EcoWorks International

Agriculture / Hunger Relief / Economic Development

Argentina – Entrepreneurship Center, Buenos Aires

Established a Small Business Center to promote entrepreneurship among the poorest populations of Buenos Aires, (‘villa miseria’).  This Center was conceived as a hybrid of a traditional business center and a business incubator to provide training and guidance to first time entrepreneurs. New businesses included an industrial size bakery; a music production studio; and a clothing factory.

China – Agriculture

Introduced hybrid cotton seeds that permitted double cropping in one season. Worked closely with an agricultural cooperative in the Hebei Province on testing the seeds, their adaptation to the local soil and climate, and the successful planting and harvesting of the first crop.

Czech Republic – Agriculture

A two-year cooperative project between Czech and Israeli scientists to research and study micro-irrigation; irrigation of flowers and vegetables under plastic; use of drip and automatic irrigation techniques.   Project created a greenhouse management model for the country; and developed an advanced mathematical model for tracking and utilizing rainfall.

Kenya – Agricultural Women’s Cooperative

Worked with an agricultural women’s cooperative in the Kitui District (Eastern Kenya) on improving soil quality, planting and harvesting methods to increase yields. Provided specialists in horticulture and hydrology to train the cooperative members who were 900 female heads of households.  Identified health problems and higher than expected birth defect rates; uncovered the root cause, which  was use of fertilizers and pesticides outlawed in the U.S. and Europe; instead introduced the first phyto-remediation program in Africa, which is use of plants and other natural methods of protecting crops. Within one year, incidents of birth defects in this community were drastically reduced.

Other projects included cooperation with Nairobi University to improve nutrition; and the establishment of a goat-raising program that uses advanced grazing methods and cross-breeding to improve herd quality.

Vietnam – Poultry

Improved chicken coops and general physical and working conditions in a teaching farm connected to the Agricultural University in Ho Chi Minh.

Russia – Emergency Food Distribution

Obtained food staples worth $15 million from USDA for an emergency hunger relief program in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  In both cities, oversaw the food distribution to orphanages, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Uganda – Economic Development and Community Building

Established a roof tile workshop to create jobs for women who lived in a slum of Jinja.  This was the kernel of an economic development program that became the basis for transforming the shanty town into a full-fledged brick and mortar village with a land deed and full range of essential services improving education, healthcare, agriculture, and family reunification.

Healthcare

Zimbabwe – Eye Treatment Clinic and Professional Training

Constructed in Bindura, near Harare, the country’s first eye treatment clinic with state-of-the-art equipment to serve a population of five million.  Treated 20,000 patients in the first 24 months; restoring the sight of 600 legally blind individuals. The clinic was certified by the Harare University’s Ophthalmology Department as a “teaching clinic” where doctors received their practical training.   The Project also trained nurses and established an eyeglass production workshop that produced affordable glasses for all the patients. A mobile clinic brought eye treatment to isolated communities and to refugees fleeing the conflict in Mozambique.

Morocco – Dental Treatment and Hygiene Program for Destitute Children

Established a mobile dental clinic that in its first two years treated 10,000 children and taught dental hygiene to 15,000 none of whom had ever used a toothbrush.  Transported to Morocco an American city bus outfitted with sinks and mirrors at child’s height, and a video player showing a fun educational film of a bunny brushing its teeth and explaining the necessity of oral hygiene.  The bus and the mobile clinic toured the country stopping in the most underserved communities and state funded summer camps where Moroccan dental students taught dental hygiene and American and European dentists provided treatment.  The clinic has been permanently established in BenMsik, Casablanca’s largest shantytown and is run by Moroccan dentists the Project trained.

Gaza – Primary School Hygiene, Healthcare and Public Safety Programs

In partnership with Palestinian and Israeli teachers and health professionals, and funded by the World Bank, the Project established Health, Hygiene, and Public Safety Programs for all primary schools in Gaza.  After developing educational guidelines and materials, it instructed trainers who in turn, trained teachers, administrators and medical staff in schools. Training sessions took place alternately in Israel and Gaza.  The medical staff established a schedule enabling them to see each school-age child at least once a year and monitor treatment. Teachers developed educational modules to teach children the importance of healthcare and prepare them for their medical visits.  To attend school, children in Gaza walk long distances on dirt roads with no safe walkways, so anther module taught safety when crossing the street or walking home. Additional modules dealt with the experience of living in conflict areas, and what to do when finding an unidentified object, which could be a bomb.

At the conclusion of the Project the Palestinian and Israeli trainers agreed to continue working together.

Social Services and Policies

Czech and Slovak Republics – Transform National Norms of Treatment and Services for People with Disabilities

The project achieved historical transformation in how to treat and support people with disabilities.  Under the auspices of the first Czech Minister of Health, Dr. Martin Bojar, JDC-IDP worked with a broad range of professionals and institutions providing care to individuals with disabilities with the goal of transitioning the country from Soviet era antiquated and often cruel methods and a dismal infrastructure into 20th century modern practices and technologies.

Communities served included individuals with mental and physical disabilities; the deaf and mute; women with breast cancer; professional and family caregivers; and the staff of clinics, hospitals, and ministries.   One of the innovative concepts introduced was independent living for people with mental disabilities.  The Project opened several model independent living apartments, established support programs and demonstrated how to transition patients from mental institutions to independent living environments.  While hospitalized these patients had been branded “uneducable” and tranquilized to a state of immobility.  Within six months of participating in the project the same patients lived on their own in regular apartments, held full time jobs and took care of their basic needs.

The demonstration models and professional training spurred the closing of most mental institutions.  And the directors of those institutions, who had by then been trained by the Project, transformed the old facilities into independent living apartments for their former patients.

Also, the Project persuaded Czech business owners to hire the formerly institutionalized patients. At first, the business people were extremely reluctant to do so as employing individuals with mental disabilities was unheard of.  Within one year, however, demand for these employees far exceeded their number as employers discovered that they were passionate about their jobs, prompt, uncomplaining and pleasant to work with.

Other programs included:

• Updating and re-introducing the Czech sign language which had been banned during Communism; this at the request of the deaf-mute community
• Creating the first support groups for breast cancer patients; promoting ways to honor a patient’s dignity; providing in-depth professional training in medical treatment;  and bringing in the latest technologies for diagnosis
• Inviting prominent US advocacy leaders (themselves individuals with disabilities) to serve as mentors in the nascent advocacy movement for people with disabilities in the Czech Republic
• Providing experts to assist in creating the first Czech Disability Act, this at the request of the Czech government.

When the project was planned, the Czech and Slovak Republics were still one country, but as implementation began they split and became two entities. To continue supporting the Slovak professionals, we expanded our programs into Slovakia.   Later on, we trained professionals from Poland, Hungary and Romania and guided them in establishing like projects in their respective countries.

China – A Three-Part Program for Vulnerable Populations in Shanghai

Children with Mental Disabilities

Based in the Hongkou District of Shanghai, the project created a one-of-a-kind center and introduced ground-breaking educational programs for children with mental disabilities. Using computer-based interactive programs, the children worked on enhancing their comprehension, reading and motor skills. Their progress was remarkable and encouraged the Chinese educators to expand the program and include children with special needs from other Shanghai districts. The Project also introduced the concept of mainstreaming these children into regular schools; sensitized educators and caregivers to attitudes, gestures and language detrimental to the inclusion, education and respectful treatment of children with mental handicaps. This was the first time that computers were used in educating children in China. The fact that it was children with mental disabilities that were benefiting from the attention of foreign experts and from the use of high technology not available in regular schools inspired a change in the overall attitude to educating children with special needs in China.

Poor Elderly in Municipal Retirement Homes

The project provided extensive training in modern geriatric care to the staff of municipal retirement homes. Although there is great respect in China for the elderly, the retirement homes lacked programs for this age group to stimulate their physical well-being and mental alertness. The new programs ranged from music and theater to choir; art, participatory games, and calligraphy.

Adults with Physical Disabilities

When the Project started, almost all individuals with physical disabilities in China lacked basic aids (walkers, canes, wheelchairs); and the profession of physical therapy was unknown.  The Project offered training in physical therapy and opened a center where people could rent different types of physical aids imported from the US on a short or long-term basis.  They paid what they could afford.

Since our programs were initiated in the early stages of China’s openness toward the West, they were without precedent.  Because of this, we took a large delegation of Chinese officials and professionals to Israel in order to show successful programs that delivered the type of services we were establishing in China.  The visit was an eye-opener for the Chinese delegation which participated in many workshops, including those on urban planning, municipal policy development, and city management. They also visited schools that mainstreamed children with disabilities; educational centers for children with severe multiple disabilities; homes for the elderly; business incubators; hospitals; community centers and cultural institutions.

Hungary – Homecare for the Elderly

Introduced the concept of homecare in Hungary and trained the first group of Hungarian physicians, nurses, and homecare workers in this discipline; also provided training in the diagnosis of chronic diseases prevalent among the elderly. The homecare program greatly reduced public health costs by offering an alternative to the national habit of older people spending the entire winter in hospitals because they were unable to care for themselves at home, medically or practically.  And this freed doctors from performing menial tasks and gave them more time to practice medicine.

The Project also introduced specialized physical therapy for the elderly which had dramatic results in enabling bed-ridden patients to walk again. Courses based on this method were introduced into the regular university curriculums for geriatric care specialties.

Post-War / Post-Disaster Response

Armenia – Three-Part Emergency Response:
Airlift of Earthquake victims to Israel;
Building the Country’s First Physical Rehabilitation Center;
Introducing the Profession of Physical and Occupational Therapist

Following the devastating earthquake of 1988, the project airlifted victims who had lost limbs to Israel. Once there, they underwent surgery, received artificial limbs and rehabilitation treatment, and returned to Armenia six weeks later on the historical first EL-AL flight to land on Soviet soil (reported on the front page of the New York Times).  JDC took care of more limb patients than all of the other NGOs working in Armenia combined.

Then, the project designed and built Armenia’s first physical and occupational rehabilitation center, in Gyumri (formerly Leninakan): the earthquake’s epicenter, named the “JDC-Aryeh Cooperstock Center”. The project introduced the concept of physical and occupational therapy to Armenia.  It brought teams of expatriate doctors and therapists form the US and Israel who for three years trained the first cadre of Armenian physical and occupational physicians and therapists.  The project obtained official governmental recognition for this new profession, and partnered to create the first Armenian Rehabilitation Therapy Professional Association.

To respond to the Armenian emergency in a comprehensive manner, JDC-IDP co-founded a consortium with the International Red Cross, Project Hope, and the Armenian Assembly to create one of the first cross-sectoral partnerships in USAID history. USAID awarded the consortium $5 million.

Somalia: Emergency Medical Response for War Victims

In partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the project provided four mobile medical units that offered urgently needed basic healthcare to war victims inside refugee camps and to those returning to their villages.  Special programs were developed to meet the particular needs of women and children who were an egregiously underserved population.  The clinics provided general medical practice as well as more specialized care to war and rape victims; also inoculation, OBGYN, and nutrition programs for malnourished Somalis.

At the request of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the Project established a refugee camp in Ruiru, near Nairobi, This camp housed 3,000 Somali refugees with medical problems too severe to be treated in Somalia.  Once fully operational, the camp was turned over to UNHCR.

Turkey:  Response to Earthquake Survivors

In partnership with the Red Crescent Society, provided a mobile health clinic, and built a school and recreational facilities for a 6,000 displaced person (mostly Kurds) camp in Silopi.

Rwanda: Multifaceted Emergency Response to Genocide

(1) Provided an emergency medical team, to treat victims of genocide, mainly comprised of African health professionals who spoke many of the local languages.  This proved to be a major advantage particularly when dealing with severely traumatized individuals.  (2) Partnered with orphanages to provide emergency supplies, basic educational materials, much needed medical and psychological treatment, and family reunification programs. (3) Built sanitation equipment in refugee camps.