The World Bank will increase its lending for poverty reduction and infrastructure projects by $100 billion, a 50 percent increase that will occur gradually over the next 10 years. The World Bank plans to finance the initiative through a combination of higher service fees for rich countries, substantial administrative cuts and a loosening of lending […]
The devastating Syrian refugee crisis has brought to the forefront the plight of millions of refugees around the world. It is estimated that today there are 10.5 million refugees globally, nearly half of whom are children. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres has noted that in 2013 alone, over two million refugees […]
The term Fortress Europe refers to the European Union’s obstructive policies towards immigrants. It is a term that critics employ to highlight many member states’ reluctance and outright unwillingness to welcome migrants seeking a better life within the European Union. Nowhere is this Euro-jargon more literal in than the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla […]
In 1999, less than half of the school-aged children in Ethiopia were attending primary school. In 2010, the number increased to 87 percent. As a result, literacy rates have also increased. How did education in Ethiopia grow so rapidly? Access to Free Education Government-led efforts, including building schools in rural areas and abolishing extra fees, […]
A charity associated with the US Peace Corps works hard in Kenya to end the ‘sex for fish’ trade, a common practice in which the risk of contracting the HIV virus is high. Known the locals as “jaboya,” the transaction literally involves the act of trading sex for fish. Fishermen daily compete for business in […]
True strength can be found beyond the confines of its traditional definition, which focuses primarily on the physical. Strength of mind, instead, is the crucial virtue for any successful activist. In the fight for social justice, activists are pitched into a wide array of situations that require them to serve as leaders, amplifying the voices […]
The Syrian peace talks in Switzerland at the start of 2014 have had little success. Members of the West insist on a transitory government away from the present Assad regime, yet that is a non-starter for negotiators from the regime. In the meantime, the Syrian people are still being killed, starved and stuck in the […]
The art of Jin Joo Chae, a native of South Korea living in New York, is unique in many respects, but none more so than her chosen medium: chocolate. For Chae, the chocolate is not just a sweet confection—it is also representative of a difference in pay between the factory workers of her native South […]
On July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan gained independence from Sudan. Since then, the newly formed nation has been engulfed in internal conflicts, claiming the lives of up to 10,000 people. The violence has caused over 870,000 South Sudanese to flea their homes, of which over 140,000 have escaped to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, […]
As recently indicated by a global monitoring report on education, there are 250 million illiterate children in the world, 130 million of them at the primary school level. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has identified the development impacts on the illiterate generation and has made plans to lead efforts in contributing to […]
