Healthy Progress
We rise together
We’re going to be talking about some exciting progress in global health today. It is really exciting news! 😄
Sowing Hope progress
You all really have made these first two months amazing! 😄 I thought I would share some details about how you have helped us grow. First, you have helped me meet my goal of sharing hope with a variety of different people from different geographies and different perspectives. At time of writing, most subscribers join here in Tennessee. We also have neighbors from 11 other U.S. states and 1 other country. I think that’s really cool.
I have written 12 total posts, including 10 free posts. You have encouraged almost 1,000 views over these first 12 posts. Thank you so much for liking (the heart button at the top and bottom of the post), sharing, and commenting on these posts. It really does encourage me to continue and helps spread hope to more people.
We’ve also had three really awesome conversations in the Sowing Hope Chat in the Substack app. More on that later. 😁 Paid subscribers have also helped me get custom email and URL to better represent the Sowing Hope Substack with seeds@SowingHope.how and the www.SowingHope.how website. While there is never any pressure to pay, I really cannot thank those of you who do enough for your extra support.
Lastly, you may have noticed I added a new logo (see the top right) 🌱. The little seedling is my attempt at capturing my focus of trying to grow positivity, hope, and collaboration. I am no graphic designer, but I think it turned out okay. If you agree, would you mind clicking the like button for the post?
Addressing a concern
It does seem like some of you (about 1-3 per post) are not getting my emails. If you get them by email, you may need to reply to one and/or add this email address to your contacts to show your email provider this is not spam. If you talk to someone who subscribes and they miss a post, could you let me know or help them do this?
Another way to fix it is to download the app. If email is the best way for you to get newsletters, then I completely understand. I just wanted to mention it in case you might be interested in trying the app. Here is a link if you’d like to try it.
Disclaimers
I started Sowing Hope for three main reasons:
Highlight what is going right in the world
Encourage constructive and kind conversations
Fertilize cooperation so we can keep making the world better
The first one we will talk about at the end of the post today…I’m very excited 😁. The second two I wanted to highlight because you all of your awesome conversations!
Update
You have all really encouraged me with all your positive, productive conversations and commitment to doing the work that makes our communities better 🌱. You all really are awesome 😎, and it is an honor to have you a part of this community.
We’ve been having great conversations over in the Chat since it launched.
Good Things Friday
Our Good Things Friday Chats where we take some time to focus and share something good have been really encouraging: Patricia shared about her upcoming reunion, Amedicine highlighted how incredible the young people she works with are, and Kimberly shared how Hosea encourages her with its example of unfailing love
Civic service opportunities
Another conversation we had in the Chat last week was about serving our communities to make them better. Leah brought up the suggestion of doing a voter registration drive and Suzan gave details about how that would work. If you are in Henry County and interested in helping with that, come join us in the (insert link) or send me an email at seeds@sowinghope.how with the subject “Volunteer for Henry County Voter Registration” and I can keep you updated. Also, if you are outside Henry County and want to start a voter registration drive, come join the (insert link), too! 😁 We can help each other get information, plan, and problem solve so we all can grow our communities better.
Last opportunity I wanted to bring up for us: sending letters to encourage others to vote. I recently encountered an organization called Vote Forward. Their main goal is to increase voter participation in elections by having other legal voters send letters to share their personal commitment to vote. That is important because I feel the way you prevent abuse of power in a democracy is to have high engagement from voters.
For transparency, Vote Forward seems to lean left. I especially like them because the training I’ve gone through specifically calls to avoid partisan language. Again, their main goal is to increase voter turnout, not act for a party. With Virginia currently having elections going on, I thought it would be fun and cool to have a virtual letter writing night where we encourage more legal voters to make sure their voice is heard at the polls.
Again, working to get more voters engaged and have their voices heard protects against corruption.
What I need from each of you
If encouraging voters to make their voice heard sounds like a cool idea, can you let me know by reaching out to me? As always, you can just send a reply to this email, send an email to seeds@SowingHope.how, or reach out to me some other way. Thanks 😁
Positive news
I have been wanting to write a post about global health progress for a while now, and with last weeks news I just had to do it this week.
Background
Tuberculosis (TB), malaria, infant mortality, and other health concerns plague communities around the world.
These health concerns cause heartache and pain on their own.
People in less well-off or well-connected communities are hit by these pains the hardest.
Fortunately, we have been seeing some positive progress for communities.
TB tests
On September 19 2023, Global Fund, Stop TB Partnership, and USAID released news of a reduction to the price of important TB tests through a collaboration with Danaher, the company that makes them (link). Getting these high quality tests under $8 each means more than 5 million more tests can be purchased by the communities that need them most.
And while numbers are helpful, we care about people here. People like Phumeza Tisile who could have avoided the month long diagnoses which resulted in over 3 year journey in which she lost her hearing and took thousands of pills. With more of these tests available, the next Phumeza can be diagnosed more quickly and accurately hopefully protecting health and speeding their healing. There’s definitely more work to do. The fact Danaher through these groups’ collaboration agreed to not profit and commit to 3rd party verification is incredible and encouraging.
If interested, more information in the video below. 😁
Danaher agreeing to sell these tests at cost to the most vulnerable communities will make a huge positive impact on people’s lives.
Malaria vacines
Yes, you read that right. The disease killing around half a million people a year worldwide (link 1 link 2) now has an recommended vaccine (link and another promising vaccine in progress.
Again, this matters because people get malaria through no fault of their own and families endure a lot of pain because of this deadly disease. They lose work, time at school, loved ones…and with these vaccines we can continue decreasing the amount of pain this disease causes for communities around the world.
And I think that is wonderful progress to be able to celebrate 🎉
So much more…
If you are interested, the first time I heard about the malaria vaccines was in this video which highlights 22 problems we made progress in solving during the 2022 year. It is a really awesome watch, so if you have the 29 minutes I would recommend it. 😁
Whether it is increased access for fast and effective TB tests, approved vaccines for preventing malaria infection, or any other of the great news…I’m so thankful for what we are able to accomplish together.
And I’m so thankful you are here to help us make a positive change, together.
Bonus Tracks
I have really appreciated learning about meditation. Meditating is a practice talked about in scripture that I never felt knowledgable on and didn’t know where to start. A friend shared this app that breaks it down really well, even if you know nothing like I didn’t (thanks for sharing, Leah!). It approaches meditation without an emphasis on scripture, but I find the practice helps me when I do go to study and meditate on scripture. This link will offer you a year for free if you are interested. Also, I do not get any benefit from you joining. I really just have found value in it.
The meditation Balance helps you practice increases focus and positivity in your life. If we can do that more, we can do more good for more people.
Balance App 1 year free subscription
“Because deep down we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too,” -Mr. Rogers
https://twitter.com/MisterRogersSay/status/1540630272831623168