Reports from DRC on Ebola and from Senegal on diminishing food aid
GLOBAL HEALTH & DEVELOPMENT
editor's note
Andy Higgins for NPR
The photo above is of a 12-year-old boy in Zambia named Alumbe. He's getting ready for school. When he grows up, he says he'd like to be a soldier.
Alumbe lives in a child-headed household. His mother and father both died of AIDS this year. They had lost access to the medicine they take to keep the virus from progressing. Alumbe lives with his two brothers, Joseph, 17, and Gift, 15. Joseph dropped out of school (and gave up his dream of becoming a doctor) to get a job as a security guard so he could afford to rent a house and provide for himself and his brothers.
Correspondent Gabrielle Emanuel, who reported from Zambia last year, learned of the family from Pastor Billiance Chondwe, who has been working hard to help those in the HIV-positive community. He says he's seeing more orphans as parents succumb to the virus. He thinks it's because the clinic where they got their meds closed or a delivery service for people in remote parts was curtailed as a result of U.S. cuts.
“I spoke with the brothers a couple times -- on different days," Emanuel says. "Partly this was to make sure I really understood their situation and perspective but I also wanted to make absolutely certain they were comfortable sharing their story. In each chat, I could tell how hard this past year has been and what sweet children they are and how much they care about each another.”
Inside Ebola country: NPR reports from the outbreak zone in the Democratic Republic of Congo
One month on from the outbreak's announcement, signs of the Ebola response are everywhere in Bunia, a city of over 1 million with the largest number of cases -- 212. Handwashing stations are ubiquitous and the central square blares announcements telling the people not to panic. "There's fear," says one community volunteer. "People are dying every day."
It's no secret that air pollution is bad for people. But how many ways does it affect us? NPR's Short Wave probes an intriguing question: "Could air pollution make your memory worse?"
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