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This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Amizade means friendship in Portuguese. It is also the name of a service organization in the United States that places volunteers in projects mostly in developing countries. Amizade's executive director, Eric Hartman, thought of the idea in Brazil in nineteen ninety-four, which explains the Portuguese name. The Amizade Global Service-Learning and Volunteer Programs placed three hundred volunteers in nine countries last year. These American university students and others worked in thirteen communities. Amizade works with local groups and individuals on service and learning projects. The local groups define and direct the projects. The volunteers learn about local culture and make friends as they work in the community. Amizade charges college students as much as ten thousand dollars for three months of experience. Volunteers generally provide labor and do things like teach and assist at health centers. They can also do research. College students can earn work-study credits. Participants in programs have included a twelve-year-old boy and a man in his eighties. There are programs in Ghana, Tanzania, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico and Jamaica. There are also programs in Germany, Poland, Northern Ireland and the United States. Recently, in Tanzania, thirteen Amizade volunteers worked on systems to harvest rainwater from the roofs of homes. They worked on the project in the Karagwe area, in the northwestern part of the country. Eric <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Microfinance is a fast-growing part of the financial industry in many developing countries. Micro lenders give small loans to poor people to start or expand businesses. Microcredit offers a chance to improve lives and reduce poverty. But officials in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, are investigating whether debt collections are linked to a series of suicides among borrowers. Reddi Subrahmanyam is a rural development official in that state. He says many of these deaths happened immediately after the recovery agents of the microfinance institutions either visited the house or did something insulting.Reports of corruption and abuses have led to emergency measures in Andhra Pradesh to ban some collection methods. These rules also aim to limit costly fees and high interest rates on loans. The Asian Development Bank says microfinance institutions in the Asia-Pacific area charge interest of thirty to seventy percent a year. Charges can be even higher when other costs are added. But micro lenders also face higher operating costs compared to traditional lenders. Groups like the Asian Development Bank oppose limits on interest rates because of these high business costs.Economist Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six for his work with microfinance. In the nineteen seventies he started what became the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen says it charges twenty <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Continuing debt problems in Greece and Portugal. The banking crisis in Ireland. A trillion-dollar deficit in the United States. These are all reasons why high levels of public debt are a big worry around the world. Countries that keep spending a lot more than they earn may not be able to repay their debts. That risk of default can make it harder and costlier for them to borrow more money. Heavy debt can also affect a country's competitiveness. Voter anger at government spending and taxes helped lead to the big Republican gains in America's congressional elections in November.President Obama says for the economy to improve, the government must cut spending and reduce its deficit. In February, he formed the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The two chairmen are Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, and Alan Simpson, a Republican. In November, the chairmen presented their own ideas for how to cut the federal deficit to about two percent of the economy by twenty fifteen. The administration estimates this year's deficit at about ten and a half percent. The two chairmen say their proposals would cut the deficit by almost four trillion dollars over the next ten years. One hundred billion dollars would come from the military. Other proposals would cut the federal workforce by ten percent and freeze civilian pay.The chairmen propose to simplify the tax laws and reduce <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Teff is a common part of the diet in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa. This nutritious grain is very small. It has a mild, nutty taste. People use teff flour to make bread and other foods. Now teff is finding new uses in foods for people with celiac disease. People with celiac disease cannot process gluten. Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley. Glutens can be found not just in foods but also medicines and other products.The immune system is supposed to protect the body. But celiac causes the immune system to damage the small intestine. The disease can cause stomach pains, bloating and diarrhea. It can also cause weight loss and make people feel continually hungry. It interferes with the body's ability to absorb nutrients from food.In the past, celiac disease was considered rare and limited mostly to people of European ancestry. The rate of reported cases was one in ten thousand people. Today, the estimate is about one in one hundred thirty-three Americans. But celiac researcher Alessio Fasano says until recent years not much was known about the disease. Dr. Fasano says studies show that the disease affects about the same percentage of the general public worldwide. That is about one percent. So it is not rare at all.Dr. Fasano directs the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He says the disease can be very mild. But more <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Each year, Americans throw away millions of tons of electronic devices. That means business is good for a small electronics recycler in Chantilly, Virginia.Company President Jeremy Faber established PC Recycler. He spoke to us from the floor of his company's processing center. Workers were busy taking apart televisions, cell phones and computers -- anything electronic. Jeremy Faber says the flow of discarded electronics is only increasing. He says: "Electronics recycling is the fastest growing waste stream in the United States right now." Recycling electronic waste is not a single job. Newer devices can be rebuilt and resold. Breaking down electronics into small parts for refiners to melt and purify is another part. Operations Manager Andrew Portare says computer circuit boards are rich resources for metals, including gold. Gold now sells for more than one thousand three hundred dollars an ounce. Twenty-five percent of PC Recycler's sales come from selling parts to refiners. Refining companies pay more than ten dollars a kilogram for computer boards. PC Recycler can also increase profits by holding metal-rich parts until prices rise.Computers also hold private or secret information. And securing that data is the fastest growing part of the recycling business. Completely removing data from a computer hard drive is not easy. PC Recycler can remove data magnetically or <b>...</b>

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http The health care industry needs more nurses. All areas of the world face a nursing shortage. But the shortage is most severe in developing countries. Many of their nurses leave. They move to more developed nations for better pay, better working conditions and better chances for career development.A World Bank report earlier this year called attention to the problem. For example, nearly two thousand nurses left the Caribbean between two thousand two and two thousand six. Caribbean nations currently have about one nurse for every one thousand people. The ratio of nurses to population is about ten times higher in the United States and countries in the European Union. Currently, more than twenty-one thousand nurses who trained in the Caribbean are working in the United States, Canada and Britain.Gaetan Lafortune is with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. He says the nursing shortage also affects industrialized countries. Mr. Lafortune says a large number of nurses are expected to retire within the next ten years. At the same time, the health care needs of aging populations are expected to grow, intensifying the shortage of nurses. He says some researchers in the United States have projected that there may be a shortage of close to a million nurses by two thousand twenty. The United States is one of thirty-one countries in the OECD Gaetan Lafortune says in <b>...</b>

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http In June, leaders and top finance officials from the world's twenty biggest economies gathered in Toronto, Canada. One of the big issues they discussed is how and when to reduce deficits and economic growth measures as conditions improve.Chancellor Angela Merkel defended Germany's decision to cut spending by one hundred billion dollars over four years. But some experts say the world economy is still too weak for Europe's biggest country to reduce spending.Earlier this year, Germany was slow to react to the Greek debt crisis. European countries later had to agree to a nearly one trillion dollar rescue for the euro area.Other countries including Britain, France and Japan have also announced cuts. But American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says: "Without growth now, deficits will rise further and undermine future growth."Economists also point out that spending cuts alone do not solve the problems of countries with structural economic problems.G-20 nations are also struggling with financial reform issues. These include new rules for risky financial products and closer supervision of banks.In June, Britain's finance minister announced a new tax on big banks. Germany and France are considering similar measures to pay for future financial problems. President Obama proposed the idea for the United States in January. But how many countries will join Britain is not clear. Nineteen countries and the <b>...</b>

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This is Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Technology Report, formerly called the Development Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Before we changed the name, we went on our Facebook page and asked for story ideas. Some of you suggested that we talk about ICT, information and communication technology.Well, the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, released its latest ICT Facts and Figures report in October. Since two thousand five, the number of Internet users worldwide has doubled to more than one and a half billion people. At least two billion are expected to be online by the end of this year. The ITU says more than seventy percent of new Internet users this year will be in developing countries. Still, only twenty-one percent of the population of the developing world is online -- compared to seventy-one percent in developed countries. Susan Teltscher is head of the agency's Market Information and Statistics Division in Switzerland. She says there are still very huge divides when it comes to accessing the Internet, especially high-speed Internet. In Africa not even ten percent of the population is using the Internet.Fewer than sixteen percent of homes in developing countries are wired for the Internet. But, on the other hand, Ms. Teltscher says mobile phone usage has reached sixty-eight percent in developing countries.The world has almost seven billion people. Nine out of ten now have access to mobile networks. The ITU estimates <b>...</b>

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This is theVOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Advice on how much fertilizer to use will soon be just a phone call away for rice farmers in the Philippines. The Philippine Department of Agriculture and the International Rice Research Institute plan to launch a free service in September. Farmers will call a number and a recorded voice will ask them simple questions in Tagalog or other languages including English. For example, to get fertilizer guidelines for the wet season, they press one. For the dry season, they press two. Farmers will be asked about the size of their field and how many bags of rice it produced last year. What about natural sources of fertilizer? Does the farmer return rice straw to the field? Is the field near a lake or river that floods, or in a low area collecting soil and other material from nearby hills?About ten minutes later the farmer will get a text message. The message will advise what kind of fertilizer to use and how much. The grower will also get suggestions about when to plant and harvest the rice. Roland Buresh at the International Rice Research Institute helped developed the system. Mr. Buresh says fertilizer represents about one-fifth of the cost of inputs for rice production. He says the service could help farmers in the Philippines increase their yields and their profits. Danielle Nierenberg at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group, says the system could also help reduce <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Health Report , from voaspecialenglish.com | http An outbreak of cholera in Haiti continued to spread sickness and worry. Health officials worried that the capital could suffer a major outbreak of the disease. By the middle of November, most cases in Port-au-Prince were found in people who arrived in the city already sick. But health officials confirmed the first case in a boy who had not left the city for at least a year. And there were other suspected cases in the Haitian capital. Cholera causes diarrhea and vomiting. It robs the body of fluids. People can get cholera if they eat foods or drink liquids containing the bacteria that cause the infection. Cholera is not hard to treat. Basically, patients drink a solution of salt, sugar and water. The problem is that help is not always available quickly. If cholera is not treated, it can kill within hours, especially in people already in weakened conditions. The earthquake in January displaced large numbers of people. It forced them into crowded, dirty conditions in tent camps -- in other words, the perfect environment for cholera.The outbreak in Haiti has already killed several hundred people. The country's last major outbreak of the disease was more than one hundred years ago. Disease-control experts from the United States confirmed the first cases of cholera in Haiti on October twenty-first in the Artibonite area. The outbreak was mostly limited to that area until a <b>...</b>

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From voaspecialenglish.com | http I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Goats are valuable not just for their milk and meat. Or for their ability to control weeds and help renew grasslands. Or even for their ability to be gentle around children. Goats can also be valuable for their hair.Cashmere goats produce cashmere and Angora goats produce -- Did you think we were going to say angora? No, angora fiber comes from rabbits. Angora goats produce mohair. Mohair is used in sweaters, scarves, coats and other products, including floor coverings and doll hair. The United States is a leading producer of mohair, along with South Africa and Turkey. America's top producing state is Texas.An adult Angora goat can produce as much as seven kilograms of hair each year. As the goats grow older, however, their hair becomes thicker and less valuable. Hair from white or solid-colored goats is the most popular, but the appeal of mixed-color mohair has grown.Angora goats are also used as show animals. They require little special care. The animals need milk from their mothers for three or four months. They reach full maturity when they are a little more than two years old. But even then they are smaller than most sheep and milk goats.Cashmere goats are usually larger than Angoras. They can grow big enough to be kept with sheep and cattle. The outer hair of the animal is called guard hair. Behind it is the valuable material on a cashmere goat. Cashmere is valued <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http American businesses are still slow to hire and unemployment remains near ten percent. But an economic research group reported in September that the recession in the United States ended in June of last year. It was the longest recession since the nineteen thirties. James Stock is on the committee that dates the rises and falls of the business cycle for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Harvard University professor says this recession was in some ways a lot like others since World War Two. But one difference was the length -- eighteen months. Many recessions since the nineteen forties lasted less than a year. Another difference was the severity. The economy shrank by more than four percent. About eight million people lost their jobs. Professor Stock thinks job growth is likely to increase in the coming months based on current levels of productivity.He says: "I think that we are at a point right now where productivity has increased so much that for output to continue to grow, we will be seeing increases in hiring."Some economic signs have improved. Manufacturing, industrial production and consumer spending have made small gains. But a Labor Department report shows that new claims for unemployment insurance rose unexpectedly. President Obama took questions at a meeting shown on CNBC television. One questioner wondered if today's young Americans still could hope for <b>...</b>

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http A miscarriage is the natural loss of a pregnancy before the twentieth week. This happens to as many as twenty percent of known pregnancies. Experts say many pregnancies end before a woman even knows she was pregnant. Miscarriages are usually caused by chromosome problems that prevent the baby from developing. The online medical encyclopedia MedlinePlus says these problems are usually unrelated to the genes of either parent. But whatever the reason, the loss of a pregnancy can be heartbreaking. And sometimes the advice that follows can be painful, too. Some women are told to wait before trying to get pregnant again. A two thousand five report from the World Health Organization advised waiting at least six months. Some doctors advise a longer wait. But a new study from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland found no need to delay. Researchers examined the medical records of thirty thousand women. These women visited Scottish hospitals from nineteen eighty-one to two thousand. They had miscarriages in their first known pregnancies and became pregnant again.The study found that eighty-five percent of women who waited less than six months to get pregnant had live births. That was compared to seventy-three percent of women who waited more than two years.Those who quickly became pregnant again were also less likely to have a pregnancy form in their fallopian tubes, a dangerous condition. And they <b>...</b>

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http The Federal Reserve calls America's economic recovery "disappointingly slow." So the Federal Reserve decided to add six hundred billion dollars to the financial system by the middle of next year. To do this, the central bank will buy Treasury securities from dealers. The action is known as quantitative easing. The goal is to reduce long-term interest rates. The hope is to create conditions where businesses will invest more and people will spend more. Buying longer-term Treasury securities will make less government debt available to investors. This will raise the price. As bond prices rise, their rates fall. Long-term securities affect rates on home mortgages and other loans. Lower rates on corporate bonds could lead businesses to invest in more equipment and jobs. Lowering short-term interest rates is the Federal Reserve's main way to get banks to increase lending. But those rates are already near zero.The Fed earlier bought one trillion seven hundred fifty billion dollars of Treasuries and other securities. That program ended in March. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in The Washington Post: "Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth." But interest rates are already low. And critics say further cuts are unlikely to create much growth.Inflation also is low -- so low that some economists worry more about the risk of falling prices and wages. But others say <b>...</b>

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report, , from voaspecialenglish.com | http World No Tobacco Day is celebrated each day on May thirty-first. The observance is meant to bring attention to the growing use of tobacco and its deadly effects. The World Health Assembly established the event in nineteen eighty-seven. This year, special attention is being given to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing to women and girls. The World Health Organization says tobacco kills nearly five and a half million people a year -- another victim every six seconds. Tobacco use is a top cause of deaths worldwide. One billion people smoke. More than eighty percent of tobacco users live in low and middle income countries. The WHO says the tobacco industry has increasingly directed its marketing campaigns at women and girls. Women currently represent about twenty percent of smokers. But tobacco use among girls is increasing. Data collected from one hundred fifty-one countries show that about seven percent of young girls now smoke. That compares with twelve percent of boys. In some countries, however, the rates are almost equal. Almost one hundred seventy countries have signed a treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The WHO is calling on those governments to ban tobacco advertising to the fullest extent possible and to do more to protect women. The agreement seeks to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco products. This year marks the fifth anniversary since the <b>...</b>

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This is theVOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Weather does not discriminate between large and small farms. If it rains too much or too little, crop insurance can pay for losses. Yet insurance usually costs too much for a farmer with as little as a hectare or two of land. But now a program called Kilimo Salama, or safe farming, offers low-cost insurance in parts of Kenya. The program is offered by the Syngenta Foundation. The foundation was established by the Swiss agricultural-chemical maker Syngenta. Farmers register at businesses taking part in the program and receive a policy number through their mobile phone. Every time the farmers buy seeds, fertilizer or other inputs, they pay an extra five percent in addition to the price. This extra cost is the insurance premium. The farmers are paid back for the inputs if their crops fail because of drought or flood.The program is designed for maize and wheat farmers like Josephat Langat. He owns a two-hectare farm near Eldoret in western Kenya. He said: "In a case where we do not have a lot of rainfall, it means we are going to lose all the crops. But this insurance policy is going to cover the farm inputs that we use in the farms, so that is going to give us the certainty of going back to the farms again if the rains do not come."He buys his agricultural inputs at Maraba Investments in Eldoret. About two hundred farmers signed up for the insurance within the first two weeks that it was <b>...</b>

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From voaspecialenglish.com | http Pilot Chesley Sullenberger is known for his heroic actions in early 2009. He acted when his airplane struck birds and both engines failed just after it left an airport in New York. AIR CONTROLLER: "Okay, which runway would you like at Teterboro?" FLIGHT 1549: "We're gonna be in the Hudson." Sullenberger decided where and how to land his US Airways plane. CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: "We only had 208 seconds from the time we hit the birds to the time we landed." Sullenberger brought the plane down in the Hudson River. His quick thinking saved everyone on the aircraft. CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: "For everyone on the airplane and our families, that event changed our lives instantly, completely, and if not forever, for a very long time." Since the landing, Chesley Sullenberger and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, have received many awards. In November, Sullenberger was at Purdue University in Indiana. He received the Neil Armstrong Medal of Excellence from the first man to walk on the moon. NEIL ARMSTRONG: "A fellow member of the pilots-who-land-in-strange-places club. " The man called Sully retired from US Airways in 2010. Being famous gave him a chance to do other things. CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: "This notoriety, this attention, has given me a greater voice to have a chance to make a difference about things I've cared about for many years. Aviation safety. The state of the airline piloting profession. And, of course, the future of aviation in this country." Now <b>...</b>

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From voaspecialenglish.com | http It is a clear morning on the south side of the Grand Canyon. This is the starting point for Linda Glover Gooch. Little by little, the image starts to form. Thousands of people take pictures of the Grand Canyon every day in hopes of capturing its beauty. Linda Glover Gooch could have stayed home and copied a photograph of the canyon. But she says that would not be the same. LINDA GLOVER GOOCH: "Oh, there is a huge difference because you are in the atmosphere. You feel the air. Photos are nice, but they still lose some of the feeling that's out there. And you experience it, you know, firsthand, so your emotions are there at the same time as you are doing the work." This is what artists call plein air painting, in which the changing light and environment affect the work. Scott Kraynak is with the National Park Service. SCOTT KRAYNAK: "It's painting quickly in nature to capture fleeting moments in nature of the light." The National Park Service invites artists to make paintings that will later be sold. The money helps to pay for the building of an art gallery. Kraynak says many people first came to know the Grand Canyon through paintings. SCOTT KRAYNAK: "Not many people, I think, realize the importance of art in the national parks. Art first gave people a glimpse of what these areas looked like in the West, before TV and Internet. Art was a big factor in these areas being set aside. Art was big factor of popularizing national parks." The <b>...</b>

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