Stearns holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1977 to 1985, he held various roles with Parker Brothers Games, culminating in his appointment as president in 1984. In 1985, he became a vice president at The Franklin Mint, then joined Lenox in 1987 as president of Lenox Collections. In 1995, Stearns was named president and chief executive officer of Lenox Inc., overseeing $500 million in annual sales. He joined World Vision as president in 1998.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/05/ten_or_so_quest.html

FINDINGS: Previous research has shown that minorities have particularly cohesive extended family ties. For this study, UCLA researchers interviewed 58 randomly selected evacuees — mostly low-income African Americans — who relocated from New Orleans to Houston in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The researchers found that the evacuees’ strong family ties had a profound influence on factors affecting evacuation, including transportation decisions, access to shelter and how they perceived evacuation messages. These ties both facilitated and hindered their evacuation.

IMPACT: Disaster plans should take into account the influence that extended family ties and social networks have in decision-making among vulnerable and minority communities.

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AUTHORS: David P. Eisenman, Kristina M. Cordasco, Steve Asch and Deborah Glik of UCLA and Joya F. Golden of the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Asch is also affiliated with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Rand Corp.

JOURNAL: American Journal of Public Health, April issue.

FUNDING: The National Science Foundation-supported Natural Hazards Research and Application Information Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Day of Hope

Dear friends,

This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). (Click here to read this post)

Operational implications of using 2006 World Health Organization growth standards in nutrition programs: secondary data analysis
The introduction of new standards to assess nutrition in children could lead to confusion and a cut in the numbers of malnourished children eligible for emergency feeding programmes, warn researchers in this week’s BMJ.

According to the UN World Food Programme, the number of nutritional emergencies has risen over the last twenty years, from an average of 15 per year during the 1980s to more than 30 per year since 2000. In 2005, around 73 million people were supplied with food aid.

The new World Health Organisation standards were released in April 2006 and are being advocated as a replacement for the currently used growth reference curves, produced by the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) and WHO in 1978.

But research from Andrew Seal and Marko Kerac at University College London and the College of Medicine, Malawi, found that, whilst the new standards would increase the number of children identified as malnourished, it could also result in fewer children being admitted to feeding programmes.

The reason for this is the way nutritional status is calculated. It can be expressed by using either z scores or the percentage of the median. Most aid agencies use the median method to determine a child’s eligibility for admission on to a therapeutic feeding programme although the z score method is also used infrequently for this purpose.

The research team used both methods and found marked differences between the cut-offs used for defining severe acute malnutrition from the WHO standards and NCHS reference data.

Under the z score calculation, children were more likely to be diagnosed as severely malnourished, but under the median method calculation, children were less likely to be diagnosed as malnourished. This means that fewer children would be eligible for therapeutic feeding programmes and those already on programmes would be discharged sooner than at present.

A similar pattern emerged in the diagnosis of severe and moderate malnutrition.

The authors say the potential impact on mortality rates of the inappropriate use of the WHO Growth standards is, as yet, unknown. They suggest that a full assessment of the appropriate use of the new WHO standards is urgently required and should be completed before they are implemented by aid agencies running emergency nutrition programmes.

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These issues are also addressed in an accompanying editorial by Martin Bloem, Chief of Nutrition Service at the World Food Program.

Day of Hope Global News

Every year, millions of people worldwide are displaced because of natural or industrial disasters or social upheaval. Reliable data on the numbers, characteristics, and locations of these displaced populations can bolster humanitarian relief efforts and subsequent recovery programs. Conversely, the absence of such information can hinder the prompt delivery of aid and impact the survival and recovery of affected groups. Using sound methods for creating these data sets is important in both industrialized and developing nations, but resource-poor countries especially face large challenges in collecting and using their own national, regional, and local population data to respond to calamities or plan development initiatives.

Solid data help policymakers and others determine how much and what type of aid is needed and where to direct it. However, without a strong organizational and political desire to maintain and use the information, or adequate training, many population data sets will go unused or be outdated when they are needed most. National governments and relief organizations around the world should value this kind of information and train relevant practitioners in their own countries to successfully apply it in times of crisis and in any development planning, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Political instability, organizational difficulties, and a lack of resources in many developing nations have precluded the collection and use of reliable census data. There is a clear need for more international resources to help train professionals in these countries to maintain their national population databases and conduct censuses and regular population surveys, the report says. Furthermore, national statistical offices should be integrated into each country’s preparedness and response team for national emergencies. Disaster relief agencies should likewise reinforce ties to the offices. The point is to marshal knowledge and information technology, and coordinate initiatives at all levels, to make positive differences.

Standards should be set for the types and amount of information that countries should collect and share with emergency responders and relief agencies, the report says. Creating a central, worldwide archive for local and regional population data, using templates available through existing archives, would also help authorities deal more effectively with humanitarian crises. At the same time, appropriate safeguards would be necessary to maintain the confidentiality of data.

The U.S. government should coordinate and centralize its efforts to improve the use and distribution of these data for disaster response and development, the report adds. With expertise in population studies and demography, the U.S. Census Bureau could play a lead role in this area, working to enhance statistical estimates of at-risk global populations and to raise the quality of data that informs America’s humanitarian efforts and reconstruction programs. In addition to supporting the federal government’s global relief measures, the Census Bureau’s expanded duties could include training geographers and foreign demographers to improve data collection, analysis, and distribution in their own countries. The bureau also should have an active research program in estimating populations at risk.

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The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Census Bureau, NASA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. A committee roster follows.

Copies of TOOLS AND METHODS FOR ESTIMATING POPULATIONS AT RISK FROM NATURAL DISASTERS AND COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN CRISES will be available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or order on the Internet at HTTP://WWW.NAP.EDU. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

[ This announcement and the report are available at HTTP://NATIONAL-ACADEMIES.ORG ]

vv: International Affairs and Development

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Committee on Population

COMMITTEE ON THE EFFECTIVE USE OF DATA, METHODOLOGIES, AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ESTIMATE SUB-NATIONAL POPULATIONS AT RISK

SUSAN L. CUTTER (CHAIR)
Carolina Distinguished Professor and Director of the Hazards Research Lab
Department of Geography
University of South Carolina
Columbia

MARGARET ARNOLD
Head of ProVention Consortium
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Geneva

DEBORAH BALK
Associate Professor Baruch School of Public Affairs, and Acting Associate Director
Institute for Demographic Research
City University of New York
New York City

BARBARA BOYLE TORREY
Visiting Scholar
Population Reference Bureau
Washington, D.C

BELA HOVY
Head of Statistics
Populations Division
United Nations
New York City

MEI-PO KWAN
Distinguished Professor
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ohio State University
Columbus

DAVID R. RAIN
Assistant Professor of Geography
George Washington University
Washington, D.C.

JONATHAN D. MAYER
Professor
Epidemiology, Geography, and International Health
University of Washington, and
Clinical Consultant
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Service
University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle

HAVIDÁN RODRÍGUEZ
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology
University of Delaware, and
Core Faculty Member
Disaster Research Center
Newark, Del.

B.L. TURNER II*
Milton P. and Alice C. Higgins Professor of Environment and Society, and Director, Graduate School of Geography
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.

JOHN. R. WEEKS
Professor of Geography, and
Director, International Population Center
San Diego State University
San Diego

TUKUFU ZUBERI
Lasry Family Endowed Professor of Race Relations, and Director, Center for African Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

ELIZABETH EIDE
Study Director

* Member, National Academy of Sciences

Day of Hope
Global News

Day of Hope brings you news and information about Hunger that is often missed by the Global News Media. Often times issues like hunger and poverty are overshadowed by political and environmental issues. While these are important issues in the media, we are simply missing the fact that everyday 29,000 children die of starvation and hunger related reasons.

Saint Patrick’s Day always makes me think about my Irish roots.  Many of my Irish Ancestor’s came to the United States during the famine that is called the ‘Great Hunger’.  Between 1846 and 1849 between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Irish men, women and children died from starvation, when the potato crop failed.  Potatoes were the mainstay of most of the poor farming families diet and it’s failure left them with almost nothing to eat. 

Most of their English neighbors continued life as if this desperate hunger and despair around them were non existant or an inconvenience. I always thought this was the most shocking aspect of the potato famine. 

Ireland was exporting an abundance of food to England during that time.  Export records prove that there was enough food in the land to prevent anyone from dying of starvation.  But millions suffered horribly, Two million left Ireland for better opportunities elsewhere and as many as a million more starved.  The Issues of Hunger and Poverty are complex and systemic. 

Now as then, Hunger is a Global epidemic that cannot be resolved by simply addressing the immediate issues of feeding the hungry and starving, although that must be done. A lasting solution involves a Global plan to not only feed those that hunger, but to recognize and change the systems that keep the poor trapped in poverty.  A truly Global solution will give the desperately poor the tools they need to attain self sufficiency.  This requires a plan that addresses the underlying causes and far reaching effects of poverty.

World Vision’s Child Sponsorship plan works in every nation it is offered.  World Vision meets with the community leaders to see what is needed to reach a level of self sustainability where they will not need any further financial help.  The ability of the community to sustain the gains it makes with World Vision’s help is the ultimate goal.

Usually those community goals include digging wells for reliable drinking water, and developing sanitation facilities. Access to medical care and Education are universally desired.  World Vision often teaches better farming methods or the use of hybrid seeds to increase crop production or to make the plants more resistant to drought or disease. Every community desires it’s children and families to have enough to eat and to have hope for the future.  World Vision gives the poor community the tools it needs and the dignity of helping themselves to bring about lasting change.

Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day and I saw this joke that demonstrates human nature so well.  I enjoyed it and wanted to
share it with you:

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking place.
Looking up to heaven he said, “Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday
for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!”

Miraculously, a parking place appeared.

Paddy looked up again and said, “Never mind, I found one.”  

I know that I’ve asked the Lord for help at one time or another and promised to help those less fortunate if he answered.  The joke above is funny because it has human nature totally pegged.  We all have the tendency to minimize the help that the Lord or others have given us, especially if it would obligate us in any way. I feel obliged to help the hungry poor by knowing my people were starving and not enough people cared enough to help them. 

Global Hunger can be helped and starvation should never happen. Click the Sponsor a Child Link on this website and you can help a child and his community help themselves.  World Vision works because they address the underlying causes of hunger and poverty on a global basis. What will tomorrow’s Global News Headlines and history say about the effort we put forth today?

The first episode was televised during the summer about six and a half years ago.  While channel surfing for something to watch, I caught the opening minutes of the pilot show as a group of 16 people were divided into 2 groups of 8 persons each.  They were told they would have to build their own shelter, fetch their own water and get their own food. The first season the survivors were given a small amount of rice, some canned food, a machete and a cooking pot or two.

Anything else they needed would have to be won in the luxury competition every week. They could win blankets, hammocks, a local trip with a meal or a shower, and food.

Every other competition was an elimination competition where one person from the losing tribe would be voted off by the  members of their own tribe. Sometimes it would be the weakest member who was keeping the tribe from winning the luxury competitions. Other times it would be the person who was hard to get along with. This is a huge part of the shows appeal. The German’s have a word schadenfraude which means taking pleasure at another person’s misfortunes. I definitely experience a guilty pleasure in watching a difficult person get voted off the island by their tribe.

I think the show is and was a fascinating look at society. For forty days these people only have the clothes on their backs, a few meager supplies which run out quickly, and any inner resources they brought with them. It is a lot like any society around the world, but with the veneer of manners and the support of loved ones stripped away.

After watching the show during the first season, one thing became increasingly clear to me: the team which won the early luxury competitions and received more food than the other competitor’s, went on to win more and more. While those who were hungry became lethargic, could not think clearly, and were unable to compete as well. A certain amount of inner ‘fire’ could propel a person forward, but they needed some protein and carbs if they were going to succeed.

Season three was in Africa. The teams were in a barren wasteland with a water supply so polluted it looked like mud with animal waste in it. They could boil the water and even then it’s appeal was limited. The survivors here had very little food and little chance of foraging more. This was the game where I got some insight about why the people in some parts of Africa don’t lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Hunger. After weeks of not getting enough to eat, these formerly healthy Americans were lying around all day with barely enough energy to draw water. They lacked creativity, stamina and hope.

The person who won the early luxury competitions for food went on to win food every week. The others did not stand a chance.

I continue to see ‘Survivor the TV series’, and ‘Survivor-the daily struggle to continue living in sub Sahara Africa’, as pieces of the same puzzle. Every day is a competition with the Western world winning the food, and the developing nations losing the challenge and remaining in desperate hunger.  They continue to live in a haze of lethargy, whose underlying cause is poor nutrition and constant hunger.

29,000 children leave our tribe every day.  They die from starvation and hunger related causes. We can help our weakest members to be able to compete in the luxury food competition. For them, the prize would be enough nutritious food to sustain their lives. To go from lethargy and no hope, to being able to have a future that includes enough food for them and their families. To have clean water, education and access to medical care. To hear the good news that Jesus loves them and cares for them.

World Vision is unique in that it attacks the root causes of poverty which trap many into a life of chronic hunger and despair.  World Vision’s Child Sponsorship plan takes the child and their community from desperate poverty and helps bring them to a place of sustainable development, where they no longer need financial help.  World Vision has annual audited financial statements and are excellent stewards of the resources entrusted to them. More than 87 cents of every dollar going to help the child and their community.     

The banner above takes you to a secure server and you can use your credit card to sponsor a child.  World Vision’s regular Child Sponsorship costs $30 month.  The Hope Child program which sponsors children in communities with a high incidence of AIDS is $35 a month. 

Using your Credit Card saves World Vision $12-18 a year in administrative and fundraising costs.  You can later change to another billing method if you prefer.     

The war to end Global Hunger is won feeding one person at a time.   Doing nothing (when you are able to), votes another weak member of our tribe, off the island. 

God Bless you for caring about these little ones.

 -Debi Kiontke

Day of Hope