Friends: This great message arrived in email this morning. All friends of the Rotary Ghana Project will appreciate this news.
Take time to see what a few people working from the “bottom up” can accomplish.
WORLD HEALTH DAY CELEBRATION – THE IMPENDING ERADICATION OF GUINEA WORM DISEASE
Presented by United Nations Association of Greater Boston in partnership with the World Health Organization & Tufts University School of Medicine
Thursday, April 7, 2011 / 12:00-2:00 PM
In commemoration of World Health Day, UNA-GB, The Department of Public Health of Tufts University Medical School & The Center for Conservation Medicine of Tufts University Cumming School of Veterinary School will celebrate the Impending Eradication of Guinea Worm and its public health implications. The event will also take a look at the future of public health and the next diseases to focus on eradicating!
The event will feature:
Keynote address by Dr. Albis Francesco Gabrielli of the World Health Organization
Additional speakers from Tufts University, Rotary International and the Carter Center will participate as well. See agenda and list of speakers here. [LINK]
For live broadcast, please click on this [LINK]
Guinea Worm Disease Eradication – The Carter Center
REMARKS OF WALTER HUGHES REPRESENTING ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
We are here to celebrate the end of guinea worm disease in Ghana. I admit that eradicating Guinea Worm Disease was not something that I planned to do in my life. A person asked me how to dig a well in Africa. I didn’t know the answer. The question made me think. I realized that Africa had a real need for clean and safe water.
Eradicating polio from the world is Rotary International’s top humanitarian goal. Rotary raised more than $1 billion U.S. dollars to fight polio since 1985. Rotary members have donated their time and money to help immunize more than 2 billion children in 122 countries. Rotary International is working with The World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the Gates Foundation, and UNICEF. We are “this close” to ending polio. Fewer than 1,300 cases of polio have been reported in all of 2010, compared with 350,000 cases in 1988.
In fact, the crippling threat of polio is gone from the world except in the polio-endemic countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. Nigeria and India achieved over ninety percent declines in cases in 2010. Nigeria had only 19 and India had just 42 polio cases. We are using a new vaccine that targets type-1 and type-3 polio in one dose.
The Rotary Foundation developed six priority areas for humanitarian projects. The priority areas are: 1) Peace, 2) Water and Sanitation, 3) Disease Prevention, 4) Maternal and Child Health, 5) Basic Education & Literacy and 6) Economic Development. I believe the partnering Rotary Clubs’ work to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease satisfies at least three of the six priority areas.
Rotary’s fight against polio gave credibility to the individual Rotary Clubs who partnered in the effort to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. Children in Ghana are no longer crippled by polio. I am a member of the Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, Virginia. Now, we have a story to tell how my Rotary Club and I got involved in a disease beyond polio.
My Dad convinced me to join Rotary, but I didn’t realize the potential of Rotary until I started to think about the need for clean water. The effort to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease from Ghana was conceived by the members in a few Rotary Clubs. It was done from the “bottom up” instead of the top of Rotary International down to the members.
In 2006, I met with the leaders of the Tamale Rotary Club in northern Ghana to discuss our idea to dig a well and use a water purification system to provide clean water. The local Rotarians were more concerned about a three foot long parasite that grows in your body for a year. They said, “Guinea Worm Disease is really impacting our families and our children. Can we work on that?” Over 4,136 people in Ghana suffered from Guinea Worm Disease in 2006. I never imagined that we could make a difference, but we decided to give it a try.
In the meantime, New England Rotarians led by the Rotary Club of Lebanon, New Hampshire wrote a large grant to pump safe water to the center of four large endemic villages. Rotarians from the RC of Old Montréal in Québec, Canada also funded projects to provide safe water to a hospital that was located in a remote endemic city. Our initial goal was $15,000 from six Rotary Clubs to dig one well. In time, we created a partnership of eighty Rotary clubs. We rose over $1.1 million since 2006 to provide safe water.
President Carter of the Carter Center first dreamed that eradicating Guinea Worm Disease was possible in the 1980’s. The Carter Center’s fight against Guinea Worm focused on four main areas:
1. Education and Surveillance to teach about the disease and monitor the cases using dedicated staff and volunteers
2. Medical Care focused in containment centers to care for the victims of the parasite and in the villages using volunteers
3. Chemical Abatement chemically treats the infected water sources such as ponds
4. Filtration using low cost cloth, sand or even clay pot filters.
The Rotary Clubs located the wells or boreholes in the cities with the highest reported number of Guinea Worm cases. The Carter Center wanted to focus on the first four solutions. We dug wells. It was a perfect partnership. We placed the wells in the cities with the biggest red dots on this map. We couldn’t hit every village, but we tried to tackle the worst places first.
The wells were highly desired after by the chief and elders in each community due to the lack of clean water. In many cases, the wells were the “carrot” that encouraged the leaders to fully cooperate with the first four efforts. As the project went along, it was more challenging to drill wells in remote villages. We had to go to more remote areas with bad roads and it was also more difficult to drill for water there.
When we saw the remote villages and their need for water our heart went out to them. We decided to tackle the water problem by drilling new wells, repairing wells, creating small town mechanized water systems, and training Water & Sanitation Committees (WATSANs) on how to maintain and care for their well.
We had a vision that we could create humanitarian grants that were linked together like pieces to a puzzle. Also, we wanted those Rotary Foundation grants to build on each other. So instead of looking at the grants as a small attempt to solve a problem, we saw it as year after year building on the successes of the prior grants until the job was done. Also, we realized that water was needed to live!
Women walk to the nearest source of water regardless of its safety. For many Ghanaians, dirty pond water tastes better than safe well water. Sometimes, a mechanized water system was used to pump water five kilometers to put the safe water closer to their homes. Rotary Clubs used electricity, solar or wind to power the small town mechanized water systems. We had challenges. Electrical water pumps were difficult because of the lack of electricity and the high operating costs. Wind turbines needed a consistent and high source of wind to power the pumps. Solar panels have a risk of theft.
We used a dugout canoe to cross the White Volta River to get to the solar powered water system. The area was called the “Overseas Region” because it seemed to be “over the sea.” We rode on a tractor for one hour on an African hayride to reach the village of Singa where the sun pumped water to drink.
On my trips to Ghana, I realized that I was walking in villages that could be one of the last places on earth to know Guinea Worm Disease. I looked into kids eyes and realized that their kids will not know this disease because we dug or repaired a well in their hometown.
Teamwork was critical. It took many resources and knowledge from many organizations in addition to Rotary Clubs to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. It also took a lot of time to develop the trust and relationships.
First, the Carter Center partnered with Ghana Health Services to create the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Program. The director of the Carter Center in Ghana was Jim Niquette. The director of GGWEP was Dr. Andrew Seidu Korkor. Both men were dedicated to this effort. This photograph shows both men with zero cases on the wall chart. Their staffs were real heroes because they worked village by village to fight the disease. Peace Corps volunteers also worked in Guinea Worm Endemic communities.
Second, non-profit organizations such as World Vision and the Hilton Foundation had a very large effort to drill wells in Ghana. We also worked with special NGO’s like “Water in Africa” and “Living Water” who had expertise in drilling wells and a passion for helping the people.
Third, governmental agencies such as UNICEF provided pumps and technical expertise. The World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control provided a lot of the medical know how. The French also had a big effort to dig wells. The European Union had a large grant called I-WASH that paid for a pipeline to guinea worm endemic villages north of Tamale.
Fourth, faith based organizations like Catholic Relief Services and the Methodist Church also had water projects going on in Ghana. The faith based organizations filled gaps that could have been missed if they were not involved in the effort. I am also a Methodist Pastor. I went to Ghana as a Christian before I saw the way to team up with the Rotary Clubs.
Fifth, the Ghanaian engineers who’ve designed and implemented the water systems made a difference. The Ghanaian well drillers worked in very remote locations to provide safe water. Dedicated people also repaired wells. The Water & Sanitation Committees (WATSANs) kept the water flowing after the wells were done and they were trained.
Sixth, many medical professionals cared for the victims of Guinea Worm Disease. They trained community volunteers and staffed the Guinea Worm Containment Centers. The medical professionals showed compassion and love for the people and children in pain.
Seventh, Rotary Club volunteers around the world gave of their time and money to contribute to this effort to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease from twelve US states, two Canadian provinces, Switzerland, and Ghana.
Eighth, we had true leaders in the Rotary Clubs who championed the effort. Tom Greenstreet from Lewisburg, West Virginia wanted every club in southern West Virginia to contribute funds for wells in Africa. It happened! Ben Coe in Watertown, New York wanted to honor a man who died of cancer and gave his time in service to Ghana by digging wells to honor him. The leaders inspired many people to join the effort. Sandy Duckworth in northern Virginia near Washington D.C. made introductions and provided a tremendous amount of encouragement. Tom, Ben and Sandy are just three of our champions.
Ninth, the Rotary Foundation matched all of the funds raised by Rotarians around the world on this project. The Rotary Foundation also sent an inspector to Ghana to evaluate our first big grant. The man sent to “kick the tires on the project” was Kurt Bay from the Rotary Club of Aarau, Switzerland. That first big grant passed his inspection. Kurt Bay decided to join the team the next year.
Since the end of Guinea Worm is in sight in Ghana, some of the same Rotarians from the Guinea Worm partnership are beginning a new effort. The new effort started in a meeting with the leaders of the Sunyani Central Rotary Club. One of the board members, Michael Nsiah, made an impassioned plea.
Michael said “The people from my home area suffer from a disease called Buruli Ulcer. It is a neglected tropical flesh eating disease. It is like leprosy.” Michael asked “Can International Rotarians join us to provide help?” I didn’t know anything about Buruli Ulcer, but the question made me start thinking. The new effort started with Jim Niquette and I as the first two people to sign onto finding a way to fight Buruli Ulcer. We are building a Buruli Ulcer team just like we did for Guinea Worm Disease.
In March 2011, we had our second Rotary Foundation grant approved that will be used to fight Buruli Ulcer. We also had a grant funded by the Georg Fischer Jubilee Clean Water Foundation in Switzerland. We are going to do the same things that we did to fight Guinea Worm Disease. We are also adding medical education and early case detection components to the project. We hope to raise awareness about this disease that is primarily found in West Africa. There is less known about Buruli Ulcer because it is found in poor and remote places. Australia has a few cases and is doing some research. We’d appreciate your help with this disease!
Guinea Worm Disease still exists primarily in Southern Sudan with 1,698 cases at the end of 2010. Mali had 57 cases. Ethiopia had 21 cases. Chad had ten cases. Ghana had eight cases through May 2010. Sudan needs wells to dramatically stop Guinea Worm Disease there. It is my hope that wells will be drilled there and we can celebrate the end of this disease. I love going to the most dangerous place in the world for Guinea Worm Disease and going back later to see the inside of the containment center empty of sick kids and seeing the kids laughing and playing outside of the school instead.
We are here to celebrate the eradication of Guinea Worm Disease from Ghana. The secret was passion, relationships, trust and respect. In a few years, we hope that Guinea Worm Disease and polio are gone from the face of the earth. A person can start with an idea and form a team. It is great to see the people celebrating at the new well dedication. A team committed to a common purpose can achieve the impossible.
My appeal to you today is to believe that when someone asks you “How can we change the world?” Don’t think that there is nothing that you can do. We can change the world one person at a time and one drink of water at a time. An amazing team of people came together in Ghana to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. We can change the world when one person is united with others in a common purpose. If you can imagine and think we can, one day we can say we changed the world!
