Obtain.WS – Environment

Since the earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has provided food assistance to close to 4 million people in Port-au-Prince and beyond. Here are four women in the capital who each wanted to say thank you to WFP and its donors for the food they have received.

“People often ask: What can be done to defeat hunger? My answer is simple: empower women, because women are the secret weapon to fight hunger.” - World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran

Some 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls. This is because women often have unequal access to resources, education and income, and because they participate less in decision-making.

And when hunger and under-nutrition affect women, they also affect their children. More than 19 million children are born annually with low birth weight, often the result of their mothers receiving inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy.

Today, on the International Women’s Day, you can send your message of solidarity through the World Food Programme by clicking on the banner at the top of this post.

I previously posted about the World Food Programme hunger bytes video competition, which is part of the ”A Billion for a Billion” campaign.

The winners have been announced and in the Under 18 category John Beck, a student at Ambrit International School in Rome, Italy won a full web video production kit; in the Over 18 category Carlos Antonio Michel Sandoval and Miguel Angel Mier Delgado of Zacatecas, Mexico will travel to Guatemala with WFP, and try out their film-making skills on the frontline against hunger.

You can watch the 2 winning videos below -

Abandoned electric train ruins in Lima, Peru have been converted into a green amusement park by the Spanish group Basurama. The train ruins had been there since 1986, with the concrete columns left standing without purpose (see photo below) until the Ghost Train Park opened last month, free of charge.

Equipment is made from recycled materials and now local park goers enjoy horse shaped car tire swings, climbing structures, canopy lines, and swings that hang from forgotten pass ways.

“Basurama has been working with the subject of trash for more than ten years, generating spaces and installations that make us reflect about what we throw away.”

In the video below (Spanish language) you can see clearly the park’s location in the centre of a bustling, traffic laden location.

Ruben Lorenzo of Basurama says, “Public spaces in Lima sometimes generate insecurity and are besieged by car horns, we want to show that there’s also room for people, and that we have to claim that.”

Via: Treehugger
Photos: Basurama

The UN World Water Day is later this month on March 22. This year World Water Day is dedicated to the theme of water quality, reflecting its importance alongside quantity of the resource in water management.

The campaign aims to -

* Raise awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management and

* Raise the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities, and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality e.g. in pollution prevention, clean up and restoration.

If you want more information or would like to participate in the campaign, just click on the buttons above or below to go to the information site.