Photo: mattman23

1. Over 1.5 billion people do not have access to clean, safe water.

Photo: ePi.Longo

2. Almost 4 million people die each year from water related diseases.

Photo: Julien Harneis

3. 43% of water related deaths are due to diarrhea.

4. 98% of water related deaths occur in the developing world.

5. Unsafe water is the biggest killer of children under five; around 90% of all diarrheal deaths are in this age group.

6. In Sub-Saharan Africa women spend on average 16 hours a week collecting water.

7. A typical individual in the United States uses 500 litres of water each day.

8. The recommended daily water requirement for sanitation, bathing, cooking and consumption is approximately 50 litres per person per day.

9. Over 1 billion people use less than 6 litres of water per day.

Photo: laihiu

10. A typical individual in Gambia uses just 4.5 litres of water a day.

11. Lack of access to clean water and sanitation has claimed more lives through disease than any war through guns.

12. The average toilet uses 8 litres of clean water in a single flush.

13. At any one time, more than half the world’s poor are ill due to inadequate sanitation, water or hygiene.

14. It takes over 11,000 litres of water to produce a pound of coffee.

15. Half the world’s schools do not have access to clean water, nor adequate sanitation.

16. It takes about 300 litres of water to make the paper for just one Sunday newspaper.

17. Agriculture is responsible for about 70% of the world’s water usage. Industry uses a further 22%.

18. 443 million school days are lost each year due to water related illness.

19. On average, women in Africa and Asia have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water.

Photo: rachelmolenda

20. The average dishwasher uses over 100 litres per cycle.

21. It takes up to 5000 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice.

22. 80% of all illness in the developing world comes from water born diseases.

Photo: Sacca

23. Drilling a fresh water well can cost anything from a few hundred dollars to over $40,000.

24. Over 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.

25. 90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers or streams without any treatment.

26. About 1.8 million child deaths a year are due to diarrhea.

Photo: Sacca

27. An 18 litre can of water weighs 20 kilos.

28. About half the world’s hospital beds are occupied by someone with a water related illness.

29. A five minute shower in an American household will use more water than a person living in a developing world slum will use in a whole day.

30. A third of the people without access to clean water live on less than a dollar a day. More than two thirds live on less than two dollars a day.

31. Water consumption in a US household is eight times that of an Indian household.

32. In India alone, water born diseases cost the economy 73 million working days per year.

33. In sub-Saharan Africa a child’s chance of dying from diarrhea is over 500 times greater than in Europe.

34. Approximately 2.5 billion people lack access to appropriate sanitation facilities.

35. About 1.2 billion people have absolutely no access to a sanitation facility.

36. In a typical year in Africa 5–10 times the number of people die from diarrhea than from war.

Photo: Julien Harneis

37. Simply washing hands can decrease the chance of diarrhea by around 35%.

38. Global sales of bottled water account for over $60-$80 billion each year.

39. A child dies of water born diseases about every 15 seconds (that’s about 12 children just since you started reading this article). By this time tomorrow, another 2,500 will be dead.

40. As little as one dollar can provide clean water for a child in the developing world for an entire year.

Community Connection:

Want to help? www.charitywater.org, thewaterproject.org, www.water.org, and www.onedollarwater.com are just three of the hundreds of charities trying to bring clean water to the developing world.

Want to know how much water you’re using? Calculate your water footprint.

Photo: helgasms!

In every one of these articles, it’s clear the writer is passionate about an issue and hopes to use his or her writing to raise awareness and inspire action. But often, these submissions are rejected because the writer is afflicted with “plight syndrome,” a style of writing that relies upon the gross manipulation of the reader’s opinions and emotions.

The narrative device characteristic of plight syndrome is melodramatic hyperbole. Consider these two examples:

1. In an article about animal abuse: “The people running the shelter are… doing as much as they can to help these forgotten and discarded babies [who are killed by the mayor,] the man everyone knows is responsible for executing the rash of cruel poisonings on the animals of the city.”

2. In a book about poverty among Indian children: “There is a holocaust quietly happening among India’s children.”

What are the problems in both examples?

• The language is overly emotional, conflating opinion with facts.
• They reflect the disturbing tendency of plight syndrome writers to make assumptions about the root causes and responses to social problems in other communities.
• They draw upon highly charged images or references, such as the Holocaust, that dilute the power of words, potentially insult readers, and force comparisons that may not be fair.

Photo: Brian Sawyer

The end result?

Pieces that read as preachy tract-like screeds rather than carefully considered dispatches about social problems that will inform and engage the reader.

Objectivity isn’t the goal here; objectivity (as in being uninfluenced by personal feelings) is a myth. What is important, though, is a fair assessment and an article that doesn’t finger wag the reader into accepting your point of view.

So how do you write about plights without coming down with plight syndrome?

Here are five tips:

1. Stick to the facts.

Observe the situation and state what it is. Don’t embellish it with your imagination or your opinion.

2. Show, don’t tell.

It’s the most repeated advice writers in other genres hear and in the case of plight writing, it’s even more valuable. Don’t tell the reader how to think or what to feel—take him there. Put her in the place and allow her to arrive at her own decision.

3. Step out of the narrative frame.

Articles afflicted by plight syndrome are almost always written in the first person. But the plight isn’t about you. Try changing the narrative point of view from first person to third.

4. Take a cue from fiction writers.

The stakes are different in fiction than in non-fiction, but the effective techniques used in both genres are remarkably similar.

Daniel Alarcon’s remarkable fiction about state-sponsored violence in Latin America doesn’t say “Violence is horrific, ripping communities apart.” It doesn’t need to. Instead, it reveals tiny, almost insignificant details—like the government’s policy of changing the names of towns—in powerful prose:

“Before, every town had a name; an unwieldy, millenarian name…,names with hard consonants that sounded like stone grinding against stone.”

So take a cue from fiction. Think Charles Dickens. Ralph Ellison. Upton Sinclair. John Steinbeck.

5. Read more.

Beyond fiction, familiarize yourself with writers whose careers revolve around writing about plights without falling prey to plight syndrome.

Some excellent examples include Ted Conover, Barbara Ehrenreich, and the late Jorge Ibarguengoitia (mostly in Spanish).

By reading more—and more widely—you’ll begin to develop an appreciation and understanding for the variety and value of devices that are more subtle and complex than indignant, if well-meaning, ideologies.

Community Connection:

To see examples of Matador contributors who have written successfully about plights without falling prey to plight syndrome, check out Ryan Van Lenning’s “First Person Dispatch from the Chevron Protest” and Shreya Sanghani’s “India’s Pink Chaddi Campaign.”

Photo: Silent vigil in Ioannina, Photo courtesy of author

We have wrapped up the volunteer portion of our trip. It was kicked off by being picked up by local animal activists in Athens and taken to the ONLY licensed animal shelter in a city made up of millions of people.

The amazing people at the KAZ shelter run the facility on a shoestring, doing as much as they can to help forgotten and discarded animals who have nothing but love to give. We brought the shelter hundreds of dollars in medical supplies, and I was excited to give a personal donation I knew would definitely be put to good use.

After departing the Athens shelter, we headed up to the mountain town of Ioannina. There is no animal shelter in Ioannina, a town of 150,000 people, but there is a handful of concerned citizens who dedicate their lives, their homes, and their finances to help homeless animals.

We spent most of our time at the homes of these dedicated activists, helping prepare for a protest about the poisoning of stray dogs in the city. Having been an activist in America, it was exciting to experience this feeling in a foreign country, and even more exciting to see how well it was received. Young and old alike welcomed the information and took the time to read it. Our group took great pleasure in seeing our work first hand and found it very motivating to continue on.

I personally took great pleasure in leafleting outside the mayor’s office, the man everyone knows is responsible for executing the rash of cruel poisonings on the animals. I handed a leaflet to everyone I could who was entering the building in the hope it would cross his desk.

A silent vigil was held on the evening of our fourth day in Ioannina. We were thrilled with the turnout. Many more people came in support than I had imagined and numerous media outlets appeared.

We also built feeding stations and placed these in strategic locations around the city where strays congregate. The most surprising was the scene at the local university, which looked like inner city projects in the US. We were surrounded by concrete buildings riddled with graffiti, trash, and teens with no real concern for the pack of starving animals with whom they shared this space.

We were shocked to see a small puppy stroll out from behind a bench and head right toward us, not yet afraid of humans as many of the older pups were (not than any of them live long – the average age is 18 months before they are poisoned or hit on the road).

I began chatting with one of the students and he explained that many people dump puppies at the university, thinking they will be taken care of. He said there are new litters every week. He pointed me in the direction of the dumping site, and I spent a good hour searching around what would be considered a trash dump in the US. No puppies were found but I did make friends with various cats that were starved for attention.

I am sad to say this portion of the trip is coming to a close. I have greatly enjoyed the interaction with the local activists. I have formed lifelong bonds with even the ones who I was unable to have a conversation with because we share a passion that we hold deep in our hearts.

Community Connection:

To learn more about the organization with which the author volunteered, visit Inside/Out. To create your own volunteer experience, browse through Matador’s member organizations, which offer volunteer opportunities around the world.

Photo: greenforall.org

If you’re between the ages of 18 and 29 and you have an incredible, feasible idea for a clean energy project that can be put into practice, you might be interested in the Focus Roots Fellowships being offered by Focus the Nation, a national climate change awareness project.

Applicants must write a 1,000 word essay detailing the scope and nature of their proposed project, a 300 word introduction to a mentor who will provide expertise and support, and a projected budget for your project. This year’s fellowships are being offered in two categories–sport and art–and should focus on the use of sport or art to move the applicants’ communities away from coal energy toward cleaner energy.

Full details can be found here.

Community Connection:

Read up on “clean coal” in this article from the Matador archives.

A protest against the death penalty in Paris. Photo: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

In the United States, capital punishment–or, put more bluntly, the death penalty– remains a deeply divisive issue.

In other countries, however, Amnesty International reports the death penalty abolition movement is gaining support, and they signal Togo legislators’ unanimous repeal of capital punishment earlier this week as the most recent proof of this trend.

Togo is the 15th African Union member nation to abolish the death penalty for all types of crimes, though it’s not likely to be the last: Mali is considering a similar move.

To see a full list of the countries that reject the death penalty as a form of punishment for all crimes, click here.

To learn more about the death penalty abolition movement in the United States, visit the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which offers 10 ways you can take action to help abolish the death penalty. To read up on the death penalty abolition movement in other parts of the world, visit the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

All photos by David Ranc

But the actions of a few can change the world. Two people who firmly believe in the power of “just doing it” are 25 year old Sebastian Lindstrom and 29 year old Evan Fowler, who teamed up to create the What Took You So Long Foundation.

The movement aims to help grassroots NGOs by giving them publicity and access to a global network of unskilled and skilled volunteers. The WTYSL Foundation also wants to inspire young people by example, beginning with a 14,200 kilometre trip from Marrakesh to Johannesburg, which kicked off yesterday.

In the spirit of true international cooperation, Lindstrom and Fowler are traveling with five young colleagues, all 25 or under, from Japan, the USA, and Hong Kong. They will be using public transport and visiting 20 small NGOs en route.

An experienced documentary film maker, Fowler has his own media company and will be filming the journey. There will be updates on the website, blog, and Twitter as well as the team’s photos and journals, where the group will document the efforts of people who make a huge difference in the lives of locals but who are unknown outside their own small circles.

“I met an amazing Dutch guy… when I took a group of Hong Kong students to Ghana recently,” says Fowler. “He is virtually a one-man band, living and working in a tribal community on the border with Burkina Faso. He has set up a small charity to help kids who’ve been abandoned because their parents died of HIV/AIDS. I asked him if he had applied for any funding and he told me the paperwork would take up too much time which could be spent with the people he needs to help. And they probably wouldn’t give him funding anyway. It’s people like Eric that we want to tell the international community about.”

Lindstrom, a former Swedish Special Forces soldier, has already set up one NGO, the Light for Children in Ghana, which he founded in 2005 after a three-month stint as a volunteer in the country. Light for Children recruits young volunteers from all over the world to help disadvantaged children in Ghana’s Ashanti region.

One such volunteer is young British lawyer Rhianydd Griffith who ended up getting in touch with Lindstrom and helping in an Ashanti orphanage after Googling “volunteer Ghana.” At 24, she was older than some of the other students, but the experience changed her life. “A lot of young people lack confidence,” she says. “But doing something like this shows you that you really can make a difference.” Volunteering has had a big impact on Griffith, who now works for a corporate social responsibility law firm in London. “I’d tell anyone thinking about taking a gap year to combine travel and volunteering,” she adds.

Lindstrom and Fowler met while studying at Hong Kong University. They hit it off immediately, discovering a mutual interest in environmental and social issues. They both wanted to mobilise Hong Kong students and show them what could be achieved by a group of motivated and determined individuals.

Inspired by actor Ewan McGregor, Lindstrom and Fowler first discussed a motorbike trip through Africa to help small NGOs but decided against the plan. “It wasn’t very environmentally sound,” says Lindstrom. Fowler agrees. “And we wanted to interact with the locals, to live with them and learn their stories. That’s easier to do using public transport than on motorbikes. And it’s cheaper.”

The 10 week trip is the first one for the WTYSL Foundation, but both men hope it is the start of things to come. “We want to encourage other young people to do this,” says Fowler. “To show them an alternative way of traveling. And if a group wants to do something similar in India or South America we are there to give advice and help.”

“We are going to share positive, hopeful stories,” adds Lindstrom. “We are not going to dwell on the stereotyped clichés of misery and hopelessness, because Africa isn’t like that. It’s full of positive, enthusiastic individuals who are striving to achieve their hopes and dreams. We can learn from them as much as they can from us.”

Lawyer and volunteer Griffith has the last word. “Sebastian is totally inspirational. He taught me you’re never too young; you just need to be brave. And I’ve learned that what you do and what your team does, even on a small scale, really can change the world.”

To follow WTYSL’s journey, visit the organization’s website.

Community Connection:

WTYSL isn’t the only group currently journeying across Africa to collect hopeful, positive stories. Read about sisters Chioma and Oluchi Ogwuegbu and their “Celebrate Africa” trip.

Photo: Brooke Anderson

We’ve previously featured Idealist on Matador Change, calling the website “THE definitive online reference for voluntourism.”

So we were already big fans of the site before receiving the news that Idealist is currently looking for 10 bloggers to write for the soon-to-launch “La Vida Idealist” blog, a resource for English-speaking expats/travelers who are interested in free and low cost non-profit work in Latin America.

Candidates should be working or volunteering with a local community in Latin America, and willing to write openly about their experiences–positive and otherwise–of participating in community-building projects in a region Idealist considers “full of stories of people turning their good intentions into action to make the world a better place.”

Idealist is an internationally respected website with an average of 60,000 unique visitors per day.

If you’re interested in applying, you can read all the details here.

Community Connection:

Interested in volunteering in Latin America? Matador Trips co-editor Hal Amen offers some tips for getting started, while Alix Farr shares five tips about how to set realistic expectations about your volunteer experience.

Photo: A few of Greece’s many stray dogs. Feature photo: jturn; Photo above: simobran

We are a group brought together by inside/out, a unique adventure travel company that provides humanitourism™ trips for people who want to volunteer on meaningful international projects while pursuing active adventure.

We will be spending the majority of our time in Ioannina, in Northern Greece. Animal welfare in Ioannina has been a hot topic lately due to continuous poisoning of stray animals in the town.

Poisoning is just one of many atrocities allowed in Greece. Hanging is a common practice for disposing of animals no longer needed, especially hunting dogs. Just last month, five dogs were hanged from an olive tree, four bundled together and one by itself. The dogs were hung in such a way that their paws barely touched the ground. The vets who visited the crime scene estimated that the animals experienced eight hours of torture before dying.

Photo: alex kuruz

To fight cruelty and help strays, small grassroots groups are cropping up all over Greece. Many buy food and pay for veterinary services out of their own pockets, help to re-home dogs both locally and abroad, and some are even opening small shelters on their own properties.

Fortunately, young people are taking an interest in the animal rights movement. Organized protests are starting to be utilized and a local TV channel now airs an animal welfare program.

To do our part while we are there, we will spend much of our time working on feeding stations for the massive stray population and providing hands-on care to animals in shelters to prepare them for adoption. We’ll also do community outreach, distributing educational materials on sterilization, anti-cruelty practices, and responsible pet ownership, as well as producing a demonstration with local activists.

As we travel to different to Ioannina, Konitsa, Papingo, and Kavasila, all in the Zagoria region, we will connect with locals. I am excited to meet all these wonderful people who dedicate their time to improve the lives of the animals. Between each of these volunteer experiences, we will be white water rafting, kayaking, and trekking between the villages some days.

Photo: OxOx

What makes this trip more unusual is that the five of us have never met. But we share a common bond– a love for animals– and we refuse to turn a blind eye to the injustice occurring in Greece. We refuse to go on with our daily lives like nothing is happening.

We want to get out there, get our hands dirty, and make a difference far beyond this 10 day trip. I am certain lifelong bonds will be formed and with the collective knowledge of this group of power-hitters, new ideas will be created.

Community Connection:

Interested in other ways you can volunteer to improve the lives of animals? Read about Mexico’s Todos Tortugueros turtle rescue project and Thailand’s opportunities to volunteer for the protection of elephants.

Computer users in Rwanda. Photo: Colleen Taugher

“Gordon Brown claims Rwanda would never have happened if Twitter had been around….”

That was the first tweet I read when I checked my Twitter feed this morning.

“Bold claim,” I thought, before taking my first sip of coffee.

“Utterly ridiculous statement,” I said out loud as I took a gulp and thought about it some more.

*
The tweet, posted by @krishgm, a host for London’s Channel 4 news, referenced an article in The Guardian in which British PM Gordon Brown said the following:

“…the internet era [is] “more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution. For centuries, individuals have been learning how to live with their next-door neighbours…. Now, uniquely, we’re having to learn to live with people who we don’t know.

“People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents, to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you’ve got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world. That flow of information means that foreign policy can never be the same again.

“You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken.

“Foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites.”

*
I agree about the power to “speak across continents,” to form communities and networks that aren’t based on geography, but on common concerns. And that’s why I’m an ardent proponent of Internet technologies as a critical tool of social change.

But to think that the 1994 genocide in Rwanda or the thousands of other atrocities happening in the world right this second could have been prevented or could be controlled simply by exposing them and pressuring governments to take action is an argument I find both terribly naive and untenable.

Brown’s comment reflects a certain elitism that overlooks the fact that millions of people in the world have limited or no access at all to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or even a basic Internet connection. The people most likely to be affected directly by atrocities can’t tweet about them to the rest of the world– they don’t own the means to do so.

Even those who have access, notes the Digital Divide, tend to be using platforms and tools that are “low-quality and merely ‘localized’ versions of products and services intended for the rich.”

So how are we to reallyinterpret the true significance of technology as a tool for social change? Weigh in with your opinions in the comments below.

Community Connection:

Don’t know what Twitter is? Get some background information here.

Photo: .faramarz

Photo: .faramarz

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei raised the stakes on Friday when he defended President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the rightful winner in the country’s June 12th elections.

The supreme leader threatened “bloodshed and chaos” to Iranian citizens who defy his ban and take to the streets for Saturday’s anticipated protests.

Despite the threats, Iranians who want a better future are planning to rally on Saturday in the face of serious risk.

The stern warning has echoed fear of a massacre resembling the one that left 2,500 dead and 10,000 wounded in the Beijing’s Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Here are five reasons we should support and applaud Iranian protesters on Saturday:

1) The protesters have the momentum.

Iranian activists have already accomplished much with the massive protests over the past week. They have captured the attention of the world, and posed a formidable challenge to their leadership and the rigged election. They have sent a message to Iranian leaders that they will not follow a government they did not choose.

Photo: mrarasmus

Friday’s harsh threats from the supreme leader are a last resort to quell the unrest and now the ball is in the people’s court.

If they have the courage to call his bluff, risking physical harm to themselves, it will represent a tipping point for the country.

2) The Iranians want our support.

You may have noticed in some of the most prolific photos of the protests this week, many of the signs are in English.

Iranian protesters know that the rest of the world is watching and with English signs, like “Where is my vote?”, they are sending us a message that they are not violent people, they want democracy to succeed and they want the improvements that it will bring to their lives.

3) It’s not about the opposition leaders anymore; it’s about the people.

The supreme leader’s threats are directed at all Iranians, but he specifically said that the responsibility for the chaos and bloodshed come Saturday would be on the hands of opposition leaders.

In other words, he’s ordering the opposition leaders to call off the rallies. Problem is, the time when that was possible has already passed.

Mr. Hossein Moussavi. Photo: Hamed Saber

On Tuesday, Mr. Hossein Moussavi, one of the main opposition leaders, urged his own supporters to cancel their plans to rally and it had no effect.

Hundreds of thousands showed up against his intentions and when the numbers neared a million, he joined them.

This shows that it’s ordinary citizens, not high-powered politicians fueling this unrest. It is the people–and a large section of the Iranian establishment– demanding a fair election.

4) Regime change can only come from within.

As much as Western governments would like to replace the totalitarian regime in Iran, real revolution must come from within. Outside governments like the US will never be able to successfully change a sovereign government like Iran through embargoes and political pressure.

More importantly, in Iran, the single biggest subject that unifies the most radical sects of the government is “outside power”, i.e. America vying for influence. In other words, the more western governments attempt to influence politics from the outside, the more we are emboldening politicians like Ahmadinejad and fueling hatred of America at the political level.

Photo: .faramarz

If successful regime change comes to Iran, it will arrive in the hands of Iranians.

5) There is so much future to fight for.

70% of Iranians are under the age of 30. A change in government now could have dramatically positive results for the lives of all young Iranians. Now is their chance.

The people of Iran have been entangled by the oppression of their government and the prejudice of the West for too long.

Just as many Americans cringed at the thought of foreigners perceiving our people by the measures of our government and foreign policy during the W. Bush years, Iranians too are frustrated by the fact that their people are judged by the decisions made by their government. This is an opportunity to change all that.

Just as we in the United States changed our leadership and elected Obama to open people’s minds back up to what we stand for, Iranians could do the same thing if they succeed in bringing new leadership to Iran.

The time is now.

So I urge you, regardless of where you are in the world, or what country you’re from, support the people of Iran on this fateful day. Make sure everyone you care about knows what’s happening and understands how high the stakes are for these people, who so desperately want a real democracy. To begin, here are six ways you can help.