Latest Blog Entries

Over the last 20 years, more than 250 million people have been reached with life-saving neglected tropical disease (NTD) interventions. To mark this significant achievement, USAID recently convened a group of NTD champions to celebrate the delivery of a half a billion treatments against NTDs worldwide.

Lake Chad, once the sixth-largest lake in the world, has shrunk by more than 90 percent over the last 40 years. 20 million people faced dislocation and starvation as farmlands and livelihoods disappeared. For them, the combined impact of climate change and water mismanagement created a crisis that was unimaginable, and they joined the millions of others who face chronic poverty and food shortages in West Africa’s Sahel Region.

A few months ago, at CHF International, we were faced with a question that would have major consequences for us: do we change our name? At that time, I saw a discussion in Arabic on our Facebook page. Amid the Arabic floated three letters “CHF”, then three unsettling words: “Congestive Heart Failure.” Finally, in a response, I saw “Cooperative Housing Foundation.” I took it to a member of our staff who speaks Arabic, who explained to me that it was a serious discussion between a Palestinian doctor and another of our supporters.

I paid a home visit to a family in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, last month that remains etched in my mind. Their difficult living situation is typical of the thousands of needy children and families who are benefiting today from Jewish Family Service (JFS) programs that JDC helped communities establish and the critical assistance they provide with support from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews/JDC Partnership for Children in the Former Soviet Union.