Cynthia McFadden | 02/05/2009 12:00 pm

The Worst Place on Earth, by Cynthia McFadden

Producer Almin Karamedovic, Actress Salma Hayek and

Journalist Cynthia McFadden during their trip to

Sierra Leone/Courtesy ABC

I have been to a lot of troubled places, but none compares to Sierra Leone. I have told friends — and it is literally true — Rwanda seems like heaven compared to Sierra Leone. In the rural areas, there is one doctor for every 200,000 people. Only a third of those in rural areas has access to clean water. Malnutrition runs rampant. The grinding poverty is inescapable. Hope is hard to nourish.

Click here for photos of Cynthia’s trip to Sierra Leone with Salma Hayek.

In addition, Sierra Leone has a distinction no country wants: the worst place in the world for children. Of the 177 countries in the world, Sierra Leone, the small and staggeringly poor country on the West coast of Africa, holds that distinction. Dead last. One in five children never make it to their fifth birthday. One of the major killers is a disease that we think of as a "rusty nail" disease: Tetanus. While here in America, a quick trip to the doctor’s office can remedy exposure to tetanus, in the developing world it is a major killer of mothers and their infants. A shocking 21% of all causes of infant deaths in Sierra Leone are tetanus related, all the more shocking because tetanus is totally preventable by a vaccine that costs seven cents per dose.

In the developing world, mothers are often infected by contaminated instruments during childbirth. It similarly spreads to their infants when traditional birth attendants cut the umbilical cord with an unsanitary knife, or, as is often the case, the umbilical cord is dressed by the traditional method of packing it with dirt, clay or cow manure.

Medical experts we talked to say tetanus is one of the most painful ways to die, as all the patient’s muscles constrict in spasm. Death is virtually certain for infants.

This past fall, I traveled to Sierra Leone with actress and producer Salma Hayek to see firsthand the scope of the problem. Hayek has taken on the cause of tetanus as spokesperson for the Pampers "One Pack = One Vaccine" campaign to support UNICEF’s efforts to eliminate tetanus by 2012. For each pack of specially marked Pampers diapers sold, parent company Procter and Gamble donates the cost of one Tetanus vaccine to UNICEF. The North American campaign has generated funding for more than 45 million vaccines since the beginning of 2008.

“What really excited me about this was the concept of mothers from around the world working together to protect children,” she said to me. “The thought of somebody in Los Angeles, where I come from, purchasing the one pack of Pampers … By doing this, that they were going to do anyway, they could … provide one vaccine for another mother somewhere else in the world, someone they don’t know … These anonymous women around the world coming together to protect women and to protect children was really exciting.”

A good deed in a struggling world. It was an extraordinary trip, both painful and illuminating. Tonight on "Nightline" (ABC at 11:35 PM, check your local listings), we’ll show you the result. I hope you watch.

Click here for photos of Cynthia’s trip to Sierra Leone with Salma Hayek.

Read more about: News, Nightline, Poverty, Rwanda, Salma Hayek, Sierra Leone

27 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Kathy - i think your right about africa’s health being central to the health of the planet. the planet is small and the problems are big. i just asked Amelie this above. but how do you know your money is going where you think it is? i’d like to do this but i’m always so suspiciious of these global type charities.

By Chrome Toe on 02/05/2009 10:03 pm

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Hello - You are wise to be suspicious of various agencies, however Women For Women International is extremely well regarded. They have an office in Washington D.C. and Oprah and others have recommended it. This trip I am going on is the 2nd time they have taken donors to Rwanda. The first trip was last year and it went well so they are confident it is safe to go again. Take a look at their website http://www.womenforwomen.org. Thanks, KATHY

By Kathy Douglass on 02/06/2009 7:49 am

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I AGREE, Kathy. The example of Africa is a symptom of how sick our society can be. It should be an honored place as it is the birthplace (NIger) of mankind. It really bothers me a lot to see such suffering needlessly. How is it that you were chosen to go? How wonderful!

By Amelie Poulain on 02/05/2009 11:00 pm

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Hello Amelie - I am not sure why I got the invitation. They are taking 20 people and there may be room left if you would like to go. Just contact them. They took their first group to Rwanda last year and it went well, so they are going again. The trip is being organized through Metta Journeys. Google them, they are a fascinating tour/adventure group. It is quite expensive, but we are told that a great deal of our payment will go back into the school. We have to get ourselves there. I will go Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Narobi and a short flight to Kigali. The Nairobi to Kigali leg was booked through Metta Journeys. They could have booked the whole trip for me but I wanted to use my Northwest Airline points. I am assured I will be met at the Kigali airport and escorted through the rest of the week. We will be staying at Kigali’s only AAA hotel but then will visit local homes as well as the school and businesses the women have set up. I hope to meet one of my “sisters”. One day we get a guided hiking tour in the mountains to see the gorilla’s. This will be my third trip to Africa, but my first experiencing the local life so completely. I recently read that if planet Earth could experience just one day of no violence we would see an unbelievable change in climate. Severe storms, earthquakes, floods etc….are influenced by the negative energy of man’s inhumanity to man. I am not sure if I am quite as metaphysical as all that, but it’s worth a try, so I to do my little bit. It is quite rewarding when one of the women we sponsor graduates. Thanks for your message - Kathy

By Kathy Douglass on 02/06/2009 8:02 am

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Amelie, Your are truly a remarkable woman. It is individuals like you who ‘temper’ my rage about the many nations who have raped and plundered Mother Africa of precious gems, ivory, furs, and every natural resource imaginable (for the past four centuries). Entire species of wild life were killed off, and villages of people were wiped from the face of this earth; forced to labor and die because of European, Asian, and Arab greed for gold, diamonds, aphrodisiacs, and FEATHERS!!! for women’s hats. Africa was once the richest continent on earth in wild life, vegetation, and natural resources. But, it is now utterly ruined by the insatiable greed of other nations, and its peoples have been left in utter poverty, sickness, squalor, and social/cultural turmoil. I try to avoid commenting on these threads, which wowOwow has featured (respective to 21 century conditions in Africa’s poorest countries - Rwanda, Dufar, Sudan, and Sierra Leone) because my feelings are violently militant. Yet, I had to acknowledge the work you and others are doing, which helps bring attention to Africa’s innocent victims. You ARE spreading the word, and many are listening. I’m especially interested in Sierra Leone, because I had a live-in nanny who was born there, and the stories she shared about life in many of that country’s villages were heart-wrenching. Firsthand accounts are always more accurate. The nanny before her was from Somalia, and she also spoke of the negative impact of foreign greed. I have always contributed to organizations which fund support for Africa’ poor countries. And, I’d like to pass along the following website information because it is a site where anyone can contribute to world hunger by simply doing an online quiz. The categories include grammar, vocabulary, geography, art, languages, math, and science. If you have children, it is a great alternative to video games because it is both educational AND, with each correct answer 20 or more grains of rice go to feed the hungry. The site was launched in October 2007. www.freerice.com

By Maizie James on 02/07/2009 2:24 pm

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Wow Maizie! That is a great site! I will pass it on to all my friends, particularly those with children. Thank you for your comments. And I agree. I say a lot less on these threads lately because I feel they are really baiting the Right/left divisiveness to get their “numbers” up. There is no way I can believe that there can be still so many knuckleheads in America. I think there are about 10 posters who are just playing a media role to stir up the ladies! So I try to avoid those particular threads where I see high numbers because I know there is a fight going on. :) Peace to you!

By Amelie Poulain on 02/07/2009 3:37 pm

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The worst place on earth is any place where one lives in abject poverty and can not find help. I go hungry every single day. I have $5.73 a day to feed both my granddaughter and myself. I sleep on a dangerously rickety bed. Her mattress was older than me and shamefully worn out when we got it. Most of my furniture is in deplorable condition. I have 3 pairs of jeans that are in passable condition. Two pair are too big and the last is so tight it is painful to wear them. Every one of my children left home hurt, angry and hating me because they were locked out of going after their dreams. Their only choices were to graduate into instant homelessness. Only having a baby, or going into the military could change that. My children were amazingly talented and smart. I raised them to go for their passions, to beleive that anything they so desired was possible. They grew up in a society that practically beats them over the head with that. But, by the time they reached their mid teens they realized that without resources they were as stranded as me. They found out that freedom is defined by the size of one’s wallet. They finally understood that I had the freedom to walk a mile to the store and back one hand on the cane, one holding so many groceries that over time my arm pulled out of proper position. I had the freedom to have raw bloody hands from hand washing laundry. I had the freedom to apologize to them for missing yet another holiday. I had the freedom to work excruciatingly hard to keep us alive so that complete strangers could call me names and tell me to get off my lazy butt and get a job. I had the freedom to be prescribed just enough pain medicines to wish I would die to finally end the ceaseless pain. I had the freedom to never have the doctor look for better treatements or even the cause of my illness. I had the freedom to suffer. I had the freedom to watch the light go out of my children’s eyes as opportunities passed them by as I did not have the resources for them to go after them. Community help is almost non existent. Kindness and empathy are even rarer. I am blessedly talented in the arts; but, can not find the resources to get the work beyond my front door. I have found hundreds of thousands of charities accepting donations. But not one giving them back out. I have uploaded some of my works onto www.zooqoo.com under my name and some onto www.redbubble.com user name blueccs; but the work I most excell in-pointillism just dos not show up well on a photograph. Without an actual show my name may never be known. I have struggled through twenty years of poverty to produce enough pictures for a show and now can not find one single person willing to help me with that step. I can only wonder, if I lived somewhere else would my chances of finding that help be better.?Would I find that help before my granddaughter is taken away from me by my government/state because the kindness of our government/state is not enough to raise her according to our country’s standards? The same wonderful country that gave us enough to survive also destroyed my family. The worst place on earth is wherever there is no hope. Where do I live? Africa? India? I live in the United States of America.

By Christine Cline on 02/06/2009 9:28 am

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Why are you so much more willing to spend money on someone in a completely different country than to help the people in your own country who are struggling to survive. At least if you help someone here you have the means to research whether or not they are actually impovereshed and need help. Whereas if you help someone in a different country how are you going to know whether or not your money is actually going to someone in need. All you have is word of mouth and even the most astute of persons have at times been tricked. Why are people so much more willing to trust what they can not see for themselves? If I moved to Africa would you people help me then?

By Christine Cline on 02/06/2009 9:51 am

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Point taken CC. More later. I have appointments right now. But I hear you.

By Amelie Poulain on 02/06/2009 12:20 pm

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This octuplet issue is becoming more news than Obama and that’s just wrong. This woman is nuts and it IS all about money. If it wasn’t she wouldn’t have a newly hired advisor. She is going over all the deals she has been offered and will end up a multi-millionaire with babies that will more than likely have lifelong issues as the experts have said. Truly an unethical issue here. She could have helped the many children right here in this country who go to bed every night hungry. Let’s put them first for a change. Our economy, struggling Seniors, those without medical coverage, people losing their homes are far more important conversation than one about a loonytoon who has been very depressed for a long time because she couldn’t have kids. And yes….the taxpayers will get hit with some of those expenses and that certainly is something we don’t need added to our already extroadinary burden. I would much rather have someone help me at 67 get a job than hear about her self imposed dilemma.

By Linda Rae Foster on 02/07/2009 4:53 am

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Linda, I am sorry to hear that at 67 you need a job. At your age you have earned the right to relax and be pampered by the younger generation. Tell me what type of work it is that you wish to do and I will pray that that special job is yours for the taking. Even now as I type I have started my plea to God on your behalf.

By Christine Cline on 02/07/2009 10:12 am