How to Make Christmas Merrier

For the world’s privileged, the Christmas season means mistletoe and hot chocolate, evergreen conifer trees with glistening ornaments, piles of presents and stockings hung on the fireplace mantle. In fact, Christmas is the largest global market stimulus due to an astounding proliferation in sales that account for almost a fifth of the retail industry’s annual sales.  In the United States alone, consumers collectively spend a whopping $469 billion during the holiday season with the average family allocating roughly $800 purely to holiday indulgences and travel.

However, a substantial portion of the world’s population is deprived of such blissful and lavish holiday revelry. In many areas of the world, Christmas is not celebrated as a joyful commercial and religious event comprised of frantic trips to the local mall and family bonding; it marks just another day of struggle and survival. Even in America, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, poverty plagues about 45 million people.

Due to this, many organizations provide methods in which individuals are given the opportunity to help impoverished families and communities during the holiday season. For example, since its founding in 1993, Operation Christmas Child has given gifts to over 100 million impoverished children in approximately 130 countries worldwide. In order to make a donation to Operation Christmas Child, individuals are instructed to fill any durable shoebox with child-geared gifts and a $7 shipping donation.

Furthermore, Alternate Gifts International also allows people to lend aid during the holiday season. Unlike Operation Christmas Child, AGI focuses on distributing gifts such as nonperishable food, shelter, vegetation, livestock, and medical supplies. All of which promotes sustainability and community health. To facilitate the donation process, a catalog of needed resources are listed for prospective contributors to choose from.

Much like AGI, UNICEF released a poignant campaign urging consumers to purchase their Christmas cards and gifts online through UNICEF with the tagline of “we go where Santa doesn’t.” According to this endeavor, the purchase of each gift goes towards providing life-saving items, such as mosquito nets and water kits, to impoverished children. Hollywood actor and goodwill ambassador Orlando Bloom supports the campaign by stating “I like the fact that [it] does not simply provide people with the humanitarian aid, but also elaborates on the tools to solve problems and improve the life of children and women.”

Although simply donating to these charitable organizations provides gifts and assistance to communities in need, staying informed and enlightening others about global poverty is also an additional, albeit less direct, way to give back during this holiday season. In doing so, poverty is pushed to the forefront of national agendas.

- Phoebe Pradhan

Sources: Statista, Last Throes, Investopedia, Anthropology News

Palestinian Poverty in the Holy Land

The status of Jerusalem is the most contentious issue in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has led to an alarming rate of poverty among Jerusalem’s Palestinian population.  According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 86% of Jerusalem’s Palestinian children are below the poverty line.

As a whole, 77% of Palestinian Jerusalemite households faced poverty in 2010, compared to only 25% of Israeli households.

Prior to the 1967 war, East Jerusalem was the hub of urban and commercial life for Palestinians.  After the war, Israel annexed East Jerusalem. Palestinian Jerusalemites were given a separate legal status as merely ‘permanent residents,’ restricting “access to housing, employment, education, health services and representation in the city.”  Since then, Palestinian Jerusalemites have faced a policy of neglect and have become virtually isolated from the rest of the West Bank with the construction of the Israeli separation barrier in 2003.

The East Jerusalem economy accounted for 15% of the Palestinian economy prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords.  In recent years, however, the economy has shrunk by half.  It is estimated that the separation barrier has led to over $1 billion in direct losses to the East Jerusalem economy.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) lists key factors contributing to poverty in East Jerusalem as:  (1) the separation barrier and isolation from the West Bank; (2) a weakened job market; (3) the neglected school system and obstacles in higher education and professional training; (4) difficulties integrating women into the job market; (5) employment in West Jerusalem; and (6) revocation of residency and the provision of temporary status.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) echoes these factors, maintaining that Jerusalem’s increasing economic isolation, “including the building of Israeli separation barrier,” left it “integrated neither into the Palestinian economy nor into the Israeli economy.”

Politics aside, ACRI contends that a crucial way of overcoming Palestinian poverty is to address employment and fair labor conditions.  Due to its isolation from the West Bank, East Jerusalem’s economy is dependent on the Israeli market, which serves as a source of employment and trade.  ACRI stresses a key point for policy change should be Israeli government investment in employment services.  “While Palestinians constitute a third of the municipal population, only three welfare offices operate in East Jerusalem, in contrast to the 18 in the western part of Jerusalem serving Israelis.” ACRI believes that an expansion of employment services is one way to offer the necessary tools for Palestinian residents to find jobs that offer financial stability and professional development.

– Rifk Ebeid

Sources: Al Jazeera News, Haaretz, UNCTAD, ACRI

Poverty and Economic Report: Brazil

Brazil is Latin America’s strongest economy, but the country’s rate of poverty remains high.

Poverty disproportionately affects the young, which can be seen by the number of children who participate in Brazil’s labor force being at least twice as high as in any other country in Latin America. Furthermore, about a quarter of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition.

As a whole, about 35 percent of the population live in poverty, on less than two dollars a day, though rural poverty lies at about 51 percent. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stated Brazil has about 18 million poor rural citizens, the largest number in the Western Hemisphere.

Poor communities in Brazil have no readily available access to education and health facilities. Water supply and sewage systems are, furthermore, generally inadequate, explained the IFAD.

According to the World Bank, more than half of poor Brazilians live in the Northeastern part of the country, but rural and urban areas both contribute to the national poverty level.

Moreover, the IFAD states in the Northeastern part of the country, 58 percent of the total population and 67 percent of the rural population live in poverty.

Households that are headed by women make up 27 percent of the rural poor, meaning that women and the youth are the most vulnerable groups in Brazil.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the global financial crisis hit Brazil hard in 2008 when it experienced two quarters of a recession. Global demand for Brazil’s exports had lowered and “external credit dried up.”

On the other hand, in 2010, Brazil was one of the first countries to begin a recovery. According to the World Bank, the strategy to end poverty in Brazil would include “targeting interventions to the Northeast and expanding child care and preschool facilities in poor neighborhoods.” Expanding childcare would further help women participate in the labor force.

If children in Brazil stayed in school longer, their chances of being poor vastly decreased, the World Bank said.

As for increasing minimum wage and unemployment insurance, the World Banks explained these would probably not be effective tools because few of the urban poor have labor cards.

All in all, rural development policies have improved in Brazil, but “they are not as pro-poor as they could be because the rural poor are still at a disadvantage in land markets.”

- Alycia Rock

Sources: The World Bank, Rural Poverty Portal, The Huffington Post
Photo: PBS

Katy Perry Becomes UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

International pop star Katy Perry has become UNICEF’s newest Goodwill Ambassador as of December 3. Perry is the singer of the anthemic ballads “Firework” and “Roar” and she is obviously living up to her songs’ inspirational messages. UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake stated, “Katy Perry is already a champion for children, and we look forward to hearing her ‘roar’ on behalf of UNICEF.”

Perry’s first project with UNICEF was a trip to Madagascar in April of this year. She spent four days there speaking with local people as well as government and UNICEF workers discussing the major issues facing the country as a whole. Perry met with abused and abandoned children and young mothers. She also visited schools and medical centers and learned how UNICEF has been working toward improving poor living conditions in Madagascar. Over half of the people in Madagascar live in poverty, and the country is plagued with chronic malnutrition, poor sanitation, and lack of education. Perry’s time there and her work with UNICEF evidently impacted her, leading to her new position as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Perry has stated that her experiences in Madagascar changed her life. The trip reportedly taught her to realign her priorities away from material possessions and social status, and put her own situation into perspective. She also stated that her music has been influenced by the stories of the people she met, particularly those of oppressed and abused women. Her new hit “Unconditionally” was inspired by her time there.

Goodwill ambassadors are public figures who choose to use their put their fame and influence to good use by becoming powerful advocates for impoverished and suffering individuals globally. As a wildly successful pop icon, Perry is in the perfect position to engage young people as advocates for the world’s poor, neglected, and abused children and adolescents. She plans to focus her efforts on young people, inspiring those with the power to help, and giving aid to the vulnerable people who need it.

She stated, “I believe young people have the power to change their own lives, with our help. I am honoured to join UNICEF as a Goodwill ambassador, and committed to doing everything I can to help children and adolescents who come from such different backgrounds but want the same thing: a brighter future.”

Perry posted this statement on her widely trafficked Tumblr page, as well as some celebratory tweets and pictures from UNICEF. Perry has previously appealed to her social media followers to support UNICEF and its relief efforts for children.

Actor and comedian Danny Kaye pioneered the Goodwill ambassador concept in 1954 and its most famous participant was Oscar winner Audrey Hepburn. Today, Katy Perry joins a long list of committed ambassadors including Amitabh Bachchan, David Beckham, Harry Belafonte, Orlando Bloom, Jackie Chan, Mia Farrow, Danny Glover, Angelique Kidjo, Liam Neeson, Leo Messi, Sir Roger Moore, Vanessa Redgrave and Susan Sarandon, among others.

- Kathleen Walsh

Sources: Unicef, The Borgen Project, Tumblr, ABC, Unicef
Photo: Xinhua Net

5 Facts about Poverty in Yemen

As one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, Yemen is currently faced with some of the most extreme poverty issues in the world. There are several issues that are unique to Yemen that contribute to this magnitude of poverty, issues that are on track to only get worse unless direct action is taken to mitigate these circumstances. If basic problems, such as lack of access to water, are not properly addressed, other matters, such as sub-par literacy rates, will continue to plague the region.

Here are five facts that characterize what poverty in Yemen looks like:

1. Yemen’s population stands at 25.4 million and approximately 54% of those people live in poverty.  In other words, 54% of the population survives on fewer than 2 dollars per day.

2. Approximately 45% of the population is malnourished.

3. Life expectancy in Yemen is 64 years old, 14 years younger than the average life expectancy in the United States.

4. Major infectious diseases plaguing the country include Bacterial diarrhea, Typhoid fever, Dengue fever and Malaria, all of which are preventable, curable and in some cases largely unheard of anymore in the western world.

5. There is less than 1 physician for every 1,000 people in Yemen.

Major causes behind poverty in Yemen today

• The dire water shortage: The use of the word ‘dire’ cannot be stressed enough. According to Maplecroft, a global risk analysis organization, Yemen is ranked as the seventh most water-stressed country on the planet. Even though there is a water shortage in Yemen, approximately 90% of the country’s water is put towards its largely ineffective agricultural practices. In Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a, tap water is only available once every four days for its 2 million people. Even worse, in Taiz, a major city in the south, tap water is only available every 20 days. It is estimated that in 10 years, Sana’a will literally run out of water for its citizens.

• On the brink of famine: In mid-2012, several major humanitarian relief organizations issued a warning that 44% of the population’s food needs are not currently being adequately met. Five million of these malnourished Yemeni citizens require emergency aid and immediate action. The warning cited a surge in food and fuel prices and political instability as the cause behind the number of malnourished people doubling since 2009. Though there is food available in some cases, many Yemenis cannot afford to buy nourishment because they have been displaced from their homes due to conflict.

• Lingering political instability: Like most of the Middle East, Yemen felt the effects of the Arab Spring in 2011. The initial uprising was centered on protesting high unemployment, economic conditions and government corruption, which included the then president’s plan to alter the constitution to allow the direct transfer of power to his son. Al-Qaeda also has a presence in the region, which further contributes to political instability. For these reasons and many others, the attempt to reach stability within the government and the region is an ongoing process. After significant fighting and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens, a new president was placed in power after running uncontested in an election. The new president is responsible for overseeing the drafting and implementation of a new constitution and further presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014.

- Colleen Eckvahl

Sources: BBC: Yemen’s President cedes power, BBC: Yemen on brink of food crisis, Green Profit, Maplecroft, The World Bank