The civil war in South Sudan has forced nearly two million people to flee the country. They have traveled mostly to Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan. But the youngest nation in the world also has a young population. The median age is 17, an issue that has affected refugee camps across northeastern Africa, since 62% of South Sudanese refugees are under 18 years old.
These numbers have highlighted the concern of the diverse foundations that are trying to ensure young South Sudanese refugees have basic rights, such as healthcare and employment aid. However, education has become a severe problem in several African camps because they lack classrooms, teachers and resources.
The current refugee situation started in 2011, after a referendum was held to define the future of South Sudan. Around 98% of people voted for separation from the northern part of the country. In the following years, violent conflicts between Sudan and South Sudan broke out over oil-producing areas. In 2013, the two governments signed an agreement in order to end the confrontations.
However, after a short period of peace, a domestic political problem divided the country when President Salva Kiir Mayardit dismissed his cabinet and a civil war began. Many South Sudanese have left the country, going mainly to Uganda. One million refugees, 85% of whom are women and children, now reside there. The following organizations are helping young South Sudanese refugees continue their studies.
Education Aid is a Global Effort
The overpopulation in the settlements makes it harder to provide facilities for children, especially in regards to education, where a classroom can have 200 students. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees declared the South Sudan refugee crisis as an emergency operation in 2013. Thanks to donations and agreements, the organization has enrolled 41,000 refugee children in primary school and 31,000 more received livelihood kits.
Save the Children is developing a project for relief education principally in Uganda, which hosts the largest number of young South Sudanese refugees. Along with the Ugandan government, NGOs and donations, the organization is planning to construct more than 400 schools and hire 5,307 primary and secondary teachers. In addition, Save the Children provides early schooling for young children and classes for those who have fallen behind.
Technology could be another solution for young South Sudanese refugees that are looking for a better education. Columbia University has developed a program called Teachers for Teachers that provides training, coaching and mobile mentoring to educators in refugee camps. The goal of this program is to generate highly qualified teachers that can provide quality education to refugee students. The system works through mobile technology, resource sessions, discussion, participation and photo and video content.
There are several education options that refugee camps can adopt in order to improve the education of young South Sudanese refugees. The success of these programs can translate into better education for refugees all across Africa.
– Dario Ledesma
Photo: Flickr
There’s an App for That: Middle Eastern Startups
Now, this trend has taken hold in an unlikely place: the Middle East.
Currently, the two most prominent Middle Eastern startups in the region are Souq, an online e-commerce retailer and Careem, a ride-hailing service. While these firms are not based around wholly original ideas, the mere fact of their creation shows a desire for citizens in these countries to utilize smart technology to improve their daily lives.
Amazon’s acquisition of Souq in 2017 showed the effectiveness of the firm in the region, considering that Amazon’s modus operandi when entering new regions involves launching its own platform paired with a substantial investment component. The efficiency of Souq, however, allowed Amazon to make a direct buyout instead.
Startups like those seen in other parts of the world are sprouting up in the region regardless of the challenging economic and political circumstances they face. In 2016, the top 100 startups in the region raised over $1.42 billion, with each firm raising at least $500,000. But this does not come easily.
Many Middle Eastern countries do not have a conducive climate for startups compared to western Europe and North America. Bankruptcy laws and overregulation have stifled innovation for decades. However, the increase in startup firms in a variety of sectors shows a young, tech-savvy population that seeks to innovate and reinvigorate the economies of the Arab world.
Jamalon, an online book-selling firm, was started by a Jordanian who grew up in Palestinian refugee camps. Ala’ Alsallal saw a need for greater access to Arabic-language books for people in the region, especially works that are banned by various governments in the region.
“You know what the censors told me? ‘We don’t want any books that can change the way people think,'” Alsallal told Forbes Magazine. “That doesn’t matter,” he says. “We just keep sending them.”
Entrepreneurship with a social mission is common among startups, and it is no different in the Middle East, as shown by Jamalon. Average citizens are destined to benefit immensely from these companies. If this trend continues, the advent of Middle Eastern startups will increase access to services and will improve the quality of life for the people of the region.
– Daniel Cavins
Photo: Flickr
5 Things the US Needs to Know About Extreme Poverty
As with most things in life, poverty cannot be viewed through a single lens. It is a complex social issue, but gains over the past few decades have shown that it is a solvable issue. With continued foreign aid and trade, the world can get that much closer to realizing the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.
– Jeanine Thomas
Photo: Flickr
The Global Learning Crisis and How It Can Be Addressed
This current report states that without learning, education fails to deliver on its main goal of eliminating extreme poverty and creating important life opportunities for all. Even after spending several years in school, millions still cannot read, write or do basic mathematics.
Globally, approximately 264 million lives are shy of achieving the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4), quality education for all. Some of the hardest hit by this global learning crisis are youths in countries such as Syria, Yemen and Sudan, as well as thousands of Rohingya children that were driven from their homes by the Myanmar government.
The report also notes that when leaders of countries make “learning for all” a national priority for its citizens, education standards can improve dramatically. South Korea is an excellent example of this. What was once a war-torn country with very low literacy rates achieved universal enrollment by 1995, and its youth performed at some of the highest levels when it came to international learning assessments.
Not all hope is lost, however. Some countries have decided to take action when it comes to combating the global learning crisis, and in particular, there is one region that happens to be facing the most severe cases of these challenges. Ghana’s government has been actively investing in its future and is completely on board with SDG4 by pursuing innovative strategies that will ensure girls, in particular, can continue their education.
In all, World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer states that “The only way to make profess is to ‘find the truth from facts.’ If we let them, the facts about education reveal a painful truth. For too many children, schooling does not mean learning.” Three factors that will work towards combating the global learning crisis include assessing learning, making schools work for all children and mobilizing anyone and everyone who has a stake in learning.
– Sara Venusti
Photo: Flickr
Accountability for Human Rights Violations
Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer who was imprisoned in Moscow. He was convicted of aiding tax evasion in 2008 and died in custody in 2009. Surprisingly, though, his legal troubles did not end there. In a trial in 2013, a Russian court further convicted Magnitsky of tax fraud–four years after his death.
Magnitsky’s death was more than just an untimely demise of a 39-year-old lawyer. While he is said to have died of acute heart failure and toxic shock caused by untreated pancreatitis, Magnitsky had been severely beaten while imprisoned. In fact, his colleagues even insisted that the convictions against him were falsified in order to obstruct Magnitsky’s own accusations of massive tax fraud by Russian officials.
An investigation into the lawyer’s death was opened in November 2009, only to be dropped in March 2013 with the conclusion that Magnitsky had been legally arrested and detained, as well as denying claims that he had been tortured and had been denied access to medical attention.
The United States passed a law in 2012 in Magnitsky’s name that imposed sanctions against Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for serious human rights violations. The law froze any U.S. assets held by these officials and went so far as to ban them from entering the United States.
In 2016, Congress took an important step in addressing global accountability for human rights violations by expanding the earlier Magnitsky law to the Global Magnitsky Act. The new act allows the executive branch of the United States government to impose visa bans and targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for human rights violations or corruption, as well as those officials who abetted or were complacent with such violations.
The Global Magnitsky Act acts as a deterrent, warning foreign officials that unlawful violence could result in serious repercussions from the United States government. Additionally, the act offers incentives to foreign governments for improving mechanisms to increase accountability for human rights violations. By working with the U.S. on human rights violations and corruption investigations, leaders from other countries can voice their contempt for human rights abuses in their own countries.
The effectiveness of these sanctions can be seen in Russia’s response to their imposition. As a result of the global embarrassment inflicted on the country following the enactment of the law, the act has become a fixation for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The act continues to endorse accountability for human rights violations in various cases around the world on the recommendations of senators as well as a group of human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch.
– Richa Biplane
Photo: Flickr
The Benefits of Solar Power in Botswana
Solar panels are making a major impact on the lives of rural families in Botswana. About 80 percent of people in Botswana have been utilizing firewood for sources of light and heat. Unfortunately, many acres of forest have been destroyed due to the loss of trees used for their light and heat. Now that the UNDP-supported Rural Electrification Program is in place, life in Botswana has changed for the better. The goal of the program is to provide 65,000 homes with solar power.
A benefit of solar power is the time saved by women and girls. Retrieving wood and constantly tending to the fire to maintain light and heat in the home can be a time-consuming task. Newer wood-saving stoves being used in Botswana can cook a four-person meal with only a kilogram of wood, which reduces the wood gathering time and intensive work. This gives people more time to invest in other needs.
There are many benefits of solar power compared to other forms of fossil fuel energy. For example, solar power does not release any pollutants into the environment. Solar panels are a good investment because they are cheap and can supply power indefinitely with no ongoing costs. For countries struggling with poverty in Africa, cheap energy is a smart, long-term solution.
Solar power in countries like Botswana allows families to focus on other important things in their life, as opposed to constantly retrieving wood just to fulfill their basic needs. Botswana is one of Africa’s more stable countries, mostly free of corruption. The country is the world’s largest producer of diamonds, making the country a middle-income nation. The benefits of solar power are an important move in powering the country in the right direction.
– Chloe Turner
Photo: Google
House Bill to Combat Human Rights Abuses in North Korea
The Kim regime has continued to inflict disturbing human rights abuses in North Korea on its people. As a result, to help keep America as well as innocent citizens of North Korea safe, the House has voted unanimously on a critical and bipartisan North Korea human rights bill.
According to Newsweek, North Korea’s authoritarian regime has “snatched” teenagers out of their schools to be Kim Jong-un’s apparent sex slaves, forces members of the country’s upper class to watch executions and its leaders are perfectly content to eat expensive foods while the rest of his people subsist on grass.
Reuters recently reported that executions are often carried out in prison camps to instill fear and intimation among prison inmates that are contemplating an escape attempt. Public executions are carried out for minor crimes and distribution of South Korean media can also lead to execution.
According to NK Daily, a person in North Korea can be sentenced to death for communicating with the outside world, and a minimum of ten years of reeducation is the punishment for listening to South Korean media or another foreign radio.
The bill to combat human rights abuses in North Korea is a reauthorization of a 2004 North Korea human rights law that will add to the measure of new provisions aimed at spreading uncensored information throughout the country to inform the citizens of North Korea what is happening in the outside world. It will enact important snippets of updates that have to do with freedom and technological advances that are beyond radio broadcasting.
Chairman Ed Royce and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently stated that “the truth is Kim Jong-un’s greatest enemy. So as we step up sanctions to cut off the cash that funds Kim’s nuclear program, we must also break down barriers to truth in North Korea. This bill will update critical efforts to get real, accurate information into the hands of North Koreans through radio broadcasts, USB drives, mobile devices, and more. When Kim Jong-un has to answer to the North Korean people, he will pose far less danger to us.”
– Sara Venusti
Photo: Flickr
How to Help People in Brunei
Brunei is a small nation located in the northern coastal area of the island of Borneo, which also encompasses parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei‘s territory extends itself through an area of 5,765 kilometers of land, where about 423,000 citizens live.
How to help people in Brunei is not an easy question to answer at first glance. The fact is that despite its size, Brunei’s economy is considered to be one of the best performing in the world.
The country mainly exports liquefied gas and crude oil across the globe; natural gas and petroleum represent 60% of the country’s economy. Brunei’s extended forest territory allows it to produce abundant amounts of non-renewable resources and energy.
In spite of Brunei’s level of productivity, the issue of how to help people in Brunei remains because, despite the country’s great wealth, the social and political system causes difficulty for Brunei’s citizens.
As an absolute monarchy led by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, freedom of speech has been limited within the media, including radio, television, and print, as well as for citizens.
In 2014, Brunei adopted sharia law, a list of laws based on the religion of Islam. Consisting of three phases, two of which have to be yet implemented, sharia law is currently enforced among Brunei’s citizens.
The only approved phase for the moment includes prison sentences for what most developed first world countries would consider minor. Pregnancy outside marriage, failing to attend Friday prayers, propagating religion other than Islam, among other offenses, are severely punished with prison sentences or fines.
Organizations such as the United Nations have spoken out regarding Bolkiah’s intentions, but despite commenting on the sultan’s ideas for the future of Brunei, the country remains part of the United Nations due to providing free medical care, education and more to its citizens.
Boycotts of the Beverly Hills Hotel and other properties that Bolkiah owns have been enacted by numerous international companies to put pressure on the sultan to repeal sharia law. Celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John have taken up the issue to bring awareness to the inequality and discrimination that is currently taking place in Brunei.
How to help people in Brunei is a social issue rather than an economic one. Brunei is a country that violates human rights every day and no organizations are actively fighting against it. The imposition of sharia law in Brunei is continuous and awareness is key in order to eradicate such human rights violations.
– Paula Gibson
Photo: Flickr
Children Return to School in the Greater Kasai Region
The Greater Kasai region is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Beginning in August 2016, it was the scene of a local conflict between the Congolese government and a traditional leader of the region, who was later killed while fighting with security forces. The local conflict, however, turned into a confrontation between militias and government security forces, which led to violence and instability among the entire Kasai region.
The violence within the region also had a major impact on the education of tens of thousands of children. UNICEF announced a total of 440,000 children in the five most affected provinces of the Kasai region, who were unable to finish the school year and complete their education because of insecurity. With more than 400 schools attacked, parents are resistant to keep sending their children to school, leading to more than 150,000 children missing out on education.
Conflicts have also affected health systems within the region, as one in three health centers got destroyed, increasing the risks of disease among children. The main goal was then to help hundreds of thousands of children return to school in the Greater Kasai region. UNICEF started a campaign and achieved this goal at the start of the 2017 school year.
In addition to encouraging parents to get their children back into the classroom, this campaign allowed for the distribution of school materials for children and training for a total of 2,750 teachers in peace-education and psychosocial support. This back-to-school campaign has also raised awareness among communities regarding the risks within the classroom that are related to mines and war remnants.
UNICEF has also responded to the Greater Kasai region with other major projects geared toward health, nutrition, protection and education. Previously detained in the Kasai region, 384 children were released through the help of UNICEF, as well.
As hundreds of thousands of children return to school in the Greater Kasai region, hope for a better future returns in terms of education, safety and healthcare. As violence decreases and peace makes a fragile return, the Kasai region is on a better path for success.
– Sarah Soutoul
Photo: Flickr
Sustainable Development’s Effects on Global Poverty
When it comes to solving global poverty issues, it is often the poorest nations in the world that are among the most underdeveloped. There are several issues that researchers, policymakers and non-governmental organizations are seeking solutions to which may be solvable through sustainable development.
Sustainable development refers to meeting current life-sustaining needs while also keeping future generations in mind. Sustainable development also seeks to tackle a few main goals in developing nations such as poverty reduction, the creation of new, sustainable markets and in general, a longer-lasting, more diverse environment within which communities can continue to thrive. With these goals in mind, sustainable development can be a potential solution to global poverty.
Economic development, education and access to healthcare are of primary focus when it comes to ending global poverty, which involves some kind of development, be that in the form of schools, hospitals or urban centers within which governments can better develop social reforms and make policy decisions. However, there are some inherent consequences to development, including pollution from waste materials, production of raw materials and energy outputs, as well as the effects of corruption and unstable governments. Sustainable development, unlike other solutions, has the potential for lasting positive effects on the communities that utilize it as well as in international relationships.
While sustainable development may seem like a fast track solution to ending global poverty, there are obstacles that need to be overcome. Technological innovations can be expensive and difficult to come by, making sustainable development difficult. However, groups such as the United Nations are committed to learning from the past and setting stringent goals for poverty reduction that include sustainable development by beginning with basic needs such as equality for women, empowerment in poor communities, social reform support and working with donors to supply impoverished areas with what they need to grow sustainably.
– Casey Hess
Photo: Flickr
Education Programs Help Young South Sudanese Refugees
The civil war in South Sudan has forced nearly two million people to flee the country. They have traveled mostly to Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan. But the youngest nation in the world also has a young population. The median age is 17, an issue that has affected refugee camps across northeastern Africa, since 62% of South Sudanese refugees are under 18 years old.
These numbers have highlighted the concern of the diverse foundations that are trying to ensure young South Sudanese refugees have basic rights, such as healthcare and employment aid. However, education has become a severe problem in several African camps because they lack classrooms, teachers and resources.
The current refugee situation started in 2011, after a referendum was held to define the future of South Sudan. Around 98% of people voted for separation from the northern part of the country. In the following years, violent conflicts between Sudan and South Sudan broke out over oil-producing areas. In 2013, the two governments signed an agreement in order to end the confrontations.
However, after a short period of peace, a domestic political problem divided the country when President Salva Kiir Mayardit dismissed his cabinet and a civil war began. Many South Sudanese have left the country, going mainly to Uganda. One million refugees, 85% of whom are women and children, now reside there. The following organizations are helping young South Sudanese refugees continue their studies.
Education Aid is a Global Effort
The overpopulation in the settlements makes it harder to provide facilities for children, especially in regards to education, where a classroom can have 200 students. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees declared the South Sudan refugee crisis as an emergency operation in 2013. Thanks to donations and agreements, the organization has enrolled 41,000 refugee children in primary school and 31,000 more received livelihood kits.
Save the Children is developing a project for relief education principally in Uganda, which hosts the largest number of young South Sudanese refugees. Along with the Ugandan government, NGOs and donations, the organization is planning to construct more than 400 schools and hire 5,307 primary and secondary teachers. In addition, Save the Children provides early schooling for young children and classes for those who have fallen behind.
Technology could be another solution for young South Sudanese refugees that are looking for a better education. Columbia University has developed a program called Teachers for Teachers that provides training, coaching and mobile mentoring to educators in refugee camps. The goal of this program is to generate highly qualified teachers that can provide quality education to refugee students. The system works through mobile technology, resource sessions, discussion, participation and photo and video content.
There are several education options that refugee camps can adopt in order to improve the education of young South Sudanese refugees. The success of these programs can translate into better education for refugees all across Africa.
– Dario Ledesma
Photo: Flickr