Emily Keller-O'Donnell, Journalist

Book Review - The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change

     Leonida Wanyama sat at her living room table in her mud-and-sticks house at the base of the Lugulu Hills in western Kenya contemplating her assets. Her fifteen-year-old son Gideon had been sent home from boarding school because she couldn't pay the latest tuition bill. Her four-year-old daughter Dorcas was begging for more food, even though the cupboard was bare. Her husband Peter, weak from malaria, a condition worsened by malnutrition, did what he could to feed his family, but the planting season was just beginning and themaize crop wouldn't be ready to harvest for months. Leonida decided to sell her last goat for a thousand shillings -- enough to convince Gideon's principal to take him back as she struggled to come up with the remaining tuition. Food would have to wait.

    Click here to read the review of The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change by Roger Thurow. The review is published on PhilanTopic, a Foundation Center blog.

Book Review - Changing Business From the Inside Out: A Treehugger's Guide to Working in Corporations

    The most effective way to create change that benefits humans above the bottom line is to combine social change efforts with the profit motive under the umbrella of a multinational corporation.

    So writes Timothy J. Mohin in his new book Changing Business From the Inside Out: A Treehugger's Guide to Working in Corporations. And with an eighteen-year career in the field known as corporate responsibility (CR), he provides a wealth of knowledge to back up his claim.

    Read the full article on Philanthropy News Digest, a Foundation Center blog, by clicking here.

United Nations Celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities

    On December 2^nd, the United Nations (UN) celebrated the 19^th annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a tradition started by the General Assembly in 1992. The theme of this year’s event was: Together for a better world for all: Including persons with disabilities in development.

     The day included a discussion of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), a human rights treaty establishing international legal standards for governments and international governmental organizations to promote equality in the areas of health, education, international cooperation, gender equality and standard of living.

New York State Suspends Care Workers

    Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office has suspended 120 New York State workers who serve people with developmental disabilities due to allegations of neglect and abuse of people under their care.

    The employees, who work at residential facilities contracted through the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), are being investigated for possible termination and potential criminal charges, according to news reports. Their pay has been suspended pending results of the investigation.

United Nations Holds Fourth Annual Convention Conference

    The United Nations (UN) held its fourth annual conference to discuss the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

    The CRPD is a human rights treaty establishing international legal standards for governments and international governmental organizations to promote equal rights for people with disabilities. The CRPD addresses issues such as health, gender equality, education, international cooperation and standard of living.

United Nations Holds International Disabilities Day

    The United Nations (UN) celebrated people with disabilities December 3 with an annual celebration of speeches, panel discussions and films.

    Speakers at the International Day of Persons with Disabilities event included Assistant Secretary-General Thomas Stelzer, Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines, Ambassador Ombeni Y. Sefue of Tanzania and Ambassador Yanerit Morg of Mexico.

Disabled Veteran Charges Discrimination in Brooklyn

    Luis Carlos Montalvan was looking for a meal when he visited a McDonald's restaurant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in late 2008 with his service dog, Tuesday.

    Instead he became the plaintiff in a discrimination lawsuit against a multi-billion dollar fast-food chain, charging that the restaurant failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    This article was published in Able News. Click here to read page one and here to read page two of the story.

Couple Exchanges Vows in Central Park

By Emily F. Keller

  

     Disability rights activists Alejandra Ospina and Nick Dupree celebrated their love and commitment at Merchants’ Gate in Central Park on Sunday.

    Ospina is a representative for GimpGirl Community, an Internet organization that supports women and girls with disabilities, an English-Spanish translator and a health care reform advocate who has testified at New York City Council hearings. She has attended Hunter College.

    Dupree, who is from Alabama, is a long-term health care reform advocate and writer who attended Spring Hill College. Dupree led a two-year campaign called Nick’s Crusade that enabled 25 people in Alabama who are ventilator-dependent to receive home care past the age of 21.

      At the commitment ceremony, the couple listened to love poems and live music, read original vows to each other and hosted a discussion on marriage equality to the friends and family members who joined them.

    Ospina and friends Nadina LaSpina, Elaine Kolb, Julie Maury and Jessica Delarosa spoke about their opposition to Medicaid rules that discourage couples who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from marrying for fear that their health services will be taken away.

Voting Upgrades Could Bring NYC Closer to Compliance

     Electronic voting machines will increase equality for people with disabilities in the 2010 election, but poll site accessibility will be pivotal to making sure voters can get to them.

     The city's Board of Elections received a poor rating on poll site accessibility from the Center for the Independence of the Disabled following the November 2009 election.

    Click here to read the article in Able News.

Messenger of Peace: U.N. Celebrates International Day of People with Disabilities

    Disability rights groups from all over the world celebrated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations, Dec. 3rd.

    The 2009 theme was the inclusion of people with disabilities in the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals that aim to reduce extreme poverty, child mortality and AIDS by 2015.

    The day’s events included a panel discussion of the theme, a disability film festival and the appointment of musician, singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder as a U.N. Messenger of Peace.

    This article was published in Able News. Click here to read page one. Click here to read page two.