TERAPROOF:User:billlinnaneDate:05/11/2010Time:10:11:35Edition:08/11/2010Monmonecho081110Page:12 Zone:EE
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Goals to be
reached
can make a
difference
Millennium Development Goals:
GOAL 1: Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger.
● Between 1990 and 2015, halve
the proportion of people whose
income is less than $1 a day.
● Achieve full and productive
employment and decent work
for all.
● Halve the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger.
GOAL 2: Achieve universal
primary education.
● Ensure that by 2015, children
everywhere will be able to
complete a full course of
primary schooling.
GOAL 3: Promote gender
equality and empower women.
● Eliminate gender disparity in
primary and secondary
education.
GOAL 4: Reduce child
mortality.
● Between 1990 and 2015, reduce
by two thirds the under-five
mortality rate.
GOAL 5: Improve maternal
health.
● Reduce by three quarters the
maternal mortality ratio.
● Achieve universal access to
reproductive health.
GOAL 6: Combat HIV/Aids,
malaria and other diseases.
● Have halted and begun to
reverse the spread of HIV/Aids.
● Achieve universal access to
treatment for HIV/Aids for all
those who need it.
● Have halted and begun to
reverse the incidence of malaria
and other major diseases.
GOAL 7: Ensure environmental
sustainability.
● Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into
country policies and
programmes and reverse the
loss of environmental resources.
● Reduce biodiversity loss,
achieving by 2010, a significant
reduction in the rate of loss.
● Halve the proportion of the
population without sustainable
access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation.
● By 2020, achieve a significant
improvement in the lives of at
least 100 million slum dwellers.
GOAL 8: Develop a global
partnership for development.
● Develop an open, rule-based,
predictable, non-discriminatory
trading and financial system.
● Address the special needs of
least developed countries.
● Address the special needs of
landlocked developing countries
and small island developing
States.
● Deal comprehensively with
the debt problems of developing
countries
● In co-operation with
pharmaceutical companies,
provide access to affordable
essential drugs in developing
countries.
● In co-operation with the
private sector, make available
benefits of new technologies,
especially information and
communications.
In September, Evening Echo reporter HELEN WALSH travelled to Zambia to
discover how Irish aid is changing the lives of thousands of people every day.
In the first instalment of a five-day series, she sets the scene for a journey that
will take readers from the townships of Lusaka to the banks of the Kafue River.
B world poverty
EAUTIFUL, intelligent and
eloquent, second-year law
student Lucy Njuka has
everything going for her.
Although the 24-year-old is HIV
positive, she is adamant that she
will complete her studies, get mar-
ried and raise a family just like any
of her friends.
On the day I sat down to talk to
her, she was a patient at Our Lady’s
Hospice in Kalingalinga in Lusaka.
Run by Cork native Sr Kay
O’Neill, the hospice was established
in the early 1990s as more and more
people became infected with HIV
and Aids.
With the government and hospit-
als unable to meet the needs of all
the patients, the need for a hospice
in the Kalingalinga area of the capit-
al became obvious.
In Zambia today, however, antiret-
roviral treatment (ART) is provided
free of charge to anyone who is HIV
positive.
As a result, the hospice’s focus has
changed from caring for the dying to
looking after those with HIV/Aids.
Feeling unwell, Lucy was brought
to the hospice by her siblings and
was treated free of charge before
being discharged three days later.
The hospice treats approximately
1,600 patients every month through
its out-patient service and treats a
further 60 people every month
through its in-patient centre.
It is one of a large number of pro-
jects funded or co-funded by Irish
taxpayers through organisations
like misean cara that are changing
the lives of thousands of people
every year in Zambia.
The role Irish missionaries like Sr
Kay have played in Zambia over the
decades has been central to reducing
poverty in the southern African
country.
Zambia remains one of the poorest
countries in the world with 64% of
the country’s population living on
less than a dollar a day. Although
horrifically high, the figure has
fallen from 74% in 1998.
Over the same period, extreme
poverty has declined from 58% to
51%, driven by significant progress
in urban areas where the figures re-
duced from 36% to 20%.
This year, 10 years after 189 world
leaders committed to a new global
partnership to reduce extreme
poverty and improve living condi-
tions, Zambia is on track to meet
seven of the eight Millennium Devel-
opment Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs, which range from
halving extreme poverty to halting
the spread of HIV/Aids and provid-
ing universal primary education, all
by the target date of 2015, form a
blueprint agreed to by members of
the UN and leading development in-
stitutions.
Zambia is on track to meet seven
of these goals by 2015 — ending
hunger, universal primary educa-
tion for all boys and girls, eliminat-
ing all gender disparity in educa-
tion, reducing child mortality,
improving maternal health, revers-
ing the spread of HIV/Aids and de-
veloping a global partnership for de-
velopment. The only goal the
country is unlikely to meet is envir-
onmental sustainability.
Central to achieving these goals is
the developed world’s commitment
to increase its overseas aid to the
UN target spending of 0.7% of na-
Budget cuts
must not stop
humanitarian
work in Africa
tional income.
Since 2000, Ireland has twice shif-
ted the date for achieving this inter-
national commitment, now saying it
aims to reach the target by 2015 at
the latest.
However, some 70 charity organ-
isations across the country have
launched a campaign called Act Now
2015 ahead of the December budget,
(YHQLQJ (FKR Monday, November 8, 2010
calling on the Government to an- porting missionaries who work with
nounce binding annual targets to the poorest communities around the
achieve the UN target of 0.7% of na- world, we think that even in these
tional income and enact legislation most difficult of recessionary times
to guarantee Ireland’s aid commit- it is imperative that Ireland remains
ment. on track to spend 0.7% of our nation-
A spokesperson for misean cara al income on overseas aid by 2015.
said Ireland should not make any “We made a promise to the world’s
further cuts to the aid budget. poorest when we signed up to the
“From our own experience of sup- Millennium Development Goals in
(YHQLQJ (FKR Monday, November 8, 2010
Clockwise from opposite page, Lucy Njuka, a HIV positive patient at Our Lady’s Hospital in Kalingalinga; above, students at Matero performing a welcome
song and dance; below, students in their new classroom in Matero.
2000. We said then that we would not
tolerate extreme inequality in the
world, and our position on this
should remain unchanged.
“Ireland’s calling card to the world
is our reputation for not tolerating
injustice and human suffering. We
must honour our commitments and
not make any further cuts.”
Last year, misean cara allocated a
total of F1,452,767 to its member or-
ganisations in Zambia to help devel-
opment work in areas such as educa-
tion, primary healthcare, human
rights, rural development and water
and sanitation projects.
During my visit, I witnessed the
role some of these organisations
play.
Over the next four days, the Even-
ing Echo will take readers from the
slums of Lusaka to the banks of the
Kafue River in a special series docu-
menting some of the projects funded
by Irish taxpayers in Zambia.
Tomorrow, we look at advances in
education, such as the creation of
new primary classrooms, school en-
rolment and increase in teachers.
On Wednesday and Thursday, our
Picture: Amy Colley
focus turns to health matters, partic-
ularly the UN Millennium Develop-
ment Goals of combating HIV/Aids,
maternal health and child health.
On Friday, we travel to a street
kids project that focuses on provid-
ing education and skills training to
children with special needs.
● Tomorrow focuses on education in
Zambia.
1(:6 
Irish group
spent e80m
on tackling
MISEAN CARA is an Irish development
organisation that supports and
promotes the work of missionaries
around the world.
The organisation’s 87 members, such
as The Religious Sisters of Charity and
the Jesuit Fathers, help fight poverty in
countries
throughout
Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
misean cara
was established
in 2004 and
since then has
distributed more than F80 million in
funding for members’ development
work.
On an annual basis, this funding
supports more than 800 personnel and
more than 100 projects in vital areas
such as health, education, humanitarian
relief, environmental protection.
Last year, misean cara allocated a total
of F1,452,767 in funding for member
activities in Zambia in the areas of
basic education, primary healthcare,
rural development and water and
sanitation projects.
Since its establishment, it has made
available almost F7.5 million in funding
for development projects in the
southern African country.
ZAMBIA FACTFILE
Location: In southern Africa, sharing
borders with Angola, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana
and Namibia.
Capital: Lusaka.
Population: 12.9 million.
Languages: English and more than 70
ethnic languages.
Life Expectancy: 45 years for men, 46
years for women.
Main Exports: Copper, minerals and
tobacco.
Gross domestic product: $11.4 billion
(US Dollars).
Other facts:
● Zambia is 10 times the size of
Ireland.
● At independence in 1964, Zambia
was the world’s third largest copper
producer and potentially one of Africa’s
richest countries. Today it is one of the
worlds poorest.
● Almost two-thirds of the population
live below the international poverty line.
64% of the population lives on less than
F1 a day.
● Approximately one in six adults has
HIV/Aids and because of this one in
five children has lost one or both
parents.
● Malaria is a leading killer.