AID Initiative

project AID initiative is a unique training program, set to bring out the Ability In Disabled persons in Africa starting from Ajegunle Lagos, Nigeria.

AID Initiative

The word AID simply means to assist, we think it can be the acronym for (Ability In Disability). Definition of disability those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others PROJECT OVERVIEW Project AID Initiative is a skill acquisition program aimed at promoting productivity among specified young Nigerians; mainly on people with disability, engaging these young people in a practical skill activity and social entrepreneurial program. Presently the majority of people with disabilities suffers from stigmatization, depression and low self esteem as a result of rejections, shorn and neglect from the society.The projects’ main objective is to bring out the ability in these young people by letting them know they also can be productive to the society despite their challenges. Because often times we hear, or even read on the media about project donations and generosity of government and some prominent individuals for the disabled, but we still have a lot of them around the streets, highways begging and causing (nuisance). In response to this challenge we advice that giving arms does not improve their condition instead empowering them will go a long way in improving their livelihood and help build their self-esteem. RESEARCH ‘19 million Nigerians are physically challenged’ May 6, 2012 by Leke Baiyewu The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, a non-governmental organisation, has said about 19 million Nigerians have a form of physical disability. It decried the failure of the Nigerian constitution to protect the rights of those with physical challenges. In an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, the CCD Coordinator, Mr. David Anyaele, identified poverty as the major cause of disability. According to him, lack of access to quality health care, poor nutrition and environment, insurgency in the North, road accidents and polio are major causes of disability. He said, “At the CCD, we are of the opinion that more than 19 million Nigerians are living with disability. However, the National Population Commission’s Census of 2006 says 3.2 million Nigerians are living with disability; 61 per cent of this figure is above 18 years.” Anyaele further decried discrimination against people with physical challenges, which he categorised as attitudinal, environmental, institutional, and constitutional. He explained, “People show negative attitude because some see disability as a curse. They isolate, exclude, and stigmatise the less privileged. The environment is not friendly because our public buildings, transport system and academic institutions are hostile to people with disabilities. “Institutionally, the public and private sectors design their policies, products and services at the exclusion of PWDs. As at today, Sections 15 and 42 of Nigeria’s constitution are silent on discrimination against disability and most states have no disability-sensitive laws.” The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law. Prevention of discrimination The Article 8 of Convention stresses the awareness raising to foster respect for the rights and dignity against discrimination: 1. To raise awareness throughout society, including at the family level, regarding persons with disabilities, and to foster respect for the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. 2. To combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices relating to persons with disabilities, including those based on sex and age, in all areas of life.] 3. To promote awareness of the capacities and contributions of persons with disabilities. 4. Initiating and maintaining effective public awareness campaigns designed: (i) to nurture receptiveness to the rights of persons with disabilities. (ii) to promote positive perceptions and greater social awareness towards persons with disabilities. (iii) to promote recognition of the skills, merits and abilities of persons with disabilities, and of their contributions to workplace and the labour market. 5. Encouraging all organs of the mass media to portray persons with disabilities in a manner consistent with the purpose of the present Convention. 6. Promoting awareness-training programmes regarding persons with disabilities and the rights of persons with disabilities. Participation rights The Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities recognised that "that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others" and that "persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in their participation as equal members of society." The Convention makes participation of the disabled one of its principles, stating "The principles of the present Convention shall be:...Full and effective participation and inclusion in society", subsequently enshrining the right of disabled to participate fully and equally in the community, education, all aspect of life (in the context of habilitation and rehabilitation), political and public life, cultural life, leisure and sports.[7] States Parties should take appropriate measure such as: 1. To enables persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, not only for their own benefit, but also for the enrichment of society. 2. In accordance with international law, to ensure that law protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials. 3. So that persons with disabilities should be entitled, on an equal basis with others, to recognition and support of their specific cultural and linguistic identity, including sign languages and deaf culture. STRATEGIES We intend to make Project AID Initiative a youth engagement project that will involve both professionals and volunteers in our area of subjects. We anticipates achieving our set goals through a peer to peer training method and also ensuring that the skills we make available will not over rule their disability. We also intend to use the medium as advocacy against stigmatization adjacent to disabled persons and we shall leverage on partnership from established (NGOs) organizations and support from external bodies. We shall therefore recruit volunteers and seek advisory with organizations with experience working on a similar project i.e. YEC-Academy, Lagos Empowerment And Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), Ajegunle.org (PIN), and Uncommon Man Network etc. GOALS To bridge the gap of negligence between the disabled and the society at large To help develop their self-esteem and bringing to their awareness the fact that they too can also solve problems in the society despite their challenges. To engage, empower and equip one hundred young disabled people with practical skills that have commercial value, through peer to peer training method within a period of one year and six months. IMPLEMENTATION Task 1) Research: We intend to carry out a survey to determine what kind of programs to train our prospect on and how many people will participate in the first batch of the training. Also we intend to use the result research to advice organizations and government agencies on area of concentration for the disabled in the society. However, we intend to use the result of the research as our basis for planning the project. Task 2) Planning: This stage is the most crucial because we have to design the module of the project with the mind of making it an engaging and participatory peer-to-peer program. We also intend to put together a discussion that will involve existing organization that we can work with on this project. Task 3) Publicity: We intend to create a massive awareness campaign and advocacy to stop the stigmatization against disabled persons in our society, through the use of social media, press, print media, TV and radio broadcasting stations etc. Task 4) Recruitment: The process of accepting application from prospective participant for the project AID initiative in 2013. Task 5) Implementation: We shall draw up a curriculum that will enables teach the basic knowledge of the skill and courses. Task 6) Assessment: We intend to create a mechanism that will help us measure the level of impact and achievement during and after the project. SUSTAINABILITY PLAN: We intend to continue this project even after the this project year, thus we have adopted the strategy that engages every participant even after they have been trained. It has been designed to be a “train the trainer” module structure, involving everyone (peer-to-peer) as a resourceful tool for the development of our society.

SOME FOOT DECEASES

In the late 1800s and early 1900s many homes in Mississippi and other rural American states did not have indoor plumbing and had inadequate sanitary facilities. Families could rarely afford to install indoor plumbing. Many Mississippians simply did not know how proper sanitary waste disposal and clean-living conditions could prevent diseases. As a result, they were often plagued with diseases that were directly linked to improper sanitary facilities. Hookworm was one such disease. Threadlike worms Hookworms live only in sandy or loamy soil like that found in many regions of Mississippi and other southern states. See map. They cannot exist in clay or muck. For hookworms to survive, rainfall averages must be more than forty inches a year, and the average temperature must exceed 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If these conditions exist, then the hookworm eggs hatch. After hatching, the larvae undergo two molts and transform into threadlike worms about one half of an inch long. They can then infect unsuspecting humans by boring into their bare feet or occasionally in their hands as the victim walked on or worked in the larval infested soil. The hookworm species infecting people and found in Mississippi is Necator americanus or American Killer, a species that is distributed worldwide. See map. Doctors believe this species was introduced into the United States when slaves from Africa were brought into this country. The slaves carried the hookworms in their intestines. The hookworm life cycle begins and ends in the human intestinal tract. Females may lay from 5,000 to 20,000 eggs a day after mating with the male in the host’s intestines. The eggs are then discharged in bowel movements. Sanitation practices at the turn of the 20th century were not ideal, and most rural Americans used the open outdoors as a toilet. Therefore, hookworm eggs constantly entered the soil in very large numbers. The larva can move from side to side and is most active when dew is on the ground and temperatures are warm. While moving, if the larva haphazardly made contact with a person’s bare foot or hand, it quickly bored its way corkscrew-like into the skin and began its journey to the intestinal tract. At the site of entry, often a rash erupted which caused itching. This symptom was called “ground itch” or “dew itch.” Since many Southerners did not wear shoes in summer months, hookworm larva usually penetrated between people’s toes. After making its way through the victim’s respiratory tract, the larva eventually found its way to the small intestine about one week later. Necator americanus has a pair of curved cutting plates in its mouth that allow it to attach to its host’s intestinal walls. It will live there, sucking the victim’s blood, about four to five years. Pot belly and angel’s wings People infected with hookworms often experienced a lack of energy but were not aware of the type parasite they had. In addition, coughing, wheezing, and fever sometimes developed in the victim as the larval migration traveled through the lungs. Infected people could also have stomach pains, pale yellowish-colored skin, feet that “go to sleep,” head and joint aches, weakness, vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea. Two classic visible signs of hookworm disease are a “pot belly”– an extended stomach – and “angel’s wings” – shoulder blades extended outward because of the host’s slumping, emaciated body. Blurred vision and a “fish-eye” stare characterized severe cases. The primary danger of hookworm disease was anemia because the worms lived on the host’s plasma and excreted the red blood cells. The severity of the disease depended on the number of worms in the person’s gut. Death could result from secondary infections because of the host’s weakened condition. Hookworms were totally dependent on humans as hosts and on humans’ unhygienic practices to continue their life cycle. Before 1900, few American physicians knew of hookworm disease. However, a zoologist from Hartford, Connecticut, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, studied medical zoology in Europe in the late 19th century and learned about hookworms while helping with animal autopsies and studies. Certain hookworm species live in specific animals. When Stiles returned to the United States, he worked for the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and taught at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He continually lectured his students about hookworms and the species that infect humans. Stiles helped spread information about the parasite and health problems associated with the worm, particularly in the South. Rockefeller Sanitation Commission In 1910, with a $1,000,000 philanthropic donation from the Rockefeller Sanitation Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease, Dr. Waller S. Leathers, director of public health in Mississippi, began a three-staged plan to cope with hookworm disease. Hookworm disease had been identified in Mississippi only a few years prior to the Rockefeller donation. Leathers decided that the best way to combat the disease would be through the combination of health education, patient treatment, and community cooperation. Public education on the disease was most important since large numbers of Mississippians were infested because of Mississippi’s soil and climatic conditions. As a result, areas in the state known as the Long Leaf Pine and Short Leaf Pine districts, the Coastal region, and the Central Prairie were the sections where Leathers and other doctors began their campaign against hookworm because they were the areas most heavily infested. Leathers started his program by having hookworm exhibits at the 1910 Jackson State Fair and the Harrison County Fair. He knew that thousands of Mississippians who attended the fairs would see the hookworm information and learn how to control the spread of the worms through proper sanitation. The Mississippi State Board of Health under Leathers’s direction also began distributing literature about hookworm disease to school children throughout the state. Students between the ages of six and eighteen were tested in the most heavily infested regions. Doctors discovered heavy hookworm infestations among the school children. They sent instructions home to parents on how to take proper health measures such as the need to wear shoes and how to build sanitary privies, or outhouses. Build better outhouses The State Board of Health provided instructions on how to build better enclosed outhouses so that waste products would not flow out into the surrounding soil and animals could not break in and distribute the waste. The State Board of Health even helped schools build new privies for the children. Before privies were provided, many schoolchildren in the state simply had as a school bathroom facility one side of the nearby woods for girls and one side for boys. Better health standards were stressed for all who lived in the infected areas. Mississippians of all ages reacted positively to Leathers’s efforts and they sought treatment or either improved their sanitary facility or constructed new ones. Dispensary opens in Columbia The first dispensary for treating hookworm disease opened December 18, 1910, in Columbia, Mississippi. People could go there for testing and treatment. Treatment involved a single dose of thymol to kill the worms, followed later by an enema, usually of epsom salts, to rid the body of the dead worms. Later, tetracholorethylene became the preferred treatment to kill hookworms. Dr. Charles C. Bass and Dr. Hector H. Howard organized the Columbia clinic. Their dispensary was so successful that it became the model for others throughout the state and the South. By 1912, eleven southern states had dispensaries based on the one in Columbia. The Rockefeller Sanitation Commission continued to provide funds for free clinic treatments to Mississippians until 1915. Over the five-year period, 166,623 people in 78 counties were examined in the state. The infection rate among adults was 34.1 percent and 36.7 percent among school children. Mississippians had also learned during this time to practice proper sanitary methods to prevent the spread of hookworm eggs. With these combined efforts, progress was made toward eliminating hookworm disease in Mississippi. However, hookworms continued to be a health problem in Mississippi as late as 1981 when sixty-nine cases were reported to the State Board of Health. As late as the early 1980s, some Mississippians still did not have adequate sanitary facilities; therefore, hookworms still maintained a niche in the sandy, loamy soil environment in the original heavily infested regions in the state. At the turn of the 21st century, hookworm disease is virtually unheard of in Mississippi because of education, proper sanitation disposal, and good medical practices. Deanne Stephens Nuwer, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. Posted September 2002 Suggested Further Readings Clark, Thomas D. The Emerging South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Savitt, Todd and James Harvey Young, eds. Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988. Savitt, Todd. Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. Williams, Greer. The Plague Killers, New York: Charles Scribe’s Sons, 1989.

next year project on my mind

FOR YOUR NEXT FOOTWEAR SHOPPING THIS YULETIDE SEASON

For those of us who will need some footwear's this yuletide season, Sir James onyebuchi rapheal, a footwear solution provider, offers shoe shoppers tips for selecting a shoe that's right for their feet. •when you want to shop for footwear do so in the evening. Our feet tends to swell as the day progresses. • Have your feet sized while at the store, many people have one foot that is larger than the other. "You should size your shoes to fit the larger foot and use an inlay in the shoe for the smaller foot, if necessary," • Look at the materials use in production of such footwear, "The best materials are the ones that offer support and breathe," Good quality soft leather or synthetic mesh materials work very well. Avoid cheap, stiff leather or plastics that don't conform well to the foot, aren't flexible or do not breathe well. • Try on the shoes, shoe sizing is not uniform across different brands or even within the same brands. One shoe's size nine of an Italian footwear product may be another shoe's size ten for an Asian footwear product. Also, remember to wear the socks that you intend to wear with the shoes and any orthotics you may wear while you try on the shoes. • Walk around in the shoes. If the shoes aren't comfortable in the store, don't buy them or make your complain about your findings, "If a shoe is not comfortable walking around in the store, do not expect that it will become comfortable with continued wear". • Check the fit. Shoes should fit snugly around the heel and mid-foot so that your heel is not slipping as you walk and your foot is not sliding from side to side, be sure that the area for the toes is fairly deep and wide. A thumb's width should fit between the toe of the shoe and your longest toe. The back of the shoe, or the heel counter, should be rigid, but the sole of the shoe at the back of the foot should be flexible. • Don't forget your arches. People's arches can be classified into three groups: high arches, average arches and low arches. *People with high arches should look for a cushioning shoe. *People with average arches should look for a stability-type shoe. *people with low arches should look for motion-control types of shoes. I hope you find this usefull for your next shoe shopping.

NIGERIA POLICY MAKERS SHOULD SEE THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT LIES WITHIN LEATHER WORKS AND FOOTWEARS, AND DON'T JUST DEPEND ON CRUDE OIL

NIGERIA POLICY MAKERS SHOULD SEE THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT LIES WITHIN LEATHER WORKS AND FOOTWEARS, AND DON'T JUST DEPEND ON CRUDE OIL Africa can implement appropriate supportive policies to leverage its opportunities soon. This is the finding from a recent book by a team of World Bank economists. China dominates the global export market in light manufacturing, and its competitive edge far exceeds that of low income exporters that recently entered the global market. Africa has a number of manufacturing advantages that it has yet to realize besides low labor costs and abundant resources, these include duty-free and quota-free access to U.S. and EU markets for light manufactures under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and the Cotonou Agreement, but steeply rising costs of land, regulatory compliance, and especially labor in China's coastal export manufacturing centers have begun to erode the latter's cost advantage, a trend likely to accelerate in the coming years. The ongoing redistribution of cost advantages in labor-intensive manufacturing presents an opportunity for Sub-Saharan Africa to start producing many light manufactures, enhance private investment and create millions of jobs. According to new evidence, feasible, low-cost, sharply focused policy initiatives aimed at enhancing private investment could launch the region on a path to becoming competitive in light manufacturing. These initiatives would complement progress on broader investment reforms and could foster industrialization and raise the market share of domestically produced goods in rapidly growing local markets for light manufacturers, and as local producers scale up, product will improve, and experience with technology, management and marketing will accumulate, allowing them to seize emerging export opportunities. In Sub-Saharan Africa, as in China and Vietnam, policies that encourage foreign direct investment can speed up industrial development and export expansion. Isolated successes can be multiplied, as with Ethiopia's recent foray into selling cut flowers in EU markets: a single pioneering firm opened the door to an industry that now employs 50,000 workers. Africa's business potential Previous studies identified long lists of constraints, including corruption, red tape, inadequate utilities, poor transport and skills, inadequate access to finance, and so on. In contrast, the book proposes smaller, more specific, and sometimes newly identified constraints. Narrowing the analysis can make the reform agenda more manageable within the financial and human resource constraints of most African countries. Take the leather industry in Ethiopia. This sector employs about 8,000 workers and exported about $8 million in 2010, a fraction of similar countries in Asia such as Vietnam. Ethiopia's labor costs are lower than Asia's and the country has Africa's second largest cattle population, next to Sudan. Furthermore, climatic conditions mean Ethiopian animal skin is among the best in the world. Yet the most binding constraint is the shortage of quality processed leather due to poor disease control, lack of quality processing of raw hides and restrictive trade policies on processed leather. Once the problems are identified, the proposed solutions are straightforward. Treat ecto-parasites (the skin disease that causes blemishes) at modest cost; allow imports and exports of raw hides and processed leather to help alleviate this constraint; and provide technical assistance, some of these measures require changing existing policies. Others require provision of public goods such as industrial parks that could be inexpensive. Ethiopia's comparative advantage in wages, productivity, and natural resources has led the Huajian Group, a Chinese shoe maker, to build a factory in Ethiopia in three months, with two production lines starting in January 2012, exporting 20,000 pairs of shoes a month and creating some 550 jobs, so the opportunities and the preconditions are certainly there, provided African policy makers speedily seize them. Manufacturing can be an unprecedented opportunity for Africa to industrialize and provide productive jobs to millions of Africans, especially young people who make up as much as 36% of the total working-age population; three in five of Africa's unemployed are under the age of 25, but the emergence of China as a powerhouse producing a variety of manufacturing goods at very cheap prices thanks to the large scale and skilful exploitation of the supply chain means that not all manufacturing jobs will be transferred from China to Africa. Due to widely varying country conditions, some African economies can take advantage of favorable wages and natural resources and benefit from taking timely measures to develop and export manufacturing goods. But large-scale production requirements also mean that some jobs will be transferred to countries such as India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam while others will move to China's interior. In short, the invisible hand of globalization will work to ensure a redistribution of cost advantages to the benefit of the ultimate consumers around the world.

CAUSES OF UNCOMFORTABLE FOOTWEARS Often what makes a pair of footwears uncomfortable is what's on the inside. Exposed seams, bits of rubber or leather that rub against the back of your heel, or openings that press against the top of your foot can all make an attractive pair of footwear unbearable to wear and these may result to caluses and bunions. Pay particular attention to these details when trying shoes on, and be sure to take a look at the inside of the shoes for any problematic areas as well. Flats are Good, But Some Fall Flat as a general rule, flats are more comfortable and better for you than heels. But not all flats are created equal, and some flats are downright excruciating to wear for any length of time. As with any shoes, keep in mind you need a comfortable toe box shape, proper arch support, and no exposed seams inside. Look for Heels that Aren't Stilettos Even if you're in the market for high heels, some choices are more comfortable than others. A wide or chunky heel provides a larger base for your weight to be distributed upon, thereby creating a more comfortable high heel experience. Note= ( Know Your Feet, Know Your Shoes! very important ) Do you have high arches? Then narrow, pull-on boots might be a problem for you. Wide feet? Then you might need to size up in those little Puma "Future Cats" you just found. Use the shoes you already own to figure out what works for you, and pay close attention to future purchases to see why some styles work and others don't, There's a reason you find some brands and styles more comfortable.