Ashley Judd, Day Four — water purification
Today I also saw an overview of our point of use water purification outreach. 60% of rural and 40% of urban Rwandais do not have access to safe water. Even the 2.5% with piped water cannot know if that water is safe. Unsafe water makes millions sick, which additionally adds...
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Ashley Judd, Day Four — you go, global girl
After the genocide memorials, lunch on a patio set in a tropical garden (I kept dropping out of conversations to use my field glasses to watch birds), the full immersion into PSI Rwanda, and the church visit, I crawled into bed. I have an event tonight, the United Nations Development...
(continue)Ashley Judd, Day Three — malaria nets
From the description of the population problem, next I was immersed in the world of Five and Alive, what we call our programs that help children live their 5th birthday, no easy task in poor countries. This year, 10 million children world will die before their 5th birthday from pneumonia,...
(continue)Ashley Judd, Day Three — PSI.org offices
I went to our offices, set in a very nice two story building with lots of doors that open onto a small hillside; there was a rondelle of Cosmos growing by the PSI sign and the welcome desk included a dry eraser board where our staff sign in and out....
(continue)Ashley Judd, Day Three — the countryside
In 1994 when the machetes stopped hacking bodies it was women and children who began to pick up corpses and body parts. Remains were everywhere. In an already poor country bearing one of the world’s most crippling disease burdens, cholera, typhoid, and other killers took additional lives. Women, often rape...
(continue)Ashley Judd, Day Two — Genocide Memorial
I managed my grueling experience at the genocide memorial by dividing it into two parts: intellectual and emotional. Intellectually, the site is incredibly well done. It shows how the Germans, then the Belge, followed by the unconscionable inaction of the rest of the world, set Rwandans up for the genocide;...
(continue)Ashley Judd, Day One
Ashley Judd recently traveled to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in her ongoing role as ambassador for YouthAids and PSI.org. She sent us her diaries as she went so that we could share them with you. Emotional and insightful, they allow us to walk with her through the...
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