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Stop Junk Mail at Home and Work (and switch the rest to paperless!)

1. Set a goal of ZERO mail! Many service providers and local utilities now offer paperless/email invoicing setup through their website. Also, consider options for automatic monthly payments from your credit card or bank and/or online bill pay through your bank to eliminate outgoing mail.
2. Contact the Direct Marketing Association to be removed from many companies' mass marketing mailing lists for up to five years.
3. Catalog Choice provides information on common mailings (along with a free service to help you opt-out of mailings).
4. Contact Val-Pak Coupons directly to ask to be removed from their mailing list.
5. To stop delivery of yellow pages, enter your zip code at Catalog Choice to see contact information for all local yellow pages. Also, you can now opt out online from receiving your local AT&T Yellow Pages.
6. Every loose-leaf bundle of business or supermarket fliers must be delivered along with an address postcard which provides contact information for opting out. If the bulk mail comes through Valassis, you can also opt-out online.
7. To stop receiving unsolicited credit card and other credit related offers, opt out permanently at www.optoutprescreeen.com. Learn more via the Federal Trade Commission.
8. Your credit card company probably sells your name the most often. Call and ask them to stop. Also make the same request of your bank and any other companies from which you purchase products or services on a regular basis (for example, companies who sell you magazines, phone service, and gas & electric services).
9. Create a place to store all unwanted mail. Once a month, email or call the companies and ask to be removed from their mailing lists (toll-free area codes are 800, 888, 877, or 866). This is the most effective way to get off mailing lists. If there isn't a local or toll-free number but there is a postage-paid return envelope, tear off the mailing label and enclose it in the envelope along with a request to be removed from their mailing list. Mark envelope "ATTN: Customer Service". Another option: if it is 'First Class' mail, write "refused" or "refused: return to sender" across the address, cross out the bar code, and drop in any mailbox. If it is 'First Class' mail, it will be returned to the sender (but not if Standard (third class) mail). Recycle all leftover unwanted mail (remember to rip any credit offers in half first).
10. Product warranty cards are often used to collect information on your habits and income, for the sole purpose of targeting direct mail. They are not required in most situations - avoid sending them.
11. Avoid filling out "Contest" cards – these are almost always fishing expeditions for names.
12. Whenever you donate money or order a product or service, write in large letters: "Please do not sell my name or address". Most organizations will properly mark your name in their computer.
13. If you would like help with reducing your junk mail, check out organizations like 41pounds.org.

Stop Business Junk Mail

1. If possible, assign one person the task of reducing all unwanted mail -- this will streamline the process. This could be a temporary worker (especially at first), a full-time employee, or a volunteer. Suggestions for getting off mailing lists:
   • Announce the mail reduction program to the entire company along with instructions on how employees can help out (see Step 3). Post informational posters and/or periodically send out reminders to encourage continued support for the program. Explain your mail reduction program to all new employees.
   • Put out clearly marked collection boxes near the mail slots for each department and ask employees to place all mail and faxes they no longer want to receive into these containers. If only name corrections are needed, ask them to note the corrections on the mailings.
   • Contact the following source of business-to-business mailing lists and ask to be removed from their list:
     • Dun & Bradstreet: phone Customer Resource Center, 1-800-333-0505 or send an e-mail to: custserv@dnb.com
   • Provide a list of your former employees to EcoLogical Mail Coalition (www.ecologicalmail.org). They will remove these names from direct mailers' lists free of charge.
   • How to request removal from different types of unwanted mailing lists:
     • Take advantage of toll-free or local fax or phone numbers and any enclosed postage-paid envelopes or postcards (tape your address to the postcard with a request to be removed from the mailing list). Toll-free area codes are 800, 888, 877, or 866.
     • For first-class mailings or mail marked either "Return Service Requested" or "Change Service Requested", cross out your name and address and the bar code, write or stamp "refused: return to sender", and give back to the mail carrier.
     • For bulk-rate mail without a fax number or postage-paid return mailer, remove and save the page with both your address and the sender's address and recycle the remaining paper. Group unwanted mail from the same sender together. Periodically, mail pre-printed postcards (see Step 2) or letters to all senders.
     • If desired, request that all listings for your company be removed.
   • To promote recycling of all paper, provide plenty of clearly marked recycling containers throughout the company (including at employees' desks).
2. Create a model postcard to send to businesses requesting removal from their mailing list:
   • Design a multi-use postcard:
     • At the top of the card, leave a space to tape the address label. You can say: "TAPE ADDRESS HERE." It is important to have the address (that you want deleted) taped to the top of the card (vs. the middle or bottom) to avoid confusion at the post office.
     • Print a series of check-off boxes:
       • "Delete Address." Below that, if you like, you can have smaller check-off boxes that say, "Info not wanted," "Person no longer here," "Person unknown," "Address Insufficient" or "Other"
       • "Do NOT place my address on any mailing lists"
       • "Please keep sending mailing, but change info to:" (then leave spaces for name, title, organization, and address)
3. Ask your employees for help in reducing unwanted mail by:
   • Making sure all personal items are delivered to their homes
   • Depositing all unwanted mail and faxes into collection boxes
   • Asking businesses they deal with to not sell or trade your company's mailing information
   • Whenever possible, only providing other businesses your company's name, phone, and e-mail, but no physical address (including if they enter contests or drawings)
4. If no one is available to run the mail reduction program, ask employees to do the work to get off mailing lists. Provide preprinted postcards/letters along with easy-to-follow instructions.
5. When your company registers for classes or conferences, purchases products or services, and/or orders subscriptions, include a request to not have your company's mailing information distributed to other vendors. This could be standardized as a memo, a pre-printed comment on documents, or a stamp. One idea: create a standard form for registrations for subscriptions, conferences, events, training classes, etc. Include the message "Please do not share this name or address through mailing list sales or trades" at the bottom.
6. Ask your receptionist to only provide your company's address to callers with a legitimate reason for seeking such information.
7. If you send direct mail, clean up your own mailing lists. Suggestions:
   • Consolidate mailing lists into one computer database and delete duplicate listings
   • Send customers who receive multiple mailings a list of their recipient employees and ask them to cross off names of employees who have left or relocated
   • Label all direct mail as "Return Postage Guaranteed"
   • On every mailing you send out, print easy "opt out" instructions in a visible place on the mailing
   • To delete names from your mailing list, set up and maintain a system that can handle both returned mail and phoned-in requests for removal 
   
   Source: globalstewards.org
   
   

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Still Too Many Deaths In Child Birth

A lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries in Ethiopia, cultural beliefs, and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials.

Only 10 percent of deliveries take place within health facilities, according to the Ethiopia’s latest (April) Demographic Health Survey results. Nevertheless, the figure is a significant improvement on 6 percent in the previous 2005 survey.

Commenting on the results, Health Minister Kesetebirhan Admasu said: “About 60 percent of mothers who did not attend health facilities while giving birth do not see the benefit of delivering in health facilities, while the remaining 30 percent abstain from going there by giving culture and beliefs as their reason.

“That [the] majority of women did not appreciate the value of institutional delivery, calls for a concerted effort to educate women and families about the importance of skilled birth attendance and postnatal care.”

Many women prefer delivering at home in the company of known and trusted relatives and friends, where customs and traditions can be observed, according to a 2011 study published in the Ethiopian Journal of Health.

“Even though communities are aware of the dangers around childbirth, contingencies for potential complications are rarely discussed or made, such that most families hope or pray that things will turn out well. When things go wrong precious time is lost in finding resources and manpower to assist in the transfer to a health facility,” the study said.

About 80 percent of all maternal deaths in Ethiopia, are due to haemorrhage, infection, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labour, along with HIV/AIDS and malaria, said a senior Health Ministry maternal health expert, Frewoine Gebrehiwot.

The maternal mortality ratio in Ethiopia is 676 for every 100,000 births. This compares to an average of 290 per 100,000 births in developing countries, and 14 per 100,000 in developed countries, according to the UN World Health Organization.

Besides death, at least 500,000 Ethiopian women and girls who miss out on skilled health care during delivery, end up suffering other complications including obstetric fistula.

Behaviour change needed

The Health Ministry is working on behaviour change through health extension programmes and is providing each of Ethiopia's 550 districts with an ambulance to facilitate transport for pregnant mothers who want to deliver in health facilities free of charge.

But some of the hospitals are lacking in equipment, skills or policy guidance to enable them to provide basic emergency obstetric and newborn care, according to a study by the Health Ministry and its partners, who, using 2008 data, found that only 51 percent of hospitals qualified as offering comprehensive care.

“Most of the health facilities which are far from Addis Ababa are either not fully staffed with skilled service providers or fully equipped with the necessary supplies and equipment that can provide quality services related to complications during pregnancy and childbirth,” said the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

“Limited human resources, especially midwives, hamper efforts to provide adequate services, especially in rural areas. Gaps in training and remuneration have led to attrition and turnover among public sector health care professionals.”

According to UNFPA, public facilities routinely suffer stockouts and obstetric care equipment shortages due to budget deficits and poor management.

Free services provided at health centres are to blame for the shortages, according to the Health Ministry which hopes a new health insurance scheme, to be piloted in 13 rural districts, will help to provide more funding.

At present, the ministry is seeking to increase the number of women delivering in hospitals by tapping into those seeking antenatal care and providing sustained family planning services at the district level.

“We are particularly trying to decrease mothers’ deaths by retaining the significant numbers of pregnant women who come to receive antenatal care from hospitals but [go] missing [during] delivery,” said Frewoine.

At least 34 percent of pregnant women aged 15-49 receive antenatal care from a skilled health provider such as a doctor, nurse or midwife, but only 10 percent give birth there.

“The same can be said about the high unmet need for family planning in couples and also among young people,” she said, adding that plans are under way to assign two midwives to every health centre in every district in the next three years.

So far, close to 1,630 nurses have been trained as midwives in a one-year accelerated training programme. Their number is expected to reach 4,674 by 2015. 

Source: irinnews.org

Tsunami preparedness pays off

Strong community awareness and preparedness are being cited for last week's successful evacuation of more than one million Sri Lankans after a tsunami alert was triggered by an 8.6 magnitude earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.
 
"People were well prepared on how to evacuate. Everyone knew what to do, what routes to take," Major General Gamini Hettiarchchi, the director general of Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre (DMC), On 11 April at 2:08 pm local time, less than an hour after the quake, Sri Lanka's Metrological Department issued the warning and a call to evacuate to higher ground. Two hours later a second warning was issued following an 8.2 aftershock.

The earthquake occurred 440km southwest of Banda Aceh, the city most impacted by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which left over 230,000 people dead across more than a dozen countries, including more than 35,000 in Sri Lanka.

This time, more than 1,500 coastal communities from Puttalam District in the west to Jaffna District at the very northern tip of the island were evacuated in less than two hours. 
 
Village level committees, set up under DMC supervision, were activated to oversee and assist in the evacuations, and on a national level the DMC office in the capital, Colombo, coordinated with district level committees and DMC district sub-units.

Nationwide alerts were sent out on radio, television and mobile phone networks, while the police and armed services were mobilized to communicate the warning to villages. At the same time, 75 tsunami warning towers along the coast were activated to set off sirens, Hettiarchchi said.

Although some towers failed to work property, the vast majority did, alerting coastal residents to the potential threat throughout this island nation. Many people had participated in awareness training and drills in recent years.

"In 2004, no one really knew what a tsunami was. Now everyone along the coast knows what it is, but more importantly, how to safely relocate," Hettiarchchi noted. The catastrophic tsunami served as a catalyst for the establishment of the DMC, with the Disaster Management Act coming into effect in mid-2005.

"Both globally and regionally people are much more aware now," said Bob McKerrow, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Sri Lanka. He had been travelling along the southern Sri Lankan coast when the warning came, and said he witnessed firsthand the orderly manner of the evacuation. "The awareness levels were quite high," he confirmed.

Since 2004, the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) has spent US$1.3 million on bolstering community-based early warning mechanisms by setting up local groups to assist in evacuations, mapping out safe routes and locations, and installing tsunami sirens.

The SLRC's Branch Disaster Response Teams (BDRT) were also deployed within minutes of the first tremor in eastern Sri Lanka to assess the situation and remain on standby to assist in evacuation procedures.

Within seconds of the first quake people sought information from all sources. "Overall the community awareness created helped people. Everyone who was handling the emergency was calm and in control of the situation," McKerrow said.

Residents along the coast said awareness programmes conducted by the DMC, the SLRC and other agencies had made the difference. "This time we all knew what to do, unlike in 2004 when we knew nothing and waited on the coast," said G S K Herath, who lives in the southern town of Matara.

 Despite last week's largely positive review, there are still issues that need to be addressed. "Traffic is one area we need to look at more closely," Hettiarchchi conceded. Several coastal cities, including Colombo, reported severe traffic congestion soon after the tsunami warning was issued as thousands tried get to safety.

Mobile phone service also needs attention. Post-warning mobile communication was poor, as networks became overloaded and getting a connection was difficult. This might explain why the DMC was unable to use its own cellular phone broadcast facility to send messages to close to seven million mobile users.

"The other important thing is to find out why some of the [tsunami] towers failed to react to the warning communication," Hettiarchchi said, adding that the DMC plans to increase the number of coastal warning towers from 75 to 100 in the next year.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in the last seven years, countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka have invested heavily in improving disaster response capacity and early warning.

Source: irinnews.org