Johnson & Johnson announced a new collaboration in June 2020, to provide training and knowledge to health workers in sub-Saharan Africa in the wake of COVID-19. They will partner with The World Continuing Education Alliance, The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery East Africa and the International Council of Nurses to provide up-to-date information and resources to those on the front lines of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
The training program will be delivered through an application and aims to reach 600,000 healthcare workers — mainly nurses, doctors and midwives. The program includes six different modules available in three different languages: English, French and Arabic.
Partnering in 10 Different Countries
Johnson & Johnson will fund the programs’ introduction to 10 countries that it deems as a priority. These countries include Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and South Africa. Programs have since become available in Egypt, Haiti, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Jordan, Guyana, Malawi and Tanzania — among others. Furthermore, there is a training option for countries not specifically listed.
Aga Khan University developed the modules and the World Continuing Education Alliance digitized and customized the curriculum. Its website now hosts two options for the workshops: one is for doctors and the other is for midwives and nurses. Through their collaborations with similar and broader-scope organizations, the International Council of Nurses has offered its support. The School of Nursing and Midwifery ensures those professionals in urban and remote areas alike have access to the modules.
Support For Front-Line Healthcare Workers
The new program’s introduction comes as the new coronavirus infections grow across Africa. The virus continues to infect more healthcare workers. While there are still scant resources available about infections among healthcare workers, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 10,000 health workers have been infected in 40 countries across Africa.
At least 10% of all infections are comprised of health workers in sub-Saharan Africa, concerning four specific countries. In 10 additional sub-Saharan countries, that figure is at least 5%. This puts a strain on the resources these countries have since several countries have less than one medical doctor for every 10,000 people. According to the WHO, countries that fall under this category include Mozambique, Tanzania, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Chad, Central African Republic and Niger — again, among others.
According to the WHO, some of the causes of rising infections among health workers include lack of access to personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of education programs (and lack of implementation of such programs with health workers) and lack of medical infrastructure. Additionally, more than 90% of 30,000 healthcare facilities analyzed throughout Africa could not establish quarantine or triage units. According to WHO, 84% of facilities did not have adequate infection and control measures in place.
Training Workers and Providing PPE
As a result, the WHO trained 50,000 healthcare workers and arranged for 41 million tons of PPE to be shipped to 47 countries in Africa. Moreover, the WHO plans to train 200,000 additional workers. The organization notes that from May to July 2020, Sierra Leone went from 16% of all infections being among health workers to just 9%.
Similar to the WHO, Johnson & Johnson’s collaborative effort seeks to educate health workers in sub-Saharan Africa by providing them with the knowledge they need to treat patients and stop the spread of a pandemic.
– Bryan Boggiano
Photo: Flickr
Elderly Poverty in South Korea
While South Korea is home to great technological developments and world-famous rising trends, it also has one of the highest numbers of impoverished elderly in a single developed country. Around half of the senior citizens are living in poverty with little to no support from relatives or the government. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, consists of over 30 countries that work with one another to encourage economic development. Unfortunately, despite all the economic progress it has made, South Korea has the highest elderly poverty rate of all OECD countries.
How Elderly Poverty in South Korea Came to Be
In the 1970s, a financial crisis hit South Korea that caused around 2 million people to be unemployed, many of these workers being senior citizens today. When the country began building its economy back up, many companies decided to replace the older generation of workers with younger ones. While the younger workers did not cost as much, the newly jobless population was left with no other choice but to retire earlier than expected.
In the present day, the now elderly population who was affected by the financial crisis have to support themselves by working non-conventional jobs. These jobs include picking trash off the street, cleaning or in the most extreme cases, elderly prostitution. Since this way of living is detrimental to the mental wellbeing of the older population, senior suicide rates have risen over time. Just three years ago, for senior citizens around 70 years old, nearly 50 people out of 100,000 committed suicide. For senior citizens around 80 years old, that number went up to 70 people per 100,000.
South Korea’s Welfare Programs
Creating Jobs for Seniors
In late 2019, South Korea’s employment rate continued to grow over 300,000 new jobs every month. Employment in late 2019 was around 27.5 million jobs, which is over 330,000 more jobs from the previous year. This hiring growth was because of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s plans to increase senior jobs using the over 1.5 trillion won (nearly $1.5 billion) from their budget. Those who were out of a job previously were able to get a chance at improving their lives and livelihoods through becoming employed again.
– Karina Wong
Photo: Needpix
Research4Life Makes Scientific Literature Accessible
Research, development and innovation are key factors in addressing socio-economic challenges. Investing in scientific research and institutions promotes economic growth, product development and global market integration. In fact, there is a strong positive relationship between scientific research and the standard of living. While high-income, developed countries continue to advance in this sector, low-income, developing countries lack the resources to reach this potential. In 2019, nations collectively invested $1.7 trillion into research and development. However, this spending was mostly concentrated in 10 of the world’s wealthiest countries. In economies where citizens struggle to meet basic needs, the government is left with few resources to invest in academia. Research4Life, a program that provides access to academic and peer-reviewed content for developing countries, is helping to solve this problem.
What is Research4Life?
Since it was founded in 2002, Research4Life has been committed to reducing the scientific research gap between high-income and low-income countries by providing access to scholarly journals and books in a variety of fields including health, agriculture, environment and law. So far, Research4Life has helped over 10,000 universities, libraries, research institutes, government offices and hospitals across 120 countries.
The organization is a collective of five programs that specialize in providing scholarly resources across a variety of disciplines:
A country or territory is eligible to register with Research4Life for free or at a low-cost based on five factors: Total Gross National Income, Gross National Income per capita, its ranking on the Human Development Index, Healthy life Expectancy figures, and whether it is considered a Least Developed Countries by the United Nations.
Today’s knowledge market is incredibly competitive. Access to science-based research and collaboration is a critical component in the development of new products and services that can help to improve living standards in developing countries. Applied research can help create solutions for eradicating poverty in its many forms, decreasing the spread of disease, ending famine and promoting environmental sustainability. Closing the research gap and expanding the reach of science-based knowledge is an important step towards achieving sustained global development and ensuring the inclusivity of developing countries.
– Sylvie Antal
Photo: Flickr
Microcredit: One of The Best Ways of Empowering Women
Globally, 55% of women live in poverty and 42% do not have access to financial institutions. The majority are subject to subordination by patriarchal societies and reliant on their male counterparts because they do not have access to financial independence. This prevents women from better providing for themselves and their families. However, with the arrival of microcredit and microfinance institutions (MFI) in the last couple of decades, millions of women around the world are uplifting generations out of poverty.
What is Microcredit?
Microcredit is a path toward financial inclusion through the lending of small loans, without collateral, to the poor. Microcredit is part of the broader spectrum of microfinance institutions (MFI) that provide additional financial services like micro-insurance and financial literacy. These services help those impoverished to start small businesses, break cycles of poverty and boost the economy of local communities.
Microcredit is largely made possible through peer support systems applied in many MFIs. Because they mostly reach rural villages, many borrowers know each other and know that their failure to pay back loans will hurt their community.
Primary investors are interested in social returns to reduce poverty and boost the economy. They are not philanthropists but are committed to social businesses set with proper risk assessment, transparent monitoring and educational programs to protect investors and borrowers. Eleven MFIs are perceived as competitive for investors due to their growing success, including global income on investment to be high at 19%, only 6% at risk and strong 11.5% return on equity which all show great development in the industry.
Why Focus on Women?
Aside from the fact that women have been predominantly denied crucial financial services, of the 139 million MFI borrowers worldwide 80% are women. Before, many would assume women and those impoverished would be risky borrowers. Now, studies confirm that female borrowers of regulated MFIs have lower write-offs, portfolio risk and fewer provisions than men, making them ideal clients.
Additionally, women spend 90% of their income on family needs compared to only 35% of men. This also means educational attainment for their children increases, which can double or triple a young girl’s future income. Research also shows that when women control family money, their children are more likely to survive by 20%. Microcredit allows for the kinds of investments and benefits for gender equality to occur through avenues of financial independence. Such investment in long-term gender equality means 150 million more people have access to food worldwide and boost the economy by doubling global GDP to about $160 trillion.
A recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study reported that gender equality consistently has proven to boost the economy. Countries with higher rates of gender equality, 70% or above, directly correlate with up to 13% growth in their GDP per capita compared to countries declining as much as 15% with lower rates.
These results come from smaller wage gaps which are derived from more equal access to opportunities.
Overall, women provide diversification and economic resilience to the global market and efforts to multiply gender equality, like microfinance services, will only further boost the economy.
Global Success of Microcredit
Today, there are some 916 MFIs serving about 140 million people globally. Of those, 65% live in rural areas where financial services are needed the most.
Many remain skeptical after corrupt and exploitative practices from lenders in the 2000s. Money was seen to be used for non-entrepreneurial endeavors like home loans and trying to make loans profitable. For-profit banks and techniques like lender intimidation and excessively high-interest rates had greatly diverged from the mission to help the world’s poor.
However, these three organizations are just examples of how beneficial and empowering the diverse practices of microfinance are at its core and after reform and innovation.
These three organizations collectively benefit 30.2 million people around the world. They only shed light on a fraction of the total positive impacts of microfinance which boosts the economy locally and globally. While microcredit for women and the poor is not a silver bullet for poverty alleviation, it is a vital avenue for financial inclusion and should only be further pursued.
– Mizla Shrestha
Photo: PX Here
Solar Powered Balloons Bring Internet to Kenya
The Importance of Internet Access
UNESCO estimates that 45% of households worldwide do not have internet access. In Africa, 72% of people are unable to use the internet because companies do not see the need to travel to remote locations with less robust populations. Loon is looking to change these statistics by focusing its services in remote areas so people can use apps to communicate with each other.
Internet services help empower people in poverty by offering opportunities for education. Many students in rural areas do not have schools near them, so students rely on quality education through the internet. The Kenya Education Network (KENET) works to bring internet and laptops to various schools in Kenya. KENET has already invested $2 million in supplying free high-speed internet. The internet has become an essential need for educational purposes; Loon’s work will elevate people’s access to these important services.
Are Balloons Reliable To Provide Internet Access?
Loon used its balloons in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria destroyed the cellular towers. The balloons were deployed to provide immediate internet access for people on the island. Before the official launch, Loon tested out 35 balloons, which led to 35 thousand people being able to access the internet in rural Kenya.
Now that Loon is working to send out more balloons, the company is hoping to cover 31 thousand miles. The balloons are effective for providing internet coverage because they work like normal cell towers. The signal is transmitted for 100 days by software controlled from the ground.
The Future of Reliable Internet In Kenya
Loon expects to deploy more balloons in the future through a partnership with Telkom Kenya. Kenya is one of the leading technological countries in Africa. From 2019 to 2020, an increase of 3.2 million people accessed the internet in Kenya.
One of the barriers for people in poverty in accessing the internet is high-cost data plans. Kenya has higher data prices than other surrounding countries. An unlimited data plan in Nigeria can cost around $26, but the same plan in Kenya allows for only 50GB of data. In Kenya, 36.1% of people live below the poverty line, so many Kenyans do not make more than $1 each day. Cellular data plans are still unobtainable for some of the population.
While the Kenyan government is looking to provide a better signal to rural areas, residents may not have the money to pay for cellular services. Access to more service areas through Loon and cheaper data prices through Telkom Kenya could help increase people’s connectivity.
– Sarah Litchney
Photo: Pixabay
New Zealand Government Provides Free Sanitary Products in Schools
The New Zealand government is combating period poverty by providing free sanitary products in schools, according to the Ministry of Education. This announcement comes after a 2.6 million dollar investment by the government. The plan will be introduced in select schools around the country but is expected to reach every school in New Zealand by 2021.
The government hopes that this new initiative will create fewer barriers for people seeking education and healthcare. There is resistance towards addressing these issues because menstruation is considered a “taboo” topic. By following in the footsteps of other countries, New Zealand is setting an example that combating period poverty addresses poverty as a whole.
What is Period Poverty?
Period poverty occurs when people who menstruate can’t afford products like tampons and pads, hindering their ability to continue living a normal life while on their period. Currently, there is a “pink tax” on sanitary products like pads and tampons. Some say this tax is gender-based discrimination because it prevents low-income menstruators from accessing sanitary products, inhibiting them from going to school or work. In New Zealand, 95,000 girls between the ages of 9 and 18 stay home from school, and 1 in 12 girls missed school because of a lack of access to period products.
New Zealand is following in the footsteps of Scotland and England, who have also made plans to tackle period poverty through government initiatives such as universal access to period products through new laws and legislation. Worldwide, 2.3 billion people don’t have adequate access to sanitary products. This isn’t just an issue in developing countries, as many wealthy nations like the United States, the UK, and Australia also have high numbers of period poverty rates.
The New Zealand government is using this initiative as a catalyst for ending child poverty in their country. Through the work of Dignity New Zealand, a non-profit that aims to help provide sanitary products, the conversation of period poverty reached the spotlight before the government’s intervention. Dignity New Zealand commented that while the government’s steps are important, it is only the beginning of the fight to end poverty on all levels.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that the government is taking action because she wants to support kids in school. The ability of students to thrive in school is hindered if they have to miss several days out of each month because of their period. Ardern hopes that with this new ruling, period poverty will decrease and students will be more focused on their studies.
Education is necessary for ending the stigma surrounding menstruation. Lack of proper education about menstruation and hygiene can lead to various health problems and make women more vulnerable to violence and pregnancy complications as a result.
What Else is Necessary for Fighting Period Poverty?
Furthermore, alleviating period poverty goes beyond simply providing menstruation products. It also means providing adequate access to hygienic facilities, toilet paper, and proper education around proper health and hygiene practices.
New Zealand’s addressing period poverty as a means to alleviate poverty in their country highlights the ways in which global poverty can be addressed on a smaller scale. By providing free sanitary products in schools, New Zealand is setting an example for other countries to follow in order to destigmatize menstruation.
– Xenia Gonikberg
Photo: Flickr
Permaculture Farming Fights Global Poverty
Permaculture farming is a design system for farming that applies ecological principles from nature to human agriculture. It attempts to banish pollution, water waste and energy waste. In the same vein, it focuses on improving productivity, efficiency and upcycling production to improve farmers’ conditions and their land. The heart of permaculture is caring for the planet, caring for people and promoting equitable distribution.
Permaculture Farming Integrates Production
This concept grew out of a sustainable agriculture movement initially developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia in the 70’s. The principles of permaculture are many. For instance — observing and interacting, catching and storing energy, obtaining a yield, applying self-regulation and feedback. Additional principles include using and valuing renewables, producing no waste, designing from patterns to details, integrating production (instead of segregating it), using small solutions, valuing diversity, valuing the marginal and creatively responding to change.
Enabling Self-Subsistence
NGOs and charity organizations often provide direct aid that is helpful in the short term but does not offer long-term solutions. A permaculture advocate named Josephine Awino explained, as an example, that in Kenya cash crops are primarily grown. However, when a community transitions from growing cash crops and moves towards growing plants that their community can eat — it allows the community to depend less on imports and exports. With less dependence on external subsidies, which are transitory and sometimes withdrawn, the community can create a long-standing, institutional baseline for financial success.
The Reuse of Land
Permaculture typically uses cyclical farming techniques to reduce waste and sewage problems. Permaculture farming primarily focuses on practical ways one can enrich the soil, to maximize garden output. It is also possible to implement the cycling of produce types during this process so that the land can consistently retain the same nutrients during each growing season. Any community can improve the soil quickly through using compost-making, water catchment systems and improving the landscape for water retention. Instead of focusing on what one can get from the land, permaculture focuses on how one can continue to reuse land exponentially. In communities where there is minimal space for gardening and farming, the reuse of land is particularly helpful. The consistent ability to reuse the soil can help protect low-income communities from famines due to blockades or sanctions from other countries.
Generating Income
Many communities often function with small economies. In this same vein, even small economies utilize mutual trade and aid — made possible through permaculture. Additionally, permaculture reorients the economic goals of a community. Instead of working to gain more money to buy imported food, the community can save money by consuming the food that they have created, themselves. Permaculture farming creates less dependence on outside income and promotes the circulation of the local economy in conjunction with surrounding economies and the instrumentation of direct, mutual aid. Also, permaculture farms can utilize the space they have created to offer other community services, which can, in turn, be used to generate income. Once the farm is successful, it can also serve as a teaching site for other communities within the region. In this way, communities can learn permaculture practices and this service (of teaching) itself can serve as yet another direct source of income.
Promotion of Community Reliance
When communities implement various kinds of food production, it does not necessarily require that individuals own land or have money. For example, a community can band together to petition their government to provide ground for a shared, community garden. Frequently, permaculture can function successfully in limited, private spaces — like rooftops or walls, to optimize the area and encourage growth. Individuals are inspired to rely on their community members to identify which places will work best for creating garden zones. Additionally, permaculture farming can unite a small community in the shared goal of making food to be used for and sold by the community, exclusively.
– Hannah Bratton
Photo: Flickr
The Role of Douyin in Rebuilding China’s Economy Post-COVID-19
Despite Chinese health officials now deeming the country fit to reopen, many small and medium-sized businesses worry that they cannot resume business as usual after suffering from the unexpected closures. Considering that these small and medium-sized businesses make up more than 60% of the country’s overall gross domestic product (GDP), their potential failure sets China’s economy at a severe decline.
ByteDance, a Chinese multinational technology company, devised a method to assist small-business owners affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Using the popularity of ByteDance’s most well-known app, Douyin, to their advantage, small and medium-sized business owners will be allowed to reopen their markets to a broader audience. And in turn, Douyin can help reignite China’s economy.
What is Douyin?
Douyin is a Chinese social media app that allows its users to create and share brief clips that often include people lip-syncing, playing practical jokes, or participating in viral challenges. The app was developed by ByteDance, the aforementioned Chinese multinational technology company, and released into the Chinese market in September 2016. The app rapidly gained popularity and now has more than 1 billion downloads worldwide, with 500 million monthly active users. In 2017, ByteDance released TikTok, another social media app with a similar function to Douyin but for global markets.
How Does Douyin Differ From TikTok?
Despite having similar logos and content, Douyin and TikTok are indeed two different applications geared towards different audiences. On the one hand, TikTok was intended for global markets, while Douyin was only aimed at Chinese markets. This is why Tiktok is not available for download within Chinese app stores in the same way that Douyin is not available on app stores outside of China, such as the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Additionally, the apps have different policies regarding censorship on specific topics. While you may find countless parodies mocking U.S. political leaders on TikTok, no such mockery exists within Douyin. Instead, propaganda that promotes the overall message of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and attempts to rally nationalistic sentiment populates Douyin.
How Can Watching Short Videos Rebuild an Entire Market?
As mentioned previously, Douyin has a massive fanbase with more than 500 million monthly active users. Of these 500 million people, 52.8% are less than 24 years of age. Often, these millennials will share ideas and products that they think others will find appealing. Thus, when merchants have a platform integrated within Douyin that allows them to advertise and sell their products quickly, they will be able to reignite their businesses. As a result, Douyin can help China’s economy by allowing these small and medium-sized businesses to promptly resume their operations.
Why Douyin Instead of Conventional E-Commerce Platforms?
Popular e-commerce platforms are notorious for their high commission rates. Hence, when ByteDance first established its online group buying function, it aimed to create a “zero threshold” environment for the small and medium-sized online business platforms. This meant that ByteDance’s technical service commission would be as low as 1%, a significantly lower rate than the usual 20% charge traditional e-commerce platforms would require. This way, the businesses will be able to restore themselves quickly.
Despite the hardships China had to endure in the wake of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, companies like ByteDance continue to use their influence in order to help those who have suffered the most. As a result, the Chinese economy continues to steadily improve, showing the world how powerful social media can be.
– Heather Law
Photo: Flickr
Innovation and Food? Ask the UAE
Key Constraints Facing Food Security
The UAE aims to rank in the top 10 in the Global Food Security Index by 2021, and number one by 2051. In this arid region, however, traditional farming is next to impossible from limited water for irrigation and an unequal ratio between people and the UAE’s production. Due to these hardships, the country is reliant on its imports. For a food-dependent country, when disaster hits, food systems are unstable.
While there are several reasons for poor food production in the UAE, the scarcity of water contributes heavily. Most of the water in the country is recycle and reused, but this process can only occur for a given amount of time. Given that traditional agriculture utilizes a significant amount of water, UAE’s food security and innovation program is the answer. . To combat the issue of their unstable food system, the UAE has set up the FoodTech Challenge. This global competition seeks out innovative solutions for the country to address food production and distribution.
Vertical Farming: An Innovative Farming Technique
In response to the FoodTech Challenge, the company Smart Acres has provided a technique that utilizes vertical farming to support the UAE’s food security and innovation program. Vertical farming consists of vertically stacked plants, providing more produce per square area, resembling green walls as displayed in shopping centers. Smart Acres used South Korean vertical farming technology to decrease water usage and monitor temperature and nutrients. Regarding the UAE’s water issue, vertical farms save over 90% of the water in comparison to conventional farming methods. The constant flow of water across the plants provides the necessary nutrients for all the plants to grow. This high-tech design allows the company to produce clean crops without any chemicals and negligible interference.
Although the farm has not been implemented yet, this form of food production is expected to produce 12 cycles of crops annually; the farm will expand from Abu Dhabi to the rest of the country gradually. By using vertical farming, this technique expects to produce approximately 8,000 kilograms of lettuce and other leafy greens per cycle. In addition to the increased number of crops, the variety is also expected to increase and include items, such as strawberries, arugula, potatoes, etc.
Aquaculture Farming: Decreasing the Dependence of Imports
On average, the UAE consumes 220,000 tons of fish annually. However, imported food is 90% of the UAE’s diet, suggesting that advancements in the country’s aquaculture would be beneficial. To aid the seafood industry in the UAE, the Sheikh Khalifa Marine Research Center has taken the responsibility to use advanced technology to harvest marine organisms. The center utilizes photo-bioreactors to generate food for juvenile fish.
In addition to manufacturing primary live food for marine organisms, UAE’s food security and innovation program also include water recycling technologies, where water is cycled through fish tanks to reduce water consumption. To make aquaculture a more efficient and sustainable system in the country, the center is establishing a disease diagnostic laboratory, which will reduce the number of disease-related deaths associated with marine life.
While many countries face tumultuous times currently, UAE’s food security and innovation program seems to be a ticket out of poverty. Through the FoodTech Challenge, the country has found multiple viable options to strengthen its food system. With water scarcity, a large problem regarding food production, both vertical and aquaculture farming, has found a way to recycle the limited water and attend to other problems the UAE faces, such as dependence on imports from other countries. The challenge is open to the entire country, increasing the country’s opportunity in establishing a sustainable system. Through these systems, the UAE’s food security and innovation program is well on its way to stabilizing its food security and achieving its goal as a titleholder in the Global Food Security Index.
– Aditi Prasad
Photo: Flickr
WIP: How Extreme Poverty Affects Different Age Groups
Poverty’s Effect on Children and Teens
Firstly, adolescents are one of the most vulnerable age groups to be affected by extreme poverty. UNICEF reveals that 148 million children under the age of five are underweight; 101 million children are not enrolled in schooling, and almost nine million children under five years old die each year. These statistics are incredibly revealing especially when paired with the fact that malnutrition, lack of clean water and proper sanitation, diarrhea and pneumonia are the main causes of death among children.
Secondly, teenagers and young adults also experience difficulties in overcoming extreme poverty. For instance, lack of education and proper schooling is a major issue for many countries around the world. These young adults that are not in school may become subject to child labor or even become child soldiers in many countries. According to the UN Secretary General’s Global Initiative on Education, “Basic literacy and numeracy skills could lift 171 million people out of poverty, resulting in a 12% cut in global poverty.” This information elucidates the essential role primary education plays in breaking the cycle of poverty that many youths face in low-income countries.
One way to ensure adequate school enrollment is by supplying meals for children and teens. The World Food Programme explains how providing daily meals to children in school creates an incentive to send children to school. Not only do these meals increase attendance and decrease dropout rates, but they also improve children’s academic aptitude. Consequently, children acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to secure future jobs and escape extreme poverty.
Poverty’s Effect on Adults
Lastly, extreme poverty affects different age groups, the detrimental effects of which are also seen in adults. The main impact is the significantly lower life expectancy seen in lower-income countries. Life expectancy is “20-24 years lower in poor nations” for both men and women than it is in developed countries. Additionally, poor countries tend to have a higher maternal mortality rate for a variety of reasons ranging from improper and lack of healthcare and poor nutrition during pregnancy.
Although the way extreme poverty affects different age groups may seem separate and diverging, teenagers and adults face many similar hardships. For instance, illiteracy is a huge barrier to obtaining and maintaining a job. The World Literacy Foundation (WLF) explains that without basic literacy skills, tasks such as composing emails, reading daily memos, checking a bank account and even applying for a job in the first place become difficult. These examples do not even include the requirements of many white-collar jobs, such as interpreting data and spreadsheets or reading documents.
As a result, many citizens of developing countries cannot receive comparable income to those in developed countries. This leaves these poor citizens open to food scarcity and extreme poverty (working for less than $1.90 a day). These issues are especially taxing for adults with families and more than one mouth to feed.
Additionally, while children are more likely to die from malnutrition and lack of sanitation, many adults face similar realities. Poor nutrition can weaken one’s immune system, muscles, bones and sleep cycles which all contribute to the body’s healthy daily functions. If these body systems are not well-maintained, adults can struggle and even die from preventable diseases and health complications.
Organizations Working to Help
There are many organizations worldwide working to lift children out of poverty, such as the WLF, UNICEF and International Child Care (ICC). The former two work to improve education for young children, while the latter strives to improve health for children and their families. There are also numerous organizations that help young adults and adults, including End Poverty Now, Oxfam International and Global Citizen. These groups mainly work to tackle the systemic cycle of poverty by improving healthcare and income equality.
Poverty affects different age groups pervasively and it is difficult to alleviate. Impoverished people of all ages experience conditions and hardships that many developed nations do not face. To enact and obtain real economic and social change, it is essential to understand how extreme poverty affects different age groups. Then, governments, organizations, businesses and people around the world can work to implement strategies and policies to bring all ages out of poverty.
– Sophia McWilliams
Photo: Pixabay
Training Program For Health Workers in sub-Saharan Africa
Johnson & Johnson announced a new collaboration in June 2020, to provide training and knowledge to health workers in sub-Saharan Africa in the wake of COVID-19. They will partner with The World Continuing Education Alliance, The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery East Africa and the International Council of Nurses to provide up-to-date information and resources to those on the front lines of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
The training program will be delivered through an application and aims to reach 600,000 healthcare workers — mainly nurses, doctors and midwives. The program includes six different modules available in three different languages: English, French and Arabic.
Partnering in 10 Different Countries
Johnson & Johnson will fund the programs’ introduction to 10 countries that it deems as a priority. These countries include Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and South Africa. Programs have since become available in Egypt, Haiti, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Jordan, Guyana, Malawi and Tanzania — among others. Furthermore, there is a training option for countries not specifically listed.
Aga Khan University developed the modules and the World Continuing Education Alliance digitized and customized the curriculum. Its website now hosts two options for the workshops: one is for doctors and the other is for midwives and nurses. Through their collaborations with similar and broader-scope organizations, the International Council of Nurses has offered its support. The School of Nursing and Midwifery ensures those professionals in urban and remote areas alike have access to the modules.
Support For Front-Line Healthcare Workers
The new program’s introduction comes as the new coronavirus infections grow across Africa. The virus continues to infect more healthcare workers. While there are still scant resources available about infections among healthcare workers, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 10,000 health workers have been infected in 40 countries across Africa.
At least 10% of all infections are comprised of health workers in sub-Saharan Africa, concerning four specific countries. In 10 additional sub-Saharan countries, that figure is at least 5%. This puts a strain on the resources these countries have since several countries have less than one medical doctor for every 10,000 people. According to the WHO, countries that fall under this category include Mozambique, Tanzania, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Chad, Central African Republic and Niger — again, among others.
According to the WHO, some of the causes of rising infections among health workers include lack of access to personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of education programs (and lack of implementation of such programs with health workers) and lack of medical infrastructure. Additionally, more than 90% of 30,000 healthcare facilities analyzed throughout Africa could not establish quarantine or triage units. According to WHO, 84% of facilities did not have adequate infection and control measures in place.
Training Workers and Providing PPE
As a result, the WHO trained 50,000 healthcare workers and arranged for 41 million tons of PPE to be shipped to 47 countries in Africa. Moreover, the WHO plans to train 200,000 additional workers. The organization notes that from May to July 2020, Sierra Leone went from 16% of all infections being among health workers to just 9%.
Similar to the WHO, Johnson & Johnson’s collaborative effort seeks to educate health workers in sub-Saharan Africa by providing them with the knowledge they need to treat patients and stop the spread of a pandemic.
– Bryan Boggiano
Photo: Flickr