Post Tagged with: "public"

Solar for Your Health

How does an NGO combine sustainable energy with family planning and reproductive health services?  It can only happen in Africa, where there’s serious demand for both.  Pathfinder International’s integrated programs in Uganda are helping to kill two giant birds with one stone. Remote Bussi Island, in Lake Victoria, is home to a number of small fishing communities.  The island has little infrastructure and is not connected to the national grid.  Most people use small paraffin (kerosene) lamps to see at night, provided they can afford to buy the paraffin. Pathfinder, who has been working to improve maternal health and increase access to family planning services on the island for several years, knew that nurses and other health care workers struggled to carry out essential services once the sun set. Solar-generated electricity became the solution for Bussi’s Health Center as well as other health centers in the country. Above, a woman[…]

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Machines & Animals

One of these days I am going to have to get a car, but I’ll hold out for as long as I can. I came to East Africa in part seeking a simpler lifestyle. I enjoy chatting with people around me and getting to know the culture in-depth. I watch in fascination as the preachers and hawkers board at one town, shout and sell to their captive audience and disembark at the next. Getting across the country is cheap and my clients appreciate the transit fees on the final invoice. But bumping around on buses is starting to wear on me. Above, a busy Kampala street as seen from the window of the Teso Coach to Soroti. The last month has seen me traveling from the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania to the remote and mountainous Uganda-Sudan border and various places in between, much of the way spent with[…]

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