Tonga, or the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian archipelago of 170 islands of which 36 are inhabited. With a population of 109,008 people, Tongans rely heavily on each other and the little they have to survive.
As of 2016, 22.5 percent of the population lived at, or below, the poverty line. In fact, 8,456 people lived off of $3.10 or less a day, and 1,125 people of that lived off of $1.90 a day. According to Pacific Islands Report, Tonga suffers from poverty because Tongans need to depend on overseas trades, tourism, aid donors and private sectors to bring money into their economy. At the same time, the nation lacks access to basic living essentials and services, and face poor climate.
The Impact of Cyclone Gita in Tonga
On February 3, 2018, Tongans were hit with a tropical cyclone named Cyclone Gita — the most impactful tropical cyclone to hit Tonga in recorded history. After three long weeks, Gita heavily affected 70 percent, or 50,000 people — one-third of them being children. While only two people died from this tragedy, hundreds of homes, schools, buildings, churches and agricultural land were destroyed.
Specifically, 171 homes were destroyed, more than 1,131 homes were damaged, about 5,700 people sought shelters, 129 classrooms in 83 schools were damaged (leaving 25,000 students affected and a total of 35,000 children affected) and $152 million worth of damage hit agricultural land.
Cyclone Gita put Tongans at more of a risk as this population mainly depends on fishing and agriculture for an income. Nearly 36 percent of Tonga is agricultural land and agriculture accounts for 30 percent of the GDP.
Also, 98 percent of students were left without a school. Instead of working in the fields for income or going to school, Tongans had to refocus their attention on rebuilding their country.
How the U.S. Helped People Affected by Cyclone Gita in Tonga
In 1967, the U.S. brought the U.S. Peace Corps to Tonga to work and build a relationship with the Tongans. In 1970, the U.S. and Tonga began a bilateral relationship after the U.S. accredited Kevin Franzheim II, the U.S. Ambassador, to New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Since then, the U.S. and Tonga have held a strong relationship with each other through trades and donations. In February, USAID donated $100,000 to assist the people affected by Cyclone Gita in Tonga; every year, the U.S. provides $21 million to the Pacific Island funds.
The World Bank also provided $14.95 million to the Pacific Resilience Program, a program dedicated to strengthening awareness and preparedness for natural disasters.
Lasse Melgaard, Resident Representative from the South Pacific, said funds to the Pacific Resilience Program will go towards rebuilding 30 schools, which will put 9,000 students into a safer-built school.
Steady Support & Recovery
Other countries including New Zealand, India, Asia and Australia have also funded Tonga in relief efforts by donating money and humanitarian supplies. Although the people of Tonga still struggle to put families back into homes and children into school, the Tongan people continue to help each other rebuild their homes from the ground up. The unfortunate news is that it is expected to take months for Tonga to recover, but the good news is that there is more than enough helping hands to speed up the process.
– Kristen Uedoi
Photo: Flickr
Ending the Stigma: How Immigrants Benefit Italy
Immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, have been stigmatized across Europe, often labeled as benefit thieves and criminals. And in most situations, this population is never given the opportunity to prove otherwise.
These negative stereotypes have heavily impacted the way locals perceive immigrants; this perception occurs so much so that locals have been unable to detach the person from the stereotype, making it difficult to change public opinion. The first step in breaking these negative perceptions is to highlight the ways in which immigrants enrich our lives, communities and economy. Immigrants have been negatively stereotyped for too long, and it is time for this to change — immigrants benefit Italy in numerous ways.
Projects to integrate immigrants have been set up across Italy, many of which involve immigrants being given various jobs in their new communities. This has not only proven to benefit the communities, but it has also helped tremendously with the integration of the new arrivals and changing overall local perception. Below are some examples of how immigrants benefit Italy.
How Do Immigrants Benefit Italy?
Firstly, the jobs that migrants accept are often those in the marginalized and lower-paid job sector — a sector that many Italians refuse to work in because of the lower wages and associated stigmas. Immigrants, though, are accused of “stealing jobs” from hardworking Italians.
But in reality, this is not the case. Migrants are merely filling the gaps, leading to Italian social advancement. If it were not for migrants, this job sector may have never been filled, thereby leaving gaps in society.
Secondly, immigrants play a crucial role in Italian development. Italy has an old population — one in ten Italians are over the age of 75. On the other hand, migrants and refugees coming to Italy tend to be young, only one in a hundred are over the age of 75.
Immigrants Boost the Economy
This means that rather than immigrants taking from Italian pensions, they work to enhance them through economic contributions. Immigrants are thought to take from society rather than give, yet more than 600,000 Italian pensions have been received thanks to immigrants.
Thirdly, because of the large population of pensioners in Italy and its large number of citizens emigrating elsewhere, holes are being left in the economy. This is where migrants come to the rescue and have filled such need to help improve the Italian economy.
This is true for many European countries with aging populations. For example, in recent years non-EU-citizens contributed around €16.5 billion ($19 billion) to the Italian economy, compared to the €12.6 billion ($14.5 billion) they received. These figures further clarify how migrants benefit Italy.
Creating an Environment for Immigrants to Thrive
Integration is key to the success of migrants in Italy. As of now, it is mostly small towns taking on the task of integrating and housing immigrants; these communities accomplish such a feat in the face of adversity and negative perceptions. As a result, they truly are paving the way for immigrant integration.
With the rate at which Italians emigrate elsewhere, small Italian towns in the south of Italy have heavily relied on immigrants to breathe life back into increasingly stagnant areas. In turn, immigrants have begun to rebuild the sense of community and home in places they were once unwelcome.
In times where immigrant lives are being threatened, it is imperative to create safe spaces and communities where immigrants can integrate without the threat of persecution. It is time for the rest of Italy to do just these measures, and reap the benefits brought about by immigration.
– Trelawny Robinson
Photo: Google
Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Balkan country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, most commonly known as Bosnia, is infamous for ethnic wars that ripped Yugoslavia apart in the mid-1990s, peaking in the country with the massacre at Srebrenica. Although the country has made several improvements since the end of the war, 20 years later, Bosnia still struggles with poverty. In order to gain a better understanding of the issue, below are the top 10 facts about poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
10 Facts About Poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina struggles to fully overcome the tragedy of its recent past. Despite this, economic and developmental growth have offered Bosnians more, albeit limited, opportunities. Poverty, however, continues to be the main issue for many Bosnians, particularly those in rural areas and minorities. With better education and increased work opportunities for youth and rural citizens alike, Bosnia will continue to improve the standard of life for its people.
– Matthew Cline
Photo: Google
Addressing the Importance of The BUILD Act for the Future
The BUILD Act
The importance of the BUILD Act is that it allows the USIDFC the opportunity to: 1) make loans, 2) obtain equity or financial interest in entities, 3) provide reassurance to private sector entities and qualifying countries, 4) provide technical assistance, 5) conduct special projects, 6) crate enterprise funds, 7) issue obligations and 8) charge service fees.
The BUILD Act was passed by the House on 17 July 2018. The vote was spearheaded by Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance, Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Ted Yoho. The importance of The BUILD Act is recognized by both parties because it recommits the United States to be supportive of developing countries.
According to Rep. Adam Smith, the United States must “take an all in approach to our foreign assistance.” Programs like The BUILD Act are essential because they promote “health, peace and stability that are vital to our national security.” Rep. Ted Yoho believes The BUILD Act is a huge step towards the United States becoming more effective with foreign aid. The end goal of the BUILD Act is to take countries that are struggling with extreme poverty from “aid to trade.”
The importance of the BUILD Act for developing countries can be seen in 5 major areas:
Helping Economies Around the World
Developing countries have difficulty attracting the investors that are needed to begin creating economic growth. In order to assist these countries and gain the advantages of helping, The U.S should be encouraging the private sector to invest. That is where The BUILD Act comes into play. This act will allow developing countries the opportunity to get out of poverty and accomplish becoming self-sufficient.
The act will bring billions of dollars in private-sector investments to fight extreme poverty along with making it easier for American business to work in developing countries. If an American investor would like to have a business in a developing country, but the banks think that could be too risky of an investment, The USIDFC would be available to provide assistance; subsequently, helping Americans while creating more jobs and helping those dealing with extreme poverty.
The BUILD Act is an important piece of legislation that both parties feel will be a benefit to both our economy and that of developing countries in need. Countries facing extreme poverty will now have the capability to become self-sufficient.
– Olivia Hodges
Photo: U.S. Dept. of Defense
Five Ways the United Nations Empowers Women Globally
The United Nations (UN) is a multinational organization that promotes universal human rights, encourages global cooperation and establishes international law and order among nation-states. The United Nations empowers women because they are the spearhead of social equality. The organization has made great strides in the fight against gender inequality, and the United Nations empowers women socially, politically and economically.
Five Ways the United Nations Empowers Women Globally
The United Nations empowers women of all backgrounds and proves that women can do anything if they are only given the chance. With continued efforts from organizations like the U.N., total gender equality is within the world’s reach.
– Diana Hallisey
Photo: Flickr
How Female Entrepreneurs in Latin America Are Improving Lives
Despite this, there is still widespread poverty in the region. An estimated 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of $4 a day. The situation is even worse for women, as only 53 percent participate in the labor force. Fortunately, three women are aiming to change that by helping their local communities and being role models for prospective female entrepreneurs in Latin America.
Leila Velez
Leila Velez is a Brazilian entrepreneur who is aiming to bring the efficiency of waste management in the fast food industry to beauty salons. She started her business, Beleza Natural, at 19 years old with the hope of bringing the accessibility of places like McDonald’s to the beauty industry. Now, her company has locations all over Brazil and employs 3,000 people, many of whom Velez says are single mothers in their early 20s.
While Velez may have modeled aspects of her salons after fast food, she did not want them to become another low paying job people take on temporarily. She wanted to provide career opportunities that give her employees sustainability in life. She says working at her salon is the first job of 90 percent of her employees and she wants her company to offer the opportunity to build a career rather than be a temporary stop.
Jimena Flórez
When Jimena Flórez began her initiative to educate rural farmers about sustainability, she had no idea it would lead to an international snack food company. Chaak Healthy Snacks, originally called Crispy Fruits, works closely with local Colombian farmers to provide healthy snack foods like low sugar brownies to 90,000 kids per month.
Flórez’s company started out trying to help out local Colombian farmers by helping them use organic techniques she learned from relatives in Germany. When she visited her family’s German brewery after college, she knew she could bring the information back to help Columbians. This led to a dry fruit company that later rebranded to healthy snack foods to appeal to an international audience.
In 2015, former President Barack Obama invited Florez to attend a Global Entrepreneurship Event where he thanked her for “helping to lift up his community.” As one of six young entrepreneurs invited, Florez is primed to expand and continue to provide healthy snacks all over the world as one of the many rising female entrepreneurs in Latin America.
Marian Villa Roldán
Being a female entrepreneur is difficult anywhere, but in Latin America, where a certain level of masculinity called “machismo” is integral to the culture, it is more difficult. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean found that 40 percent of Latin American women have been on the receiving end of violence in their lives. This negative attitude toward femininity goes all the way to the top, where only 17 percent of executive positions are held by women.
Marian Villa Roldan and her company Eversocial are out to change that. Eversocial, an online marketing and design company, has supported numerous initiatives that empower Latin American women, including PionerasDev, which helps teach young women how to code. Eversocial has also supported Geek Girls LatAm, a similar organization that helps Latin American women get into STEM fields.
Success for Female Entrepreneurs in Latin America
Latin American women pursuing careers in entrepreneurship are succeeding in a tough environment, but they do not let that stop them from giving back to their communities. Whether it be through providing employment, offering a helpful product, or supporting noble causes, these women fight poverty and serve as role models for the next generation of female entrepreneurs in Latin America.
– Jonathon Ayers
Photo: Flickr
How the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation Reduces Poverty
What Is the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation?
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation is one of the largest charitable organizations in the world and incorporates a multi-faceted investment strategy to improve the environments in which impoverished children live. The Foundation diversifies its $4.7 billion worth of assets into investments to help improve climate, education, access to food and child survival in developing countries. CIFF was founded in 2002 by Jamie Cooper-Hohn and hedge fund manager Sir Chris Hohn and has grown from its headquarters in London to include offices in New Delhi India and Nairobi Kenya.
How Does CIFF Reduce Poverty?
As the fund has expanded its operations, it has provided lifesaving and poverty-reducing initiatives for poor children in developing countries. In 2013, CIFF pledged to donate $787 million over seven years to tackle global malnutrition. This was part of a total pledge of $4.1 billion toward reducing malnutrition announced at the Nutrition for Growth summit in London. A study by the Lancet medical journal found that malnutrition contributes to 3.1 million under-five child deaths yearly or 45 percent of all under-five deaths. Reducing malnutrition saves lives, improves health and accelerates development in countries by providing a future for millions of children.
The fund has coupled this tremendous effort, with more targeted approaches toward various crises that have devastated impoverished children in affected countries. In 2014, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation gave $120 million to international health programs, increasing the number of children receiving antiretroviral therapy, funding deworming initiatives and combating the Ebola crisis in West Africa. These programs have helped save millions of lives.
Roundworms, hookworms and whipworms are common in tropical areas and specifically affect children in low-income areas who lack adequate access to sanitation. Worms contribute to the malnutrition of children in developing nations that kill millions each year. The $50 million donation to national deworming programs by CIFF will help establish the necessary healthcare and sanitation infrastructure that can help protect these vulnerable children. Furthermore, CIFF’s $50 million contribution to increasing access to antiretroviral therapy will help save the lives of the over 120,000 impoverished children who die from AIDS each year while its $20 million towards the Ebola outbreak in West Africa helped end the crisis.
CIFF continues to expand access to life-saving healthcare for poor children in developing nations. Recently, it has bolstered these efforts by supporting initiatives to protect children in developing nations from exploitation that bars them from access to an education that could lift them out of poverty. An estimated 25 percent of people trapped in slavery are children. CIFF has already pledged $18.3 million to protect children worldwide. This funding is going toward strengthing law enforcement systems, ensuring swift prosecutions of offenders, stopping the demand for products of child labor and campaigning to instill change.
These programs funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation reduce poverty by freeing impoverished children from the bounds that keep them from rising out of poverty. Good health, human rights and access to education are now within reach for millions of children because of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
– Anand Tayal
Photo: Flickr
Top 10 Causes of Death in Guyana
10 Causes of Death in Guyana
Despite the efforts made to decrease communicable diseases, there still remains a number of conditions that are in need of attention since they continue to claim the lives of many Guyanese people. The goal, therefore, is to achieve higher life expectancy through the elimination of these non-communicable diseases as well as education and awareness of health risks due to violence, mental health issues, unsafe road conditions and preventable illness.
– Stephanie Singh
Photo: Flickr
Three Organizations Helping Burmese Refugees in Buffalo, New York
Organizations Helping Burmese Refugees in Buffalo, New York
All three of these organizations helping Burmese refugees have made a huge difference in their lives. These refugees have somewhere to go if they need help with almost anything. They have gone from terrified refugees to an integral part of the Buffalo community. Because of these organizations, there is a community for Burmese people to help them integrate into Buffalo, a place that they can call home. But, even though some Burmese people have been able to flee, a lot of people remain in terror and devastation in Burma. They can be helped by refugee organizations once they are in the U.S, but foreign aid is the only way to help Burmese people who are still living in fear of being killed every day.
– Megan Maxwell
Photo: Flickr
Cyclone Gita in Tonga: The Impact and Solution
As of 2016, 22.5 percent of the population lived at, or below, the poverty line. In fact, 8,456 people lived off of $3.10 or less a day, and 1,125 people of that lived off of $1.90 a day. According to Pacific Islands Report, Tonga suffers from poverty because Tongans need to depend on overseas trades, tourism, aid donors and private sectors to bring money into their economy. At the same time, the nation lacks access to basic living essentials and services, and face poor climate.
The Impact of Cyclone Gita in Tonga
On February 3, 2018, Tongans were hit with a tropical cyclone named Cyclone Gita — the most impactful tropical cyclone to hit Tonga in recorded history. After three long weeks, Gita heavily affected 70 percent, or 50,000 people — one-third of them being children. While only two people died from this tragedy, hundreds of homes, schools, buildings, churches and agricultural land were destroyed.
Specifically, 171 homes were destroyed, more than 1,131 homes were damaged, about 5,700 people sought shelters, 129 classrooms in 83 schools were damaged (leaving 25,000 students affected and a total of 35,000 children affected) and $152 million worth of damage hit agricultural land.
Cyclone Gita put Tongans at more of a risk as this population mainly depends on fishing and agriculture for an income. Nearly 36 percent of Tonga is agricultural land and agriculture accounts for 30 percent of the GDP.
Also, 98 percent of students were left without a school. Instead of working in the fields for income or going to school, Tongans had to refocus their attention on rebuilding their country.
How the U.S. Helped People Affected by Cyclone Gita in Tonga
In 1967, the U.S. brought the U.S. Peace Corps to Tonga to work and build a relationship with the Tongans. In 1970, the U.S. and Tonga began a bilateral relationship after the U.S. accredited Kevin Franzheim II, the U.S. Ambassador, to New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Since then, the U.S. and Tonga have held a strong relationship with each other through trades and donations. In February, USAID donated $100,000 to assist the people affected by Cyclone Gita in Tonga; every year, the U.S. provides $21 million to the Pacific Island funds.
The World Bank also provided $14.95 million to the Pacific Resilience Program, a program dedicated to strengthening awareness and preparedness for natural disasters.
Lasse Melgaard, Resident Representative from the South Pacific, said funds to the Pacific Resilience Program will go towards rebuilding 30 schools, which will put 9,000 students into a safer-built school.
Steady Support & Recovery
Other countries including New Zealand, India, Asia and Australia have also funded Tonga in relief efforts by donating money and humanitarian supplies. Although the people of Tonga still struggle to put families back into homes and children into school, the Tongan people continue to help each other rebuild their homes from the ground up. The unfortunate news is that it is expected to take months for Tonga to recover, but the good news is that there is more than enough helping hands to speed up the process.
– Kristen Uedoi
Photo: Flickr
5 Documentaries for Expanding Your Worldview
5 Documentaries For Expanding Your Worldview
Fostering Awareness, One Show At A Time
These five documentaries for expanding your worldview will provide a deeper understanding of the issues faced in the 21st century.
Filmmakers dedicated to exposing the world to both issues and those fighting to make the world a better place provide a perspective that many news outlets cannot.
– Anna Lally
Photo: Google