Children are the future. Isn’t that what everyone says? It is a lovely sentiment. Sadly, very little is done to secure that future. Without a fair start to life, millions of children are doomed. This is where Fair Start Movement comes in.
We believe that all children deserve the same rights; they should all be born at the same starting line. This line is more of a zig-zag, though, as those in power invest in keeping the wealthy at the top and everyone else to fend for themselves. And as we have seen, this method is only making things worse for the rest of us.
Fair Start Movement focuses on two things: (1) push for family planning practices where would-be parents wait until they are mentally, emotionally, and financially ready to have children, (2) educating people on why sustainable families are better for the individuals and society as our planet’s resources are depleting quickly, and (3) advocate for policies that invest in programs and services that help all children, not only those born into wealthy families.
For as long as I can remember, the message has been “having children is your purpose, and the more children the better!” I made a choice of not having children because honestly, I do not want to bring a child into the world as it is, especially with the environmental issues we face. But there are millions of families out there who will continue to have children and we need to change things for them.
What we have been doing as a society is not working. When one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with around 720 BILLIONAIRES, how can we justify unhoused, starving children? Things need to change.
Amboseli Love works hard to empower young Maasai women, and now amidst a devastating drought, driven by the climate crisis. But like many groups, Amboseli Love is taking fundamental action, embracing child-centric family planning and other policies that enable them to make overriding calls for things like climate reparations from the nations that mostly created the climate crisis. Fair Start supports their calls, and urges others to as well.
Like most poor women in African nations, the majority of Maasai women in Kenya are destined to live a life of poverty and cultural oppression. Just one generation ago, less than 20 percent of Maasai women in Kenya enrolled in school. Today, even with free primary school education in Kenya since January 2003, only 48 percent of Maasai girls enroll in school, and only 10 percent of girls make it to secondary school.
Dickson at work.
Typically, Maasai girls are circumcised between the ages of 11 to 13 and soon afterwards married to a man chosen by her father in exchange for cattle and cash. A Maasai woman will never be allowed to divorce, except in the most egregious cases of physical abuse, and will never be allowed to marry again, even if the husband her father chooses is an old man who dies when she is still in her teens. Instead, she becomes the property of one of her husband’s brothers. She will be one of multiple wives, and will have many children, regardless of her health or ability to provide for them. She will rise early every day to milk cows and spend her days walking miles to water holes to launder clothes and get water, and to gather heavy loads of firewood to carry back home. If she is lucky, she will have a donkey to share her burden. She will live a life of few physical comforts, dependent on a husband and a family she did not choose. Her life expectancy is 45 years.
If you educate a woman: She will know her rights and have the confidence and independence to stand up for them. She will choose whom to marry and when to marry. She will have fewer children, and they will be healthier and better educated than the previous generation. She will not circumcise her daughters. She will have economic security. She will spend 90 percent of her income on her family, compared to 35 percent that an educated man would spend. She will help support her parents. She will not forget where she came from.
TAKE ACTION: Learn more about Amboseli, Www.amboselilove.com, and please give through our partner organization Rejoice Africa Foundation by simple marking your donation “for Amboseli.”
Healthy living is more than eating vegetables and getting in a daily workout. It is a comprehensive lifestyle that nourishes minds, bodies, souls and the environment. Learn how you can encourage healthy living while avoiding common parenting missteps.
1. Don’t Make Your Kids Clean Their Plates
While a desire to not waste can be appreciated, requiring kids to eat everything on their plates teaches them to ignore natural hunger cues. Instead, try starting with smaller portions and add more as necessary. Another option is to serve meals family-style and give children agency over what and how much they eat.
2. Don’t Use Food as a Reward
One of the oldest parenting tricks in the book is to bribe children with dessert to get them to eat vegetables. This tactic is harmful for multiple reasons.
The food used as a reward is usually highly processed and loaded with sugar. Since humans already have a biological tendency toward sweets, using sugary foods as a reward can increase cravings, leading to obesity, tooth decay and other health issues.
A food-based reward system also interferes with a child’s ability to self-regulate. Receiving a treat as a reward teaches children to eat more for pleasure rather than nourishment. Once children are offered treats as rewards, they learn to associate these nutritionally-deficient foods as desirable and healthy options as a necessary evil. Promote healthy food choices by offering a variety of nutrient-rich vegan options and empowering kids to follow their bodies’ signals. These recipes include ingredients that are more affordable for families than plant-based alternative meats or dairy products.
3. Do Support Dietary Preferences
There are countless types of diets and reasons why individuals adhere to a specific one. Some do so out of medical necessity while others choose dietary practices that align with their value system.
Your child may adopt a diet that differs from your own. Aim to support that choice so long as your child is getting adequate nutrients. For example, a child who is a budding animal rights advocate may commit to veganism. Collaborate to find and prepare vegan recipes. Take the opportunity to learn more about your child and why following a vegan lifestyle is important to him or her.
4. Do Encourage Outside Time
Experts recommend that children of all ages spend at least 90 minutes outside each day. In reality, the average American child plays outdoors for only four to seven minutes daily. Adequate time spent in nature is found to develop confidence, boost creativity, reduce stress and anxiety and promote a sense of environmental stewardship. Try the following ideas to increase outside time:
Plant an edible garden
Create art projects using materials found in nature
Build a bird feeder
Take a hike to a scenic spot like a waterfall
5. Do Seek Help From a Medical Professional
If you find that your child is struggling to develop healthy habits, reach out to a medical professional for help. Instead of waiting to get in-person appointments or dealing with long travel times, seek virtual medical care. Online services are continuously expanding, giving you access to affordable, high-quality care and treatment from primary care providers, dieticians and any other pediatric specialist your child may need.
6. Do Model Positive Behaviors
Inspire your children to lead healthy, meaningful lives. Model positive behaviors and traits, such as mindful consumerism. Leading by example, for example, will help your children to not only make healthy choices for themselves but also be forces for positive change in the world. Teaching them leadership skills can help them develop traits such as integrity, which can last them a lifetime.
7. Help Make the World Wonderful for Them
Lastly, take steps whenever possible to help make the world a better place for your children to grow. Organizations such as Fair Start Movement, for example, strive to help provide support to policies that help kids from all walks of life have an equal opportunity at success in an ecologically sound world. Learn more about The Fair Start Model and look for ways that you and your family can donate or volunteer to help.
Teaching your child to make healthy choices is an action that will impact generations to come. Start early, be consistent and grow together.
I agree with recent thoughts from journalist and political commentator Fareed Zakaria: Democrats need to get back to bread-and-butter issues, start building things again, focus on gas prices, food prices, etc.
The culture wars are too divisive. I met 10 people recently, citizens and naturalized citizens from the Caribbean (Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica), Europe (England), the USA and Africa (Nigeria), all of whom are concerned. Five have switched from the Democratic Party to independent, due to the culture wars, saying there’s too much emphasis on sexual orientation by politicians and people. There is no teacher, anywhere on this earth, who’s waking up and going to teach harmful sexual ideas to their students.
We are watching lies, misinformation and such disrespectful behaviors by certain groups who claim to be the moral police. We all care about all students receiving a quality public education and having opportunities to succeed. In my humble opinion, a lot of students are being taught hate, division, bigotry, racism and fear at their homes, places of worship and other places before they enter a school. I firmly believe that the foundation for everything starts in the homes.
There is a time and place for everything and everyone. The Democrats are the “party of the big tent,” with all welcome. Well, we still don’t have a message and we allow Republicans to control the narrative on every single issue. I’m terrified about democracy vs. autocracy.
Who is Rejoice Africa Foundation? Rejoice Africa foundation is nonprofit charitable organization founded by indigenous people from the republic of Uganda with the same vision, mission and objectives in line saving the next generation. [Rejoice Africa Foundation replaces Kibengo Youths Care Activists]
Vision
To strengthen the capacity of grassroots communities in preventing and alleviating climate risks and ensure that no life is jeopardized due to climate change impacts.
Mission
Building resilience against climate change in Uganda.
Objectives
Identifying multifaceted responses to conserve the environment, ecosystem and mitigate climate changes in Uganda.
To promote sanitation and hygiene for grassroots communities through establishing to improve air and water quality and reduce water bone diseases and ensure that there’s shelter and sufficient food.
Collaborate and involve grassroots communities to find and implement solutions to avert climate change induced poverty in youth.
Rejoice Africa foundation founding members based the entity on the following challenges facing today’s generations.
Over population in Africa.
Increased carbon emission and greenhouse gases (harsh climate change)
Poor sanitation and hygiene.
Poverty rates in Africa.
Plastic pollution.
Extinction of wildlife.
Overpopulation in Africa. In 1990, as the human global population reached 5,327,231,061. then in 2021 human global population reached 7. 9 billion people on global total land area of 13,003 million hectares. Rejoice Africa foundation predicts in 2100 the global human population will be 9,735,033,900 people on the planet earth. These will increase demand for food, water, housing, health, transportation energy, unemployment, instabilities and environmental degradation.
Rejoice Africa foundation is hereby suggesting the following strategies in human overpopulation on the limited global land area of 13,003 million hectares,
Giving reproductive health education through secondary school for all with a particular focus on girls. as an important tool of empowerment, education can potentially provide young people with control over fertility especially among girls. COVID-19 has increased girls’ exposure to unwanted pregnancies due to limited access to birth control facilities in the health centers. In order to meet this strategy, RAF aims at promoting reproductive health education for all girls through peer-to-peer reproductive health education in identified secondary schools, avail learning materials of ways to control unwanted pregnancies.
Assure universal access to a range of safe and effective contraceptive options for both sexes;
90 % of Contraceptives methods have been for only one sex (girls) and the have many side effects affects the girls/women leading to fear of acquiring contraceptives leading to lack of birth control. male sex contributes to population increase because one man can in pregnant 4 women daily if they are in fertile days whereas women can be fertile for only 7 days in the months and a pregnancy takes 9 months. Rejoice Africa Foundation is calling for universal access fewer side effects contraceptives to all sexes (unisex contraceptive methods)
End all policies that reward parents financially based on the number of children. Some countries support poor families with funds basing on size of the family members, these families tend to produce many children for targeting large family members that can attract governments to support them with a lot of funds. There is need for government policy makers to revisit and amend those policies for people to control birth rates.
Convince leaders to commit to ending population growth through the exercise of human rights and human development. Through coalitions with other organizations, foundations, Rejoice Africa foundation is calling stakeholders.
Menstrual hygiene for all girls/women of childbearing age. most girls in developing world have faced poor menstruation care due to inadequate access to safe water and sanitary pads. Rejoice Africa foundation emerged to improve on water accessibility to all identified vulnerable girls in Uganda.
Religious beliefs: some religion in today’s generation they oppose birth control methods they end up promoting population increase.
Rejoice and Fair Start working together
Rejoice leadership and Fair Start have both urged the United Nations, Partners in Population Development and other world leaders to adopt Fair Start or comparable family reforms, and mutually support calls for climate reparations based on correcting the baseline error that underlies current and near universal family planning systems, the error that is fundamentally driving climate change and massive economic inequity.
Poor sanitation and hygiene and end plastic pollution
Figure 1 WATER TANK CONSTRUCTED USING PLASTIC BOTTLESFigure 2 GIRLS RECIEVING SANITARY PADS
Plastic pollution is a fact and it’s widely acknowledged that world is midst of climate crisis.
Human activities such as use of non-biodegradable plastic materials have increased extinction of water animals, water volumes and land degradation.
In Uganda, plastic use such as form of drinking water and sodas have discharged 600 metric tons of plastic waste per day only 6% of plastic wastes are collected.
The remaining 94% of plastic wastes are not collected.
Indigenous people are not well versed with the innovation of reusing 94% of uncollectible plastics. These uncollectible plastics washed away by running water into water sources (lakes, wells, springs, Rivers and pods) and other can be covered by the soil.
Non-biodegradable plastic materials take many years to decay. High amounts of plastic wastes accumulated in water sources have resulted into reduced water volume for human consumption hence reducing rainfall cycle in the region.
Most schoolgirls who are undergoing menstruation period are directly affected because of inadequate access to clean water for hygiene and drinking.
They have suffered unhygienic menstruation management that increased fungal and bacterial infection leading to psychosocial stress in girls hence not learning well in class.
The country ends up having more school dropouts.
Re-using plastic bottles to construct rainwater reservoir tanks in schools has emerged as a major instrument to fight plastic pollutions and inadequate access to clean water supply to schoolgirls in Uganda.
It’s one of the numbers of innovative strategies targeted at reducing 94%of uncollected plastic bottles in the communities.
Improving accessibility of adequate water sources in schools will reduce school dropouts related to Psychosocial stress in schoolgirls.
Increased carbon emission and greenhouse gases
Enhancing Agroforestry/permaculture for Promotion of Climate Change Resilience, Eco social and rural livelihoods in Uganda.
Climate change is a fact, and it is widely acknowledged that the world is in the midst of a global warming Crisis. Human activities such as fossil fuel combustion and land use change have released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which is the primary driver of recent climate change. Land use such as Agriculture alone, discharges more than 6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere each year. Because of increased severity of climate change impacts on some Areas, the consequences have been more severe and disastrous.
In Uganda, climate change is a serious problem, affecting livelihoods. The country experiences prolonged drought, short and erratic rains which are disastrous and affecting Agriculture production, the backbone of the country.
Also due to disparities in traditional roles, societal expectations and livelihoods, men and women are affected differently by climate changes.
Women account for the bulk of Uganda’s Population of 23.19 million population.
They have lower wages, less access to credit, decision – making power and less control over resources all of which make them more vulnerable to climate changes.
It’s therefore important to consider differences when tackling the issue of climate change.
Agroforestry/ permaculture has emerged as a major instrument in the fight against climate change in recent years. It’s a widely accepted answer to the twin problems of climate change and food security.
It’s one of a number of innovative strategies targeted at increasing production while also assisting in the mitigation of climate change by increasing carbon sequestration and boosting the system’s ability to cope with negative consequences of climate change mitigation and development of vulnerable group’s livelihoods such as women, by planting fruit trees alongside food crops.
The impending overturn of Roe. v. Wade has starkly and publicly revealed the new reality facing the United States. The anti-choice, pro-gun, ‘anti-everything-good’ conservatives are playing their hand face up. They have shamelessly stopped pretending to play by the rules and – if you’re listening – they’re telling us exactly what our future looks like. For 99 percent of us, it doesn’t look good.
The powers that be – mostly old, white, dusty antiques like Mitch McConnell, Eugene B. Meyer, Donald Trump – are climbing the castle walls in their 50-year strategy to cement in place their power and influence. As the world changes around them, as American society embraces all different stripes of people, the old guard conservatives and the wealthy 1 percent are terrified of losing their grip.
The Fair Start Movement approaches this fight from a new and different perspective. We believe that: No government, state or federal, has a legitimate standing to mandate the birth of every child conceived unless it is prepared to care for those children beyond the birth canal and give them a Fair Start.
At this critical crossroads in human history, we must acknowledge that every child born has a right to start out in decent circumstances. We must account for the wellbeing, equity and personal development of future generations if we are to foster a real democracy where each person’s voice matters. We must accept that our current system destroys the environment and does nothing, in fact takes negative action, to mitigate the oncoming crises.
We already see progress. Many people agree with our vision and are committed to real, positive change. As we build a truly democratic population, wherein everyone has a voice that is heard, we will move away from the toxic, crumbling society of today.
We will honor individual rights and guarantee universal healthcare. We will return to nature by respecting our place in the ecosystem, giving and taking sustainably. We will escape the domination of the selfish, greedy, wealthy few whose plan for the future – assuming they have one – accounts for their survival alone.
In the meantime, we must work within the system we have. The State must accept its obligation to invest heavily in common-sense family planning programs and science-based sex ed. Those items alone will automatically lower abortion rates and teach young people the truth about having and growing a healthy family.
The State must break its unconstitutional commitment to Christian moral dictates and adopt a reality-based approach to governing. It is absurd and completely unacceptable that 350 million+ people of every faith are governed based on the ethos of bronze-age men.
We must shift our paradigm away from the endless-growth-economy fantasy, which demands that mothers continually produce their supply of workers and consumers. Prisoners to boot.
Let’s change the conversation.
Fair Start has already taken action against ExxonMobil, demanding that they include the health of future generations when making policy changes. They talk a good game about how sustainable they are, but we have challenged them to take concrete steps toward guaranteeing the future of our species rather than living by the annual quarter.
The leak came out late on May 2, 2022. A source close to the Supreme Court had scooped Politico, leaking Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, finding for the defendant. Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey was next on the chopping block. Half of the country mourned. The other half took a victory lap, then quickly got back to work furthering their agenda.
We cannot go backward from this. We must find our way and define our new reality in a post-Roe world.
To that end, the Fair Start Movement has a vision that, hopefully, can breach the divide and bring us together. Everyone could have a slice of what they want in the debate over abortion.
Historically, the pro-choice lobby has focused heavily on an individual’s right to bodily autonomy and protecting their access to abortion. This approach takes into account only one stakeholder: the person seeking reproductive care.
In fact, we argue that there are at least three interested parties in each case.
1) The pregnant person
2) The future child (Not the fetus, but the future person if they were brought to term)
3) The community/society at large, which would be set up to help raise and nurture each baby born to them
In this vision, all people would identify as members of their communities. Society would be structured around a set of largely self-governing groups. Each member would begin life with a Fair Start, having the access and opportunities afforded to all. A pregnant person would be free to decide how and when to start or grow their family. The community would support them equally through any decision they made.
Any future version of Roe would require that we prepare healthy space and allocate resources for future generations. The current ‘family-planning’ model, and indeed Roe as well, did nothing to protect and nurture future children. A Fair Start would mean that each child begins life:
Being wanted
Being cared for physically, spiritually and financially
Being assured a level of comfort and opportunity only the wealthy enjoy today
If those criteria were met for every child born into society, our communities would automatically begin to thrive. Once one generation of Fair Start Kids is established, life will continually improve as long as this new egalitarian mode of living remains the norm.
The reality we face in the wake of Alito’s scoffing assertion that Roe v. Wade was “egregiously wrong from the start” will include forced pregnancy and birth. It will worsen poverty, crime and human suffering. It will impact and end careers. Mental and physical health will decline. It will continue to turn a blind eye to the Climate Crisis. It will do nothing to improve the circumstances of anyone but the 1 percent currently alive and in power today. It will create our progeny but ignore their basic needs. It will create more children, but it will not be bothered about their quality of life.
We hope that our approach would plant the seeds of an empathetic, self-governing populace – one that cares for all existing (and future) members. We envision a community that does not dictate personal choices, that respects privacy and welcomes and cares for each member and each baby with open arms.
For a start, working within our current anti-choice, anti-privacy reality, we have a proposal that would help women and reproductive health care professionals.
The Fair Start SMA Project: Educate and Inform to Protect Choice
Fair Start’s initial response to the Politico leak was to issue a broad challenge to Gov. Greg Abbot (R) of Texas, demanding that he revise his draconian, myopic and cruel Texas SB8 bill. SB8 prohibits abortion six weeks after the pregnant person’s last menstrual period. Oklahoma was close on Abbot’s heels.
After May 2, we knew we had to think beyond Texas. Our modified proposal will go further. It will elevate and scale education programs for abortion-care professionals on supporting patients through self-managed abortions (SMAs). SMAs will increase tenfold once Roe is overturned, and these solutions are typically safe today thanks to medications like Plan B, sometimes called the “Morning After Pill.”
We will ensure our health-care professionals have access to specialized pro bono legal services when we launch in Texas and Oklahoma. Ultimately we aim to organize a fleet of pro bono lawyers who will intercede for educators, their professional students and patients in case of legal interference by the state.
We need your help creating this safety net! Anyone seeking abortion care, and in particular anyone who provides it will be on very shaky ground. We reject the notion of health care professionals in prison over helping someone take charge of their life.
A ‘Right’ to Elevate and Empower All
At Fair Start, we aim to replace the current outdated parent-centric family planning paradigm with one that is child-centric, ecologically restorative, objective and fair. This includes recognizing and promoting each person’s basic, singular and overarching ‘Right’ to life, safety, adequate food and shelter. Granting The Right to all at birth will also allow everyone to pursue their dreams, because they will not begin life at the bottom.
The concept of The Right is inspired by the concrete standards laid out in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Beyond children’s rights, The Right would guarantee everyone independent, autonomous control over reproductive and other personal choices. Moreover, it would acknowledge and elevate the other two stakeholders in the family planning process: the future child and the community.
FSM pioneered the claim that The Right supersedes all others, because without the ideals The Right represents, personal autonomy, freedom and potential are null and void. When a child is born into poverty or abuse, the pursuit of higher goals and self-actualization are impossible. This concept is supported by voluminous peer-reviewed and recommended research.
Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at Cambridge University, writes “Our children and grandchildren have a right to sufficient food, shelter, and physical security, and to opportunities to develop and flourish.”
Today’s parent-centric, short-sighted approach does not even begin to gesture toward the looming and blatantly obvious questions about our future. It is focused squarely on ensuring that every pregnancy ends in birth. After that, good luck and good riddance.
Call to Action – Join the Good Fight
We know we have to take this one step at a time. Our ideals are lofty and would certainly face strong opposition. The fact is, however, our vision is all-inclusive. We want to bring everyone along into a gentler society focused on life and happiness, not locked in a deathmatch over wealth and power.
The government and societal models we live in today were simply dreamed up by old white men throughout the ages. It doesn’t have to be this way. None of this is carved in stone. Human suffering is a bug, not a feature! Governments CAN nurture and protect their citizens instead of groveling before their big donors.
The truth is: Human potential is vast. The only thing keeping us in this deadly downward spiral is a lack of imagination. Roe v. Wade is emblematic of our predicament. Ultimately these kinds of laws will become unnecessary. In the future, fairness and universal equality will be the base of the pyramid, not a pipe dream.
“Behind Elon Musk’s blather about free markets, free speech, and free choice is his goal to be free from accountability,” Robert Reich warns. Like the actions of fellow billionaire Trump, this move to influence the public with false claims and dangerous propaganda threatens democracy. So what does this have to do with a fair start in life? A lot. Unjust birth conditions are the root of inequality. That inequality allows unjust wealth to flow to the hands of a few. When we ensure equity from birth, we build communities where voices are equal and democracy is truly exercised.
Speaking about an IPCC report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations that threaten human lives and will costs governments hundreds of billions to confront. Fossil fuels take the spotlight. But that ignores all other growth driven harms like habitat destruction and water scarcity. We can no longer ignore that the quest endless-growth and profits above all has had catastrophic consequences for all life on our fragile planet. Children have a right to an eco-social fair start. That means restoring nature for the next and future generations. We can do that through Fair Start policies.
