GCE & MDGs: How Do They Relate to Me?

GN (2012)

Introduction/Term 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger Achieve Universal Primary Education

Term 2: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Improve Maternal Health

Term 3: Reduce Child Mortality Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Term 4: Ensure Environmental Sustainability Develop A Global Partnership for development

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INTRODUCTION
In 2000, the United Nations held a summit to discuss what the UN has been doing at the turn of the century. Three days later, the UN made 8 Millennium Development Goals. 189 countries agreed to work together towards accomplishing these goals. These goals are to be accomplish by the year of 2015. The 8 MDGs are the following: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnership for development The goals that the UN have set are very broad, but the UN also set targets that they want to accomplish and certain indicators that will allow them to track the progress they are making on the MDGs. In the making of this publication, we explored the meaning of MDGs on a local, national, and international levels. We divided this publication into 8 sections for each MDG. There are three different forms of work throughout the whole publication: a review on an article connected to the MDG, a Local or Country profile on how an MDG is being achieved, and a poem relating to an MDG. We also created illustrations and graphs to help you understand the texts. Throughout the time it took to make this project, our class learned a lot about MDGs and how they are affecting the world. By working on these projects, we all learned about the struggles people are having in the world. We learned by doing these projects that maybe we have to make the change to make the world a better place.

Eradicate Extreme Hunger & Poverty

MDGs 1 is about finding ways to get rid of extreme poverty and hunger. Extreme poverty is the most severe state of poverty. It is when many cannot meet their basic need, which can include food, shelter, and health care. There are many ways this target is being achieved. Governments and private organizations are tackling this issue with distributions of food and raising the employment rate.

1.Eradicate Extreme Hunger & Poverty

More than 1 billion people are hungry in the world by: Abhijit Banerjee, Estar Duflo Publication:Foreign policy Date:May/June 2011 Location: Global The main issue the article addresses is that all around the world people go to sleep hungry each day. Also relating to what is called a poverty trap. The factors that led up to this predicament in poor countries are hot, infertile, and landlocked areas. This would make it hard to grow crops. The little crops grown, the higher the prices. I can see this article in my everyday life because there are people just walking around in the streets asking for money for food. This relates to the water course because without water, crops cannot be grown, leading to hunger. This article does not propose any solutions because they feel people aren't hungry ,they just dont eat healthy foods. People also feel that its the poors fault that they are hungry because they'd rather have a TV than food. They believe the people arent really starving, they think they have enough calories each day to survive. One solution I have is trying to raise money to start feeding people locally, and globally. I like helping people, so if there was an event that would contribute to ending the problem, I would most likely volunteer to help.

GN(2012)
A bowl of soup represented this MDG best, because usually when we think of food we think of a bowl.

Article of the Week-KG

Eradicate Extreme Hunger & Poverty

This Local Profile shows how one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is being pursued in Chicago. MDG 1.3 aims to ensure that Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. (U.N. Target 2015 Plan) To show how this Goal is being addressed in Chicago, I made a graph of local statistics, interviewed an expert on the issue, and analyzed an excerpt from the news on the Goal. The graph to the right shows the food insecurity percentages in Cook County. 16.1% of the people in Cook County are insecure when it comes to where their food will come from. That is a lot of people, considering all people who live in the county. This shows that while there are people who can provide food for themselves, there are still people who cannot provide food for themselves because of issues they face. This graph relates to my topic because it shows that people have food security. In Chicago, many people don't know where their next meal is coming from. On September 7, 2012 NPR did a news report about a Panera Caf program called Panera Cares. In the article, they do not talk about the program meeting MDG 1.3 but it focuses on how it helps middle and lower class families with food insecurity. The Panera Cares is a normal Panera Caf but, instead of having cash registers, they have donation boxes. People are usually confused when they see these. There is a suggested donation that goes with each item but if you donate less or nothing, its fine. They are funded completely by donations and if they receive extra, the funds go to local charities. Panera Cares relates to MDG 1.3 because it makes the community aware of food insecurity in their area and it allows common people to change where other people get their next meal. I interviewed an expert on MDG 1.3. Her name is Keisha Watson. She is a board member of The Night Ministry. The Night Ministry is a nonprofit organization that is all about providing housing, food, healthcare, and connections to people who suffer with poverty and/or homelessness. Ms. Watson did not know what MDGs were. When I asked Ms. Watson if she had experienced anything like this project before, she said she never experienced what they were been doing. She said, I have never experienced such an amazing thing. We offer so much for people we don't really know. It really has a great effect on the community. When I asked about the people they help and their access to local resources, she said that a lot of people in the community don't have access to local resources because of money issues that interfere with their lives. After my interview and research, I have found that most of the ways that hunger is being resolved in Chicago, is not by the government but by private groups and charities. The fact that the government isn't trying to help solve this huge problem is probably why many people in Chicago are suffering with hunger. That is why the problem is still becoming harder to solve. After doing this work with MDG 1.3, I see the people of Chicago are taking more steps towards fighting hunger while the government doesnt really care so I see that the government is failing in solving this issue. Now that I know more about how hunger is being solved, I can contribute to solutions to get rid of it in Chicago and in my world.

Project as Action-JM

2. Achieve Universal Primary Education

The second MDG focuses on making sure that everyone is able to complete full primary school for every boys and girls. The way we talked about this MDG, is by writing a local profile that shows the local issues of education.

2. Achieve Universal Primary Education

"I interviewed David A. Jackson, Senior Investigative Reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Pulitzer Prize Winner. The questions that I asked Dave were How do your stories relate to MDGs and what type of writing do you do on the problems of education in Chicago and beyond? Over the past two decades, my work as a reporter has been an effort to expose corruption, injustice and human suffering. In general, the goals of my work are not derived from the MDGs but can be thought of as complementary. However, I am currently working on an investigative project that relates directly to one of the MDGs achieving universal primary education. This project seeks to examine the lives of youth in K-8th grade who miss months and even years of elementary school, and to understand the impact of their absence on them, on schools and society. How do you think kids will get a better education in Chicago when the public school teachers are/were on strike? There is a great deal of dispute about whether the strike helped or hurt students. Both the teachers union and the administration claim that helping student was their primary objective and goal. How do you think teachers reacted when people asked them specific questions about if they will go back to teach? Teachers generally did their best to express their views about the strike. The views of teachers who were quoted varied widely. Teachers were trying in general to defend the union's decision to strike, and give voice to concerns and anger they felt about and conditions in public school classrooms. How do you think we can get teachers to put more time and effort to teach the kids? Teaching is a profession that draws idealistic people, but in order to sustain a career, teachers must be fairly compensated and also valued by society as a whole.

BKJ(2012)

Project as Action-AH

3. PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY & EMPOWER WOMEN

MDG 3 focuses more on promoting gender equality and empowering women. The hope is to eliminate gender differences in primary and secondary education, employ women at an equal wage as men, and to have an equal proportion of women in government positions. The way we tackled this MDG was by writing a country profile that covered the topic.

PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY & EMPOWER WOMEN

In a recent conversation I had with Elenanoria, she said, "Where I grew up is very much like Chicago. You have people who are well dressed and you see people begging for money on the streets." She informed me that when she went to school, all of her classes had half and half, boys and girls. I also discovered that if a student attends their neighborhood school, the student has to advance into the next grade, even if they don't understand the material they're learning. There is no such thing as failing. I think there wouldn't be any benefits of going to a school such as this one because this student wouldn't really have a future full of opportunities. These students who aren't understanding the material being taught, are advancing to the next grade, but they aren't a step ahead. In my opinion equality can vary in definition depending on the subject of the matter or the situation its placed in. I think equality means to have a balance between things. I think equality, in this case, means that both genders, male and female, have the same amount of respect and opportunities. After gathering all of my information, I've discovered that Brazil has been contributing to promote gender equality, especially in education.

Country Profile Portion-KG LF(2012)

BKJ(2012)

PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY & EMPOWER WOMEN

Today gender equality in Taiwan is great compared to what it was in the past. For example if it wasn't for one law that was put in place in 1997, Taiwan could be a complete different country. That one law was called Moe; a law that makes school put 4 hours of gender equality education a semester. In an article I found online called Going To School In East Asia had a really great paragraph that stood out to me about the Moe Act. Ministry of Education (MOE) also stressed globalization in higher education. Taiwan followed the world trend of higher education globalization, redirected the aim of education toward market-oriented. Lessening government control and integrating social demand with market forces, Taiwanese education in the 1990s has been influenced by globalization to a great extent. Also, began in 2003,MOE started to promote a World Class Research University project, proposing to upgrade at least one of the universities in Taiwan be ranked among the top 100 leading international institutions of higher education within the next 10 years. Universities are required to establish a system of evaluation using methods as the SCI, SSCI, and the EI, or to be in accordance with the standards that meet international recognition for awards, achievements, and contributions within their field of expertise. In 2005, MOE granted NT$50 billion (equals US$1.56 billion) to 12 universities in the following five years to empower their research capacity to reach the world class level. That might not seem like a lot, but compared to nothing a year, it is a good change. Since then, education for girls and women have increased dramatically. This has not only changed education dramatically but this has changed life completely. For example parents in Taiwan always wanted to have boys instead of girls so they could not only carry their family name but so they can own any of the family property in the future. Below please view my maps that I created that shows us how much gender equality improves, as the country gets darker and darker as years go by. You can see in map one the Taiwan is lightly highlighted, that is because, female participation in primary education in 1950 was at its all time low at 39 percent. As years go by you can see that in map to, the shade of the country gets darker, and thats because, it jumped a remarkable 10 percent in 21 years. As we get to the present, it has gotten very dark because Taiwan was able to keep that percentage of 48 for about 4 decades.

Country Profile-MML

4. MATERNAL HEALTH
The purpose MDG 5 is to improve maternal health. The goal to improve maternal health includes reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and achieving universal to reproductive health care. We completed an interview with a local expert and written in a country profile for MDG 5.

MATERNAL HEALTH
Title: Maternal Deaths Decline Sharply Across the Globe Author: Denise Grady Date: April 13, 2010 Publisher: New York Times Where: Several Countries Fewer women are dying while giving birth, it went from 526,300 in 1980 to 342,900 in 2008 that is good but I feel that is still way too high. The reason women are dying while giving birth is because most doctors charge way too much and some women can't afford to pay for the doctors to deliver their baby or maybe there are difficulties that doctors cant fix. I can connect this with my life because in the article the unnamed sources planned how to give the news and sometimes you have to give bad news or good news but you have to think of how to tell someone because you never know their reaction. I can connect this to my GCE Water course we are studying the pH in water. I can connect this to the article because if a pregnant woman swims in water that has a dangerous pH level, it might affect the birth process. The article states solutions to solve the problem such as: - lower pregnancy rates - higher income - more education for women - the increased availability of skilled attendants but in my opinion, I think they should make doctors cheaper so pregnant women can safely give birth. Something that we could do is start a worldwide petition to make the doctors cheaper and more affordable and maybe we will achieve our goal.

LF(2012) Article of the Week-BKJ

5. REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

The purpose of MDG 4 is to reduce child mortality. The UN is working towards reducing two-thirds of the childs mortality rate of kids under five by 2015 .The way we learned this MDG was by writing a country profile that covered the topic.

REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

Zambia: 'Women, Child Mortality to Reduce' Author:Catherine Nyirenda Publication: Date:October 10, 2012 Location:Zambia Child mortality are attributable to many causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. These deaths occur mainly in developing country. A Chadian child is more likely to die by his fifth birthday. The majority of these death are preventable. Malnutrition, lack of clean water and sanitation contribute to these child deaths. There are many solutions to this issue: improving family care, increasing access to water and sanitation. We need to helps strengthen policies and budgets and support technical capacities in programmes for hygiene promotion, sanitation, cost-effective water supply options and water quality, particularly for poor rural and urban families. These activities also aim toward fulfilling Millennium. This target is related with my water class, we learned about how the lack of access to water is affecting the world.While living in Africa, i have witness many kids dying from the easiest disease to cure. Once, this kid died because he got scratched, his wound got infected and it got swollen and he choked.

LF(2012) Article of the Week-GN

6. COMBAT HIV/AIDS AND OTHER DISEASES

MDG 6 is about fighting diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases in the world. For many of the diseases, it includes making treatment available for everyone. One way this MDG is being achieved is by the South African government making the AIDS/HIV treatment available to everyone. It is still hard for people to get the drugs because the centers are so far from each other. We've demonstrated this is by writing poems in groups and creating illustrations that help interpret its' meaning.

COMBAT HIV/AIDS AND OTHER DISEASES

Annan Bemoans Efforts to Combat HIV/AIDS Liz Neisloss Thursday, June 2, 2005 Sunday, October 14, 2012 Global The main issue in this article is that the director from the UNAIDS organization Peter Piot thinks that leaders of this world need to pay attention to this epidemic as if it was a threat or a crisis. Mr. Piot said that there is a funding gap with HIV/Aids and the gap have hit billions of dollars. He feels like things that have lead up to this are programs that are not efficient enough to help the people in need. Not only that but the money that is owed to people that need treatment have not been paid. I feel like I see this in my life in a lot of ways from education in Chicago to gender equality in Taiwan. You can see this in education in Chicago because multiple public school do not offer programs that are needed for students and that must change. You can see this in gender equality in Taiwan because women were not and still not be in some cases the most favored gender in the country because of multiple personal things from keeping the family name to being able to keep the family house. This shows that things that need to change that are extremely big need to be changed immediately. This connects to my Spanish class because we are studying not only our neighborhood but also other that we live around. During this process, I have bumped into a lot of history taken place that has showed to consistent help. For example, people felt like they had the need to move out of their house because of factories put around them, they tried to keep their neighborhood clean by taking actions with the city, but it never worked out. Solutions to that article have proposed is to connect with the UN to try to get some world leaders to start new programs, which have succeeded. There are great treatment programs in Brazil, Cambodia, and Thailand. Personally, I feel like the organization need to take it in their own hands and try to get in contact with some leaders that they have connected to in the past like Brazil, Cambodia, and Thailand. I feel like some skills I can offer are helping contact other leaders by emailing, letters, calling, etc.

GN(2012)

Article of the Week-MML

COMBAT HIV AIDS AND OTHER DISEASES

For our MDGs Unit 3 Action Project, we wrote a poem and created an illustration to educate others about a target and indicator. We chose MDG 6, Target 6.B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS . We pulled information from four sources, the world factbook (HIV/AIDS - ADULT PREVALENCE RATE, 2009), the World Health Organization (10 facts on HIV/AIDS,2011), and Avert website (Universal Access to AIDS Treatment: Targets and Challenges, 2011). We hope you enjoy our poetry and illustration. As individuals lets stand and fight Get tested before its too late and Spread the message HIV is real AIDS is deadly But both can be prevented

HIV a silent killer its a leech that latches to your body and grasps you it sucks away your humanity Its not easy to cure It becomes your shadow once you get it It follows you forever and gets emotionally attached

HIV is what you will get AIDS is what comes next 6.65 million people have access to antiretroviral therapy but 7 million are still in need of it 26% adults in Swaziland are infected and that is the highest percentage in the world Millions of people die each day in the world we will find a cure and we will win the war Tell the world we will find a cure and we will win this was

Project as Action-MY

7. ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

MDG 7 is about environmental sustainability which includes getting more clean water and sanitation, reverse the loss of biodiversity, improve the live of 100 million people who live in slums. This is being achieved by private groups such as Truck Farm because they are planting natural farm plants which helps sustain natural biodiversity. The way we talked about this MDG is through writing reviews on articles that were written focusing on MDG 7.

Environmental Sustainability
For this Weekly Prep, I chose to focus on the topic of environmental sustainability, which is MDG target 7. I found an article written on October 19, 2012 by Angela Bender. This article is titled Naperville Living and it discusses two families who are working together on their homes in Naperville and how they are taking it upon themselves to have an environmentally friendly households. The issue this article speaks to is the eagerness to help the environment. One of the houses is home to man named Andrew Close, who has been in solar energy since he was young. When he met up with the other family the article focuses on, they decided to help each other out and learn from each other, seeing as they were both interesting in green homes. Close learned much from the Illinois Solar Energy Association, discovering other ways of turning his home green, for example replacing regular light bulbs with LEDs. The article describes the process of putting in solar panels as being relatively simple, Close said that having solar panels installed was no different than taking on any other home improvement building project. The installer took care of getting the permits and inspections while the Closes got the project approved by their homeowners association. And less than a year after they moved into their home, the Close family had 14 panels sitting completely flush on the roof in the back of their house. This shows that it really isn't too much work! I always think the environmentally friendly way is the better way, and I am interested in looking into this project more, maybe for my house when I'm old enough to have one.

BKJ(2012)

Article of the Week-LF

8. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

MDG 8 focuses on developing a fair, global economy, addressing the needs of the least developed countries like small islands. For this goal we did a field experience to the global world concern. We also wrote reviews that focuses on that MDG.

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

Reflection on Global Concern
Going to global concern convention was an exceptional experience. It was both entertaining and educational.The global concern convention taught me a lot about global cooperation and collaboration. in the beginning of the workshop there was a sense of competition. This is comparable to the real world. Students are always hearing comments about how advanced the Chinese are and how they should weigh against another. This experience was supposed to teach me about collaboration and cooperation. We took many steps into accomplishing our presentation. We nominated someone with experience that had taken part in these similar activities. We believed that by eliminating a specific issue, it will formulate a base. With the currency left, we erected a program that will strengthen health care. Overall, everyone in my group had a voice. Everyone was opened to new ideas and learning from each others point of views. We had great collaboration and cooperation. Cooperation was an important factor in our group, and as a result we had increasing productivity. Because of our agreement and coordination we were able to accomplish a great plan and presentation on global issues concerning water and health care.

GN(2012) Reflection-GN