Despite the rapid economic growth that China has experienced in the last few decades, 400 million Chinese people still suffer from poverty, especially in rural areas. The following paragraphs provide detailed information on how to help people in China:
1. Teach for China
Formerly known as the China Education Initiative, Teach for China is a program founded in 2008. Teach for China works to reduce the gap in education level between rural and urban China. To deal with the shortage of teachers in rural areas, Teach for China hires top university graduates from both the United States and China for two years to work as teachers in primary and secondary schools in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. The American volunteers are responsible for teaching English, while the Chinese volunteers focus on other core subjects, including math, science and Chinese literature. As of today, approximately two-thirds of the volunteers are Chinese, while the remaining one-third are from the U.S.
2. UNDP’s programs
Another example of how to help people in China is through the United Nations Development Programme’s various programs aimed at mitigating poverty and inequality in China. The organization focus on tackling the root causes of poverty in China. Additionally, the UNDP emphasizes sustainability and ensures that its actions are in line with China’s values and cultural identity. The specific programs include partnering with leading national institutions in China to support their policy research and provide policy recommendations, and an initiative that focuses on inclusive development for ethnic minorities.
3. Donations to NGOs
Another way to reduce poverty in China is to donate to NGOs dedicated to helping the rural poor in China.
Save the Children, one of the world’s largest NGOs focuses on raising the quality of educating Chinese children in impoverished communities. Since 1992, it has established child-friendly spaces in rural communities and schools where children can safely learn, play and socialize. Immediately after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, it established a permanent office in Chengdu and has helped millions of homeless children and families affected by the earthquake ever since.
Another nonprofit organization that aims at ending the poverty crisis in rural China is Project Partner. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that while even the largest charities operating in other developing countries cannot work in China, it can, because of close relationships it has established with its partners since 1982. The organization accepts donations to various projects it carries out, as identified by its Chinese partners.
To provide clean water, for example, Project Partner digs wells and builds water storage systems. To improve health care, it builds clinics and trains doctors. Project Partner also offers scholarships and trains teachers in order to bring education toq rural areas. Project Partner also organizes regular trips to China to work directly with the people it supports through donations and fundraising. The participants can either help facilitate medical clinics, teach English, join youth soccer camps or visit rural Chinese villages.
These are the most typical examples of how to help people in China. Through these direct channels, it will be easier to alleviate poverty in rural China. This will help the nation achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
– Minh Joo Yi
Photo: Flickr
The Cost of Living in Brazil
The cost of living in any country is a direct result of inflation and the economy. As of June 2017, $1 is equivalent to 3.31 Brazilian real. The cost of living in Brazil does not seem to be high for everyday products such as fruit, bread and eggs when compared to prices in the United States. The costs tend to differ more when it comes to mortgage rates, and gasoline and other imports.
Brazilian cities were more expensive in 2011 than cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Berlin, Miami, Abu Dhabi and Luxembourg. The inflation rate was 6.5%, while the rate in the U.S. was 3%. The real should have become cheaper, not more expensive. This caused the cost of living in Brazil to rise.
By 2016, the economic situation had not changed much. Brazil, which had been the fifth-largest world economy when it won the Olympics, dropped to the ninth-largest economy after a significant decline in its gross domestic project. It went into its worst recession since the 1930s.
High taxes, poor infrastructure and low labor productivity have contributed to what is known as “Custo Brasil” (“Brazil cost” in English)– which refers to the increased costs associated with doing business in Brazil. It is likely that these costs directly impact the cost of living in Brazil.
The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was expected to add to the economy while bringing Brazil out of the recession. With an influx of tourists’ spending money, the demand and supply for products should have increased.
More than 400,000 tourists came in for the Olympics and spent about 425 real per day; those 760,000 Brazilians who attended spent an average of 310 real per day. In total, the Olympics generated over $100 million in tourism revenue alone, based on the exchange rate as of August 2016.
Although the total amount of revenue generated remains unknown, companies spent more for the 2016 Rio Olympics than they did in Beijing in 2008 and in London in 2012. Between the revenue from tourism and sponsors, Brazil’s official inflation rate ended 2016 at its lowest level since 2013.
The central bank expects the cost of living to decelerate, with significant decreases having already occurred in the past few months. Brazil is expected to end 2017 with inflation below its target for the first time since 2009.
– Stefanie Podosek
Photo: Flickr
The Current Cost of Living in Panama
Known for its 48-mile canal connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean, Panama receives over a million visitors each year. Panama’s beautiful beaches, ecotourism and international festivals can seduce many tourists into making Panama their home rather than a vacation spot. For those who entertain the thought of Panama as their permanent home, it is important to know the cost of living in Panama as well as what it’s like to live there.
Panama has a relatively low cost of living, which can range from $1,120 to $8,000 per month for two people, while the average middle-class salary in Panama is estimated at $1,200 per month. These costs fluctuate depending on what region or city you are going to be living in Panama.
The unemployment rate in Panama is 4.5%. The labor force in Panama is made up of 1.78 million people; a large majority of the population works in services while the rest works in agriculture and industry. The standard workweek in Panama is 48 hours, which is 8 hours more than a full-time work week here in the United States.
While the cost of living in Panama is low, migrants should know much more about Panama before making the decision to move there. For example, while Panama’s crime rate compared to other Central American countries is relatively low; however, it is still high compared to most of the United States. Panama, Colon, Herrera and Chiriqui are among the provinces with the largest cities which had the highest overall crime rate. There has been a pattern of decreasing crime in Panama. Homicide, armed robberies and petty theft rates have all continuously fallen.
Moving from the United States to Panama may come as a huge shock when you realize that Panama’s population is only four million. Approximately one-third of Panama’s population lives in Panama City or the immediate area around it. Panama City is packed with nightlife, shopping areas. The rest of the areas in Panama provide a quiet and relaxed life which provides quicker access to Panama’s nature.
There are many things to consider and know about Panama before turning your yearly vacation into a forever home. While Panama may be very appealing to the eye and its beautiful attractions may coerce someone into a quick move, the cost of living in Panama may be a deciding factor.
– Danyel Harrigan
Photo: Flickr
Eight Facts About Chattel Slavery
The definition of chattel slavery is a “civil relationship in which one person has absolute power over the life, fortune, and liberty of another.” According to a report issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, 29.8 million people still exist as slaves in the modern world. Among the enslaved, there are forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and those in the servitude of absolute ownership (chattel slaves). Below are eight facts to illustrate the current state of chattel slavery around the world.
Top Chattel Slavery Facts to Know
While slavery continues throughout many developing nations, the need for strengthening those weakened by poverty is undeniable. As trends have shown, investing in the stability of poorer nations and their people will help enable citizens to stand up against the corruption in their own countries, as well as major human rights violations like chattel slavery.
– Kendra Richardson
Photo: Flickr
What Can Be Learned from Finland’s Education System
The best way to educate students is something that most countries strive to discover. While most are still searching for answers, Finland has seen dramatic progress in its education system within the recent years. The first realization came in 2000 when Finland’s school system was revealed to have the best readers in the world.
Then again in 2009, Finnish students ranked second in science, third in reading, and sixth in math, among a sample of about 500,000 students worldwide. Ever since these rankings were released, countries around the world have been trying to understand what it is that Finland does so well. Here are some of the unique traits of the Finnish education system:
Finland’s education system is very different from those around the world, and yet it is arguably the most successful. The country stresses the importance of play and teaching students to learn not only for the sake of a test but to be more knowledgeable people. Additionally, the teachers themselves know how important their jobs are and therefore dedicate many years of their lives to learning how to be the best educators they can be. For these reasons and more, Finland’s education system is one of the best in the world.
– Olivia Hayes
Photo: Flickr
What is Food Assistance for Assets and How Does it Work?
More than 10% of the world’s population does not have regular access to food and 50% of these families are farmers. The majority of hungry people live in Asian and African countries. Countries with higher natural disaster rates are not able to access food regularly, due to the destruction of their communities and farmlands. The World Food Programme began the Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) program and other programs like it to help combat this issue. FFA focuses on restoring land and rebuilding communities while assisting people in need, but many people have never heard of it.
Food Assistance for Assets is a program that feeds people and works through them to rehabilitate suffering communities. Through this program, people are given work, such as building and repairing bridges and roads. In return, they gain two things. First, they are paid so that they can buy food for themselves and their families. In addition, the work that they have done helps strengthen and develop their communities, many of which have fallen victim to natural disasters.
While this program may seem to only benefit individuals, it has helped larger communities as well. FFA programs exist in 52 countries, where 10.1 million people have received help from the program. Rehabilitation programs include building water wells and planting trees to restore forests.
These facts help shed light on the impact of the Food Assistance for Assets programs and emphasizes the work that this program does to provide food to people around the world. There is enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, but without programs like FFA, many people are unable to access or pay for enough food to feed their families. Several organizations, including the U.N., hope that through assistance programs such as the FFA and through the increased sustainability of food, world hunger will be eradicated by 2030.
– Helen Barker
Photo: Flickr
How to Score a Ticket to the Global Citizen Festival
The Global Citizen Festival launched in 2012 as part of the Global Poverty Project, founded by Hugh Evans and Simon Moss. The movement is based on an online platform and mobile application that utilizes the power of education, communications, advocacy, campaigning and the media to take action against extreme poverty. The Global Poverty Project partners with other organizations such as UNICEF, OXFAM, ONE, Save the Children, The Global Fund and more.
The result of last year’s festival was 1.3 million online actions taken, leading to 44 commitments and announcements. Combined, these announcements are worth $1.9 billion and could impact 199 million people, just from the Global Citizen Festival of 2016 campaign. Commitments have not only been made by U.S. companies such as Walmart, UPS and Johnson & Johnson but also by nations such as the Netherlands and Canada.
With more than 60,000 participants attending the first festival on the Great Lawn in Central Park, the event quickly became popular. In 2016, the performance lineup included Rihanna, Demi Lovato, Kendrick Lamar and Metallica. There were also special guests like Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The band headlined the previous year and Martin is the current Global Citizen Festival curator.
The festival is free, but spectators cannot just attend. Instead, fans must engage with campaigns in order to win Global Citizen Festival spots. Activists can accumulate points that act as currency to bid on tickets to the Global Citizen Festival and other live events. The restriction is that only current campaign points can be used during each campaign.
For the upcoming July Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany, the organizers plan on handing out 9,000 free tickets to the show to people who sign up and pledge action.
“In bringing the Global Citizen Festival to Germany for the first time, we are calling on the G20 to take action and responsibility for moving forward on the Global Goals,” Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said.
– Stefanie Podosek
Photo: Flickr
Hunger in the Maldives on the Decline
Many experts would say the development of the 1,192-island country of the Maldives is an extraordinary success story. In the past three decades, the nation has moved from one of the world’s 20 poorest countries to a middle-income country with almost double the population it had in the early 1980s.
The tropical islands have become a destination for many travelers looking for nature adventures and a huge marine life economy. It is a nation rich in natural beauty, and ecotourism accounts for about 70 percent of employment. More than half of public revenues, almost all exports and close to 80 percent of GDP rely on the ecosystem and biodiversity-based sectors.
According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), rising price levels are impacting the rising poverty rates of the Maldives’ capital, Male. In 2009 and 2010, about 8 percent of the population lived on $1.25 or less a day. The good news is that this number has dropped significantly in the past few years. The nation saw its poverty rates decrease from 40 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2004. The World Bank is currently working to calculate the latest numbers.
In December 2016, the Maldives left the Commonwealth of Nations, after joining in 1982. A spokesperson from the Commonwealth Secretariat said the nation received developmental assistance in various ways including education, research studies and strengthening multi-party democracy. Critics of the departure claim that the government is failing the country with this decision and that it would be beneficial for the country to stay engaged with the international community so it can keep working to eradicate hunger in the Maldives.
However, the Maldives minister of foreign affairs Mohamed Asim claims that the help from the Commonwealth was not significant in any way and that the budget for aid shrinks every year. Asim claims in an article in The Independent that the Commonwealth is too preoccupied with trying to leverage its international diplomacy to help develop the smaller nation members.
In the wake of leaving the Commonwealth, the Maldives launched its first international sovereign bonds through the Singapore Stock Exchange in an attempt to boost the economy of the island country according to the Economic Times. The government is confident this will boost the overall economy and that hunger in the Maldives will soon have no significant impact on the islands’ citizens.
– Emily Arnold
Photo: Flickr
Common Diseases in The Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country located in Central Africa and has a population of 69.6 million people. With a GDP per capita of $753, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world. Half the country’s population lives below the poverty line, and most of the nation’s poor lives in rural areas, working as farmers and fishers. Common diseases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also a major plight.
From 1997 to 2003, the country was engulfed in a civil war, and other African countries also became involved. The war’s central cause was a desire for possession over the DRC’s mineral wealth, water and food. It also gravely damaged the DRC’s infrastructure. Today, there is still violence due to political instability, which makes it difficult for aid workers to access the area.
Additionally, a multitude of diseases devastates the nation. Common diseases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo include malaria, diarrheal diseases from lack of clean water, measles and cholera.
Both diarrhea and cholera in the DRC stem from a lack of adequate sanitation and safe water. In the DRC, less than 25% of people have access to clean water. Cholera outbreaks occur frequently.
The country has seen an epidemic of measles, as well, and NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders (MSF), have vaccinated millions of children. Malaria is yet another major problem and is the leading cause of death in the DRC.
Many NGOs have stepped in to help the Congolese. The area also suffers from a lack of hospital equipment and a shortage of staff. MSF has built treatment centers for cholera, and UNICEF has created the Healthy Villages program. This program aims to bring better sanitation and safe water to villages. Currently, 3,275 villages in the DRC are taking part in the Healthy Villages program.
MSF has addressed the problem of malaria by offering support to seven health centers with the aim of treating common diseases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Center for Disease and Control (CDC) actively fights against malaria in the DRC under the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). It provides the Congolese people with long-lasting mosquito nets, prevents women from developing malaria while pregnant and improves the care of infected patients.
– Anna Gargiulo
Photo: Flickr
How to Help People in China
Despite the rapid economic growth that China has experienced in the last few decades, 400 million Chinese people still suffer from poverty, especially in rural areas. The following paragraphs provide detailed information on how to help people in China:
1. Teach for China
Formerly known as the China Education Initiative, Teach for China is a program founded in 2008. Teach for China works to reduce the gap in education level between rural and urban China. To deal with the shortage of teachers in rural areas, Teach for China hires top university graduates from both the United States and China for two years to work as teachers in primary and secondary schools in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. The American volunteers are responsible for teaching English, while the Chinese volunteers focus on other core subjects, including math, science and Chinese literature. As of today, approximately two-thirds of the volunteers are Chinese, while the remaining one-third are from the U.S.
2. UNDP’s programs
Another example of how to help people in China is through the United Nations Development Programme’s various programs aimed at mitigating poverty and inequality in China. The organization focus on tackling the root causes of poverty in China. Additionally, the UNDP emphasizes sustainability and ensures that its actions are in line with China’s values and cultural identity. The specific programs include partnering with leading national institutions in China to support their policy research and provide policy recommendations, and an initiative that focuses on inclusive development for ethnic minorities.
3. Donations to NGOs
Another way to reduce poverty in China is to donate to NGOs dedicated to helping the rural poor in China.
Save the Children, one of the world’s largest NGOs focuses on raising the quality of educating Chinese children in impoverished communities. Since 1992, it has established child-friendly spaces in rural communities and schools where children can safely learn, play and socialize. Immediately after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, it established a permanent office in Chengdu and has helped millions of homeless children and families affected by the earthquake ever since.
Another nonprofit organization that aims at ending the poverty crisis in rural China is Project Partner. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that while even the largest charities operating in other developing countries cannot work in China, it can, because of close relationships it has established with its partners since 1982. The organization accepts donations to various projects it carries out, as identified by its Chinese partners.
To provide clean water, for example, Project Partner digs wells and builds water storage systems. To improve health care, it builds clinics and trains doctors. Project Partner also offers scholarships and trains teachers in order to bring education toq rural areas. Project Partner also organizes regular trips to China to work directly with the people it supports through donations and fundraising. The participants can either help facilitate medical clinics, teach English, join youth soccer camps or visit rural Chinese villages.
These are the most typical examples of how to help people in China. Through these direct channels, it will be easier to alleviate poverty in rural China. This will help the nation achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
– Minh Joo Yi
Photo: Flickr
How Many People Die from Hunger Each Year
Hunger continues to be the world’s biggest health problem. Hunger is one of the most emblematic images of poverty: the picture of stunted, malnourished children tends to resonate empathetical feelings in almost anyone. Just thinking of an image like this shows how, in one way or another, society knows how much suffering world hunger causes. With this information, the real question is how many people die from hunger each year.
This year, 36 million people will die from starvation. Essentially, that equates to a person dying of hunger every second of the year. Of these 36 million inhabitants, children are especially vulnerable. Every minute, 12 children under the age of five will die of hunger. This fact represents a death every five seconds.
The question itself of hunger, not just hunger-related deaths, is just as equally an important issue. The Oxford English Dictionary defines hunger as the want or scarcity of food in a country. The current world population is more than seven billion, and 795 million people, or one in every nine people, suffer from hunger. Almost all of these people are living in developing countries. Countries in Asia suffer from this problem more than any other region, with 525 million people suffering. Sub-Saharan African countries follow with a combined 214 million.
These regions are the most susceptible to conflict and drought, and usually, these tragedies end in famine. All of these factors are a direct relation to hunger. Consequently, 50 percent of all hungry people are families that depend on agriculture.
While there may have been an extreme spike in cases of hunger from 1995 to 2009 (an increase from sub-800 million hungry citizens to more than one billion in 2009), there has been a stark and continual decrease from 2009 to 2017. Currently, the world is seeing the lowest number of hungry people since 1995. There are 200 million fewer people suffering from hunger than there were 25 years ago.
With the understanding of how many people die from hunger each year and how many people still suffer from it, the question is how can this issue be addressed? One method to fight against global hunger is by supporting The Borgen Project. The Borgen Project places its focus on alleviating global poverty. By ridding the world of poverty, there will directly influence those who are also suffering from hunger.
– James Hardison
Photo: Flickr