It is an unusual story of how a teacher is bringing books, and culture, to the children in a small community in Colombia. And how, through his personal effort, he may be changing a culture characterized by extreme violence into one of peace.

Since the decade of the 1930s violence has been an inescapable component of Colombian society. From 1948 to 1957 the country went through a civil war known as “La Violencia” which left over 250,000 dead, the result of old rivalries between people from the Liberal and Conservative parties. These incidents created the framework for the extreme violence in Colombian society today.

As a consequence of waves of violence and political persecution, whole families left their homes to live in bigger cities. They usually ended up living in the most marginal and poor areas lacking basic health and social services.

In the 1980’s new factors contributed to the perpetuation of this culture of violence in the country. One of the most important was the dissemination of cocaine and the incorporation of youngsters into the drug trade. Other factors were the economic crisis and the proliferation of guerrilla groups whose activities continue today. Colombia thus became one of the most violent countries in the world.

Inevitably, violence affected all activities of civilian life, such as education. According to some estimates, Colombia now has a 20 percent illiteracy rate, which can be much higher in rural areas affected by violence. In addition, functional illiteracy is also high, due in large measure to the lack of reading materials and libraries in those communities.

Ten years ago, a rural teacher, Luis Soriano Boroquez, had what for many was a crazy idea: to bring books to children in the municipal department of Nueva Granada. He had two unusual allies, two donkeys called Alfa and Beto. It is from them that his adventure got his name: he called it “Biblioburro,” or “donkey’s library.”

Every weekend, this elementary school teacher from the co-ed school of La Gloria loads his donkeys with 70 to 120 books (Alfa is the one that carries most of them) and travels distances from three to eleven kilometers each day bringing books, and culture, to rural children. Every trip takes him up to eight hours each day.

The idea for his library, he explained to the New York Times, came to him after he saw the transformative power of reading among children in a very conflictive area in Colombia. His aim is to fight illiteracy and to help children do research for their homework and provide them with reading materials that they don’t have in their village.

As soon as the first child sees him coming he rushes back to call his companions who come and accompany the teacher as in a parade. When the teacher reaches a village he chooses an empty space. There, he displays a makeshift table where some children do their homework while the rest sit in the grass reading and playing.

Initially, Soriano collected the books in his own house, where he lives with his wife Diana and three children, with the books piled up to the ceiling. But given the demand for books among rural children, and with the financial help of Cajamag, a local financing institution, he recently finished building a small library that has almost four thousand books.

What began as a need son became an obligation on his part, then a custom and now, with the construction of the library, it is an institution. “What I want to do,” Soriano explained, “is to teach children their rights, duties and responsibilities. When they get to know them, every child we teach through Biblioburro,” he added, “becomes an informed citizen who can say no to war.”

Although the new library now serves a small community of 200 children, Soriano still continues his outreach activities during weekends. “Doing this is my life commitment,” he declared to Valentina Canavesio, an independent film producer, “I want to be useful to the society I belong.” Soriano feels that his work contributes, in a small but significant way, to bring peace to his beleaguered country.

Watch this video at Ayoka Productions

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a writer on human rights issues.

It was a chilly morning in Manhattan late in March. I was on my way to a doctor’s office when I was stopped by a middle-aged black man leaning on a stick he was using as a cane. Although he was dressed in suit and tie, his clothes were dirty and wrinkled. There was a discrepancy between his appearance and the precise, elegant manner of his speech.

“Please tell me where the nearest hospital is, aside from this one,” he asked me, pointing to the hospital that was just across the street. I told him that the nearest hospital was Bellevue, a good mile and a half away by bus and subway. Since he was obviously in pain, I suggested that he try this hospital instead.

“They wouldn’t take care of me. They claim that Bellevue is closer to where I live. But it is not close to here, and I cannot walk that far.” He told me that two weeks before he had been hit by a bus. “Yesterday, somebody stole my crutches, and now I am very much in pain.”

I questioned him about his occupation and where he came from. “I am an accountant form Nigeria. But I have had bad luck in this country and want to go back to Nigeria. I would like to save some money to do it, but I spent the money I had because of the accident.”

I thought that he could use a few dollars to pay for the taxi to Bellevue, so I gave him $10 and said good-bye.

“Wait!” he said, “Give me your name and address. I want to pay you back!” “No,” I said, “that’s fine, don’t worry about it.” “But,” he said, evidently surprised, “you are giving me money, just like that?” “Well,” I answered, “I am also a foreigner, and I know how it is to go through a difficult time away from one’s own country.”

As I was leaving not to be late for my appointment, he turned around and looked at me sadly. “My name is William,” he said, “in case we meet again.”

Cesar Chelala is a writer on human rights issues.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference makes evident potential catastrophic effects of climate change, including its enormous economic and human tolls. It also clearly shows how poor nations in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and island states will suffer most from the inevitable floods, droughts and other weather disasters.

But there’s more that needs to be made clear in Copenhagen. If we look closely, there’s a hidden truth with huge implications that we must bring to the attention of conference delegates to ensure that allocated funds actually protect those most vulnerable to these natural disasters.

Studies show that women are 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters. One heart-rending study of a Bangladesh flash flood found that 90 percent of casualties were female. Many factors contributed to this high casualty rate which were all avoidable. A woman’s role in this Southeast Asian nation, as in most of the Middle East and parts of Africa, is one of dependency -- so of course, these Bangladeshi women were not taught to swim. But perhaps the most important factor was that they lived and died in a culture where women are so rigidly controlled that they aren’t permitted to leave their homes without being accompanied by a male family member. When the flash flood occurred, they sadly stayed and drowned.

Click here to read the rest of my article at American Forum.

Years of war, bad government, corruption and poverty have left Afghanistan with the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to UNICEF. More than one out of every five children are dead by the time they are five.

The statistics are frightening. More than 60% of all child deaths and disabilities are due to respiratory and intestinal infections, and of such vaccine preventable deaths as measles. Diarrhea kills tens of thousands of children every year. Many also die from severance of breast-feeding before time. An estimated 7.5 million children and adults are at risk from hunger and malnutrition, the latter affecting children's growth in particular.

Some cities, such as Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan located at the junction of the Kabul and Kunar rivers, are high risk areas for polio due in large part to the massive and continuous population movements from and into polio infected areas. In South Asia in 2000, over 40 percent of the confirmed cases of polio occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is also one of the most heavily mined nations in the world and has one of the highest proportions of disabled people as a result. It is a well-known fact that children are landmines’ most vulnerable victims as they play, go back and forth to school, tend animals or scavenge.

To control the spread of disease, UNICEF and the Department of Public Health in Nangarhar have launched the “Women Courtyard” initiative, aimed at providing local women with information about polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as such related issues as hygiene and water-borne illnesses. While this is an important initiative, certain popular traditions may well constitute a barrier to its successful conclusion. One such tradition is that babies not leave their homes before the 40th day after birth, a tradition which prevents many newborns from being vaccinated in good time.

To make matters worse, deadly attacks have targeted schools and impeded access to critical health care. According to Daniel Toole, the UNICEF Director for South Asia, “We have had attacks on villages and on schools by both anti-government elements as well as by coalition forces and international troops that have hit civilians”.

Not a single child growing up in Afghanistan today has known peace in his/her lifetime. Deteriorated mental health is one of the consequences of a permanent state of war. A UNICEF study has found that the majority of children under 16 years of age in Kabul suffer from psychological trauma resulting in serious mental health problems including psychiatric disorders and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Children in Afghanistan are exposed not only to violence related to acts of war but also to violence resulting from accidents, beatings by close relatives or neighbors or seeing close relatives being beaten or executed. As a recent study published in the Lancet has pointed out, “In Afghan children’s lives, everyday violence matters just as much as militarized violence in the recollection of traumatic experiences.”

Daniel Toole, the UNESCO executive, remarked recently at a press briefing in Geneva, “Afghanistan today is without doubt the most dangerous place to be born,” a sad commentary on that beleaguered country.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant. He has written extensively on child health issues.

On Human Rights Day it is appropriate to remember one of the towering figures for peace, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. I recall a visit I made to Lambaréné, in Gabon, a couple of years ago. It was there that the famous Dr. Schweitzer had carried out his humanitarian work, saving the lives of thousands of patients with total dedication to their health and well being. His is a lesson that we should listen to today.

I was at Cité Soleil, where a community of lepers still lives, created as a special ward next to the hospital. During my visit, three men were sitting on a bench, one of whom was trying to fix a violin, his hands ravaged by disease. I took out my camera and was ready to take his picture when he told me, “Don’t shoot!”

Startled by his reaction, I asked him why he didn’t want his picture taken. As he continued working on his violin he told me, “You don’t even bother to say hello, you don’t ask for our permission and you want to take our picture?” I apologized, greeted him properly and asked his permission for a photograph. He readily agreed.

That man taught me an important lesson. Although my intention had not been to show him any disrespect, that is what I was essentially doing. I felt I had the right to take his photograph because I thought it was an interesting shot, but I hadn’t respected his right to say no. That he was a leper who had probably encountered much disrespect in the past made my insensitivity even worse.

The man’s assertiveness about his rights and the atmosphere of quiet pride in Cité Soleil, I realized, were no accident. Dr. Schweitzer was remarkable because of his devotion to the needs of those less fortunate. He left a brilliant professional career as a musician and a theologian to become a physician. He then moved to Africa with his wife, built a hospital in Lambaréné from what had been a chicken coop, and devoted his life to treating thousands of patients out of an irrepressible sense of personal duty.

Looking at a herd of hippos in the Ogowe River, close to the hospital, Dr. Schweitzer strengthened his commitment to the need to revere life: “The greatest evil is to destroy life, to injure life, to repress life that is capable of development.”

I couldn’t help comparing Dr. Schweitzer’s approach to life to what is happening in today’s world, when we live in what seems to be a permanent state of war and where the reasons for going to war are becoming more and more irrelevant. To make things even worse, in today’s world many times religion is used as an excuse to destroy, not to improve life.

People today speak of a clash of civilizations, when the real clash is the lack of respect for the other, the lack of dialogue, the lack of effort to understand each other. As the American philosopher Sam Keen says in his poem How to Create an Enemy, “…Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed, hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as your own…”

Today we desperately need people of Dr. Schweitzer’s stature. We need to follow his philosophy, based on an essential respect for life. As he constantly stressed, the progress of civilization is closely linked to a conception of the importance of life. Only those who say yes to life, to the world in which we live, are capable of making civilization progress.

Although the medical work at the hospital continues after his death, his message of peace has been lost in today's world, ravaged by sinister wars and unnecessary loss of life. Standing in his room and feeling the force of his personality, I thought that later generations have betrayed his legacy of peace.

When we look up in horror to the destruction of a country through a war based on false premises, at the decades of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, at the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we need to remember Dr. Schweitzer’s words in a 1963 letter to President John F. Kennedy, “The goal toward which we should direct our sight from now to the farthest future is that we should not let war decide issues that separate nations, but we should always try to find a pacific solution to them.”

We will reach that understanding only through dialogue with those who think in different ways from us, when we learn to listen to their concerns and fears. Perhaps then Dr. Schweitzer’s guiding principle will become a reality, “I am life that wants to live, surrounded by life that wants to live.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a writer on human rights issues, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is killing teachers at alarming rates in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, it is delivering devastating blows to the health, future job possibilities and quality of life to students in those countries. These observations are supported by a World Bank study that warns that in some countries AIDS is killing teachers at a faster rate than replacements can be trained.

Why are these teachers so susceptible to HIV/AIDS? Teachers in rural and impoverished areas in developing countries make more money than the general population. They travel more and are more able to afford illicit unions with infected students and other women they meet. In many of these countries, women are taught to be submissive to men, particularly men in positions of authority. Male teachers may feel entitled to exploit this submissiveness from women.

As a consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is increased teacher absenteeism and loss of educators, inspectors, planners and management personnel. Although these losses are more evident in sub-Saharan African countries, they occur throughout the developing world. The pandemic affects not only the access to education but the quality and management of education at local, regional and national levels.

According to some statistics, almost 30 percent of teachers in South Africa are HIV positive, a higher infection rate than in the general population. In Ivory Coast, every week, six teachers die of AIDS, according to a 1998 government study, and the number has probably gone up since then. In several places, private spending on educational fees and other expenses fell almost by half in households with someone with AIDS.

In Zambia, two teachers die for every one that graduates from training school. A Grade 4 school (smallest school) in Zambia has an average of five teachers. Statistics from Zambia's ministry of education show that one teacher dies every day from AIDS-related diseases. This is the equivalent of the ministry of education closing down one school per week due to loss of teachers.

According to UNAIDS estimates, the annual per-capita income of half the countries of sub-Saharan Africa is falling by 0.5-1.2 percent and the GDP in the most-affected countries may decline by 8 percent by 2010. Because of its economic impact, AIDS is reversing decades of slow improvement in child survival, life expectancy, educational progress and economic growth.

In many cases, teachers themselves are poorly informed or not informed at all regarding HIV/AIDS prevention. Teachers need to be better educated not only about HIV/AIDS and its transmission, but also on how to become better advocates in the fight against the infection.

Paradoxically, education itself can be a formidable weapon against AIDS. Several studies have shown that infection rates are lower among educated women. In the 1990s, HIV infection rates in Zambia fell by almost 50 percent among educated women, while there was almost no decline in those who hadn't gone to school. In Uganda, infection rates are lower among girls who have attended high school.

It is crucial to introduce life-skills curricula early in primary school, since HIV-prevention activities have been shown to be more effective among youngsters who are not yet sexually active. Among the important components of the life-skills curricula are issues of gender equity, methods to develop healthy lifestyles and healthy reproductive attitudes, and an understanding of when and how to protect oneself from the HIV infection. Life skills should be taught in an environment with other HIV-prevention interventions.

It is also critical to empower women when they are young. This can help them deal better with sexual advances by teachers and other men. In several countries, there is the widespread belief that by having sex with young women, men can be cured of AIDS.

Because of both biological and cultural reasons, girls ages 15 to 24 in Africa are several times more likely than boys of the same age to be infected with HIV. In Africa, almost 60 percent of HIV-infected people are female, and among teenagers infected with HIV, more than 75 percent are girls. Sex education, when combined with improved communication skills, often leads to delayed sexual initiation, to fewer sexual partners and to increased use of condoms.

At the same time, governments have to make provisions to replace the current and estimated future loss of personnel in the education sector. Among those provisions is the need to develop new technologies and alternative and innovative ways of making AIDS education available to children. At stake are not only children's lives, but also the countries' future development.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international medical consultant and the author of "AIDS: A Modern Epidemic," a publication of the Pan American Health Organization. He writes extensively on HIV/AIDS issues.

I was very sad to learn of the untimely death of Pam Dashiell, an activist who fought selflessly for the renewal of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, much of which was razed by Hurricane Katrina.

I went to Louisiana to report several stories last year and I had the opportunity to meet with Pam while visiting the Global Green development in the Holy Cross neighborhood. Pam was obviously very influential in town, working closely with Brad Pitt on the revitalization of the area. But her attitude was warm and down-to-earth. Her office at the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, where she was co-director, was simple and almost bare - we did the on-camera interview outside to find better light. And despite her vocal presence in town, she actually seemed a little shy.

Pam was from Massachusetts like me, and it was interesting for me to hear about her decision to make her way south - I'd also found another part of the country which I felt fit me better. She made New Orleans hers, dug in her heels and became a dedicated advocate of her community, connecting environmental and social goals.

Let's hope for more community leaders like Pam Dashiell, who nurture the social network that keeps our society strong. Thanks Pam for all your good work. Everyone who knew you is sad to see you go.

• Daria Salus’s jewelry. •

• Gaslight’s hand-beaded clutches. •

• J. Brooke Patterson’s egg ornament. •

* All photos by Jessica Mosby.

AIDS is increasingly becoming a serious threat to women, particularly in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age in low and middle income countries, particularly in Africa.

While in 1985 there were as many HIV infected men as women in sub-Saharan Africa, women’s infection rate has steadily increased and now the number of HIV infected women is larger than HIV infected men. To date, approximately three quarters of all women with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are several reasons for this vulnerability. Women and girls are particularly susceptible to be infected due to biological, social, cultural and economic factors. The female genital tract has a greater exposed surface area than the male genital tract, making it more prone to infection with every exposure. Younger women may be even more vulnerable because they are more often victims of coercive or forced sexual relations with men who may already be infected.

Women who are victims of sexual violence are at a higher risk of being exposed to the infection. According to a South African study, women who were dominated or beaten by their partners were much more likely to be infected with HIV than women who were not. Abusive husbands were more likely to be infected with HIV than non-abusive husbands, according to a study in India involving 20,425 couples.

Women’s lower socio-economic status may also lead to high risk behaviors and make them less able to seek information they need to keep themselves safe. Globally, only 38% of young women were able to describe the ways to avoid infection and less likely than men to know that condoms can protect against the HIV infection. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence is generally higher among adolescent girls aged 15-19 than among their male counterparts.

In addition, many young girls enter into sexual relationships with older men who are more sexually experienced, more powerful and are more likely to be infected and thus able to infect them. “We need to help young people develop the skills for mutual consent in sex and marriage and put an end to violence and sexual coercion,” stated Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

It has been shown that violence, or even the threat of it, can lead women to avoid HIV prevention, treatment, and care and support services. The problem of violence against women is exacerbated in countries at war, where in many cases rape is used as a “tool of war.” In some cases, women have been intentionally infected with HIV, so as to provoke a “slow death.”

In many societies, women are at an economic disadvantage with regard to men. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, property is generally owned by men, and even when they are married, women don’t have as many property rights as their husbands. Lack of property also means limited economic stability and, as a result, an increase in the possibility of sexual exploitation and violence.

Major inequalities between men and women in all aspects of living persist in many parts of the world, such as employment and education opportunities and power imbalances within relationships. In those situations, gender roles limit women to positions where they lack the power to protect themselves from physical abuse and from HIV. Gender inequalities prevent women from asserting their rights and controlling the circumstances that increase their vulnerability to infection.

As a response to this situation international development organizations have stepped up their work on the promotion of women’s basic rights. Recognizing and challenging stereotypes and harmful gender roles is crucial to preventing the spread of HIV. It is important to understand, however, that programs that focus on men and the need to change their stereotypical behavior also need to be implemented. Defeating HIV and AIDS is everyone’s responsibility.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and the author of “AIDS: A Modern Epidemic,” a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.