Category Archives: MDGs

MDG Poem By LF and MML

November 6, 2012, by LF

In the following poem, we will be addressing the sixth Millennium Development Goal, which focuses on combating diseases and fighting HIV/AIDS. We chose to focus on the 1st indicator “HIV prevalence among population ages 15-24”, because both of us connected with it the most, and felt we had knowledge on the subject. We retrieved our information from an article called HIV Prevalence Among Pregnant Women Aged 15-24 (Wikigender, by Multiple Sources). We also got information from another article, Trends in HIV prevalence and sexual behavior among young people aged 15–24 years in countries most affected by HIV (sti.bmj.com ,by BMJ publishing).

Searching 

~By LF and MML~

I can’t believe we are still behind

Knowing that we are sitting at home watching TV

Knowing that half of the new HIV cases are among people under 24 years of age

Knowing that some people try their best

Having to think about goals we cannot keep

Knowing that women have a higher chance of HIV contraction because of their

Unequal social status

 

Too little to be living in fear

Such small voices, if only we could hear

Next time I peer at a mirror

And don’t like what I see

I’ll remember those children, who’d die to look like me.

Who already are

But a cure isn’t so far

I can feel it

To the young souls, so lost, take their hand

Be their guardian angel, protector, their friend

Make them as happy as ever, before the end

Waiting to hear the good news

Waiting to see the future

Waiting to loose this terrible disease

Trying to fight

Trying to see the light that is on earth with their families

Lies that have been told like

Being able to lower HIV prevalence by 25% in 2010

 

Together

United

Combined

We’ll find a way to make the disease stay away

It’s around the next bend

And come what may

In bed they’ll lay

Waiting for the doctor to say

That they don’t have to pay

To see a better day

 

AIDS/HIV Poem – JM

November 5, 2012, by JM

For the MDG’s & You course, Me (JM) and my partner AH, had to write a poem on the topic of MDG 4 (child mortality) or MDG 6 (Combat AIDS/HIV). We chose to write on the topic of MDG 6 indicatior 6.3 (Proportion of population aged 15 – 24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of AIDS/HIV). One thing I learned is the astounding number of people in Florida who have AIDS. I am proud that I was able to create this poem on my own. Enjoy the poem!

Poem on HIV & AIDS – PDF

Poem and Illustration: HIV and AIDS Awarness

November 3, 2012, by KG

Mi Casa Ideal – JM

November 3, 2012, by JM

For my Spanish class, we did a project that consisted of us coming up with our ideal home and seeing how it fit to accomplishing one or more MDGs. MDGs are Millennium Development Goals that were set by the UN in 2000. The purpose of this project is to show ways that you can create a home that helps achieve a  MDG on its own. I am proud that I was able to find a way that your own home can change the world. I learned how to say the word windmill which is “molino de viento”. Leave comments on my blog about your thoughts. Enjoy the Debate!

 

CASA Debate

6 seconds~Spread the word

November 3, 2012, by DC

 

 

In our Art of Rhetoric class, we are discussing pathos. For our Action project I am researching a topic that interests me and creating a platform to express it to other people. Then we created a call to action that can be measured. For my project I am trying to spread the awareness of HIV through a presentation. I recorded the presentation and turn it into a video asking people to share it with 6 friends in 6 seconds. Below is the presentation.

DC Goggle sketch up

November 3, 2012, by DC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The invention and idea skills I got from this course will help me become a global  because now I can look at sustaniability and energy in a creative way. This design aligns with most of the United Nation’s Millennium Goals like  Environmental Sustainability, combating diseaes like HIVAid and malaria, and reduce child mortality. In this last unit of my design and engineering class, we had to design a goggle sketchup of one of our inventions.  I choose do my water station. Above you can see the comparison of the sketch and the actual one. 

MDG’s and You – The Darkness – A poetic Glance at HIV/AIDS – AH

November 1, 2012, by AH

This is a poem that focuses on indicator 6.3 For MDG # 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. We got our facts in it from an article called World AIDS Day is Tuesday; here’s a look at Florida stats (Tampa Bay Times, by John Barry) and from 10 Facts on HIV/AIDS Today (World Health Organization, by Unknown).

ENJOY!

Poem on HIV & AIDS

Country Profile by LF

October 31, 2012, by LF

 

 

For our second Action Project, the assignment was to dive deeper into the country we were given to study and pair it was an MDG of our choosing. Since my country was Thailand, and I discovered a major issue with gender equality there from talking to a native, that was my chosen MDG. After talking a Thailand native, I did some more research using articles and transfered the information I found there into two maps. The first one depicts gender equality in 2000, when only 5.6% of women there were in parlement, and the second shows how in 2012, the number has increased to 15.8%. The MDG is off to a good start there, but it still has far to go.

Check out what I have to say!

For my country profile, I decided to focus on on Thailand and MDG target 3, promoting gender equality and empowering women; specifically, proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. Before I began this assignment, I admit I did not know anything about the gender equality situation in Thailand. But now that I have had the pleasure of doing some investigation through interviews and research, I’ll be able to share my knowledge with you.

For the article portion on my research, I decided on an article called “Six actions can fast-track women in Asia – Pacific UNDP”. It was written by Thin Lei Win and published on September 20^th, 2012. The article states, “It will be 50 years before parliaments in the Asia-Pacific region achieve gender balance if women’s participation remains at its current pace. “One of the issues mainly discussed is half the population (4.2 billion) in the Asia Pacific area are female, and 10 percent of national parliament is women. However, in Thailand, there is a female prime minister named Yingluck Shinawatra. There are also 680,267 more females than males.

This article recommends six steps to increase women’s participation in politics. They all seemed very important so I’ve put them all here, word for word: “Constitutional reform to entrench women’s rights; transforming electoral systems and party laws to make them more inclusive; instituting legal quotas requiring certain numbers of women; changing internal political party rules; making it easier for women to develop political skills; and the creation of more gender-sensitive parliaments.” I think it’s very important for women to be a part of the government and politics because women’s perspective is very important too, and I will continue to develop an interest in making that happen.

For the interview, I spoke with a young woman named Tipi. First, I questioned her about the number of students all together in her high school. She informed me that in her integrated course of math and science, there were 45 people all together, out of which 35 were boys. She suspected this was because boys liked science more than girls. When asked if she would want to change anything about the way she was educated in her country, she answered saying, “We had a lot of homework and we did it to please the teacher, so we didn’t learn from our homework.”

Since Thailand is so huge and Tipi is from the capital, that’s where I decided to focus most of my gender equality in parliament research. The capital, Bangkok, is the largest city in Thailand, with 8,280,925 people. The star on my map symbolizes its location. There is a pretty equal ratio of men to women. Despite this, there are only 22 female upper house representatives as apposed to the 179 men. There are quite a few women in the House of Representatives (13,236) but not compared to the 94,868 males. As you can see, it is not a very equal ratio.

As you see in my maps below, I’ve compared the number of seats held by women in parliament in 2000 (5.6) to now (15.8). From this information I can grasp that more and more women are feeling comfortable with these positions of power, and I can only hope it goes up from here. In terms of my specific target, I can come to the conclusion that Thailand as a whole is on the right track toward increasing the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.

Country Profile – Macedonia – JM

October 29, 2012, by JM

For my MDG’s and You course, we were to research a country in another place in the world and do a report on how it is achieving one MDG (Millenium Development Goal; Goals to be achieved by the UN by 2015). The country I had was Macedonia and my article is on how they are tackling the issue of maternal health. The point of this project was to show how the international effect of MDG’s. What I learned is how to make a map that can represent data in certain countries. What I am proud of is being able to find a topic to write about for this project because Macedonia doesn’t really have an issue on gender equality and its maternal heath situation isn’t that bad. Enjoy the Paper!

country profile PDF

Country Profile: MDGs Course

October 28, 2012, by KG

For Unit 2 in this MDG course, I’ve completed a Country Profile about Target 3.1: Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The purpose of this project was to demonstrate my research about Brazil related to this target. I am proud of the whole country profile and the effort I put into the making of it. I’ve learned that Brazil has an equal amount of both genders receiving an education, as shown below.

KG

MDGs & You Action Project 1-Country Profile

October 10, 2012

    This country profile demonstrates how Brazil has contributed so far to MDG 3 using maps and research, from the internet and an interview, in terms of education. I found research about Target 3.1: Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary, tertiary education. The United Nations wanted to accomplish this goal preferably by 2005, but no later than the year of 2015.    

    These maps demonstrate the percentage of gross enrollment of each gender. Each map shows the value of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. According to World Bank, primary schooling has 122.5% girls and 132.2% boys. Secondary schooling has 106.5% girls and 96.4% boys. Tertiary schooling has 39.1% girls and 30.4% boys. Most of the percentages are closely equal, which means there is gender equality taking place. This graph relates to my target because it explains that there is equality between the two genders in each step of education.

    In Brazil, there looks like there’s a great amount of equality in primary, secondary, and tertiary schooling. Depending on where a student lives, they may or may not receive a great education. In a situation like this, gender wouldn’t take place. The subject of having equal opportunities would occur more to this situation.

“ According to the UNFPA report, the secondary net school enrollment percentage of the school age population for females have risen by 13%, from 1999-2007. The primary school gross enrollment percentages of the school age population are; males 134%, females 125% in 2007.”

    In a recent conversation I had with Elenanoria, she said, “Where I grew up is very much like Chicago. You have people who are well dressed and you see people begging for money on the streets.” She informed me that when she went to school, all of her classes had half and half, boys and girls. I also discovered that if a student attends their neighborhood school, the student has to advance into the next grade, even if they don’t understand the material they’re learning. There is no such thing as failing. I think there wouldn’t be any benefits of going to a school such as this one because this student wouldn’t really have a future full of opportunities. These students who aren’t understanding the material being taught, are advancing to the next grade, but they aren’t a step ahead.

    In my opinion equality can vary in definition depending on the subject of the matter or the situation it’s placed in. I think equality means to have a balance between things. I think equality, in this case, means that both genders, male and female, have the same amount of respect and opportunities. After gathering all of my information, I’ve discovered that Brazil has been contributing to promote gender equality, especially in education.