On September 17th, a lecture was given in regards to the 2011 Millennium Development Goal Progress (MDG), which was held in the KOICA building, celebrating its tenth anniversary. It was specifically highlighted that common people should be more aware of spectrums entailed by MDG. For this cause or reason, NGO will be provided a great opportunity to advertise their campaigns and activities throughout the field, in which to soon become a discussion key.
Among the presentation, I was awestruck by the Millennium Village Project, held by the Merry Year Foundation, which took place in Gumulira, Malawi. Although the project has brought a delicate attraction, steady changes are still being altered. It was a ‘glocal’ project that implements the ideas of MDGs into every corner of the world, specialized to just the place.
All the panelists and students in the celebratory lecture
Goal1: Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty
When farmers were provided with fertilizers, the harvest rate was 5 tons per one hectare But when fertilizers are not provided, the production was reduced to 2 tons per hectare. Aiding fertilizers and seeds are necessary in order to support fundamental needs.
Goal2: Achieve universal primary education
Participation in school education is valued to its utmost position when schools budgets provide food for students; moreover, providing funds in order to operate a sound education environment for students who come from unstable socio-economic backgrounds. This goal stresses that consistency and validated operations from the Village Sensitization Education Program is necessary, to say the very least.
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
The annual school fee in Gumulira is about 60 USD. However there are only a few who can easily afford this amount of money. The installment of a solid and well organized scholarship system must be activated in order to encourage and motivated the educational needs for female children.
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
The Gumulira Millennium Village is planning on reducing the mortality rate of children to as much as 40 deaths of 1000 lives. It needs a specific and validated approach—such as vaccination, proper environmental sanitation, and most importantly, improvements in the healthcare system, particularly aimed towards maternal health. This goal necessitates the most various strategic approaches to achieve certain degrees of accomplishment.
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
The starting point of achieving this goal is to reduce death rate during birth. When systemized with healthy hospitals, there would be a better possibility to reduce death rates to almost by zero.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases
The most fundamental step to take is to check who is infected with AID’s. Strong education on ways to protect individuals from being infected to venereal diseases and giving them access to protective tools are the only ways to combat unwanted diseases.
Goal 7: Ensure sustainable development
Keeping installed water pumps clean, and planting fertilizing trees (Leguminous trees) are pretty much all about ensuring a sustainable environment— improving high quality lives of people.
Merry Year Foundation, contributing in distributing welfare around the world through glocal partnership inspired me a lot because they put their thoughts into actions, and they were good at it.
The project as a whole itself is a living example of global partnership. When supervised and supported by the government, South Korea’s status as a nation will likely improve. Such projects are ‘global’ projects that bring about practical changes in everyday lives. I am glad to know that there are programs out there which aims for the betterment of the human well-being.
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