Timor-Leste, a small island north of Australia and east of Indonesia, is one of the lowest-income countries in the Asia-Pacific.
According to World Bank data, approximately 44% of the population lived on less than $3 per day in 2014. Food insecurity remains a key challenge for the people of Timor-Leste. A 2020 UNICEF report indicated that about 64% of households rely on agriculture for income, while 87% use poor cooking fuel and 25% lack access to safe drinking water.
Children younger than five are most severely impacted. A 2018 UNICEF report noted that one in two children younger than five suffers from stunting. Child undernutrition is the leading risk factor for death in this age group. Addressing multidimensional poverty requires local and international support. Here are five charities operating in Timor-Leste to combat poverty, build resilience and improve livelihoods.
Oxfam
The first of the five charities operating in Timor-Leste is Oxfam, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting inequality, poverty and injustice. The organization believes lasting solutions require working with local organizations, allies and communities. In Timor-Leste, Oxfam Australia has been working alongside local organizations for more than 40 years to strengthen land rights, expand economic opportunity and build disaster preparedness.
Oxfam partners with the Australian government and local organizations to carry out the AHP Disaster READY program, helping Timorese communities strengthen local planning, emergency coordination and early-warning systems to prepare for extreme weather events like floods, cyclones and landslides. Additionally, its HAKFOUN II project empowers young voices in rural development by bringing together government, civil society and development partners in inclusive dialogue.
Plan International
Plan International is a global humanitarian organization that works to advance children’s rights and build a world where “equality for girls leads to progress for all.” The organization has been working in Timor-Leste since 2001 with young girls, boys and their communities to challenge discrimination and ensure every child grows up safe, healthy and educated.
The organization’s work focuses on keeping girls in school, nutritionally healthy and provided with access to clean water and hygiene facilities. Plan International also works with communities to protect girls from violence, support female leadership and strengthen climate resilience to protect children’s futures.
Empowering youth advocacy and leadership is central to its mission. In March 2025, Plan International Timor-Leste supported Lilerita, a youth delegate, as she represented her country at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. There, she advocated for girls’ rights and grassroots change to international decision-makers.
CARE International
CARE International is a global nonprofit organization working to save lives and defeat global poverty. Its work prioritizes women and girls, driven by the belief that girls both face specific barriers and have unique potential to change lives.
CARE International has been working in Timor-Leste since 1994. Following Timorese independence in 2002, CARE expanded its focus beyond emergency aid to help communities overcome poverty, especially in rural areas. Today, the organization empowers women and girls by strengthening economic opportunities, improving access to education and health care, supporting girls in community leadership roles and building resilience against environmental and economic crises.
A key part of CARE’s current work is the HATUTAN program, which works to ensure children in rural schools are provided with nutritious meals. CARE also publishes its Lafaek magazines, distributed three times per year to pre- and primary schools, providing vital information about health, hygiene, nutrition and agriculture.
Blue Ventures
Blue Ventures is a marine conservation charity working in 11 countries across Africa and Asia to strengthen local marine management and restore ocean life. Since 2016, the organization has worked with Timorese communities to improve coral reef management and restore seagrass ecosystems. This work includes supporting the revival of traditional local governance practices called Tara Bandu, which utilize seasonal fishing closures and community-led monitoring of marine ecosystems to support conservation.
According to Blue Ventures, these efforts have helped nearshore fish stocks recover in project areas, contributing to improved nutrition, food security and income stability for local families. This stability motivates communities to continue protecting marine resources, establishing a self-sustaining cycle that supports the local economy and provides more nutritional food for generations to come.
RAEBIA
RAEBIA Timor-Leste is a local nonprofit organization founded in 1997 that uses conservation agriculture to support rural communities. Its name combines two words from the local Kemak language (rae, meaning land, and bia, meaning water) to represent the two elements needed to grow something.
While national figures indicate around 64% of all households rely on agriculture for food or income, RAEBIA estimates that in its rural project areas that figure is closer to 80%. The steep slope and poor soil quality of the land can make farming difficult. To address this, RAEBIA runs three key programs to support sustainable agriculture: community seed banking, seeds of survival and natural resource management.
Through these programs, RAEBIA works to strengthen community seed security, restore soil health and boost crop diversity, while empowering women and youth as “champion farmers.” The organization reports that these interventions help eliminate the seasonal hunger period for participating farming households and build climate-resilient, self-sustaining communities.
Looking Ahead
These five charities operating in Timor-Leste are some of the many global and local organizations that work alongside Timorese communities to combat poverty, gender inequality and educational barriers. By addressing root causes through community-led solutions, these programs are helping local families build long-term economic stability and improved livelihoods for the future.
– Ruby Straker
Ruby is based in Edinburgh, UK and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Pixabay
5 Charities Operating in Timor-Leste
According to World Bank data, approximately 44% of the population lived on less than $3 per day in 2014. Food insecurity remains a key challenge for the people of Timor-Leste. A 2020 UNICEF report indicated that about 64% of households rely on agriculture for income, while 87% use poor cooking fuel and 25% lack access to safe drinking water.
Children younger than five are most severely impacted. A 2018 UNICEF report noted that one in two children younger than five suffers from stunting. Child undernutrition is the leading risk factor for death in this age group. Addressing multidimensional poverty requires local and international support. Here are five charities operating in Timor-Leste to combat poverty, build resilience and improve livelihoods.
Oxfam
The first of the five charities operating in Timor-Leste is Oxfam, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting inequality, poverty and injustice. The organization believes lasting solutions require working with local organizations, allies and communities. In Timor-Leste, Oxfam Australia has been working alongside local organizations for more than 40 years to strengthen land rights, expand economic opportunity and build disaster preparedness.
Oxfam partners with the Australian government and local organizations to carry out the AHP Disaster READY program, helping Timorese communities strengthen local planning, emergency coordination and early-warning systems to prepare for extreme weather events like floods, cyclones and landslides. Additionally, its HAKFOUN II project empowers young voices in rural development by bringing together government, civil society and development partners in inclusive dialogue.
Plan International
Plan International is a global humanitarian organization that works to advance children’s rights and build a world where “equality for girls leads to progress for all.” The organization has been working in Timor-Leste since 2001 with young girls, boys and their communities to challenge discrimination and ensure every child grows up safe, healthy and educated.
The organization’s work focuses on keeping girls in school, nutritionally healthy and provided with access to clean water and hygiene facilities. Plan International also works with communities to protect girls from violence, support female leadership and strengthen climate resilience to protect children’s futures.
Empowering youth advocacy and leadership is central to its mission. In March 2025, Plan International Timor-Leste supported Lilerita, a youth delegate, as she represented her country at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. There, she advocated for girls’ rights and grassroots change to international decision-makers.
CARE International
CARE International is a global nonprofit organization working to save lives and defeat global poverty. Its work prioritizes women and girls, driven by the belief that girls both face specific barriers and have unique potential to change lives.
CARE International has been working in Timor-Leste since 1994. Following Timorese independence in 2002, CARE expanded its focus beyond emergency aid to help communities overcome poverty, especially in rural areas. Today, the organization empowers women and girls by strengthening economic opportunities, improving access to education and health care, supporting girls in community leadership roles and building resilience against environmental and economic crises.
A key part of CARE’s current work is the HATUTAN program, which works to ensure children in rural schools are provided with nutritious meals. CARE also publishes its Lafaek magazines, distributed three times per year to pre- and primary schools, providing vital information about health, hygiene, nutrition and agriculture.
Blue Ventures
Blue Ventures is a marine conservation charity working in 11 countries across Africa and Asia to strengthen local marine management and restore ocean life. Since 2016, the organization has worked with Timorese communities to improve coral reef management and restore seagrass ecosystems. This work includes supporting the revival of traditional local governance practices called Tara Bandu, which utilize seasonal fishing closures and community-led monitoring of marine ecosystems to support conservation.
According to Blue Ventures, these efforts have helped nearshore fish stocks recover in project areas, contributing to improved nutrition, food security and income stability for local families. This stability motivates communities to continue protecting marine resources, establishing a self-sustaining cycle that supports the local economy and provides more nutritional food for generations to come.
RAEBIA
RAEBIA Timor-Leste is a local nonprofit organization founded in 1997 that uses conservation agriculture to support rural communities. Its name combines two words from the local Kemak language (rae, meaning land, and bia, meaning water) to represent the two elements needed to grow something.
While national figures indicate around 64% of all households rely on agriculture for food or income, RAEBIA estimates that in its rural project areas that figure is closer to 80%. The steep slope and poor soil quality of the land can make farming difficult. To address this, RAEBIA runs three key programs to support sustainable agriculture: community seed banking, seeds of survival and natural resource management.
Through these programs, RAEBIA works to strengthen community seed security, restore soil health and boost crop diversity, while empowering women and youth as “champion farmers.” The organization reports that these interventions help eliminate the seasonal hunger period for participating farming households and build climate-resilient, self-sustaining communities.
Looking Ahead
These five charities operating in Timor-Leste are some of the many global and local organizations that work alongside Timorese communities to combat poverty, gender inequality and educational barriers. By addressing root causes through community-led solutions, these programs are helping local families build long-term economic stability and improved livelihoods for the future.
– Ruby Straker
Photo: Pixabay
Remittances to Kenya Lift Households Out of Poverty
Kenya’s Economic Reality at a Glance
When discussing the economy of a country, dry statistics often obscure the human reality. However, behind every data point lies a real household trying to pay school fees or put food on the table. To understand the weight of a single household remittance, consider the broader financial environment facing families: In 2022, nearly 40% of the population (39.8%) lived below the national poverty line, while 45.48% survived on less than $3 a day. The Multidimensional Poverty Headcount Ratio, which tracks deprivations in health, education and basic living standards, sat at 47.28% in 2022. Between 2015 and 2021, total per capita income dropped by 3.09%, and for the poorest 40% of the population, it fell even faster at an annualized rate of 1.18%. For Kenya’s population of over 56 million people, the overall unemployment rate hovered at 5.4% in 2024, with youth unemployment more than double that at 11.93%.
With nearly half the population experiencing multidimensional poverty and most new jobs anchored in the unpredictable informal sector, financial stability is a daily balancing act for many Kenyan families.
One Wage Abroad Rebuilds a Family’s Future
Mohammed Juma, known locally as Modi, grew up along Kenya’s coast in Kilifi County—a region known globally for tourism. While its attraction makes the coast popular, locals in Kilifi often experience an air of hopelessness because of poverty. Poverty pushes many people out of Kilifi to find better work. Juma’s wife, Aisha, wanted a fresh start. She found a job as a house manager in Saudi Arabia in 2023. A licensed employment agency helped her make the big move abroad. Aisha sends home about $1,200 a month. That money pays school fees for the couple’s two daughters. It also funds eight rental units the family is building for extra income. Juma volunteers at a local community-based organization, where he shares his family’s experience with neighbors who hope for the same kind of opportunity.
The Next Step for Remittances to Kenya
Kenya’s government and financial regulators are working to simplify inflows. The Central Bank of Kenya licensed six new remittance operators over an 18-month period, bringing the total to 24.
Mobile money adoption among Kenyan adults climbed from 27% in 2011 to 92% in 2024.
Fintech platforms carried just 1.92% of remittance inflows in 2024, leaving considerable room for growth as more digital operators enter the market.
Costs remain a barrier to efficient remittances. Sending $200 to Kenya carries an average fee of 9.15%. That is above the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.
Digital platforms, mobile wallets and newly licensed fintech operators could help make remittances more accessible to Kenyan households, particularly in rural areas. Initiatives supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the European Union have highlighted the potential for digital remittances to reduce transaction costs and expand financial inclusion. For families receiving money from abroad, even a small reduction in transfer fees could leave more funds available for tuition, livestock or food.
– Otieno Onyango
Photo: Unsplash
Everything You Need to Know About Poverty in Honduras
Poverty and Malnutrition Are Closely Connected
WFP says 63% of the population lives in poverty in Honduras, while one in four children under five suffers from chronic malnutrition. The cost of malnutrition is huge – about $618 million a year, or 2.7% of the country’s GDP. For children, not getting enough to eat causes more than hunger. Nearly 19% of children under five in Honduras experience developmental delays due to malnutrition, according to WFP. Families in rural areas have an even harder time getting healthy food and medical help. WFP points to factors like lack of services, inequality, violence, displacement and climate problems as reasons so many people have food insecurity. WFP is helping the Honduran government run nutrition programs, support small farmers and build stronger food systems. These efforts meet urgent needs and help communities prepare for tough times ahead.
Children Often Experience the Impact First
Children growing up in poverty are hit hardest when there is not enough food or healthcare. UNICEF says at least 338,000 children enduring poverty in Honduras need help with nutrition. In just 2023 and 2024, more than 45,000 children under five received support that included food, clean water, hygiene, child protection and cash assistance for families. Alexa was among those children who got help. Her family received cash support, which helped pay for food, bus rides and other basics. Evelyn explained that her husband worked in sugar cane seasonally, so sometimes the family could not afford enough food. The extra money also helped them get Alexa to the clinic. Alexa’s story shows that improving health is not just about building more clinics. Families need the money and support to get to these clinics and keep their kids healthy at home.
Strengthening Healthcare Can Save Lives
Poverty in Honduras often makes it hard to get medical help quickly. For rural families, the nearest health center might be hours away – and travel costs money. PAHO says improving basic healthcare and connecting services are key steps Honduras is taking to boost health for everyone. There is already progress. Between 2023 and 2025, Honduras’ maternal mortality rate fell from 65 to 38 deaths per 100,000 live births, a reduction of 41.5%. PAHO reports that this progress was driven by an integrated territorial response that strengthened the clinical, operational and logistical capacity of the health system, particularly in higher-risk settings. This success shows what is possible when health services reach communities that once had limited access. Investing more in primary care means risks are caught sooner and families get help faster.
Social Protection Can Improve Health Outcomes
Health and money go hand in hand. If families cannot regularly pay for food, buses or basics, even simple medical care becomes a challenge. To help, the Inter-American Development Bank gave Honduras a $75.9 million boost. The program is designed to provide cash to 50,000 of the poorest households and support nutrition and early childhood services for 165,000 children. The program also aims to protect household income from climate, economic and health-related shocks while strengthening services for vulnerable families. By combining cash aid with nutrition and child services, the initiative breaks down many barriers that keep low-income families from getting care.
Building a Healthier Future
Poverty in Honduras remains a major obstacle for families. But programs focusing on food, healthcare and social support are starting to make a real difference. Alexa’s recovery demonstrates these efforts go beyond numbers. With the right treatment and support to buy food and get to the clinic, she went from barely crawling to running and eating on her own. Her story reminds us that health and poverty are intertwined. Fixing one without the other means families might face the same problems all over again. If Honduras continues investing in primary care, nutrition and social support, more families will get what they need – before a health scare turns into a crisis. The country’s progress so far shows that when these services reach people in need, health improves for everyone.
– Mia Lomonaco
Photo: Pixabay
The Taliban and the Afghan People: Oppression and Poverty
A Government Built on Decree
Before 2021, Afghanistan operated under a constitution that balanced Islamic identity with human rights protections rooted in international treaties: no law could contradict Islamic principles, but the legal system was still expected to align with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That framework collapsed after the Taliban takeover. The current government rules primarily through verbal and written decrees interpreting sharia law rather than through codified law, and discrimination based on gender, religious belief and social status has become part of the system itself.
The Taliban’s de facto authorities, referred to internationally as the DFA, have issued more than 100 decrees affecting the rights of women and girls since 2021. UN Women describes the scale of this transformation as without precedent, noting that no other country in modern history has dismantled the rights of half its population so systematically.
The Toll on Women and Girls
The numbers illustrate just how far-reaching the changes of the Taliban have been for the Afghan people. Under current decrees, husbands hold legal authority over their wives, and their disciplinary actions are only criminalized if they cause severe injury. Child marriage remains widespread: in 2023, 28.7% of Afghan women aged 20-24 had been married or in a union before age 18, including 9.6% who had been married or in a union before age 15.
Access to justice has narrowed sharply along gender lines, with only one woman able to reach legal recourse for every four men. Health care has suffered as well. Afghanistan’s maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 638 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, among the highest rates in the world. The psychological toll is just as stark: seven in 10 Afghan women now describe their mental health as bad or very bad.
Education and employment have been hit hardest of all. An estimated 78% of young Afghan women are not in education, employment or training, a level of exclusion that threatens to erase two decades of progress in a single generation.
These figures have fueled criticism of governments and institutions that condemned Taliban policy without meaningfully changing conditions on the ground, a critique that casts doubt on the effectiveness of purely diplomatic responses.
Support for the Afghan People Continues, Quietly
Despite the bleak headlines, international support for the Afghan people has not disappeared. It has largely moved out of the spotlight. The Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and supported by international donors, continues to fund humanitarian projects addressing basic needs, health care and nutrition. In 2025, for example, an AHF grant of $1.39 million supported six sub-health centers and 13 inpatient therapeutic feeding centers in four of the country’s most vulnerable provinces.
Civil society has stepped in where governments have pulled back, especially in education. Afghan girls barred from classrooms are increasingly turning to virtual and underground schooling run by small, often volunteer-driven organizations:
Economic empowerment programs are showing effective results. In 2025 alone, UN Women directly supported more than 5,000 Afghan women entrepreneurs, including 940 women-led enterprises and 4,130 women who established income-generating livelihoods, in part through community-based and formal microloan mechanisms.
A Fragile Lifeline
These efforts remain small relative to what could be achieved with sustained government-level backing, and that backing is now at risk. More than half of the women-led organizations providing life-saving services in Afghanistan expect to suspend operations or close entirely within the next year because of aid cuts. That makes continued attention to the Afghan people’s situation more urgent, not less. The organizations working discreetly inside and outside the country have shown that meaningful change is still possible even under one of the most repressive governments. What they lack is not proof of the impact of the Taliban on the Afghan people, but the sustained support needed to scale it.
– Juan Guillermo Rueda Castrillón
Photo: Flickr
The Invisible Aid in Colombia’s Pacific Coast
This reinforces a familiar narrative: that Chocó and Colombia’s other Pacific cities are like “ghost regions.” It is a rough label for a place rich in culture and diversity, home to significant Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities, but long isolated by geography and government neglect. That neglect is highlighted in the statistics. Chocó is Colombia’s poorest department: 66.7% of its residents live below the monetary poverty line, the highest rate in the country, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE). Multidimensional poverty, which measures deprivation in education, health care and housing rather than income alone, shows a similar situation: 36.8% of Chocó’s population lives in multidimensional poverty, according to DANE. The earthquake exposed this long-existing gap between Colombia’s Pacific Coast and the rest of the country.
After the Disaster
Since the disaster, the death toll has risen to 331, while 240 people remain missing and around 400,000 people have been affected across 16 of the 32 departments in Colombia. The earthquake has created a nationwide humanitarian and infrastructure crisis, shutting down health, education, information and cultural centers, damaging housing and limiting transportation and communication across the country.
Creating Solutions
According to Gloria Miranda of the Institute for Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action, nonprofit and humanitarian organizations have advanced the response to the disaster in western Colombia. However, private donations and social initiatives are not enough on their own. Miranda argues that the priorities of affected communities need to be written into the government’s political agenda, so aid can be coordinated more efficiently and tracked.
On Aug. 21, German outlet DW criticized the response of President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government. It noted that the presidency’s public messaging diverged from other state institutions on the earthquake’s toll, pointed to a limited government presence in the press, and highlighted Colombia’s hesitation over international aid.
Such hesitation was present in the earthquake’s first days, when the United Nations said it had not received a formal request for assistance from Colombian authorities, even as several governments, including Mexico, Brazil and Chile, offered search and rescue teams. Government officials said they were relying on the country’s own capacity and strict technical certification standards for foreign rescuers, but the delay attracted criticism from disaster-response experts questioning whether caution or politics were driving the decision.
Long-Standing Issues
Buenaventura, a port city of more than 430,000 people, had already struggled for decades with limited electricity, unstable internet and scarce to absent drinking water before the earthquake made those problems worse.
Records from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which has worked in Colombia since 2005 helping refugees, indicate that even before the disaster, more than 9 million Colombians already required humanitarian aid, including those affected by forced displacement, armed conflict, floods and droughts. This reminds people of the tasks of repairing damage from the earthquake and also of reaching communities that were already facing long-standing vulnerabilities.
This organization is currently providing shelter and survival supplies, such as water, hygiene products and mattresses, for those affected in Chocó, along with monetary assistance for shelters and other families in Valle del Cauca. It is also raising funds that will become a substantial form of aid in Colombia’s Pacific Coast.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), present in Chocó for more than two decades, is coordinating with national authorities and United Nations partners to support children and families. Its focus is water, sanitation and hygiene. The goal is to ease public health problems that the earthquake made worse, along with the economic hardship and basic needs many families in these communities already faced.
Building Back
Reconstruction is now underway, and progress is coming from partnerships between companies, foundations and local communities. Grupo Argos and its foundation, working with singer Nicky Jam, are building 1,000 quick-assembly, earthquake-resistant houses nationwide, from which roughly half will go to Chocó, with the first units delivered by the end of September. In Buenaventura, manufacturers Eternit and Corporacero have donated more than 100 houses combined for displaced families, while the construction association Camacol and the Corporación Minuto de Dios are financing 27 homes for families in Chocó.
Some of the new buildings in Buenaventura are being built as stilt houses, adapted to the flood-prone geography that has shaped life along the Pacific coast. These efforts are still small next to the scale of the damage. However, they show what recovery could look like if it reaches the communities the earthquake, and decades of public policy before it, left behind. Making this urgent aid visible is not a matter of publicity, but about keeping Colombia’s Pacific Coast in the national conversation for the future development of the country.
– Juan Guillermo Rueda Castrillón
Photo: Flickr
Fish Could Help Reduce Schistosomiasis in Senegal
Schistosomiasis, a snail-borne disease, spreads when parasite larvae released by freshwater snails penetrate the skin during contact with infested water. The resulting symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, liver enlargement and kidney damage. In children, schistosomiasis can cause anemia and affect health and school attendance. An affordable solution to schistosomiasis in Senegal was found close to home, or more accurately, in rice fields. This shows researchers that when examining causes and effects of global poverty, they may not need to look far for a solution.
Neglected Tropical Disease in Senegal
Schistosomiasis is a type of neglected tropical disease, or NTD. More well-known NTDs include leprosy and rabies, but these diseases share one important fact: they disproportionately affect those in poverty. It is estimated that NTDs affect more than a billion people, with schistosomiasis prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas.
Those more likely to be infected include children who swim or play in infested water and farmers and fishers whose work brings them into regular contact with freshwater. Control of schistosomiasis relies on prevention and treatment, including preventive chemotherapy, access to safe water, improved sanitation, behavior change and snail control.
Solution of Native Fish
Researchers working along the northern Senegal River basin studied how releasing native freshwater fish in rice paddy fields could reduce the risk of schistosomiasis. The two fish, African bonytongue and Nile tilapia, thrived in the fields, even without researchers actively feeding them. Eating infected snails and competing with them for resources naturally decreased the snail population. After the release of native fish, researchers observed that paddy fields with fish carried fewer parasite-hosting snails. This could reduce the risk of infection for farmers and their families.
The effects of African bonytongue and Nile tilapia are threefold: reducing the risk of infection; improving soil nutrients and increasing rice yields by more than 25 percent; and providing farmers with an additional potential source of income through fishing.
Final Thoughts
The causes and effects of poverty are often cyclical. A health condition can create financial pressure that contributes to poverty, while poverty can increase vulnerability to health conditions. Addressing multiple elements of global poverty is necessary to find a solution. A cost-effective approach such as releasing native fish into rice paddy fields could have wide-reaching, multidimensional effects. While it does not replace serious funding, treatment and infrastructure changes, finding simple, affordable and effective solutions can make a difference.
Researchers are now exploring how rice-fish farming can be expanded across more farms in Senegal.
– Madalyn Youngbauer
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Building a Better Future: Girls in Accra
Poverty Pushes Girls to Accra
Some young women and girls leave their communities as a way to cope with limited opportunities. Many adolescent girls migrate from northern Ghana to Accra, the capital, to find work, hoping to earn money to support themselves and their families.
Once in Accra, children work to support themselves and their families as street vendors, head porters, cart pushers, restaurant workers and in other jobs. Some also face violence and exploitation. A 2012 census found that more than 61,000 children were living or working on Accra’s streets. Girls made up 57% of that number, compared with 43% boys. Many girls work as head porters, also known as kayayei.
Life in Agbogbloshie
Agbogbloshie is in central Accra. The area covers about 146 hectares and is home to nearly 40,000 people. Many of the homes and businesses are small structures built by residents themselves.
The community began in the late 1970s when people who could not afford housing in the city built small shelters near the Korle Lagoon using whatever materials they could find. The area sits on land traditionally belonging to the Ga people, the Indigenous people of the Greater Accra Region.
Today, the area is crowded, and many residents live in small wooden kiosks or shacks without enough access to clean water and bathrooms. Some people pay to share a kiosk, with payments made weekly or even daily instead of paying rent months in advance. Residents also have to pay to use public toilets, showers and water.
Support for Girls in Accra
Girls in Accra can find support from organizations such as Street Girls Aid (S. Aid), a nonprofit established in February 1994 to help children and young people living and working on the streets. S. Aid focuses mainly on girls and young women after seeing the specific challenges they faced while living and working on the streets. The organization is non-religious and non-political and is run by Ghanaian staff.
Its early work focused on helping girls in difficult situations, including pregnant girls living on the streets. Today, S. Aid provides services to about 1,500 children and young people each year.
What Street Girls Aid Does
Conclusion
Through its work, Street Girls Aid is helping girls in Accra gain the skills and support they need to become more independent and provide for their children. While poverty remains a challenge, programs like these can give young women more options to earn an income and create a more secure future.
– Daniela Escobar
Photo: Flickr
2 Organizations Fighting Poverty in the Philippines
Origin of Happyland
Happyland’s name comes from “Hapilan,” a word from a local Visayan dialect meaning “smelly trash.” The name reflects the community’s history: families settled around a dumpsite as they came to Tondo looking for work or after being displaced from other communities. For many, the city offered the possibility of employment but not necessarily affordable housing or reliable access to basic services.
Tondo is Manila’s largest district by population, with 654,220 residents in the 2020 census. Across Tondo, informal communities have grown alongside the city’s economic activity, while residents continue to face inadequate water access, sanitation, waste disposal and housing.
Poverty in the Philippines
Poverty in the Philippines fell to its lowest level in 2025. About 1.9 million families, or 6.4% of all families in the country, did not earn enough to afford their basic food and other needs. This was the first time the family poverty rate fell below 10%. The decrease was partly because people’s incomes increased faster than the cost of basic needs. Between 2023 and 2025, the average income per person increased by 22%, while the amount of money needed to cover basic needs increased by 5.5%.
While the numbers show real progress, millions of Filipinos still struggle to afford basic necessities, indicating that poverty in the Philippines remains a serious problem. In 2025, about 11.08 million Filipinos, or 9.7% of the population, lived below the national poverty threshold.
Factors Contributing to Poverty
Several factors make it difficult for people to escape poverty in the Philippines. Limited access to education can leave people without the skills needed to qualify for better-paying jobs, keeping them in low-wage or unstable work.
Limited access to healthcare can make the situation even harder. When people cannot afford medical care, an illness can prevent them from working and create additional expenses for their families. Furthermore, unequal distribution of wealth and resources also contributes to poverty, as economic opportunities and resources are not shared equally across the population. Additionally, corruption can weaken efforts to reduce poverty in the Philippines when public funds intended for services such as education, healthcare and housing are misused or poorly managed.
Despite these challenges, organizations work to create more opportunities for families in Happyland and improve their living conditions. Among them are Project PEARLS and odoVita.
Project PEARLS
Project PEARLS is a nonprofit that helps children and families living in poverty in the Philippines. Melissa Villa and her family started it in 2010 after Villa learned about families living and working in Ulingan, a community where people were exposed to toxic smoke from charcoal production.
In Tondo, since 2013 the organization has provided meals, learning activities and scholarships to families in the community. PEARLS has also helped move families from Ulingan to a safer community in Bulacan. Today, the organization serves thousands of meals each week and helps children stay in school and have more opportunities for their future.
Project PEARLS focuses on these main programs:
odoVita
odoVita is a nonprofit organization working to improve health and access to medical care in underserved communities, including Happyland. Some of odoVita’s work in Tondo includes:
The organization has also opened a clinic in Barangay 105 to bring care closer to families in the community.
Conclusion
Together, these organizations help families address both their immediate needs, such as food and medicine, and the longer-term challenges that can make it difficult to escape poverty in the Philippines, including limited access to education, employment and other resources. Their work shows that breaking the cycle of poverty is possible when families have access to the support and opportunities they need to build more secure futures.
– Daniela Escobar
Photo: Flickr
Spearheading the Fight Against Mycetoma in Ethiopia
Dermatovenerologist Speaks Out
Professor Wendemagegn Enbiale, an influential dermatovenerologist serving on the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, has drawn attention to the difficulties in tackling mycetoma in Ethiopia. In an interview with Capital Ethiopia, he explains that relative painlessness in the initial stages of mycetoma and the long journeys to reach dermatology services deter patients from seeking help. Furthermore, the cost of medicine and lack of knowledge of the best course of treatment prevent patients from making a full recovery.
Addressing these challenges, Enbiale speaks on the need to wear shoes to limit exposure to the soil and the symptoms of mycetoma, including wounds that fail to heal and pus containing black, white, yellow or red grains. This educates Ethiopians on preventive measures and enables them to seek medical assistance before the disease worsens, which could ultimately result in amputation. Enbiale has advocated for mycetoma care to be incorporated into Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program and primary health care system, laying the groundwork for a targeted government strategy against mycetoma.
Training Program for Medical Professionals
Medical professionals have strengthened their response to mycetoma in Ethiopia in recent years. The training program arranged by universities and research organizations in 2025 was vital in equipping radiologists and dermatologists from various regions in Ethiopia with the expertise to diagnose mycetoma through ultrasound. Dr. Mustafa Elnour Bahar, consultant radiologist at the University of Khartoum, presented the complexities of mycetoma before teaching participants how to operate the ultrasound machines in a hands-on session, examining 35 patients. This was an important step in empowering Ethiopia’s health care system to diagnose mycetoma swiftly and effectively.
Mycetoma Open Source Project
DNDi, a not-for-profit research organization dedicated to developing new treatments, has initiated numerous projects to help those suffering from mycetoma. Partnering with the University of Sydney and Erasmus University Medical Center, DNDi launched the Mycetoma Open Source Project (MycetOS) in 2018. MycetOS seeks to discover new drug candidates for fungal mycetoma (eumycetoma) through a transparent, collaborative online platform where researchers and scientists can share their ideas and results.
As the development of drugs for neglected tropical diseases is rarely successful in the commercial market, this approach facilitates large-scale and efficient research. In 2025, the evaluation of Series 1 fenarimols determined the potency of the fenarimol analogue EPL-BS1246 against eumycetoma. DNDi’s continual efforts in drug discovery lay the foundation for more effective treatments for mycetoma.
Clinical Trial Promotes Drug Registration
Additionally, DNDi performed a Phase II clinical trial in Sudan examining fosravuconazole and itraconazole for eumycetoma. Fosravuconazole was not superior to itraconazole in the trial, but it offered practical advantages including weekly dosing and fewer drug-interaction concerns. In 2025, DNDi and Eisai initiated an early access cohort protocol in Kassala, Sudan. Partners also finalized a regulatory dossier for submission in Sudan and advanced wider regulatory engagement for fosravuconazole in eumycetoma-endemic regions.
Collecting Data in Ethiopia
To tackle the lack of epidemiological data, DNDi conducted a community-based survey across Afar, Amhara, Southern Nations and Tigray, screening households and referring people with suspected eumycetoma for diagnosis and care. The field surveys concluded in 2025 and are intended to help establish more robust estimates of the disease burden in Ethiopia, informing future prevention, treatment and clinical research.
Looking Ahead
Medical professionals and DNDi have made significant strides in establishing an initial framework for the fight against mycetoma in Ethiopia. Advancements in medical knowledge and growing visibility and community awareness not only encourage patients to seek help earlier, but also improve the quality of care they receive. This solid foundation in mycetoma care promotes more comprehensive prevention and control strategies in the future, offering hope for containing the disease.
– Katy Wong
Photo: Flickr
Women Entrepreneurs in Fiji and Economic Opportunity
The Growing Role of Women in Fiji’s Economy
Women already make a significant contribution to Fiji’s business sector. In 2024, the Fijian government reported more than 5,500 registered women involved in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), alongside 18,742 self-employed women and 4,650 women working in handicrafts. Tourism provides important opportunities for women to turn traditional skills, local knowledge and cultural practices into income. Women participate through handicrafts, food businesses, cultural experiences, accommodation and tour services. These enterprises can connect rural and maritime communities with both local and international visitors. When women generate their own income, they can also strengthen household financial security and create opportunities for others in their communities.
Women’s Entrepreneurship and Poverty
Supporting women entrepreneurs in Fiji is also relevant to poverty reduction. Poverty remains a significant challenge in Fiji, with 24.1% of the population living below the national poverty line in 2019-20, according to the World Bank. Poverty was even higher in rural areas of Fiji’s main islands, at 36.2%, and reached 39.2% in the outer islands. Supporting women entrepreneurs in these communities can help create household income and local employment opportunities, linking women’s economic empowerment with broader poverty-reduction efforts. Entrepreneurship cannot eliminate poverty by itself, but sustainable women-owned businesses can provide additional household income and create economic activity within communities. This is particularly relevant in rural areas, where tourism, agriculture, handicrafts and food businesses can provide alternatives to limited employment opportunities.
Barriers Women Entrepreneurs Face
Despite their contribution, women continue to experience significant challenges when starting and expanding businesses. Women-owned MSMEs represent 19% of MSMEs in Fiji and face an estimated $111 million in unmet credit demand. Limited collateral and traditional lending requirements can make it difficult for women to access finance. Women also face unequal unpaid care responsibilities. UN Women reports that women and girls aged 15 and older in Fiji spend 13.9% of their time on unpaid care and domestic work, compared with 4.9% for men. Limited access to digital technology and e-commerce is another challenge, particularly for tourism businesses that increasingly depend on online marketing, digital payments and booking platforms.
Training and Organizations Supporting Women
Training can help women develop the skills needed to build sustainable businesses. In 2024, Fiji’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection, with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, provided women in villages in Moala with training in bookkeeping, marketing, branding, inventory management and saving strategies. There are also measurable results from financial-literacy programs. UN Women reported that 190 women from four Fijian markets applied financial-literacy skills in 2024. Of these, 75 transitioned to formal banking through a structured savings program, while 90 vendors began using digital tracking tools and organized financial records. The Women Entrepreneurs Business Council (WEBC) supports women through training, networking and connections to business-support organizations. It has also worked with the Fiji Development Bank, recording measurable progress in expanding finance for women entrepreneurs. By November 2023, the Fiji Development Bank had approved more than 1,000 loans specifically for women-owned businesses, worth approximately FJ$2.5 million. By 2024, the number of active women-led accounts had risen to 2,943, compared with 490 in 2021, while women accounted for 30.31% of the bank’s total loan portfolio value. FemLINK Pacific is another organization supporting women’s participation and leadership in Fiji. Through its community media and development work, FemLINK helps women in rural and marginalized communities have greater opportunities to share their experiences, participate in decision-making and raise issues affecting their livelihoods. This type of community-level support can complement financial and business programs by strengthening women’s voices and connections within their communities.
Expanding Access to Finance
Fiji has also introduced its first MSME Strategic Plan for 2025-2030 and a National MSME Database, intended to improve access to government support for entrepreneurs, including women-led businesses in rural and maritime areas. These initiatives demonstrate why supporting women entrepreneurs in Fiji requires more than providing loans. Women also need access to training, technology, markets, networks and opportunities to participate in economic decision-making. Tourism offers a particularly important pathway because women can build businesses around Fiji’s local products, culture and knowledge while connecting directly with visitors. Women are business owners, market vendors, producers and community leaders. With stronger access to finance, training, technology and markets, more women entrepreneurs in Fiji could develop sustainable businesses, strengthen household incomes and contribute to more inclusive economic development.
– Lilia Clark
Photo: Pexels