In the village of Dertu, Kenya, there is little electricity. Except for the cell phone tower on the edge of the village. This means that farmers no longer have to hours to get latest market prices, they can get them by text. It is one of the other 13 villages called Millennium Villages designed to show how simple technology can drastically reduce global poverty and boost education, gender equality and health by 2015. About 70% of Dertu's people earn less than $1 a day and most of them depend on food aid. Generators and solar energy provide only cell phone charging, not the school's nine computers. Though, there are improvements like 4 new heath care workers, free medicines and vaccines, a birthing center and laboratory and bed netting to keep out mosquitos. The malaria percent has dropped from 49% to 8% of people just because of this. Also double the boys and triple the girls school attendance and each village gets $120 to spend per person per year. Still there are complaints that there are still too few teachers and the water is still too salty. Dertu's ripple effect is felt kilometers away where nomads are being taught for the first time.
Critical Thinking Question:
Will Dertu be the first of millions of villages to get this treatment or will the Millennium Villages come crashing down?
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