Creating Jobs in Samoa Through Public-Private Partnerships

Samoa’s achievement in contracting out to the private sector the functions of its Public Works Department (PWD) is one of the most successful reforms to upgrade infrastructure; improve the effectiveness of public expenditure; and increase the overall employment, productivity, and capacity in a Pacific island economy in the past 20 years. The reform has resulted in the establishment of nearly 30 new Samoan road construction and maintenance companies. Directly and indirectly, the reform has led to the creation of more than 2,000 new jobs, making this a prime example of the power of public–private partnerships to promote economic development and increase employment.1 Prior to the reform, much of this work was undertaken inefficiently by the PWD, or by foreign companies under contract. All construction and maintenance in Samoa is now outsourced to Samoan companies, which are sufficiently productive and cost-effective that foreign firms now struggle to compete

A preliminary report on the Rural Neighbourhood Development Project in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long : implementation and achievement

With funding support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS) of Lingnan University collaborated with Tuen Tsz Wai San Hing Tsuen Tsing Chuen Wai Rural Community Service Centre of Yan Oi Tong and Ngau Tam Mei Community Development Project of the Salvation Army to launch the first batch of professional support team-led (PST) district-based programme: Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project – Rural Neighbourhood Development Project (the programme) in April 2018. The programme provided training to residents in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long rural areas to be Rural Befrienders, they were well-equipped with skills to regularly visit older persons residing in nearby areas, raise awareness among the older persons about home safety and fall prevention, and foster connection between the older persons and Rural Befrienders as well as their neighbourship by establishing a support network in rural areas. The programme also invited an occupational therapist to do home assessments and make changes to the older persons’ living environment in order to achieve the long-term goal of ageing in place. Ageing in place is considered to be a critical global approach to caring for older persons. The framework promotes an agenda that support older persons to live in a familiar environment and enjoy added autonomy, which is beneficial to their physical and mental health. Hong Kong Government has also embraced the concept of ageing in place in the elderly care policy. Accordingly, the government recently initiated different programmes for Community Care and Support Services to facilitate ageing in place by engaging older persons in their communities. However, the current social environment can barely keep pace with the needs of the rapidly ageing population. According to the results of the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project baseline assessment conducted in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long Districts, older persons in rural Hong Kong tend to be overly disadvantaged as regards community support services when compared with those in urban areas, leaving many of them with no choice but to settle in elderly homes once having mobility decline. Given this context, the programme generated social capital by consolidating the mutual support network in rural neighbourhoods in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long Districts, in response to the needs of older persons. The programme lasted for over 10 months, and more than 50 trained Rural Befrienders participated in volunteer service with over 100 elderly beneficiaries. The programme enhanced public awareness of the living conditions of older persons in the rural communities through public education activities, such as street exhibitions and the production of Age-friendly City Teaching Kit. Study Funded ByThe Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust(Part of the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project) Contributors of ReportKa Ho MOKWai Tak SZECheuk Man LEUNGZhuoyi WENPadmore Adusei AMOAHChak Kwan CHANLai Wah L

Proceedings of the 2015 Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association conference: Biological measures: A role in nursing self-management research

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ARC Strategy-Paving the Way from Agrarian Reform to Poverty Reduction

Assessing the Impact of Agrarian Reform and the ARC Strategy on Poverty Using Census, National Housing Surveys, and ARC Data

Training for success: A guide for peer trainers

[Excerpt] Training for Success: A Guide for Peer Trainers is a guide to help villagers, like you, teach others to operate a business like the one you operate. It was developed as part of the ILO project Alleviating Poverty through Peer Training (APPT). The project was designed to reduce poverty among people with disabilities in Cambodia by using village-based peer trainers to teach others. The purpose of this guide is to teach you, a possible peer trainer, how to teach others to replicate your business! The APPT project helped more than 950 people, mostly with disabilities, start businesses over a fi ve-year period. More than 200 peer trainers were involved. Many of the peer trainers also had disabilities. And, since the project paid special attention to women, most of the trainers and trainees were women, some with disabilities, some without. This guide was developed to help train peer trainers and is based on years of ILO experience. It was field-tested as part of a series of workshops for peer trainers conducted by the APPT project in the provinces of Siem Reap, Kompong Thom and Pursat in 2007. Training for Success: A Guide for Peer Trainers will be used by people like yourself who are already peer trainers or who want to start training others. Ideally, it should be used as part of a workshop that teaches you how to be a peer trainer

Infection Control: Proper Handwashing Technique Within a Vulnerable Population

Introduction Recovery Café is a place of healing and recovery for those experiencing a variety of different kinds of traumas and experiences, whether it be homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, and others. This alcohol and drug free space is provided for members so that they can build relationships amongst each other, and gain access to resources such as housing, employment, support circles, social and health services. Typically open from 12-6, this community provides two free meals a day, resources, and ongoing support for their members regardless of past trauma, behaviors, and mistakes. Since the largest population group in this community, with a whopping 87%, is homeless or experienced homelessness, we decided to focus on their needs for our project education. Our team goal was to support this community in any way that we can through volunteer work, relationship building, doing a clothing drive with our Seattle Pacific University (SPU) community, providing hygiene kits, and educating on hand hygiene to promote health and prevent illness. With 22,923 people experiencing homelessness in Washington state (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2020), our hope is that the word about proper hand hygiene will spread and less people in the homeless community will contract and spread illnesses and diseases, and decrease the infection control health literacy disparity. Background Research shows that this type of population, one that is looking to recover, responds best to treatment that is focused on relationship building (Dixon et al., 2016; Padgett et al., 2008). To reiterate more specifically, this population has a longing for privacy but at the same time meaningful companionship, most come from a family background of lack of support, has a desire to “fix” themselves first before pursuing meaningful relationships with others, and has trouble doing so because of their ongoing struggles of recovery from homelessness, substance abuse, mental illness, and more (Padgett et al., 2008). This shows that having the adequate resources is necessary to support relationships building in the community as to provide greater resiliency towards the challenges being faced. Our team’s original goal was to work towards improving this, but after visiting Recovery Café, we witnessed how well this is already being implemented in the café amongst the members. Thus, our team decided to reinforce the same idea by showing up to the café to volunteer and speak with the members for as many weeks as we can, but also use this is an opportunity to educate on a specific need we found after doing some more research and speaking with the members of the café. This need being hand hygiene amongst the homeless, substance users, and other vulnerable populations. These populations were found to contract more illnesses compared to other populations, along with more severity of the illness and higher rates of death (Bucher et al., 2006). The reasons for this being the lack of hand and bodily hygiene, use of intravenous drugs, lack of education on self-care, and a general lack of resources to clean water and laundry amongst others (Raoult et al., 2001; Liebler, et al., 2017). While we cannot change the system to ensure that all have access to clean water, what we can do is educate on the importance of proper hand hygiene in order to help reduce sickness and infection spread in the specific population of Recovery Café. Activities with Rationale As mentioned earlier, our goal was to support his community through the means of volunteering and relationship building and organizing a clothing drive amongst the SPU community, with the main focus being education on hand hygiene and providing hygiene kits. A research study done to see the impact of hand hygiene found that not performing hand hygiene after exposure to bacteria lead to 44% retention of that bacteria, 23% if only using water, and down to 8% if using soap and water (Burton et al., 2011). However, this was also dependent on the quality of the hand washing. To test this in the population of Recovery Café, we brought with us a Glo Germ machine and gel, which uses UV light to expose fake bacteria that was retained on the hands after applying fake germs using a lotion and performing hand hygiene. We did so before educating on proper hand washing and after to see the progression of knowledge amongst the members. This was essential to do, since this type of population generally lacks the proper education on hand washing and access to resources because of their living conditions (Sayed Mohammad, 2016). Along with that, we showed two videos on hand hygiene and asked them what was done wrong. On top of this, we found a sponsor to provide us with supplies so that we can build hygiene kits which included hand sanitizer, a bar of soap, socks, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo. The reasoning behind this being that lack of education is not always the reason that vulnerable populations do not practice proper hand hygiene, but rather a lack of resources and access (Montgomery et al., 2021). Although these hygiene kits are temporary, this is the best that we can do with our resources, and it gives a fresh start and temporary fix for the ones who need it. Outcomes Our evaluation of the effectiveness of the project was based on observation and assessment with the use of the Glo Germ machine, asking questions to the members pertaining to what they learned from the presentation and videos, and giving out a short survey to be completed by the members. What we found was that there was a significant improvement in the quality of hand hygiene after education on proper hand washing technique compared to before. Upon asking questions before education and after, and after showing the two videos, we found that more members understood the importance of hand washing and also what consists of good quality hand hygiene. Along with that, we asked the members to teach back and demonstrate to us how to perform good quality hand hygiene, with the intent of possibly spreading the knowledge to other members of the community. On top of that, our survey indicated that the members found our presentation to be informative and easy to understand, and their likelihood of incorporating the practices of hand hygiene that they learned was approximately 83%. Overall, we received praise from the staff and the members of the café about the informational presentation and improved knowledge. Limitations and Recommendations Health promotion and prevention is very important when it comes to reducing the spread of illnesses and complications of disease, and the best way to do so is through hand hygiene. In the end, our team met our goal of supporting Recovery Café by promoting relationship building through volunteering and spending time with the members, and the proof of that is their increased enthusiasm to learn about hand hygiene and acceptance of hygiene kits and clothing from the drive. The limitations to our project included a short amount of time, and lack of resources. We had a two and a half month time span to complete our project with a budget of $30. If we were to have more time and financial resources, our impact on providing access to hand hygiene resources would have been far greater, and our evaluation would have been more long-term to truly test how well the education stuck with passing time. Through our own assessments and communication with the Recovery Café liaison, we recommend that for future projects more work will be done to expand on resources for hand hygiene, improved health literacy on current health-related topics for this specific population, and per request of the members, come ready to do basic health assessment checks such as blood pressure and sugar. Finally, the most important recommendation is to continue implementing the idea of relationship building and volunteering. At the end of the day, it is an amazing experience to learn about the lives of other human beings who live very different lives and serving a vulnerable population that generally does not get served. References Bucher, S. J., Brickner, P. W., & Vincent, R. L. (2006). Influenza like illness among homeless persons. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(7), 1162–1163. http://doi.org/10.3201/eid1207.060217 Burton, M., Cobb, E., Donachie, P., Judah, G., Curtis, V., & Schmidt, W. P. (2011). The effect of handwashing with water or soap on bacterial contamination of hands. International Journal of Environmental Research And Public Health, 8(1), 97-104. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8010097 Dixon, L. B., Holoshitz, Y., & Nossel, I. (2016). Treatment engagement of individuals experiencing mental illness: review and update. World Psychiatry, 15(1), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20306 Leibler, J., Nguyen, D., León, C., Gaeta, J., & Perez, D., (2017). Personal hygiene practices among urban homeless persons in boston, ma. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080928 Montgomery, M. P., Carry, M. G., Garcia‐Williams, A. G., Marshall, B., Besrat, B., Bejarano, F., ... & Mosites, E. (2021). Hand hygiene during the COVID‐19 pandemic among people experiencing homelessness—Atlanta, Georgia, 2020. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(7), 2441-2453. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22583 Padgett, D., Henwood, B., & Abrams, C. (2008). Social relationships among persons who have experienced serious mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness: Implications for recovery. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry., 78(3). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014155 Raoult, D., Foucault, C., & Brouqui, P. (2001). Infections in the homeless. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 1(2), 77-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(01)00062-7 Sayed Mohammad, N. U., Walters, V., Gaillard, J. C., Sanjida, M. H., & McSherry, A. (2016). Water, sanitation and hygiene for homeless people. Journal of Water and Health, 14(1), 47-51. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2015.248 United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. (2020). Washington homelessness statistics. Homeless in Washington Statistics 2019. Homeless Estimation by State | US Interagency Council on Homelessness. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/w

Jockey Club Age-Friendly City Project : Action plan : Islands

In response to the global ageing population, the World Health Organization (the “WHO”) devised the concept of “Global Age-friendly Cities” in 2005 to encourage cities all around the world to develop a healthy and comfortable living environment with age-friendly facilities and provide sufficient community support and health care services which benefit the older people, family and society. In order to proactively tackle the challenges of an ageing population and promote the concept of an age-friendly city, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust launched the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project (“Project”) in 2015 in partnership with four gerontology research institutes of local universities, including CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, Sau Po Centre on Ageing of the University of Hong Kong, Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies of Lingnan University (“LU APIAS”), and Institute of Active Ageing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The four institutes have formed professional teams under this project to support eighteen districts in Hong Kong to adopt a bottom-up and district-based approach to develop age-friendly communities. Under the Project, LU APIAS conducted a baseline assessment, which comprised questionnaire surveys, focus group interviews and field observation from July 2015 to February 2016 in order to provide relevant information to the Islands District Council and other district stakeholders on the existing age-friendliness of the Islands District, Hong Kong (“District”). Senior residents in the District have also been recruited as ambassadors to spread the messages of age-friendly city. Training workshops and seminars have been arranged to equip them with necessary skills and knowledge to perform qualitative research by making assessment in the District with reference to the eight domains of the “Age-friendly City”. Meanwhile, the residents are encouraged to express their views regarding age-friendly facilities and measures in the community. LU APIAS has compiled the results of baseline assessment, including questionnaire surveys, focus groups and observations by the ambassadors, into a baseline assessment report. The report, together with this action plan for improving the age-friendliness of the District, will be submitted to WHO for joining its Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities