From piles of discarded plastic, solutions arise. Sustainability is the work of the dedicated, passionate leaders of the Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda. In Kamwokya, an area with 10,000 residents in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda develops innovative projects that improve the lives of impoverished residents while solving environmental pollution.
The Borgen Project interviewed CEO and Ghetto Research Lab Founder Patrick Mujuzi, who creates jobs and a better future for ghetto youth in the slums of Kamwokya. His dynamic vision for Ghetto Research Lab entails re-purposing plastic while creating a positive environment. He hopes to unite people worldwide to build an understanding of the need and impact of GRL’s work. He hopes that each person will understand their role in eliminating plastics from the environment.
Ghetto Research Lab undertakes an incredible range of projects, which people can study for replication. The garbage of others becomes its scientific tool. It turns what would otherwise be waste into urban farming opportunities, building materials and a sense of community. As a research lab, it learns by doing and through trial and error, not with the advantage of advanced equipment. Here are some of Uganda’s Ghetto Research Lab’s projects.
Support of Ghetto Youth
Ghetto Research Lab transforms the lives of young adults by nurturing their social development and creating job opportunities. One hundred and seventy youth currently work with GRL. Participants learn to forge a positive path, gain life skills and receive support. The number of participants continues to grow. Mujuzi refers to this work as “positive living and rehabilitation.”
Plastic Management
Ghetto Research Lab creates plastic bricks by stuffing collected plastic bottles with discarded polyethylene bags, referred to as kaveras. These bottle bricks create buildings and serve the dual function of removing this waste from their environment. Local residents make extra income packing the bricks. Many plastic bottles (25,000) make up one building, each stuffed with 200 plastic bags, removing five million plastic bags from the environment.
Anther project includes creating pavers out of the discarded plastic by melting it and adding sand. GRL also develops compostable toilets in plastic bottle brick structures that provide a sustainable sanitation solution.
Urban Farming
Ghetto Research Lab practices several types of sustainable, urban farming including aquaponics which is the combination of conventional aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaponics reduces fishing from polluted waters while providing good nutrition, improving the overall health of residents.
Hailey Bruce, the Aquaponics Administrator, has been with GRL for three years. When The Borgen Project interviewed him, it learned that he raises tilapia, catfish and vegetables, including cabbage and spinach, and that GRL members eat and sell crops. Bruce believes that aquaponics is a sustainable food security solution because it is accessible, affordable and holds the potential to generate income and create jobs without harming the environment.
GRL practices animal and poultry rearing, raising rabbits, goats, sheep and chickens. The sale of meat helps to fund GRL’s endeavors.
GRL grows vegetables such as tomatoes which it grafts and breeds. It plants them using sack gardening which avoids ground pollutants. Additional crops include lettuce, cucumbers, beets and strawberries. It also engages in food value projects, collecting unwanted seeds from fruits such as papaya and avocado from nearby markets. It cleans and dries them in the sun, pounds them into a powder and mixes them into a nutritious drink. Next, it packages the drink and distributes it to people at risk of malnutrition. It also makes organic manure, pesticides and liquid soaps.
Technology, Art and Design
Through its technology department, Ghetto Research Lab works on renewable recyclable energy projects such as harnessing wind turbine electricity and the development of solar heaters. It created a machine that people run on to produce and store energy to be able to use electricity in nighttime hours when it would not otherwise be available.
GRL also engages in art and design projects such as painting and beautifying the buildings that people create from the bottle bricks.
Film, Media and Storytelling
In addition to GRL’s sustainability, technology and food security projects, it engages young people through a storytelling and film production center called the Ghetto Media Lab. The Borgen Project spoke with Media Lab Administrator Edris Adams, who is a Ugandan filmmaker and produces documentary films for the Ghetto Media Lab. These films have the impact of building skills and empowering young people with the ability to create social change in their lives. The collective talent and inspiration produce impactful stories.
Edris Adams would like the world to hear the voices of ghetto youth. He would also like for the ghetto conditions to change for the better. He hopes for an increased understanding of poverty in Uganda. Adams aspires for everyone to engage in the battle against plastic and to encourage the planting of trees for an environmentally sustainable future. Everyone has stories and through sharing and learning, they can work to make not only the slums of Kamwokya a better place but also the world.
Patrick Mujuzi would like to see continued collaboration between Ghetto Research Lab and those interested in learning about it. In addition, he would like for GRL to become more commercial, but its limited space is an obstacle. Mujuzi sees that skill sharing with young people around the world holds potential. Ultimately, he would like to see plastics and polyethylene as things of the past.
With its hands-on success of projects and its willingness to work through trial and error, the Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda can be a model for results. GRL would like to become more established in its endeavors. Hopefully, it will have continued opportunities to educate others on its successes.
– Susan Niz
Photo: Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda
10 Facts About Education in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia understands the importance of teaching its people. Its government is increasing efforts to provide primary, secondary and tertiary education to all of its citizens. The Kingdom is improving literacy, expanding forms of education, educating women and more. Here are 10 facts about education in Saudi Arabia.
10 Facts About Education in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia improved the literacy of its adult population, but still has goals to widen its educational efforts. Citizens are working towards appealing the government to accept online-based learning officially, and the Ministry of Education continues to monitor the education system.
– Sofia Ponomareva
Photo: Pixabay
Haiti’s Earthquake 10 Years Later
January 12, 2020, marked the 10th anniversary of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, the capital of the small Caribbean nation of Haiti. People have taken time to remember what happened a decade ago, with one Haitian-American residing in Boston commenting, “I’m in pain. I’m in pain inside of me. Even my bones hurt me because of what’s happening in my country. We are human beings like everybody else, we have to live a life like everybody else.” Haiti has undeniably suffered greatly, but there is hope after Haiti’s earthquake 10 years later.
The Devastating Aftermath of the Disaster
The quake also impacted Haiti’s neighboring country, the Dominican Republic. Two aftershocks followed with a magnitude of 5.9 and 5.5., making it the worst natural disaster the country has seen in modern times. Haiti is located above two of the earth’s tectonic plates, the North American and the Caribbean plates, making it prone to large earthquakes. At the beginning of 2010, many news outlets covered the aftermath of the disaster, leaving much of the world shocked.
Between 220,000 to 300,000 people lost their lives in the 2010 quake, 122 of them American citizens, leaving 300,000 more injured and 1.5 million displaced from their homes. Nearly 4,000 schools suffered damage or complete eradication. This resulted in an estimated $7.8 to $8.5 billion in damage.
The disaster left many people with families living in Haiti anxious, wondering if their loved ones had survived the catastrophe. Others fled the country in search of a better life elsewhere. Jean-Max Bellerive, the Prime Minister of Haiti at the time of the earthquake called it “the worst catastrophe that has occurred in Haiti in two centuries.”
Foreign Aid Comes to the Rescue
In the midst of what seemed like the absence of hope, many Haitians prayed for help. Within a few days, foreign powers from all over the world responded, willing to aid the survivors with their needs. Within a day, President Obama stated that the United States would provide their “unwavering support” for the people of Haiti pledging $100 million in financial support.
Members of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy arrived in the country to assist the survivors of the earthquake with their medical needs. Outside of the United States, the European Commission promised $4.37 million in aid. In Asia, the South Korean and Indian governments provided $1 million in aid, and the Japanese government granted $5 million. Japan also donated a total of $330,000 value in tents and blankets for those without shelter.
Doctors and aircrafts supplied with food and water swarmed in quickly from countries such as Sweden, Brazil, Israel and Venezuela. It seemed as if the entire world had its eyes on Haiti. People all across the globe prayed for the relief Haitians needed to rebuild their lives and recover from such a traumatic event.
Haiti 10 Years Later
Despite the overwhelming efforts from foreign powers across the world in the aftermath of the earthquake, the earthquake has impacted Haiti even 10 years later. While the world has still not forgotten the 2010 earthquake, relief efforts often diminish because there are more recent natural disasters that require attention. When remembering the anniversary of such events, especially ones that occurred in impoverished nations, it is important to remember that relief efforts should not cease once mass media outlets elect to move on to new events.
Even before the earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with about eight out of every 10 citizens living in poverty. Six years after the earthquake, Hurricane Matthew affected Haiti in early October 2016, the most powerful storm to affect the country in decades and resulting in almost $2 billion in damage.
In the 2000s, hurricanes like but not exclusive to Hurricanes Ike and Hanna, also affected Haiti resulting in flooding and hundreds of lives lost. Haiti’s economy is highly susceptible as a result of its location and the possibility of earthquakes and hurricanes. Because each disaster results in such high costs in damage when a majority of its people already live on only $2 a day, this poses a significant problem in providing a long-term solution for Haitians in need.
As of January 2020, many Haitian children face malnutrition due to high levels of food insecurity and infections, resulting in the deaths of infants, ages 2 and under. Many mothers also still face complications in childbirth resulting in death.
Much of these statistics do not appear to be promising on the surface, appearing as it virtually nothing has changed in a decade despite support from foreign powers during the country’s time of need. However, Haitians still refuse to discard their efforts for a better and more prosperous Haiti. In 2019, many Haitians protested the government and President Jovenel Moise. Haitians say that while citizens are “used to political and economic crises,” the cost of necessities such as food, gas and education has gone up significantly. These protests have continued into January 2020.
Reach Our World and the World Bank
Others around the world have also not given up on their efforts to create a stronger Haiti, even after Haiti’s earthquake 10 years later. Reach Our World is one of the missionary groups that visited Port Au Prince shortly after the 10th anniversary of the quake from January 17 to 22, 2020. As of January 8, 2020, ongoing contributions from the World Bank, consisting of 20 projects, have grossed $866.46 million.
Therefore, while the mass media outlets do not commonly cover the continuing political and economic tensions existing after Haiti’s earthquake 10 years later, many advocacy groups and world powers have not forgotten about the work that the world still needs to accomplish to help further the nation and its people. In order to become more successful in such efforts, it is imperative to be consistent and not wait until another natural disaster strikes to contribute to relief efforts so that the people of Haiti can achieve a stronger and brighter future.
– A. O’Shea
Photo: Flickr
The Pratt Pouch: Reducing HIV Transmission to Babies
How It Works
Every year, 400,000 children are diagnosed with HIV as a result of their mothers being HIV positive. Robert Malkin of Duke University hopes that the Pratt Pouch will reduce that number to fewer than 100,000 cases a year. Malkin and his team created the Pratt Pouch at the Pratt School of Engineering. The “foilized, polyethylene pouch” is filled with pediatric doses of antiretrovirals. The pouch gives the medication to have a shelf- life of up to twelve months. Other containers such as cups, spoons or syringes have a much shorter shelf-life because the containers absorb the water inside the medication, causing it to solidify.
The medication is provided to mothers during prenatal visits, but it is usually administered to the baby at home. The Pratt Pouch has a perforation, so it easily tears open. Since it contains a pre-measured dose, there is no need for a syringe, and it is taken orally. To be effective, the medication should be administered within seventy-two hours of birth; however, the ideal window of time is in the first twenty-four hours. The child takes the medication for six weeks.
The makers of the Pratt Pouch have partnered with IntraHealth International, which is providing training for pharmacists and community health workers. These trained individuals then go out and educate mothers about the proper methods to use to treat their children.
Who Is Using It?
So far, Uganda and Ecuador use the pouches. Malkin partnered with Fundación VIHDA in 2012. Since then, they have distributed the pouches to four hospitals in Guayaquil and Quito. Humberto Mata, the co-founder of Fundación VIHDA, estimates that more than 1,000 babies have received antiretroviral medication through the use of the pouches.
In Ecuador, a pharmacist manually fills and seals the pouches. However, a high-tech facility constructed at Hospice Uganda in Kampala is equipped with special machines that fill and seal the pouches in four seconds. That is a fraction of the time it takes a pharmacist to fill by hand.
Future Goals
It is one of Malkin’s goals to help medicate 40,000 infants in Uganda over the course of the next three years. In addition, Malkin hopes to use the pouches to deliver treatments for diseases besides HIV. “For example, HIV and pneumonia often occur together, so I could imagine giving mothers two sets of color-coded pouches, one set for HIV and one for pneumonia,” said Malkin.
The Pratt Pouch has been effective in decreasing the chance of an HIV positive mother transmitting the disease to her baby during birth. By making the antiretroviral medication easily accessible and easy-to-use, the creators of the Pratt Pouch have helped put the minds of worried mothers at ease. A mother can be at peace knowing she has done everything she can to keep her child healthy.
– Sareen Mekhitarian
Photo: Pixabay
Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda
From piles of discarded plastic, solutions arise. Sustainability is the work of the dedicated, passionate leaders of the Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda. In Kamwokya, an area with 10,000 residents in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda develops innovative projects that improve the lives of impoverished residents while solving environmental pollution.
The Borgen Project interviewed CEO and Ghetto Research Lab Founder Patrick Mujuzi, who creates jobs and a better future for ghetto youth in the slums of Kamwokya. His dynamic vision for Ghetto Research Lab entails re-purposing plastic while creating a positive environment. He hopes to unite people worldwide to build an understanding of the need and impact of GRL’s work. He hopes that each person will understand their role in eliminating plastics from the environment.
Ghetto Research Lab undertakes an incredible range of projects, which people can study for replication. The garbage of others becomes its scientific tool. It turns what would otherwise be waste into urban farming opportunities, building materials and a sense of community. As a research lab, it learns by doing and through trial and error, not with the advantage of advanced equipment. Here are some of Uganda’s Ghetto Research Lab’s projects.
Support of Ghetto Youth
Ghetto Research Lab transforms the lives of young adults by nurturing their social development and creating job opportunities. One hundred and seventy youth currently work with GRL. Participants learn to forge a positive path, gain life skills and receive support. The number of participants continues to grow. Mujuzi refers to this work as “positive living and rehabilitation.”
Plastic Management
Ghetto Research Lab creates plastic bricks by stuffing collected plastic bottles with discarded polyethylene bags, referred to as kaveras. These bottle bricks create buildings and serve the dual function of removing this waste from their environment. Local residents make extra income packing the bricks. Many plastic bottles (25,000) make up one building, each stuffed with 200 plastic bags, removing five million plastic bags from the environment.
Anther project includes creating pavers out of the discarded plastic by melting it and adding sand. GRL also develops compostable toilets in plastic bottle brick structures that provide a sustainable sanitation solution.
Urban Farming
Ghetto Research Lab practices several types of sustainable, urban farming including aquaponics which is the combination of conventional aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaponics reduces fishing from polluted waters while providing good nutrition, improving the overall health of residents.
Hailey Bruce, the Aquaponics Administrator, has been with GRL for three years. When The Borgen Project interviewed him, it learned that he raises tilapia, catfish and vegetables, including cabbage and spinach, and that GRL members eat and sell crops. Bruce believes that aquaponics is a sustainable food security solution because it is accessible, affordable and holds the potential to generate income and create jobs without harming the environment.
GRL practices animal and poultry rearing, raising rabbits, goats, sheep and chickens. The sale of meat helps to fund GRL’s endeavors.
GRL grows vegetables such as tomatoes which it grafts and breeds. It plants them using sack gardening which avoids ground pollutants. Additional crops include lettuce, cucumbers, beets and strawberries. It also engages in food value projects, collecting unwanted seeds from fruits such as papaya and avocado from nearby markets. It cleans and dries them in the sun, pounds them into a powder and mixes them into a nutritious drink. Next, it packages the drink and distributes it to people at risk of malnutrition. It also makes organic manure, pesticides and liquid soaps.
Technology, Art and Design
Through its technology department, Ghetto Research Lab works on renewable recyclable energy projects such as harnessing wind turbine electricity and the development of solar heaters. It created a machine that people run on to produce and store energy to be able to use electricity in nighttime hours when it would not otherwise be available.
GRL also engages in art and design projects such as painting and beautifying the buildings that people create from the bottle bricks.
Film, Media and Storytelling
In addition to GRL’s sustainability, technology and food security projects, it engages young people through a storytelling and film production center called the Ghetto Media Lab. The Borgen Project spoke with Media Lab Administrator Edris Adams, who is a Ugandan filmmaker and produces documentary films for the Ghetto Media Lab. These films have the impact of building skills and empowering young people with the ability to create social change in their lives. The collective talent and inspiration produce impactful stories.
Edris Adams would like the world to hear the voices of ghetto youth. He would also like for the ghetto conditions to change for the better. He hopes for an increased understanding of poverty in Uganda. Adams aspires for everyone to engage in the battle against plastic and to encourage the planting of trees for an environmentally sustainable future. Everyone has stories and through sharing and learning, they can work to make not only the slums of Kamwokya a better place but also the world.
Patrick Mujuzi would like to see continued collaboration between Ghetto Research Lab and those interested in learning about it. In addition, he would like for GRL to become more commercial, but its limited space is an obstacle. Mujuzi sees that skill sharing with young people around the world holds potential. Ultimately, he would like to see plastics and polyethylene as things of the past.
With its hands-on success of projects and its willingness to work through trial and error, the Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda can be a model for results. GRL would like to become more established in its endeavors. Hopefully, it will have continued opportunities to educate others on its successes.
– Susan Niz
Photo: Ghetto Research Lab of Uganda
Addressing the Top 3 Diseases in Uganda
Tuberculosis and Bedaquiline
Science fiction often explores the possibilities of DNA manipulation. Now, this sci-fi premise is becoming a reality through a new tuberculosis drug called bedaquiline. Bedaquiline is a new drug that blocks energy transfer enzymes that a tuberculosis bacteria cell needs to survive. Without this essential energy, the cell dies. A June 2019 study discovered that bedaquiline has long-term treatment potential. The drug forms small reservoirs in the body, allowing it to naturally release throughout the body and continually kill tuberculosis cells over time. This is a major breakthrough for Ugandan citizens since this is the first tuberculosis treatment to come out in 50 years.
Malaria and Genetic Mutation
Popular science fiction games outline the use of biological weapons, such as Mass Effect’s fictional “genophage” which causes a female host to produce sterile offspring. Experimental genetic engineering technology is now taking on a highly deadly disease in Uganda. Scientists have developed an engineered genetic mutation that deforms mosquito reproductive organs and passes from female mosquitos to daughter eggs, meaning that the hatched females are unable to breed. In other words, the mutation makes the next generation of mosquitos sterile, reducing the population and thus reducing the risk of malaria.
Further, the mutation changes females mosquitos’ mouths to resemble male counterparts’. Male mosquitos cannot bite humans, thus the mutation “de-fangs” female mosquitoes, making it impossible for them to transmit malaria. Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes has been controversial and research continues. According to Uganda’s Ministry of Health, malaria is endemic in 95 percent of Uganda. If it is found that modifying mosquitoes is safe and successful, this development could be a critical contribution to treating malaria and other mosquito transmitted diseases in Uganda.
HIV/AIDS and the Immune System
Science fiction extensively narrates the use of genetic properties to repair and fix humans. Dual studies from 2007 and 2019 used similar methods to combat the insidious syndrome of HIV/AIDS that plagues Uganda. A bone marrow transplant replaces the patient’s immune system with mutated systems via lymphatic pathways. It essentially replaces the patient’s immune system with a new, mutated version that combats the disease.
Using this technique, a 2007 patient has been off anti-retroviral medicines for 12 years. The most recent patient, cured in 2019, has been HIV-free for more than 18 months. With difficulties in bringing patients back for consistent treatments, a possible long-term solution for HIV/AIDS is an extremely important advance for the 1.3 million Ugandans infected with HIV.
Conclusion
Famous Star Trek character Captain Jean-Luc Picard stated, “Things are only impossible until they’re not.” Relieving Uganda’s suffering seemed impossible – the stuff of science fiction – as if they would never be free of disease. But, the above treatments provide hope for the people of Uganda. Through rigorous research and innovation, doctors are developing treatments for diseases in Uganda and other countries.
– Melanie Rasmussen
Photo: Flickr
Global Health News Updates for 2019
The start of 2020 is the time to look back and see global health news for 2019. From new drug recommendations and global vaccination efforts to ongoing diseases and funding to eliminate them, health agencies and national governments are working tirelessly to keep everything in place. They are making sure the general public, especially those in affected countries, get the right information and the best resources to address these health issues. They are gathering enough funding to implement different health programs for treatment and prevention. Finally, they are continually conducting research to find new treatments to make the world a healthier place.
Global Health News Updates for 2019
Global health challenges are ongoing; however, many are working to address these challenges. Global health efforts will not go unnoticed as the world will become a healthier, happier and safer place for all. Finally, global health news updates are an excellent way to communicate all global health trends, challenges and ongoing projects.
– Hung Minh Le
Photo: Flickr
4 Professional Athletes Who Grew Up Impoverished
The world’s population of human beings is vast and immensely complex. Across the planet, thousands of different languages, religions and traditions contribute to the everyday lives of its people. However, nearly all civilizations have one thing in common: sports. Since the development of the most ancient civilizations, humans have created numerous ways to come together and pass the time with recreation. It continues to be a major aspect of society today, so much so that athletes such as Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi receive as much as $127 million per year. It is no secret that professionals like Messi are some of the highest-paid individuals in the world, but many of them had extremely difficult upbringings. Here are four professional athletes who grew up impoverished and used their past as motivation for the improvement of their future.
4 Professional Athletes Who Grew Up Impoverished
These professional athletes who grew up impoverished serve as reminders that with hope and compassion, one can fight (and win) even the most impossible battles. Of course, not every starving child on the planet is going to become a world-renowned athlete and sports will not lead all participants out of poverty. However sports can be a path to a better life and these stories emphasize that recreation brings people together, and where people come together, anything is possible.
– Harley Goebel
Photo: Flickr
Number of Deaths from Starvation in Asia
The number of deaths from starvation in Asia is significant in many different regions, including South-East Asia and South Asia. Several global organizations including the United Nations have come forward to claim that malnutrition and a lack of food distribution are major global issues.
The Facts About Starvation
In 2018, Time Magazine reported that nearly half a billion people in the Asia-Pacific region suffered from starvation. Meanwhile, according to Mercy Corps, nine million people die from starvation every year, which is more than the deaths from malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Whilst the causes of starvation-related deaths vary from region to region, there are common factors that have lead to their increase. Using India as an example, the organization Action Against Hunger lists poverty, low availability of food, disease, climate change and violent conflicts as just a few factors that contribute to malnutrition and starvation rates.
Whilst no one knows the exact number of deaths from starvation in Asia, the website Hunger Notes breaks down undernourishment based on region. According to Hunger Notes, South-East Asia, including areas such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and South Asia, comprising of India and Pakistan, account for the highest percentage of undernourished citizens. Over half (56.5 percent) suffers undernourishment and 27.8 percent of South-East Asia’s population does not have adequate nourishment.
The facts from Action Against Hunger mentioned earlier, provide a clear indication as to why the South Asia region has such a high malnutrition rate. As for South-East Asia, according to a World Bank report, some of the underlying causes of malnutrition for Vietnam include diseases, infections, parasites and a lack of food security. The rate of starvation in South Asia has seen a 6.6 percent increase in growth from 1992 to 2014 in the percentage of the world’s hungry people. The organization explains that both an increase in global malnutrition and an increase in malnutrition in the region have caused this. India alone accounts for 22.3 percent of the world’s malnutrition rate, according to Action Against Hunger. Meanwhile, UNICEF states that the malnutrition rate in South Asia has decreased since WorldHunger.org published its report. In 2018, the malnutrition rate stood at 27 percent, compared to the reported 37.5 percent in 2014.
Organizations Fighting Against Starvation in Asia
Mercy Corps, Action Against Hunger and Food Aid are helping to fight against deaths from starvation in Asia. The Mercy Corps aims to assist farmers by providing them with what they need to help supply their regions with food and improve sustainability. According to The Mercy Corps, there has been a 17 percent increase in the amount of food on a per-person basis in the last 30 years. The Mercy Corps also states that whilst the world produces enough food to supply the population, the distribution of that food is the real cause of starvation and deaths from starvation both in Asia and worldwide.
Action Against Hunger aims to provide emergency care for malnourished children and help governments give their people clean water and improved nutrition. In 2018, it worked with the Indonesian Ministry of Health on a joint project to help fight malnutrition. In 2018, Action Against Hunger provided over 1,800 people in Indonesia with food security programs and livelihood programs. It also assisted the Indonesian government in creating a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition Project that helped provide sanitary water to the people of Indonesia.
Food Aid works as a global food pantry, providing unused food to communities in need. It has also helped supply soup kitchens, welfare programs and families with the food necessary to function.
Whilst the number of deaths from starvation in Asia continue to be a part of the larger issue of global starvation, there have been progressive strides towards improving the statistics. The United Nations, however, did warn in its 2018 report that these numbers need to fall much quicker in order for the world to see a significant change in global malnutrition. Several global organizations have been working to help fix the major problem areas, though, such as food distribution, sustainability, hydration and malnutrition among youth.
– Jacob Creswell
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Sanitation in Cuba
Although the Cuban Communist Party has relaxed some aspects of the nation’s government-directed socialist economic policies, Cuba remains one of the world’s only communist states. Cubans face many economic challenges due to their somewhat politically isolated status, especially since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and subsequent loss of Soviet aid. Despite this, Cuba perseveres and continues to address domestic quality of life concerns. Here are 10 facts about sanitation in Cuba.
10 Facts About Sanitation in Cuba
These 10 facts about sanitation show that although the country struggles to provide its citizens with adequate sanitation facilities and consistent clean water supply, the government is taking concrete steps towards improving the status quo. Economic reform and continued foreign investment will contribute to Cuba’s progress.
– Dan Zamarelli
Photo: Flickr
What is Poverty?
There are two types of poverty that affect millions of people worldwide: relative poverty and extreme poverty. Relative poverty refers to the levels of social poverty of a community, while extreme poverty defines the standard of living throughout the world. There is a global deficiency line set at $1.90 per day. The limitations of the poor determine the ability to pay for medical care, food, clothing and the essentials of daily life. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have established goals and targets to help the poor have equal rights to economic resources, basic services, microfinance and land ownership. By teaching the poor about finance and resilience, there could be potential to build the community and slowly grow the economy of poor countries like Southeast Asia and Africa.
It is very important for a low economic class to obtain financial knowledge because although people are living in harsh conditions, learning ways to escape poverty will ultimately allow people to be able to support their families. Parents would be able to afford basic necessities for children and the materials needed to send each child to school and obtain an education.
Women’s Hygiene
Another issue that plagues the poor is the lack of hygienic products. Many women struggle from a lack of proper care for their menstrual needs. In the United States, there are millions of women who go without having adequate menstrual products. Is someone who is simply running low on funds in poverty? Or does poverty mean not having the means of providing for oneself at all? The difference is that while in one scenario the individual has a recurring income and may fall under relative poverty, the latter is when the individual does not have an income and is accustomed to finding other ways to take care of daily needs. There are organizations, such as Freedom4Girls, #HappyPeriod and Pads4Girls, that focus on providing areas, like Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, with pads, tampons and any other form of hygienic products so that women can have sterile and clean forms of personal care.
Education to Reduce Poverty
High levels of poverty in communities affect developing countries the most. Many people, organizations and companies work together to eliminate radical conditions. Charities, like the Build Africa Organization, understand that returning education to children suffering from economic limitations could eradicate poverty because they would receive the basic knowledge necessary to succeed. The organization focuses on providing children and teens with core knowledge and works in countries in rural Africa to teach students the basics they require to lead a healthy life.
Agriculture and Poverty
An appropriate way to help those in need is to educate people on how to grow their own food through agriculture as well as promoting local farmers. As a result, farmers may be able to improve their financial standing by selling crops to supermarkets and local restaurants. Organizations, like the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IAFD), finance agricultural development projects worldwide. Some of the projects that the IAFD put into place include reducing vulnerability to climate change, food and nutrition security and making family farmers the forefront of the world’s agriculture transformation.
If older teens and adults could learn about farming as a trade, they might be able to grow crops for food as well as gain a form of income. Local farming would promote healthier lifestyles as well as feeding those who are malnourished. The fact that people would be eating healthier could help eliminate diseases and even deaths that starvation causes. The World Food Programme provides food for men, women and children during emergency situations in over 80 different countries.
Shelter
Furthermore, there are people in underdeveloped countries and developed communities that fail to meet the primary needs of their families, making it difficult to have a stable home. Fortunately, there are organizations like The Salvation Army that help people provide for those who do not have a place to live, food to eat or clothing to wear. The Salvation Army provides those in need with resources and avenues to get back on the right path to a successful life. Aside from shelter, The Salvation Army also provides counseling services, educational support and vocational services. Parents with young children also are able to use the shelter’s address to apply for jobs and to send children to school.
Although those in poverty may experience limited food, shelter or access to materials for hygiene, there are several organizations attempting to help. With the continued work of IAFD, The Salvation Army and The World Food Programme, hopefully, people will continue to rise out of poverty.
– Paola Quezada
Photo: Flickr