General Statement
According to the World Health Organization, diarrhea claims approximately 5500 lives a day. Many people are unaware of this issue, simply because the majority of victims are children under the age of five, living in developing nations.
Most diarrhea cases are caused by bacterial pathogens, which generally range in size from 0.1 to 3 µm. Cholera, for example is 0.5-0.8µm in width and 1.4-2.6µm in length. Luckily, this is an easily solved problem. Certain types of filters, including the Potters for Peace filter used by ClaySure, can easily remove bacterial pathogens from drinking water, thus significantly reducing child mortality.
Kenya: Timeline
Prehistoric Times: Some of human’s earliest ancestors (Homo erectus and Homo habilis) inhabited East Africa more than 2 million years ago.
2000 BC: Cushitic-speaking people from North Africa move to East Africa
1st century AD: Arabian and Persian traders visit East Africa for the first time.
8th century AD: Arab and Persian settlements begin to apear on the Kenyan coast.
1498: Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives in Eastern Africa with ships and guns.
1505: The Portuguese invade many cities on the East Coast of Africa. Mombasa is bombed and the occupied by Portuguese troops. Two hundred years of fighting between Arabs and the Portuguese follow. Many coastal cities are destroyed.
1585: The Ottoman Turks attempt to regain their power on the Kenyan Coast, and are defeated by the Portuguese. Portugal begins a brutal colonial rule and exploitation of the Africans and their resources.
1698: After two and a half years of siege, Fort Jesus and Mombasa are lost to the Arabs. The Portuguese leave Kenya.
19th Century: Europeans begin a race to control areas of land in Eastern Africa.
1822: Sayyid Said, the Sultan of Oman, sends an army to East Africa. He claims control of all Swahili dynasties along the coast. The Swahili people request help from Britain.
1886: The European colonial powers divide Africa between them at a conference in Berlin. Eastern Africa is controlled mainly by Germany and Britain. The Sultan of Oman is granted a strip of land along the Coast.
1898: Two lions eat 135 Indian and African railway workers. The lions are hunted for nine months before they are killed. (This incident was later made into a movie called Ghost in the Darkness.)
1907: The British colonial administration moves from Mombasa to Nairobi.
1944: A organization for African independence is formed: Kenyan African Union (KAU).
1952: A political Kikuyu group called "Mau Mau" starts violent attacks on white settlers.
December 12, 1963: Kenya gains its independence.
1964: Jomo Kenyatta becomes President of Kenya.
1978: Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi becomes president of Kenya.
1989: President Moi burns of 12 tons of ivory, making a public statement against poaching.
2001: Three million people starve in Northern Kenya as a result of severe drought.
2002: Mwai Kibaki becomes president of Kenya.
2006: Severe flooding kills more that one-hundred Kenyans. Displacement, poor living conditions and lack of water and sanitation caused by flooding puts between 1.5 and 1.8 million Kenyans at risk for diseases such as cholera, measles and malaria.
Most information taken from: http://crawfurd.dk/africa/kenya_timeline.htm. More information regarding Kenyan History can be found at the links above and below. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kenya.
Mozambique: War
Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. However, the two decades of civil war that followed destroyed much of Mozambique's infrastructure, and left it one of the most impoverished nations in the world. During the war, an estimated 1 million men, women and children perished, and another 1.7 million took refuge in neighboring countries. Though the civil war ended in October of 1992, Mozambique is still recovering from the devastation it wreaked.
Mozambique: Drought, Flood, Famine, Disease
Unfortunately, war is not the only problem that Mozambique has faced in recent years; drought, flood, famine and disease have all taken their toll on this ill-fated South-East African country. In 2000 and 2001, Mozambique experienced severe flooding. Devastating floods were followed by severe droughts in 2002 and 2003. These catastrophes resulted in food shortages for nearly 14 million people, and led to increase in the outbreak of infectious diseases including cholera, measles and meningitis. Between December of 2003 and March of 2004, the WHO reported 237 Cholera cases and 85 related deaths in Mozambique. Cholera is caused by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae, which will easily be extracted from water by the filter ClaySure will distribute. A February 2006 flood caused another outbreak of Cholera in Mozambique, in which over 1500 cases have already been reported. The ClaySure Water Project addresses the problems associated with unsafe drinking water. The creation of a sustainable water-filter factory will offer both an affordable way for Mozambicans to access clean, lifesaving water, and an alternative source of income for potters, both urban and rural.
Mozambique: Child Mortality and Availability of Safe Water
According to UNICEF, Mozambique has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world. Of the estimated 715,000 children born every year, 89,000 children will not survive to see their first birthday, and an additional 39,000 will die before their fifth birthday. This means that approximately 20 percent of children born in Mozambique will die before the age of five. A considerable number of these deaths are a direct consequence of the unavailability of clean water. Lack of access to safe water and adequate sanitation conditions are major causes of diarrhea. Though diarrhea is a mere inconvenience in developed nations, it kills more children in developing nations than any other disease. According to UNICEF, less than 40% of the Mozambican population has access to safe drinking water. This preventable problem is killing nearly 55 children every day in Mozambique!
Mozambique: Life Expectancy
Life expectancy in the United States is approximately 78 years. This is nearly twice the life expectancy of the average Mozambican, who is predicted to die by age 40. As U.S. citizens go through midlife crises, Mozambicans die of 'old-age.' This is not a problem of technology or economics, but a problem of will and initiative. Developed nations do not lack the technology or financial capability to help the world's impoverished, they lack the initiative. Poverty is an unfortunate and unnecessary reality, and it is time to do something about it.
