How a Titanic Telescope Could Equal African Development

Africa is a contender, along with Australia and New Zealand, in a project to build a really huge telescope – the Square Kilometer Array. Although the decision on where to build it won’t be known until late March or early April at the earliest, the project is already in full swing. Made up of 3,000 radio-frequency receivers, it will cover a collective area of 1 square kilometer, hence its name (see artist’s rendering of SKA dishes below, courtesy SKA website). The receivers will range from large dishes to small fish-eye antennas, all aimed at a different radio frequency in the sky.

Only 20% of the antennas would be located in this square kilometer, 50% would be located within 5 kilometers and some would be located as far away as 3,000 kilometers – giving the scientists who will eventually work on the project access to the entire universe, and giving the project access to an entire continent, and maybe more. If it is built in Australia, the SKA could stretch all the way to New Zealand. If built in southern Africa, it could stretch to the Indian Ocean islands.


Astronomers and engineers from more than 70 institutes in 20 countries are designing it. It will be 50 times more sensitive, and will survey the sky 10,000 times faster, than any other telescope. And they are looking to study some pretty cool things:

• How do galaxies evolve and what is dark energy? (See artist’s rendering of dark energy below, courtesy SKA website.)
• Are we alone? It will be able to detect very weak extraterrestrial signals and will search for complex molecules, the building blocks of life, in space.
• How were the first black holes and stars formed?
• What generates the giant magnetic fields in space?
• Was Einstein right? It will investigate the nature of gravity and challenge the theory of general relativity; it will explore the unknown and, if history is any guide, it will make many more discoveries than we can imagine today.

The 20 participating countries share the nearly $2 billion cost, as well as its operating costs of $130 to $200 million per year. That is a lot of money, especially for countries in southern Africa where the development possibilities attached to such a huge project are endless: millions for power, communications and data processing alone. And let’s not forget all of the side businesses and other business spin-offs that would come from the work.

“The impact on Africa would be very far-reaching and a lot more than anywhere else in the world,” said Bernie Fanaroff, Project Director, South Africa, in a recent Time magazine article on “Africa’s Eye in the Sky”. “It would be good for getting business into Africa, and we would be creating people with skills and expertise to solve problems not just in astronomy, but energy, water, food security, disease and transport.”

As a matter of fact, some smaller dishes that will be used for the project are already in the pipeline or active in Africa, and it is local populations, not foreigners, who are reaping the benefits. These include general investments in the regions where they are being built, and full-fledged programs aimed at training local populations – scientists, engineers, physicists, especially women and blacks – creating world-class astronomy teams.

Thus this program isn’t only about reaching out into the cosmos, but about the far-reaching impacts it can have right here on planet Earth.

First published as an S3 communiqué on Scientifically Yours at www.spacebridges.com/S3-blog-English/.

Grocery Audits and Change Clubs

Here's something worth knowing about. Women out there are actually conducting grocery audits, walking down store aisles scrutinizing the ingredients in food products and translating their findings into actions that provide communities with suggestions on how to be healthier.  One idea to help parents in grocery stores identify healthy snacks for children quickly is adding labels next to those items on the shelves.

Groups of women in the United States in "Change Clubs" have been leading campaigns to do such things as analyze the food on shelves, wander through neighborhoods to make out what prevents the locals from walking and exercising more, and discover ways to help people become healthier.

Dr. Miriam Nelson, professor of Nutrition at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the one who actually started the Change Clubs. Her idea is to use the power of women working together to increase health in communities. With 8 initial Change Club sites in the US, click here to form a Change Club, helping women support change and healthiness in your area. 

Empowering Women and Children from Devastating Backgrounds

According to Hagar International's website, this social business's purpose is, "singular; we restore broken lives. We welcome the toughest of human conditions. We stay focused on the individual. And we do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to restore life in all its fullness."

Hagar International's areas of impact are Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. There, Hagar works for the recovery, empowerment and reintegration of women and children who have been abused, exploited or abandoned.

Hagar International was founded in Cambodia by Pierre Tami. According to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship's publication Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, which features Pierre Tami's work: "Nearly three decades after Cambodia emerged from the reign of the Khmer Rouge, it remains one of the 50 poorest countries of the world. A majority of the population still lives in desperate poverty and struggles to meet the most basic needs of food and clean water. Cambodia is also a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. Many children are trafficked to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam while within Cambodia children are forced into both prostitution and labor. Tricked by promises of well-paid work, many find themselves sold into Phnom Penh's brothels or reduced to begging or working in slave-like conditions."

It was after seeing women and children in these circumstances in the early 1990s in Cambodia that Tami originally set up a shelter for women there, an endeavor that has evolved into "an organization offering a range of social and market-oriented initiatives to break the cycle of poverty among vulnerable mothers and children." Recognizing that these people are often the victims of a lack of opportunity and prospects, Hagar offers them reintegration work in his commercial enterprises and through his partners, so the women can lead independent and productive lives. As stated on their website: "At Hagar, social programs meet social business. This approach, including recovery shelters, education, vocational training, and employment, has enabled hundreds of women and children to reintegrate into community again."

Empowering Women in the Workforce

Founded in 1991, Phulki demonstrates how investing in on-site daycare services at the workplace, be it in factories, companies or government offices, can benefit working mothers as well as their employers. The organization was started in Bangladesh by Suraiya Haque as a way to allow disadvantaged mothers to breastfeed their infants while at work and gain access to childcare during the day. Today Phulki operates 130 childcare facilities, which the company either manages for a fee or runs with the help of the employers whose company personnel are trained in daycare management by Phulki. Business owners in Bangladesh who have worked with Phulki concur that Phulki's daycare services lead to employees who are more productive at work, happier and absent less often. Haque's efforts have also helped women stay in jobs, allowing them greater economic security and independence as well as increased gender balance and empowerment.

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

One Woman against the Odds in Somalia

Although gunmen raided her hospital in Somalia destroying equipment and records, Dr. Hawa Abdi's compound continues to offer a refuge to thousands. The clinic, school and feeding program she built on her property over three decades help an estimated 100,000 people find relative safety from the fighting and poverty in Somalia, not far from Mogadishu. Today Dr. Adbi's persistence and humanitarianism has resulted in a two-story 400-bed hospital with free medical care, 3 operating theaters, 6 doctors, 43 nurses, a school with 800 students and a center for women where they learn nutrition and sewing. What's more, Dr. Abdi's work will continue despite her 63 years of age and an operation to remove a tumor in her brain; her two daughters will ensure the haven of healing she built continues. Read more about this amazing woman in an IHT article.

Women Making a Difference

Unite for Sight, an organization founded in 2000 to provide "high quality eye care for all," was created by Jennifer Staple-Clark. The non-profit's website celebrates having provided eye care services to 1 million people, performed over 36,800 sight-restoring surgeries and trained 7,450 fellows to help eliminate preventable blindness. The eye care is administered by local optometrists and ophthalmologists to patients in their own villages. Unite for Sight also supports eye clinics worldwide.

First Book, also a non-profit social enterprise, was founded in 1992 by Kyle Zimmer, who realized that the children she tutored at a soup kitchen had no books. Today, First Book lays claim to having delivered more than 70 million new books to children in need in communities across the US and Canada. It thus addresses "one of the most important factors affecting literacy -- access to books". Volunteer to distribute books to the needy by contacting First Book.

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), founded by Elizabeth Scharpf, aims to "improve the quality of life for people in developing countries" via market-based means. A major project has been the development of a low-priced sanitary pad from natural raw materials for women in Africa and Asia. The idea is to help women start their own businesses making and locally distributing eco-friendly pads. Meanwhile, SHE is helping girls stay in school rather than staying home during menstruation because of the lack of sanitary facilities.


These women are not drops in the bucket. Every person they educate, every person they help can in turn help others and teach others to acquire the skills needed in their own villages and towns. Altruism is indeed contagious. Thanks to The New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof for pointing that out.

Remarkable Results from Simple Solutions

Providing free school uniforms in Kenya actually decreased girls' dropout rates by 15%, teen marriage by 12% and childbearing by 10%. The rationale for providing the uniforms was to decrease the cost of education, empower children and increase motivation. By raising the girls' ability to conceptualize themselves and increasing their self-esteem, while lowering costs, those who received free uniforms were significantly more likely to stay in school, thus reducing the likelihood of getting married and having babies. These results were published in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4024 following a randomized evaluation of 70,000 students in 328 primary schools in rural Kenya.

Introducing cable television in rural India has been shown to improve the status of women there. In particular, a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (MIT Press) in 2009 found "significant increases in reported autonomy, decreases in the reported acceptability of beating and decreases in reported son preference [over daughters]. [The authors] also find increases in female school enrollment and decreases in fertility (primarily via increased birth spacing). The effects are large, equivalent in some cases to about five years of education ...". The report suggests that exposing women and men to new and more diverse sets of information via the cable TV has produced these positive results.

Education and Opportunity at the Grass Roots

Friends of India's mission is to "fight poverty and create opportunities for children and women in Tamil Nadu, India, by supporting basic education for underserved children and investing in vocational training, life-skills development and income generating activities for women." A non-profit, charitable organization, Friends of India was founded in 2001 by its current President, Pamela Walsh.

Friends of India supports skills training for impoverished people who need to take on menial labour to supplement their family’s income. One young woman, for example, learned computer skills and typing, and now works at a local software company. Another learned to make detergents and cleaning products for sale, generating a regular income. The organization has also made the women of Sembakkam aware of their rights and helped them form a self-help group that empowered them to petition local authorities to pipe water to their village rather than spending hours each day walking long distances to collect and carry water home. In 2009 the Richard Walsh Music Project was established to teach music and the performing arts to disadvantaged children in southern India. In addition, the organization has provided financial and advisory assistance and helped fund Anbumalar School for handicapped children.

If interested in these or other Friends of India programs, contact: info@friends-of-india.org

International Women's Day - March 8, 2010

Featuring Camfed International: Dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women

Camfed International has successfully challenged the conventional wisdom that cultural resistance is at the heart of girls' exclusion from education in rural Africa, proving instead that chronic poverty is the main barrier. Since 1993, Camfed has pioneered a grassroots approach to advancing opportunities for girls and young women to guarantee a model that is locally inspired and owned. Camfed has proven that girls' education is the most effective means by which girls and their communities can break the devastating cycle of poverty that currently plagues sub-Saharan Africa. (From "Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010", Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, p. 37)

When Savagery Inspires Benevolence

Caution should be used in reading the beginning of this article, A Sisterhood in Congo by Nicholas D. Kristof, which reads like something you might see in a horror movie. Yet the story shows what one person can do to make a difference in the lives of countless women, victims of the most atrocious crimes in Congo. It inspires us to act, even if simply to contribute to Run for Congo Women.