The newspaper today launched its Christmas Appeal, and is supporting the Midlands-based charity.

Journalist Raymond Whitaker has written a lovely feature about how the life of Martha Lino, who lives in the highlands of Peru, has been transformed by simple technologies.

Practical Action, he explains, asks people what solutions they need, then finds simple technological answers. It’s wonderfully simple, and I wonder why it is not done more.

The help given to Martha include bio-sand filters, so she, her family and other villagers can have clean drinking water; a stove that burns more efficiently and sends its smoke elsewhere than inside the house; an eco-latrine that turns human waste into compost without using water, and a solar panel so that for the first time Martha has lights in her home, and even a radio.

Martha, whose husband left her after their second child was born, paints a picture of life before Practical Action. The Independent on Sunday quotes her saying: ”I used to collect water from the stream just outside our village, but it is often dirty, and I think we got ill from drinking the water. We do not have toilets… the tradition here has always been to go in the fields. My children had stomach pains or diarrhoea, but what could I do? There was nowhere else to get water.”

The appeal is urging people to give some of their cash to those who need it more.

£17 can provide a family with a new, improved stove, £28 would pay for training on water sanitation and safe hygiene for four community leaders, £38 will give a family a photovoltaic panel system, and £65 would provide a household with a bio-sand filter.

I will give a stove and already feel much more heart-warmed and Christmassy than when I went out Christmas shopping. If you can spare some money too, you can use this link here to donate.

According to the official stats, which are generally shocking enough to illustrate how serious the problem is, there are 33.4m people living with HIV worldwide.

That’s more than the entire population of Morocco.

Many people here in the UK have a tendency to generalise and say it’s not their problem. They say that HIV is an African and Asian thing. And they would be wrong.

Yes HIV is a massive problem in many countries across the world, but the UK is not exempt. More than 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK. So if they need a issue to be on their doorstep in order to care about it, then let that fact alone bring it home.

In the UK we are rich resources and have no excuse for not doing what is right by those who have HIV.

In the developing world they do not. They need education, and they need understanding.

In 2007 I visited Rwanda, and there I met many women who had Aids. They explained that they had been ostracised by their communities. They were often widows with children. And they were trying to raise a family in poor conditions, with little resources, and diminishing energy. These women were startlingly impressive.

Many of them knew nothing about Aids until they were diagnosed with it. Others only knew the name.

Once diagnosed, they were doing little bits to try and help themselves, from drinking goat’s milk, which had more nutrients and was more-easily digestible than cow’s milk, to finding different less taxing ways to earn a living. One woman was growing mushrooms. It didn’t require the same masses of energy that other crops did. She was determined to raise her family and not be a burden to society.

Her story alone was enough to convince me that there was more to be done in educating people about safe sex.

I have long admired, and from long distance only, the work of Wan Smalbog, an NGO based in Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, but using drama to make tricky issues more accessible to people.

Using drama to break down barriers and inform people is a tried and tested method. But I particularly like how it is done by this organisation, and I would like to mention the story.

The charity was set up in 1989 by 15 volunteer actors, and 21 years later it employs 100 people and has more than 400 volunteers. Talk about power of the people.

It produces plays, films and radio programmes to inform in a way that isn’t overbearing and doesn’t preach. It looks at youth, environment, education and governance issues as well as health, but obviously, today I’m going to look at its work tackling Aids.

The charity has produced comic books about Aids, posters, plays about Aids which have been taught to theatre companies across the South Pacific. For eight years it ran a weekly radio drama called Famili blong Serah, focusing on various health issues, including HIV. This eight-year production is now enjoying a re-run. Let me pause here and say how unequivocally I admire its work.

Here is one quote from the company’s website. It’s feedback from a radio listener: “On the islands, it is difficult to reach the Aid Post to get information about how the body changes, pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS. There are many issues that I have learned a lot about from Famili blong Serah.”

If my friend in Rwanda had known more about HIV she might have been better able to protect herself. Perhaps the world could do with more Wan Smalbogs.

I cannot imagine how the people in Port au Prince, Haiti, feel after being hit by yet another storm.

It will soon be a year since the earthquake disaster hit the island’s capital – and yet still many are living in tents struggling for survival.

And then a storm hit, and without substantial shelter, six people died and 67 were injured.

In the report from one charity alone, 2,000 tents were damaged in the storm. What a set back!

Concern says: “The storm hit Port au Prince at 3pm on 24 September and lasted for around 30 minutes. Concern Worldwide responded immediately by assessing damage in our camps and distributing tarps and ropes to residents in the Tabarre settlements. We also identified and addressed flooding and drainage problems in and around the camps. In Tabarre Issa camp alone, 240 tents were destroyed in the storm and many more are leaking.”

Their report later says a further 8,000 shelters were affected by the storm, making shelter the key priority across the capital.

They say the camp management team estimated 2,000 tents were damaged or destroyed. They were immediately able to replace only 245.

I loved getting the magazine through the post every quarter. It was a great way to read up about work being done around the world, see facts and figures about ID, and read some inspiring stories.

No more.

The last edition looks at the Millennium Development Goals, looking at the progress made.

Examples of the heart-warming titbits to be found include Kenya getting 2 million more children into primary school by scrapping fees, seeing the increase of skilled attendants at birth in Rwanda from 39 per cent to 52 per cent between 2005-08, and the cancellation of debt owed by 26 countries.

Nice.

So today, in tribute to Developments, I’m spreading the word about one of the pieces in the latest and last publication.

Child mortality.

The report says the statistics remain shocking, and they’re right. An estimated 8.8 million children under five will die this year, and almost all of them will be from the developing world. There are 131 countries in the world with less population than that (examples include Switzerland, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand).

But believe it or not, this 8.8m is a massive improvement. In 2008, the figure was 12.5m, so in two years there has been a 28 per cent reduction in child mortality.

That’s not easy progress to have made in just two years, especially when you learn what the cause of death tends to be, and what must have been put in place in order to make these improvements - Unicef says that more than 75 per cent of these deaths are caused by six things – diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, and lack of oxygen at birth.

So what changes have been made? Children are now getting greater access to immunisations, use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, and vitamin A supplements.

So progress is happening. The money poured into ID is making a difference. And on a day that Developments says goodbye, it’s nice that it’s last word is a positive one.

I can well believe it.

Not only have we been inundated by disasters over the last few years, but for all the money we have given in the past, it just does not seem to go a long way. According to the Disaster Emergency Committee, the disaster in Haiti in January received one of the best donation responses from the public (beaten only by the Asian tsunami) and yet we are reminded that millions more are needed there still, with people still living in tents and surviving on hand-out food.

So now Pakistan needs our help, except this diaster is, in UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon’s words, the worst disaster he has ever seen. 

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said a quarter of the aid so far given to Pakistan has come from Britain – but he also said people were struggling to see the extent of the crisis.

Perhaps this is the case.

But I also think people see the Pakistan floods as an insurmountable problem. They are overwhelmed, and because they do not think they can enough, they decide to instead do nothing.

This response is something international development charities will have to face, whether now or at a later disaster. We have to find a new way to make people care.

Just two days ago charity Child’s i Foundation set up a JustGiving fundraising page and begged people to give money to pay for little Joey to have a life-saving operation. Child’s i Foundation is a transitional babies home in Uganda that posts all developments, opinions and information online so people can follow its work closely and support accordingly. The first child that Child’s i found a new home for was little Joey, but two weeks after he started his new life his new parents brought him back for help – he has a heart condition and needed an operation to survive.

Today, the JustGiving page reached more than £10,000 – enough to send Joey to India for his operation. In just two days, £10,000 was raised by a community who did not want thanks, wanted nothing back in fact. They simply wanted to give life to a little boy whose story had been made real to them.

My thoughts are with Joey. I wish him all the best.

Action Against Hunger has also published an inspiring story, Against all Odds, Baby Monday’s Story.

Named for the day of the week on which he was born, Monday was born prematurely, and his mother died because she had a retained placenta and there was no transport to take her to hospital.

The report is worth reading in full, but I shall quote a small part: “There are no incubators at the Kaabong Referral Hospital, nor is there electricity to power a heating lamp that might keep his little body warm. So Baby Monday was wrapped in a bundle of wool blankets and kept in the sun whenever possible to keep his temperature up.”

Cared for by his eight-year-old sister, Monday seemed to get stronger until one day he started having diarrhoea and began vomiting. He was diagnosed with malaria. And yet he pulled through – as the report says “against all odds”.

These are the touching stories that make me believe in international development, despite the sheer intimidating size of the problem, despite the sceptics, despite all the problems there are in getting the right aid to all the right people.

Like so many other people, it’s the stories that capture my imagination and keep me plodding on when the chips are down.

You can hear raging water not far away, and you do not feel safe.

And you are right not to feel safe, because this raging water is chipping away at the mudflat that is your sanctuary. And soon the mudflat will be washed away – and you along with it.

This is the reality that thousands upon thousands face in Pakistan at the moment, caught up in a catastrophe of flooding that has already claimed 1,600 lives.

It is no surprise that people are jumping at helicopters desperate to be carried to safety. As the Sunday Express today reports: “Pakistanis desperate to get out of flooded villages threw themselves at military helicopters delivering emergency supplies, as more heavy rain was expected.”

Others wait only to see relief washed away with the flood water.

The Sunday Times quotes Hidayat Ullah, whose house is a mile north of the Kabul river.

The newspaper writes: “On their second day perched on the roof, Hidayat’s family saw a helicopter fly over and drop some food. He said: “Most of it fell into the water and was carried out. It was a desperate time.”

Hearing words from people on the ground is heart-wrenching, and I wish the helcopters could fly overhead, picking people up from the rooftops and bringing them to safety.

Instead, those who are rescued from the flood waters are taken to temporary camps, and the battle for food starts, with Pakistan’s poor infrastructure a barrier to those trying to bring relief.

What is the best thing to do?

Do we dig deep and hope the money is spent wisely? One woman I spoke to here in Gloucester, Rashida Hussain (originally from Pakistan), says that in 2005, when the earthquake struck, she fundraised, then used her own money to fly to Islamabad, get to the affected areas, ask people what they needed, then buy them from local suppliers and go out handing the goods. “I really felt like I’d done some good,” she said.

Rashida’s own family were caught up in the earthquake, but she feels no less passionate about the work this time around, and would like to do the same.

I wonder if a mixture of large charities and private self-funded endeavours like this is the best way. Both come under criticism. Neither can save everybody, but does variety mean we offer the best aid collectively?

It is strange, living in a country where any victim of sex-related crime is given automatic anonymity, to see Cafod‘s new exhibition, which launched yesterday. 50 years, 50 faces is an exhibition of images and interviews with 50 women from the Democratic Republic of Congo who have suffered sexual violence.

Cafod says “Many were held captive by rebel militia for weeks or even years, violently abused on a daily basis. Almost all returned to stigmatisation and rejection by their families and community.”

How awful to see their beautiful faces, and their pained eyes.

But what a powerful message it is for us here in England.

Therese Mema Mapenzi, from the Justice and Peace Commission in DRC, said: “It is very important that the voices of women affected by sexual violence are heard. Rape has become a weapon of war and we must not let it be forgotten because it has become commonplace. Every assault against a woman or girl is a terrifying and devastating experience, especially when it is often followed by stigmatisation by family and friends.”

I agree, any sexual violation is appalling. But I wonder what the aims of this exhibition is – just to raise awareness or to really galvanise change.

My heart goes out to Feza M’Nyampundu – in the exhibition preview she says: “Two men raped me in front of my husband.

“I was taken to the forest and for three days I was raped by many men.”

And also to M’Namihampa Munyerenkana, who explains: “The rebels came in the night and raped my daughter to death. Then they raped me.”

To all the women in fact.

But what can I do? What can anybody here do?

The exhibition is currently open to the public at Morley Gallery, 61 Westminster Bridge Road, London until August 19 when it will go on a 12-month tour.

Eager students watch Chane Temesgen as he stands at the head of his classroom.

Yet he cannot return their gaze as he has been blind for 50 years.

Chane lost his sight through an undiagnosed illness when he was six, but believes blindness should be no barrier to achieving. In fact, he argues, blindness helped him enjoy a life he would not otherwise have had.

“If I had been given medicine, I probably would have kept my sight,” he explains.

“But my mother had no money so I had no medicine.”

Chane, now 56, has been a teacher for more than 20 years and wants to do everything in his power to help today’s blind youngsters realise their potential. He comes from a farming family in a rural area of Gojam, in western Ethiopia. His family believed that without his sight, he would not be able to work the land. So while his brothers and sisters stayed at home, he was sent to town to find sponsorship for his education.

It took a few years, but finally a local governor helped him start at a school for blind children.

“There were many problems – no Braille paper, no typewriter, no textbooks for blind people. It was terrible, but we learned,” Chane said.

“In secondary school they said the only thing I could do was teach. I had no choice, but I also wanted to become a teacher so that was not a problem.”

Decades on, Chane teaches at a secondary school in Addis Alem, a town in central Ethiopia. He is painfully aware his story is the exception rather than the rule and knows few other blind people who have made such a success of their lives.

“If I wasn’t blind I wouldn’t have done as well,” he says.

“I would never have been at school. I was given an education because I was blind and had to leave the village. It is good to be a teacher. At the beginning of every year I tell my students I am blind and they accept and follow the rules I set.”

In 2008, the World Health Organisation stated that 1.6 per cent of Ethiopia’s total population was blind – but as yet in Addis Alem there are no primary schools with the resources for blind students, and none of the town’s many blind children are enrolled at Chane’s secondary school.

“There are at least 20 children in the area who are blind,” he adds.

“I wanted to help them and talked with the education desk about supporting them, but still they did not come. Visually-impaired learners do not get a chance to learn.

“The problem is income. They don’t have any. Their families are farmers and do not let them leave the farm to come to the school. They don’t realise that blind people can find good work. We have no blind students, but I’m always ready and prepared to help them.”

His school has a library building with a series of resources, such as computers and books, provided by Bristol-based charity For-Ethiopia. These could be used to help blind students – but first blind children and their families have to feel education is relevant for them. Chane says he wishes he had a way to show the whole country that blind people can help the community and contribute to the economy. According to charity Gondar (Ethiopia) Eye Surgery, which works in northern Ethiopia, 80 per cent of the country’s blind people do not contribute to the economy at all.

But Chane says education and having the chance of a good life can make a difference. He believes the country needs to find a way to convince families that education is good for everyone.

He uses his teacher’s salary to support his own family – a wife and five children – and his sister’s children. Outside school, he chairs two organisations – one that monitors use of water pipes in the community and another that offers support to grieving families.

He also runs his own business, a language and computer centre, which has trained 70 people including four who are blind.

“I contribute to the local area,” he says.

“Blind people do not have to be a financial burden. I am a blind person but I can still do anything. My eyes are blind but my mind is not.”

When the Haiti earthquake devastated the country six months ago, Unicef UK called to the public to donate funds to help the emergency effort.

Five UK regional newspapers took up the challenge. They were in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Belfast, Brighton and Norfolk.

Six months on Unicef says these five newspapers have raised £70,000 for the fund – one percent of the total (£7m) raised by Unicef UK for the effort.

Now, one per cent is not dramatic. But it does represent £70,000 raised that might not otherwise have been collected.

At a time when the UK was in recession and many were sturggling with their own finances I am pleased with the result.

I also think it shows that local newspapers do not have to restrict their reporting to local issues – and that people care about what is happening far and wide.

As The Citizen reported, money raised went on everything “from toothbrushes to toilets”.

In Port-au-Prince, the paper says, nine-year-old Marie-Ange was out of school for three months when her school building collapsed in the earthquake.

She is now back in a temporary school – a tent – and dreaming of a future where she can be safe.
“I want to have my school back, but one that is safer and won’t collapse if there is another earthquake,” she said.

“Too many children died and children are not supposed to die.”

Before the earthquake only 45 per cent of primary school-aged Haitian children went to school.
Now, with help from readers, Unicef has given out 1,300 school tents, and has another 2,000 in the pipeline.

The article goes on to explain where else the money is going – I wonder whether this update will encourage yet more people to give. I also wonder where else this case study has been published – and what the returns from a small amount of communications work on the part of the charity will be.

As the charity says, worldwide it has raised £161m, but is still £71m short of its original worldwide call for £232m.

■ To donate to Haiti’s emergency appeal call 0800 316 5353 or visit www.unicef. org.uk/haitireg1