Research+Paper

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======================================================================================= Phoebe Wise --> Brad Riddle A: Change the one quote from being block-style format to regular. B: Make the thesis more noticeable. C: There were no more marks on my paper in this peer review document. D:

Kellie O'Donnell --> Brad Riddle A: Fix the personal pronouns in the first page. B: Re-organize the first paragraph that starts off with questions. C: Expand upon goals that the WFP lays out. D: Spell out the names of the organizations (WFP, UN, etc.)

Josh Sehnert --> Brad Riddle A: Reorganize the first two paragraphs. B: Add more thesis support throughout the paper. C: Try not to stray from the thesis. D: Talk more about the people and how they are building character.



Page Deadlines: 2: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 4: Thursday, March 11, 2010 6: Saturday, March 13, 2010 8: Wednesday, March 17, 2010

2: Tuesday, March 9, 2010.

How would you feel if an earthquake struck your hometown and left you stuck under the rubble of what once was your house? How would you get out? How would you get the food and water necessary for survival? Every day, terrible things like natural disasters, conflict, and economic failure ravage developing nations and leave the general public struggling to stay alive. In these unfortunate circumstances, the American Red Cross is usually the first group of people to arrive to the scene, and in most cases, the last to leave. These brave humanitarians risk losing their own lives in order to save thousands. Not only are these people helping those in need, but they are also helping themselves by showing how selfless they are. Humanitarian efforts not only benefit people in need by providing necessities, but also benefit those who conduct the work as well, by building character. Imagine living in a third-world country, sitting around on a weekday, unable to go to school because your family cannot afford books. You are watching as your father attempts to cultivate a garden that hasn’t produced food in years because of the shift in temperature. You pray that the rain will come and give life to the garden that looks like nothing but cracked land at this point. You go to lie down as another day passes where you go hungry. As you rest your head on the ground, you ask yourself if this will ever change. It is estimated that on average, 800 million people go to bed hungry each day. Of these 800 million people, 24,000 die each day from starvation and malnutrition ( Abbasi). In nations where the general public is unable to provide food for themselves and their families, the famished must hope for foreign aid. Luckily, the United Nations is one of the largest humanitarian organizations and provides food to needy countries daily. In 1960, the United Nations established the World Food Programme. Each year, the WFP provides food to 76 struggling nations around the world. On average, the WFP provides food to 90 million people per year, and 58 million of those are children. In these nations, the UN and the WFP are seen as heroes. The World Food Programme has laid out five general goals that it attempts to achieve wherever it goes. The first is to save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies. This goal is by far the most important thing to accomplish as one attempts to help others. The second is to prevent acute hunger and invest in disaster preparedness and mitigation measures. The third goal set up by the WFP is to restore and rebuild lives and livelihoods in post-conflict, post-disaster or transition situations. This means that the members of the WFP may help a village start from scratch after a tsunami hits. The humanitarians who help in situations such as these tend to be in that area for months after the initial problem. The fourth goal is to reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition. The last goal is to strengthen the capacities of countries to reduce hunger, including through hand-over strategies and local purchase (WFP.org). Although this is the last goal, it is certainly not the least important. While the UN and WFP are doing great things for people in need, these nations will eventually need to find a way to provide for their citizens. While the United Nations and World Food Program are recognized as some of the greatest humanitarian organizations in the world, there are some individuals that stand alone as humanitarians. Possibly one of the more influential humanitarians of recent years is John Breen. Not many people know his name, but if you mention the names of two websites that he created, odds are, people have heard of them. In 2007, John Breen created Poverty.com, which presents solutions to end world hunger, and prevent common diseases. Another website that John Breen created is called FreeRice.com. Free Rice offers its visitors small trivia questions in subjects such as art, science, math, English, geography, and foreign languages. These questions will start off at beginner levels, and with each correct answer, the difficulty will increase.

4: Thursday, March 11, 2010.

The incredible thing about this website is the fact that the WFP donates 10 grains of rice for every question you get right. All you need to do is type in the URL and study whatever subject you may be learning in school by quizzing yourself. Free Rice keeps track of the amount of rice that each person donates for each web session. In its first six months, Free Rice donated over 42 billion grains of rice. To date, the website has donated over 76 billion grains of rice. Free Rice estimates that with these numbers, it is able to feed about 7,000 people each day. It is apparent that when the website first started in October 2007, word got around about it, and there were more daily users than ever. Over the past two years, however, the amount of rice donated by Free Rice has decreased dramatically compared to its first two years. In an attempt to help defeat world hunger, one must hope that all teachers and schools encourage their students to use Free Rice as a study tool for whatever subject they prefer. By doing something as simple as creating a website, John Breen has helped the World Food Programme feed billions of people. Each day, the WFP works to feed those who cannot afford food for their families. While the WFP is already viewed as one of the largest humanitarian groups, it recently changed its method of operation in order to help even more people. In 2007, the WFP began to buy its food from poor nations. That year, the WFP bought 2.1 million tons of food from over 69 developing nations. (Mastny) By purchasing food from poor nations, the WFP is not only saving money, but also supplying poor farmers with enough money to help improve their farms so that they can continue to provide this food. When asked about this strategy, WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said: “Local purchases create win-win solutions to hunger. In an era of soaring food prices – which hit hardest those already hungry – such solutions are more critical than ever. We are now not only feeding hungry people, but helping to develop sustainable solutions to hunger.” (Mastny)

This way of doing business is essentially a win-win for everyone involved. Those who are hungry are getting fed, those who need business are getting paid, and those who are helping are helping multiple groups of people. Humanitarian work does not just consist of providing food to those in need. Another major aspect of humanitarian aid is making adequate health care available to the needy after natural disasters and conflict. One of the leading groups that provides health care to the victims of natural disasters and conflict is the American Red Cross. Anytime there is a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or political conflict, the American Red Cross is almost always the first to respond. The brave and selfless humanitarian workers risk their lives to help those in need. After Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands of American Red Cross workers were providing first aid to the people of Louisiana who lost everything they had. The majority of these humanitarians were non-paid volunteers. Once the victims were rescued from their homes, they were taken to the Superdome and looked over by trained nurses and specialists. If it weren’t for the American Red Cross providing this shelter and health care, these people may not have survived. The fact that close to 95% of these humanitarians were non-paid volunteers shows how dedicated they are to helping others. Not many people in the world today are willing to work without pay, so when these volunteers are risking their lives to help save hundreds of thousands of people, one knows that they stand alone as a very special breed of human being.

6: Saturday, March 13, 2010.

One major group to works to provide health care to struggling nations is Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders was created in 1971 by a group of French Doctors. Since its founding, the organization has helped impoverished nations by providing medical services and improving area hospitals. From sanitizing water for drinking to vaccinating the public, Doctors Without Borders does it all. Aside from providing basic health care for nations in need, this organization educates the public of basic human rights. Doctors Without Borders received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize for its humanitarian work (Doctors Without Borders). Another organization similar to Doctors Without Borders is Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere). For the past 50 years, Project HOPE has worked hard to advance health care in nations around the world. Over its history, Project HOPE has served over 100 nations and provided over $2 billion in medicine and medical supplies. Aside from providing these health care basics, the organization also trained more than 2 million health care workers to help provide humanitarian work. Project HOPE has done everything from responding to earthquakes, helping refugees in conflict, providing shelter to those affected by harsh seasons, to educating African villages about AIDS and HIV (Project HOPE Celebrates 50 Years of Improving Health around the World). While the majority of humanitarian work is done by organizations, there are certain ways in which individuals can help the world. The most common form of individual humanitarian work is blood donation. Blood donation is the process when a person, called the blood donor, voluntarily gives blood that will be securely stored at a designated place (often a blood bank) for some future use (Hantula). The majority of times, the blood is given to someone in need, either after an accident or after a surgery. In order to donate blood, one must be over the age of 17, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in good health. Once the donor is cleared as matching these standards, they are then tested for blood type, and diseases like AIDS, syphilis, and anemia. The reason that the blood is tested for diseases is to ensure that nothing gets transmitted to the recipient. Blood donation can be a tricky process. In order for a blood transfusion to work successfully, the donor’s blood must be compatible for the person receiving the blood. There are four different blood types – A, B, AB, and O. Aside from these four types, blood is also listed as either positive or negative. Blood types are determined based on reactions between antigens and antibodies. Antigens are foreign substances that cause the body to attack it with an immune response. The proteins that the body builds up to neutralize these antigens are called the antibodies. The antigens found on the surface of the red blood cells determine the person’s ABO type. Although there are many different antigens found, the Rh test only looks for the “D antigen”. If the D antigen is there, then the person’s blood type is positive. If the D antigen is not present, then the person’s blood type is negative (Transfusion).

8: Wednesday, March 17, 2010.

Blood is most commonly donated to people who have been in serious accidents and have lost blood, or people who have had surgery. For those who have had surgery, their blood type is already known, but for those who have been in accidents, they must be tested for blood type. Once the recipient’s blood type is determined, they can be fitted for a match. If someone has a blood type of A-, then they can only accept blood from someone else who is A-. This is true for all blood types except for O. Anyone is able to accept blood type O, or the universal donor (Blood Typing and Crossmatching). When a donor gives blood, he or she can choose to give either whole blood, or just certain components. One may choose to give only the blood platelets, plasma, red and white blood cells, or certain clotting factors. In order to donate these components, the donor’s blood is drawn just as it would be normally, and then spun by a machine that separates the component from the whole blood and puts the blood back into the donor’s circulatory system. This method of blood donation can take about five to ten minutes more than the normal procedure. When giving blood, a donor will have one pint, or a unit of blood, taken. Once the blood is collected, it is stored in a plastic bag that can be either refrigerated or frozen. When refrigerated, whole blood can be saved for up to 42 days. Individual components can last to up to ten years when frozen. In some cases, when the stored blood is close to its “expiration” date, the American Red Cross will take it to a lab and work to research cures for certain diseases. By doing something as simple as laying on a table for ten minutes, a donor has the ability of saving multiple lives. If the donor has the blood taken whole, that pint can be used to save someone’s life after an accident. If the donor has separate components of the blood taken, each of those components can be used for a different patient. According to the American Association of Blood Banks, about eight million volunteer donors donate approximately 13 million pints of blood used in the United States each year (Blood Donation). Although this is a very large number, experts predict that there will be an annual shortage of four million units of blood by the year 2030 (Robb). In an attempt to keep this shortage from affecting the chances of someone receiving a blood transfusion, scientists have begun to search for an ideal blood substitute. At this point, at least half a dozen blood substitutes are being tested in clinical trials in order to see if they will be able to serve in case of emergency. One of the leading blood substitutes is called HemAssist. HemAssist is a mixture of hemoglobin and diaspirin, which can last just about as long as normal blood when it is stored. While this substitute did have some success in its trials, it also left some of its test subjects with hypertension. In this case, the side affects outweigh the benefits, so it is unlikely that HemAssist will make it to an operating room any time soon. Although the current tests do not show any hope for the near future, it does give some hope for a blood substitute eventually. No matter what it is that one does, any form of humanitarian work is greatly appreciated by anyone affected by it. Whether it is donating a pint of blood to save a life, or giving your time to help victims of a natural disaster; that little effort given to help others means the world to them. Humanitarian work not only helps those in need by giving them the necessities for life, but also helps those who conduct the work as well. By giving someone the ability to survive, you are opening up a world of possibilities for what they can achieve. No matter what they do with their life after being helped by a humanitarian, one must feel good about themselves for helping others.