Health

Innovative practices in Indian health care are make surgeries more affordable. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2182944311/">World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)</a>

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Slashing Health Care Costs, and Slashing, and Slashing

The numbers alone say a lot: A heart surgery that costs between $20,000 and $40,000 in the United States can cost only $2,000 in India.

Catching on to a bright idea. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chealion/3293922425/">Chealion (flickr)</a>

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Buying Green is Taking Hold Once Again

Reuters reports that despite the recession,

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Girls Need Better Access to Sanitary Pads, Period.

Adolescent girls in developing countries miss up to 50 days of school each year because their families can't afford to buy them sanitary pads.

Although discrimination against HIV positive people is prohibited in South Africa, major companies deny life insurance to all who test positive. Photo: <a href"http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/1128198005/">World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)</a>

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Insuring HIV Positive Lives

Alok,

<em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> (malaria) parasite taking over red blood cells. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericfortin/2186584614/">Eric Fortin (Flickr)</a>

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Cellscope: There's an App for that

A team of engineers at the University of California at Berkeley are pushing the limits of cell phone technology with the development of their newly minted Cellscope.

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Recession Hinders Romania's Fight Against AIDS

An unusually high percentage of Romania's population is HIV-positive.

Thomas Benke (center) works with Sichuan Research Institute of Environmental Protection chemists and OFSSA staff to set-up the Gas Chromatograph. Photo: Courtesy of Thomas Benke.

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Sister(city)hood Goes Beyond Cultural Exchange

Four years ago, a petrochemical plant on the border of China and Russia spilled 100 metric tons of the toxic chemicals into a tributary of the Amur River.

Plumpy’nut is frequently used by humanitarian agencies in emergency malnutrition situations. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

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Fortifying Foods To Fight Malnutrition in Africa

Humanitarian agencies have long been using protein and energy bars filled with nutrients and vitamins when responding to food emergencies.

A group of men plant crops in Kenya. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2628528653/">World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)</a>

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U.S. Promotes Agricultural Sustainability in Africa

Earlier this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reiterated the United States' commitment to reduce Africa's dependence on food aid and promote agricultural sustainability while in Nairobi, Kenya. Vilsack said the U.S.

A Mercy Corps beneficiaries show off their garden in Niger. Photo: Jeremy Barnicle/Mercy Corps

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One Billion Are Hungry

Last week the UN announced that the number of people suffering from hunger now totals one billion worldwide.

Idle mining cars on a train track in La Oroya, Peru. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiemme/2874972806/">Max Opp (exoppholdsvaer) (flickr)</a>

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Toxic Work in Peru

La Oroya, Peru, is one of the ten most polluted places in the world, according to the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based global health agency.

By the summer of 2008, the price of rice had increased five times from the average price in 2005. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

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Responding to the Global Food Crisis

The following post is from One Table, a Mercy Corps campaign to fight world hunger by investing in the world's women.

Organic tea leaves in Darjeeling, India. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps.

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A New Green Revolution in India?

Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of farmers in rural India have transitioned organic farming. But can these families grow enough to compete with conventional agriculture?

Photo: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8072953.stm">AdamCohn (flickr)</a>

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Zabaleen Plea to Egyptian Government: Don't Throw Away Our Livelihood

Cairo's trash-filled neighborhoods are the proud home of nearly 70,000 Coptic Christian zabaleen people and the majority of Egypt's pig population.

Bangladesh is facing a severe health epidemic due to high amounts of arsenic in the ground water found in wells which are the primary source of drinking water. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/2198939473/">Shawn (flickr)</a>

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Bangladesh’s Hidden Danger

"The largest mass poisoning in history," according to the World Health Organization, is in Bangladesh, where there'

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