This is a story about Oscar Argueta who has enough ambition to make important contributions to the city of Mount Pleasant, Ill., to the region and his hometown of San Luis Jilotepeque in Guatemala.
Global health journalist Sam Loewenberg is passionate about his work. But if you really want to get a rise out of him, ask him to talk about how media organizations treat freelance journalists trying to do serious journalism.
Cook Stoves Save Lives: Why Hillary Clinton's new indoor stove initiative will help stop global warming
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $50 million in seed money to supply fuel efficient indoor stoves for women in Africa. When you think of the mega-billions that are spent on endless wars, it's refreshing to see that what the DOD would consider chump change is being earmarked for a worthy project that will save tens of millions of lives, improve the health of millions more—and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Our children shouldn’t live this way.
They shouldn’t have to play at contaminated abandoned industrial sites because their neighborhoods have no green space. They shouldn’t be at risk of dying before their first birthday because the color or their skin makes getting health care difficult. They shouldn’t go to schools where there is no learning and where their parents’ greatest hope is that they don’t join a gang or get attacked.
Xóchitl Castañeda is project director of the California-Mexico Health Initiative, a University of California initiative that coordinates and optimizes health resources for Mexican immigrants and their families in California through collaboration, education and training efforts. Castañeda previously served as a professor and researcher for seven years at Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, where she also directed the Department of Reproductive Health. In 1999, she received the National Research Award on Social Science and Medicine.
Kenneth Brown's research program focuses on the causes, complications, treatment and prevention of childhood malnutrition in low-income countries. A physician as well as a nutrition expert, Dr. Brown previously directed the UC Davis Program in International Nutrition. He can talk about issues of child feeding (breast feeding and complementary feeding), relationships between infection and nutrition, and specific nutrient deficiencies. He is conducting research in those subjects in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Hermano Carlos Arana, a native of Guatemala, is a curandero, or healer, and espiritista, uses candles and prayers to cure believers of their ills, whether they are caused by sickness, bad luck or love problems. He is a proprietor of Botanica y Templo San Simon de los Llanos, where he hosts a yearly celebration and procession for San Simon.
