THE REGIONS
In this section:
Angolan Amputees Play Basketball
Computer, Theater Training Pave Way to Better Future for Brazil's At-Risk Youth
Water-Saving Course Led Jordanian Women to Become Plumbers
U.S.-Russia Exchanges Promote Rule of Law
AFRICA
Angolan Amputees Play Basketball
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Ido 'Lito' Elias plays wheelchair basketball as part of the USAID-funded Sports For Life program.
USAID/Angola
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LUENA, Angola—Benedito Cacoma Boeis was 12 when he walked down to the river for a swim. His friends were already in the water, laughing and urging him to join them. Benedito started wading in. A mine exploded, destroying his legs.
After both his legs were amputated above the knee, Benedito was brought to the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) center. The USAID-funded center provided him with a wheelchair and encouraged him to stay fit and focused by playing wheelchair basketball.
Last year, VVAF also provided a wheelchair to Ido "Lito" Elias, who appears to have suffered from polio at a very young age. Now 15, Lito is a fit and aggressive basketball player, spinning in circles and popping wheelies in between quarters.
VVAF also works with the disabled in Ethiopia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Central America.
In Angola, VVAF was careful to choose a location for its center that was among the most heavily mined during the long conflict, which ended April 2002.
The country has some of the worst human development indicators in the world.
"We chose Moxico because it was considered one of the provinces most affected by war," said Anita Keller, one of the VVAF coordinators. "On the other hand, it was a region where there was no assistance to victims of mines and other undetonated devices."
Estimates of the number of landmines in Angola range from 5 million to 10 million, making it possibly the most heavily mined country in the world. Some 70,000 Angolans are believed to have lost limbs in landmine explosions. From 1997 to 2002, some 1,500 prostheses were distributed by the VVAF center.
VVAF started working in Moxico province in 1996, but activities have now expanded into Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul.
The center offers a variety of healthcare services. It also offers recreational and sports activities through its Sports for Life program, which aims to show Angolans that disabled people can still be active and productive.
Benedito has been with the program from the start. He is now 22. He not only plays, but has been given responsibilities such as providing water for the team and leading warmup exercises.
In November, the Moximo team, Angola's youngest, took fourth place in a national championship.
"Our brightest hope at the moment is the athletes themselves," said Keller.
"Given the space to practice and the basic equipment, we believe they will continue on their own, as long as competition continues at the national level."
USAID funded a similar program for a wheelchair basketball team in Lubango and, when that program ended, the team continued to play on their own initiative.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Computer, Theater Training Pave Way to Better Future for Brazil's At-Risk Youth
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Gilson Assis performs in a play about HIV/AIDS prevention in a program through the USAID-funded Adolescents' Integral Reference Center in Salvador.
Mila Petrillo
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BRASÍLIA, Brazil—Dance lessons and computer training sessions are helping thousands of Brazil's young people overcome social exclusion and get jobs.
In Fortaleza, for instance, children from poor families learn ballet at the Dance and Social Integration School for Children and Adolescents.
"We come here for ballet classes, computer lessons, tutorial programs, rehearsals, and lunch," said Stefania Pereira, a 15-year-old participant.
USAID, through the Displaced Children and Orphans' Fund, has invested some $11 million in more than 70 such youth projects in the past decade.
The programs
- work with 35,000 children and adolescents in poor neighborhoods in northeast Brazil and Brasília, the capital
- support a network of NGOs carrying out programs
- work with local governments to improve existing youth-at-risk projects
To date, USAID's at-risk program in Brazil has won additional support of more than $3 million from bilateral and multilateral donors and local companies.
"We join forces with the government of Brazil and local civil society to disseminate best practices and enhance existing programs," said Nena Lentini of USAID/Brazil.
The Agency has assisted the Brazilian government in designing public policies to decrease violence against children and help youth find work.
Some 41 percent of 182 million Brazilians are under 21. Many youth come from poor families, do not attend school, and face difficulties attaining job skills. Some 15 percent of children aged 7-14 are obliged by poverty to work.
About 96 percent of children attend primary school, but many poor children enter the educational system late and attend classes irregularly, said Lentini. Nearly a fifth of students drop out. Girls are especially at risk, since they are easy prey for trafficking and prostitution rings.
Many youth-at-risk programs use art education to attract youth living in the streets, victims of sexual abuse, child laborers, school dropouts, and those with broken family ties. Other projects offer computer training skills and job placement.
Of the children and youth that USAID programs reach, the vast majority attend school and regularly complete grades, according to recently collected data. Some 85 percent of graduates from USAID-supported vocational training programs find jobs.
Diosmar Filho, for instance, got involved with the art education project in Salvador, the capital of the Bahia state, at age 16. Today he is 26, and works with youth-at-risk programs.
"I was hired as an administrative assistant," he recalled. "[It was] a dream for me, and a reason for my family to be proud."
In Recife, USAID supports a program preparing youth to enter the job market as computer technicians.
Fifty boys and girls from poor neighborhoods are participating: they hone their communication skills and they are taught how to set up and upgrade computer systems, install software, and manage and troubleshoot computer networks.
This pilot program offers counseling and internships and helps place students into jobs. It is also developing a methodology for disadvantaged youth training that has the potential to be scaled up.
ASIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Water-Saving Course Led Jordanian Women to Become Plumbers
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Khawla Al Sheikh broke all stereotypes and embarked on a career as a plumber.
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AMMAN, Jordan—Khawla Al Sheikh is a tall, well-dressed, attractive blonde with flashing eyes and a charming smile. She is also one of Jordan's first women plumbers.
Some 110 women participated in a course that trained them to perform simple home water audits and educate people about water conservation. Al Sheikh was among 33 of them who went on to participate in home maintenance and plumbing training. Seven of the women took an even further step, enrolling in a licensing course in plumbing at the vocational training center. They prompted the center to establish a women's plumbing program as a formal course, and they will soon be licensed plumbers.
Women are the target group for the Water Efficiency and Public Education for Action (WEPIA) program, because a 2000 USAID program on public awareness about water conservation found women—those who are homemakers or unemployed—were its largest and most concerned audience.
Now Jordanian women who wish plumbing help no longer have to wait for their husbands to call a male plumber and be present during the plumber's visit.
Jordan has long suffered from water scarcity. The amount of water delivered to homes barely meets requirements for basic household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and hygiene. But annual water consumption, as low as it is, still exceeds renewable supplies, and groundwater tables are being depleted at an alarming rate.
WEPIA works with women NGOs to train women to educate people about water scarcity. The program developed simple flipcharts for the women that describe Jordan's water sector; technologies that reduce water use without affecting lifestyles; and a step-by-step method for calculating home use and water savings that might result from installing an aerator, a low-flow showerhead, or a replacement for a leaky toilet cistern.
Participants are trained as sales agents for simple, cheap, easily installed water-saving devices marketed in private homes. The income for the female sales agents ranges from $7.50 to more than $300 per month, depending on sales.
The water-saving devices can reduce water use by 35 percent.
"Selling [water-saving devices] is the first job in my life," said Al Sheikh. "It shaped my personality. I became more confident and I learned how to deal with people."
The WEPIA program, in which USAID invested $10.5 million over four years, also trained 120 waethat—women lay preachers—to help them educate parishioners about water conservation. The program also developed The Imam's Guide to Water Conservation, which invokes the sacred writings of Islam to guide the waethat.
"Only a woman can sell to women," said Al Sheikh, who sold 208 water-saving devices in three months and has new orders piling up. "What made me succeed is that I believe in [them]."
More than 50,000 women have been reached by water conservation programs funded by the Agency in the past two years.
WEPIA is implemented by The Academy for Educational Development.
EUROPE AND EURASIA
U.S.-Russia Exchanges Promote Rule of Law
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American judges converse with their Russian counterparts through teleconferences such as this one.
Harry Edwards, USAID
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MOSCOW—Hundreds of Russian judges have visited the United States to meet with American judges through U.S. programs promoting the rule of law, while dozens of judges from Illinois to Florida have made similar visits to courts in Russia.
"The discussions were very theoretical [when the program began]—what kinds of institutions might work best in a democracy, how do you create the proper tension among the three branches of government so that no one branch gets too powerful," said Judge Michael Mihm, who hosted several delegations of Russian judges at his home in Illinois.
"Now the discussions we have are primarily about nuts and bolts," he said.
USAID supports judicial exchange programs, in partnership with Russia's Council of Judges, and in collaboration with the Library of Congress's Open World program, which has sent more than 700 Russian judges and legal professionals to the United States.
The joint efforts of USAID and the council support judicial exchanges, link Russian judicial organizations and councils with similar groups in the United States, and train judges.
U.S. assistance has helped shape the terms of Russian legislation such as the civil code that defines the basic property rights and the fundamentals of business relations. U.S. lawyers also advised Russia's Ministry of Finance through the waves of drafts and revisions that produced Russia's 1999 tax code.
Drafters of the criminal procedure code, which mandates jury trials nationwide in serious criminal cases, drew on the experience with USAID-supported pilot programs in nine regions of Russia.
Rule of law programs have also helped establish legal clinics at Russia's law schools. The clinics are staffed by Russian law students who get practical training while offering free or low-cost legal advice to citizens.
Russia's six-year-old Judicial Department of the Supreme Court has hired and trained more than 2,500 court administrators, and a USAID-funded pilot program is moving toward adoption of national norms for case management and court administration.
The rule of law program has changed the way Russian judges perceive themselves, Mihm said. Under communism, Russia's judicial branch was not independent, and was frequently influenced or run by the executive branch. Because of this, judges were considered biased.
"From my perspective, the most important thing that has changed is the people themselves," Mihm said. "I think many of the Russian judges now have a much better sense of who they are."
Still, Mihm said, there remains work to be done with rule of law in Russia. Even if the judicial branch is stronger, its work largely depends on the efficiency of the executive and legislative branches.
"It goes without saying [that] this program is very important for Russian judges," said Justice Yuriy Ivanovich Sidorenko, chairman of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation and a longtime participant in USAID's rule of law programs.
"It's important to know you are not by yourself and you have friends across the ocean."
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