Ashley Judd, Day Six — Democratic Republic of Congo

King Leopold of Belgium, an insane man who never should have been free in a society much less allowed to “rule” one, kept this unimaginably fertile area (equal in size to everything east of the Mississippi) for his personal exploitation and whim. During his lust for its minerals, gems, trees,...

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Ashley Judd, Day Six — Women for Women International

The people here are not just reserved in a cultural way, they are cautious in the way of the stunned, of those who have lived with trauma, brutality, and suffering. Of the hundred or so people I visited today, a few became soft and warm after a greeting, but most...

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Ashley Judd, Day Five — World Malaria Day

I packed up all my stuff and ate a weird breakfast before going to the airport. After a confusing wait, we boarded a heifer of a helicopter, a giant military thing with bench seating lining the length of it. Some old Russian shitter, Dario had explained, rather in awe I...

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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...

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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,...

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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....

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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...

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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;...

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greatest hits: The Dalai Lama on Nonviolence

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