Friday links: August 1, 2014

ucla-flood-steps Yes, this has me worried about the infrastructure of our public universities.
cdc-ebola I’m in awe of the health workers on the front lines of the Ebola emergency. They put themselves at risk even as other health workers are falling ill.
weird-al-screenshot I could have posted all of Weird Al’s videos here, but this one is my favorite, given my professional background. Someday, I want to work on Weird Al’s writing team.
ragan-weird-al An interesting take on what Weird Al can teach you about PR. Now, I want to partner with a high-authority site to offer interesting and educational content that links back to our health sciences.

Thought bubble: Water, women and girls

Until becoming involved in our One Health work, I had not thought of access to safe water as a gender issue. In rural Ethiopia, women and girls usually have the responsibility of carrying water from source to home.

One friend told me the story of a girl who dropped the full, heavy clay jar on her way home. It shattered, and the water spilled. She ran away rather than reveal her loss of the water and the jar.

When I was in Ethiopia, I bought this painting of a woman carrying the traditional clay water jar.

water-jar-painting

Many others use plastic jerry cans that are difficult to carry and not always sanitary. Here’s a photo I took during my Fulbright Specialist project in Ethiopia showing women walking with jerry cans:

IMG_0839  IMG_1152

 

We’ve had discussions with Pack H20, a nonprofit that produces a water backpack of the same name, about a pilot project in Ethiopia.

Pack H20’s water backpack has made a real difference in rural communities in other countries, and we believe it could improve lives in Ethiopia as well. Here’s a link showing an organization using the backpacks in Kenya: https://www.partnersforcare.org/what-we-do/outreach-programs/.

The next step is to find funding for a pilot project.