Food Feed Health

Imagine you lived in a community so poor that there was no water of any kind — much less running water. And no power.

The only internet is on your phone or public WiFi. Almost no one has a computer or any work.

What If You Had No Water?

There is a lake, but no way to get the water from where it is to where it is needed.

You cannot grow food or easily get water to drink or bathe in. Having no water makes like a struggle.

Charity to the Rescue

Then, a charity comes and constructs a water tank. And also, a building next to it where you can get water.

So now the community at least has water. But not everyone lives close to this water source.

Fortunately, the charity also donates six generators to pump the water from the water tank to the fields, animals, and people.

Water is pumped from the tank to another tank at the school.

And also to places like this where it was easy for many to access for their needs.

The community can grow food and raise animals to feed themselves. They are very happy.

Sad Times: One by One the Generators Fail

But generators don’t last forever. Over the next twelve years, one by one the generators break down until there are none left running.

Some are sent for repair, but never came back. The community has lost touch with the charity that originally helped them.

With no money to fix or replace the generators, so there is no water where there once was. There is only desperation.

Hand Digging a Pond

The community comes together and digs a pond by hand. It captures rain water. But then there is not enough rain.

The pond is going dry. There is very strong mud making it hard to get to what little water there is.

The plants die and the animals can’t be kept alive. The community is going hungry. What can they do?

Reaching Out for Assistance

My friend Stephen and his community don’t have to imagine this scenario. They are living it.

He contacted me hoping he could come to America to earn enough money to buy generators for his community.

First, he went to college thinking he could get a good job there. But that hasn’t happened so he thought America was the solution.

I explained that people can’t just hire you. It is a complicated process. We talk often trying to find a solution.

Could CBN Help?

First, I thought I could just call Christian Broadcasting Network. I know about Operation Blessing from their videos.

And I know one of their ministries focuses on clean water. Just last year, they provided a community water system.

I was able to reach someone, and they gave me a phone number. But I can never get through on it.

No doubt as well-known as CBN is, there is huge demand for their assistance.

We Need Your Ideas

Six more generators would be a simple solution. And a few years ago, there was plenty of good-paying work and I could have made that happen by myself.

Work is slow now, and I am getting slower due to age. I can’t work sixteen hours a day like I once could.

So I’m asking for your ideas. For example:

- - Work: Is there any remote work that Stephen could do for you?
  - Charity: Who else should I contact?
  - Connections: Does anyone have any connections who could assist?
  - Fundraising: Can you recommend a way to raise money to buy the generators the community needs?

I did get Stephen to open a PayPal account so he can hopefully accept money. It seemed to work fine on my end, but he sees a “suspicious activity” message.

PayPal wants a bank statement. But of course no one in his community has a bank account.

So PayPal is a dead end (unless someone knows of a solution)?

He does know someone who has successfully used World Remit to send money from the U.S. into M-Pesa Mobile Money Service.

Generator Prices

Stephen priced generators he can acquire locally. The original generators were large and high quality.

But he suggested three other brands. The Honda is most expensive at Ksh.52000 with Pacwell and Hisaki being more affordable at 46000 and 42000.

Ksh.52000 = $355.48 USD. The other prices are $314.46 and $287.11. This is less expensive than what they cost in the U.S.? I’m not sure why.

If you have any insight into that, please share.

Are Generators the Right Solution?

There are a couple of issues with generators. One is keeping them running. And they other is that they require fuel.

Maybe solar generators would be a better solution? Or a way to pump water that didn’t require generators?

I’ve recommended Charity Water over the years. Maybe they could advise? Anyone have connections there?

What Would You Do If You Had No Water?

If you lived in a community that lost your access to water, what would you do? I’ve been writing about water access since at least 2010.

I know many are struggling right now — even in the U.S. But at least most of us have running water.

Please leave comments with ideas and suggestions.

No one would have imagined the changes occurring with mobile technology in health care.

And who could have predicted the changes due to COVID-19? Are you aware of the severe shortages in commonly prescribed medications?

Pharmacies Experiencing Shortages of Medications and Staff

Did you see that there is a 60% shortage of Albuterol inhalers? This is extremely serious at a time when many people are having respiratory issues and having trouble breathing!

Besides the lack of availability of common medications, there are serious labor deficiencies. The shortages of staff are now being made worse by the mandates. Find out more about these shortages in the infographic below.

Mobile Technology in Health Care [Infographic]

We already had wearable tech, A.I., 5G, the use of Virtual Reality and telehealth also known as telemedicine. But it really ramped up due to quarantines, lock-downs and people being afraid to visit doctor’s offices and hospitals.

As far back as 2015 when Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society examined the use of Mobile Technology in the Health Care Industry, it was already clear that the industry is integrated with mobile technology. (As shown in the infographic, below.)

It is encouraging to see that there is an adoption of the use of technology, even if there is still quite a ways to go in areas like electronic health records (EHR).

Presumably, there would be people who are concerned about security and privacy and any HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance issues.

The fact that these numbers are as high as they are indicates that there is forward momentum, especially since any technology advances that violated HIPAA would be shut down and would not be reflected in these numbers at all.

It is clear that a society focused on technology that is specific to the health care industry is the right group of people to be looking at these statistics and reporting back to us where we are in the look toward the future.

Some Mobile Technology Highlights Leading Up To Where We Are Now

Back at the turn of the 21st century, we were excited to have a cellular/mobile phone that would allow us to text each other. Hey, the idea of having a cellular phone at all was exciting.

No longer were we constrained by a car phone or a bulky satellite phone. Or, at least, we were moving toward the freedoms that were presented with these new devices.

At the same time, there was a boom in the usage of PDAs (personal digital assistant) and companies like Nokia became popular with their PDA devices. Even the health care industry got into the process of using them.

PDAs for databases and anything that could be adaptable to the medical industry at the time. Primarily, it was determined that the use of PDAs helped patients to record their medical issues, making it easier to relay it to their doctor, later.

These PDAs had their own mobile operating system and were a perfect example of handheld computerization.

The concept actually started almost a century before and there had been great strides made throughout the 20th century, leading up to what was about to emerge in the 21st century.

Health Care Apps on Mobile Phones

As we were underway into the new decade, we saw the introduction of the touchscreen mobile operating systems within the cellular/mobile phone.

In 2007, Apple announced their iPhone and the following year (2008), the Android device became a popular addition to the smartphone family.

The term ‘smartphone’ was actually coined for an AT&T device, but by definition it is a device that has its own mobile operating system.

During that time, with the PDAs giving way to their more sophisticated cousins, a new factor was added to the mix. That was the telephone carrier. In the case of the iPhone, consumers were limited to using AT&T as their service provider.

There have been many changes since then, including the process of unlocking an iPhone 6. This is quite different from how the unlocking first began in 2006, resulting in bricked phones and challenging methods of unlocking.

Some industries, like the unlocking service providers, have been affected by these recent changes. However, many consumers are happy to be able to unlock their devices and use whatever cellular service provider they choose to use.

The Future of Health Care and Mobility

Technology is changing fast. The health industry is changing fast. There are also some misunderstandings and disconnects between the two.

Recently, in a journal article by Punjani, Bhanji, and Meghani, called “Implications of Social Media in Health Care Practice” and appearing in the “International Journal of Nursing Education,” there was a reference to how all hospitals block Google.

While this is not a discussion about Google or even whether Google should or should not be blocked, the interesting point is that the use of the word, “all,” should not be used.

Before I lose you entirely, the point here is the disconnect that occurs between the health industry and the technology industry, including mobile technology.

In this case, the hospital administrators were having trouble managing malware and blamed all malware on the existence of Google. In reality, the malware was coming through the sites that the nurses clicked on and it was not coming from Google directly.

The article continued by indicating how unfair it was that the nurses did not have access to information because Google has malware.

Speaking from my own background in technology, there are at least seven to eight holes in that theory. It really doesn’t merit the title of theory because of the missing information.

However, we are not here to pick on someone’s misunderstanding of technology. Their expertise lies in the health care industry and they should solicit the assistance of information technology experts to understand the blending of the two.

Medical Personnel Need Tech Access

In the case of this article, the nurses realized the value of having access to information and they desired to have access to information that would help them to help their patients.

This trend is not going to stop. Even if medical professionals do not have access to the information in their place of employment, they are not unaware of the existence of the information when they have access to it from their homes, their laptops at Starbucks, and now their smartphones in their cars (not while driving, of course!).

So, this (and other studies), while possibly stunted in some cases, demonstrate that our future includes a continued marriage of the healthcare industry and the technology industry and has high hopes of a smooth transition as information and training is shared with those who need it most.

Why Nursing Homes Need Telemedicine

Nursing homes do not have sufficient physicians to see all their residents. If they add an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) using telemedicine to consult with doctors, they can improve patient outcomes.

Nursing Home Crisis: Shortage of Nurses

In 2021, 99% of nursing homes are reporting staff shortages. The shortage of nurses is particularly critical. Find out more in the infographic below.

Wound Care in the Age of Coronavirus [Infographic]

What are Telemedicine and Telehealth? [Infographic]

See the infographic below for details.

Healthcare Jobs of the Future [Infographic]The Booming Business of Telemedicine [Infographic]

The main difference is that Telehealth covers remote clinical services while Telemedicine covers remote non-clinical services. See the infographic below for more details.

Originally published 11/7/15; updated 6/18/20 because it had become outdated and to add another infographic; updated 8/18/20 to add Tele-health vs Tele-medicine infographic; updated 3/14/21 to add Wound Care infographic; updated 7/28/21 to add Healthcare Trends infographic and update featured image. Updated 12/13/21 to add the Nurse Shortage infographic; updated 1/4/22 to add the effects of drug and staff shortages and that infographic. Restored and updated 8/7/23.

Category: Food Feed Health

What Would You Do If Your Community Had No Water?