SPS provided teachers with marine science education training and gave phones to the Bantay Dagats or sea watchers to stay connected with local officials. By 2015, Malapascua Island and Gato Island became the Philippines’ first shark and ray sanctuary via Executive Order 16-2015.

The participation of many stakeholders, ranging from teachers to students and boat crew, ultimately led to the campaign’s success. Having them on board encouraged more private businesses to donate funds to support the Bantay Dagats.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.


#SDGs
#LNOB

#LifeOnLand
#LifeBelowWater

- Shawn

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day—more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. About 88% of diarrhea-associated deaths are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient hygiene. With your support, we can prevent the children from dying. Your donations provide clean drinking water by purchasing a chlorine generator to safely produce chlorine gas that is injected into the water to kill waterborne pathogens. This approach enables the villagers to use existing water sources such as a water well with unknown disease-producing agents.  Additionally, your assistance provides hygiene classes as a preventive measure to combat diarrhea. With your time to volunteer, a collective effort to provide the basic need to a village enhances the possibility of a community receiving a chlorine generator.  Every little step helps!   Alleviating poverty takes a strategic approach to provide basic needs before the transformation can begin. Your donation and volunteer effort offer the solution to give the supply of clean water to a community.  Donate and volunteer today and change lives!

#CleanWater 
#DonateandVolunteer
#PortableWater

- Alleson

#savetheearth
#savetheworld
#helptheearth
#betterworldpls

Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and, therefore, also half of its potential. Gender equality, besides being a fundamental human right, is essential to achieve peaceful societies, with full human potential and sustainable development. Moreover, it has been shown that empowering women spurs productivity and economic growth.

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go to achieve full equality of rights and opportunities between men and women, warns UN Women. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to end the multiple forms of gender violence and secure equal access to quality education and health, economic resources and participation in political life for both women and girls and men and boys. It is also essential to achieve equal opportunities in access to employment and to positions of leadership and decision-making at all levels.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres has stated that achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world.

UN support for the rights of women began with the Organization's founding Charter. Among the purposes of the UN declared in Article 1 of its Charter is “To achieve international co-operation … in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”

Within the UN’s first year, the Economic and Social Council established its Commission on the Status of Women, as the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Among its earliest accomplishments was ensuring gender neutral language in the draft Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

#genderequality

According to WHO, mental health problems affect 116 million people in the African region, up from 53 million in 1990.

The continent also has six of the top 10 countries for suicide in the world, while the agency also noted that for each suicide in Africa, there are an estimated 20 suicide attempts.

Despite the urgency of the problem, African governments allocate less than 50 US cents per person to treat mental health problems, says WHO. This is five times more than in 2017, but it is still well below the recommended $2 per person for low-income countries.

Additionally, mental health care is generally not included in national health insurance schemes, WHO said, noting that in Africa, there is only one psychiatrist for every 500,000 inhabitants.

This is 100 times below the WHO recommendation. Additionally, mental health workers mostly work in urban areas, often leaving rural communities without any support.

“Mental health is integral to wholesome health and well-being yet far too many people in our region who need help for mental health conditions do not receive it. It’s time to for radical change,” Dr Moeti said. “Ongoing efforts by countries should be reinforced and broadened to make mental healthcare a public health priority in the African region.”

The WHO already supports countries in their efforts to step up mental health services in Africa.

This includes assistance for primary health care workers in Zimbabwe, who receive training to boost quality and access to mental health services.

In Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, a survey of investment needs for mental health services has been completed and advocacy is now underway to secure the resources needed.

The WHO also supports Cabo Verde and Cote d’Ivoire with national suicide situation analysis, as a first step towards devising effective response measures.

In August 2022, African health ministers agreed on a new strategy to reinforce mental health care at a WHO regional conference. The 2030 targets they decided upon called for all countries on the continent to have a policy or legislation on mental health; for 60 per cent of countries to implement the policy, for 95 per cent of countries to monitor and report on key mental health indicators, and 80 per cent of countries to budget for mental health services.

#protectyourmentalwell-being
#mentalhealth_matters
#Love_one_onother

-Jilian Lauronal-

In 2018, in the Kalobeyei Settlement Area in Kenya, water was supplied from boreholes and pumped as far as 4km away. To reduce fuel costs the Norwegian Refugee Council (implementing partner for UNHCR's water, sanitation and hygiene programmes) used solar-powered pumps for 6-7 hours daily, saving on fuel costs. Goal 6 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is ‘Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’. Photo: Patrick Kihara/UN Environment

 

The United Nations launched its sustainable development agenda in 2015, reflecting the growing understanding by Member States that a development model that is sustainable for this and future generations offers the best path forward for reducing poverty and improving the lives of people everywhere. At the same time, climate change began making a profound impact on the consciousness of humanity. With the polar ice caps melting, global sea levels rising and cataclysmic weather events increasing in ferocity, no country in the world is safe from the effects of climate change.

Building a more sustainable global economy will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. It is, therefore, critically important that the international community meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – and also the targets for reducing emissions set in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.

Sustainable development and climate action are linked – and both are vital to the present and future well-being of humanity.

Building a more sustainable global economy will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. It is, therefore, critically important that the international community meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – and also the targets for reducing emissions set in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.

Sustainable development and climate action are linked – and both are vital to the present and future well-being of humanity.