VOA Special English pdf

VOA Special English - Development Reports Lesson 1: US Lists More Nations as Worst for Modern-Day Slavery This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States has accused several of its Arab allies of being among the worst offenders of human trafficking. The State Department last week released its "Trafficking in Persons Report" for two thousand seven. The report rates efforts by one hundred sixty-four countries and territories to end modern-day slavery. It lists Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar among sixteen countries with the worst records, up from twelve last year. It also names Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia. And listed again this year are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Burma, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. Zimbabwe, Belize and Laos were listed among the worst offenders in last year's report but are now in the second tier group. Countries in the second tier do not fully meet the requirements but are working to improve. Countries are divided into three groups, or tiers, based on how well they meet the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The United States Congress passed this law in two thousand. Countries in tier three face possible cuts in American assistance. But officials say the goal of the report is not to punish. The reports are based on information from American diplomats, nongovernmental organizations and other groups. The United States estimates that about eight hundred thousand people are forced across international borders each year. It says up to seventeen thousand are believed to enter this country. The great majority of victims are female and as many as half are children and teenagers. Thirty-two nations are on a "watch list" in this year's report. The list is supposed to be a warning. Armenia, China and South Africa are on it for the third year in a row. India, Mexico and Russia are listed for the fourth year. In fact, State Department official Mark Lagon said: "The world's largest democracy has the world's largest problem of human trafficking." He said India has hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims and millions of bonded laborers. These include forced child laborers. The report came out last Tuesday, which was World Day Against Child Labor. Estimates are that more than two hundred million children worldwide are forced to work, mostly on farms. The United Nations is calling for an end to the worst forms of child labor by two thousand sixteen. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. Lesson 2: Banks Look to Expand Microfinance Services This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Officials from some of the world’s leading banks were in the Netherlands last week for a conference on microfinance lending. The Dutch government and the nonprofit organization Women's World Banking organized the two-day meeting. Mary Ellen Iskenderian is president of New York-based Women's World Banking. She told us from The Hague that people generally think of microfinance only as credit a small loan to start a business. But she says her group has found more and more demand for other kinds of services. The organization is working with banks to offer products like, for example, life insurance policies. She says the question is not if commercial banks can offer microfinance services in a profitable way. The question is how. The bankers discussed things like the use of mobile phone technology in banking, and the ability of banks to offer services in rural areas. Could people do their banking at the point of sale in a village store, for example? The meeting brought together representatives of the Global Network for Banking Innovation. Women's World Banking formed this network six years ago. It says the aim is to guarantee responsible lending to poor borrowers. The network is an alliance of twenty-four major banks and microfinance lenders in fifteen countries. Members include Citigroup in the United States, ING and Triodos Bank of the Netherlands, Equity Bank of Kenya and Banco Azteca of Mexico. Women's World Banking offers support, advice and training to more than fifty microfinance organizations. The group says it has helped twenty-three million people in forty-three countries receive financial services over the last thirty years. Most but not all of the borrowers are women. As more commercial banks enter microfinance, Mary Ellen Iskenderian says women must continue to be served, to reduce poverty. She says research has shown that for every dollar a female borrower earns from her business, ninety-eight cents is reinvested. Women use their earnings to educate their children and to improve their homes and communities, she says. A similar male borrower, she says, will reinvest only sixty cents. The idea for Women's World Banking came out of the first United Nations Conference on Women, held in Mexico City in nineteen seventy-five. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about women's issues at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. Lesson 3: Seeing Pressures but Also Possibilities in Urban Growth This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Soon, more of us will be living in cities than in rural areas. Population experts at the United Nations had thought that would happen by this year. Lately their estimate is that in two thousand eight, for the first time in history, more than half of the world population will be in urban areas. The United Nations Population Fund just released its yearly "State of World Population" report. Researchers say three-and-a-third billion people will be living in urban areas next year. By two thousand thirty, the estimate is almost five billion. The fastest growth will be in Asia and Africa. Poor people will make up most of the urban growth. And natural increase will be the main cause of that growth, not migration from rural areas. The report says mega-cities of more than ten million people have not grown to the sizes once expected. Most growth is expected instead in smaller towns and cities. The experts urge governments to improve social services and city planning policies. For example, the report calls for better land use so poor people do not have to live in slums. Today, an estimated one billion live in these often polluted and dangerous environments. Ninety percent of the people are in developing countries. The report says the possible good of urbanization far outweighs the bad. The task is to learn how to make the best use of the possibilities. For example, cities can have a lot of poverty, yet they also represent the best hope for poor people to escape poverty, it says. "Cities create environmental problems, but they can also create solutions." The United Nations report says climate change will affect poor countries, cities and individuals more severely. Yet many fast-growing cities are more concerned with economic growth than with protecting themselves against climate change. On a separate issue, China last week denied a newspaper story about a World Bank report on the cost of pollution in that country. The Financial Times reported that Chinese officials persuaded the bank to remove information they thought could cause social unrest. The information reportedly said air and water pollution caused about seven hundred fifty thousand early deaths in China each year. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there was no issue involving a request from China. She said the report has not been completed yet. The World Bank said the final version will be released as a series of papers. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Lesson 4: Progress Mixed Halfway to Development Goals for 2015 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In September of two thousand, world leaders set eight goals for bringing millions of people out of poverty. These became known as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Among them: cut in half the number of people living on less than one dollar a day and halt the spread of AIDS and malaria. The goals also include improving survival rates for pregnant women and young children, and educating all children. Working for equality between women and men and dealing with environmental needs like safe water are also included. The target date for reaching the goals is two thousand fifteen. We are now halfway to that date and a United Nations progress report says results have been mixed. For example, it says the share of people in extreme poverty has fallen from nearly one-third to less than one- fifth. That was between nineteen ninety and two thousand four. If this progress continues, the U.N. estimates that the poverty reduction goal will be met for the world as a whole and many areas. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also noted progress in schooling and efforts to save children from diseases like measles, tuberculosis and malaria. However, some goals may be more of a struggle to reach for example, stopping the continued spread of H.I.V./AIDS. U.N. official Salil Shetty heads the Millennium Campaign; it works with local groups to remind governments of their promises. He says progress toward the eight goals should be judged nation-by-nation. He says some of the poorest nations are making the greatest gains. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is not expected to reach any of the goals. But Salil Shetty says several countries are on the path toward reaching some of them. These include Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda. The U.N. progress report warns that aid shortages could threaten the efforts even of well-governed countries to meet the goals. It says only five donor countries have met a longtime U.N. target for development aid. They are Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The target is seven-tenths of one percent of gross national income. The Wall Street Journal, though, noted that when private aid is added to official assistance, the United States is giving just under one percent. A commentary based on a recent Hudson Institute report said that is more than other countries including France, Germany and Japan. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Lesson 5: Mandela Forms 'Elders' to Work on World Problems This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Former South African president Nelson Mandela celebrated his eighty-ninth birthday last week by launching "the Elders." This is a group of men and women with almost one thousand years of collective experience to deal with world issues. Among them are former president Jimmy Carter and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. Former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be the chairman. Other members include Indian social activist Ela Bhatt, former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Irish president Mary Robinson. Bangladeshi economist and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus and former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing are also Elders. Nelson Mandela presented the group at a news conference in Johannesburg with his wife, Graca Machel, a children's rights activist. One chair was empty. It represented the final Elder: Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro- democracy leader under house arrest in Burma. The idea for the group came from British businessman Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel. They proposed the idea to Mister Mandela and his wife several years ago. Mister Branson, along with the U.N. Foundation and private donors, has helped finance the group. The Elders say their work will not be in conflict with the United Nations or other international groups. Instead, they say they hope to work alongside such organizations. Mister Mandela says the Elders will use their skills and collective wisdom to look for solutions to problems such as AIDS, climate change and longtime conflicts. The idea is that they can talk to anyone they please or get involved in any issue they wish because they do not represent governments. The group plans to hold videoconferences and also to meet in person two times a year. Some people may wonder how much a group of mostly retired leaders can influence world issues. Nelson Mandela himself has said he plans to take retirement seriously. He left office in nineteen ninety-nine and announced his retirement from public life in two thousand four. His involvement on the council is expected to be largely ceremonial. But he says he believes in the Elders because each member is fiercely independent. They are free, he says, to put the needs of the world's people first. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For more development news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. Lesson 6: Working With Clay: A How-to Guide This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Clay is found almost everywhere in the world. It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways. Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away. Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces. After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay. Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds. Potters add water to soften the clay. This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine. Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove. The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years. In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes. This kind of clay usually contains many minerals. So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay. The fires may be as hot as one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius. It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly. This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast. You can add materials to clay to gain desired results. For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product. But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans. Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea. You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land. Clay often exists in fields covered with some water. The clay will be found about one meter below the ground. River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface. You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet. You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread. Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg. It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing. You can learn more about working with clay from publications that can be ordered online from EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The address is enterpriseworks.org. Click on the "Publications" link under "News & Resources." And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Gary Garriott. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. Lesson 7: Should HIV-Infected Mothers Breastfeed? This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says that breastfeeding is the best way to provide babies with the nutrients and protection against infection they need to be healthy. However, a woman with HIV can spread the virus that causes AIDS to her child during pregnancy, delivery or through breastfeeding. The WHO estimates up to twenty percent of babies born to HIV-infected mothers become infected through breastfeeding. However, stopping breastfeeding puts children at risk of other problems. These include poor nutrition and increased risk of other life-threatening infections. These risks were shown in Botswana last year. Water supplies made dirty by flooding led to high rates of diarrhea and poor nutrition among babies fed liquid baby food called formula. More than five hundred children died. The number of deaths from diarrhea increased twenty times from earlier years. Investigators from the United States Centers for Disease Control discovered the link between formula feeding and infant deaths from diarrhea. They also found that babies who were not breastfed were fifty times more likely to have diarrhea. Peggy Henderson is a child health and development expert with the World Health Organization. She spoke to us from Geneva, Switzerland. Miz Henderson says the choice of feeding depends on the individual situation of each woman with HIV. The WHO recommends replacement feeding instead of breastfeeding if several conditions can be met. The replacement feeding must be acceptable, financially and physically possible, continued over a period of time and safe for both the mother and baby. If these conditions cannot be met, the WHO recommends that HIV- infected mothers give their babies only breast milk for the first months of life. Miz Henderson says there are several promising studies on use of anti-retroviral medicines by HIV-infected mothers and their children. But she says the safety of the process is not clear. She says she hopes the WHO will examine ongoing research of the medicines in two thousand nine. New public health recommendations could be announced then. But for now, Miz Henderson says the WHO does not recommend that HIV-infected mothers use anti-retroviral drugs only to reduce transmission of the virus through breastfeeding. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Lesson 8: UN Reports on Extreme Weather and Climate Events This is the VOA Special English Development Report. This summer, heavy rains and flooding have caused more than five hundred deaths in South Asia. More than ten million people have been forced from their homes. Huge amounts of cropland, animals and property have been destroyed. Officials and aid groups say a public health crisis threatens about thirty million people throughout India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The World Meteorological Organization says the rain in South Asia is just one of many extreme weather events this year. The United Nations agency announced last week that January and April were the warmest months on record worldwide. The discovery appears to support environmental changes confirmed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February. The group said that it was more than ninety percent sure that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from human activities have been the main cause of global warming. The World Meteorological Organization also noted extreme weather in other areas. It said heavy rains in China in June affected more than thirteen million people. In February, Mozambique had the worst flooding in six years. It said record-breaking heat was reported in southeastern Europe and central Russia earlier this year. A full report on weather in two thousand seven will be released at the end of the year. The UN weather agency says it is working with its partners to establish an early warning system for climate extremes. It is also creating a long-term observation system to study the effects of climate change. One such effect could be a lack of food and the risk of hunger in developing countries. The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week that climate change might hurt food production in warm southern areas of the world. Jacques Diouf spoke in India. He said that crops will likely decrease in seasonally dry countries as average world temperatures rise. However, he said small temperature increases could increase crops in most industrialized nations. Mister Diouf called for an intense scientific effort to develop crops that will grow in future weather conditions. He said one example is genetically changed crops that will grow in extreme temperatures, dry conditions or poor soil. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Lesson 9: Building a Windbreak to Protect Crops This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land from damage by farming and the forces of nature. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. There have been studies done on windbreaks in parts of West Africa, for example. These found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without such protection. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions will lift soil into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is part of EnterpriseWorks/VITA, on the Web at enterpriseworks.org. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish dot com. And if you have a question, write to VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A. Or send e-mail to special@voanews.com and make sure to include your name and where you are from. We might be able to answer your question on the air, but we cannot answer questions personally. And that's the VOA Special Development Report, written by Gary Garriott. I'm Steve Ember. Lesson 10: Mercy Corps Seeks to Expand Its Services This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Often, when a natural disaster strikes, one of the first groups to offer help is Mercy Corps. This American nonprofit organization has assisted people in more than one hundred countries. It grew out of the Save the Refugees Fund. A man named Dan O'Neill started that organization in nineteen seventy-nine. He wanted to help Cambodians who fled the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Soon, he established Mercy Corps with the help of another man, Ellsworth Culver. Today it has programs in more than thirty countries. Joy Portella is the head of communications for Mercy Corps. She says the strengths of the group lie, first of all, in emergency relief services. For example, Mercy Corps partnered with a local aid group to provide help to families affected by the deadly earthquake this month in Peru. Mercy Corps also works in areas of conflict such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur, Sudan. In Iraq, the group says it is helping populations to identify their rights and work for economic independence. Mercy Corps also supports microlending, small business development and technical assistance. And Mercy Corps is expanding its programs in areas of civil society building and democracy. A congressman has nominated the group for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Its leaders hope to expand into several new areas. These include youth development, climate change issues and poverty reduction through technology. Charity Navigator, an independent group that rates American charities, has given its highest rating to Mercy Corps. The American Institute of Philanthropy says Mercy Corps could be more open in reporting which groups receive its donated goods and how those goods are used. But it says the financial performance of Mercy Corps is excellent. A big help is the fact that the group does not have to spend as much to raise money compared to many other charities. More than half of its budget comes from the United States government. Mercy Corps had a budget last year of two hundred twenty million dollars. The group employs more than three thousand people. About fifty percent are Muslim and about ninety percent are citizens of the countries where they work. Joy Portella at Mercy Corps says the group has learned the importance of working with local people who have expert knowledge of a country and its culture. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Lesson 11: Interest Grows in Training to Prepare for a Disaster This is the VOA Special English Development Report. We talked last week about Mercy Corps, a nonprofit group that provides emergency services after disasters. Another organization involved in this kind of work is Catholic Relief Services, based in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the official international relief and development agency of the United States Catholic community. It was started in nineteen forty-three. Today it operates in ninety-eight countries. Catholic Relief Services has a budget for this year of around six hundred million dollars. CRS gets a lot of its money from the United States government but also from individuals and other donors. The American Institute of Philanthropy rates it among the top American groups for international relief and development work. CRS gets a rating of A-plus. (Mercy Corps gets an A, also a top rating.) Catholic Relief Services is a faith-based organization but says it employs and helps people of all religions. In addition to providing aid after disasters, CRS is training people to prepare before a disaster strikes. It provides emergency preparedness training around the world. Cassie Dummett is the technical adviser for South Asia. She tells us from New Delhi that some of the most successful programs are in parts of central and eastern India. She says the first step is to help communities think about an emergency and identify how best to prepare. These include natural disasters that happen year after year, like seasonal floods, ocean storms, drought or landslides. Committees are formed. An early warning committee, for example, would listen to weather reports or watch river levels. This committee would decide when people should move to safer ground. Another committee might be responsible for rescue efforts and medical assistance. A third committee might supervise food and water supplies, or the movement of farm animals to safety. Other groups such as Oxfam and CARE also do emergency preparedness training. Cassie Dummett says interest in this kind of humanitarian work has grown in the last several years. She says donor organizations are starting to recognize the value of training people to be prepared. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about the work of international development groups by going to voaspecialenglish.com. Click on the program link for our reports. I’m Steve Ember. Lesson 12: UNICEF to Work With a Private Group to Fight AIDS This is the VOA Special English Development Report. UNICEF is joining with a nonprofit group to bring H.I.V./AIDS programs to more women and children in five countries. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, will work with Family Health International. The new partnership will be established at first in Guyana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia. One of the goals is to improve care for babies infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Another is to prevent the spread of H.I.V. from mother to child. Activities will depend on the needs of each country. In some cases, anti-retroviral drugs will be provided to infected parents of children. Women and children living in rural communities will receive most of the services. Steve Taravella is the head of communications for Family Health International. He says the partnership is separate from UNICEF's international campaign against AIDS but will support the goals of the U.N. agency. Both UNICEF and Family Health International say they hope to expand their partnership into more countries in the future. Family Health International has been working on public health issues since nineteen seventy-one. The organization is based in North Carolina and has programs in seventy countries. It does research on infectious diseases and reproductive health, and also provides services. More than half of its yearly budget of about two hundred forty million dollars comes from the United States government. Experts say an important part of fighting AIDS is political will. One example they point to is Cambodia. That country has been getting attention for its progress in reducing some of the highest infection rates in Asia. Experts praise the government for supporting public education efforts and programs to give condoms to sex workers. Prostitutes are taught to enforce a policy of "one hundred percent condom use" at sex businesses. But there are warnings that H.I.V. rates could still rise among men who have sex with men and among users of injection drugs. Rates could also rise among so-called indirect sex workers women who work in bars and clubs. Today about eighty percent of all people infected with H.I.V. in Cambodia receive life-saving drugs for free. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about H.I.V. and AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. Lesson 13: New Web Site Targets World's Unsafe Drinking Water This is the VOA Special English Development Report. More than one billion people around the world do not have clean drinking water. Their water supplies are unsafe because of natural or man-made pollution, such as industrial chemicals or human and animal wastes. Water- related diseases, like cholera and guinea worm, kill millions of people each year, mostly children. Last week the United States National Academy of Sciences launched "Safe Drinking Water Is Essential." This Internet-based resource, at drinking-water.org, is presented as the first tool of its kind. The aim is to provide high-quality scientific information about improving the safety of drinking water supplies. The information is provided in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. Some information is presented in short video documentaries. (SOUND) "In rural areas that lack adequate distribution systems, treatment can be applied at the point of use, using household treatment technologies. Some of these technologies have fairly low cost and are used in areas around the world. Some common treatments used in the developing world include chlorination, filtration and solar disinfection. With many treatment options available, there is no one-size-fits-all solution." The nonprofit Global Health and Education Foundation in San Francisco provided money for the project. Almost one hundred thirty science, engineering and medical academies worldwide are also involved. These organizations will share information about the new Web resource with policy makers in their countries. Also, ten thousand free copies of DVD versions of the information will go to nongovernmental groups working to improve water quality. Organizers say the Web site is meant to provide international decision makers with technical answers to drinking water problems. The information will help users learn about the causes of unsafe drinking water and technologies that can improve water quality. The site also has world maps that show the levels of availability of safe drinking water from country to country. Users can compare information from nineteen seventy and two thousand two. Peter Glick is a member of the scientific committee that developed the Web site. He says the failure of the world to meet basic human needs for water is a crisis that can be solved. He says education is central, and the hope is that this new Internet tool can be part of the solution. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the site, at drinking-water.org, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. Lesson 14: Child Deaths Found at Record Low This is the VOA Special English Development Report. UNICEF says a record low number of children are dying before the age of five. The United Nations Children's Fund has records back to nineteen sixty. It says the number has dropped below ten million a year for the first time. [...]... more than three and a half kilograms of grain to get half a kilogram of meat And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss Archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com VOA Special English - Economics Reports Lesson 1: What's Up in the Bond Market? This is the VOA Special English Economics Report Bonds have been in the news a lot in the last few weeks Yields on the... VOA Special English Development Report Internet users can find transcripts and MP3s of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com If you have a question, send it to special@ voanews.com, and please include your name and country We cannot answer questions personally but we might be able to answer your question on the air Lesson 32: Google.org Announces Major Plans to Help the Poor This is the VOA Special English. .. three more countries will be identified for help to make sure everyone gets counted And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss To learn more about civil registration, go to voaspecialenglish.com Lesson 21: Shining a Light on Water to Prevent Infectio This is the VOA Special English Development Report Viruses, bacteria and other organisms in dirty water sicken hundreds... to be able to store large amounts of water and keep it disinfected And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss To learn more about water treatment, go to voaspecialenglish.com I’m Steve Ember Lesson 22: A WiLD Idea: Wireless Long-Distance Internet for Rural Poor This is the VOA Special English Development Report Eric Brewer is a busy man He is a computer science professor... will be given in two thousand eight And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss You can learn more about the Rolex Awards at rolexawards.com And you can learn more about technology and the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Steve Ember Lesson 24: Group Works to Build Peace Through Medicine This is the VOA Special English Development Report How do you define diplomacy?... Then another student and the class professor could check the translation And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss For a link to the Global Text Project, go to voaspecialenglish.com I’m Bob Doughty Lesson 27: Do-It-Yourself: Preparing Fish for Drying or Smoking This is the VOA Special English Development Report Canning and freezing are not the only ways to keep fish for... can raise blood pressure, and some people have more of a reaction than others.And that's the VOA Special English Development Report Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Steve Ember Lesson 28: Do-It-Yourself: How to Dry or Smoke Fish, Part 2 This is the VOA Special English Development Report Today we have the second of two reports explaining how to prepare... off the ground Dried fish must be kept completely dry until they are eaten And that's the VOA Special English Development Report Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Steve Ember Lesson 29: Engineering Low-Tech Solutions for Places in Need This is the VOA Special English Development Report Sometimes it takes an engineer to help a village In poor communities,... to ten years Individual chapters raise their own money for their projects And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss For a link to Engineers Without Borders, go to voaspecialenglish.com I’m Bob Doughty Lesson 30: Can a Strong Legislature Prevent Civil War? This is the VOA Special English Development Report Governments are always judged by how they use power But they... American effort known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss To learn more about AIDS, go to voaspecialenglish.com I’m Shep ONeal Lesson 17: Finding New Ways to Feed the World's Hungry Children This is the VOA Special English Development Report October sixteenth is World Food Day The campaign chosen for this . our reports at voaspecialenglish dot com. And if you have a question, write to VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A. Or send e-mail to special@ voanews.com and. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. Lesson 2: Banks Look to Expand Microfinance Services This is the VOA Special English Development. nineteen seventy-five. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about women's issues at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. Lesson