Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday we hosted a Development Conference, where the IICD Massachusetts school came here to IICD Michigan and we had two days full of presentations, workshops, etc.
The main purpose of the conference was to evaluate the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN. We had presentations about each of the eight goals and how far we (the world) have come in trying to meet them, and how far we still have to go. Here is a link to the website so you can check it out-
UN Millennium Development Goals
It was great to see that there are goals set to try to overcome the lack of basic needs and rights that exist all over the world, however, you also have to look critically on the accomplishments that have been made and the accomplishments that have not been made. Some of the presenters did a great job at looking at the statistics the UN has provided and trying to figure out whether they are misleading, or why hasn't there been more progress made. The truth is, we have the money, the technology, and the resources to provide the whole world with food, clean water, health care, treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, etc. The problem is the willingness of those capable of providing all of these things, to do so.
We also had a great presentation from a doctor who worked in Africa for many years at one of the projects called TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) (you can visit the Humana People to People website to learn more about this project ). Because it was World AIDS day, we did some educational activities around HIV/AIDS, and then she talked to us about her work in Africa. It was truly amazing to hear the statistics of how many people become infected each year, how many people die, and how successful this projects is in controlling the spread by getting people to get tested and getting the people who test positive hooked up with treatment and support. Of the 33.4 million people that are living with HIV, 22.5 million of them live in Sub Saharan Africa. Africa has more than 14 million children that are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, and 2.l children are infected themselves.
As part of the work they were doing, they started to breakdown the ingredients of the Antiretroviral medications, and after a lot of research they developed a mixture of aspirin, selenium, and vitamins, especially B. The Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory, and when a person had HIV, the body is fighting off infections, it produces the inflammation but when your body is constantly doing this, it can be really toxic. The Selenium controls cell division, and the B vitamins get used by the immune system to protect the cells.
They harvested plants that naturally contain these ingredients, including plants that contain salicylic acid, which is the active ingredient in Aspirin. They then dried them and made capsules. Because the access to Antiretroviral drugs is limited for these communities, they only give them to people who have AIDS, and those whose CD4 count is higher can take these capsules and it has been proven to extend their lifespan for 6 years.
We also had a presentation about the GAIA theory, and about environmental sustainability. The theory says that our biosphere and the physical components of the earth are closely integrated. It looks at symbiotic relationships that exist throughout the world, and how the earth maintains conditions for its own survival, just like the human body. The sun gets hotter every year, and yet the earth is able to maintain its temperature with natural processes- that is until us humans disturbed this system. The earth is only able to combat half of the effects of what we attributing to through our use of fossil fuels. We then had a group discussion on what kinds of things we can do ourselves to become more sustainable, as well as things we can bring to our projects. The truth is, we have reached peak oil and although we won't run out soon, we are now on the last of the supply and our lives will have to change in order to accommodate. In the US, we consume 25% of the world's resources, and we only make up a little less than 5% of the world's population. We are so dependent on oil for so many things in our lives, and it is time to start facing the reality that we are the ones whose lives will change the most drastically without oil. We need to go backwards in time, in order to move forward. We need to start learning how to grow our own food, collect rain water, etc.
These were my personal highlights of the conference, although there was so much more information, and fun crammed into those two days. It was great to meet the participants at the Massachusetts school, and to come together as one unified movement to discuss the world's conditions and what concrete things we can do to contribute to its growth and development.
Here is our program for the conference, so you can see some of the other things we were doing:
The conference ended on Wednesday, and Thursday was spent cleaning and restoring our environment after the two busy days, and preparing for our next adventure of the week: heading to Detroit for a building weekend with Georgia Street Community Collective.
I believe I have mentioned GSCC in a previous blog post, I think to tell everyone to check out their website and blog because they do extremely amazing work. Mark, the founder, grew up in this neighborhood but moved away and then came back after ten years to a place with broken down homes, empty lots of land, and trash everywhere. The only place to get food within walking distance is a liquor store, and as people cut through these empty lots of land to get food, they left trash everywhere. So Mark took over these empty lots of land and put community gardens in, so as they walk to the liquor store to get food, they could pick some fresh produce to add to their meal. Now they have multiple gardens throughout the whole neighborhood, an orchard, a little playground, chickens, and even a goat. They also took over a foreclosed building and have been restoring to make a community center to have gatherings and events, classes, movie nights, etc. They also took over a foreclosed home and are turning it into a library and computer lab that the community can use.
A few weeks ago some of us went to Ann Arbor to raise money for GSCC to put in insulation in the community center for the winter, and this past weekend we went to help them put up the drywall. It was truly an amazing experience- not only did we learn how to do drywall and finished the entire building in those two days, including sanding and retouching, and re-sanding, but we did it for such a great cause. Being from the US, I hear so many things about Detroit and about how bad the conditions are there but I really couldn't have imagined the things I saw. It was really shocking to see so many broken down homes, some that people were still living in, and empty lots of land collecting piles of trash. It literally looked like a war zone. There was a reporter from the Detroit Free Press there, following Mark around and taking pictures for a piece they are doing on the neighborhood. He told us that this neighborhood has the most homicides of anywhere else in Detroit, just within a few small blocks. We all left Detroit feeling like we had really worked hard for something really important, and that we wish we didn't have to leave yet.
I personally feel extremely passionate about this work- right before we left to come to Michigan, I had this epiphany idea of wanting to open a community center in really bad neighborhood and hold classes and have after school programs and community events- everything that GSCC is doing. I am so grateful to have been a part of that work, even for one day, and I really look forward to the work I do with them in the future.
So, I hope this gave you a little taste of what we have been up to the past couple of weeks, and why there have so few blog posts lately. More pictures will be posted soon, so check back!
We only have a couple more weeks before Christmas break, where we can go home and see our families for a few days and then when we return, we will be done with promotions and will officially start our team! Woo-hoo!
More to come soon! Happy snow days!
Andra
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