A Story of Good — Transforming Lives in Tanzania with Rainwater Collection System

I was in a meeting today and one of my leaders and friends talked about the good news that we may not be hearing. It struck me immediately as all that we, as a human race, have been discussing are the bad things that have happened over the past months concerning COVID-19—that we are doing the kind and compassionate thing in sacrificing our normal daily lives to go into a social distancing methodology that is actually quite the contrary to human existence. We are social creatures—even the most introverted of us.

Some shared the work that they are doing, how they are keeping busy, the fun they are having, even through life is challenging at the moment. While I rarely care to be in the spotlight, getting positive feedback or sharing what I feel are my accomplishments is actually very awkward for me, I wanted to share something that I worked on for and am now only truly appreciating the impact that myself and team had.

I volunteer to work for Aid Africa’s Children and lead their technology efforts. We are a not for profit who shares our talents and resources in Africa—specifically, Tanzania, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, and Nigeria.

Sub-Saharan africans spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water. I wanted to change that.

This is my story:

“More people die from contaminated or polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars,” states the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Recently, Aid Africa’s Children’s built a much needed 6 tank, 5,000 liters (1,300 Gallon) per tank rainwater collection system at the Benedictine Holy Spirit Abbey in Mvimwa, Tanzania. This project was completed ahead of schedule, under budget and is sustainable and green! Our project also aligned with the United Nation’s 2018 World Water Development Report suggestions for encouraging “Nature-Based Water Solutions (NBS)” to meet the rapid increasing global demand for water.”

— Aid Africa's Children

Please read the whole article—it is short. There are good things still happening in the world—this is happening right now.

Transforming Lives in Tanzania with Rainwater Collection System

Aid Africa’s Children

Our mission: Empowering impoverished African children and communities with healthcare, food, clean water, educational, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

This is an ongoing project to bring clean water to those who need. While I sit here writing this, I have 144 bottles of water I could drink at anytime—unscrew the cap and drink. Sadly, this luxury I take for granted is not how most of the world lives.

If you would like to help, explore out website and visit Get Involved.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

Adrian’s Life Rule #31: If what you have you do not need, be kind and share with someone who does.

SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 or "Chinese Virus"

Image courtesy of the CDC

To preface this article, I’m not advocating calling it the “Chinese virus.” It most definitely is not its name.

Starting with some basics, viruses typically get names by several criteria but it is also important to know that the name of virus and the disease they cause are different. An example one might be familiar with is HIV vs. AIDS. HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, eventually causes AIDS, acquired Immune deficiency Syndrome.

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 also operate in the same fashion. SAR-CoV-2 is actually the name of the virus. It stands for ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’ while COVID-19 is the disease that it causes, or ‘corona virus disease 2019’ (WHO 2020).

Other items that could influence the naming convention is what type of virus (Coronavirus), where it was first identified (Ebola virus), people involved (Lou Gerhig’s Disease—although it is technically ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), what it’s impact (HIV), and the year it was first identified (2019).

While some of these things have been accurate in the past, the World Health Organization, WHO, advises against naming viruses based on their location to prevent the stigma and inevitable association with virus in the public mind (Thuburn, 2020). I would propose the supposition that naming a virus/disease after a person is similarly discouraged.

While Trump has called it “Chinese virus” and many have argued that “Chinese virus” is accurate it is in fact wrong—some might call it racist because of the tone in which it is used. But to put a fine point on it, one, the virus already has an official name. Two, ‘Chinese’ suggests relating to China or its language, culture, or people or suggests that they made/invented it when in fact, quite certainly, epidemiologist have concluded that the coronavirus has its origins in bats (CDC, 2020). And three, assuming the place first discovering the virus is going to be used for the naming, China is the location and more specifically Wuhan.

However, ‘China virus’ is a bit broad. Ebola virus, for example, is named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire. Karl Johnson of the CDC and leader of the Ebola research team suggested the be named after the river to ease the emphasis on the village of Yambuku where it originally was discovered (Gholipour, 2014). One might suggest then ‘Wuhan virus’ is more appropriate but there are at least 17 other Wuhan viruses that infect creatures from crickets to mosquitos and are mostly harmless to humans (Gorvett, 2020).

“Chinese virus” is not only politically incompetent, and that has nothing to do with being a ‘snowflake’ (should such a derogatory term be meaningful anyway). “Chinese virus” is simply incorrect and causes unnecessary conflict during a situation where clarity of communication is of upmost importance.

The virus has a name and it is SARS-CoV-2 and the disease is COVID-19. We need not discuss it further.

Accuracy Matters.™ 

Sources:

Gholipour, Bahar (2014, October 9). How Ebola Got Its Name. Retrieved from
https://www.livescience.com/48234-how-ebola-got-its-name.html

World Health Organization (WHO) (2020, February 11). Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Thuburn, Dario (2020, February 12). WHO Has Finally Named The New Coronavirus. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencealert.com/who-has-finally-named-the-deadly-coronavirus

Gorvett, Zaira (2020, February 16). The Tricky Politics of Naming a New Coronavirus. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200214-coronavirus-swine-flu-and-sars-how-viruses-get-their-names

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020, March 17). Situation Summary. Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html

Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It is something many of us take for granted but there are so many who don’t Those who can not see, walk, talk, hear, and some disabilities that are not as easy to identify, live everyday in a world slightly different.

Having worked at Apple for nearly sixteen years now, one thing that still stands out to me about what we do is in support of those who are occasionally forgotten. Apple’s products may sell to the masses with little difficulty but we are also keenly aware that our products are for everyone. Every iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Apple TV, and all have a massively powerful set of accessibility features implemented into them.

While I was a trainer, some of my favorite people to work with were those with disabilities. They had incredibly stories, interesting perspectives, and were some of the most appreciative people—not only of the fact that they could come to Apple and receive training but the world of new opportunities a device like iPhone afforded them.

And from that, on today, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I share one of my favorite films Apple has released to date.

Join me and my team today at Apple Michigan Avenue for a special event exploring the world of sound as lead by Andy Slater. Music Walk: In Search of Audible Magic with Andy Slater.

Adrian’s Life Rule #74: Accessible design is good design.