Drone Ranger

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a large game reserve near Mount Kenya in Kenya. It has a lot of various wildlife, including black rhinos (which are endangered), white rhinos, elephants, leopards, lions and chimpanzees. These animals need protection from poachers and crime syndicates because many of them are prized for their qualities like ivory. However, Ol Pejeta Conservancy has only 190 rangers, and only 40 of those are armed. The criminals are heavily armed and like to focus their criminal activities on privately-owned game reserves. As you might think, security is expensive for these parks and not all of them can afford it. In response to their need for better protection, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy is planning to try something new to provide security to their wildlife. This innovation is unmanned aerial drones. The drones will help monitor and the wildlife at the park. They will also be monitoring any poachers that might be visiting the park. Do you think the unmanned drones will help provide additional protection?

Sleeping Sickness

          Sleeping Sickness is a vector borne parasitic disease. Caused by two germs, protazoa, and trypanosomoa brucei gambiense. It is always spread by animal or bug bites but it is unoften to happen through blood transfusion or across the placenta. The tsetse fly, the cause of sleeping sickness, is found in Africa and only in Africa. The fly comprises three groups of different species; Glossin Fusca or forest tsetse, G. palpalis or riverine tsetse, and G. morsitans or savannah tsetse. When exposed to sleeping sickness,  the disease will be in rural areas and will depend on fishing , agriculture, animal husbandry, and or hunting. Would you experiment with these flies?

Drones in Africa

Animal poaching is a big problem in Africa and it has been a long hard road to figure out what to do. Many people think they have found the solution, unmanned drones. The drones are capable of protecting many animals. However, the animal the focus in is the rhino.The rhino is a commonly poached animal because of its tusks. Although, it might seem like an animal that can protect itself it really does not stand a chance against a gun. That's where the drones come in. They keep a camera on them so if one of them gets poached they know where and when and can find the people. However, this doesn't solve all the problems of poaching, but it's a good start! What do you think about drones stopping poachers?

MALAWI

WOW, that must be really hard for kids to sit on dirt or cement floors for 7 hours a day 5 days a week. I would hate going to school I probably not even go to school because of how hard it would be to concentrate or learn anything at that. The kids were so exited when they saw the desks it was like Christmas to those kid there faces lit up with joy that they got on the truck and unloaded the desks there selves.

Sleeping Sickness

Around 20% of Africa has the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly is the main culprit for the sleeping sickness. This disease is very deadly if u don't discover it soon enough.  Additionally, it is possible that you could die in the next 6 months. If this fly that is infected bites cattle, then the cattle will die.  Most of the time the tsetse fly is not infected with the disease.  The deathly parasites are carried by the tsetse fly.  Furthermore, this disease is so populated that it is found in 36 countries of the saharan Africa.  This disease is very deadly and dangerous how would you handle it?

six months spent in sudan

Doctors without borders offer medical care to people in war torn regions of the world.  Dr. James spent six months in sudan and  helped many people.  Sudan had Africa's largest and longest war that lasted 20 years and  drove many people out of their homes. Dr. James was worried about the six months to come because he didn't know what medicine he had access too,  what was wrong with his patents and in addition he didn't know where to find his patients. Would you spend six months in sudan?

Sleeping sickness

Sleeping sickness is an illness in African that is caused by flies. The symptoms are at stage one are 

• Facial edema 
•  Painless skin chancre
• Transient urticarial, erythematous, or macular rashes 6-8 weeks after onset
• Skin lesions (trypanids)

Without treatment death can be caused within six months. If you feel any of these symptoms and get it treated in a three week time frame you will be fine. Sleeping sickness is a serious thing and is very deadly! There are few things that can prevent sleeping sickness, some ways are; with medicines or an injection. What do you think about sleeping sickness?

Annie Anopheles

      Annie Anopheles is a mosquito with malaria in a cartoon about what to do if you get malaria. In the cartoon there is a family and their son, Timothy gets bitten by Annie Anopheles. Then Timothy starts throwing up and getting other symptoms of malaria so his mother says they should take him to the clinic but his father disagrees and says that the clinic is too far and away and too expensive. When Timothy starts getting worse his mother again says that they should take him to the clinic but his father says no and that he will just give him the old pills they got for when one of them got malaria. Timothy's mother then insisted that they go. When they arrived at the clinic the doctor tested Timothy and when the results showed positive the doctor gave them new pills for Timothy to take. If they didn't go to the clinic to get their son tested and if their son didn't have malaria but took the old pills from his dad Timothy could have been in serious trouble. I think this cartoon is very important because some people wouldn't have known about the dangers of malaria. Do you think this cartoon with help people???

Many looking to Africa to complete their families...

 

      Many Americans are choosing to adopt children in African countries. Because of poverty and wars, there are many orphans in Africa. Mostly, these children are adopted from Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Congo. If a  family wants to adopt a child from Africa, it can be very expensive. The families need to fly to the orphanage to pick up their child. In addition, adoption fees can range between $15,000 and $25,000. Although this brings joy to the adopting families, there are many people who think adopting from Africa is wrong. They say Americans should only adopt American orphans. What do you think?

The Trypanosomiasis Disease is Evil...

African trypanosomiasis, or as most people call it, the sleeping sicknesss, is a disease that can be spread by the tsetse fly. This disease is normally found in the poor areas of Africa, where they don't have very good health systems, and political instabilities. Hense, it does NOT help with reducing the disease spread. However, in the 1990's, they stared to have hope. They had finally found a treatment that did not completely stop the sleeping sickness, but it did help to reduce the number of people who had died because of the disease. What would you do first if you had the sleeping sickness?

Imagine...

Can you imagine sitting on a cold dirty floor every day you go to school? No desks to work on or chairs to sit on? This is life for kids who live in Malawi. Malawi is a very poor country in Southeastern Africa. In Malawi the schools highest needs aren't paper or pencils, they simply need desks and chairs. Each classroom in this country holds about 90 students all sitting on the floor. The schools don't have electricity and most don't even have doors. Because of this country's poverty, their schools need help and fast. Therefore, a hardware store in Malawi is making students and teachers chairs and desks for a group called UNICEF. Even though it's taking a while, UNICEF is trying to help Malawi schools once and for all. Would you be grateful for this group if you went to a school without desks and chairs?

Quit bugging me

        In Africa all over the country they have used bed nets to save lives from malaria. Malaria used to be really bad in Africa and killed many people.  Until the UN agencies purchased them and transferred the nets to families in Africa. The bed nets just go over the bed.  The nets cover the family so they cant get bit by mosquitoes. So Mosquitoes carry malaria and infect people when they bite them. Eventually 7,000,000,000 families will have bed nets, overall I think bed nets save lives all over Africa. What do you think?

7 hours a day on a floor

Kids in Malawi sit on the floors for 7 hours a day.  In my opinion, they are in desperate need of desks and chairs.  I believe that we take chairs for granted.  It seems like people should help them so that they can get chairs and desks.  This one warehouse made like 30 desks in two days that the kids needed in their school.  How would your back feel if you had to sit 7 hours a day on the floor?

Dive into the Deep Depths of the Kopanang Mine

The Kopapang mine, located in South Africa, is the one of the deepest mines in the world. it is found extremely deep underground and is many, many, miles wide. Considering this, it is amazing how so many people work in this mine everyday, especially because of how scary it must be to work there. Speaking of the workers, they all get around in carts on railroad tracks. There are so many tracks that it has more than all of the countries combined! The Kopapang mine also produces a lot of gold. I mean a lot. They produce about 307,000 oz in 2011! That's a lot of gold! Now that you know the ins and outs of the Kopapang mine, would you even consider working there?

African Trypanosomiasis

Sleeping sickness, is caused by the species called, Trypanosoma brucei. It is passed by a fly (tsetse fly), which is found only in rural Africa. There are two types of African trypanosomiasis; they are named for the region of Africa in which they were founded. East African trypanosomiasis is a serious illness, if a person dose not get medical treatment for East African trypanosomiasis, death will occur, within months. More than 95% of cases are reported from Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia. A bite by the tsetse fly is often painful and can cause a red sore, fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and aching muscles and joints are common symptoms of sleeping sickness. Also some people develop a skin rash. Did you know any of this?

Malawi schools

This video was very interesting, and I would like to learn more about it. In Malawi this is a big problem. Online it looks like the Malawi economy is doing a lot better than in the video,but Malawi is still in need of many things and one is just a simple place for a kid to sit. In Malawi over 90 kids in a classroom have to sit on cement ground or dirt while they're learning 7 hours a day. This video was very touching and I hope people can do something about it, or even donate a little money.
What do you think Malawi should do differently?

GOLD,GOLD,GOLD,AND MORE GOLD

Rhodor Kopang is one of  92,125 beneficiaries 131 year old  federal mining law that gives away precious metals, minerals, and title of land.In the Kopang mine there are tunnels that are three feet,and have some of the richest ore on earth.South Africa is were 40% of gold in the world is produced there. In the Kopang mine hearing lost is common,explosions in Africa   happen once every year. Would you go mining sometime?
http://www.ewg.org/mining/owners/overview.php?cust_id=1051587

I Like Elephants!!!!!!! :D

                                                         US Banding Ivory Trade
              The United States are against the elephant ivory trade in Africa. The White House Administration bans all imports and exports of elephant parts and antiques. In the Middle East and Asia they are demanding the trade to continue. Both wanting to use the elephant tusks and rhino horns for ornaments and traditional medicine. In my opinion I think the trade is helpful yet wrong! Helpful for the Middle East and Asia, only because they need it for medicine. Wrong because people are killing the elephants just for antiques, which is just cray-cray. How do you feel about this? Can you scoop up more information? Do you agree or not?
             Elephant Antique: 

Swoosh

This "swoosh" is different than the basketball one.  This "swoosh" is the sound of mosquitos and pests.  Mosquitos kill millions of people every year.  Malaria is scattered across Africa which is very dangerous.  Many villages and families are destroyed and every 30 seconds, someone dies of it.  After malaria killed many people, scientists came out with the bed net.  A bed net is a big net that you put above and below your bed and the mosquitos can't get in.  If you donate a net, you can save a live.  Would you rather loose some string or have someone die?  You may not know this person but how would you feel if you were a person who did like family?

Muslims Deserve a Chance

There have been recent reports of ethnic cleansing of the Muslims in the Central African Republic. The country, a former French colony has gone out of control without anyone to lead them. To fill the power slot the Christian anti-balake militias has ridden to power, and with a bang. There are allegations of these miltia sending harsh and powerful attacks on Muslim communities, but there are no end to them. "They killed my children heartlessly," a Muslim mother reports, just as other families do in the loss of family members.  What do you think of this story, should there be action taken, should there be another power to control the Central African Republic?

Doctors Without Borders to Pull Out of Somalia!

NAIROBI, Kenya is one of the world’s most firm humane groups announced that it could no longer endure the risks that come with operation in Somalia especially, after many doctors died.  After  years of attacks on its staff members is Somalia, the international medical charity decided it would shut down all operations. An employee at the Daynile hospital said the groups pullout would be a disastrous ,but doctors without borders had pledged to continue supporting the hospital for three months. What do you think about Doctors without borders and do you think they will save more lives? 

Violence is Never the Answer

In the Central African Republic Christian militias have been committing ethnic cleansing against Muslims living within the country. Most of the Muslims have fled to other countries or camps within the country. However, the Christians claim they have the right to do this because of atrocities committed by the Muslims last year. The president of the country, Catherine Samba-Panza, has declared a war of sorts against theses Christian Militias. Finally, the country now faces a collapse in food distribution, due to the fat that lots of the Muslims that were killed or fled were traders or involved in the food business. This has caused lots of people to not have a food supply anymore. Subsequently, the UN was delivered food to the country, but there was only enough to feed about 1.3 million people, or about a quarter of the population.  I feel that these events are terrible, and that the Christians are in the wrong here.  It is against the laws of Christianity to commit murder, yet these Christians are slaughtering massive amounts of Muslims. They are also hurting themselves, since they are affected by the food shortages just as much as anyone else. What are your views on these serious issues? 

Algeria Plane Crash

As many of you know Algeria had a plane crash. As a result of the crash 77 people died out of the 78 on board the plane.  Although, one man survived he is being treated for head injuries. Most of the people on board were military personnel.  Additionally, they had their family members with them. The plane crashed into the side of a mountain due to very bad weather conditions,  a storm and heavy snow fall was to blame. Now Algeria is having three days of national mourning for the people who lost their lives.  That is a huge loss for any military. Do you think that people in the same military unit should all be on board one plane at the same time?

Scream! Hide! Malaria is on it's way!

   Malaria and Africa. Two words that apparently go together. Africa is becoming so overwhelmed with malaria that out of all malaria deaths, 90% of them happen in Africa. This parasite is quite annoying isn't it? Easily passed from mosquito to human. As you can see, Africa is very concerned about how many deaths are caused by malaria and are trying to make people aware about how to protect yourself. Within this craze, the U.S. comes in and makes a series of cartoons warning everyone about malaria and how to protect themselves. These cartoons are called Annie Anopheles. Next, due to Annie Anopheles, Africa's deaths are lessening bit by bit and people were taking this more seriously, but still deaths occur and people still die from malaria. What would you do to try and lessen the death rates of malaria?

A Hot Commodity

GOLD

 

 

Mining gold at the Kopanang Mine is a HOT topic.  To mine the gold, men travel 2 miles down into the earth, in other words, they are on an elevator for 10 minutes traveling into the darkness of the mining underworld.  They mine in an area where the rock radiates the heat that was from the crust of the earth.  These men are working in areas that are as hot as 140 degrees.  Because the mines are so hot, the gold company spends 40% of their daily expense just to keep the mine cool enough to work in.  They pump water and use ventilation to keep cool air moving. 

 

 

The mine brings up tons of rock with gold on it, that has to be melted into 80% gold bars.  These bars travel to Johannesburg, Africa where it is heated to super hot temperatures to burn off the junk in the gold.  After the junk is removed, they are left with gold that is 99.9% pure gold.  The company's hot commodity makes them $20 million per day in gold!  I would like to be the owner of this company, would you work for me?  

Beware The Tsetse Fly

The Tsetse fly is dangerous and is the cause of the deadly African sleeping sickness. The African sleeping sickness is infection with germs thus carried by the Tsetse fly. The African sleeping sickness can also cause the swelling of the brain. The Tsetse fly lives in more than 36 regions but only causes the disease in some of the places it is found. So the sleeping sickness has infected about seven million. In conclusion what would you do if you had sleeping sickness?

Sitting on the Floor What???

          In Malawi, there are more than 90 kids in a classroom that sit on the floor to learn, without any desks to write on and there body's aching in pain. Many Students have to learn outside of school sitting on the dirt, but it makes it very difficult to teach outside especially in the rainy season. Although, inside the school kids classrooms have no electricity the only light they have is through the holes in the walls. Doors are there but they are usually left open so there can be light. In Malawi there are many districts, In the Nkhata Bay District there are about 25,796 desks there, this means on average only three kids are able to sit at one desk. What If you had to sit on cement or dirt floor for 5 days a week and 7 hours a day would you do it?

Nothing But Nets Saves Lives

          In Africa there are a bunch of kids and people that have died form malaria. Malaria is a deadly disease that is transmitted by mosquito. You may not know this but every 60 second a child dies from malaria, so instead of counting for 60 second you could try helping those kid that are still trying to survive from malaria. Because of the malaria disease, families are devastated each day. Just think of it like this; we get to live our life and grow up, but kids in Africa struggle to survive each day. Nothing But Net was founded to help children in Africa to combat malaria. I support Nothing But Net because over 7,000,000 net were sent and has helped the children and people of Africa to keep the mosquito at bay. Over 660,000 people died worldwide and about 91% of people died in the African region.Thanks to Nothing But Net that number will shrink over time. If I had the chance to help any country in Africa it would be Ethiopia manly because it my birth place and it is still being infected by malaria and I would do anything to help.If you had the chance to help anyone with malaria in any part of the world where and how?

http://nothingbutnets.net/

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/

Africa!

        Africa is an interesting country, because we are not used to the things that they do there, and they are not used to the things that we do here. Did you know that Africa is populated with more than double 2.3 billion people, and also 170 people speak arabic there. If I had a chance to go to Africa, I would be very happy, and I would wan to learn even more about their cultures. Have you ever visited Africa, or really want to visit Africa?

Malaria

Malaria sickness is a mosquito born infection and  it can be deadly. The mosquito is a really red mosquito because it will transfuse another persons blood with yours. As  deadly as it can be to humans there is always a cure. But the symptoms are very painful from headaches to chills it will but you at your lowest amount of energy. But its a good idea to get a bed net so all mosquito's cant touch you and infect you. We are all humans and we should treat each other the way we want to be treated. Now would you want to die for a mistake we made of not buying some bed nets for helpless people.

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping sickness is also known as trypanosomiasis or African sleeping sickness.  Its caused by a small parasite that leads to a serious infection in the brain and the meninges the covering of the brain and spinal cord.  There are also To different types of parasite. The disease develops slowly and if the treatment gets delayed then its usually fatal.  The dangerous parasites are carried by the tsetse fly. Most of the time the tsetse flies are not infected with the parasite.  The disease is found in 36 countries of saharan africa.  However this disease is caused by trypanosoma brucei, a flagellate that lives in the blood of the host and excits in two sub-species. This disease is very dangerous and deathly how would you handle it?

Bed Nets

In Africa people die because of mosquitoes because they spread Malaria. They lose a child to a disease every 30 seconds. But there are these things called bed nets. They keep mosquitoes out of their space so they can sleep. An Organization has started asking people to give money to send bed nets to people in Africa and are trying to cover Africa with bed nets. I think it`s good that we`re trying to help people in Africa but it might be a little hard to cover the continent of Africa. Do you think bed nets are going to make a big difference in Africa or do you think it will help a little bit?

Bzzzkill

Have you ever had that annoying itch when a mosquito bites you at a bonfire? Well, we have it nice compared to the people of Africa. There is a disease that is very hard to prevent. Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and animals. Malaria usually causes symptoms such as fever or headache, and in severe cases coma or death. Now, you make think that it is easy to prevent malaria if you just put on bug spray, but I think we all know that you can still get bit by a mosquito no matter how much spray you apply. By the way, tell me when you find a spray that will keep you 100% bite free for the entire time you sleep. There have been efforts made though to stop this disease. There is a foundation that donates thin wove netting that mosquitoes can fly through called Nothing but Nets. This organization has already donated over 7,000,000 nets to South Sudan and other places in Africa. Finally, would you donate a net to save a life?

Malawi Learning On Dirt

Can you imagine what your life would be like if you didn't have a table or chair in school? Now actually think about it, it sounds like a silly question, I know, but really. What would happen if you had to sit on a dirt floor with your paper in your lap for seven hours? That is the condition for every school in Malawi. You had a cement floor if you were lucky. I've never found cement lucky before. In fact, an average classroom is about 90 students, and their rooms are only the same size as ours. Having even a chair would be a dream, too much to ask for most students. Desks and chairs would do wonders for these Malawi schools. To conclude, I'm asking you, do you want to help?

New churches?

Building churches is what one Nigerian man wants to do. For centuries European  and American missionaries have gone to Africa to spread the word of Christ. That trend is now working in reverse with a Nigerian minister in Texas who plans to build churches as like as Starbucks coffee shops around the USA. Now this great man owns one church that can hold up to 10,000 people in it. His name is James Fadele a pastor in Texas. He has four children and a wife and tells them every day about how important spreading joy and the word of god.

Swish

When I first say the option “Nothing but nets” I thought it would be news about the African basketball team, however when I actually clicked the link. It brought me to this website where you can donate a “net” to help/save a life in Sudan. In Sudan, millions of people die from malaria (which comes out a mosquito) and you can donate a net a protects people from being bit that saves lives.Therefore, my question is if you had some money and found this website, would you buy a net for someone in need?

Click here to watch the video.

Spying on the Rhinos

There is a huge problem going on in Africa involving the Rhinos that live there. Poachers and animal hunters and hunting down Rhinos for their horns with are supposed to be some sort of medicine to help people. In order to stop the awful poaching, the African's have purchased a plane to "spy" on the Rhinos. To clarify, the plane has a camera in it which captures any activity that happens with the Rhinos. It will catch people Poaching the animals, which will help cut down on the Rhinos that perish from those people. Although the Rhino percentage of those killed raised up to over 50% more in the last year, It does not stop there. There is a higher demand for the Rhino's horns now from China and other Eastern countries, which provided that they want more over the years, means that the percentages killed could raise even higher if the plane was not there. To learn more about Rhinos go to the link.



If you were in charge of making sure the Rhino's were safe, what would you do besides use the "spy" plane???

Malaria

            Annie Anopheles is a person who illustrated cartoons on how letting indoor residual spray teams into communities to help stop the spread of malaria and control malaria. And then from all that work they made cartoons about these people and how they help. However these cartoons where about all the different kinds of malaria and there effects. Also the behaviors you can have from special types of malaria. From all of these cartoons people learn all of the good things that the indoor residual spray teams can do. If you didn't know much about the indoor residual spray teams would you watch her cartoons to?

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness is a diseases that causes you to sometimes sleep an entire day. You can get it sexually or by sticking a dirty needles into your body or by getting bit by the Tsetse Fly.  However the diseases is hard to detect if you have it.  Some of the symptoms are head aches, joint pain and itchiness,  Next the diseases kills your brain. This diseases is very evil what would you do u if had how would you handle it?

Nothing but Nets

Nothing but Nets is a service that distributes $10 dollar nets to children and adults who are suffering from Malaria. Malaria is a life-threatening disease that is caused by a single mosquito bite. Every 60 seconds, a child dies from Malaria. As a result of this, Africa's population is decreasing rapidly. For example, this is how happy a child is when they recieve a net. I think it's great that there is a service like this, so they can start to help prevent Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. These nets are very in-expensive and it's such an easy way to contribute to the African population. What do you think, should we take other precautions besides Nothing but Nets?

Getting Sick While You Sleep?

Have you ever heard of the Sleeping Sickness? Well I hadn't until I read this article. Before learning about this sickness I though that it was a disease you get when you are sleeping, but as it turns out, Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is a sickness that ends up putting you into a coma, eventually killing you, giving it its name of the Sleeping Sickness. The sleeping sickness is carried by tsetse flies that carry Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which causes this deadly disease. As the tsetse fly drains your blood, it also inserts trapanisoma, the parasite responsible of the damage, into you blood steam. They then attack for red blood cells making you very weak, later putting you into a coma, and finally killing you. What did you first think of when you heard of sleeping sickness?  

A Man with a Big Heart

Three years ago, a woman gave birth to triplets at a small village clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The doctor didn't have the proper medical materials to keep the babies alive, so he had to tell the parents that their newborn triplets were going to die. However, the father heard of a state-of-the-art hospital nearby made by the former NBA star, Dikembe Mutombo. They begged the doctors to call him and ask if the babies were allowed to be treated, now the triplets are thriving toddlers. This was the reason that Mutombe made the hospital in the first place, so that people in Africa could get the medical care that they need and deserve. Do you think that this random act of kindness is amazing and why?

Team Africa wins! They got Nothing But Net...

Nothing But Nets, at first I thought it was a program to send basketball nets to Africa due to the problems with not having many basketball nets in Africa, as it turns out that isn't actually a problem. The real issue is malaria, which kills a person every 30 seconds. Nothing But Nets helps send nets to Africa.You may be thinking "why does Africa need nets, do they want to play basketball?" No they don't want to play basketball, these nets actually cover people's beds in Africa so mosquitoes cant bite them and transfer Malaria.  As a matter of fact, these nets cost only ten dollars and save a life, its a win win situation, you spend a small amount of money and a child doesn't die. The real problem though is the mosquitoes which transfer the disease, but you're probably thinking "Mosquitoes aren't that bad, they're just annoying." Well these aren't your normal run of the mill American mosquitoes. These mosquitoes are like those from a cheesy '90s horror movie called attack of the killer bugs, just these real ones are smaller and carry diseases. I got very off topic, pretty much Nothing but Nets sends a net that saves a life for ten dollars. By way of example, here  is a picture of how happy it makes people when they receive a net and don't have to fear mosquitoes.What do you think about Nothing But Nets, do you think we should take other precautions against malaria, such as giving every one lots of bug repellant?

One Net, Many Lives

Malaria. Funny name, not so funny disease. Malaria is caused by a deadly parasite that is carried in mosquitoes. I mean those little boogers are everywhere!  Humans tend to live around water sources (I mean we do need water to survive), but with the warm temperatures in Africa, and water you can be sure to see mosquitoes. With so many mosquitoes and little resources, it's no wonder Africa accounts for about 90% of the malaria deaths worldwide. You may be thinking, "Okay so why don't they just use bug repellent?" Well ya, bug-spray usually works, but a way of staying protected from mosquitoes that has been found to be effective is to use bed nets. Bed nets prevent mosquitoes from getting into an area  because they are too big to fit through the fabric of the net. One charity that is accepting donations to send nets to Africa is Nothing But Nets. It is only ten dollars to donate a net! A very good price considering one net can protect a whole family from malaria (and the last charity I donated nets to charged $16 per net).
                                              One net = $10 = A saved life = Priceless
This is a great charity that I hope to donate to in the future. So, one question remains... Are you willing to give up just ten dollars to save a family?

Do we really know where our chocolates come from?

Everyone loves chocolate  right I  know I do and if you dont like chocolate this still applies to you because the same thing could be happening with other foods you like.The ivory coast of Africa provides half of the worlds cocoa(chocolate). When you think about that your probably thinking thats awsome right. Well its not as awesome as you think. In the Ivory coast 90% of these plantations use slave labor. That mean that they use slaves to work and make the cocoa most of the time without pay. To make things worse 64% of these people are children under the age of 14. They are forced to work and make this chocolate but the sad thing is that they probably dont know it any other way and I for one would not like to eat something that gives me joy but brings pain to other people around the world. What do you think about the free trade?

7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

You think your school isn't great, read this. A town in Africa called Malawi. The schools there are a "little" different from your school. Their classrooms have no light exept for the holes carved in the wall. Then the one big problem, the students have NO seats or desks. Even the teacher! Yes, the students have to sit on the bare floor, (legit ground) probably hurting, while trying to listen and learn seven hours a day, five days a week. Well not anymore. The man in the video I watched had somebody make lots of desks and chairs for the children and teachers. It might not have been the most comfy thing to sit on, but it got them off of the floor! The desks and chairs were delievered and the children and teachers don't have to sit on the ground! So the next time you complain on how you want one of those big poofy chairs instead of your hard metal one, remember some kids at schools don't even have chairs. Only the ground. Do you think getting chilren something to sit on besides the floor, is important?

Malawi Schools.

           Poorest country in the would, high risk malaria zone, and 12% of people have Aids. Children have but hard time learning to. They have to use there creativity to do and write things and they have to sit on the floor all day long. Imagine hours after hours sitting on the floor. Not fun right? We are lucky because here we have everything we need to help us learn. There is an organization that you can donate money to to provide the desks because the students are desperately in need of them therefore we should really help them. Most classrooms in Malawi have bad education and can not stay in school very long. Finally I think we need to help these kids because everyone needs a good learning environment. Whats your opinion?

My Precious

Kopanang mine is a mine located in South Africa and its main resource is gold. Kopanang mine is located deep under ground (unlike open pit mining) where a very rich ore vain is found. Kopanang mine is so deep under ground that it's over 140 degrees! It is so hot at the bottom of the mine that allot of money is put into a cooling system so that the workers aren't bothered by it as much. After the gold ore is mined it is sent to a factory so it can be refined into its "purest" form which takes many steps to do but when it is finished it is 99.9% pure gold. Do you think mining for gold is cool and if it would pay off?

Malawi Needs Money

Malawi school kids need chairs & desks! In our schools, we have chairs that we sit in and tables/desks we use to write on, but the kids in Malawi don't, they're too poor too have them. They sit on the dirty cement floor for 7 hours straight while the teachers are standing the whole time. These schools don't have electricity either, they use the sunlight from the windows (which are holes carved in the walls) and doors if they have them. The doors there are just walkways, they don't open and close. How would you be able to deal with living there?

Ol Petjeta

Ol Pejeta is a Conservancy that saves and protects wildlife but recently they've lost about 668 rhinos in there 90,000 acre conservancy. The conservancy brings in 80,000 visitors annually and is hoping to be able to expand its drone fleet and ultimately share its experience with other reserves to protect their animals from being killed. Ol Pejeta claims that a rhino horn can bring in $12,000 and more valuable than gold. Is this really what you want to happen to our wildlife around the globe?

Malawi Needs What?!

Look at what you are sitting on right now. Now look at what your computer is on. Most likely it is a chair and desk (Unless you're using a laptop or tablet away from your desk and chair). Have you ever thought that you were pretty lucky to have a desk or chair? Well you are, In Malawi, Africa they used to not have desks or chairs in school! That was until Lawrence O’Donnell visited Mawali and found this out. The children had to sit on a dirt floor or for the richer schools, a cracked concrete floor. If you or I sat on a concrete floor for 10 minutes we might hurt. They have to sit on one for 7 hours, 5 days a week, all while reading, writing, and learning. O’Donnell wanted to change this so he found a guy in Malawi who could make chairs and desks, for one desk the price was $48, and each desk could sit 2, and if they squish 3. He bought 30 desks, enough for one classroom. The children were so happy when they saw the desks! One man said it was like Christmas for them (Which by the way, they don't have Christmas). They had men to unload the desks, but the kids were so excited, they unloaded them their selves. Yet this was only one classroom out of Mawali, there were plenty others in need of these desks. After O’Donnell’s vacation he started K.I.N.D. (Kids In Need of Desks). So Please tell your parents about this and try to get them to donate, or donate your self. So last of all, put your self in their shoes, what would you do if you were them?


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Bed Nets Can Save Lives!

    In Africa all over the country has used bed nets to save lives from malaria. Malaria used to be really bad in Africa and killed many people,until the UN agencies purchased them and gave the bed nets to families in Africa. The bed nets would just go over the bed when the families fell asleep and then the kids and adults wouldn't get bit by Malaria. Eventually 7,000,000,000 families had bed nets. Overall, bed nets save lives all over Africa. What do you think?

Who knew bed nets can save lives!

            In Africa many kids are dying from a disease caused from mosquitoes called Malaria. By donating a bed net that cost only ten dollars helps reduce the illness, Malaria. A  ben net is literally a Net that goes over your bed, this helps children and families from getting Malaria. In fact this illness has killed 1,000s of people all around the world, but mostly in Africa. So far 7,000,000 bed nets have been sent! Bed nets have saved many lives! Would you want to buy a bed net for child in need?

Fair trade, and the fairness of the fair way that the fair is fared.

Fair trade is trade in which fair prices are paid to the producers of developing countries. You might think "Shouldn't it always be like that?"In my opinion, it should be, but it isn't. Many chocolate, coffee, and other producers use cheap child labor for their products. But, with fair trade, the workers are not children and they are paid a reasonable, fair price. Many African countries make and sell coffee and chocolate, but only five of them are involved in fair trade! I support fair trade and I think it should happen worldwide. Do you think every country should be involved in fair trade, and would you do anything to help it?

Caffiene is grow on bushes?!?

            Coffee beans are the seed of the fruit of the evergreen shrub in the genus of Coffea. Africa is home to many of the best kinds of coffee beans grown. The are grown from Ethiopia and Kenya to Senegal and Cameroon. Ethiopia has three main regions that produce African coffee beans: Harrar, Ghimbi, and Sidamo, or Yirgacheffe. Harrar beans come from small farms and are dry-processed. They are labeled “longberry” for large and “shortberry” for small or Mocha (which is the size of a peaberry). Which coffee do you think sounds the best?

Sleeping Sickness IS A Tiring Desease to Humanity!

              Sleeping Sickness is a very bad parasite transmitted disease. It is transmitted by the TSETSE FLY. It is a disease that is hard to diagnose! Some of the symptoms are Headaches, Joint Pains, and itching. Next, you may experience sleeping an entire day and waking up at night, which is kind of weird, it kills your brain. Sleeping Sickness is really bad, however it can only be transmitted sexually or with dirty needles. There is no doubt this is an evil disease, what would you do if you were diagnosed with it?  

The Reality of Virtual Reality

A slight spin on Mr. Hopper's idea of social media helping people see Africa, is people actually seeing Africa without being there. A company named Virtuix had created the first true virtual reality machine, The Omni. If you want to walk, you walk. If you want to jump, you jump. At the present time, it's only been used with video games, but who is to say that it won't have different uses in the future? After all, Google Maps has the layout, so I think it will be a possibility to see places including Africa without actually going there! Do you think that this could replace actually traveling?