Pollution in the Western Balkans is among the most pressing global crises today. The antiquated industrial technology and inadequate environmental legislation in Western Balkan countries (WBC) results in substandard soil, air and water quality. According to the UN Environment Programme, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now the second deadliest nation in the world in terms of air pollution. The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo recorded the air quality index (AQI) of 383 in 2018 — nearly ten times the average and a level categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a threat to health. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that in 2018 two North Macedonian cities, Tetovo and Skopje, were identified by the European AQI as Europe’s most polluted cities. Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, topped the 2018 list of the world’s most polluted cities with an AQI of 415. Pristina is classified as having worse air quality than Beijing and New Delhi, and other towns throughout Kosovo are following suit.
The Cost of Coal
Pollution in the Western Balkans results from thermal power plants and open-cast lignite mines — lignite being the most toxic coal pollutant.
In Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina lies the country’s largest thermal power station. Burning lignite generates power, producing electricity. Tuzla’s plant, located across from a school, releases 51,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants annually. This cheap electricity (run by a state-owned company) is seen by officials as an economic opportunity and is exported to neighboring countries, but residents know that the price is not worth the cost.
Each year Bosnia and Herzegovina loses the equivalent of 44,000 years of life from particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide — like that produced in Tuzla — or ozone pollution. PM pollution in the Western Balkans causes respiratory and heart diseases, cancers, etc., and increases water acidity, soil depletion and crop damage.
Tuzla’s coal towers use filters that, when expired, are disposed of at designated sites. Winds blow the filters’ collected ash onto nearby homes. The power plant employs large amounts of water to pump waste ash and coal slag into huge landfill sites, resulting in swampy farmlands. Heavy metals from the waste discharge into nearby rivers, while anti-clogging chemicals added to pipes turn flooded areas a fluorescent blue color.
Tuzla, once Bosnia and Herzegovina’s largest producer of roses, is now a toxic swamp coated in ash. Reports state that pollution has reduced Tuzla’s population from 500 to approximately 30 residents.
Kosovo’s story is no better. A 2016 environmental study stated that impacts of Kosovo A and B lignite power plants total €352 million in health costs annually, with Kosovo A ranking as the biggest emitter of PM2.5 in the Western Balkan region. PM2.5 is small enough to enter the bloodstream and pulmonary alveoli.
In Bitola, North Macedonia, the area surrounding its thermal power plant and ash deposit are significant generators of PM10 and PM2.5. The European Environmental Agency’s air quality report states that North Macedonia has the highest annual mean value of PM2.5 in all of Europe — approximately three times more than the WHO’s recommendations. The World Bank estimates 1,350 North Macedonians die yearly from air pollution.
According to the WHO, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s air pollution costs the country more than one fifth its annual GDP yearly in lost work and school days, fuel costs, etc. In WBCs, school terms are shortened and many residents flee their homes, especially during winter when dense smog blankets cities and towns impairing visibility and worsening breathing. The World Bank reports that North Macedonia loses around 3.2 percent of its annual GDP to pollution.
Denials and Foreign Investments
The latest report on European air quality cites a steady improvement throughout Europe, except in WBCs where air quality steadily declines.
North Macedonian authorities claim the country’s extreme pollution results from the use of old vehicles and wood-burning stoves. Pristina’s officials claim heavy traffic as the main cause of its pollution and have imposed traffic restrictions. The North Macedonian government also claims chemical analyses and pollution studies are underway, but no reports have been published.
WBCs’ disregard for the UN’s and WHO’s warnings and EU regulations is reaching new heights via Chinese-backed investments in new coal-fired power plants throughout the region. These expansion plans, along with the refusal to admit responsibility and lack of emergency planning, are outraging citizens who have taken to the streets in protest.
International Response to Pollution in the Western Balkans
UN agencies are installing and refurbishing air quality monitoring stations equipped with real-time data throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. A WHO initiative is using software to provide data pertaining to air pollution types and their related health effects, hoping to drive government response policies. This transition will slash emissions by more than 90 percent, saving nearly €1 million in fuel costs annually.
The North Macedonian government launched an initiative to fight its air pollution and allocated €1.6 million for the program in its 2019 budget — aiming to reduce Skopje’s air pollution by 50 percent within two years through tax incentives for central heating and stricter industrial emissions controls. Activists say the government’s response and funding is inadequate and insufficient.
A joint effort by affected governments could combat pollution in the Western Balkans and aid in enacting stricter emissions control legislation of the Energy Community Treaty. There is hope on the horizon as Energy Community Contracting Parties, North Macedonia and Kosovo, have signed a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding on the Energy Sector. Their intention is to share developments, revive electricity interconnection lines and construct a gas interconnection between Skopje and Kosovo.
– Julianne Russo
Photo: Pixabay
Urgent Need to Address Malnutrition in the Horn of Africa
Due to the drought sweeping across the region:
People in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have also been heavily affected by the worst flooding in the area in 30 years. In Kenya, floods have affected 800,000 people and displaced 244,400 people. These conditions have also resulted in crop failure and loss of livestock, turning conditions from poor to dire.
Immediate Help to the Horn of Africa
Beginning in 2014, UNICEF has treated 135,000 children for severe acute malnutrition in Somalia. They have vaccinated nearly 2 million children against polio. In Ethiopia, 2.7 million children, mothers and pregnant women have been screened for malnutrition. UNICEF has started supplementary feeding programs to further combat the malnutrition in the Horn of Africa. In Kenya, they have expanded their assistance to the flood of refugees coming in from South Sudan.
Organizations like Oxfam are on the ground in these areas, working with locals to get to those most in need. They are providing emergency food distributions and working with people to produce their own food and incomes. They are combating malnutrition in the Horn of Africa by providing emergency water and sanitation to stop the spread of diseases like cholera and diarrhea.
Continued Help in the Region
UNICEF’s efforts have continued to focus on preventing and treating severe acute malnutrition. They seek to expand access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Their people are increasing the number of children that they are vaccinating so that they can better respond to childhood illnesses and prevent them. Their focus is also on the people’s access to assets and safety nets that are responsive to seasonal factors and other shocks.
While there are many organizations that are coming to the aid of the people in the Horn of Africa, they still need more support if they are going to overcome the political and environmental issues that are making their lives unliveable.
– Michela Rahaim
Photo: Flickr
Reducing Maternal Mortality in Africa
Upon learning they are pregnant, most women do not immediately wonder if it’s a fatal diagnosis. However, that is the stark reality for many women in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Maternal mortality in Africa is a pervasive and devastating issue. Far hospitals, scarce doctors and poor healthcare systems all contribute to maternal mortality. Most maternal deaths are preventable and caused by complications treatable in developed nations. It is important to recognize the causes of maternal death and solutions already in place to further reduce maternal mortality in Africa.
Causes of Maternal Mortality
The most common causes of maternal mortality are severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, delivery complications and unsafe abortions. In most cases, these are treatable with access to trained medical staff and proper medication. Access to maternal health care varies around the world. “A 5-year-old girl living in sub-Saharan Africa faces a 1 in 40 risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth during her lifetime. A girl of the same age living in Europe has a lifetime risk of 1 in 3,300,” according to Dr. Greeta Rao Gupta, deputy executive director of UNICEF. Factors such as “poverty, distance, lack of information, inadequate services, [and] cultural practices” prevent women from having access to the proper medical services they need.
Additionally, warfare in developing countries causes the breakdown of healthcare systems. This further prevents women from accessing life-saving medical care. For example, when the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002, it left less than 300 trained doctors and three obstetricians to treat the country’s 6 million people.
Solutions to Reduce Maternal Mortality
Many NGOs work throughout the region to combat maternal mortality in Africa. In fact, the United Nations initiated the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, 2016-2030. Their goal is to “reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births” by 2030.
According to a study by the World Health Organization, there needs to be better documentation of maternal mortality in Africa to create more effective policy solutions. Currently, less than 40 percent of countries have a registration system documenting the causes of maternal mortality. Hence, this lack of information makes it difficult for the U.N. and NGOs to create effective solutions.
An unexpected yet effective way maternal mortality in Africa has been combated is through photography. Pulitzer-prize winning war correspondent Lynsey Addario took her camera to the region to document maternal mortality. Addario documented the experiences of many women, including 18-year-old Mamma Sessay in Sierra Leone. Sessay traveled for hours by canoe and ambulance while in excruciating labor to reach her nearest hospital. Addario stayed with Sessay for the entire experience, from the birth of her child to her subsequent hemorrhage and death. Addario even traveled with Sessay’s family back to their village to document Sessay’s funeral and her family’s grief.
Ultimately, TIME published Addario’s photographs. And as a result, Merck launched Merck for Mothers, giving $500 million to reduce maternal mortality rates worldwide. Addario stated, “I just couldn’t believe how unnecessary her death seemed, and it inspired me to continue documenting maternal health and death to try to turn these statistics around.”
The Bottom Line
The international community must continue to address maternal mortality, a preventable tragedy. No woman should have to fear for her own life or the life of her unborn child upon discovering she is pregnant. Through documentation, reporting and care, the international community can fight to reduce maternal mortality in Africa.
– Alina Patrick
Photo: Flickr
The Importance of the Keep Families Together Act
On June 19, 2018, Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, led over 190 House Democrats in introducing the Keep Families Together Act with the goal of ending family separation at the U.S Border. The Keep Families Together Act is a bill that prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from taking children away from their parents (with the exception of extraordinary circumstances). Examples of extraordinary circumstances would be terminated parental rights if it’s in the minor’s best interest to be separated or if there are concerns of risk to the child, such as trafficking.
Without the Keep Families Together Act
In Jan. 2019, the Federal Government reported that approximately 3,000 children had been separated from their parents at the southern U.S. border. Due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, this number will only continue to grow unless the Keep Families Together Act passes. Nearly every adult that is caught attempting to cross illegally is prosecuted and nearly every child is taken from their family.
According to the New York Times, because of the absence of a formal tracking system and an influx that started in 2017, the actual number of children separated from their parent, guardian or family is unknown. It is believed that the separation of families is far larger than the administration had originally stated; possibly more than 700 children could have been separated before the announcement of the “zero tolerance” policy.
The Flores Settlement Agreement
As far as the treatment of children at the border goes, the parameters were set out in the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement. The agreement was born from a lawsuit that was “filed in 1985 that challenged the federal government’s treatment, detention and release of immigrant children.” The agreement requires that children be released to a parent, guardian or program. If no such person is available, then the government is required to detain the child in the “least restrictive” setting, but for no more than 20 days.
Later, in a 2016 federal court decision, the Flores agreement would cover children with guardians as well as those without. However, the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy has led to the arrest of parents and guardians who are criminally charged at the border, making it impossible to keep the children with their families. As of 2018, a federal court decision ruled that these children must be reunited with their parents.
The Effects of Separating Families
This raises the question, how does being taken away from a parent or guardian affect a minor’s mental health and wellbeing? A minor who is separated from their parents experiences much more than just discomfort and stress. Children endure extreme psychological stress and lack vital emotional support. Having no foundation from a loved one or guardian during such a vulnerable time could lead to significant anxiety, depression, traumatic stress and many other disorders.
Families are fleeing to the U.S. for refuge, but they face danger on their journey as well as at the border. Without the Keep Families Together Act, parents, guardians and loved ones will continue to be separated from their children. Instead of harvesting a harsh environment for families running from danger, the Keep Families Together Act would be in place to help create safety and asylum for those in need.
Contact State Leaders and advocate for the passing of the Keep Families Together Act. An email, phone call or letter only takes a few minutes and can make a big difference. Learn how to call state senators and representatives here (https://borgenproject.org/
Photo: Flickr
6 Brands That Engage in One-for-One Giving
In 2006, the shoe and eyewear brand, TOMS revolutionized a charitable business model now known as one-for-one giving. This ‘buy one, give one’ model is now used by many brands in an effort to improve their image and do their part in fighting global poverty. When a customer buys a certain item, these brands will match their purchase by donating an item to those in poverty or providing some service that helps those in need.
TOMS started out by donating shoes to more than 60 countries and has now given more than 35 million pairs of shoes. The company has also expanded its charitable giving initiatives, providing eyeglasses to those in need as well as restoring the sight of more than 250,000 people to date.
6 Brands That Engage in One-for-One Giving
Here are six other brands that have followed TOMS’s socially conscious lead.
ROMA Boots
ROMA Boots is a socially conscious footwear company founded in 2007. After seeing countless children in Romania running through every type of weather with either broken shoes or no footwear at all, the founder decided to integrate the one-for-one giving model into this company. Now, for every pair of ROMA boots the company sells, a new pair of rainboots is donated to children and families in who are living in poverty. To date, the company has reached 26 countries and counting through the ROMA Foundation.
Better World Books
Better World Books is a website that buys and sells new and used books across the country at reduced prices. Their business model engages in one-for-one giving, and every time a book is bought, they donate a book to children and families who cannot afford books on their own. To date, the company has donated over 26 million books. Better World Books also enables its customers to support global literacy efforts with each purchase thanks to partnerships with organizations including Room to Read, the National Center for Families Learning and Books for Africa.
Project 7
Project 7 is a gum and mint company that partners with non-profit organizations in the United States and abroad. This company gives back to seven different causes, hence its name ‘Project 7’. One of the areas the company donates to is “Heal the Sick,” which delivers life-saving malaria treatments to people living in poverty. Another is “Quench the Thirsty,” which provides clean drinking water to those living without it. While this model isn’t exactly one-for-one, it uses proceeds from the products sold to provide other services to those in need.
WeWOOD
WeWOOD is a watch and eyewear company founded in Italy in 2010. Their one-for-one giving model is unique because for every wooden watch sold, the company plants a tree in return, restoring forests across the globe. To date, WeWOOD has planted over 600,000 trees and hopes to plant 1 million by 2020.
Warby Parker
Warby Parker is an eyeglass company that has distributed glasses to over 50 countries through their one-for-one giving program. Since its inception, the company has donated more than 4 million pairs of glasses to people with impaired vision all across the globe. The work they do has allowed for people living in poverty to work more effectively, and for children to learn.
This Bar Saves Lives
This Bar Saves Lives is a brand of snack bars that is aiming to end childhood malnutrition worldwide. The company has donated over 10 million nutritious bars to children worldwide thanks to one-for-one giving. Every time a customer purchases a bar, the company provides food aid to children in need, helping to minimize the number of children that are hungry every day.
One-for-one giving is an easy way to make an impact with little effort. Buying goods and doing good can now go hand in hand, and the one-for-one giving model is to thank for that.
– Charlotte Kriftcher
Photo: Flickr
Pollution in the Western Balkans and the International Response
Pollution in the Western Balkans is among the most pressing global crises today. The antiquated industrial technology and inadequate environmental legislation in Western Balkan countries (WBC) results in substandard soil, air and water quality. According to the UN Environment Programme, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now the second deadliest nation in the world in terms of air pollution. The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo recorded the air quality index (AQI) of 383 in 2018 — nearly ten times the average and a level categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a threat to health. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that in 2018 two North Macedonian cities, Tetovo and Skopje, were identified by the European AQI as Europe’s most polluted cities. Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, topped the 2018 list of the world’s most polluted cities with an AQI of 415. Pristina is classified as having worse air quality than Beijing and New Delhi, and other towns throughout Kosovo are following suit.
The Cost of Coal
Pollution in the Western Balkans results from thermal power plants and open-cast lignite mines — lignite being the most toxic coal pollutant.
In Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina lies the country’s largest thermal power station. Burning lignite generates power, producing electricity. Tuzla’s plant, located across from a school, releases 51,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants annually. This cheap electricity (run by a state-owned company) is seen by officials as an economic opportunity and is exported to neighboring countries, but residents know that the price is not worth the cost.
Each year Bosnia and Herzegovina loses the equivalent of 44,000 years of life from particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide — like that produced in Tuzla — or ozone pollution. PM pollution in the Western Balkans causes respiratory and heart diseases, cancers, etc., and increases water acidity, soil depletion and crop damage.
Tuzla’s coal towers use filters that, when expired, are disposed of at designated sites. Winds blow the filters’ collected ash onto nearby homes. The power plant employs large amounts of water to pump waste ash and coal slag into huge landfill sites, resulting in swampy farmlands. Heavy metals from the waste discharge into nearby rivers, while anti-clogging chemicals added to pipes turn flooded areas a fluorescent blue color.
Tuzla, once Bosnia and Herzegovina’s largest producer of roses, is now a toxic swamp coated in ash. Reports state that pollution has reduced Tuzla’s population from 500 to approximately 30 residents.
Kosovo’s story is no better. A 2016 environmental study stated that impacts of Kosovo A and B lignite power plants total €352 million in health costs annually, with Kosovo A ranking as the biggest emitter of PM2.5 in the Western Balkan region. PM2.5 is small enough to enter the bloodstream and pulmonary alveoli.
In Bitola, North Macedonia, the area surrounding its thermal power plant and ash deposit are significant generators of PM10 and PM2.5. The European Environmental Agency’s air quality report states that North Macedonia has the highest annual mean value of PM2.5 in all of Europe — approximately three times more than the WHO’s recommendations. The World Bank estimates 1,350 North Macedonians die yearly from air pollution.
According to the WHO, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s air pollution costs the country more than one fifth its annual GDP yearly in lost work and school days, fuel costs, etc. In WBCs, school terms are shortened and many residents flee their homes, especially during winter when dense smog blankets cities and towns impairing visibility and worsening breathing. The World Bank reports that North Macedonia loses around 3.2 percent of its annual GDP to pollution.
Denials and Foreign Investments
The latest report on European air quality cites a steady improvement throughout Europe, except in WBCs where air quality steadily declines.
North Macedonian authorities claim the country’s extreme pollution results from the use of old vehicles and wood-burning stoves. Pristina’s officials claim heavy traffic as the main cause of its pollution and have imposed traffic restrictions. The North Macedonian government also claims chemical analyses and pollution studies are underway, but no reports have been published.
WBCs’ disregard for the UN’s and WHO’s warnings and EU regulations is reaching new heights via Chinese-backed investments in new coal-fired power plants throughout the region. These expansion plans, along with the refusal to admit responsibility and lack of emergency planning, are outraging citizens who have taken to the streets in protest.
International Response to Pollution in the Western Balkans
UN agencies are installing and refurbishing air quality monitoring stations equipped with real-time data throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. A WHO initiative is using software to provide data pertaining to air pollution types and their related health effects, hoping to drive government response policies. This transition will slash emissions by more than 90 percent, saving nearly €1 million in fuel costs annually.
The North Macedonian government launched an initiative to fight its air pollution and allocated €1.6 million for the program in its 2019 budget — aiming to reduce Skopje’s air pollution by 50 percent within two years through tax incentives for central heating and stricter industrial emissions controls. Activists say the government’s response and funding is inadequate and insufficient.
A joint effort by affected governments could combat pollution in the Western Balkans and aid in enacting stricter emissions control legislation of the Energy Community Treaty. There is hope on the horizon as Energy Community Contracting Parties, North Macedonia and Kosovo, have signed a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding on the Energy Sector. Their intention is to share developments, revive electricity interconnection lines and construct a gas interconnection between Skopje and Kosovo.
– Julianne Russo
Photo: Pixabay
Startup PanalFresh Boosts Agriculture Industry in Bolivia
Since Bolivia gained independence from Spanish rule in 1825, the country has undergone several shifts in political power with long-term effects on economic stability. Similarly, the agriculture industry in Bolivia has experienced considerable changes, sometimes resulting in difficulty for farmers. A startup, PanalFresh, is working to improve difficult conditions and improve farmers’ access to markets.
Inequality in Agriculture Industry in Bolivia
In the late 1990s, former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada made substantial changes to the agriculture industry in Bolivia that have lingering effects to this day. Lozada’s Law of Agricultural Reform Services promoted a liberalization of trade in the agricultural sector and bolstered trade activities centered around exports. One negative consequence of the increased privatization was the fact that small-scale farmers were now forced to compete with much larger companies that could provide extremely cheap imports. The new structure crippled the ability of rural smallholder farmers to increase productivity and income.
The agriculture industry in Bolivia is a key part of the country’s economy, as it accounts for almost 14 percent of the total GDP and employs nearly 30 percent of the nation’s workforce. Unfortunately, with 57 percent of the rural population living below the poverty line, the potential for job creation and economic growth is not coming to fruition.
Tech Startups, Global Poverty and PanalFresh
Tech startups are tackling many of the toughest problems facing the world today. Companies like Viome and The Ocean Cleanup are undertaking monumental efforts to solve issues like prevalent diseases and plastic waste in oceans.
Similarly, a startup called PanalFresh is doing its part to address the “lack of infrastructure and access to markets” that results in rural poverty in Bolivia. PanalFresh provides next-morning delivery of fruits, vegetables and other grocery items through an online store available to customers in the cities Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. The truly unique part of PanalFresh’s business model is that all of the produce in the store comes from small-scale farmers in rural Bolivia. On top of providing farmers with an effective and far-reaching marketplace for their harvests, PanalFresh consults farmers on what to plant in order to meet with demands.
PanalFresh’s co-Founder, Andrea Puente, dedicates her time to helping farmers know what to grow and giving them a marketplace so they can be successful. Her platform claims to yield 10-15 percent better prices on the same crops and provides services to more than 400 farmers. By reconnecting the rural farmers of Bolivia to the more affluent urban customers, Puente is sure to increase the long-term financial stability of hard-working farmers who struggle with poverty day in and out.
While today’s agricultural sector faces many roadblocks, Panalfresh is an example of how achievements in technology can lift other industries into prosperity. With the collaboration of farmers and companies like Panalfresh, the future of agriculture in Bolivia is bright.
– John Chapman
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
5 Organizations Fighting for Women’s Empowerment in India
India has a complicated track record when it comes to women’s rights and women’s empowerment. On the one hand, the country is home to a number of feminist icons like Kamla Bhasin, who has been advocating for female education since the seventies, but on the other, around 93 women are raped in India every day. In addition, even in 2019, nonconsensual sex between a husband and wife is not considered rape according to India’s penal code. It is also estimated that 120,000 Indian women a year will be victims of domestic violence.
Fortunately, a number of organizations are tirelessly working to put an end to gender inequality in India. These five organizations fighting for women’s empowerment in India are dedicated to uplifting and protecting women.
5 Organizations Fighting for Women’s Empowerment in India
SEWA – Of the female labor force in India, more than 94 percent of workers make their living in the unorganized sector. Yet this demographic largely remains invisible due to the self-employed nature of their work. Since these women are not part of the mainstream salaried workforce, they do not have access to welfare benefits that laborers in the traditional workforce do, leaving them unprotected.
Incorporated in 1972, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, or SEWA, is a trade union made up of poor and self-employed female workers that earn a living through self-run small businesses or their personal labor. SEWA aims to organize women so that they can attain full employment and all its benefits including social security, which is defined as health care, child care and shelter. SEWA stimulates full employment and female self-reliance by offering a number of services including health care, child care, banking through the Sewa Bank (a cooperative bank with credit and finance services), insurance via VimoSEWA (SEWA insurance), legal services and housing.
Snehalaya – Snehalaya translates to “home of love” and is an NGO that was founded in 1989 in the Indian city of Ahmednagar. The NGO provides support to women, children and LGBT communities. Snehalaya specifically focuses on these vulnerable members of society that have suffered at the hands of HIV and AIDS, trafficking, sexual violence and poverty.
Snehalaya has made great strides in raising awareness for these disadvantaged communities and continues to offer safe havens and escapes to women and children imprisoned in the cycle of poverty and abuse. Currently, the organization reaches more than 19,000 beneficiaries a year by offering services including:
orphanages for children rescued from the sex trafficking industry;
offices that offer emergency care for abandoned infants in addition to medical and psychological support for expectant mothers;
30 emergency safe houses for women and children experiencing domestic violence;
100 25-acre Himmaatgram Biofarms that provide sustainable produce for Snehalaya projects; and
a free telephone helpline for children and the public to help at-risk children that receives around 300 calls a day.
NEN: North East Network – NEN is a women’s rights organization that was established in 1995 as part of the Beijing World Conference on Women. NEN operates mostly in North East India and focuses on women’s human rights and gender justice. NEN organizes training sessions, awareness programs, retreats, as well as short film and art competitions all with the goal of merging advocacy with activism. The organization continues to fight against gender-based discrimination while building support for government policies that promote women’s rights and increase female representation in political, public and community settings.
Azad Foundation – The Azad Foundation is a professional feminist organization founded in 2008 that specifically works with resource-poor women living in urban areas in India. The Foundation provides opportunities for disadvantaged women to earn a livelihood as professional drivers and has trained hundreds of women since inception. The Foundation also trained and then employed the first ever female bus driver in Delhi.
In total, the Azad Foundation has trained more than 1,800 women in a range of topics to including self-defense, sexual and reproductive health, basic first aid as well as map reading.
The organization, which was founded in Delhi, has now expanded and has training centers in Jaipur and Kolkata. By offering training to women so that they can become professional drivers to earn a decent living, the Azad Foundation bolsters the economic status of underprivileged women while offering them the independence of self-reliance.
MAKAAM – Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch: MAKAAM is a forum for female farmers’ rights that operates in 24 states in India. Even though women make up about 60 to 70 percent of the farming workforce in India, they only account for around 12 percent of landholdings. Since female farmers rarely own the land they work on, they are excluded from important support services provided by the government. However, MAKAAM seeks to empower female farmers by teaching them to assert their rights and gain ownership of their livelihoods and the natural resources that come with it.
These five organizations fighting for women’s empowerment in India are providing important support to all types of women in need all across the country. From female farmers to entrepreneurs and members of vulnerable communities these organizations are elevating an important part of Indian society that is often overlooked or disadvantaged.
– Isabel Fernandez
Photo: Pixabay
How Mental Health in Developing Countries is Improving
Due to conflict, poverty and disease, mental health is a serious issue that might not be addressed in some areas around the globe. However, six different projects in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Vietnam, Pakistan and Haiti are examples of how mental health is improving in developing countries.
Kenya: Africa Mental Health Foundation (AMHF)
In 2004, Professor David Ndetei founded AMHF in hopes to improve the mental health of underprivileged individuals in Kenya. He heavily invested in training psychiatrists in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nairobi in order to ensure high-quality mental health care for patients. A previous project that AMHF completed was The Kenya Integrated Intervention Model For Dialogue and Screening (KIDS). This program focused on treating mental illnesses in children and adolescents and preventing further mental health problems in adulthood.
Zimbabwe: The Friendship Bench
According to facts and figures supported by The Friendship Bench, one in four Zimbabweans suffers from common mental disorders. Poverty, marital problems and HIV all play a role in rising mental illness in Zimbabwe. The Friendship Bench attempts to combat kufungisisa, kusuwisisa and moyo unorwadza, which are all Shona terms for anxiety and depression, by employing lay health workers. These workers, also known as community grandmothers, speak with patients in casual and comfortable environments, provide home visits and offer support via mobile phones and tablets.
The Friendship Bench also has a key focus in community activation. After patients complete their therapy treatments, they are referred to a post-therapy support group with others who suffer from similar disorders. The effectiveness of The Friendship Bench proves to be successful — an assessment after six months of treatment and therapy groups resulted in the prevalence of depression decreasing by 10 percent in Zimbabwe.
Uganda: Group Support Psychotherapy
Although Uganda has been acknowledged for HIV/AIDS treatment and awareness efforts in recent years, the mental health implications of being diagnosed and the stigmas surrounding these diseases need improvement. Funded by Grand Challenges Canada and conceptualized by Dr. Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, the Group Support Psychotherapy program helps treat depression in HIV/AIDS patients by implementing positive coping skills and helping patients obtain a liveable income.
The results of this program are impressive. After 6 months it was reported that an astounding 85 percent of patients claimed to have recovered from their depression. They also reported positive changes in terms of self-esteem and their ability to function in social situations.
Vietnam: Frugal Innovations – Promoting Mental Health Among Adults and Children
According to a 2011 study conducted by the World Health Organization, Vietnam ranked last among 144 low and middle-income countries on the basis of access to mental health treatment. The Frugal Innovations project, led by Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, launched this two-year pilot program to assist low-income adults in Vietnam. Two methods were performed in this project: community health workers were trained to help those suffering from anxiety and depression and coaching via telephone to help families with children who suffer from behavioral difficulties.
The pilot program was deemed a success. With further funding, this program will expand across nine provinces in Vietnam and offer child and family-focused components of treatment. If this program continues to succeed, an estimated 4,250 Vietnamese citizens with depression will have access to treatment.
Pakistan: Family Networks for Kids (FaNS)
Family Networks for Kids, created by The Human Development Research Foundation (HDRF), helps children through mental health treatment and helps families of these children cope with the stigma and other challenges that come along with mental disorders. These treatments are technologically based, through tablets that provide interactive activities for children to complete. This technology is also beneficial for the entire family. Parents or other guardians can answer questions through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which helps identify developmental disorders in children. This saves time and money by families not having to visit a doctor.
An assessment of this program showed positive results from participating children. Children that finished treatments reportedly had an increase in engagement with school and societal functions and improved self-care. With further training and funding, HDRF hopes to continue the FaNS program and help an estimated 3,000 more children and adults with mental health treatment.
Haiti: Zanmi Lasante
The biggest health care provider in Haiti, Zanmi Lasante, was founded in 1983. However, mental health treatment was not a key focus of this organization until the catastrophic earthquake that occurred in 2010. Four core issues focused on the most were depression, epilepsy, psychotic disorders and mental illnesses in children and adolescents.
Mental health treatment through Zanmi Lasante is normally offered through primary care services. Traditional healers, community health workers, psychologists, social workers, nurses and physicians are all employed through the organization for mental health treatments towards patients.
Leaps and Bounds
These six projects display how much mental health has improved in developing countries. Thousands of adults and children have been diagnosed and treated with various mental disorders due to these initiatives, benefiting from the expertise of trained professionals and generous amounts of funding. Due to their successes, these projects will continue to expand and help more people in need of treatment.
Fighting the Global ‘Burden’ of Widows in Poverty
Widespread recognition has increased the benefits that empowering women can create for impoverished communities. Yet improved educational and business opportunities for women have neglected the world’s 258 million widows, 85 million in China and India alone. Advocates cite the baffling omission of widows’ welfare from the U.N.’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) as evidence of a critical blind spot in aid efforts. Widows are shown to suffer disproportionately in measurements of poverty, with a minimum of 38 million considered extremely impoverished in 2015. This poverty level is roughly 15 percent of widows compared to the 10 percent of the general worldwide population considered extremely poor by the World Bank in the same year.
This disparity is a result, in part, of the traditional practices of many cultures by which women continue to be seen solely as dependents of their fathers or husbands. Particularly in developing countries, a woman with neither is left with no support system. She becomes deemed a burden to society and, with no income to educate her children, contributes to continuing generations of poverty.
Treatment of Widows Around the World
Stigmas and traditional superstitions have a profound social and mental impact on women whose husbands have died. In many cultures, a widow is blamed for a husband’s death; in fact, many women face accusations of murder or neglect of their duties as wives. It is common for widows to be isolated and banned from participation in community activities and family events. In India, it is customary for widowed women to be prohibited from remarriage, with an appearance in public interpreted as ill-omens.
Human Rights Watch has identified common human rights violations against widows in Zimbabwe and other sub-Saharan countries. Some of the most widespread practices are the denial of inheritance, despite protected national and international laws, and ‘property grabbing’ in which a widow’s in-laws physically or verbally assault her in attempt to take her land for themselves.
Other customs termed ‘harmful practices’ by the U.N. include wife-inheritance, in which a woman is forced to marry her deceased husband’s relative, and ritual cleansing of widows through rape. In some cases, women have been forced to cleanse themselves by drinking water used to wash their husband’s corpse. All such practices run a serious risk of transmitting communicable disease, including HIV and Ebola.
Organizations Supporting Widows in Poverty
Aid organizations focusing on welfare for widows in poverty have expanded since 2000, but there remain only four main NGOs with the capacity to provide aid programs internationally:
The Loomba Foundation – When sexist stigmas in India isolated and shamed founder Lord Raj Loomba’s widowed mother without justification, he came to believe that the key to pulling widows out of poverty is gender equality. Since 1997, the Loomba Foundation has funded programs to educate widows and their children, promoted women’s empowerment in Africa and Asia and published the only comprehensive research on the experiences of widows in poverty.
Global Fund for Widows (GFW) – Acting as the financial base for partnerships with many smaller non-profits working in local communities, GFW has been working in Egypt, Tanzania, Nigeria, India and parts of Central America since 2008. GFW funds skills programs for widows, organizes employment opportunities and offers a Micro-Social Capital program that provides women with the means to start small businesses in their communities.
Women for Women International – Creating employment opportunities and economic independence is a small part of Women for Women’s approach to widows’ welfare. They work with women at local levels to educate them in political engagement with the belief that having confidence and a voice in their own affairs is the best long-term solution to the suffering of widows in poverty.
Widows’ Rights International (WRI) – WRI is an organization specializing in legal precedent for cases involving widows’ human rights. WRI works with the UNHRC, U.N. Committee on the Status of Women and national governments to create a policy for the benefit of poor widows and educate women about their rights. Their goal is to combat ignorance and therefore violations of human rights which they have condemned as “tantamount to torture.”
The ‘Widow Issue’
Data measuring the number of widows in extreme poverty, although limited and often unreliable, estimates a decrease of 22 percent between 2010 and 2015. Encouragement is visible in statements by former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that presses U.N. member states to condemn harmful, traditional practices like widow-inheritance and burning in observance of International Widows Day (June 23rd).
Wider research is necessary to illuminate the extent and causes of widows’ suffering, but further efforts must target regions like South Asia, which report 50 percent of the world’s poor widows, as well as developed countries like Russia and the U.S., which in 2015 saw significant and as yet unexplained increases in the number of widows’ living in extreme poverty.
– Marissa Field
Photo: Flickr
The Pressing Need for Improved Credit Access in Bhutan
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small sovereign state saddled between India and China, with an estimated population of less than 800,000. For hundreds of years, Bhutan existed in almost total isolation from the outside world. Upon King Jigme Wangchuck’s ascension to the throne in 1972, he began an ambitious program of modernization and reform that continues today. Despite much progress in poverty reduction, institutional development and new infrastructure, Bhutan still has a large number of poor, rural workers who lack credit access.
Microcredit: A Way Forward for Credit Access in Bhutan?
Since the 1970s, microfinance has — in best cases — transformed poor workers in developing countries into successful entrepreneurs making vital contributions to their local economies. By extending small lines of credit at low rates, microcredit lenders enable workers to invest in wealth-generating capital such as plows, stone ovens and weaving looms.
Microfinance has been slow to catch on in Bhutan owing to underdeveloped infrastructure and a lingering barter economy. A 2010 Institute of Microfinance report concluded that microfinance was then still a nascent form, but remained upbeat about its potential, stating “easy access to institutional credit is prerequisite to convert agriculture enterprise into profitable activity (sic).”
According to the report, only an estimated 20 percent of all Bhutanese farmers—and just 10 percent of small farmers—had access to credit in 2010. It also highlighted a number of challenges to expanding microcredit in Bhutan, such as a tendency for rural workers to trade in goods rather than currency.
The World Bank suggests that for microfinance to really take root, it has to operate within a larger context that includes favorable government policies, available technology—as well as sensitivity to the real needs of borrowers.
The effectiveness of microfinance in reducing poverty has increasingly come into question in recent years, but most studies suggest it still brings benefits when implemented correctly and with the correct motives. In addition to addressing the conditions necessary for effective microfinance operations, The World Bank emphasizes that credit rates must be subsidized below market levels to truly benefit poor borrowers— highlighting the role of government and non-profit organizations.
Obstacles to Credit Access in Bhutan
Despite overwhelming needs, microcredit options are few in Bhutan. An article by the International Finance Corporation concludes that lack of access to finance remains a key inhibitor of private investment and business growth.
As of 2013, there was only one national program offering microfinance options, but the Royal Government has shown willingness to facilitate increased levels of fair and profitable micro-financing. For instance, in 2016, Bhutan’s Royal Monetary Authority produced a set of guidelines for governing the conduct of micro-financial institutions that protect the interests of borrowers. It will, however, be a challenge for the government to enforce these regulations in rural areas where most economic activity goes unrecorded.
Bhutan’s rural population and underdeveloped transit infrastructure present additional obstacles to sustainable micro-finance. Bernd Baehr, Project Director of RENEW Microfinance—one of the largest NGO micro-financers operating in Bhutan—told Bhutanese media source, Kuensel, that, “micro-finance in Bhutan cannot be profitable unless the infrastructure and technology keep up with the pace of development.” To illustrate this, Baehr pointed to the vast inefficiencies resulting from field officers often having to have to drive for up to six hours to reach clients.
Looking Forward
Considering these obstacles, the overall picture for Bhutan’s economic development looks positive. When the country’s per capita GDP was first recorded in 1961 it was the lowest in the world at just $52. Now, Bhutan’s per capita GDP is more than $3,000 and the economy is experiencing sustained annual growth of around seven percent.
By capitalizing on these gains, Bhutan’s Royal Government can establish the groundwork for sustainable future investments. Improving infrastructure and financial regulation, and incentivizing subsidized lending to poor, rural borrowers could begin to help poor workers access credit and secure essential capital to elevate them from serfdom and poverty.
– Jamie Wiggan
Photo: Flickr