The correlation between income growth and life expectancy

The correlation between income growth and life expectancy

Hans Rosling’s famous lectures – The Joy of Stats – on BBC Four combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport’s commentator’s style to reveal the story of the world’s past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before – using augmented reality animation.

In this spectacular section of ‘The Joy of Stats’ he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers – in just four minutes.

Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Hans shows how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine.

Take a look, click here.

In our own small way, AwF is helping to move those data points upwards and to the right.

Donate a fish pond – give a family food security for life

A family proudly displaying their harvest of fish.

Christmas – the season of giving – is upon us and what better way to share the spirit than to provide food and a secure future to those most in need.

Your donation of US$ 100 is sufficient to construct a family pond measuring 100 square meters, provide an initial stocking of fish, and training so that a family will have a secure source of food for years to come. 

Since many families have four or more children, a donation of US$ 100 will have a direct positive impact on a family of six.   

Your generous support can help so many. Please consider donating a fish pond to support a family in the developing world. 

Click Here to make a secure on-line donation to AwF today.

Thank you!

AwF Volunteer database update – do we have your current information?

We are currently updating our list of Volunteers, which now numbers close to 300 people. If you have applied to become an AwF Volunteer in the past, we would appreciate hearing from you along with your current contact information and any changes in your profile. Please use the AwF Volunteer Form posted on our Volunteer page. This PDF form can be opened in the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download), filled out and saved to your computer. Then send an email with the attached PDF form to AwF Volunteer Coordinator. If you are no longer able to volunteer, please let us know so that we can remove you from our list.

Thank you!

Brief visit to the Women in Aquaculture and Mid Hills AwF project by Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards

In November 2010 AwF Technical Advisory Group member Prof. Peter Edwards was able to pay a brief visit to our project in Nepal, which is in its second phase (see under NEPAL on our Projects page for details).

Here are his comments:

Building on a successful small-scale aquaculture project in the lowland Terai region of Nepal , AwF has funded the extension of the model to the Mid Hills region of the country.

I visited 6 family level ponds built in Phase One of the project in Dhamilikuwa Village , Lamgung District, interviewing three pond owners. They all expressed satisfaction at being introduced to the culture of carps and tilapia, consuming as well as selling table fish and tilapia fingerlings to neighbours.

I also attended the opening ceremony of a training programme for about 20 women for Phase Two of the project which was being conducted by Hare Ram Devkota as part of his M.Sc. Internship through the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science. A training manual in local language had been prepared and distributed by Mr Devkota to the participants.

Congregations from Crumlin & Glenavy (Northern Ireland) turn up trumps for AwF again

At an interdenominational service in Northern Ireland, the congregations of several churches donated their harvest collection, totalling more than £200, to Aquaculture without Frontiers. 

Through the initiative and kindness of AwF (UK) Director Scott Peddie, over £900 has been raised for AwF through multiple fund-raising activities over the past sixteen months. 

Members of the Crumlin & Glenavy Clergy Fellowship after the Interdenominational Harvest Service

Left to Right: Rev. Patsy Holdsworth, Rev. John Murdock, Fr. Brendan Smyth, Rev. Dr. Scott Peddie, Rev. John Farr & Rev. Liz Hewitt. Missing from the picture are Rev. John Rutter and Fr. Sean Dillon

AwF-Bishramganj project sees progress – report now available

Two AwF volunteers have supplied a progress report on our activities in Tripura, India within the AwF-Bishramganj project. The full report can be accessed by clicking here. It may also be accessed from our Projects page.

Seventy-five poor or marginal farmers (and their families), mostly from tribal origins, have received support in developing small-scale aquaculture and a hatchery has been built through this project. Inevitably some farmers have been more successful than others, while economic weaknesses and both droughts and floods have caused difficulties in implementation. The report from these volunteers includes two interesting case studies of the experiences of individual farmers that have benefitted from our project. The report also describes infrastructure improvements at the St. Xavier’s Vocational Training Centre, including fish breeding facilities. These improvments not only facilitiate the supply of seed fish to farmers within the programme but are helping to train local rural youths in fish culture. It is good to read of the significant impact that AwF support has had on some poor families in this remote area of India.

Harvesting fish at Bishramganj, Tripura

AwF board members meet our Patron in Phuket

It is a tradition that the AwF holds its board meetings during global aquaculture conferences where sufficient AwF Directors are present on other assignments. This enables AwF to maintain its board costs at zero. Earlier this year the board met in San Diego, USA, during the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) meeting World Aquaculture 2010.

On 23 September 2010 the AwF Board met again in Phuket, Thailand, during the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 (GCA2010) organised by the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific (NACA) and the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO).

Since the opening keynote speaker at GCA 2010 was our Patron, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, FRS, this gave AwF Directors from Australia, Belgium, India, the UK and the USA an excellent opportunity to discuss our activities and future plans with him. Board members also had a similar opportunity to meet with the Co-Chairs of GCA2010, Jiansan Jia (Chief, Aquaculture Service, Fisheries & Aquaculture Department, FAO, Rome) and Sena de Silva (Director General of NACA).

Joe Tomasso resigns from AwF Board of Directors

Joe Tomasso

It is with regret that we announce the recent resignation of Dr. Joe Tomasso from the AwF Board of Directors. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Joe for his outstanding service to AwF as a member of the Board since incorporation 2004 and for his development of our Volunteer Database since 2007. We would also like to express our sincere thanks for the substantial and repeat donations to our organization by Joe and his family over the years.

AwF-UA farmer-to-farmer programme trip reports now available

More trip reports have been received and are posted on the Projects page of this website. These include:

• NEW CALEDONIA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, June 2010) PDF
• TRINIDAD: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, August 2010) PDF
• INDONESIA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, August 2010) PDF
• MEXICO: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, September 2010) PDF

Toleo Foundation funded project showing great success

The Toleo Foundation funded project, Aquaculture for nutrition and supplementary income for the rural poor in Sundarban, West Bengal, India, has submitted its progress report for January 2008 to December 2009, to read it click here. 28 farmers were specially trained to produce fish seed for ponds and 72 farmers were trained in pond preparation, fish culture, marketing, and more. All of them are now involved in fish farming. Other success stories demonstrate that the local poor farmers are able to learn and practice scientific fish farming, which means that the project has the potential to provide lessons to other regions of India.

We are deeply appreciative of the support from the Toleo Foundation, whose generous donation has enabled this project to succeed.

Proud fish farmers in Sundarban