HOW TO HELP IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE POOR

Poverty is a major issue in the world and should be solved as quickly as possible. However for that to happen, all of us need to work hard to help the poor. There are a variety of practical ways you can contribute to alleviating poverty. There are two approaches;

HELPING THE POOR THROUGH DIRECT ACTION

EDUCATE YOURSELF: There are many ways that poverty is linked to reproductive rights, to workers' rights, to environmental justice. By educating yourself you will figure out where your time and energy is best spent in helping the impoverished gain the skills and the power they need to help themselves.

There is a good deal of research that shows how the cycle of poverty is linked to the criminal justice system, which does little to re-educate its felons. Especially in a country like the U.S. the downward spiral of prisoners fuels their poverty and is a system that must change. This toxic feedback loop is especially difficult for people of colour, who are already usually disenfranchised by poverty and the structure of society.

Reproductive rights are linked to poverty. Access to reproductive control, especially for women, means fewer children, which typically links to higher education and higher opportunities for work. Reproductive health programs mean fewer teenage pregnancies and better education for women.

DONATE: Donations to your local and global organizations are incredibly important. Many of these organizations rely on donations to survive and serve their communities. Make sure you know where your money is going, if you're donating money. You want to be sure that the organization is actually helping people.

Make a pledge to give up some treat for a month (like fancy coffee, or chocolate, or clothes shopping) and use the money that you save to donate to a local or global charity or non-profit. Other than money you can donate food, clothing, toiletry items, old furniture, toys and books to local shelters and programs. These donations help people in straitened circumstances.

There are a variety of books for prisoners programs in various cities. See if your city or town has one. If not, maybe try to start one. Making sure that prisoners are getting the education they need (and often, have been denied) will help them to become productive members of society rather than stuck in the criminal justice system for the rest of their life.

VOLUNTEER: There are tons of ways to help out in your community through direct action. Ask at your local religious organization, or non-profit. Check out programs at your local library and see if they need assistance. There are many different groups that you can work with: children, the elderly, the mentally ill, the homeless, and women. You'll need to decide which group you want to focus on.

You can do things like teach a course in resume development, computer skills. You could start up a local community garden and teach courses on how to grow sustainable food. A large number of people who are poor cannot afford to buy much produce, so teaching them a sustainable and cheap way to grow their own food, could help alleviate some of that vitamin deficiency. You can work in shelters, soup kitchens, community centres, at after-school programs, and employment centres.

HELP AN INDIVIDUAL: Even helping one individual can make a small change for the better. If you see someone who needs help, talk to them. Give them some money, even a few dollars can help. Offer your help without being condescending or judgmental. Try to help them find a place like a shelter or a soup kitchen.

Ignoring the poverty around you, or making judgement calls about the people in poverty, is a surefire way to do nothing to help. You don't know how that person got into poverty and you don't know what they are going to use their money for.

HELPING THE POOR THROUGH ACTIVISM

START OR JOIN AN ORGANIZATION: Gather like-minded individuals and pick something to do with poverty to work to alleviate. Start up a group to help educate community members on poverty, or create an after-school program for low-income kids. Use your group to havea benefit concert. Put flyers around your town or city and try to get the local paper to cover it. Have the proceeds to towards helping people in your community.

Start a petition in your community to help low-income students have more nutritious food, or to make your school system adopt a better sex-education program. Programs like Results and Children's Defence Fund. Work locally and globally to support legislation and practices that particularly help children to overcome poverty.

TAKE LEGISLATIVE ACTION: Get involved in your local government and in your country's government. Pay attention to laws and bills that are being passed that impact programs to help people who are impoverished.

Support a health care system that protects and helps the people who are part of it. Many people, especially in the U.S. are forced into poverty because of a medical situation that they cannot afford.

Support better education for your community and your country. Better education means people who have the life skills and the knowledge that help them realize their full potential and to become productive, interested members of their communities.

HELP CREATE A DIALOGUE ABOUT POVERTY: Simply opening up discussion in your local community, and on a global scale, can help work towards alleviating it. Challenge your friends and family's assumptions about poverty. Write a column for your local newspaper, or a letter to the editor, outlining what needs to be done in your community to help people who are poor.

TIPS: If you can donate the price of one square food meal per week (about N1,000), that amounts to more than N60,000 per year. Donate items rather than money.

WARNINGS: Don't judge people who are in poverty. There are so many ways to fall into that hole and not be able to escape, encompassing but not limited to health problems, psychological problems, addiction, abuse, and many more.

Source: wikihow

CENSENSS COMMUNITIES, HOSPITAL & HEALTHCARE SUPPORT INITIATIVE (CCHHSI)

"CCHHSI is a network of individuals and partner organizations dedicated to building healthy and whole communities"

We intend to create and establish a place that has good schools; good jobs; plenty of parks; bikable/walkable routes; efficient public transport; sustainable growth; access to quality healthcare; a vibrant arts and cultural life; a locally-driven economy; and where people from different backgrounds join to solve problems, work, laugh, and do life together. ...A community that is continuously creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources that enable people to mutually support each other and maximize everyone's potential. Whole simply means containing all components; complete; not divided or disjointed; acting together; restored; healed; well; sound; healthy; entire; not broken or fractured; unimpaired; integral…Acting from and for the whole is challenging:  As humans, part of our default mode is naturally self-centered - we tend to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.  Our daily and civic discourse usually reinforces this default mode.  Our “discussions,” a word whose roots mean to “break apart,” can reinforce conversations where we hold onto and defend our self-centered view.  It is when we move into a mode of Dialogue that we can begin to see the Whole.

A community is a group of people, often living in a defined geographic area, who are connected by culture, values and/or norms, and who share common struggles and dreams. "Community" includes neighborhoods, towns, regions, workplaces, schools, faith and interest groups, associations and virtual networks. How do we get healthy and whole communities? It is people working in groups - collaboratively - that have the greatest potential, the most leverage, for creating the conditions that lead to health and wholeness.  It is an ongoing process and commitment made up of intentional choices and actions that exists to help people work together to build healthy, whole communities.

Communities around the globe face common, vexing issues: improving economic conditions and reducing poverty; revitalizing neighborhoods and the natural environment; tackling chronic diseases largely caused by unhealthy lifestyles; cultivating sustainable food systems; providing access to quality healthcare, and addressing persistent inequities along racial and ethnic lines. Censenss Community Initiatives believes it is at the community level, and within the context of community, that we have the greatest opportunity to support the society.

This are CENSENSS signature Initiative to supports highly innovative approaches to improving the delivery of appropriate and high-quality community-based primary health care to rural communities in Nigeria. We will cover the broad range of primary prevention (including public health) and primary care services within the communities, including health promotion and disease prevention; the diagnosis, treatment, and management of chronic and episodic illness; rehabilitation support; and end of life care. It will involve the coordination and provision of integrated care provided by a range of health providers, including nurses, social workers, pharmacists, dieticians, public health practitioners, physicians and others in a range of community settings including people's homes, healthcare clinics, physicians' offices, public health units, hospices, and workplaces. It will be delivered in a way that is personal and population centred and responsive to economic, social, language, cultural and gender differences.

WHAT DO WE DO?

Healthcare to all in resource constrained environment necessitates service delivery in challenging environments. Often, funding organization wish to reach out and help, but some of healthcare delivery institutions and organizations faces the challenge of work load, or limited capacity, or inadequate mechanism to access such funds. CCHHSI is committed to overcoming these issues through long-lasting partnerships with likeminded organizations, to enable delivery of quality, accessible and sustainable healthcare services. We will achieve this through clinical based training to empower health workers to competently deal with emerging issues, support of healthcare facilities with essential resources, & comprehensive research and evaluations. To enable support to healthcare services and programs, CCHHSI has created a framework that allows funding organizations and service delivery institutions connect and have mutual benefits. These include but not limited to the following:

Clinical Training and Mentorship
Curative Medical Support
Training of Rural Community Nurses
CCHHSI Collaborative research activities
Rural Communities Supportive Programs
Supportive Projects in Urban Ghettos as well

CCHHSI will provide a framework for the support of healthcare systems in Rural Communities in Nigeria through partnerships to improve individual and community health. CCHHSI is committed to achieving our mission through long-lasting partnerships with likeminded organizations, to enable delivery of quality, accessible and sustainable healthcare services. We will achieve this through: clinical based training to empower health workers to competently deal with emerging issues, support of healthcare facilities with essential resources, & comprehensive research and evaluations.

OUR VALUES
Partnership 

CCHHSI seeks to support health care facilities, organizations and institutions by linking them to resources to help them fully serve their communities. Our focus is on strengthening health care systems. Our key is to listen to our partners, evaluate the engagement independently and make long lasting commitment.

Implementation and Sustainability 

CCHHSI seeks to invest in projects which strengthen the longitudinal presence of mission institutions and programs within their communities. CCHHSI does this by making sure that resources go to support the prioritized purpose and to the people intended with the aim of solving what is known as the ‘last mile problem’.

Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency 

CCHHSI has developed systems that enable program implementation by a team of highly professional and ethical individuals. In concert with CCHHSI board and our partner organizations, institutions with proven records of success and accountability are selected for support, with guidance from our donors. In addition to selecting high-impact initiatives for sponsorship, CCHHSI will provide effective oversight, marketing, fundraising and support at the lowest possible cost.

To enable support to healthcare services and programs, CCHHSI has created a framework that allows funding organizations and service delivery institutions connect and have mutual benefits. CCHHSI does this through its various programs whose aim is to improve hygiene and sanitation in the local community, where poor practices can cause disease and death. This is achieved by holding seminars within different target groups in the community, for example women, old people and children. International volunteers working with CCHHSI have encouraged these groups to make positive changes in their lifestyle to combat poor health, hygiene and malnutrition. Volunteers will address the issues including but not limited to the following:

• Women's issues: pregnancy, child birth, nutrition & breast cancer awareness;
• Disease prevention & recognition: Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, dysentry & typhoid;
• Sex education;
• First aid;
• Water storage and purification.
• Dental checks
• Physiological support
• Eye checks
• Advocacy for epileptic

RURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

This centre will be a leading innovator, convener, partner, and driver of results in health and health care improvement in rural Nigeria. At our core, we believe everyone should get the best care and health possible. This passionate belief fuels our mission to improve health and health care. We will partner with visionaries, leaders, and front-line practitioners around the globe to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and rural community’s populations. To advance our mission, our work will be focused in five key areas:

• ·         Improvement Capability: Ensuring that improvement science drives our work and that we extend the reach and impact to the improvement of rural community
• ·         Person- and Family-Centred Care: Putting the patient and the family at the heart of every decision and empowering them to be genuine partners in their care
• ·         Patient Safety: Making care continually safer by reducing harm and preventable mortality
• ·         Quality, Cost, and Value: Driving affordability and sustainability through quality improvement
• ·         Triple Aim for Populations: Applying integrated approaches to simultaneously improve care, improve population health, and reduce costs per capita

We will create dynamic opportunities for health care professionals to learn from, collaborate with, and be inspired by expert faculty and colleagues throughout Nigeria. Our professional development programs— including conferences, seminars, and audio and web-based programs — will inform every level of the support structure. We are committed to developing students, the next generation of improvers, through free courses. We will work with a wide range of entities — whether health care facilities, entire health care systems, or governments — to help them achieve significant results in quality, safety, and innovation. We collaborate with these change agents on the front lines of care to accelerate improvement in vital areas, including maternal and neonatal health, avoidable hospital readmission, waste and cost reduction, person- and family-centred care.

The idea for the Rural Development Centre first came about as a means of addressing the suffering of vulnerable children in communities, the need to support women whose rights were violated, and to focus on key environmental concerns. We realized that by focusing on the needs of rural people, a centre such as this could empower and benefit local communities. This Centre will work to identify opportunities, locate resources and establish appropriate partnerships to provide solutions to communities. We will operate as an 'intake process' whereby communities identify local needs and consult the centre on solutions and strategies for addressing needs. It is understood that local people know their communities’ best and success is greatest when they are empowered.

1. CHILDREN:  The Centre is crucial in the different areas it works in because children are orphaned everyday without family members who have the financial means to support them. Children do not have access to appropriate education and health care, and many of their caregivers are grandparents and elderly.
2. WOMEN:       Women are a strong force in this area of the country, though their rights are continuously violated. The Centre works to empower these women again.
3. ENVIRONMENT:     The communities in which Centre works also experience ongoing issues with critically important environment issues, such as clean drinking water, sanitation, water catchment problems protections, and school building projects. The Centre will try to step in and source solutions to address local needs.

CORE VALUE:        The Centre prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, tribalism, religion, or gender on all its programs and activities. It encourages transparency, accountability, good moral standing and compassion within all people who work with them

RURAL CHILD FRIENDLY HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE

This is a health care project concerned with the physical, psychological and emotional needs of children and their families in rural communities across Nigeria. While there have been improvements in some clinical treatments, a visit to hospital or clinic is still a frightening and traumatic experience for many children and their families across the Nigerian State.

The Initiative is using the mandate of the 'United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' - UNCRC to define Child Friendly Healthcare by promoting 'Standards' , each with several supporting components (criteria), that encompass all aspects of health care provision for children. These 'Standards' are for health care providers, organizations and/or individuals, who have a duty to ensure that they are part of every health care contact with a pregnant woman, or child and family in our rural communities. These 'Standards' are globally applicable and apply whether the health care contact takes place in the home, community, an out-patient health facility, or in a residential health facility such as a hospital.

The Rural Child Friendly Healthcare Initiative focuses on:

• ·         Reducing fear, anxiety and suffering in children and families
• ·         Improving their overall experience of health care
• ·         Improving mortality and morbidity

This project will be advised and directed by a Steering Committee that includes individuals and professionals of the various communities and organizations majorly supporting and benefitting from the Initiative. A framework for the promotion, assessment, support and acknowledgment of Child Friendly Healthcare is currently being developed and piloted. The project recognizes that health workers everywhere in our societies usually want to provide the best possible care for children and families. However, they often face many problems, do not feel empowered to make changes, and do not know where or how to begin to address their situation. This initiative is trying to develop ideas and approaches that could help to solve these difficulties.

 Pilot Objectives

·                     Define Rural Child Healthcare using the Standards & supporting criteria

·                     Promote Child Friendly Healthcare

·                     Assess Child Friendly Healthcare (through self / external assessment)

·                     Support and facilitate Child Friendly Healthcare

·                     Acknowledge progress on Child Healthcare & best practice

·                     Share ideas and problem solving approaches

·                     Advocacy and evaluation where indicated

WHY RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION?

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A substantial proportion of the world’s poor live in rural areas which are geographically isolated and are often too sparsely populated or have a too low potential electricity demand to justify the extension of the grid. Therefore, it is necessary to provide access to electricity through other means than the extension of the grid. Renewable energies are the most adaptable, flexible and easy to use technologies for isolated rural areas. Off grid and mini grid applications offer affordable decentralised renewable energy technologies such as Solar Home Systems, wind systems, biogas digesters, biogas gasifiers, micro-hydro power plants, etc.
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As energy consumption rises with increases in population and living standards, the environmental costs of energy also raise mainly affecting developing countries. Therefore, energy has to be expanded in new ways. Renewable energy sources are among the least cost and most feasible solutions, since they are coming from unlimited and accessible sources, they are sustainable (minimum maintenance needs) and will cause no impact towards fragile ecosystems. Further, renewable energies can help decrease CO2 emissions, contributing to climate change mitigation
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Often, access to electricity is designed to provide the service to low income areas where the inhabitants have not enough means to maintain it. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a sustainable access to electricity where the users are also given the means to afford the electricity they consume. It is critical to stress and assess the productive uses of energy in order to foster development. Direct and indirect economic benefits flow from the use of electricity in productive applications within rural areas such as irrigation, food preservation, crop processing, cooling and development of small business which would result in an increase of employment opportunities for the rural population.

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Last, but not least, it is to be remembered that a combination of improved technology and economies of scale has pushed down the costs of renewable energies. The continuing maturation of the renewable energy industry in the developed world will keep on bringing down these costs. Unlike most conventional energy sources, the cost of producing energy from renewable energy sources will decrease dramatically in the future, given the necessary conditions.

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However, despite the favorable trends of renewable energy sources, they are still perceived as high cost options and therefore limit public and private investment in grid connected and off grid applications. The reasons can be found within the benefits enjoyed by the conventional energy systems such as favorable policy frameworks and public financing advantages, giving as a result low capital costs, thought leaving the evidence of significant operating costs.
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Further, the high capital costs of installing renewable energy systems are often inappropriately compared to the capital costs of conventional energy technologies In many cases, particularly in remote locations, the low operation and maintenance costs as well as the inexistent fuel expenses and the increased reliability and the longer expected useful life of renewable energy technologies, offset initial capital costs, but this kind of life cycle accounting is not regularly used as a basis for comparison. In addition, the externalities associated with energy systems, specially the environmental costs associated with fossil fuels, are often not fully accounted.

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CHOOSING THE MOST APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY OPTION FOR RURAL AREAS

The way to determine the most appropriate technological solution implies always a feasibility study based on gathering field data for each specific site. Technical, economic, financial, and socio-cultural considerations must all be including in the decision process to ensure the appropriate choice of technologies. The following basic criteria should be considered to design an optimal power solution:

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LOCATIOIN: The suitability of the site to be electrified, in terms of the topographic and geographical characteristics, will be the first criteria to look at when deciding on the implementation of the most appropriate technology. For example, when planning to build up a small hydropower plant, a site with the largest fall and the shortest distance to the power house should be chosen.
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Wind turbines should not be installed near buildings, trees and other obstacles to avoid turbulence and loss of energy production. Wind turbines should be 2m above any building or obstacles in the area. The site for the turbine should be as near as possible to the control room to reduce line losses
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RESOURCES EVALUATION: Resource evaluation includes the collection of data and interpretation of this data.
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SOLAR: The solar resource is linked to solar irradiation, latitude, altitude, cloud cover and content of water vapor and dust in the air. Therefore, the essential factors to take into account in solar energy application are the monthly average of daily sunshine hours, site latitude, local average cloudy days, foggy days, rainfall days etc
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WIND: The power in the wind is directly related to the cube of the wind speed and to the air density, wind resources become exploitable where average annual wind speeds exceed 4-5 m/s. Essential factors for wind resource evaluation are the monthly average wind speed; height at which wind speeds were measured; site altitude; daily variations in wind speed, the diurnal wind pattern; frequency distribution of wind speed;  primary seasonal wind directions; topography of the site; forestry cover at sight, height of the tallest growth
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SHP: Flow rate (liters/s) and net head (m) of water determine the energy output of a hydropower system. Therefore, the essential factors for SHP resource evaluation: annual flow rate; monthly distribution of the resource
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LOAD ANALYSIS:   A load analysis should cover;

Ø Load type. There are three main groups to be considered: domestic loads (lighting, TV, refrigerator, iron, etc), community loads (schools and public lighting and appliances, water pumping, etc) and commercial loads (electric power tools, etc);

Ø Load calculation or how much power is required;

Ø Load growth: The scale of the system will be determined in terms of load to be served, therefore a study of current and future demand for electricity on site is critical to avoid power shortage. Further, the adoption of flexible system design that can be expanded as load demand increases can mitigate risks associated with unpredictable load growth rates

RATED POWER AND AVERAGE DAILY WORKING HOURS FOR TYPICAL LOADS

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"Over the Next four (4) years; Millions of USD and Billions of NGN (Naira) will be (are Being) Donated, Contributed and Committed into the ‘CRUCODI PROJECTS’ of C-SENS with the Key Focus, Aim and Objective Revolving Around The Revolutionizing of the Mentality, Orientation and the Capacity of our Rural People and getting them up to the Challenges and Benefits of the New Nigerian Project under the Leadership of the President; Muhammadu Buhari"

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JOIN US IS IN ACTUALIZING THAT DREAM

DONATE THROUGH THE OPTIONS ON THE RIGHT
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Credit: ALLIANCE FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION