Washington group provides way to track U.S. aid to Central America
WASHINGTON (CNS) — In fiscal year 2016, three countries in Central America received a combined $750 million from the U.S. to help their governments fight some of the toughest challenges they face and which drive immigration: violence, drugs, lack of economic opportunity. But it’s not always easy to gauge the impact the assistance has in solving social ills. To help measure results, the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA, has launched the Central America Monitor, a way of tracking U.S. assistance and its impact on the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of Latin America — Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador — that receive the bulk of the aid. Adriana Beltran, of WOLA’s citizen security program, helped introduce the monitor during a panel in Washington May 17. “WOLA and our partners welcome the renewed attention to Central America, the support and interest of the U.S. Congress to figure out a way of addressing the many challenges that the region faces: the violence, the weak institutions, the lack of economic opportunity and the poverty that are driving these people to leave their communities,” Beltran said.
New mobile apps, backed by CRS, help pregnant Indian women in rural areas
KOLKATA, India (CNS) — Usha Devi, a 25-year-old field worker, is three months pregnant with her third child. But this child, she said confidently, will be born in the hospital. “Unlike my previous pregnancies, now I know when to call the ambulance,” Devi told Catholic News Service by phone. Devi is keeping all of her pregnancy details stored on an app in Sunita Prajapati’s mobile phone, and she knows she will receive reminders of all the important dates. Prajapati, a 26-year-old single mother, is not just her friend but an accredited social health activist. The nearest hospital to her village is five miles away. With no means of public transportation available, the village women have to be alerted by the health activists to make use of basic maternity health services and opt for institutional deliveries of their child. Prajapati owns an Android phone with two specific apps in which she maintains the record of all the pregnant and lactating mothers in her vicinity. The apps — part of the ReMIND program — serve as the medium of knowledge-sharing and data storage for the rural health workers. “My child was born at home, and I had a terrible time during my pregnancy,” Prajapati said. “But now I ensure that right information about mother and child’s health reaches every corner of the villages here. And these apps help me maintain records of the women and also educate them about maternal and child health.