Trip to Washington DC (2008)

I traveled to D.C. in February of 2008 as part of the Lobby Day for Northern Uganda.

Our goal was to encourage Members of Congress to take action towards the situation in Uganda. My sister and I traveled there to meet up with the group "Lobby Day for Northern Uganda."

Unfortunately, most of my pictures did not turn out. And although Lobby Day is over, the situation in Uganda is not. This website is outdated, but gives you a "History of the Conflict," "Consequences of War," and the "Attempts at Resolution:" http://www.ugandalobbyday.com/about.html.

You may have heard about the conflict of this African country through the college campus-popular rising of the group, Invisible Children. You may check them out at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/.

So here are the pics: I wish I would have shared them sooner!

The architecture in DC was absolutely stunning!

Iwo Jima Memorial

World War II Memorial Stone

Statue in front of the Rayburn House Office Building, used by the US House of Representatives.

Statue on other side of entry to the
Rayburn House Office Building.

US Capitol building

One of our stops on Lobby Day was the office of

Marilyn Musgrave, who was a United States Representative at the time.

After our stops at the Capitol, we walked to the White House. Along our way is The Extra Mile, with metal plates of famous change makers embedded into the sidewalk. You can learn more here: http://pointsoflight.org/recognition/extra-mile/honorees. As a social worker and a recurring volunteer for many agencies, these honorees are inspiring!


Jane Addams is considered the "first social worker" because of her work trying to better the lives of others by volunteering. She founded the Hull House in Chicago in 1889 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, the first American woman to receive the award.

Better known is Harriet Tubman, famous for escaping slavery during the Civil War and then returning to help others escape through a network of people and places named the Underground Railroad.

Another famous African-American is Martin Luther King, Jr., and like Addams, received the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964. He was known for his nonviolent protests in the Civil Rights Movement; his protests modeled those used by Mahatma Gandhi.

The end of our journey was the White House. I enjoyed my trip so much that I would love to go again, and this time take my husband and my son. I met so many wonderful people, all out in DC on their own dime trying to make a difference in the lives of those affected by war in Uganda. I hope you check out links to Invisible Children and the old link to Lobby Day for Northern Uganda to learn more about the situation. I hope this inspires you to take a trip to DC and to volunteer to make a difference in your community or somewhere around the world!

Oh mosquitos and malaria, how I hate thee

It breaks my heart that such a small little pest can cause so much pain, suffering, and death. Please read this article Battling a Scourge by Alex Perry in Time magazine at http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1995199_1995197_1995176,00.html

Here are some things that really struck me:

• Dr. Matthew thought I should see some statistics. Apac is home to 515,500 people. Between July 2008 and June 2009, 124,538 of them were treated for malaria. That meant 2,000 to 3,000 patients a week for Dr. Matthew and his three fellow doctors, and the number rose to 5,000 in the rainy season. Of Apac's malaria patients, nearly half were under 5.
• Doctors here don't see that many patients-how can they ever keep up and also be able to provide adequate medicine? So many little babies...
• Signboards erected by the side of the road announced the presence of two foreign-assistance programs. One was a European-funded child-protection group, which had no malaria component to its program. The other was the National Wetlands Program (NWP), funded by Belgium. Partly because of NWP's influence, the draining of malarial swamps is banned — which amounts to preserving wetlands at the price of human life. Spraying houses with insecticide — which in 2008 cut malaria infections in half — is also forbidden. Why? Because of objections from Uganda's organic-cotton farmers, who supply Nike, H&M and Walmart's Baby George line. Chemical-free farming sounds like a great idea in the West, but the reality is that Baby Omara is dying so Baby George can wear organic
• So you read it here: Nike, H&M and a clothing line from Walmart place a demand to not spray for mosquitos. Who is placing a demand that others die? WE ARE if you participate in buying from these companies. I will have to look further into this to see what other companies are putting their profits before people (I know it's going to be a long list).
• This, too often, is how aid goes: good intentions sidetracked by ignorance; a promising idea poorly executed; projects that are wasteful, self-regarding and sometimes corrupt.
• Ah, yes, a line that explains much in death stricken areas around the world, due to poverty, lack of food, shelter, medicine, education, work, and so on.
• The logistics of such a plan are less complex than they seem, because while malaria affects half the world's countries, just seven — the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, southern Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda — account for two-thirds of all cases
• [M]alaria has been at least halved in nine African countries since 2000.
• In 2005, Chambers was looking at a photograph of sleeping Mozambican children taken by his friend the Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs. "Cute kids," he remarked. "You don't understand," replied Sachs. "They're in malarial comas. They all died." Chambers was mortified. "So I said to Jeff, 'I'd like to kind of come up with business concepts to see if we can't save 1.3 million children a year.'" The next year, he established Malaria No More — a group that raises money, implements programs and stands as a case study of how aid can change.
• http://www.malarianomore.org/
  

If you would like to help, check out Malaria No More at the link above. You can also think of smaller organizations, such as Think Humanity, who distributes nets (and does other things) for those in a refugee camp in Uganda: http://www.thinkhumanity.org/about.html . I've met Beth, who travels back and forth with what she can for those in the camp.

I know I'm in the tee-shirt business, but Overlooked has an awesome shirt that you'll be educating others and supporting the cause against malaria: http://overlooked.storenvy.com/products/14776-malaria-kills-clearance

I also have tees available that support World Vision, who does so much work in Africa and also distributes nets:

All tees are 100% cotton; they tend to run a little bit bigger than the size you would normally wear, as they are uni-sex shirts.

All tees are $18 and up to half of the net profits go to the organization where the statistic came from.

Email me at whocares_llc@yahoo.com and we can arrange payment and either delivery if you live nearby, or sending your order through the mail.