassed less and their daughters attend school more regularly. Women and girls who do not need to spend much of their time gathering the family's most precious resource can spend more time learning, growing and developing.
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WATER and Health
According to the Global Health Council, more than 1 billion people live without access to safe water. There are also 2.6 billion people who do not have access to basic sanitation, and this can result in the easy transmission of diseases and parasitic infections.
More than 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die each year from diseases associated with the lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
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Water and Health – the lack of clean, safe drinking water is a health crisis and a killer!
Since many infectious diseases are spread through unclean water and poor sanitation, increasing the percentage of people with access to safe drinking water and sanitation would have a tremendous positive effect on improving the health of millions worldwide.
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What diseases and conditions are we talking about?: Slide
- · (“schis-to-so-mi/a-sis”) Schistosomiasis is a water-based disease which is considered the second most important parasitic infection after malaria in terms of public health and economic impact. Slide
- · Guinea worm disease is a debilitating and painful infection caused by a large roundworm. Access to clean water and sanitation can reduce (“schis-to-so-mi/a-sis”) schistosomiasis and guinea worm by nearly 80 percent! Slide
- · Typhoid and paratyphoid fevers are infections caused by bacteria which are transmitted from feces to ingestion. The annual incidence of typhoid is estimated to be about 17 million cases worldwide. Slide
- · Pregnancy and menstruation: During pregnancy, consumption of unclean water can increase the risk of morbidity and mortality for mothers and their babies. Girls of menstruating age in poverty stricken areas often use rags which are then washed in bad water, causing vaginal and urinal infections. Slide
- · There are also the more ‘familiar’ diseases/illnesses of diarrhea, pneumonia, measles, malaria and malnutrition. These account for 7 out of 10 of childhood deaths in developing countries.
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It is estimated that over 2 million people die from water related diseases/illnesses each year!
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Improving household and community access to clean water is an extremely effective way to make huge improvements in the health of millions!
Hopefully you can see that increasing the supply of safe and secure water globally would have a huge positive effect on many aspects of life for millions of the world’s most disadvantaged people. Focusing on water would impact many global problems in a positive manner.
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To get back to the TARGET program, Water was submitted as a possible Target issue by the Environment Team, the Barcelona Women’s Network, the AIWC Casablanca, the AWC Hamburg and the AAWE Paris, so there is a lot of interest in water as a target issue! Water is also one of the 3 “finalists” and it is now up to the clubs to vote for the global concern they would like to see chosen as the Target issue. The deadline for voting is January 15th and the announcement of FAWCO’s Target will be made at the 2010 Conference in Boston.
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So, how do you fit into all of this?
You will be able to find information on the submissions on the FAWCO website under the Target Program and we hope you will encourage your clubs to actively find information about each of the proposals so that the vote they make is an informed on.
The Environment Team has posted a lot of water information on the Environment section of the FAWCO website to help you increase awareness within your clubs. There is a general bulletin about water problems as well as bulletins illustrating the connections between water and the Food supply, Health and Women’s Issues. We encourage you to get online, take a look at the information and feel free to use any of the articles in your own club publications! An informative power point presentation will be posted online, so feel free to utilize that to raise awareness in your club as well.
The bottom line is that, we hope you will support Water for the Target issue!
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Together, we can work thorough FAWCO to Change the Flow.