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5. Summaries, 15 April - 28 April 2013
Week 8-9
Each class summarizes the answers received from other Learning Circle partners and post them to the wiki site.
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Summary mdg1, Ahliah School, Lebanon
Hello everyone,
We would like to thank you all for putting such a great effort to answer our questions. We hope that we didn’t put you under a research stress and you enjoyed finding answers as much as we did.
To be honest, we didn’t know much about the millennium developments goals at the beginning. Yet, along with our teacher, we researched the general goals and in groups, we had to present and explain different targets. Relatively, we agreed on our questions expecting to get answers related to your countries since we researched answers related to ours in the same field. According to your answers, we learned a lot, and we knew that targets, achievements, and development goals percentages differ from one country to another.
We learned that in Hungary, in many cases poverty was situational but it turned into generational. Diseases like AIDS and malaria are not problems there but tuberculosis started spreading in the poorer areas. Pregnant women have to take part in regular medical checkups and they get medication if they need. When it comes to organizations, there are several foundations, organizations and churches as well which try to help the poor by distributing food, running shelters for homeless people and organizing summer camps or providing free school lunch for poor children.
Besides, in Canada, the percentage of whether poverty is situational or generational came equivalent based on their research. Government and health care systems ensure access to diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation to reduce ongoing infections. They also have prevention services and awareness campaigns. Government there takes a good care of Canadian citizens through affording different ongoing projects such as the government housing system.
However, in Latvia, poverty has always been generational; yet, Latvia became independent in 1918 and economy started to develop rapidly till it was interrupted in 1940 and they regained independence in 1991. People in Latvia don’t suffer from Malaria while the HIV infection rate is 0.36 %. Government has developed different programs for limiting the spread of HIV and a plan for improving child and maternal health.
Bangladesh is a developing nation. They had gone through war that made their economy weak and many people lived below poverty line. Nowadays, the situation is becoming better since they are taking advantage of their fertile land raw materials. Moreover, many people live in foreign countries; they continually send money for their relatives and business purposes .Many national and international organizations run many projects here that look after child and mother health. The government is also trying to reduce poverty from the country.
In Ukraine, poverty is not a major problem. Those who are poor are so because they don’t want to work for their living and not because they can’t find a job. However, Global crisis made negative influence on the economy of the country and consequently on people’s lives. There are some problems with tuberculosis in the country. Sometimes it’s conditioned by bad nourishment and expensive treatment. As to Malaria, people don’t suffer from such a disease. Ukraine’s government takes care of maternal health problems very much. All pregnant women regularly are examined and cured, if necessary. They are cured in special departments of maternity hospitals. Working pregnant women get maternity benefit and maternity leave.
Lastly,
In Romania,Poverty is a major generational problem. On the other hand, the government is providing the proper encouragement for people to fight against diseases such as AIDS. People are informed by special programs against this big problem. So, the state of Romania is fighting with disease like AIDS with institutions and organizations like “Close to you” Foundation, “Heart of child” Foundation and many other institutions. Regarding Malaria, Romania doesn’t register any cases.
We would really like to thank you again. All the answers that you posted were of great importance and benefit. We really enjoyed researching and finding answers to your questions and this enriched us in many different ways.
Summary mdg2, Nemes Nagy Ágnes Humán Szakközépiskola, Hungary
We chose this topic because our class is specialized in health care and we are learning about illnesses and diseases right now. We have learned that HIV is a disease of the human immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). During the initial infection, a person may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. This is typically followed by a prolonged period without symptoms. As the illness progresses, it interferes more and more with the immune system, making the person much more likely to get infections. There are three main stages of HIV infection: acute infection, clinical latency and AIDS. The initial period following the contraction of HIV is called acute HIV, primary HIV or acute retroviral syndrome. Due to their nonspecific character, these symptoms are not often recognized as signs of HIV infection. The initial symptoms are followed by a stage called clinical latency, asymptomatic HIV, or chronic HIV. Without treatment, this second stage of the natural history of HIV infection can last from about three years to over 20 years (on average, about eight years). In the absence of specific treatment, around half of people infected with HIV develop AIDS within ten years. The most common initial conditions that alert to the presence of AIDS are pneumocystis pneumonia (40%), cachexia in the form of HIV wasting syndrome (20%) and esophageal candidiasis.
HIV is transmitted by three main routes: sexual contact, exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding (known as vertical transmission). HIV/AIDS is diagnosed via laboratory testing and then staged based on the presence of certain signs or symptoms. In many areas of the world a third of HIV carriers only discover they are infected at an advanced stage of the disease when AIDS or severe immunodeficiency has become apparent. Much of the world lacks access to reliable PCR testing and many places simply wait until either symptoms develop or the child is old enough for accurate antibody testing. Consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long term. When condoms are used consistently by a couple in which one person is infected, the rate of HIV infection is less than 1% per year.
Estimated of HIV among young adults (15–49) per country as of 2011.
Less than 0.1 %
0.1-0.5 %
0.5-1 %
1-5 %
5-15 %
15-50 %
We asked our questions because we wanted to know about the actual situation in our countries. We were glad that you've sent so much information and so many kinds of sources about this topic and we found them interesting. The amount of informatiom was so substantial that the three of us could hardly cope with the task, it would have been easier if we had more people to share the questions with.
This is what we have found out:
This is the number of people infected with AIDS in our countires. Fortunately most of our countries belong to the low risk countries, although, in most countries, there is a growing trend in the numbers of newly infected people, especially in the younger age groups. We were really surprised to find out that so many people in Ukraine are infected with AIDS but fortunately, their fight against further infections seems to be successful in preventing mother to child transmission.
In Hungary, every infected person can get free treatment like injections and medicine coctails or tablets.
The Hungarian RedCross organises interactive exhibitions and retro parties for young people. These programmes are free and are held at a large public hall. A-HA! National Sexual and Mental Hygenic Informative Program's experts give demonstarative lessons about preventing AIDS and other similar diseases. The goal is to reduce the chances of getting infected in sexual ways by 25 % by 2015.
Since December 1st, 1988 this day has been declared to be the Word Day Against AID by the United Nations. On this day national and civil organisations and the government try to attract people's attention to the importance of prevention against AIDS and HIV in Hungary, too.
We made this chart to show the summary of the charges of treatments in our countries: In most countries treatment is available for eligible patients free of charge, when we write 'expensive' it means that these countries do not use generic medicines. Of course, of the treatment of this disease is not cheap for any country.
| Country: |
Charges: |
| Lebanon |
free |
| Hungary |
free |
| Canada |
free/US $300 or $1200 |
| Latvia |
free |
| Bangladesh |
paid by the Government |
| Ukraine |
not free, expensive
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| Romania |
free / expensive |
We didn't always get enough information about the process of treatment but we think that it is similar in most countries, patients get antiretroviral drugs which slow down the disease and boost the immune system. As we learned it form your answers, this therapy is really efficient in cutting down the infection of HIV-positive mothers'children in Romania, Ukraine.
Prevention in all countries is also similar to our country's, teenagers get the most information at school. In most countries , it is somehow included in the curriculum, they have lessons about AIDS and similar illnesses, often held by doctors or other professionals. These lessons aim to raise the awareness of the possible risks of getting infected and the means of prevention.
Thank you for your answers. It was very useful to read what you have sent.
Summary mdg3, Angus Morrison Elementary School, Canada
Summary mdg4, Centre Wellington District High School, Canada
1. Why did we ask the question?
I think we asked about water because water is a vital part of many other issues that developing nations have to deal with. The other issues that are affected by water are health care (having clean water wouldn’t cause people to get sick and die), food (help cook/boil food, also watering crops). Water is important if you are dehydrated you can get constipated, dizzy/light headed, low blood pressure, nausea, fever, rapid heart beat or extreme fatigue or irritability. Access to water may limit access to education, especially for females.
2. What did we know about the theme when we started?
We knew water was an important asset of the other issues. We knew water is a vital part of health in ANY country. We knew that water is running scarce in the world, and we also knew that people in developing nations do not have access to clean water or sanitation. We also knew that many countries are treating water as a commodity.
4. What did we expect to learn?
We expected to learn all about the water crisis.
5. What did we learn from the responses of the students?
Most students were surprised that we are running out of water, and almost all students were shocks that corporations are privatizing some of our lakes for the purpose of drinking water.
6. What were the differences in the different countries?
In Lebanon, they think that “water affects the economy of a country in many respects. Rivers and streams are used for transportation, acid rain leads to forest damages and health problems caused by water pollution not only reduce the quality of life but also entail economic costs (just to mention a few examples). Mainly though, from an economic perspective, water is an input that is needed directly or indirectly for the production of most goods and services. Water is needed for irrigation in agriculture, serves as a coolant in power stations and is used for cleaning purposes in the chemical industry. “
In Hungary, only 67% of their water is drained so they must buy bottled water. Fortunate for Hungary, they are rich with water; full of thermal springs and different kinds of mineral water. Sanitation is a bigger problem in regards to water for Hungarians. Hungarians have realized their water is precious, so they do not waste it.
In Latvia, they believe that “clean water influences every aspect - health, education, gender equality and the economy”. They also think that if water at schools is clean then students are protected from diseases, and their health is not harmed; therefore they can study without missing lessons.
In Ukraine, they believe “water gives a lot of irreplaceable macro- and microelements. Furthermore, with water can be threatened a lot of diseases. But not all liquid is healing, as mineral water for treating is being specially selected from the best natural springs (in Ukraine we have Truskaviec, Morshyn, Mirhorod). At the same time, dirty water can cause different diseases and even deadly ones.” However, sanitation in regards to water is well represented in Ukraine. In kindergartens, schools, hospitals and other social structures sanitation is being kept on a high level. Also, Ukrainian homes are famous for cleanliness as well as hospitality.
In Romania, they think they can ensure environmental sustainability by encouraging the people to clean the big or small rivers from the rubbish accumulated in time. They explain that “the access to clean water is a problem for our country because the people who live in the countryside get the only source of water from wells or from shops. The wells are classified in two parts: good or bad wells. The good ones had got a well-balanced of nitrites and nitrates, the substances that make the water good or bad, which exist in each of a molecule of water. When the nitrates and nitrites are in a big quantity it makes the water or the wells bad. The bad wells have got a bad-balance of nitrites and nitrates which cause bad illnesses for big persons and even the death for the children whose age is under one year. This is the way water has got a bad influence in the people lives and in their health.”
At another school in Romania they explain “reduction of waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in developing countries. Drinking or using non potable water leads to widespread acute and chronic illnesses, and this is a major cause of death and misery in many countries. That’s how the access to clean water and sanitation influence health, and health means the increase of economy".
At National College “B.P.Hasdeu” in Romania they tell us that although Romanian water is purified, it can still contain heavy metals, dust, sand, recycled medicine, excessive hardness, nitrates, chemicals, and the elderly piping system or even newer plastic pipes do nothing to help the situation.”
7. Why do we think these differences exist?
These differences exist because in different places geographically there is varying amounts of water, as well as varying amounts of additives in the water supply. Some countries and regions have varied access to clean water. Other issues are political and deal with how the government provides or does not provide access/funds to access water and sanitation. Other issues may involve education around the importance of clean water and sanitation, as well as financial requirements of getting access to these services.
8. What are the consequences of the differences for a country? (still to complete)
Countries who are abundant with water still face the consequence of running out of useable water. Countries like Hungary and North America who have their population purchase bottled water, has a consequence of having 67% (in Hungary) of their water drained. Many people do not realize the need for preservation of water resources.
Summary mdg5, Kraslava State Gymnasium, Latvia
At the Millenium Summit in September 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, setting out a series of targets to be achieved by 2015 that are known as the Millennium Development Goals. We chose this theme for our project work in the Glaobal Teenager Project. Our question was connected with Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. So, we asked our partners questions about wages, level of uneployment, poverty and how they can help to solve these problems. We wanted to know more about this theme because we knew that poverty is a big problem all over the world, but we couldn’t imagine what level of poverty, unemployment and wage is in other countries, especially in those we knew little about, like Hungary, Lebanon and Canada. We received answers from Lebanon, Romania, Canada, Hungary and Ukraine although not all questions were answered clearly. We read the answers carefully because it was interesting to get to know about the situation with this problem in all countries, to analyze them and to compare with the situation in our country.
Our first question was about the reasons of poverty in all countries. We understood that the reasons of poverty in our partners’ countries and our country are similar - low wages and pensions and high level of unemployment. These reasons of poverty were influenced by the economic crisis. However, in Latvia there are other reasons too. Firstly, Latvia is a very young country. It is 40 years old, but this period is divided in two parts. Latvia was independent from 1918 to 1940 and from 1990 to nowadays, so not much could be done during such a short time. The second reason is that the territory of Latvia and its regions historically were under the rule of different countries and its development was not a priority for them.
To understand the situation with poverty, we compared the lowest income in all the Project countries. The lowest minimum wage, according to mdg9, is in Romania (€ 130) although mdg10 states it`s two times bigger. Maybe, this difference can be explained by different situations in various parts of the country. This problem can be observed in the countries like Ukraine (188 EURO average salary) and Lebanon where the situation is quite hard (51% of the population of the city of Tripoli lives under the income of 4$ a day). In Hungary minimum wage for a full-employed person is about € 326/month, but poverty is very high too (1/3 of all population nowadays live in poverty). It does not allow people to live a normal life because living without money for goods of first necessity can lead to starvation and begging. Speaking about Latvia, we must say that our situation is not comforting as the minimum wage is about 257 EUR a month which is not enough to ensure yourself and your family good life. We concluded that the highest minimum wage is in Canada (about 10 $ per hour), but even in this country it is estimated that approximately one in every 10 people in Canada is considered poor. Before we received your answers, we thought that the lowest minimum wage was in Latvia because Latvia has the third lowest minimum wage in the EU (in Latvia in 2009 21.9% of the Latvian population lived under the poverty line). However, we suppose that even the high minimum wage, as in Canada, isn’t enough to meet human needs.
Unemployment is one of the main reasons of poverty. Economists used to say an unemployment rate around 5 – 6 % was normal. Unfortunately, the real level of unemployment is higher than this. In Rumania the level of unemployment is near to the normal rate (6.5%) and it is good news because their economy will develop more rapidly than in other countries. In Ukraine the level of unemployment is 7% although people say that there are 500,000 people without work. The highest level of unemployment is in Hungary (11,2%) and in Latvia (10,9% in March 2013). It is a miserable fact for all people who live in these countries. One more sad fact is that unemployment among young people is growing (in Hungary it is 29%). It can be caused by low education or its absence. In many countries it is very expensive and in Canada, for instance, students have to get a part time job to be able to afford to pay for education in the future. When we were reading the answers, we were surprised at the large illiteracy rate in Lebanon and at the fact that too many kids live in single - parent families in Hungary. These are also reasons of poverty and to improve this situation is difficult but not impossible.
We were interested in other countries` strategies to eradicate poverty. We found out that in all partner’s countries something is being done. In Canada the problem is being solved with government assistance which organized a food bank and homeless` shelters. Also, in Canada the policy includes increasing economic growth, building economic foundations, growing businesses and investing in people. The government has an unemployment service to support people living with low wage incomes. In Rumania there are a lot of foundations which help the poor population. There are also people who make donations like food, clothes or money. In Hungary there is the special day of the Fight Against Poverty on October 17th. Hungary is trying to run programs to help underprivileged groups and to create new work places, but the results can't be seen yet. However, Romania and Ukraine expressed dissatisfaction with their governments and their inaction. The reasons are different: not exploited resources, low wages, wrong policy, expenses of deputies, high taxes, etc. As our partners write, in Ukraine all things are only promises to increase wages, pensions and childcare aid, provide more working places and cut down on taxes for poor people. In reality, goods in shops are getting more expensive as well as healthcare, transportation and education. All this increases the level of poverty. In Latvia, in our opinion, the government needs to think about Latvia's population and not about themselves and their party. However, we suppose that our people need to work harder and not only wait allowance from the government.
Answering the question about how you can help to solve this problem, students from Hungary said that as teenagers, they couldn`t do much to solve this problem, but they could choose a career which would ensure them good future. Similarly, one Romanian student wrote, “As a child, I can’t do very much, but when I see a beggar on the street, I try to give him the little money I have in my pocket or the piece of food I have.” Also, they think that citizens of their country should stimulate all the people to work harder and people should stop begging. Canada solves this problem with education and knowledge of risks. We agree with students from Romania that we don’t have many opportunities to solve this problem fully except learn well and choose a career which can ensure good living. First of all, it is the task of each country, but we can help poor and homeless people with volunteer work. In may seem insignificant, but only our desire to help and combat poverty can solve this problem which is destroying our world nowadays.
Some of us think that unemployment and poverty is a problem and it will still be a problem while the world exists. We understood that every country has problems, but we can learn from each other and make our own country better. Furthermore, we realized that we should appreciate what we have as, for instance, in Lebanon people are suffering from lack of water and lack of medical care. Unfortunately, we don’t believe that the problem of poverty and hunger will be solved in the nearest future, but we hope that MDG will be achieved some time and the economic situation and people`s life over the world will gradually improve
In general, we liked participating in the Global Teenager Project because it was a great experience and expended our horizons. We got a lot of information about the questions we asked. Now we are informed of the situation with poverty and hunger in all the partner countries and how people live and fight poverty. Searching for information was a difficult job and took a lot of time, but it was worth doing. In our opinion, we did very useful work in terms of the language too because we learned some new vocabulary and practised reading and writing. We would like to thank all the partners for cooperation and wish success in studies and all the best.
Sabine, Jana, Gunta, Darina, Ieva, Inguna, Aigars, Dzintars and class mdg5, Latvia
Summary mdg6, Agrani School and College, Bangladesh
Our question to the group was-
-Do you think UN will be able to reach the goal by this time? Describe in details how it may be possible.
We asked the question because we think that environmental sustainability is a burning issue at the present time. We appreciate our friends’ works that they go on with a very good research work on the issue.
Summary: Sustainability of environment is integral to and a key pillar of sustainable development. While the term ‘environmental sustainability’ that is at the heart of the seventh goal (MDG 7) is not explicitly defined in the Millennium Declaration, countries concur that ‘we must spare no effort to free all of humanity, and above all our children and grandchildren, from the threat of living on a planet irredeemably spoilt by human activities, and whose resources would no longer be sufficient for their needs’ (UNGA 2000). World leaders identify ‘respect for nature’ as a fundamental value required in the twenty-first century and call for a ‘new ethic of conservation and stewardship’. They also reaffirm support for the principles of sustainable development (UNGA 1992), including those articulated in Agenda 21 (UNDESA 1992).
The global MDG framework contains targets and indicators that can be used to measure global progress towards achieving each of the goals. In the case of MDG 7, the targets and indicators are illustrative of key global environmental issues and commitments. Because they are global in nature, they require responses from both developed and developing countries, with common but differentiated responsibilities. The framework assumes that improvements at the national level would impact regional and global trends through meeting the targets by 2015.
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. It is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has ecological, economic, political, and cultural dimensions. The UN is looking forward to achieving environmental stability in the next 2 years. Developed countries are said to be more responsible for environmental flaws, since the world is always evolving, and countries are developing every day. Contributing to that are the environmental problems that are increasing gradually. Personally, we do not think the UN will be able to reach its goal, mainly because achieving environmental stability needs a lot of effort and cooperation from everyone involved, countries need to pitch a helping hand and try to reduce the harm, and studies need to be made to find alternative ways to go by without harming the environment. In 2 years, it’s impossible to be achieved.
Hopefully the UN will be able to reach the goal but in our opinion it will take more time than 2 years because it's not easy to influence the world's population to do something in connection with the warning of greenhouse effect and global warming. It could be solved by using less planes and cars or more hybrid vehicles should be used but it is very expensive. More energy should be saved and people should use more renewing energy. In Hungary the rate of renewing energy was 6, 18% and we promised to reach 13 % by 2020. There has been a research made by university professors and students, which declared that our county could be using 100% renewing energy sources by 2040 . The most important steps would be using energy more efficiently, saving energy where possible, using biomass, solar energy, wind power, geothermic energy instead of fossil. But we don't think that this research will have a a great impact on our politicians. There are groups, companies etc. whose interest is contrary to it and they will take steps to hinder such new policy. Within the UN it works the same, there are countries which are not willing to limit their CO2 emission for different reasons. We think, their politicians still don't believe in the predictions of scientists about the possible consequences of not reaching these goals
Summary mdg7, Lyceum25, Ukraine
Summary
The questions we were interested in were the following:
Everybody knows mortality rate depends much on different diseases, some and a lot of them are caused by the bad quality of food we eat. Our government laws try to limit the import of some food products.
1. What about your country? Are there any similar laws in it? What about starvation? Are any phenomena in your country ? Do the Government take measures to improve the situation?
2. Do you know how to ensure gender equality in the country? Is it possible to achieve it in the Eastern countries?
3. Nuclear power has become very dangerous nowadays. Are any alternative sources of energy being invented and developed in your countries? Will they improve environmental sustainability?
We asked the questions as we consider them to be burning and important problems to be solved gradually. Besides we’re not aware of the situation in the whole world. We wished to be more informed and educated.
As a matter of fact, we knew little about the situation in different countries, that’s why we were eager to know about it. We learn much at the lessons, but it’s impossible to know everything. It was really interesting and useful to learn much from our partners’ letters. We expected to learn some similarities and differences and we had some hopes that everything was good in our partners’ countries. We should say we have learnt much about the countries and their problems.
In Lebanon the population living under the poverty line reaches 28,6%. 8% are extremely poor and live below the lower poverty line. The situation differs in different regions of the country. The population in North Lebanon is 20,7% and there are 38% of the poor and 46% of extremely poor, compared to Beirut that has only 1% of the extremely poor and 2,1% of the poor population. The poorest categories of the population are unskilled workers, seasonal or temporary labourers, widowed women with more than three children. Unemployment rate is estimated at over 7,9%. Youth unemployment is estimated to be as high as the average for the Arab region (roughly 26%), the highest of all regions.
As to Hungary, the situation seems to be better than in Lebanon. The government promotes and supports national food. Hungarian food, especially fruits and vegetables are really much tastier than most imported food. They think that it improves environmental sustainability as well. Unfortunately there are quite a few people, roughly one third of the population, who can buy the better quality food, because they don’t have enough money. The people, who live under the poverty line, can’t eat healthy food, they often eat the same, cheapest food available, and are glad if they do not have to starve.
In Canada laws, concerning import and export are fairly strict. Dairy products, fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, honey, meat/poultry and processed products are checked mostly. The poverty rate in Canada is 10,6%. There are food banks there. Families are being limited to one hamper of food per month, that’s why income security is ensured. 93,000 people each month use food banks. Many of them are teenagers and students, as well as single parent families and women. Often food banks run out of food before providing for all of the needy families.
We liked the situation in Latvia, where the Ministry of Economics is responsible for ensuring quality of food, observing consumer rights and market supervision. The aim of the policy is to ensure a maximum degree of protection for the consumers buying goods and services. In every town there is control of the products that come to the market before they reach consumers. But there are poor people-families with many children, invalids and pensioners who live on less than the official minimal income, it’s about 250 EUR. Some families receive allowances from the state, but there are also people, who don’t get any help because of different reasons and their financial state is miserable. There are charity organizations, like Latvian Samaritan Union, that help people in need. There are some other organizations as well.
In Romania eating fast-food, as in many other countries, is wide-spread. They consider that is the main cause of many diseases, as fast-food is unhealthy and dangerous. The government doesn’t take this problem seriously and there is no law to limit the import of some food products. Starvation isn’t a big problem in the country but there are some cases when people are near to it. By the way, Romania consumes more imported food as some people don’t trust in the country’s products.
As to ensuring gender equality in the countries, the situations differ in different countries. Lebanese women have legal protection that varies depending on their religion. In Muslim families polygamy is allowed. Marriageable age can be as young as 12,5. Parental authority belongs to the patriarch of the house and legal guardian of all children, and female children receive less inheritance than a male child. Children born to Lebanese woman and a man from another country will not have their children granted Lebanese nationality. Lebanese family structure is patriarchal. The roles of women have traditionally been restricted to those of mother and a home-maker. Nowadays Lebanese women enjoy equal civil rights and attend institutions of higher education in large numbers. Although women in Lebanon have their own organizations, most exist as subordinate brunches of the political parties. In Hungary there is no such a problem as gender equality. Women have the same rights in all fields of life, although some illegal discrimination can occur, mostly in finding jobs and in wages. Canadians are working toward gender equality by government funded women’s shelters and organizations like the Canadian International Development Agency which supports gender equality, empowerment and promotes gender equality on a corporate level. Speaking about Latvia we should admit that in the Latvian Constitution there is a law about gender equality and in their opinion there is no any actual problem. The UNO addresses the issue of gender equality I n all countries. People can complain if gender equality is violated. In Romania not all the people are treated equally. Men, because of their strength and power are, in most cases, favored. They can handle things more easily than women in any field because women are more fragile. Men are more valued than women. All our partners consider the problem to exist only in Eastern countries.
As to the question of alternative sources of energy and the improvement of environmental sustainability we have known that Lebanon is an energy intensive country. 87% of the electricity is produced of oil products, mainly gas/diesel and residual fuel oil. The remaining 13% is produced with hydro. They didn’t mention any alternative resources used. In Hungary there is only one nuclear power station which is going to be enlarged although many people are not happy with it and would like to see more renewable sources of energy like wind power, geotermic energy or solar panels. Unfortunately, they are not exploited yet. Only 10% of energy comes from renewing energy sources. 42% comes from natural gases, which makes them dependent on other countries. They think the situation is not likely to change soon. But there are some windmills in Hungary. The installed capacity of wind power in Hungary was 329 MW as of April 2011. Most of wind farms are in the north-west region of Hungary.
In Canada most energy produced is in the form of fossil fuels, but renewable energy also is used. 26% of Canada’s energy came from renewable sources. Almost all of this was in the form of hydroelectricity, which provided for 25% of Canada’s total energy consumption. In 2004, wind, solar and biomass were the source of approximately 1 % of Canada’s energy.
In Latvia alternative sources of energy are being developed and used nowadays, such as solar energy, biofuel and water power. These energy resources are biodegradable, thus environmentally friendly and improve the environment and provide the environmental sustainability.
In Romania there are many alternative sources of energy that began to develop. With the help of chemistry, there were created solar panels to generate solar thermal power, carbon fiber blades for generating wind power. But there are also unconventional methods of generating energy, such as windmills, hydroelectric or geothermal power and they can play an important role at the regional level, depending on economic conditions and availability.
As to Ukraine we wrote much in our responses. We’ll say in short about the situation in our country. WE can’t consider our food to be healthy as really healthy food is rather expensive and not available for everybody. That’s why a lot of people use the food which is cheaper and it’s often fast-food. We don’t know any facts about the cases of starvation.
We wrote in our answers that, according to the Constitution, the rights of men and women are equal, but there are a lot of branches in which women’s rights are not always observed, especially in policy etc.
The nuclear power is very important for our country as there are some power stations in it and they are the main source of energy in the country. Everybody knows about the tragic history of Chernobyl Power Station. The 26 of April is a sad date in our country. Nevertheless, all the power stations operate nowadays. On the other hand, different sources of energy are being exploited too. There are a lot of windmills in the regions where it is often windy, they are usually situated in steppe zones. In the Crimea, the southern part of the country, solar energy is being used.
Some other kinds of alternative energy are being used too.
That’s all we got to know from our Learning Circle partners. We realized all the countries have similar problem but the level of them is different. We know that the situation is much better in such countries as Canada and Latvia. Other countries experience more difficulties in solving certain problems. Perhaps, the reason is in the economic development and financial state of the countries. That’s why we think less developed countries should implement more successful reforms and make more efforts for fulfilling them.
So all of us should take part in gaining the most important Millenium Goals. We hope we all will win.
Thanks a lot for writing us. It was a pleasure to receive useful and interesting information from you.
Good luck,
mdg 7
Summary mdg8, COLEGIUL ECONOMIC BUZAU, teacher ILIE CATALINA, Romania
From mdg1, Liban, told us that violence has many forms but women need to endure more than men. Most importantly is that laws were made in the favoure of women ,we found out that Libanese code treat women and men equally. But we know that women always need to be loyal to their husbands. There, words like "adultery" is equall with a moral crime. Libanese council launched a project which teaches young girls how to fight when they are attacked. They use a tehnique named aikido which is a non violent martial art.
From mdg2, from Hungary, we found out that the Parlament has made laws to protect women from violence but the actual activity is done by civil organizations. They run phone-in help lines, maintain shelters for women and their children. Unfortunately within a short time three rather cruel cases were reported, two in the same town, where young women were killed or seriously abused. Not much is done by the state, girls are not taught any self defence at school. Most of the violence against women is done not by strangers, but by relatives, neighbours, partners. According to the UN, every third woman is a victim of violence, the situation is not better in Hungary, where every fourth woman suffers from violence.
From mdg3, we found that the state of Canada takes women issues very seriously. If any woman reports that she was a victim of WAV, the state will do everything it can to solve this problem and bring to justice the man who did this. Also, the state initiates some programs which are helping women fight against violence. One of the programs is YWCA A Turning Point For Women which helps women, satisfy their needs and provides psyhical, financial and emotional support. So, Canada is a state which is doing everything it can to disolve violence against women.
From mdg4 we found that the government of Canada takes the violence against women seriously. It offers women a lot of help when they come in front, but it also has various resources for helping them, like websites online, where you have someone to talk with, and phone help lines where someone will be available to talk about their problems with their husband or boyfriend. The counselling is an important resource and offers information about how to get out of an abusive relationship and other things like that.In Canada exists International Women's Week when there are walks and rallies for women violence awareness.Canadian schools have assemblies where the girls talk about their rights and how they can get help if needed, and a professional theatre group, which comes there to put on a play about gender equality.
Canadians fight against the violence and they also create a helpline. It’s a good sign that government creates funds for projects and support foundations. What it’s sad is that in Canada violence starts in family and girls can be aggressed before the age of 12.
In Latvia (mdg5 ) there are no official statistics available that actually reflect the prevalence of domestic violence and related problems, but in other countries statistical records show that domestic violence is a widespread social phenomenon and 6-10% of women suffer from domestic violence each year. Very often, domestic violence is not recognized at all. From 2014th a law will be introduced in Latvia which will allow the abused and persecuted victims to go to court and ask the court to determine the appropriate limits for violent persons. At the moment there are no programs that protect women against violence in Latvia. Violent offense was regarded as "domestic violence" regardless of whether the offense was committed or not the parties have entered into marriage, as well as whether the parties continue to live together in a household.
We are sorry because mdg 6 didn`t answer us.
From mdg7 we found that one of the UN’s goals is to protect women against violence.Women don’t ask for help and they are abused.In Ukraine,for example,the Constitution tells us about a person’s dignity and freedom from violence. Gender discrimination is specifically prohibited under the Constitution. Speaking about criminality,In 2007, the Government of Ukraine performed 82 criminal investigations against women.
From mdg9, Romania, we found that the government isn’t doing many things with this problem. It looks that in 2009, the violence against women had a number of 12161 victims. However, it is a law in Romania which says that any psyhical or verbal misrepresentation by a member family against another member of the same family can cause psyhical, psychological, sexual or material damage. Also, most Romanian women choose to live with their violent husbands, but don’t seek help from anyone. Another thing that we found from mdg9 is that the violence against women is associated with “couple problems”and the state sees that as a tolerant behavior.
From mgd10, from Romania, told us that despite the fact that in our country statistics show that in every minute two Romanian women are victims of domestic violence, the Romanian Government tried to solve these problems beginning with the president who signed on March 8-International Women's Day- a decree on preventing and fighting against domestic violence and the Government tries to stop this type of violence by adopting laws. Many women tolerate violence for fear of being worse and some of them even believe they deserve this kind of cruelty . There are numerous projects that aim at increasing awareness among children regarding violence, because nowadays school schedules focus on educating children from a very young age to get some correct concepts regarding violence against women too.
Summary mdg9, COLEGIUL ECONOMIC BUZAU, teacher NEDELCU JANINA, Romania
One of the main reasons our future will be affected are future generations that are not properly trained to make a noticeable change. That’s why there is a goal such as “Achieving universal primary education.”
In several countries, it has already been achieved:
- Universal primary education has already been achieved in Hungary as schooling is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16 and parents are compelled to send their children to school
- It is law for students to be in school until 18 years of age. The Canadian government is also working with partnership companies to ensure that this actually happens
-Lebanon has witnessed commendable progress in the education system since the end of the war in 1991
Yet, poverty restricts access to education for children in Romania and not only. There are a lot of cases whit kids that would like to learn and go to school, but they grow up in families that can’t support their need for education, and choose not to let their kids go to school and leave all the housework to them.
In 2010, in Romania, the number of poor children rose to 350,000, and the dropout rate has tripled. More than 40,000 children leave school each year, mostly from rural areas.
The education that children receive at home is as important as that they receive at school. It’s just that the domain influenced is what differs; each kind of education tends to develop, in its own mechanism of function, certain skills in the student
Someone once said “School does not test your knowledge, it tests your memory”, so the education kids receive from their parents is different from the education they receive at school, yet your family is the birthplace of your values and school is the place of education. Also, at school, pupils learn about good citizenship and skills such as time management, organization. trustworthiness, and team work.
Family is considered the relationship training center where you learn how to interact with one another, how to treat each other, and how to express affection for one another
At school, everyone learns at the same pace and under the same program. At home, children learn at a pace that best helps to assimilate information.
The education received in the families is very important for the children’s formation of personality but also for the social behavior.
So, family shapes us. It shapes the way we see ourselves, and this is due to the treatment we receive by our family members.
At school, aside from teaching us character which is what kind of people we will become, we are taught skills that we become able to do, and gain knowledge which is what we know. At school, we promote social thoughts, values and behaviors, and develop good habits or virtues. We also learn how to solve problems by making choices, how to think in a clear and straight way, how to see many possibilities in a situation, how to reflect on our experience and learn from it, and how to use a framework to make decisions genuinely.
Asking several people, they thought that school education is more important that the educations children receive in their families. However, they thought that education that children receive in their families is important too as parents share their life experience and teach to communicate with other people. School education is very important because it helps us in our professional career. If we don’t have required education, we don’t get a desired work place.
There’s no country that is perfect. A country where all these goals are achieved.
But many countries have weak points, problems that not only affects the country image but the population of the country itself.
For example, Latvia needs to achieve goal 8 - Developing a global partnership for development. They need to develop their economy and make effective use of the opportunities offered by membership in the EU
To achieve goals, it is important to have support from people around as it gives more confidence. Together, we can do many good things to achieve our goals. For example, our school organizes actions that help clean the environment like cleaning the town park and all the inhabitants benefit from it
The government want to develop the education of this generation, helping all youngers using different methods. For example, the professional baccalaureate was implemented at the beginning of the school year 2012, for those with poorer school results, but for those who want still to become someone in life. Another method is the introduction of class 0, for little children.
The best example for fulfilling these goals is “The Foundation Dan Voiculescu”. It helps the youngers to develop mental abilities, creativity and practical skills, by way of contests and competitions. It motivates the teenagers to have a big general knowledge by offering scholarships, trips abroad and awards. There are probably other foundations but this one is known by everybody due to good publicit.
Summary mdg10, National College “B.P.Hasdeu”, Romania
We thought about this question because we wanted to know more about other countries and to make a comparison between our country and others. The second reason is that we were interested in what teenagers around the world think about this common theme, because it regards the life of any student. We are curious to hear your stories because there are thousands of ways in which a schedule could be organized and how the governmental situation changed the educational system over time.
Before asking the question, we had thought about the fact that it was very likely for the school schedule not to be the same and we wanted to know what the differences were. In our history classes we learnt about countries all around the world and we are very curious to project the information onto reality by communicating with you. We hoped to discover some interesting facts regarding your educational system because in our country it is very changeable. We expected to learn more about the structure of a schedule, periods of examination, the way in which you have it and the important subjects. There was a dispute regarding the uniform in the highschools because some people didn’t agree with it, therefore we decided to ask you if you have one and what is your opinion about it. Another issue that we wanted to reach was the using of gadgets at school, if it is forbidden during the breaks or all during the school programme.
From all the answers we have received, we’ve learnt that every country and, implicit, every school has structured its own schedule. Every state is preoccupied about what and how pupils learn and they try to offer the best conditions of studying by making interesting classes and aired programs. Students have the possibility of choosing the classes they would like to learn and they have to give their best for passing successfully the final exams of high school.
Reading all these rather complex answers, we have reached the conclusion that the differences between the countries aren’t as big as we initially imagined. Many of them start school al 8 o’clock in the morning and finish at about 2-3 in the afternoon. The difference is actually between OUR country and the other ones. We have two series of a large number of grades, one for the ones who study in the morning, from 7:30 until 13:20, and a second one, for the afternoon : from 13:40 to 19:30. Also, we’ve noticed that most of the (high)schools do not have a strict rule concerning the uniform, or do not require the students to wear one at all. In Romania, the uniform practically represents us, especially for National Colleges and, for example, in our town, the majority of people know which uniform belongs to which highschool.
We think that basically, the differences originate from the form of government and other influences such as civil wars(e.g. in Lebanon), and also because of various mentalities. We noticed that in some countries private schools are quite popular and usually are connected to certain religions. We do not have too many schools of that kind in Romania. Also, we consider that differences are the ones that make us special in our own way, no matter if we wish our school schedule was similar to another country’s or not.
This very summary is the concequence of the differences between these many countries and schools. We got to learn about schedules and rules other than our own, which is a good, inspirational thing. We see it as a great experience, having that we have found out so many things totally unknown to us before we participated in this project.
We thank everyone for their questions and answers. :)
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