If you want to leave it all and start a community, you should focus on inner work first. If you focus only on action, you risk building yourself another prison. You might just change one form of unhealthy lifestyle and toxic relations for another as a result.

Living in less and less livable cities to attain an unhealthy lifestyle with a toxic job situation makes many wonder, what if they started a community? You may have talked about it with people around you. Congratulations! Seeing what you do not want is the first step out of helplessness and stagnation. Youre so much further than many who just endure unbearable situations. They keep going in the wrong direction by numbing and relativizing. However, the fantasies of moving to a farm and living in a community need to be considered carefully. Boldness is good. It drives potential for change. However, an action needs vision. Otherwise, it may end up as a nightmare as a Japanese proverb warns us.

I am sharing with you some reflections that came into my mind when talking with people who want to create a community and be self-sufficient. One might argue that I have no expertise because I have not done it myself. I have not even tried. The reason why I have not undertaken such a project is not that it is a bad idea. To the contrary, I have met many people who lead a fulfilled life in egalitarian communities. And it has been beneficial for their health. Personally, I prefer to neither live in a community and strive for collective autonomy nor fit the mainstream employment system. This decision is based on knowing my limits and predispositions. I believe that a life that is an expression of ones unique set of gifts when creatively combined brings fulfillment. I have conducted dozens of interviews in communities in Germany and the US. Furthermore, I have met many people who want to leave their mainstream lives and create a community.

First, I would invest in self inquiry before moving anywhere. If you are escaping from something rather than pursuing a project, you may end up reproducing old dissatisfaction. Once you find yourself in a new situation you may start daydreaming about another life as an escape from the discomforts and challenges. So much empowerment comes from knowing your purpose and your capacities. If you have a dream, it is a better investment to put hundred percent into it in order to verify whether it is really what you want instead of moving to a community as an escape from temporary frustration and stagnation.

Second, it is worth spending some time in at least one community. Both egalitarian communities where I have conducted interviews welcome interns and visitors.Twin Oakscommunity has an orientation program, which can give you an overview of things to consider.Paxus Caltaoffers personal coaching to help you find your place in communal world. This can be vacation well spent with a lot of self-knowledge as a result no matter whether you want to join one of the communities or not. By seeing what you like and dislike about the experience you will be better equipped to define your own vision. Living in such settings can give you an idea about things to consider and prepare for in case you still want to create a community. We go to school to be adapted to the system. Similarly, spending some time in a communal setting may be a necessary preparation for unlearning what may prevent flourishing in a group.

After all this time spent on personnel inquiry and experiential learning, you are ready for the third step. This is probably the most difficult one because it goes against all the conditioning that has been skillfully put into our system. If you want to leave the system, you need to start with the inner work of questioning. Replacing the old with a new setting may actually turn out even worse. Imagine you wanted to escape the nonsense of being employed. If you reproduce a similar atmosphere and problems as you experienced in a job you hated, you risk to be in a similar situation and ask yourself what had been all this effort for. Not only this, you may not be able to numb and use the salary to compensate for your suffering.

If we want to live a radically different life, we need to touch upon the beliefs and automatisms that serve the status quo. We need to address the core of who we are. Since we have been inculcated into our beliefs and rationality at the age of unconscious learning, you may find yourself in a group of people who want to live a different life but are emotionally attached to the vices, habits, and influences that are powerful in preventing any success in creating an alternative. There are two questions that you need to ask yourself and deconstruct your conditioning.

What are my true needs?

There are many ways to analyze how you perceive what you really need. For example, you can experiment living in different conditions as I did for myself. You can look at your habits, addictions, rewards that you think you cannot live without understanding deeply their function in your life. What meaning does the system attribute to them? How do they help you cope and prevent you from facing head on potential discomfort?

I once met a man who wanted to start a community. He also seemed to have problem with alcohol. Whatever he was escaping from, I doubt a community would fulfill his needs because he has not addressed the underlying causes of addiction. It is also worth considering the additional work needed to respond to this craving instead of doing the work to heal from it.

It is important to understand what you really cannot live without. There are things that make us flourish. And things that we got used to even though they do not serve our best selves. Whether you do it alone or in a group, it is a great preparation for setting the priorities for your community. Obviously, you dont want to live in a setting that feels like a compromise and deprivation. However, our perception of deprivation may be shaped by the commercial interests. For example, shampoo has been used since 1930s but many of us cannot imagine not using it.

How do I meet my needs?

This second question is about rationality behind the organization of production. We have been imbued with images and stories about efficiency and productivity. They are well adjusted to maintaining the current system. However, if you want a change, you cannot apply the same set of beliefs. Take farming. I was surprised seeing that in many alternative projects, people follow relatively conventional methods of organic farming imposing working in the sun and unnecessary labor. I have heard of cases of burnout, injuries, and exhaustion because of farming. This is quite ironic that people who want to escape the constraints of the capitalist system put themselves in a situation of the type of labor predominating in a system where human life is not valued. Instead of doing farming in a strenuous way, it is worth investing time in understanding how to work with rather than against nature. There are many publications and movies that describe approached to farming with minimal human labor, energy use and tools. The most famous isFukuokas philosophical bookbut there are more practically orientedbooks.

What is the gain of trading a boss who does not care about your wellbeing for the self-exploitation resulting from ignorance and beliefs inculcated by the system that does not want you to be autonomous?

Studying alternative forms of production and meeting basic needs is essential if you want to liberate from the constraints of the system. It requires giving yourself space for creativity and experimenting. The problem with pursuing the beaten yet labor-intensive path is that you may create a lot of sunk costs and emotional investment in the methods that undermine your community in the long run. And then you follow the problems of mainstream institutions and organizations, which you so much disliked. I have heard of a project producing farming tools as a form of liberation. A true liberation would be not to need to rely on tractors and other machinery while bringing satisfying results and making work an enjoyable pastime.

(Help Katarzyna bring her book Imagine a Sane Society to the world and available for free by donating to thecrowdfunding campaign. You are also supporting Cambia and Twin Oaks this way.)

Teaser photo credit: Twin Oaks Community Facebook page.

Katarzyna Gajewska, PhD, is an author and educator. You can contribute to her crowdfunding campaigns to help publishing the feminine utopia Imagine a Sane Society or other forthcoming Creative Commons books. She has brought out many articles on egalitarian communities based on in-depth interviews. For updates onmypublications:Katarzyna Gajewska Independent Scholar My publication list (selection):...

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So You Want to Leave it All and Create a Community? - Resilience

On Tuesday, July 7, in an economic protest dubbed Blackout Day, Black shoppers, people of color, and allies are being encouraged not to spend any money, and if they must purchase something, to buy only from Black-owned businesses.

The goal is to highlight the economic power of Black Americans. According to Nielsen, Black buying power reached $1.3 trillion in 2018, up from $320 billion in 1990.

Activist Calvin Martyr, creator of The Blackout Coalition, posted a video calling for Blackout Day back on May 8.

"Although this movement is exclusively targeted at empowering and uplifting black people all over the world, we welcome ALL people of color to stand with us in solidarity," a blurb on the informational website for Blackout Day reads.

"Black people alone account for an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars or more of spending in the economy annually. Together we have 3.9 trillion dollars in economic spending power. While we welcome allies who choose to stand with us, we make absolutely no apology for the fact this movement is FOR US & BY US."

Cisco tweeted that it would be postponing a planned security summit to Wednesday in order to support the Blackout Day cause. Soap and personal care brand Dr. Bronner's tweeted in support of the economic protest and said it would shut down its website, though the site was still functional as of Tuesday morning.

"This is only the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of economic empowerment as a reality for ALL BLACK PEOPLE," The Blackout Day site continued.

"United, we are an unstoppable force. We are a nation of people within this nation that at any time can demand our liberation by withholding our dollars. If we can do it for a day, we can do it for a week, a month, a quarter, a year and one day we will look up and it will be a way of life."

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Blackout Day is July 7, calls for boycott of non-Black-owned business - Business Insider - Business Insider

The plight of Black children in the child welfare system is one plagued with failure after failure from those who have been put in place to protect them.

As activist, sociologist and historian, W.E.B. DuBois, so accurately stated, A system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect.

Our foster care system was not designed to protect our Black children, but rather mirrors the oppression, discrimination and harassment Black people experience in this country daily. Our foster care system unfortunately reflects the history of slavery and the deterioration of the family.

It is the remnants of Black fathers being stripped from their families, in many cases unjustly, to fill prisons that were designed to control and suppress Black people through the intentional dismantling of Black families.

Our foster care system is the reminder of mothers left to cope with inadequate support, being torn from their children and succumbing to the shame and defeat of a race they were never positioned to run in, let alone win.

Our foster care system is the reminder of mothers left to cope with inadequate support, being torn from their children and succumbing to the shame and defeat of a race they were never positioned to run in, let alone win.

This is theworld Black foster youth live in. They not only deal with personal trauma and the soul-crushing experience of generational oppression that has bred many of the conditions that force them into the foster care system, but must also deal with the psychological trauma of systematic racism that runs rampant within the foster care system, the school system and society as a whole.

The Los Angeles Countys foster care system, which is the largest locally-adminstered child welfare system in the nation, is one filled with bureaucracy, red tape and the warehousing, recycling and dismissal of youth. Its leadership has historically placed more attention on appearances and optics than it does on safe, healthy outcomes for the children they are supposed to protect.

This is by design. And while it is not the fault of the Department of Children and Family Services current director, Bobby Cagle the disease of racism, discrimination and bias runs in the very fabric of decades of profiting off of the bodies of little Black and Brown children it is perpetuated by the current administration and those in charge by continuing to put a Band-Aid on a wound thats hemorrhaging.

Our first failure lies in assuming that a government system can actually respond to the needs of children and families who are experiencing neglect and abuse. There is an African proverb that says, It takes a village to raise a child, meaning that in order to heal, restore, protect and reunify children and families, we must rely on a community of people to ensure those children have healthy experiences and grow up in safe and healthy environments. This community must reflect the faces of the children and families it is seeking to restore, must be led by those who have lived experience, and must not profit off of their deterioration.

Our current system does not restore, it does not heal, it does not protect. Rather, it takes a child out of a bad (or allegedly bad) circumstance and places her in another one then another one then another. If the child is lucky and learns how to control their trauma, anger and frustration, they might have the great fortune of living consistently in a home with a family that truly cares about them and their outcomes. Too often, that is not the outcome. If we want a better future for our children, we must act now to create it.

Across history, weve seen that real progress often follows great adversity, when addressed with intention and urgency. In this time, and during what I see as aGreat Re-Imagining, we must seize this moment, apply it to our foster care system, and create a new future.

For almost two decades now, I have been dreaming of a village where displaced youth can live and thrive, be treated with respect and kindness, where their potential is honored and nourished. There is a model for this, a community calledYemin Orde in Israel, that has for the past 30 years built an educational village that is centered around hope, restoration, positive outcomes and empowerment for our valuable, most vulnerable children.

I am proud to say that for the past nine months, I have been working on such a village that will hopefully be the model to transform our foster care system in Los Angeles and transform the playing field for foster youth from one of neglect and abandonment, to one of nurturing and support.

Simply put, the system we have in place today unjustly tears Black families apart and perpetuates the cycle of trauma, poverty, homelessness and incarceration inflicted on Black communities. Millions of dollars are poured into research and studies that prove that our current system does more harm than good, which is evident in the poor outcomes of our foster youth. What we need now is a reckoning of these facts and a safe haven that will replace our institution, and to ensure that children who genuinely need to be removed are welcomed by their village.

Charity Chandler-Cole The Chronicle of Social Change

Charity Chandler-Coleis CEO ofTransformative Management Solutions LLC, and serves on theLos Angeles County Commission for Children and Families.

Read this article:
To Leave Racist Roots Behind, Child Welfare Needs a Great Reimagining - LA Progressive

At the heart of Pact is the promise of a better tomorrow. A nonprofit international development organization founded in 1971, Pact works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to improve the lives of those who are challenged by poverty and marginalization. We serve these communities because we envision a world where everyone owns their future. To do this, we build systemic solutions in partnership with local organizations, businesses, and governments that create sustainable and resilient communities where those we serve are heard, capable, and vibrant. Pact is a recognized global leader in international development. Our staff have a range of expertise in areas including public health, capacity development, governance and civil society, natural resource management, poverty, fragile states, monitoring and evaluation, small-scale and artisanal mining, microfinance and more. This expertise is combined in Pacts unique integrated approach, which focuses on systemic changes needed to improve peoples lives.

Department

Program Delivery (PDEL) - Pact exists to help create a world where those who are poor and marginalized exercise their voice, build their own solutions, and take ownership of their future. The Program Delivery Team, contributes to realizing this purpose by: Forging smart partnerships and treating all people with dignity and respect; Applying organizational policies and regulatory compliance appropriately and consistently; Facilitating team spirit among colleagues and promoting the organization through communications; Influencing decision makers through focused, relevant communications; Continually striving to learn and share knowledge and find small ways to make the workplace more enjoyable for all; Cultivating and harvesting innovation; Contributing to the organizations ability to think and act strategically at all times; Inspiring and spreading our desired organizational culture across the global enterprise.

Position Overview

Adolescents and Children HIV Incidence Reduction, Empowerment, and Virus Elimination (ACHIEVE) is a five-year, USAID-funded global cooperative agreement, which helps priority PEPFAR countries achieve and maintain HIV epidemic control among pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, children, and youth. The two objectives of the project are to: i) attain and sustain HIV epidemic control among at-risk and hard to reach pregnant and breastfeeding (PBF) women, infants, children, and youth, as well as to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS and prevent HIV transmission among these populations; and ii) support the transition of prime funding and implementation to capable local partners in order to meet the PEPFAR goal of 70% of funding to local partners.

ACHIEVE is seeking a consultant to assist the ACHIEVE global team in researching and designing a new USAID/PEPFAR-funded community health and social welfare systems strengthening project focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Tanzania. The period of performance will begin on or around July 1, 2020, for a period of up to six weeks.

ACHIEVE will receive funding to improve national- and community-level social welfare systems, with a particular focus on supporting a skilled social welfare workforce at community and district levels to ensure quality service delivery for OVC, at-risk adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and persons living with HIV (PLHIV). This activity will build on the progress made and best practices of the Community Health and Social Welfare Systems Strengthening Program (CHSSP).

Through remote and/or in-person meetings, key informant interviews and focus group discussions, and documents review, the consultant will gather information on the following items and incorporate findings into a set of recommendations and plans responding to USAIDs priorities for the ACHIEVE Tanzania project. The consultants information gathering will focus as needed at all levels of the social welfare system, including national, regional, council, ward and community (and will include government, non-governmental organizations, projects, networks, community workers, etc.). In-person meetings will be conducted with due respect for coronavirus safety precautions.

The current status of CHSSP, including progress and gaps in strengthening the community-level social welfare workforce, strengthening community-level committees, and strengthening CBOs, as well as progress and gaps in rolling out the NICMS, the Comprehensive Council Social Welfare Operational Planning and Budgeting Guide, and other above-site initiatives;

Areas of focus of other stakeholders engaged in work relevant to the ACHIEVE project, such as PS3, D4D, Tanzania Technical Support Services Project, Kizazi Kipya, and UNICEF;

Government priorities relevant to the ACHIEVE project, including PO-RALG, MOHCDGEC (specifically, Department of Social Welfare), and National AIDS Control Program; and

The new Community Health Worker (CHW) policy and guidelines and other contextual issues or initiatives with a direct influence on the ACHIEVE project, including matters related to national and program-specific vulnerable children information systems.

Depending on the ability of ACHIEVE global staff to resume international travel, additional tasks may be assigned and period of performance extended.

Key Responsibilities

Key tasks under the ACHIEVE project will include:

Building the capacity and core competencies of the social welfare workforce in select councils, wards and villages/mtaa to enable the delivery of health/HIV, social, and protection services;

Collaborating with Presidents Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) to ensure upgrading of the system, capacity building and accelerating the roll out the National Integrated Case Management System (NICMS) at council, ward and village/mtaa levels;

Collaborating with PO-RALG and Ministry of Health to support the effective transition of CCWs into the community-based health program, in line with GoT guidelines;

Collaborating with PO-RALG and Ministry of Health Community Development Gender and Children (MOHCDGEC) to develop the national OVC service delivery coordination and monitoring framework;

Strengthening social welfare planning and budgeting at the community level to foster evidence-based community engagement and resource allocation using the Comprehensive Council Social Welfare Operational Planning and Budgeting Guide.

Major activities to be undertaken by the consultant, timelines, and deliverables are as shown in the table below. The final output is a report with key findings, recommendations, and technical inputs which ACHIEVE will use to draft its annual work plan and budget to be submitted to USAID on or before August 31, 2020.

Activity

Due (weeks after signing consultant agreement)

Deliverables

Update ACHIEVEs initial key informant list

1

Final initial list of key informants

Review key resource documentation provided by ACHIEVE, supplement with other relevant resources

1

Key background and resource documents identified and reviewed

Develop key informant interview (KII) and/or Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides for each of the identified stakeholders/ informants

1

KII/FGD guides drafted, including key information needs

Draft schedule of initial round of KII / FGD meetings, all levels (national, regional, council, ward, community)

1

KII/FGD schedule, identified as remote/in-person depending on availability/ location of team members and key respondents

Conduct initial round of KII/FGD

3

Interview notes/reports

Identify, schedule, and conduct additional KII/FGD and/or documents review and data collection as needed

4

Completion of interview notes/reports

Participate in regular calls with ACHIEVE global team to provide updates

Weekly

Draft initial consultancy report, to include findings, recommendations, and technical inputs for ACHIEVE FY21 work plan

6

Draft report

Provide recommendations on operational considerations (staffing, office, budget, etc.) to optimize technical and program design recommendations

6

Operational recommendations (can be included in Draft report)

Finalize report based on feedback from ACHIEVE, Pact Tanzania, and/or USAID

1 week after receiving feedback

Final report

Basic Requirements

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.

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Health and Social Welfare Systems Strengthening Consultant, ACHIEVE/Tanzania - ReliefWeb

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The Covid-19 pandemic has upended several datafication approaches to healthcare, whether it is digital dashboards at the state-level to track and trace Covid-19 hotspots or a myriad of contact tracing apps that allow citizens to determine their exposure levels to the virus in a geographic span.

There have been manifold applications over the last few months, whether it is telemedicine practice by doctors, or the Delhi governments real-time information tracking application on hospital beds. In the context of the pandemic, AI based techniques are being used on a myriad on datasets right from cough patterns to lung X-rays to aid in early detection.

While India is still in its nascent stages in the evolution of its health data ecosystem and does battle larger capacity constraints in healthcare, it is important to diagnose some of the early challenges in the health data systems design. This article outlines them here from a regulatory standpoint along with looking at a few fixes that can herald a sound federated health data protection architecture.

Healthcare data in India is fairly fragmented and scattered, given the interaction of citizens ranges across multiple diagnostic centres, hospitals, medical practitioners and pharmacies. There are also several distinct parts in delivery chain, whether its insurance agents, third-party administrators (TPAs) or intermediaries such as ASHA workers. The issues of fragmentation are acknowledged by the Health Ministry, in its electronic health record (EHR) standards document of 2016 that look at this digitisation of workflows in healthcare systems. The development of IT systems without a modicum of interoperability (i.e., the-ability of a hospital system of X to communicate with system Y in a different location) has led to redundancies with static silos of data repositories that have sprung up.

Developing such enterprise architecture systems in healthcare has been a challenge, even in developed nations, as seen with the National Health Service (NHS) Connecting for Health efforts in UK that were abandoned after seven years of existence. The key reason for the failure of the British system was attributed to its highly top-down nature and lack of any ground-up apparatus.

A digital public infrastructure-industry complex in India can be associated with the non-profit tech organisation, iSPIRT as its been closely involved in the development of digital public platforms around India Stack (a set of APIs that helped build a cashless economy) and the Bharat Health Stack, dubbed to be the UPI of healthcare with a planned system incorporating open APIs for EHRs. Commendably, iSPIRT has been organising a series of virtual open house discussions over the last few weeks to provide a transparent account of the underpinnings behind this health stack.

There are several design features that we see in common between the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and the early patchwork of the health stack.Open APIs, distinct consent and data layers (dubbed as a data empowerment and protection architecture) and sandbox testing environments are some features that can be seen in both the system designs. The National Health Stack strategy document put out by Niti Aayog draws references to the past successes of federated digital initiatives such as UPI and the GSTN as an inspiration to building a platform approach on health records. However, several NGOs do bat for open source to co-exist along with open standards and open APIs as necessary design choices for the development of open digital ecosystems.

What are some first principles that we must keep in mind for governing health systems that are linked to public welfare? Do patients have agency over the access and use of health records by third parties? Would an algorithmic basis for EHR see individuals credit scores integrated on it as well? These are fundamental questions to consider if we are to futureproof the development of the Digital Health policy blueprint.

While the health stack has stressed the importance of data ownership by patients, the absence of a rights-based framework governing healthcare data (as a class of sensitive personal data) does warrant us to interrogate the role of ownership. This is especially important given the context of a prevalent data divides and digital literacy challenges. In this regard, a Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) study tells us that for about 90% of Indias population, digital literacy is almost non-existent.

Where such data awareness paradigms are scarcely socialised, data capture gets legitimised with the emergence of consent manager models, where fiduciaries manage consent on the data subjects behalf. As EHR adoption in India is still at nascent levels, the implementation of an ethical datafication model is critical, especially amid underserved communities.

Whilst we are still amidst a process to get a personal data protection law passed, there have been some initial efforts into building a privacy framework for the healthcare sector. The Health Ministry had proposed a Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act in 2018 that would enforce privacy and security standards for EHRs. This bill has been now subsumed into a more sector-agnostic framework driven by MeitY with the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill that looks at what constitutes personal health records, decision making powers on health data and penalties for breach of consent.

The Bill doesnt speak of the right to be forgotten of a patient or clarity on how a health stack built with a biometric authentication (Aadhaar) layer would solve for concerns around anonymity, esp. as health data is categorised as sensitive personal data. Consent in healthcare is associated with a higher threshold level (esp., on data sharing with third parties) as seen with how clinical trials are governed world over.

As the adoption of EHRs becomes imperative amid a glut of information challenges (both, the ones linked to the Covid-19 and those preceding it), there are three fundamental fixes we should prescribe for a plan-centric health governance design.

Firstly, improving interoperability by better data integration and harmonisation, such as the synthesis of twenty odd ISO standards into a more context-laden open standard that incorporates local clinical terminologies. Data portability is critical as there are healthcare institutions split between using different standards (such as SNOMED CT and ICT 10) or in some cases, no specific standards at all. While the Ministry of Health has veered towards adopting SNOMED CT in the National Digital Health Blueprint, it must ensure seamless data portability to allow interaction mechanisms with institutions that may still use ICT 10. The NHS Connecting for Health experience also forebodes the need for India to de-risk by avoiding the development of a singular central registry and focus rather on a multi-level hierarchy of EHRs.

Second, the building blocks of the digital ecosystem around the Bharat Health Stack must be inclusive in accommodating patient rights organisations such as the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan.The need to involve patient rights groups is imperative at this juncture, as patient data is at the heart of digital health databases. Data rights should be defined bearing in mind the patient, not the hospital as the key focus. Moreover, health data fiduciaries should bear greater responsibility in improving readability and accessibility of consent forms by allowing for these mechanisms to be available in vernacular languages. The onus should squarely lay on these fiduciaries to provide notices in multiple languages and empower citizens to better understand what they consent to.

Finally, how we build lean datafication approaches in healthcare lies in our ability to find the right balance on privacy, transparency and development. Justice B.N. Srikrishna, who chaired the data protection committee rightly notes, each data collection exercise should provide a clear purpose description and lay out a methodology for procuring the data. The Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019 currently under consideration does place the burden of proof for consent on the data fiduciary. However, the recently notified Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 doesnt provide adequate clarity on preserving consent records. Anonymity is essential for data that is going to be classified as sensitive personal data as is safeguards around strict purpose limitation and allowing data processing in a fair and transparent manner. Several of these principles are echoed in the Data Access and Sharing Protocol of the contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu that came out in May 2020.

This balance between the protection of personal privacy, providing transparency and accountability for the institutions that govern this data (whether consent managers or data exchanges whilst ensuring the empowerment of the individual is at the heart of setting a prudent appropriate federated rights-based design for healthcare data protection.

See the rest here:
Heralding a new health data regime in India - Observer Research Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, financial inclusion non-profit Kiva is announcing a partnership under the White House-led Womens Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative with USAID to advance womens economic empowerment by increasing access to financing for women entrepreneurs and business owners. W-GDP is the first whole-of-government approach to womens economic empowerment and, as a part of the Initiative, Kiva will use catalytic capital offered through the W-GDP Fund at USAID to design the Kiva Invest in Women Fund (K-IWF), an innovative investing vehicle to positively impact women.

Kiva to scale gender-focused impact investing

Kiva has been awarded $2.5 million from the W-GDP Fund at USAID in an effort to identify innovative approaches to catalyze commercial investment for womens economic empowerment and equality. The contract will support an 18-month process that will engage major asset owners and gender lens investing experts in developing K-IWF, which aims to provide $100 million in critical capital for women entrepreneurs.

K-IWF will continue Kivas work of institutional impact investing through its Kiva Capital arm, a wholly-owned asset management subsidiary offering impact-first investment vehicles that aim to fill gaps in capital access for underserved communities in the current investment ecosystem.

This partnership with the Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative at USAID recognizes Kiva Capitals potential to deliver a truly innovative fund to the gender lens investment community, said Sarah Marchal Murray, Kivas Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer. We are excited to collaborate with and learn from this community of sophisticated global investors. Together, we can expand the pipeline of capital to economically empower women.

Since its founding in 2005, Kiva has deployed $1.4 billion through the Kiva.org marketplace. More than 80 percent of these loans, totaling $1 billion, has gone to nearly 3 million women around the world.

We know that investing in women's economic empowerment can boost country-level GDP and is vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, but critical funding gaps were thwarting progress even before the COVID-19 crisis, said Goldie Chow, Kivas Director of Impact. Scaling investment in women entrepreneurs is not only the next step in building pathways to prosperity for women but also crucial for country-level recovery and resilience.

The Design, Structuring, and Field-building Elements

The Kiva Capital team will use this innovative funding to launch a comprehensive fund design and structuring process. This will include the development of an impact framework and a shared learnings platform. Funding will also support the canvassing of the womens economic empowerment investment markets in Africa and Latin America to identify missing elements of investment capital to most effectively support women-led enterprises. In addition, via a global investor listening tour, Kiva will showcase new opportunities in the rapidly growing world of investing in women for both the social and financial returns.

Whats most exciting about this relationship is the opportunity to discover what the right kind of capital is for empowering women around the world, said Marchal Murray. Its not about more women entering the formal financial system, but rather a financial system that works for more women.

About Kiva:

Established in 2005 as the world's first personal micro-lending website, Kivas mission is to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. We are working to expand financial access by crowdfunding loans and unlocking capital for the underserved, improving the quality and cost of financial services, and addressing the underlying barriers to financial access around the world. Since its founding, Kiva has raised a combined $1.4B for loans for more than 3.6M entrepreneurs in 94 countries.

About the W-GDP Initiative:

In February 2019, the White House established the Womens Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, the first whole-of-government approach to womens economic empowerment. W-GDP seeks to reach 50 million women in the developing world by 2025 by focusing on three pillars Women Prospering in the Workforce, Women Succeeding as Entrepreneurs and Women Enabled in the Economy. W-GDP leverages a new innovative fund, scaling private-public partnerships which address the three pillars. In its first year alone, W-GDP programs reached 12 million women across the globe.

About USAID:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the worlds premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAIDs work advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity, demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience.

Read more from the original source:
Kiva Receives USAID Design Funding to Structure Innovative $100M Fund to Support 1 Million Women Globally - Business Wire

Amanda Maitland worked for WE Charity until June 2019. She says a personal speech she was supposed to deliver during an anti-racism tour was largely rewritten by a mostly white team of staff.

A former employee of WE Charity says a speech she wrote for a WE Schools tour about her experiences as a Black woman was changedwithout her consent by a mostly white group of staff members.

Amanda Maitland told CBC News that the speech was supposed to be delivered on an anti-racism tour of schools in Alberta in February and March 2019. She said WE staff initially made minor changesbut later told her to deliver a different speech altogether, largely written by them.

"I felt like I was sinking in sand. I felt anger," said Maitland.

"They took my story, and they wanted me to elaborate on things that were just, I guess, more socially accepted."

Maitland told CBC News that when she tried to speak up about some of the problems within the organization at a WE town hall a few months after her tour, she was "aggressively" shut down by WE co-founder Marc Kielburger in front of a room full of her peers.

WE is an international organization that operates educational and social justice programs in Canada and internationally. WE Charity is the non-profit arm of the organization, with programs like WE Schools. Me to We isits for-profit social enterprise. Last week, WE Charity stepped back from a $19.5-million contract to administer a $900-million federal government student grant program amid criticism of the sole-source nature of the contract and WE's ability to carry it out.

WE said in a statement to CBC News, it "stands firmly for inclusion, diversity and the equitable, open treatment of all."

"We have directly and publicly apologizedto Amanda and to all current and former BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of colour] employees for past instances involving unconscious bias," the statement said.

But Maitland's story which she first shared on Instagram has sparked widespread discussion on social media about WE. Some have begun sharing their own experiences while working at the organization, and a petition signed by 150 current and former employees is circulating, calling on WE to take specific anti-racist measures.

CBC News has spoken to 15 former WE employees, some of whom confirm Maitland's speech was changed, and some who were at the town hall where Maitland spoke out publicly. Most described a "culture of fear" within the charity when it came to challenging or criticizing decisions.

Maitland said she was hired by WE as a motivational speaker and leadership facilitator in the fall of 2018. She was asked to deliver a speech about her personal experience with racism on an anti-racism tour in Alberta in early 2019.

"I have a lot of experiences when it comes to racial injustice. So, I was excited I was over the moon," said Maitland.

Shebegan writing thespeech, initially going back and forth with a WE Charity team who made minor edits, she said.

She said she delivered her speech several times on the tour, but on a brief return trip to Toronto, WE Charity staff gave her a different speech to deliver.

"I was literally ... told that there had to be changes made," said Maitland, who said it was the first she'd heard of any issues with her speech.

"I had no emails while travelling. I had no phone calls. No messages of anything within, like, an update that a speech may have to get changed."

Maitland claims her personal experiences with racism as a Black woman were largely erased and watered down with subjects she hadn't written about.

"It wanted me to talk about cornrows, and it wanted me to talk about the Oscars, and the language was just completely different. I pride myself on being someone who's very raw with how I speak. So, they completely shredded that."

Most of the former WE employees whoCBC News spoke with asked not to be identified over fear of backlash from the organization. Most have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that precludes them from speaking.

Four former employees told CBC News they were aware of the speech change, including Brianna Polden, who was in Alberta at the same time as Maitland, on a parallel but separate speaking tour for WE Schools.

"It became really obvious to me that this was done without her consent and also without her knowledge, and that it had kind of been forced on her," said Polden.

She said Maitland told her about the changes to her speech made by the leadership team, "who I knew to be primarily white."

Raia Carey, who was on a different speaking tour in Alberta at the same time as Maitland, was also aware of the speech change.

"I said, 'Do not read that speech,'" said Carey, who resigned from the organization a few months later.

"That was the final straw for me. Especially because it goes against our standard protocol that our speeches are supposed to be collaborative."

Maitland said she tried to amalgamate the WE team's version and her version, but ultimately decided to deliver the speech she'd written.

"I wasn't willing to shut down my story for anybody definitely not WE," she said.

Maitland also resigned, a few months after the anti-racism speaking tour, but not before attending a staff town hall with Kielburger to talk about issues related to workplace culture. Maitland said she was one of the first to speak.

"I began to speak about the culture of fear. I began to share that what is happening in this organization is that employees are having siloed conversations," said Maitland.

"There were a lot of people nodding their heads, and Marc Kielburger immediately kind of stepped forward and shut me down."

CBC News spoke to four former WE employees who were at that town hall. They all confirmed Maitland spoke up, and that Kielberger tried to quickly end the conversation.

"The automatic response was her being shut down by Marc Kielberger, and him being visibly angry," said one former employee.

"Sitting in that room during the town hall, you could feel it," she said.

"Most staff at least my group of peers have talked about the things that we're uncomfortable with and don't feel we can bring up, or have brought up and have felt silenced."

Maitland said she decided to post a video account of her experience on social media more than one year later because of the discussions about race following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. She said she wanted to highlight that Canada is not immune to racism.

"[Racism] happens within the charitable spaces. I felt like I need to share, as a Black woman that was hired to go on an anti-racism speech, why it is not OK for a panel of white women and men to rewrite a Black woman's story."

"I didn't want to just be another person that was OK with being silenced."

Most of the former employees CBC News spoke to said there was a "culture of fear" within the organization.

Carey said she was felt she was penalized when she tried to speak up and push back on decisions by management.

"Never in my life before had I felt unsure about my opinion,my values and where I stand because of how they made it seem like I was negative or bad," said Carey.

A former manager of the WE Schools team told CBC News: "People were afraid to speak out because they didn't want to lose their jobs."

Another former employee of colour on the WE Day team said: "I was so scared to speak up. If you ever said anything that's out of line, or questioned anything [which they didn't like], you would end up not being in [my former supervisor's] good books. She would find any way to get you kicked off her team or fired.

"The explanation to the wider team would always be: They weren't a 'good culture fit,' a 'positive team player,' or 'It just didn't work out.'" WE Day is a recurring celebration of youth empowerment, hosted by the organization.

In response to such allegations, WE Charity said in a statement to CBC News: "WE members can anonymously submit on a 'feedback portal' any concerns or issues they have. They can also request a phone call or in-person meeting with any of the human resources or leadership team."

WE Charity did not respond to a request for an interview from CBC News.However, about12 hours after CBC News submitted its request, Kielburger and his brother,Craig, the founders of the WE organization, apologized publicly on their personal Instagram pages.

"We want to start by unreservedly apologizing to you," the apology said in part.

"You shared in your video that the words of your speech were altered. It simply should not have happened."

An apology was also posted on the WE website.

In the statement to CBC News, WE Charity said it has publicly released a list of actions on how it can "do better" and has launched what it described as a listening tour to hear the experiences of its current and former BIPOC employees.

Maitland confirmed WE also reached out to her personally last week prior to CBC News contacting the organizationand said she's taking time to process the apology.

"I need to know that it's coming from a genuine place," she said. "I need to understand that it's not coming because there's havoc on social media."

See more here:
Former WE Charity employee says staff tried to silence her by rewriting anti-racism speech - CBC.ca

Leading Natural Herbal Products Brand Helps Connect People, Plants and Planet Through its Gaia Roots Small Grants Program

Gaia Herbs, a leading natural herbal products brand in the United States, is now accepting applications for $5,000 grants via its social impact program, the Gaia Herbs Roots Initiative (Gaia Roots). Open through July 31, the program is exclusive to organizations based in the United States that are working to increase herbal access to drive community empowerment and health. The four winners of the $5,000 grants will be announced in August.

"Gaia Herbs has a strong foundation of advocating for farmer prosperity and environmental regeneration through our Gaia Roots program," said Alison Czeczuga, Sustainability and Social Impact Manager of Gaia Herbs. "This year, we have broadened the emphasis for our small grants program to focus on projects expanding herbal access to underserved communities, supporting health and personal empowerment in these regions. There is a critical need in this area and our grants program will help communities develop and strengthen programs that bring herbs and herbal products to marginalized populations in a time when they are most urgently needed."

"This year within Western North Carolina, weve given away over 16,500 certified organic vegetable and medicinal herb seedlings to both non-profits who are fighting food insecurity, as well as our own employees. The Gaia Herbs Farm provides for not only our supply chain in creating herbal products, but also for our team and communities. In seeking to expand that powerful impact beyond the footprint of our own land, Gaia Roots was born," said Angela McElwee, President and CEO of Gaia Herbs. "Our Gaia Roots small grants program represents the heart of our social impact work, enabling us to connect people and plants in meaningful, empowering ways. As a Certified B Corporation, we remain committed to using business as a force for good and are proud to be able to award financial grants to organizations providing greater herbal access to those in need."

The Gaia Roots small grants program is open to U.S.-based social enterprises, non-profit organizations, small businesses, individual herbalists, and naturopaths. To apply for the small grants program, focusing on projects supporting herbal access, organizations must complete the official application and provide a quarterly progress report on their project. In an effort to advance herbal knowledge and education, establishments must also be willing to allow Gaia Herbs to share its story. Examples of the types of projects that the initiative will fund include herbal educational programs, free clinics, mobile clinics, herbal farming and community garden projects.

Gaia Roots was created to form partnerships with like-minded, purpose-driven individuals and organizations to develop programs that have a positive social and environmental impact in communities throughout the world. Guided by our purpose of connecting people, plants, and planet to create healing, our work is focused on the three key pillars of this initiative:

All Gaia Herbs products are sold through natural and independently owned health food stores across the nation as well as through gaiaherbs.com and other trusted online retail sites. To find a store near you, visit gaiaherbs.com/stores.

About Gaia Herbs

Since 1987, Gaia Herbs has been connecting plants, people, and planet to create healing. Today, Gaia Herbs is a leading herbal brand in North America with more than 200 liquid extracts, functional powders, teas, and patented Liquid Phyto-Caps. Our dedication to quality and integrity is unparalleled and meticulously proven by science. We use organic methods to cultivate more than 3 million plants each year on our farm, and we screen the plants in our analytical laboratory to pinpoint the exact right time to harvest and extract in our state of-the-art processing facility. All of that leads to products exceptional in their purity and integrity. We offer the industrys first comprehensive herb traceability program, meetyourherbs.com, which allows us to share complete transparency with our customers. We are proud to be a Certified B Corporation using business as a force for good. Our mission to nurture healthy connections with nature extends beyond our herbs through the Gaia Herbs Roots Initiative, which champions environmental and social sustainability on our farm, our community, and around the world. Learn more at gaiaherbs.com and join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005532/en/

Contacts

Alyssa Hayes Rachel Kay Public Relations 929.337.0638 Alyssa@rkpr.net

Link:
Gaia Herbs Offers Grants to Organizations Expanding Herbal Access for Underserved Populations in the United States - Yahoo Finance

Amidst a global pandemic and growing research which suggests women are severely affected by COVID-19, it's an opportunity to make big strides in our effort to address larger societal issues such as equality and justice, reproductive rights, poverty and domestic issues like financial abuse, as well as income security and retirement. It is estimated that 46% of women are "not too confident" or "not at all confident" about their ability to live comfortably after retirement, compared to only 31% of men who feel that way.

After my husband died unexpectedly, leaving me a 31-year-old widow with two small children, I realized that all women need to have a firm financial identity. I also found my voice in raising awareness about women's financial empowerment and issues such as financial abuse, as well as the importance of gender equality, diversity and financial inclusion. Women's rights have become my passion, and I realize that, globally, we can't fully achieve holistically wealthy communities if women don't have access to the same opportunities to thrive and be successful. This is especially the case, given through COVID-19. Indeed, women can't be fully empowered, if they're not financially empowered.

Financial abuse is often the first sign of dating violence and domestic abuse. However, it hasn't received the attention and profile that it ought to. According to Allstate Financial, one in four women experience domestic violence in the United States. 99% of those cases also include financial abuse. Financial abuse is one of the main reasons why victims are unable to leave an abusive partner or have to return to one as abusers typically control the finances to ensure that their victims can't leave.

As a trained Economist and bestselling author of Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity and Happiness, I have embraced a mission of raising awareness of female economic empowerment. After all, women can't be fully empowered if they're not financially empowered.

Financial abuse is the act of controlling someone's ability to acquire, use, and maintain financial resources. Those who are abused financially may be manipulated and sabotaged and thereby prevented from working. Victims of financial abuse may also have restricted access to their own money or bank accounts or have their funds stolen by the abuser. When they do have money, they often have to account for every penny they spend.

Financial abuse is one of the main reasons why victims are unable to leave an abusive partner or have to return to one as abusers typically control the finances to ensure that their victims can't leave.

In this video, I discuss the signs of financial abuse and outline some strategies to overcome it.

Violence against women and women's economic security are highly-interlined. Public policies that enable increased pay equity to boost women's access to resources and support, including counseling, will be effective.

Equally as important as educating women about recognizing the signs of financial abuse is giving them the skills to protect themselves from it. This has to start in high schools and universities. We can't afford to wait until after it happens. This is why the messages and strategies outlined in my book, Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity and Happiness, are so important to teach women how to create an empowered financial identity that protects them from abuse, boosts their confidence and leads to improved mental, emotional and spiritual health. A key part of this strategy is embracing a "Holistic Wealth Mindset," and this stems from the "Holistic Wealth Method," which I've also developed. Having a curriculum designed to introduce students to the signs and strategies to overcome financial abuse is key.

Empowering women financially is critical to preventing financial abuse. Gender-based violence is rooted in gender inequality. Violence against women and women's economic security are highly intertwined. According to WomenAct, "Abuse often results in economic costs for survivors, including health costs, lost wages, and relocation expenses. Survivors can experience long -term economic consequences that make it difficult to rebuild economic security and resilience, including barriers such as debt, poor credit, housing instability and a diminished ability to work." Initiatives that enable increased pay equity to boost women's access to resources as well as supports, including counseling, will be effective.

In this video, I discuss developing personal mission statements for women.

The Holistic Wealth Development Index that's presented in my book Holistic Wealth, contains a modern framework that allows public policy experts a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of public policy interventions. It is a model that allows societies to develop resilience in the face of setbacks. As a result, it encompasses a model for societal resilience that is also necessary for societal growth. It takes into consideration the necessary supports that are required for individuals to be able to achieve holistic wealth even in the face of adversity, tragedy, and setbacks (including domestic and financial abuse). A more resilient society is a more prosperous and successful and holistically wealthy society. The Holistic Wealth Development approach is the counter theory we need in a time of urgent human problems and economic and social inequality.

Empowering women financially is critical to preventing financial abuse.

My approach also entails a list of holistic wealth functionalitiesand the idea that societies that embrace holistic wealth for all embrace these opportunities for individuals without humiliation and loss of dignity, as is the case in domestic and financial abuse. In times like these, where we are faced with a crisis, the choices we make now will affect the holistic wealth of generations to come.

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Women Cant Be Fully Empowered If Theyre Not Financially Empowered. Heres Why. - SWAAY

LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Healthfully, an enterprisehealthcaresolutions provider that addresses multiple health and wellnesstouchpointsin the patient journey, andNextGate, the global leader in healthcare enterprise identification,today announced a strategic partnership to meet increasing consumer demand for reliable access to personal health data.

Healthcare organizations rely on Healthfully's comprehensive platform to simplify the health experience for all involved.Its ability to provide communication between caregivers and patients, deliver targeted health programs, and much more all depend on accurate patient data from a variety of sources. By integrating NextGate's cloud-based Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI), Healthfully's personal health and wellness record gains robust patient identity matching technology.

NextGate's market-leading EMPI solution, which manages patient identities for more than two-thirds of the U.S. population, seamlessly links data across the continuum for a trusted, unified health record.

"Incomplete or inaccurate data in one's health record can be detrimental to patient safety and a major impediment to patient empowerment," said Andy Aroditis, CEO of NextGate. "We commend Healthfully for prioritizing patient identification as a key component to consumer engagement and data access so individuals can make the most informed decisions about their health."

"Our solution integrates, clinical, social, wellness and patient-generated information," said Paul Viskovich, CEO of Healthfully. "Leveraging NextGate's EMPI as part of the Healthfully platform will give our users access to trusted, high-quality health data for informed decision-making, better outcomes, and a greater patient experience."

About Healthfully

Healthfully simplifies the healthcare experience for everyone, so patients can get the care they need, the support they want, and the inspiration to achieve better health. The company provides enterprise organizations with a white-labeled, digital consumer health platform to engage and empower people on their health and wellness journey. The platform blends compelling and valuable functions, intelligence, and content for patients, consumers, and communities, creating a great patient experience and helping achieve the goals of value-based care and population health management. For more information, please visit http://www.healthfully.io.

About NextGate

With over 200 customers in four countries, NextGate is the global leader in healthcare enterprise identification. Committed to helping organizations overcome the clinical, operational, and financial challenges that result from duplicate records and disparate data, our full suite of identity matching solutions connects the entire healthcare ecosystem to drive critical improvements in quality, efficiency, and safety. NextGate's market-leading EMPI currently manages 300 million lives and is deployed by the nation's most successful healthcare systems and health information exchanges. For more information, visit http://www.nextgate.com.

Media Contacts:

Don Fallati Marketing, Healthfully Inc. don@healthfully.io 914-833-9157

Stephanie Fraser Director of Communications and Media Relations, NextGate c: 734-233-1483 | o: 734-399-9336 stephanie.fraser@nextgate.com

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Healthfully and NextGate Partner to Give Patients Safe, Reliable Access to Personal Health Data - thepress.net