Having a disability is never a choice, but sadly it is a trait which can prematurely determine the success of the individual. This is visible in North America, with the subminimum wage legally given to individuals with downs syndrome (National Down Syndrome Society). In other cases, we see the recent integration of sign language training for health care professionals to accurately assist patients with hearing loss (Eldridge v. British Columbia, 1997). All of this being understood, we must strive to acknowledge how disability discrimination can be amplified in countries like India.

Poverty is kind of like an overruling theme in India, with roughly 300 million people living below the poverty line, it definitely finds its ways to seep through every single infrastructure in the country, damaging and hindering progress of the entire population. This is evident when we look at education rates, which are directly indicative to employment opportunities later on. India has made attempts to improve inclusivity for disabled children in the past, passing the Integrated Education of Disabled Children (IEDC) act in 1975, which worked towards integrating those with mild to moderate disabilities into regular classes with financial aid (Sharma, 2005). However, this initial attempt like the many which followed were unsuccessful, as the UN reported that 75% of children with disabilities have never attended school a day in their lives in 2019 (UNESCO Office New Delhi).

To help combat this, Dr. Bickert went to one of the only 388 hearing impaired schools in India. This is where he met a Jyoti, who at the time was in the eleventh grade, she is almost completely deaf. At the school, Dr. Bickert stood in front of every student, and asked “what do you want to do when you grow up?” with a mixture of recently learnt sign language, and some help from the teachers. Notably, only Jyoti replied, “a tailor” she said, a trade which India is famously known for with an array of designs and patterns being visibly splattered across the streets of every large city in the country. The industry is vast and has a lot of room for more to begin working in it. However, with the added of difficulty of communicating with someone who has an hearing impairment combined with the fact that many women who are buying the clothing are often not educated enough to read, many are unwilling to put up with the extra inconvenience to provide them with any real business.

Looking back, it is understandable that the other kids didn’t have an answer for many reasons which had been drilled into their minds from a young age. All children have a dream, but sadly these were minimized with reoccurring comments made to them from those who surround them on a daily basis. In an impoverished area, such as the one the school was in, in Lucknow, it can be devastating to the family if the child is born with a disability, turning them into more if a liability instead of a source of hope. While parents always want best for their child, it can be incredibly difficult to assist your own son or daughter that needs special attention to reach their goals when you can barely afford to put food on the table.  Those who wanted to become astronauts, surgeons, lawyers, are automatically written off, as there is no one like them in those positions publicly, little to no help getting an education, and a general sense of inferiority. This leads them to accept the idea that they will be limited to small odd jobs, or work on farms, just as their families have been, further continuing unable to break out of poverty.

This makes Jyoti a rare case, her bravery in her comment in front of the other students led CFTW to provide her with her own sewing machine, some tools, cloths, and some educational books to help her get started. We hope with her courage to be vocal and work towards her goals, the other students in the school can become inspired and realize they too have a chance, despite what the general public may say. The connection between poverty and disability remains strongly correlated in the country, with poverty often leading to an increased amount of disability, and in return disability continuing poverty in a cyclical manner (Rao, 2009). We here at CFTW believe that children such as Jyoti, are the cure for this issue.

Introduction

As an 18-year-old starting a new job, knowing my largest strength was that I simply had a strong pull to simply help people, I was shockingly superficial to problems I saw all around me. With my problem-solving experience being largely based off of high school mathematics, I understood how to identify an issue, and work towards fixing it, but never stopped to realize, that perhaps I should be considering the root cause. This was a skill I would gradually come to learn and apply in my 16 months after that first day. In this blog I will highlight how my perspective was altered by this change in mindset.

At the Clinic 

It seemed as if pain was everywhere, being a college student with horrible posture, everyone I knew had back pain, my parents dealt with neck pain from driving, the cashier I met at shoppers had lower back pain, and lastly even my bus driver had Sciatica. I began thinking constant pain was the norm, everyone dealt with it, I had to just put it in the back of your mind and try to forget about it.

At this heightened time of acceptance, I conveniently got a job with a Chiropractor, how ironic I know. Something I realized right away was these patients were improving gradually, some quickly, others took longer.  Although this rivaled against what I had thought to be true, I was fascinated.

Chiropractic works on identifying the cause of the pain, rather than treating it. For example, many patients don’t realize that the pain they get shooting down the back of their thigh might have come from their Sacro-iliac joints or even the lower lumbar vertebrae.  After treating the patient at the source, you see relief, as the pain radiating away from the back subsides. This can work for other areas of the body too, such as shoulder pain, which is extremely common, especially if you’re an avid driver or writer, can be coming from a vertebra in the neck. Lastly there are many subluxations (a slight misalignment) that the patient hasn’t even realized yet, but for sure would have built up and caused discomfort later on.

Chiropractic for the World 

Obviously, I had heard about global issues, I had seen ads on TV, or learnt through social studies class that some countries were still considered as “developing”, these nations had an array of struggles, from healthcare, to education, even starvation. As much as I wished I could change this, it felt hopeless as an individual to create a lasting impactful change, when the issues can look so overwhelmingly large. Sadly, a part of me believed, there was no way that the people living in these impoverished states could receive the assistance they deserve.

Similarly, to the Clinic story, I began working with a charitable foundation to raise money and directly assist those in need overseas. I saw how a little bit of assistance can go a long way, when treating a bigger issue.

 Helping small portion of the larger problem, such as an paying an individual’s way through school, or assisting a family with funds to buy dinner, up until purchasing an ambulance for a leprosarium, diminish the radiating consequences. 

The Plan

Radiating pain or discomfort has always been the first symptom, whether it’s a common case of Sciatica or the 78% of India who don’t have access to healthcare.  Although the situation, the presence of back pain, or poverty may appear to be gigantic and unsolvable, even small action, as simple as a chiropractic adjustment, or a donation towards a child receiving a hearing aid can drastically cut down radiating effects. After repeated efforts these small actions can add up to big solutions, getting the required amount of chiropractic adjustments can cure your back pain, in the same way small contributions can provide a mobile health care unit which can provide aid to millions.

So, what is the treatment plan for poverty?

Small actions over time, which allow for big unachievable goals to be reached.

What action are you willing to take?

We are amid worldwide changes. 2020 was a great challenge, and we hope that in 2021 we can surmount all the rigours life throws at us.

My 8-year-old grandchild, Joaquin, was interviewed today for a chance to move to a new school in Potomac, MD. He seemed to grasp the importance of the interview. 

The Principal, Mr. M, explained to Joaquin that there would be a lot of freedom at this new school. The Principle went on to ask, “What does this new freedom mean to you, Joaquin?”   

Joaquin is an avid reader and didn’t hesitate to quote from a book[1] he had just completed reading, “Well you know Mr. M, you can’t have freedom without self-discipline. Freedom comes from making good choices.” 

Mr. M., following the interview, reported to my delighted daughter what Joaquin had told him. 

Freedom truly is the freedom from slavery to bad choices and reactions to false pride and egoism. To make good choices is about seeing the need that exists around you and to open yourself to the Love of God, and respond to the impulse he gives us to be genuinely free.

Working in our clinic, a woman named Fozia told me she wanted to do something great, something extraordinary with her life. She is a Muslim woman recently married and waiting for her husband’s immigration to Canada.

“Precisely, that is what it does. It just hangs out in the sky and gives light for us in the dark. That is what you must do to be great. You must reflect God’s Love. You must be a light in the darkness.” I continued to say, “You are Muslim. You have devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. What did she do special? Was she the leader of a country? Was she a corporate leader, an engineer, doctor, great scientist?”

Fozia smiled, “No.”

Mary said 2020 years ago, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices I God my Savior for he has regarded the humility of his handmaid. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. Because he that is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name…”[2]

“So Fozia,” I continued, “to be great in your life, you must reflect God’s Love and become like to moon, a light in the darkness like the moon reflects the light of the sun.”

We all have a choice to make 2021 better than in 2020. We have a choice of freedom to choose good or to remain slaves to capricious whims and passions.

Thank you for your donations to CFTW in 2020.  Please continue to be a light in the darkness and reflect God’s Love. 

Our projects desperately require your continued generosity.

“Well you know Mr. Ross, you can’t have true freedom without self-discipline.”

Please help us help those in need.

John Bickert, B.Ed., D.C.

President,

CFTW

 [1] The Way of the Warrior: An Ancient Path to Inner Peace © 2019 McManus, Erwin Raphael. The Fedd Agency, Inc. Austin TX

 [2]Luke 1:46-49Luke 1:46-49

Introduction  

Across the globe, women often find themselves in underprivileged positions when it comes to education. Many women are denied basic access to schooling, and with this comes a lack of ability to read or write. Even if a family contains a man who is literate, women being unable to perform these tasks has wide-ranging impacts on communities and nations.

Some countries continue to struggle with literacy in general; less than 20% of Niger’s population can read and write, and Ethiopia remains under half. Men globally lead women by as much as 8% in terms of literate population, and only approximately 11% of women in African and Indian communities have received sufficient education to read and write.

Developing greater literacy among women is a crucial issue, not only because equal access to education should be a basic human right but also because literacy improves life outcomes. When most nations are made of somewhere around 50% women—and those women are uneducated—the average education level of the population decreases, and problems that could be solved with enough scientists and researchers may be neglected.

Similarly, many women who cannot read or write live in impoverished communities, particularly in Africa and India. If these women were educated, they could turn their abilities into income generation and provide better outcomes for themselves and their families. This would boost their entire community and create positive influences.

Causes and After-Effects of Low Female Literacy

Across the world, women face many challenges in seeking equal education. In areas suffering from poverty, many women cannot spare the time to attend schooling when they must help to care for family—whether their own children or their siblings and older relatives. In India, public schooling facilities do not have separate bathrooms for women; as a result, as many as 23% of girls stop their education once they reach puberty since they do not have the resources they need to cope with menstruation at school. 

For some, physical access to a school is a problem when the only location is far away from their homes. For others, child marriage places a burden on their ability to continue their education. The reasons that women are globally less literate are many, and the effects are lasting.

Women who did not attend schooling tend to raise female children who will also drop out of schooling. This keeps families in a cycle with little to no upward mobility or improvement in their circumstances, as education is not opening the way to greater income opportunities. A nation with half of its population unable to reach their full potential cannot solve problems with the same speed, efficacy, and utility as a nation with a higher literacy rate. In fact, if India were to improve learning outcomes for women and encourage females to study in order to join the workforce like their male counterparts, the country could expect an estimated $770 billion growth in the GDP in the next five years. 

What Can WE Do?

Those of us who have been raised literate—and you have, if you are reading this—may struggle to understand what we can do to bring necessary education to young women around the world. Women in Africa and India continue to struggle to attend schooling due to a number of issues that may seem simple to solve, such as providing needed menstrual products, building schools close to communities, and prohibiting female children from being responsible for housework for the entire day. However, these issues are more complex than they may appear, and many of the communities struggling with this problem live on less than $2 per day—not enough income to generate substantive change for themselves.

Instead, it is primarily the role of NGOs and charitable organizations to lend a helping hand to improve outcomes for these young women. CFTW is one organization that is passionate about providing support to the whole person, not just by offering financial assistance and education but also spiritual healing and mental help. CFTW has been hard at work building schools so that more students have greater access; these schools have appropriate facilities, such as separate bathrooms, to encourage young women to continue attendance.

If you would like to do your part to help solve the problem of female literacy around the world, consider a donation to charitable organizations like CFTW. If you are not in a financial position to make this contribution, you can also make a difference by volunteering your time or offering a needed service that you are skilled at so that charities can spend time accomplishing their goals for these young women. 

The Most Common Diseases

Throughout the third world regions of Africa and Asia, three diseases in particular ravage the population and leave little room for treatment: malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. Where a rich person can continue on with life after HIV/AIDS by taking medicine, this illness is almost entirely untreated in the poorer regions of the world. Tuberculosis is essentially unheard of in first world countries, and vaccination has slowed or even stopped the spread of germs that have the potential to wipe out entire communities of children in some parts of Africa and Asia.

In the developing world, up to half of all deaths are due to infectious diseases. AIDS has cut the life expectancy of some countries nearly in half, with Botswana seeing a drop from 62 years old (in the 1980s) to only 37 due to the high rate of HIV infection: about 39% of all people in the country. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the life expectancy remains at a low 47 years of age on average.

Poverty plays a primary role in why these regions of the world are primarily infected. Affluent countries have no issue with affording the drugs that suppress HIV, but those medicines—and even more inexpensive options to treat only the infections resulting from their weakened immune systems—are unavailable to poorer countries. Tuberculosis takes advantage of the widespread HIV epidemic to proliferate itself, latching on to those with already weakened immune systems. Up to 15% of HIV cases die as a result of TB. 

Malaria also plays a significant role in health outcomes of third world countries. Transmitted via the bite of the Anopheles mosquito, malaria causes more than one million deaths per year—90% of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. It is highly resistant to many antibiotics that have previously been used to treat it, and this trend is not anticipated to slow down any time soon. For residents of developing countries that do not have access to newer treatments, this constantly evolving disease is an ever present threat.

The Cost of Fighting

It is the responsibility of richer countries to assist in fighting disease in the developing world. Some solutions are simple and inexpensive, such as mosquito nets infused with insecticide. Simply installing these in sample regions has cut the number of malaria deaths by 20%. The UN has noted that affluent countries pay a fraction of the cost for medicines that the poorest in the world would be entirely unable to pay for, and NGOs like Action Aid have maintained consistent lobbying to cut drug prices.

Anti-retroviral drugs that keep people with HIV alive cost nearly $10,000 in developing countries, but thanks to the efforts of organizations like Action Aid, the price has been brought down to about $300. This is still prohibitively expensive in many of the world’s poorer areas, but the price is anticipated to continue downward. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan established the Global Fund for HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria, though affluent countries have been stingy to contribute toward its yearly $7 billion goal, with the US sending only $500 million. 

Market Incentivization and What to Do

One of the largest problems facing the treatment of these diseases is the lack of incentive to focus on them from a market standpoint. Out of 1393 new medicines that were approved for public use, only 16 focused on tropical diseases like TB. A drug for sleeping sickness, which kills an average of 66,000 people per year, saw its production halted when no one was buying it—because it was too expensive for the developing countries that needed it. However, it was rebranded for use in the United States, where it is now used frequently as a hair remover. 

Drug companies must be incentivized to continue or focus on production of critical, life-saving medications even when poorer countries cannot afford them. This will require significant policy change in the government as well as the support of normal people, who can contribute by donating to charities that provide monetary assistance to underprivileged areas.