Whole Earth Library Book Discussion

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, by Aldo Leopold
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
12:30PM to 1:30PM

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
 
Come join your friends and co-workers and share your thoughts about Aldo Leopold's classic and influential work of nature writing, A Sand County Almanac. Forester, wildlife ecologist, environmental philosopher, and educator, Leopold articulated ideas in this writing that have come to be at the core of conservation ethics today. A call for a fundamental reform in humankind's relationship to the land, it is a beautifully and forcefully written account of his own encounters with wild nature and a celebration of its richness.
 
Please let us know at library@thoreau.org if you are interested in attending and/or if you need help finding a copy.

Art Opening Reception

Thoreau Gallery and The Seed Gallery of Photographic Art
Artists: Elizabeth Ennis + Steven Hight
Thursday, November 5, 5:00PM to 7:00PM

Please join us in celebration of our new exhibitions. Observing dogs unleashed, painter Elizabeth Ennis captures their fierce joy in their pure state of being in her exhibit "Dog Play." Photographer Steven Hight uses vintage effects to engage us in his San Francisco landscapes display "Photographs in the Fog."

Brown Bag: Equality Now Mobilizes to End Injustice to Women

Thursday, November 5, 12:30PM to 1:30PM
Pacific Room at Tides

Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure. Thoreau Center and the New Field Foundation will host four Equality Now activists who will highlight their recent successes and talk about Equality Now’s new exciting project. The presenters include Agnes Pareyio, a Maasai activist working to end FGM and early marriage in Kenya, Kadidia Sidibe, a women's rights champion in Mali, West Africa for over three decades, Fanta Camara, and a young Malian FGM survivor-turned-activist Taina Bien-Aimé, ex-oficio, Equality Now Board of Directors (USA).

Film Screening: Prom Night in Mississippi

Thursday, November 12, 12:30p
Pacific Room at Tides

An official selection at the Sundance Film Festival, Prom Night in Mississippi tells the story of senior students of Charleston High who rally in preparation for the school’s first-ever integrated prom. In 1997, Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman made an historic offer to the high school in his hometown of Charleston, Mississippi: He would foot the bill for the school’s senior prom—on condition that both black and white students be allowed to attend. Even though the students shared classes and every other aspect of school life, they had a tradition of holding two proms—one white, one black. Freeman’s offer was ignored. In 2008, he made it again. This time, the school accepted and history was made, but not without significant opposition.

Thoreau Center Tenant in the Spotlight: Jeff Albert, PhD, of Aquaya

Jeff is a water resource specialist. Before joining Aquaya, Jeff was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Environmental fellow at the US Environmental Protection Agency's Global Change Research Program. He also holds an adjunct appointment at the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University. Jeff has degrees from Brown and Yale Universities, and was most recently jointly appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Geological Sciences and Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University between 2002 and 2004. Jeff is a 2005 recipient of EPA's Bronze Medal for his work on drinking water in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Tell me about Aquaya’s work?
Aquaya works to accelerate safe water delivery in low-income countries. We develop new water-related products and services and evaluate the health and socioeconomic consequences of water and sanitation-related programs. Aquaya was founded by Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert, two PhD scientists motivated to bridge basic science research with field efforts to supply basic needs to the world’s poor.
 Over a billion of the world’s inhabitants lack an improved drinking water source, and roughly two million infants and children under the age of 5 die each year of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid fever. Expanding safe water access is essential to improving public health and opening up economic opportunity in the developing world.

Since its establishment, Aquaya has worked in Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Indonesia, and South Africa on projects ranging from device development in water treatment and diagnostics to third-party evaluations of water/sanitation/hygiene interventions.

What are your biggest challenges?
We are a nonprofit supported by grants, and the economic downturn has made fundraising more challenging than usual. More broadly, we are working in a field that has vexed public health and development professionals for decades. Our belief is that it is essential to dedicate time and resources to identifying truly successful models and to be honest about what has failed.

What are some recent successes?
We are excited about a project we’ve been developing to seed small water treatment and vending businesses in East Africa. We have observed this business model in parts of Southeast Asia as it has reached massive scale over a very short time period, and we are exploring the possibilities of replicating the model in underserved markets. The so-called "water refill” business model, which US consumers would recognize from their regular office water jug deliveries, is among the most promising examples we have identified for reaching large numbers of people in developing country markets where public utility coverage is inadequate.  Our initial results in Africa are quite encouraging.
 
What lessons have you learned?
The need for safe drinking water among the developing world poor is almost limitless, but the expressed consumer demand for water and sanitation services is not. Efforts to scale up safe water programs – whether they are initiated by the private sector, the public sector, or the nonprofit sector – must be mindful of this distinction. Water pumps and latrines routinely fall into disrepair when the demand for their value is not translated into revenue for the provider. Overcoming this problem requires paying extremely close attention to how poor people behave and how they make decisions – both health-related and financial. In Asia, businesses have begun to respond to consumer demand for safe water. By contrast, in Africa, much of the work has been "supply-driven” – donors push products and services onto consumers without sufficient understanding of what they want – and this has slowed the expansion of these programs.

Who are your supporters?
Aquaya’s projects are funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, google.org, the Open Square Foundation, and the Lemelson Foundation. The Mulago Foundation and Rainer Arnhold Fellowship program have also provided invaluable core support.

How do you like working in the Presidio?
What a question… let’s just say it’s a gift to come to the office each day. The Thoreau Center makes its tenants feel like part of a wonderful community in a place that we call "a treasure in San Francisco.”