AJWS Blog

The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.

Bean By Bean, Replenishing Haiti’s Food Supply

Imagine being chronically hungry, and then, after finally receiving a long-awaited plate of food, eating just one bean. According to The New York Times, this is precisely what happened to Maxi Extralien, a starving Haitian boy who received food from a Haitian civic group in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. In the face of …

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Shaken by Earthquake in Haiti and Poised to Respond

I am both deeply saddened and shaken by the powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday afternoon. Three million people — about a third of Haiti’s population — have been affected by the quake. Hundreds of thousands of people are without food, water and other basic needs, and casualties have been estimated in the tens of …

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What's the World's Healthiest Food?

With 2010 under way, Nicholas Kristof is filling us in on “the world’s most scrumptious, healthful, gratifying food” – micronutrients such as folic acid and iodine. They’re a lot cheaper than the ingredients that comprise our daily diets—a year’s supply of micronutrients costs less than the cheapest hamburger—and yet their absence from the diets of …

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Permaculture in Nicaragua

Back in October, I attended a permaculture workshop at a retreat center in upstate New York. I learned all about food forests, grafting, sheet mulching and many other agro-ecological farming techniques about which I knew little. I was surprised—and delighted!—to learn that many of these techniques are being implemented in the developing world, too. Hundreds …

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Kitchen Gardens in Kenya

“Kitchen gardens in Kenya” is not a phrase we hear often, but for many people, that phrase is the key to survival. In a country of nearly 35 million people, malnutrition and hunger are staggering problems, particularly for Kenyan children, orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS. In the rural, western regions of Kenya, sustaining basic …

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