We have all seen images of absolute poverty and been saddened that we have no power to change them. With our hectic lives the emphasis on community has become less of a priority, and some of us believe its time to bring back that communal spirit.

Kent has taken it upon itself to revive an idea first made popular in the 1940s, “twinning”. An idea originally designed for ending tension with our European cousins, it involves towns having a partner in another nation. An idea now being suggested as a way of tackling poverty.

Twinning is a mutually beneficial relationship, rather than westerners merely giving to the third world. This gives the residents of both places equality and expertise.

This two way communication is likely to lead to a better understanding of the struggle of poverty, and with better understanding a solution is more obtainable.

The goal, with the help of Kent County Council is to have our county link to the whole of Sierra Leone, as opposed to just one village. We hope by doing this we can open the floodgates for other like minded local governments to enrol in similar schemes.

We hope the Kent-Africa project can help generate interest and excitement in this potentially brilliant plan, and if we all pull together we can hope for spectacular results.

Jessica

Many thanks for organising a Fundraising Day in February - to raise the funds for a Surin School in a single evening!

And the DFID admin budget is £250M. Plus 2 budgets each of £1.2B.

What will the extra £60M be used for?

Cholera requires a simple vaccine and soap and water.

20-60,000 people are infected and upwards of 10,000 dead.

What will £60M be used for? An extra £60M.

That's a lot of soap and water kits and vaccines on top of the existing aid.

Thanks to Matt for info on the XO laptop offer for Africa: http://laptop.org/en/

The boffins at NASA have done it now. They’ve worked out that a gallon of car fuel - never mind rocket fuel – consumes 31,000 calories.

We humans need about 2,000 calories a day: 16% of the running cost of a gallon of fuel.

Currently oil but certainly biofuel or water in the future.

And as American consumers about 500 gallons of fuel per year – just for cars: never mind other transport and distribution costs.

Then we’re looking at feeding about 3,500 people per year. Or one car.

And.

A car produces about 30 pounds of CO2 per day.

Into the atmosphere.

Whether in the Third World or Developed World the trade-off between food security and energy is a very real one.

Sierra Leone is being considered as a Twin Town with Kent and these food security issues whether grain, fowl or fish are crucial for joint leaning and development.

The Zimbabwe Health Minister says there is widespread cholera.

The hospitals cannot cope and have effectively collapsed.

The water treatment plants have been switched off as they are contaminated with cholera and there are no treatment chemicals.

Much as Dr John Snow removed the handle from the water pump in London 150 years ago to prevent cholera.

A Victorian disease.

The WHO estimates over 60,000 cases rather than 16,000 cases.

The South African border is an epidemic emergency zone.

Separately a very interesting Kent blog article on IT for Africa: http://thanetstar.com/article/a-small-price-to-change-thanet-and-part-of-africa

Few democracies have goe to war with each other. In the next 25 years few IT nations will. Or allow military dictatorships. Or disease epidemics like this.

DFID has a £250M admin budget.

Its policies include "strategies on decentralisation".

Cholera is cured with soap and water, bleach and 10p vaccines: a 90% cure-rate within 5 days.

When Mugabe falls, the need will be to rebuild the schools and hospitals in a nation barely larger than Kent and London.