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Water wells in Africa: a clear vision

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

It’s a winter afternoon about five hours south of N’Djamena, the capital of the north-central African nation of Chad, which means the temperature outside is hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

A young girl, maybe 10 years old, picks up a drinking glass and holds it to her lips. The liquid inside the glass is a dull yellowish beige, matching the sand underneath her feet. This is the water that her village has to offer, sourced from rainwater collected in a natural hole in the ground.

Despite the sweltering climate, water is not necessarily scarce here. A three-month rainy season provides a plentiful source of water, pooling above and below ground. But the other nine months see barely a drop fall from the sky. Without the infrastructure to collect and protect the natural rainwater, the villagers here are forced to make do with discolored, potentially dangerous groundwater to fulfill their basic needs for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, bathing and keeping livestock alive year-round.

“The people in these villages, they don’t really have any other choice but to drink this water,“ said Osman Dulgeroglu, CEO of the Embrace Relief Foundation. “They’ve drank this same water all their lives, as their parents and grandparents did. So it’s natural for them. Clean, drinkable water is a basic human right, but they don’t know that there is such a thing.”

In February 2022, Dulgeroglu was part of an Embrace Relief team that visited Chad to assess the progress made by the organization’s Clean Water Project, which has built or reconstructed 500 water wells in Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria since 2013, providing a reliable source of clean water to more than a half-million people.

On the ground, he and the Embrace Relief team spoke to villagers and community leaders, worked with engineers, and viewed 15 sites of abandoned water wells to be fixed up under Embrace Relief’s “Fountains of Hope” initiative. Thus far, Embrace Relief has funded the reconstruction of 50 non-functional wells, with plans to refurbish hundreds more.

A new or reconstructed well provides a safe source for multiple villages in this part of the world, turning opaque, brown water into clear, clean, drinkable water.

“We met with some of the people who are walking three, four, five hours a day to get water,” Dulgeroglu said. “It’s not a good situation. It’s dangerous on the roads, with wild animals and other things. Carrying 10 gallons of water is incredibly heavy, and they’re doing it over long distances. And often they’re drinking contaminated rainwater. Many people are losing their lives, children aren’t getting an education, all of these things, because they don’t see any alternative. In places like that, this is where we see the need.”

How many calories should I eat in a day?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Summary

  • What we eat every day is important for our health. But how much we eat is even more important.
  • Moderating the amount of calories we consume can have great long-term health benefits, so it can be useful to know what optimal portion sizes are for your meals.
  • Most of us in America are fortunate enough to be able to choose the healthiest foods when we need them – but not everyone in the world is.
  • Help Embrace Relief ease hunger around the world by donating to our International Hunger Relief campaigns, which support tens of thousands people each year in more than a dozen countries.

“How many calories should I eat in a day” is a question we all ask ourselves when we’re worried about our weight, or whether we’re getting enough protein, or whether we’re eating too many sweets.

Eating healthy foods, and the right amount of food each day, is one of the keys that can unlock a long life and help people avoid chronic health conditions like obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and weak bones and muscles.

But the answer to how many calories you need to eat will vary wildly based on a number of personal factors, including your age, sex, height, weight, physical activity level, and whether or not you are pregnant.

To maintain one’s body weight, the CDC recommends that an average adult man will need to consume between 2,000 and 3,000 calories per day, while the average adult woman should consume between 1,600 and 2,400 calories. You can find a rough guide to how many calories you require on the USDA’s Dietary Reference Intake calorie calculator.

But of course, those calorie counts should come through a balanced diet with a proper amount of fruits, vegetables, proteins, grains, dairy and oils. How much protein you eat in a day compared to how many fruits, vegetables and grains matters!

The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, for example, suggests that adults should be eating roughly the following amounts per week to maintain a balanced and healthy diet:

  • 25-to-30 ounces of meat, poultry and eggs;
  • 8-to-10 ounces of seafood;
  • 4-to-6 ounces of nuts, seeds and soy products;
  • 15-to-20 cups of vegetables;
  • 10-to-14 cups of fruit;
  • 40-to-60 ounces of grains (split between whole grains and refined grains); and
  • 21 cups of dairy

Experts say that fats should make up about 20 to 30 percent of your daily calorie intake, which comes out to roughly 50-to-70 grams of fat consumed per day. And it’s important to avoid too many sugary foods: regularly consuming more than 25 grams of sugar per day (for women) or 36 grams of sugar per day (for men) can cause long-term health issues.

Eating right and staying active will provide a lifetime’s worth of benefits, and will give you a clear path to health and longevity. That’s an attainable goal for most people in America, where nutritious food is plentiful and usually affordable.

But that’s not the case everywhere in the world.

According to the UN, nearly 700 million people worldwide are undernourished in 2023, and while that number has decreased since the height of COVID-19 in 2020-21, it is still a troubling increase since 2019. Approximately 140 million children under the age of 5 suffer from stunting (low height for one’s age), and 40 million children are affected by wasting (low body weight for one’s height) as a result of undernourishment.

Remember that 2,000-to-3,000-per-day calorie count recommended for healthy adult men? The global threshold for undernourishment is 1,800 calories per day for an adult man, which means at a minimum, undernourished people are consuming 200 fewer calories per day – a calorie deficit of 73,000 per year! Over time that means undernourished people have less energy to burn, and are more at risk for chronic health issues.

Humans produce more than enough food for everyone to eat healthy, reach their physical potential, and go on to live productive adult lives. Yet hunger persists around the globe due to conflict, climate change, structural poverty, and other ills.

Solving the problem will take time and a coordinated, worldwide effort. In the meantime, each of us can help lessen the burden for those people who are hungry right now.

Help feed people in need with Embrace Relief

That’s where the Embrace Relief Foundation comes in. Providing food to people in need around the world is a foundational part of our work. We support and operate food distributions throughout the year in dozens of countries, delivering much-needed nutritious food to people in need around the globe.

Our annual International Hunger Relief campaigns make the greatest impact: during our two International Hunger Relief 2023 campaigns alone, Embrace Relief delivered food packages and meat packages to more than 150,000 people in over 20 countries, from sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen, to Afghanistan and Indonesia, from Greece to the United States.

Easing hunger is a team effort, and we can’t do any of this without you. Donate to Embrace Relief’s Hunger Relief efforts in the box below and you can be part of the solution for the many millions of people living with hunger around the world. Your donation will support food distributions in one of the many countries we serve – and every dollar you donate makes a difference.

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

Donate For Hunger Relief

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What is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #5 on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson
In 2015, the United Nations adopted a list of 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG), providing targets for the world to meet by the year 2030 in order to ensure a livable, more equal planet. As March is Women’s History Month, there’s no better time of year to learn about UN SDG 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. The struggle for the fundamental human right of women’s equality has been going on for centuries, and progress has been slow but real in many parts of the world. However, we haven’t come far enough yet. Women around the world remain under-educated, under-paid and under-represented in leadership positions, compared to their male counterparts. True equality means unlocking the potential of billions of women around the world. It means giving women everywhere the education, skills and support they need to be healthy, productive and successful. And no matter your gender, everyone benefits when we empower women. Gender equality has been shown to promote better economic growth, a more educated society, a safer society, and a society where every single person can thrive. To make that world a reality, the UN and its member countries pledged to follow Sustainable Development Goal 5, which seeks to accomplish the following by 2030:
  • Ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
  • Eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
  • Eliminating all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
  • Recognizing and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, as well as the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
  • Ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
  • Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action
  • Undertaking reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
  • Enhancing the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
  • Adopting and strengthening sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

How Embrace Relief is helping to empower women

The Embrace Relief Foundation believes that the best way to impact the lives of individual girls and women is to provide them with the education and skills they need to join the workforce and grow into higher-level leadership positions. Monetary donations to our R.I.S.E. program – that stands for Reach. Inspire. Support. Educate. – go directly to tuition, health insurance, books, transportation and meals for dozens of women in Tanzania who are currently studying to earn diplomas in education management and administration and school inspection. Our current program provides 24 women with the financial tools they need to complete a two-year course and earn diplomas in Education Management and Administration (DEMA) and School Inspection (DSI). This program aims to lift the burden of financial difficulties related to continuing education. Those that graduate with a degree in Educational Management will be empowered with the knowledge and skills they need to improve the education system and compete in a male-dominated labor market. Through increasing the number of quality assurers and education officers, our partnership works to improve the education conditions in Tanzania. But we can’t do any of this without you. So please, donate today. With every $100 donated to R.I.S.E., you are empowering one more woman to unleash her potential, making her life – and the world – better for it.

What is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #2 on Zero Hunger?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

In 2015, the United Nations adopted a list of 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG), providing targets for the world to meet by the year 2030 in order to ensure a livable, more equal planet.

Food is a human right and a fundamental building block of life. And on a planet that produces more than enough food for us all to eat, hunger should be an afterthought. Unfortunately, it’s not.

According to the UN, nearly 700 million people worldwide were undernourished in 2019, and it is estimated that that number has risen significantly following the instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 144 million children under the age of 5 suffer from stunting (low height for one’s age), and 47 million children are affected by wasting (low body weight for one’s height) as a result of undernourishment.

Reaching Zero Hunger is one of the most important ways we can improve human life and allow for sustainable development worldwide, and that is why it has a prominent place as Sustainable Development Goal #2. Because the biggest causes of world hunger – climate change, conflicts, declines in agricultural production – are structural, international cooperation by the UN and its member countries can make the biggest difference in ending world hunger. By pledging to follow SDG 2, they seek to accomplish the following by 2030:

  • Ending hunger and ensuring access by all people, in particular the poor and those living in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food year-round
  • Ending all forms of malnutrition and meeting and addressing the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and older people
  • Doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, particularly women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, by making land secure and accessible and by utilizing other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services and markets
  • Ensuring sustainable food production systems and implementing resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, help maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters, and that progressively improve land and soil quality
  • Maintaining the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the regional, national and international levels, and promoting access to and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge

How Embrace Relief is helping feed people in need

The Embrace Relief Foundation has made it part of our mission to provide food to people in need. During our International Hunger Relief Campaign: Ramadan 2021, Embrace Relief delivered food packages to more than 30,000 people across 12 countries, including more than 1,300 in Greece, more than 1,100 in Yemen, and hundreds more families in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We also helped out locally, delivering food to 900 neighboring families in New Jersey.

For our International Hunger Relief Campaign 2022, we want to do so much more, and your support can make that possible. Donating any amount of money will make a difference – the amounts below represent the cost of one food package that will feed a family for one week:

  • $50 for refugees in Greece
  • $50 for families in the U.S.
  • $65 for Yemeni families
  • $25 for African children

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

Donate Now!

SDG 6: What is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #6 on Clean Water and Sanitation?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

In 2015, the United Nations adopted a list of 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG), providing targets for the world to meet by the year 2030 in order to ensure a livable, more equal planet.

With World Water Day (March 22) nearing on the calendar, it’s a good time to focus on UN SDG 6, “Clean Water and Sanitation.”

It goes without saying that water is crucial for all of us. We need it to drink, to stay clean, to grow food. Unfortunately, the reality is that there are billions of people – one out of every three worldwide, in fact – who do not have easy access to a source of clean, drinkable water. This has a number of harmful effects, including increased disease from contaminated water and unhygienic behaviors, long and dangerous journeys by foot (usually by women and children) to acquire clean water, less agriculture production, and many others.

Solving the clean water crisis will produce healthier people and societies, promote economic growth, support women’s rights, and those benefits will be felt around the world. That’s why the UN and its member countries have signed to Sustainable Development Goal 6, which seeks to accomplish the following by 2030:

  • Achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
  • Achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
  • Improve water quality by reducing pollution and minimizing the release of hazardous chemicals into the water supply
  • Increase water-use efficiency and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of fresh water to address scarcity
  • Implement integrated water-resource management, including across national borders
  • Protect and restore water-related ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
  • Expand international cooperation and build capacity in developing countries for water- and sanitation-related programs

Join our Roundtable Discussion Series and learn how you can help

This is just an introduction to SDG 6. How we achieve these goals is a much more complicated question. To help answer that question and promote a deeper understanding of the clean water and sanitation crisis, Embrace Relief is excited to be holding the first event in its Roundtable Discussion Series on Tuesday, March 22, at 10 a.m. EST.

Titled “Sustainable Fresh Water Systems During COVID-19,” this is a free, streaming-online event (sign-up required at the link above) featuring expert speakers from the world of academia and governments. They’ll discuss the current clean-water conditions in different parts of the world, the challenges faced in overcoming the crisis, and propose novel solutions to provide a better, more equitable future.

Help us provide clean water to those in need

In addition to our Roundtable Discussion Series event, Embrace Relief is working on the ground in Africa to help deliver clean water to people who need it.

To date, our Clean Water program has funded the construction of 450 water wells in the African nations of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria. Additionally, through our “Fountains of Hope” program, we have located, reconstructed, and reopened 50 out-of-use wells. Altogether, our work has meant that more than 500,000 people now have an accessible source of clean water that previously didn’t exist.

But our job is far from finished, and now we need your support. Donate today to Embrace Relief’s Clean Water program to help us ensure that as many people as possible have access to this vital resource. You can make a huge difference in the lives of real people with just one click.

How much would it cost to end world hunger?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Summary

  • Why does hunger exist and why is it so widespread around the world?
  • Estimates of the cost to end world hunger show a high price tag – but one that could be more than made up by the productivity and happiness we would unlock by ensuring that no one goes hungry.
  • Read on to learn how you can support Embrace Relief’s efforts to help hungry people around the world through our International Hunger Relief campaigns.

We have the solutions to the world hunger crisis. Humans produce more than enough food to feed every single person on Earth. Yet the UN World Food Programme estimates that more than 700 million people worldwide live with hunger, and nearly one-fifth of the world’s 200+ countries are at risk for famine.

There are many reasons why hunger continues to persist. They include ongoing events: conflict is a main driver, with more than 60 percent of people affected by hunger living in active conflict zones, while climate change and natural disasters account for a number of acute hunger crises. And there are structural reasons that require action from everyone in society, like poverty and inequality.

The bottom line is that an adequate supply of food is a human right, and we must do all we can to ensure that no one goes to bed hungry, no matter what the cost.

And in fact, the cost might be less than you think.

A study produced in Germany suggests that the cost of ending world hunger within the next 10 years amounts to about $330 billion – $33 billion per year, spread between all the world’s countries. That money, the study says, would go towards increased social aid for poorer people, technological investments to improve agricultural production, and education in training.

While $330 billion may sound like a lot, the cost of not spending money to end world hunger is much steeper: human suffering, increased conflict, and political and economic instability lasting generations.

We can stop world hunger if we choose to. But while the world figures out long-term solutions, there are still people who need our help right now.

At Embrace Relief, we’ve made it part of our mission to provide food to people in need. Our work spans the globe, and takes place throughout the calendar year. During our two monthlong International Hunger Relief Campaigns in 2023 alone, Embrace Relief delivered food packages, hot meals, and meat packages to more than 150,000 people! Our work aided hungry people in more than 20 countries on five continents – from sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen, to Afghanistan and Indonesia, from Greece to the United States.

Easing hunger is a team effort, and we can’t do any of this without you. Donate to Embrace Relief’s Hunger Relief efforts in the box below and you can be part of the solution for the many millions of people living with hunger around the world. Your donation will support food distributions in one of the many countries we serve – and every dollar you donate makes a difference.

So please, donate today. Every contribution you make helps one more family go to bed on a full stomach, and brings us one small step closer to ending world hunger.

Donate For Hunger Relief

$
Donate Now

International Women’s Day

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

International Women’s Day 2022: A brief history, and continuing the fight for women’s equality

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day 2022, a day when millions come together to promote and reflect on the progress made by women around the world in achieving economic, political, educational and social equality.

Women have been fighting for equal rights for hundreds of years, but International Women’s Day itself was born in 1909. After a series of protest marches in support of voting rights and better working conditions,”National Women’s Day” was declared in America on Feb. 28, 1909. The idea of a day dedicated to the struggle for women’s equality quickly spread worldwide, and in 1914, the organizers of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. and Europe declared March 8 as International Women’s Day.

The women’s rights movement of the 1910s achieved enormous steps towards equality, most famously giving women the right to vote in numerous countries, including the United States in 1920. But it took until the next wave of activists, who emerged in the 1960s and 70s, for International Women’s Day to become a truly global event.

The United Nations observed the holiday for the first time in 1975, and asked all nations to set aside one day each year to honor the struggle for women’s equality: in the U.S., that’s March 8.

To this day, International Women’s Day remains a day of celebration, activism and awareness. Though the fight for equality has resulted in significant progress, it is by no means finished. Women are still not equally represented at the highest levels of political and societal leadership, and they still face a wage gap compared to men. And around the world, there is a significant inequality in education: far more young girls never step foot inside of a classroom than young boys, and those that do face significant barriers to learning.

Women’s education is one of the foundational elements of building a more equal society. Studies show that in developing areas of the world where women and girls receive higher levels of education, the results are an enormous positive for society: individuals see brighter prospects for social and economic advancement, while communities with high rates of educated girls are less prone to poverty, exploitation and violence.

In short: when a society empowers women with the knowledge and skills they need to achieve great things and lead productive lives, we all benefit.

Embrace Relief: Supporting education for women

At the Embrace Relief Foundation, we’ve taken this lesson to heart, and we’re asking you to help.

Our “R.I.S.E.” program – that stands for Reach. Inspire. Support. Educate. – provides support for women seeking either to further their education or to gain the skills they need for higher-level leadership positions.

Monetary donations to our R.I.S.E. program go directly to tuition, health insurance, books, transportation and meals for dozens of women in Tanzania who are currently studying to earn diplomas in education management and administration and school inspection.

Our current program provides 24 women with the financial tools they need to complete a two-year course and earn diplomas in Education Management and Administration (DEMA) and School Inspection (DSI).

This program aims to lift the burden of financial difficulties related to continuing education. Those that graduate with a degree in Educational Management will be empowered with the knowledge and skills they need to improve the education system and compete in a male-dominated labor market. Through increasing the number of quality assurers and education officers, our partnership works to improve the education conditions in Tanzania.

But we can’t do any of this without you.

So please, donate today. With every $100 donated to R.I.S.E., you are empowering one more woman to unleash her potential, making her life – and the world – better for it.

Donate Now!

How much water should you drink in a day?

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Summary

  • The human body cannot function without water, and knowing how much water you need to function is crucial.
  • A water intake calculator can give you a good target for how much you should drink in a given day.
  • But it’s also important to acknowledge that hundreds of millions of people around the world don’t have the luxury of having easy access to clean water, like we do.
  • You can help change this by supporting Embrace Relief’s Clean Water Initiative, which has built water wells providing clean water to more than a half-million people!

How much water should you drink in a day? The short answer is there’s no magic number. The classic recommendation for the average person is to drink eight glasses of water or other liquids staggered throughout each day as part of a healthy lifestyle. That amount is roughly equivalent to:

  • Two liters,
  • 60 to 70 ounces, or
  • Four standard 16-ounce bottles.

Combined with water we get from the food we eat, that is typically enough to keep the average person properly hydrated. But the proper amount of water can vary significantly, based on:

  • Your age,
  • Your gender,
  • Your activity level,
  • Your body type,
  • Your metabolism, or even
  • Your location/climate.

A water intake calculator can help determine the optimal amount of daily water consumption for you. But the “recommended” amount of water is just an estimate: a much simpler way to know whether you’re drinking enough water is to pay attention to your body. It sends a number of signals that inform you if you’re properly hydrated. The color of your urine is one key indicator: if it’s darker-colored, you are likely dehydrated; if it’s consistently clear, you may be over-hydrated. Fatigue, headaches and muscle cramps can also be a sign of both dehydration or overhydration. If your water intake is off either way, your body will let you know.

Why is it so important to drink enough water? Because water makes just about every part of our body function properly. Water helps blood flow to our major organs, it regulates our body temperature, it’s vital for digestion, it lubricates the joints of our limbs, it prevents kidney damage, it gives us clean and beautiful skin, and it aids in weight loss. Chronic dehydration can be devastating to the fragile human body. In America, where we’re fortunate to have abundant clean water, maintaining proper hydration is as simple as turning on a faucet. But for more than two billion people worldwide, and especially in parts of the world like sub-Saharan Africa, clean and accessible drinking water is no guarantee.

In many areas of Africa, contaminated and poor-quality water sources force people to choose between drinking water that could contain waterborne diseases like cholera and dysentery, or not drinking enough water and facing the impact of chronic dehydration and thirst. In other areas, the nearest water source requires a long-distance journey by foot to get through the day. There is enough clean water in Africa for every single person to live a healthy and productive life free from thirst. Finding it and making it available to all is at the heart of the Embrace Relief Foundation’s work.

How you can help provide clean water

With your support, Embrace Relief has funded the construction of 450 new water wells, and the reconstruction of 50 pre-existing water wells, in the African nations of Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. These wells are providing water to more than 500,000 people for at least the next five years.

Donating to Embrace Relief’s Clean Water Fund and its “Fountains of Hope” project is the single-best way to ensure that thousands of people will get the water they need.

But there are more ways for you to help Embrace Relief fight the clean water crisis. On Saturday, June 25, we will be hosting our inaugural H2Ow Far Can You Walk: 5K Walkathon at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. This family-friendly event is open to people of all ages and abilities, and will help raise awareness and money for building and rebuilding water wells in Africa.

Every dollar donated during our 5K Walkathon will provide more than 2,000 gallons of clean, drinkable water for those in need.