Search results for: rural communities

Authors: Davina Von Hagt, Genevieve Gibbons, Matt Henderson, Tom Bowles

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Purpose: Food bolus obstructions are common emergency surgical presentations, but there is no established management guideline in a rural setting. Intervention usually involves endoscopic removal after initial medical management has failed. Within a rural setting, this falls upon the general surgeon. There are varied endoscopic techniques that may be used. Methodology: A review of the past fifty cases of food bolus obstruction managed at Albany Health Campus was retrospectively reviewed to assess endoscopic findings and techniques. Operation notes, histopathology, imaging, and patient notes were reviewed. Results: 50 patients underwent gastroscopy for food bolus obstruction from August 2017 to March 2021. Ages ranged from 11 months to 95 years, with the majority of patients aged between 30-70 years. 88% of patients were male. Meat was the most common bolus (20% unspecified, 20% steak, 10% chicken, 6% lamb, 4% sausage, 2% pork). At endoscopy, 12% were found not to have a food bolus obstruction. Two patients were found to have oesophageal cancer, and four patients had a stricture and required dilatation. A variety of methods were used to relieve oesophageal obstruction ranging from pushing through to stomach (24 patients), using an overtube (10 patients), raptor (13 patients), and less common instruments such as Roth net, basket, guidewire, and pronged grasper. One patient had an unsuccessful endoscopic retrieval and required theatre for laparoscopic assisted removal with rendezvous endoscopic piecemeal removal via oesophagus and gastrostomy. Conclusion: Food bolus obstruction is a common emergency presentation. Within the rural setting, management requires innovation and teamwork within the safety of the local experience.

Keywords: food bolus obstruction, regional hospital, surgical management, innovative surgical treatment

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Authors: T. Nalowa, L. Foncha, S. Eposi

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Prostate enlargement, prostate cancer are major global health problems affecting many men as they advance in age. It is highly recommended to encourage older men to get Prostate Specific Antigen test screening frequently. Conventional treatments like radiation, chemotherapy are associated with many side effects. And this situation is a call for concern. Traditional medicine is affordable, easily prepared with little or no side effects and it contains many phytochemicals. The study aims to find the cure for prostate cancer and prostate enlargement by extracting products from plant tissues of specific herbs to determine anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-hematuria properties. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to describe the data process. The commonly used method of preparation was extraction. Overall, 40 patients were classified based on their medical conditions on their underlying user report. Rural communities in Fako are rich sources of plants with medicinal properties. The used plants consequently provide basic information and aid to investigate the cure of prostate cancer and prostate enlargement, with great significance.

Keywords: cancer, enlargement, metastases, prostate

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Authors: Musa M. Umar, S. G. Ado

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The paper examines the activities of the National Programme for food security (NPFS) for averting food insecurity in Nigeria and beyond. The components of the NPFS include site development, outreach, community development and management support. On each site, core activities comprise crop productivity, production diversification and agro-processing. The outreach activities consist of inputs and commodity marketing, rural finance, strengthening research-extension-farmers-inputs linkages, health and nutrition and expansion of site activities. The community development activities include small-scale rural infrastructure, micro-earth dams and community forestry. The overall benefits include food security, improved productivity, marketing and processing, enhanced land and water use, increased animal production and fish catches, improved nutrition, reduction in post-harvest losses and value addition, improved rural infrastructure and diversification of production leading to improved livelihood. The NPFS would poster sustained development of small-holder agricultural and income generation.

Keywords: food-security, community development, post-harvest, production

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Authors: Elin Mordal, Meseret Tsegaye, Hirut Gemeda, Ingeborg Ulvund

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Background: Even the rural-urban gap in the provision of skilled care during childbirth has narrowed, developing countries have the highest percentage of maternal deaths. More important than uncovering deficiencies during pregnancy, is preventing situations of risk during childbirth. The aim of this study was to identify factors women in the rural area consider before they decide where to give birth. Methods: This study utilizes a qualitative descriptive design based on individual interviews with 25 women of childbearing age who has given birth at least once, where women who delivered both at home and a health centre were included. Data collection took place in rural areas around Hawassa Zuriya Worda in Ethiopia February 2015. To identify conditions associated to where women prefer to give birth a thematic analysis was carried out. Result: Experienced risks regarding child birth were the most common reason for women and their families to seek help from skilled birth attendants. Decision-making and planning were identified as a major factor contributing to where women give birth. The women’s position and responsibilities pointed to the fact that women's role is mainly to take care of children and manage the household, while husbands, mother in laws and the elderly are the family members who take most of the decisions. This includes decision about where women give birth. The infrastructure also influences where women choose to give birth. Conclusion: To further improve childbirth care in Hawassa Zuriya Worda it’s important that women get positive experiences, and are met in a safe and supportive way at Health Centers. Challenges appear to women’s autonomy, quality aspects, and infrastructure.

Keywords: childbirth, women, health care utilization, Hawassa Zuriya Worda, Ethiopia, rural area

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Authors: Mahmoud Almasri, Xavier Marjou, Fanny Parzysz

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The demand for services provided by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is increasing pervasively across several sectors including potential public safety, economic, and delivery services. As the number of applications using UAVs grows rapidly, more and more powerful, quality of service, and power efficient computing units are necessary. Recently, cellular technology draws more attention to connectivity that can ensure reliable and flexible communications services for UAVs. In cellular technology, flying with a high speed and altitude is subject to several key challenges, such as frequent handovers (HOs), high interference levels, connectivity coverage holes, etc. Additional HOs may lead to “ping-pong” between the UAVs and the serving cells resulting in a decrease of the quality of service and energy consumption. In order to optimize the number of HOs, we develop in this paper a Q-learning-based algorithm. While existing works focus on adjusting the number of HOs in a static network topology, we take into account the impact of cells deployment for three different simulation scenarios (Rural, Semi-rural and Urban areas). We also consider the impact of the decision distance, where the drone has the choice to make a switching decision on the number of HOs. Our results show that a Q-learning-based algorithm allows to significantly reduce the average number of HOs compared to a baseline case where the drone always selects the cell with the highest received signal. Moreover, we also propose which hyper-parameters have the largest impact on the number of HOs in the three tested environments, i.e. Rural, Semi-rural, or Urban.

Keywords: drones connectivity, reinforcement learning, handovers optimization, decision distance

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Authors: S. Asplund, J. Åhlin, S. Åström, B. M. Lindgren

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The aim of this qualitative study was to describe experiences of work-related stress among highly stressed municipal employees in rural northern Sweden. We interviewed 15 employees in the municipal sector in rural northern Sweden using a semi-structured guide and subjected the interviews to qualitative content analysis. Under the main theme of Suffering Though Endless Chaos, we summarized four themes: facing incompatible interests and high demands due to lack of time and resources; feeling powerless, trapped, and ignored due to lack of control; feeling insufficient, insecure, and guilty due to challenging relations and high expectations; and struggling with consequences such as health problems, spillover effects on family life, and difficulty coping. Findings from this study suggest the importance of acknowledging suffering among municipal employees in a stressful work environment. An imbalance between job demands and resources is affecting both the health and family lives of employees and also their ability to work. It seems important to improve the work environment through supportive leadership, job control, and reasonable job demands to prevent stress, reduce suffering, and create a healthy organization.

Keywords: manager, municipal sector, occupational health, qualitative content analysis

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Authors: Emily J. Winnall

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It is understood that China has the largest population of people living with dementia in the world; however, little is known about this culturally diverse community, specifically the Chinese Communities, which has been poorly represented in past British research Literature. Further research is needed to gain a greater understanding of the support needs of caregivers caring for a relative living with dementia from the Chinese background. Dementia care and caregivers in Chinese communities are less investigated. The study is a case study of two Chinese community centers and one housing support service. Semi-structured one-to-one interviews and a pilot questionnaire were used as the methods for the study. A toolkit will also be created as a document that provides guidance and signposting to health and social care services for Chinese communities. The findings identified three main themes. Caregivers do not receive any formal support from the UK health and social services, and they felt they would have benefited from getting advice on what support they could access. Furthermore, the data also identified that Chinese organisations do not have the knowledge of dementia, to be able to support those living with dementia and their families. Also, people living with dementia and their families rarely present to Chinese organisations and UK health and social care services, meaning they are not receiving the support they are entitled to or need. Additionally, the community center would like to see workshops/courses around dementia for people from Chinese backgrounds. The study concludes that people from Chinese cultural backgrounds do not have sufficient access to support from UK health and social care services. More information needs to be published that will benefit Chinese communities.

Keywords: Chinese, Chinese organisations, Dementia, family caregivers, social care

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Authors: Herbert Ntuli, Edwin Muchapondwa

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This study used a sample of 336 households and community level data from 30 communities around the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe to analyse the association between ability to self-organize or cooperation and institutions on one hand and the relationship between success of biodiversity outcomes and cooperation on the other hand. Using both the ordinary least squares and instrumental variables estimation with heteroskedasticity-based instruments, our results confirmed that sound institutions are indeed an important ingredient for cooperation in the respective communities and cooperation positively and significantly affects biodiversity outcomes. Group size, community level trust, the number of stakeholders and punishment were found to be important variables explaining cooperation. From a policy perspective, our results show that external enforcement of rules and regulations does not necessarily translate into sound ecological outcomes but better outcomes are attainable when punishment is rather endogenized by local communities. This seems to suggest that communities should rather be supported in such a way that robust institutions that are tailor made to suit the needs of local condition will emerge that will in turn facilitate good environmental husbandry. Cooperation, training, benefits, distance from the nearest urban canter, distance from the fence, social capital average age of household head, fence and information sharing were found to be very important variables explaining the success of biodiversity outcomes ceteris paribus. Government programmes should target capacity building in terms of institutional capacity and skills development in order to have a positive impact on biodiversity. Hence, the role of stakeholders (e.g., NGOs) in capacity building and government effort should complement each other to ensure that the necessary resources are mobilized and all communities receive the necessary training and resources.

Keywords: institutions, self-organize, common pool resources, wildlife, conservation, Zimbabwe

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Authors: Ajibade T., Omotesho O. A., Ayinde O. E, Ajibade E. T., Muhammad-Lawal A.

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This study was carried out to examine the extent and magnitude of food security amongst farming rural households in Nigeria. Data used for this study was collected from a total of two hundred and forty rural farming households using a two-stage random sampling technique. The main tools of analysis for this study include descriptive statistics and a constructed food security index using the identification and aggregation procedure. The headcount ratio in this study reveals that 71% of individuals in the study area were food secure with an average per capita calorie and protein availability of 4,213.92kcal and 99.98g respectively. The aggregated household daily calorie availability and daily protein availability per capita were 3,634.57kcal and 84.08g respectively which happens to be above the food security line of 2,470kcal and 65g used in this study. The food insecure households fell short of the minimum daily per capita calorie and protein requirement by 2.1% and 24.9%. The study revealed that the area is food insecure due to unequal distribution of the available food amongst the sampled population. The study recommends that the households should empower themselves financially in order to enhance their ability to afford the food during both on and off seasons. Also, processing and storage of farm produce should be enhanced in order to improve on availability throughout the year.

Keywords: farming household, food security, identification and aggregation, food security index

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Authors: Sipu Guo, Silin Huang

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Background: Most studies investigate the link between executive function and allostatic load (AL) among adults aged 18 years and older. Studies differed regarding the specific biological indicators studied and executive functions accounted for. Specific executive functions may be differentially related to allostatic load. We investigated the comorbidities of executive functions and allostatic load via network analysis. Methods: We included 603 adolescents (49.84% girls; Mean age = 12.38, SD age = 1.79) from junior high school in rural China. Eight biological markers at T1 and four executive function tasks at T2 were used to evaluate networks. Network analysis was used to determine the network structure, core symptoms, and bridge symptoms in the AL-executive function network among rural adolescents. Results: The executive functions were related to 6 AL biological markers, not to cortisol and epinephrine. The most influential symptoms were inhibition control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and systolic blood pressure (SBP). SBP, dehydroepiandrosterone, and processing speed were the bridges through which AL was related to executive functions. dehydroepiandrosterone strongly predicted processing speed. The SBP was the biggest influencer in the entire network. Conclusions: We found evidence for differential relations between markers and executive functions. SBP was a driver in the network; dehydroepiandrosterone showed strong relations with executive function.

Keywords: allostatic load, executive function, network analysis, rural adolescent

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Authors: Eric Berry White

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The paper examines the causality between solid waste pollution and lockdown. Particularly in 2020, the world experiences the takeover of the Corona virus pandemic, and most countries decided to adopt lockdown measure as the best solution to curtail the spread of the virus. On March 20, 2020, the Government of Liberia implemented a curfew that starts from 3:00PM to 6:00AM. This means that no unauthorized person is allowed to be in the streets during this time. In most developing countries, the issue of public waste and environmental hazard pollution tend to have a high effect among the slum communities where there are markets. This research covers 6 slums communities around the two biggest market hubs within Monrovia, and the result shows that the lockdown measure significantly reduced public waste pollution by reducing the movement of marketers in slum communities , where limited educational and sensitization for young people is reflected on their job market exclusion, jobless circle, and youth workforce concentration in informal work market. The study discovered that with public awareness and sensitization with females, solid waste could be reduced by 13 percentage point. But there is no evidence that awareness among male conduce pollution. within affected communities, Despite the impact of the lockdown on food consumption, these results emphasized that with the right monitoring of waste and aware, pollution could be reduce. By understanding these results and implementing the best policy, the paper recommends that dump sites be close at certain hours.

Keywords: lockdown, environmental, pollution, waste

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Authors: Behnaz Moradijamei, Michael Higgins

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Identifying community structure is a critical task in analyzing social media data sets often modeled by networks. Statistical models such as the stochastic block model have proven to explain the structure of communities in real-world network data. In this work, we develop a goodness-of-fit test to examine community structure's existence by using a distinguishing property in networks: cyclic structures are more prevalent within communities than across them. To better understand how communities are shaped by the cyclic structure of the network rather than just the number of edges, we introduce a novel method for deciding on the existence of communities. We utilize these structures by using renewal non-backtracking random walk (RNBRW) to the existing goodness-of-fit test. RNBRW is an important variant of random walk in which the walk is prohibited from returning back to a node in exactly two steps and terminates and restarts once it completes a cycle. We investigate the use of RNBRW to improve the performance of existing goodness-of-fit tests for community detection algorithms based on the spectral properties of the adjacency matrix. Our proposed test on community structure is based on the probability distribution of eigenvalues of the normalized retracing probability matrix derived by RNBRW. We attempt to make the best use of asymptotic results on such a distribution when there is no community structure, i.e., asymptotic distribution under the null hypothesis. Moreover, we provide a theoretical foundation for our statistic by obtaining the true mean and a tight lower bound for RNBRW edge weights variance.

Keywords: hypothesis testing, RNBRW, network inference, community structure

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Authors: Pariya Sheykhmaleki, Debajyoti Pati

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Rural areas in the United States face numerous challenges in providing quality and assessable primary healthcare services, especially during emergencies such as natural disasters or pandemics. This study showcases a cutting-edge flexible module that aims to overcome these challenges by offering adaptable healthcare facilities capable of providing comprehensive health services in remote and disaster-prone regions. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), approximately 62 million Americans, or 1 in 5 individuals, live in areas designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for primary care. These areas are characterized by limited access to healthcare facilities, shortage of healthcare professionals, transportation barriers, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, higher rates of chronic diseases, mental health disparities, and limited availability of specialized care, including urgent circumstances like pandemics that can exacerbate this issue. To address these challenges, the literature study began by examining primary health solutions in very remote areas, e.g., spaceships, to identify the state-of-the-art technologies and the methods used to facilitate primary care needs. The literature study on flexibility in architecture and interior design was also adapted to develop a conceptual design for rural areas. The designed flexible module provides an innovative solution. This module can be prefabricated as all parts are standardized. The flexibility of the module allows the structure to be modified based on local and geographical requirements as well as the ability to expand as required. It has been designed to stand either by itself or work in tandem with public buildings. By utilizing sustainable approaches and flexible spatial configurations, the module optimizes the utilization of limited resources while ensuring efficient and effective healthcare delivery. Furthermore, the poster highlights the key features of this flexible module, including its ability to support telemedicine and telehealth services for all five levels of urgent care conditions, i.e., from facilitating fast tracks to supporting emergency room services, in two divided zones. The module's versatility enables its deployment in rural areas located far from urban centers and disaster-stricken regions, ensuring access to critical healthcare services in times of need. This module is also capable of responding in urban areas when the need for primary health becomes vastly urgent, e.g., during a pandemic. It emphasizes the module's potential to bridge the healthcare gap between rural and urban areas and mitigate the impact of rural health challenges.

Keywords: rural health, healthcare challenges, flexible modular design, telemedicine, telehealth

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Authors: Kopal Verma, Umesh C. Kulshrestha

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India is a rural major country and majority of rural population is dependent on burning of biomass as fuel for domestic cooking on traditional stoves (Chullahs) and heating purposes. This results into indoor air pollution and ultimately affects health of the residents. Still, a very small fraction of rural population has been benefitted by the facilities of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders. Different regions of country follow different methods and use different type of biomass for cooking. So in order to study the differences in cooking practices and resulting indoor air pollution, this study was carried out in two rural areas of India viz. Budhwada, Madhya Pradesh and Baggi, Himachal Pradesh. Both the regions have significant differences in terms of topography, culture and daily practices. Budhwada lies in plain area and Baggi belongs to hilly terrain. The study of carbonaceous aerosols was carried out in four different houses of each village. The residents were asked to bring slight change in their practices by cooking only with biomass (BB) then with a mix of biomass and LPG (BL) and then finally only with LPG (LP). It was found that in BB, average values of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were 28% and 44% lower in Budhwada than in Baggi whereas a reverse trend was found where OC and EC was respectively more by 56% and 26% with BL and by 54% and 29% with LP in Budhwada than in Baggi. Although, a significant reduction was found both in Budhwada (OC by 49% and EC by 34%) as well as in Baggi (OC by 84% and EC by 73%) when cooking was shifted from BB to LP. The OC/EC ratio was much higher for Budhwada (BB=9.9; BL=2.5; LP=6.1) than for Baggi (BB=1.7; BL=1.6; LP=1.3). The correlation in OC and EC was found to be excellent in Baggi (r²=0.93) and relatively poor in Budhwada (r²=0.65). A questionnaire filled by the residents suggested that they agree to the health benefits of using LPG over biomass burning but the challenges of supply of LPG and changing the prevailing tradition of cooking on Chullah are making it difficult for them to make this shift.

Keywords: biomass burning, elemental carbon, liquefied petroluem gas, organic carbon

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Authors: Bohsiu Wu

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Among serious crimes, child homicide is a rather rare event. However, the killing of children stirs up a special type of emotion in society that pales other criminal acts. This study examines the relevancy of three possible community-level explanations for child homicide: social deprivation, female empowerment, and social isolation. The social deprivation hypothesis posits that child homicide results from lack of resources in communities. The female empowerment hypothesis argues that a higher female status translates into a higher level of capability to prevent child homicide. Finally, the social isolation hypothesis regards child homicide as a result of lack of social connectivity. Child homicide data, aggregated by US postal ZIP codes in California from 1990 to 1999, were analyzed with a negative binomial regression. The results of the negative binomial analysis demonstrate that social deprivation is the most salient and consistent predictor among all other factors in explaining child homicide victimization at the ZIP-code level. Both social isolation and female labor force participation are weak predictors of child homicide victimization across communities. Further, results from the negative binomial regression show that it is the communities with a higher, not lower, degree of female labor force participation that are associated with a higher count of child homicide. It is possible that poor communities with a higher level of female employment have a lesser capacity to provide the necessary care and protection for the children. Policies aiming at reducing social deprivation and strengthening female empowerment possess the potential to reduce child homicide in the community.

Keywords: child homicide, deprivation, empowerment, isolation

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Authors: Edward A. Osifodunrin, Jose Manuel Dias Lopes

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In Nigeria, enormous efforts/resources had, over the years, been expended on promoting financial inclusion (FI); however, it is seemingly discouraging that many of its self-declared targets on FI remained unachieved, especially amongst the Rural Dwellers and Actors in the Informal Sectors (RDAIS). Expectedly, many reasons had been earmarked for these failures: low literacy level, huge informal/rural sectors, etc. This study posits that in spite of these truly-debilitating factors, these FI policy failures could have been avoided or mitigated if the principles of active and better-managed citizens’ participation had been strictly followed in the (re)design/implementation of its FI policies. In other words, in a bid to mitigate the prevalent FE in Nigeria, this study hypothesizes the positive impact of increased/active citizens’ participation on FI outcome(s), backed by a preliminary empirical validation. Also, the study introduces the RDAIS-focused participatory financial inclusion policy (PFIP) as a major FI policy regeneration/improvement tool. The three categories of respondents that served as research subjects are FI experts in Nigeria (n = 72), RDAIS from the very rural/remote village of Unguwar Dogo in Northern Nigeria (n = 43), and RDAIS from another rural village of Sekere (n = 56) in the Southern region of Nigeria. Using survey design (5-point Likert scale questionnaires), random/stratified sampling, and descriptive/inferential statistics, the study often recorded independent consensus (amongst these three categories of respondents) that RDAIS’s active participation in iterative FI policy initiation, (re)design, implementation, (re)evaluation could indeed give improved FI outcomes. However, some questionnaire items also recorded divergent opinions and various statistically significant differences in the mean scores of these three categories. The PFIP (or any customized version of it) should then be carefully integrated into the NFIS of Nigeria (and possibly in the NFIS of other developing countries) to truly/fully provide FI policy integration for these excluded RDAIS and arrest the prevalence of FE.

Keywords: citizens’ participation, development, financial inclusion, formal financial services, national financial inclusion strategy, participatory financial inclusion policy, rural dwellers and actors in the informal sectors

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Authors: Irsanti Hasyim, Christian Wibisono, Angela Teressia

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Social enterprises, as one of the way of doing business are on the rise and emerging from the innovations of decades of social initiatives. In simple way, social enterprises use the business platform to achieve social and/or environmental objectives whilst simultaneously seeking a financial return. In Indonesia, the number of social enterprises rapidly grows and most of them were using social media as their business platform. Social Media are perceived as tools for creating online communities of users who share interests, activities, and objectives. Many companies view the use of online communities in social media as a profitable marketing tool from which they can derive several benefits. Through social media, consumers share experiences with and suggest ideas to others while developing new relationships within their communities. Therefore, this study intends to identify the benefits that participants in online communities seek and examine the relationships between members’ levels of participation, brand trust, and brand commitment. Using convenience sampling method, 236 fully answered questioner was collected and used as a sample of this research. The sample of this research consisted of member or follower in several social media from selected social enterprise in Indonesia. Data collected in this research were process by using Partial Least Square and came up with the result that functional benefit and monetary benefit, are only two from five benefits that proposed were the only variable that has significant result even though from APC, ARS and AARS outcomes show that the model can be claimed to be significant.

Keywords: brand trust, brand commitment, social enterprise, social media

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Authors: Pawas Suren

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The conflict between livelihood and forest protection has been a perpetual phenomenon in India. In the era of climate change, the problem is expected to aggravate the declining trend of dense forest in the country, creating impediments in the climate change adaptation by the forest dependent communities. In order to access the complexity of the problem, Hazarinagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand were selected as a case study. To identify norms practiced by the communities to manage community forestry, the ethnographic study was designed to understand the values, traditions, and cultures of forest dependent communities, most of whom were tribal. It was observed that internalization of efficient forest norms is reflected in the pride and honor of such behavior while violators are sanctioned through guilt and shame. The study analyzes the effect of norms being practiced in the management and ecology of community forestry as common property resource. The light of the findings led towards the gaps in the prevalent forest laws to address efficient allocation of property rights. The conclusion embarks on reconsidering accepted factors of forest degradation in India.

Keywords: climate change, common property resource, community forestry, norms

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Authors: Thozama Kwinana-Mandindi

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The contribution made by wild edible plants to the livelihoods, food baskets and diets of the indigenous people, particularly among the rural dwellers is invaluable. These wild vegetables are among the non-conventional crops which are widely distributed throughout the wild regions in South Africa, indigenous communities have always exploited for micro-nutrient supply. They also supply significant complex, recently discovered compounds, naturally occurring phytonutrients. In order to protect and promote sustainable use of these plants for household food security, there is a need to better understand them through studies and innovations. Assessment of the wild edible plants’ safety is very key to the promotion as an agricultural product which can be utilised during dry seasons and periods of food scarcity to alleviate nutrient insecurity. Through the use of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), the study is seen as the vital step in taking a holistic view of the value of the four most consumed wild vegetables in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa as they were analysed for safety and appraised for components that can influence utilisation. Results indicate that they can be relied upon and cultivation be promoted.

Keywords: nature’s resource, wild vegetables, appraisal for safety, SEM

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Authors: Muhammad Farhan Saeed, Waheed Aslam Khan, Muhammad Nadeem, Iftikhar Ahmad, Zakir Ali

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Milk is an important and fundamental nutrition source of human diet. In Pakistan, the milk used by the consumer is of low quality and is often contaminated due to the lack of quality controls. Mycotoxins produced from molds which contaminate the agriculture commodities of animal feed. Mycotoxins are poisons which affect the animals when they consume contaminated feeds. Aflatoxin AFM1 is naturally occurring form of mycotoxins in milk which is carcinogenic. To assess public awareness regarding milk Aflatoxin contamination, a population-based survey using a questionnaire was carried out from general public and from farmers of both rural and urban areas. It was revealed from the data that people of rural area were more satisfied about quality of available milk but the awareness level about milk contamination was found lower in both areas. Total 297 samples of milk were collected from rural (n=156) and urban (n=141) areas of district Vehari during June-July 2015. Milk samples were collected from three different point sources; farmer, milkman and milkshop. These point sources had three types of dairy milk including cow milk, buffalo milk and mixed milk. After performing ELISA test 18 samples with positive ELISA results were maintain per source for further analysis for aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Higher percentages of samples were found exceeding the permissible limit for urban area. In rural area about 15% samples and from urban area about 35% samples were exceeded the permissible limit of AFM1 with 0.05µg/kg set by European Union. From urban areas about 55% of buffalo, 33% of cows and 17% of mixed milk samples were exceeded the permissible AFM1 level as compared with 17%, 11% and 17% for milk samples from rural areas respectively. Samples from urban areas 33%, 44% and 28% were exceeded the permissible AFM1 level for farmer, milkman and of milk shop respectively as compared with 28% and 17% of farmer and milkman’s samples from rural areas respectively. The presence of AFM1 in milk samples demands the implementation of strict regulations and also urges the need for continuous monitoring of milk and milk products in order to minimize the health hazards. Regulations regarding aflatoxins contamination and adulteration should be strictly imposed to prevent health problems related to milk quality. Permissible limits for aflatoxin should be enforced strongly in Pakistan so that economic loss due to aflatoxin contamination can be reduced.

Keywords: Vehari, aflatoxins AFM1, milk, HPLC

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Authors: E. Neidhardt

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Mobility is not only an aspect of personal freedom, but for many people mobility is also a requirement to be able to satisfy the needs of daily life. They must buy food, get to work, or go to the doctor. Many people are dependent on public transport to satisfy their needs. Especially in rural areas with a low population density this is difficult. In these areas it is often not cost-effective to provide public transport with sufficient coverage and frequency. Therefore, the available public transport is unattractive. As a result, people use their own car, which is not desirable from a sustainable point of view. Children and some elderly people also do not have this option. Sometimes people organize themselves and volunteer transport services are created, which function similarly to the demand-oriented taxis. With a platform for demand-oriented transport, we want to make the available public transport more usable and attractive by linking scheduled transport with voluntary transport services.

Keywords: demand-oriented, HubChain, living lab, public transport

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Authors: Rendani Mercy Makhwathana

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This paper intends to explore the experiences and views of Foundation Phase teachers when teaching English First Additional Language in rural public schools. Teachers all over the world are pillars of any education system. Consequently, any education transformation should start with teachers as critical role players in the education system. As a result, teachers’ experiences and views are worth consideration, for they impact on learners learning and the wellbeing of education in general. An exploratory qualitative approach with the use of phenomenological research design was used in this paper. The population for this paper comprised all Foundation Phase teachers in the district. Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 15 Foundation Phase teachers from five rural-based schools. Data was collected through classroom observation and individual face-to-face interviews. Data were categorised, analysed and interpreted. The findings revealed that from time-to-time teachers experiences one or more challenging situations, learners’ low participation in the classroom to lack of resources. This paper recommends that teachers should be provided with relevant resources and support to effectively teach English First Additional Language.

Keywords: the education system, first additional language, foundation phase, intermediate phase, language of learning and teaching, medium of instruction, teacher professional development

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Authors: Belaynesh Tefera, Ahmed Mohammed, Zelalem Bayisa

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This study focuses on the issue of underage internal migration from rural to urban areas in Ethiopia, specifically in the context of child labor. It addresses the significant disparities in living standards between rural and urban areas, which motivate individuals from rural areas to migrate to urban areas in search of better economic opportunities. The study was conducted in Addis Ababa, where there is a high prevalence of underage internal migrants engaged in child labor due to extreme poverty in rural parts of the country. The aim of this study is to explore the life experiences of shoe-makers who have migrated from rural areas of Ethiopia to Addis Ababa. The focus is on understanding the factors that push these underage individuals to migrate, the challenges they face, and the implications for child labor. This study adopts a qualitative approach, using semistructured face-to-face interviews with underage migrants. A total of 27 interviews were conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, until the point of data saturation. The criteria for selecting interviewees include working as shoemakers and migrating to Addis Ababa underage, below 16 years old. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed into Amharic, and then translated into English for analysis. The study reveals that the major push factors for underage internal migration are socioeconomic and environmental factors. Despite improvements in living standards for underage migrants and their families, there is a high prevalence of child labor and lack of access to education among them. Most interviewees migrated without the accompaniment of their family members and faced various challenges, including sleeping on the streets. This study highlights the role of social marketing in addressing the issues of underage internal migration and child labor. It suggests that social marketing can be an effective strategy to protect children from abuse, loneliness, and harassment during their migration process. The data collection involved conducting in-depth interviews with the underage migrants. The interviews were transcribed and translated for analysis. The analysis focused on identifying common themes and patterns within the interview data. The study addresses the factors contributing to underage internal migration, the challenges faced by underage migrants, the prevalence of child labor, and the potential role of social marketing in addressing these issues. The study concludes that although Ethiopia has policies against child internal migration, it is difficult to protect underage laborers who migrate from rural to urban areas due to the voluntary nature of their migration. The study suggests that social marketing can serve as a solution to protect children from abuse and other challenges faced during migration.

Keywords: underage, internal migration, social marketing, child labor, Ethiopia

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Authors: Ana Carolina Hecht, Noelia Enriz, Mariana Garcia Palacios

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The South American anthropology has been recently focused to research with children in different contexts. In our researches with children from indigenous communities in the lowlands and highlands of South America (Qom and Mbyá), we especially considered social categories that define the different ways of being a boy and a girl. In this way, we built an approach to disrupt monolithic models of childhood. The aim of this paper is to tackle the first stage of life, demarcated from their nominal references and from the upbringing and formative experiences in which children participate. So, we will focus on the network of social relations in the period of childhood, making especial focus on language develops, religion, schooling and games. The crossing of our different thematic interests allows us to consider the complexity of knowledge and skills that come into play during the development of children. Methodologically, this text is based on an ethnographic approach, with frequent visits and periods of cohabitation, for more than a decade with Mbyá and Qom people, who lives within indigenous communities in the provinces of Chaco, Buenos Aires and Misiones, in Argentina. We made participant observation and interviews with children and their families, with the objective to include children's voices in our researches about the whole community.

Keywords: chidhood, indigenous people, schooling, upbringing

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Authors: Jocelyn Jones

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The objective of this literature review is to provide an assessment of the current literature concerning gender-based violence (GBV) within indigenous communities in Argentina and Costa Rica, and various public intervention strategies that have been implemented to counter the increasing rates of violence within these populations. The review will address some of the unique challenges and contextual factors influencing the prevalence and response to such violence, including the enduring impact of colonialism on familial structures, community dynamics, and the perpetuation of violence. Drawing on indigenous feminist perspectives, the paper critically assesses the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status in shaping the experiences of indigenous women, men, and gender-diverse individuals. In comparing the two nations, the literature review identifies commonalities and divergences in policy frameworks, legal responses, and grassroots initiatives aimed at addressing GBV. Regarding the assessment of the efficacy of existing interventions, the paper will consider the role of cultural revitalization, community engagement, and collaborative efforts between indigenous communities and external agencies in the development of future policies. Moreover, the review will highlight the importance of decolonizing methodologies in research and intervention strategies, and the need to emphasise culturally sensitive approaches that respect and integrate indigenous worldviews and traditional knowledge systems. Additionally, the paper will explore the potential impact of colonial legacies, resource extraction, and land dispossession on exacerbating vulnerabilities to GBV within indigenous communities. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a more in-depth understanding of GBV in indigenous contexts in order to promote cross-cultural learning and inform future research. Ultimately, this review will demonstrate the necessity of adopting a holistic and context-specific approach to address gender-based violence in indigenous communities.

Keywords: gender based violence, indigenous, colonialism, literature review

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Authors: Sudha Arlikatti, Laura Siebeneck, Simon A. Andrew

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The objective of this research is to measure organizational resiliency through five attributes namely, rapidity, redundancy, resourcefulness, and robustness and to provide recommendations for resiliency building in flood risk communities. The research was conducted in Thailand following the severe floods of 2011 triggered by Tropical Storm Nock-ten. The floods lasted over eight months starting in June 2011 affecting 65 of the country’s 76 provinces and over 12 million people. Funding from a US National Science Foundation grant was used to collect ephemeral data in rural (Ayutthaya), suburban (Pathum Thani), and urban (Bangkok) provinces of Thailand. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted in Thai with 44 contacts from public, private, and non-profit organizations including universities, schools, automobile companies, vendors, tourist agencies, monks from temples, faith based organizations, and government agencies. Multiple triangulations were used to analyze the data by identifying selective themes from the qualitative data, validated with quantitative data and news media reports. This helped to obtain a more comprehensive view of how organizations in different geographic settings varied in their understanding of what enhanced or hindered their resilience and consequently their speed and capacities to respond. The findings suggest that the urban province of Bangkok scored highest in resourcefulness, rapidity of response, robustness, and ability to rebound. This is not surprising considering that it is the country’s capital and the seat of government, economic, military and tourism sectors. However, contrary to expectations all 44 respondents noted that the rural province of Ayutthaya was the fastest to recover amongst the three. Its organizations scored high on redundancy and rapidity of response due to the strength of social networks, a flood disaster sub-culture due to annual flooding, and the help provided by monks from and faith based organizations. Organizations in the suburban community of Pathum Thani scored lowest on rapidity of response and resourcefulness due to limited and ambiguous warnings, lack of prior flood experience and controversies that government flood protection works like sandbagging favored the capital city of Bangkok over them. Such a micro-level examination of organizational resilience in rural, suburban and urban areas in a country through mixed methods studies has its merits in getting a nuanced understanding of the importance of disaster subcultures and religious norms for resilience. This can help refocus attention on the strengths of social networks and social capital, for flood mitigation.

Keywords: disaster subculture, flood response, organizational resilience, Thailand floods, religious beliefs and response, social capital and disasters

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Authors: Alexander Suuk Laar, Emmanuel Bekyieriya, Sylvester Isang, Benjamin Baguune

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Introduction: In Ghana, despite the implementation of strategies and initiatives to ensure universal access to reproductive health and family planning (FP) services for the past two decades, interventions have not adequately addressed the access and utilization needs of women of reproductive age, especially in rural Ghana. To improve access and use of reproductive and maternal health services in Ghana, a free maternal care exemption policy under the universal health coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme was implemented in 2005. Despite the importance of FP, this service was left out of the benefit package of the policy. Low or no use of FP services is often associated with poor health among women. However, to date, there has been limited research on perspectives of women for not making FP services as part of the benefit package of the free maternal health services. This qualitative study explored perceptions of women on the comprehensiveness of the free maternal health benefit package and the effects on utilisation of services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana to improve services. Methods: This exploratory qualitative study used focus group discussions with pregnant and lactating women in three rural districts in the Upper West region of Ghana. Six focus groups were held with both pregnant women and lactating mothers at the time of the interview. Three focus group discussions were organised with the same category of women in each district. We used a purposive sampling procedure to select the participants from the districts. The interviews with the written consent of the participants lasted between 60 minutes and 120 minutes. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke thematic framework guidelines. Results: This research presents an in-depth account of women's perceptions on the effects associated with the uptake of FP services and its exclusion from the benefit package of the free maternal health policy. Our study found that participants did not support the exclusion of FP services in the benefit package. Participants mentioned factors hampering their access to and use of FP and contraceptive services to include the cost of services, distance and cost of transport to health facilities, lack of knowledge about FP services, socio-cultural norms and negative attitude of healthcare professionals. Participants are of the view that making FP services part of the benefit package could have addressed the cost aspect of services which act as the main barrier to improve the use of services by poor rural women. Conclusion: Women of reproductive age face cost barriers that limit their access to and use of FP and contraception services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana and need health policymakers to revise the free maternal health package to include FP services. It is essential for policymakers to begin considering revising the free maternal health policy benefit package to include FP services to help address the cost barrier for rural poor women to use services.

Keywords: benefit package, free maternal policy, women, Ghana, rural Upper West Region, Universal Health Coverage.

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Authors: Subhra Chattopadhyay

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New Towns are usually built up at city-periphery with an eye to accommodate overspill population and functions of the city. ‘New towns are self-sufficient planned towns having a full range of urban economic and social activities, so it can provide employments for all of its inhabitants as well as a balanced self-content social community could be maintained’. In 3rd world countries New towns often emerge from scratch i.e on the area having no urban background and therefore, it needs a massive land conversion from rural to urban. This paper aims to study the implication of such land title transfer into rural sustainability with a case study at Jatragachi, New Town Kolkata. Broad objectives of this study are to understand 1. new changes in this area like i)changes in land use, ii) demographic changes, iii) occupational changes of the local people and 2.their view about new town planning. Major observations are stated below. The studied area was completely rural till recent years and is now at the heart of New Town Kolkata. Though this area is now under the jurisdiction of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), it is still administrated by rural self-government.It creates administrative confusion and misuse of public capital. It is observed in this study that cultivation was the mainstay of livelihood for the majority of residents till recent past. There was a dramatic rise in irrigated area in the decade of 90’s pointing out agricultural prosperity.The area achieved the highest productivity of rice in the District. Percentage of marginal workers dropped significantly.In addition to it, ascending women’s literacy rate as found in this rural Mouza obviously indicates a constant social progress .Through land conversion, this flourishing agricultural land has been transformed into urban area with highly sophisticated uses. Such development may satisfy educated urban elite but the dwellers of the area suffer a lot. They bear the cost of new town planning through loss of their assured food and income as well as their place identity. The number of marginal workers increases abruptly. The growth of female literacy drops down. The area loses its functional linkages with its surroundings and fails to prove its actual growth potentiality. The physical linkages( like past roads and irrigation infrastructure) which had developed through time to support the economy become defunct. The ecological services which were provided by the agricultural field are denied. The historicity of this original site is demolished. Losses of the inhabitants of the area who have been evicted are also immense and cannot be materially compensated. Therefore, the ethos of such new town planning in stake of rural sustainability is under question. Need for an integrated approach for rural and urban development planning is felt in this study.

Keywords: new town, sustainable development, growth potentiality, land transfer

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Authors: Kimberley Rain Miner, Karl Kreutz, Larry LeBlanc

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During the period of 1950-1970 persistent organic pollutants such as DDT, dioxin and PCB were released in the atmosphere and distributed through precipitation into glaciers throughout the world. Recent abrupt climate change is increasing the melt rate of these glaciers, introducing the toxins to the watershed. Studies have shown the existence of legacy pollutants in glacial ice, but neither the impact nor quantity of these toxins on downstream populations has been assessed. If these pollutants are released at toxic levels it will be necessary to create a mitigation plan to lower their impact on the affected communities.

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, risk management

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Authors: Clara Voyvodic

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Transitions from conflict to peace are by no means smooth nor linear, particularly from the perspective of those living through them. Over the last few decades, the changing focus in peacebuilding studies has come to appreciate the everyday experience of communities and how that provides a lens through which the relative success or efficacy of these transitions can be understood. In particular, the demobilization of a significant conflict actor is not without consequences, not just for the macro-view of state stabilization and peace, but for the communities who find themselves without a clear authority of territorial control. In Colombia, the demobilization and disarmament of the FARC guerilla group provided a brief respite to the conflict and a major political win for President Manuel Santos. However, this victory has proven short-lived. Drawing from extensive field research in Colombia within the last year, including interviews with local communities and actors operating in these regions, field observations, and other primary resources, this paper examines the post-accord transitions in Colombia and the everyday security experiences of local communities in regions formerly controlled by the FARC. In order to do so, the research focused on a semi-ethnographic approach in the northern region of the department of Antioquia and the coastal area of the border department of Nariño that documented how individuals within these marginalized communities have come to understand and negotiate their security in the years following the accord and the demobilization of the FARC. This presentation will argue that the removal of the FARC as an informal governance actor opened a space for multiple actors to attempt to control the same territory, including the state. This shift has had a clear impact on the everyday security experiences of the local communities. With an exploration of the dynamics of local governance and its impact on lived security experiences, this research seeks to demonstrate how distinct patterns of armed group behavior are emerging not only from a vacuum of control left by the FARC but from an increase in state presence that nonetheless remains inconsistent and unpersuasive as a monopoly of force in the region. The increased multiplicity of actors, particularly the state, has meant that the normal (informal) rules for communities to navigate these territories are no longer in play as the identities, actions, and intentions of different competing groups have become frustratingly opaque. This research provides a prescient analysis on how the shifting dynamics of territorial control in a post-peace accord landscape produce uncertain realities that affect the daily lives of the local communities and endanger the long-term prospect of human-centered security.

Keywords: armed actors, conflict transitions, informal governance, post-accord, security experiences

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