A landlocked nation approximately the size of Illinois, Nepal is the poorest country in the Southeast Asia with as many people enjoying life as those living in abject poverty.
With less than half of the population of 27 million having access to safe drinking water, poor water quality in Nepal and an inadequate supply of water has a dismal cost: about 45,000 children below the age of five in the country die each year due to water sanitation problems. Forty-two percent of the population lives below the poverty line and only 27 percent have improved access to sanitation.
The average life expectancy of about 68 years for men and 71 years for women is correlated with a lack of health care, access to clean water, and abject poverty in the country despite improving conditions.
For instance, it is estimated that child mortality can be reduced by 55 percent if water quality and sanitation issues are addressed to avert the public health risk.
Nepal has seen an increased number of floods, droughts, hailstorms, landslides, and crop diseases. This has mainly affected the subsistence and livelihood of the poor with no way to combat the effects of climate change.
Eighty percent of Nepalese have access to drinking water, yet the water provided or gathered is often polluted.
Though 92 percent of households in the country’s rural areas have access to a drinking water source, microbial contamination in these waters means that water is unsafe for consumption. An assessment in mid-western Nepal found that 70 to 80 percent of the taps do not deliver safe drinking water.
The Kathmandu Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has deteriorating surface and ground water due to natural and man-made contamination. Industry and domestic waste, the majority of which is produced from the capital city of Kathmandu, is commonly discharged into rivers and lakes. Water resources are also stressed due to a growing population and depleting natural water resources.
In 2016, doctors found an increasing number of waterborne diseases – such as diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, gastroenteritis and cholera – in Kathmandu due to water contamination and a lack of proper hygiene.
Baburam Marasini, chief of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under Department of Health Services, reported an “increase in the number of cases between 25 and 30 percent who [came] to visit hospitals suffering from diarrhea, typhoid and fever, mostly due to poor quality drinking water inside Kathmandu.”
Describing the unsafe conditions in rural areas, Marasini explained the causes for this increase. “The rains during the monsoon are responsible for outbreak of communicable water-borne diseases like cholera and diarrhoea in many rural villages,” he stated.
To improve the health and sanitation of the Nepalese, awareness programs are needed. The public has been said to lack awareness of the water sanitation issues, with some communities partaking in drinking contaminated water, failing to observe proper hygiene practices, and generally being unaware of waterborne diseases and their role in helping improve the water quality in Nepal.
Solar disinfection programs (SODIS) have been found to be an effective remedy to help improve water quality in Nepal. However, “heavy domestic and agricultural workloads, other cultural barriers, uncertainty about the necessity of treating the water, and lack of knowledge that untreated drinking water causes diarrhea” did not allow for a successful adoption of the SODIS program. Clearly, a more elementary awareness approach is needed.
Water quality in Nepal can be improved by making safe drinking water more available and accessible. Institutional coordination, public-private partnerships, low-cost technology like SODIS, establishment of water resource or awareness centers and educating people at the community level can all make a difference in sustaining human lives through the provision of safe, good quality water through the maintenance of a healthy water ecosystem.
– Mohammed Khalid
Photo: Flickr
Indian Government Approves Bullet Train Project
The train will reach top speeds between 320 and 350 kilometers per hour, making the 508-kilometer route between Ahmedabad and Mumbai five hours shorter than the usual seven-hour trip. The bullet train’s first route will contain 12 stations, four being in Maharashtra and eight in Gujarat, with about 92 percent running on an elevated track.
The bullet train will start underground with a station at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, which will then run 27 kilometers through a tunnel in the sea until it pulls into the over ground station in Thane.
India has received about 85 percent of its funding for the bullet train project from Japan, according to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu. In return, the Japanese E5 Series Shinkansen train will serve as the bullet train in India.
Prabhu and his ministry have drawn extensive maps for high-speed corridors on various routes between Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Mysuru and Bengaluru. These trains will also have the potential to reach a maximum of 350 kilometers per hour. Other routes – including Chennai-Hyderabad and Chennai-Mysuru – will have trains traveling at around 160 to 250 kilometers per hour.
Although the bullet train project has been undergoing feasibility testing since 2009, the project is just now in the soil-testing stage. The foundation stone is expected to be laid by both Indian and Japanese Prime Ministers in September of this year. Construction will follow in early 2018, and the launch of the first section’s operations is scheduled for 2023.
Once the track is completed, the bullet train will have the capacity to seat 731 passengers – 698 standard class and 55 business class. In addition, the train has an extended long nose to prevent damaging tunnel boom – the loud noise made when the train exits a tunnel at high speeds – which is due to uneven air pressure.
With luxury leather seating, adjustable reading lamps and foldable dining tables, the trains were designed with passenger comfort in mind. Additionally, the trains are fully accessible and equipped to serve any passengers with disabilities.
In the next six years, the bullet train system will make India a lot more manageable to get around for locals, business professionals and other travelers. The Indian government is also hopeful that the bullet train will lead to more opportunities to form deeper ties with Japan and eventually China, too.
– Kassidy Tarala
Photo: Flickr
9 Bipartisan Measures Pass House Foreign Affairs Committee
Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly, a co-sponsor of the bill along with Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, spoke for the bill in a markup. Kelly pointed out that 65 million people, half of whom are under 18, have been displaced since the beginning of 2017, and four million displaced children lack access to elementary education.
Kelly claimed that displaced children are more vulnerable to abduction, poverty, and early marriage when they cannot attend school and that school can help displaced children cope with trauma and overcome feelings of isolation by providing a community.
Related measures passed include the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017, which supports North Korean refugees and advocates for radio broadcasting in North Korea, as well as the resolution entitled “Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia.” All of the measures passed received bipartisan support, and several have bipartisan sponsorship.
During markups, Congressional committees discuss, amend and rewrite proposed legislation. In this markup, seven of the nine measures discussed were amended, but all passed at the end of the session. Rep. Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, reported the measures favorably and was authorized to seek House consideration of the measures under suspension of the rules.
“Suspension of the rules” is a procedure used to save time when discussing relatively uncontroversial bills. Rep. Royce likely ordered a suspension of the rules based on the bipartisan nature of the measures discussed. This fact means that when the measures are discussed next in the House, they will be unamendable and debate will be limited to forty minutes.
As these bipartisan measures all passed without much dispute, they will likely continue to move quickly through the House of Representatives.
– Caroline Meyers
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in Romania on the Decline Despite the Odds
Poverty in Romania is stunning and widespread, affecting millions of people. Two measures of poverty in Romania are relative poverty and absolute poverty. Relative poverty is the number of citizens whose disposable income is lower than 60 percent of the population’s median income. In 2014, Romania ranked first in the EU for highest relative poverty rate, with 25 percent of its citizens facing relative poverty.
Absolute poverty is the lack of basic human needs such as food, safe drinking water, shelter, health, education, facilities and access to services. In 2000, the rate of absolute poverty in Romania was 35.9 percent and dropped to 13.8 percent in just six years, showing that progress has indeed been made in the country.
Several populations in Romania are vulnerable to poverty. More than 50 percent of children in Romania are at risk for poverty. This statistic places Romania as the country in the EU with the greatest risk of children facing poverty. Poverty in Romania is also at its highest in rural areas, where 45 percent of the population lives. This is the highest population in the EU to live in rural areas in a given country. The majority of Romanians who live in rural areas are subsistence farmers or unemployed rural workers, which is why 70 percent of the rural population in Romania lives in poverty. Finally, the populations most susceptible to poverty in terms of households are single persons, single parent families, families with three or more children and single people over the age of 65.
Romania’s history and changing governments affected change in poverty levels. After World War II, Romania became a socialist state in a communist regime, which entailed widespread social welfare. In 1990, right before the fall of communism, the poverty level in Romania was only seven percent. After the fall of communism in 1990, however, generalized social welfare was reduced.
Other causes of poverty in Romania include poor infrastructure, which affects everything from schools to medical centers. Regarding widespread rural poverty, there are more employment and educational opportunities in urban areas, as more money is invested in urban areas. Romania also suffers the consequences of bad foreign exchange rates as it does not use the euro and five to six percent of its GDP comes from remittances.
Progress has been made in decreasing poverty and growing a successful economy. Romania joined NATO in 2004 and joined the EU in 2007. Romania has enjoyed significant economic growth from 2013 to 2016 as a result of industrial exports, optimal agriculture harvests and trade within the EU.
Social welfare also benefits many poor Romanians. Today, social welfare is divided into multiple categories. Some benefits of Romania’s current social welfare system include free maternity care, an allowance for children and mothers, free education, subsidies for heat and electricity, unemployment aid and pension. It is important to note that certain benefits vary depending on the case.
The rate of poverty in Romania is very high for a country in the EU, but Romania continues to make progress in reducing poverty rates, providing social welfare and stabilizing its economy.
– Christiana Lano
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About the Poverty Rate in Kosovo
Although Kosovo’s economy is facing many problems and the poverty rate in Kosovo is still relativity high, Kosovo’s economy is making progress. Reducing the unemployment rate and raising living standards are the two major things Kosovo should be focusing on to improve the economy and reduce the poverty rate.
– Mike Liu
World Bank Funds Malawi Digital Foundations Project
In 2014, the rate of internet penetration in Malawi was less than six percent, one of the lowest figures for a country worldwide. This statistic is largely a financial issue: Cell phone service costs the average Malawian 56 percent of their income compared to the five percent it would cost someone in Kenya.
Internet services are taxed almost 20 percent, and an additional ten percent excise tax is added to text messages and data transfers in the country, as of May 2015. Low literacy and electrification rates and a gender divide make it even harder for Malawians to access information communication technology (ICT).
Despite its status as a “least developed country,” Malawi has seen significant economic growth in the last few years (almost six percent in 2014), and the ICT sector has contributed notably to the country’s GDP. If Malawi only had a local internet exchange point, the country would not have to pay to run data through service providers in Africa or Europe and could make service more affordable, in this way building the country’s ICT market.
The Digital Foundations Project will address this issue from four different angles. One program, entitled Digital Ecosystem, will aim to make Malawi a “more attractive and competitive place for digital investment and innovation” while working to expand ICT accessibility at the same time. The Digital Ecosystem will consist of ICT regulation, policy development and implementation and digital skills development.
Another goal of the Digital Foundations Project is to improve internet speed and affordability. Malawi does not just need wider ICT access; the country needs to also expand its reliable services. This fact is especially true in rural areas where only one percent of households have access to electricity, as well as in institutions of higher learning where high-speed internet connections are essential to learning and communicating with the world.
Importantly, the internet access the Malawi Digital Foundations Project aims to provide would serve as a source of empowerment for those Malawians living in poverty or rural areas, as it would provide Malawians with autonomy and control over their communication, education, and especially banking.
Already, more Malawians use mobile money than open formal bank accounts, and better internet would facilitate Malawians’ interactions with mobile money programs which currently run slowly due to their popularity.
– Caroline Meyers
Photo: Google
Using Social Media Platforms for Advocacy
Your personal sharing, liking, retweeting and posting may seem like they aren’t creating enormous ripples of change, but research has found that content shared by individuals is shared 25 times more and receives eight times more engagement than content shared by organizations themselves. Social media has the ability to amplify a message, allowing great organizations to be introduced to new people and mobilizing communities to give to or advocate for a certain cause. So how can individuals focus social media attention on advocacy efforts and better the world through their news feeds?
Sharing is caring
The community of people you’re friends with or who follow you are those who care about you and are interested in what you have to say. If you show them that you care by sharing and posting about certain causes, they are more likely to engage with that content than if it was posted by an organization on their feed. Since people actually know who you are, things you share and post come off as more trustworthy and real. To this effect, find articles and organizations that matter to you and highlight their efforts. You are the most relatable person for people engaging with your social media, and that can powerfully increase mobilization.
#UseThatHashtag
While they may not always seem effective, intentionally using hashtags can really increase how many people interact with posts. Hashtags create networks of posts, linking them together into a common thread, and this is a great way to reach diverse groups on social media platforms for advocacy. Creating a specific hashtag that a person or organization always uses can help people learn about causes you’re passionate about, and adding information about an issue to a trending hashtag can help spread your message locally and globally.
Turn some heads
A visual appeal can really catch and keep people’s attention. One study found that seeing photos and infographics greatly influenced members of Congress, and others interacting with your postings and shares are equally as interested in nice visuals. By adding photos or cool graphics, your content will better capture people’s attention and enable you to use social media platforms for advocacy. Attaching images can create a 150 percent increase in retweets on Twitter and bring in an 87 percent engagement rate on Facebook, which is great news for mobilizing efforts!
Take that social media work offline
Social media is great for connecting people, but gathering your community offline is powerful, too. Use social media platforms for advocacy by creating events, gathering donations, sharing information and planning meetings, then take that advocacy into the physical world. Online calls to action such as signing petitions and contacting Congressional representatives can transform into in-person meetings with government officials either individually or at town halls, and mobilizing people for your cause can mean sharing through word of mouth or posting physical copies of an infographic around town. Building online engagement into a tangible movement can have an immense impact.
Rather than aimlessly scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, Tumblr and other social media platforms, infuse some world-improving efforts into your feed and use those social media platforms for advocacy. With such amazing tools available, it is important to increase the intentionality of our scrolling and harness social media platforms for advocacy.
– Irena Huang
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Refugees in St Lucia
A refugee is often defined as a person seeking asylum in a country other than the one of their origin, either because they seek better economic prospects or due to political instability in their home nation.
The country of St Lucia is a Caribbean nation, which is home to numerous refugees. St Lucia has a gorgeous landscape, tropical weather and an incredible culture. These facts are one of the reasons why St Lucia has become a primary destination for many migrants. The purpose of this article is to explain 10 facts about refugees from St Lucia.
The 10 Facts:
The Takeaway:
Although the migrant crisis continues all throughout the world, refugees in St Lucia often have a high quality of life. High immunization rates, intensive social programs and registration at birth allows for the nation to ensure its migrant populations have the best chance at a higher quality of life. The work that St Lucia has done in its refugee camps should be something all other nations housing migrants should attempt to emulate.
– Nick Beauchamp
Photo: Flickr
Google Gives $20 Million to Nonprofits in Africa for Education
A leader in not only search engines but charity as well, Google has already chosen two African technology startups to receive $2.5 million in grants: Gidi Mobile and Siyavula. Gidi Mobile Ltd. focuses on expanding the visions of over 350 million young Africans and giving them the ability to accomplish such goals as Africa’s first mobile personal development platform. It allows people to complete courses and study materials online for all types of professional careers, connect with other learners and form a community and share personal progress with others. The company advances free content, cloud computing and both international and distinctly African content through its product Gidimo.
Siyavula similarly allows free online access to their line of published and curriculum-aligned math and science textbooks, alongside practice and teaching capabilities within the program. These are unlike restricted, copyrighted materials but adaptable without incurring costs, and allow educators to create and share accessible and open-licensed Open Education Resources (OERs). Both have in turn supported the unstifled digital education of over 400,000 underprivileged students in South Africa and Nigeria.
Through Google.org, almost $110 million has already been committed in the last five years to nonprofits in Africa and even other parts of the world that center around closing the education gap. Looking to their current portfolio, they are hoping technology will bring kids the right materials, as those who grow up in low-income areas have less access to books or are forced to use outdated, irrelevant texts. Around 221 million students today are taught in a language foreign to them, and 130 million do not learn basic math or reading despite placement in a four-year or more school system.
Moreover, 4.3 billion people lack consistent access to the internet. Technology can help solve this issue in bringing in more resources to students they can adapt to while remaining engaging and not being a financial burden. One of the first groups to win a grant in this area is the Foundation for Learning Equality, whose new platform Kolibri has brought 7,000 videos and 26,000 interactive exercises to offline students in 160 countries. This year, Google technicians are expanding Learning Equality’s content library and working with them on UX/UI, content integration and video compression technologies.
Next, Google is looking to keep teachers trained and engaged through such technology and is helping local leaders invest in tools offering such. In 2015, only 13.5 percent of teachers passed the India Central Teacher Eligibility Test. The first grant to address this went to the Million Sparks Foundation’s ChalkLit, which utilizes an app to share public curriculum-aligned content to teachers. And in 2016, the Delhi State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) selected Million Sparks as their online capacity building partner to offer in-service training for 60,000 teachers.
Lastly, Google.org hopes to reach students in conflict zones, as 32 million primary-school aged children cannot reach traditional classrooms due to crisis or displacement. One of their grantees, War Child Holland, addresses this with a game-based system that allows for a year of lessons and exercises that align with that host country. When deployed in Sudan, results showed students learned at equal and worthy rates from the approach. War Child Holland is hoping to expand to reach 170,000 children by 2020 and reach significant numbers in the Middle East and Africa.
In order to stimulate technological promise across this region, Google.org is launching an “Impact Challenge” in Africa in 2018, where the most innovative and worthwhile ideas can earn almost $5 million in grants. Similar challenges have been completed in Brazil, India and the U.K. in the past. With the support and backing of major companies like Google, such already influential nonprofits in Africa and beyond will gain further means to improve lives and educate all those otherwise lacking access to adequate education in developing parts of the world.
– Zar-Tashiya Khan
Photo: Flickr
Mosquitoes and Nets: Common Diseases in Cote d’Ivoire
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms that could lead to death in severe cases. Dengue is on the rise worldwide, with about half the world’s population at risk, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is also one of the most common diseases in Cote d’Ivoire today.
In Cote d’Ivoire, dengue had reached epidemic proportions in the area of Abidjan as of April 2017. In tAugust 2017, Cote d’Ivoire launched an anti-vector campaign to quell the dangers of the increasingly alarming epidemic which has claimed two lives out of the 911 cases reported. Of these reported cases, 311 have been confirmed.
Even though dengue fever has reached epidemic levels, malaria is still the leading cause of hospitalization in Cote d’Ivoire. In the country, about 3.5 million children under five and one million pregnant women are exposed to malaria each year.
One of the most effective methods of combatting these diseases is mosquito netting. As UNICEF Representative of Côte d’Ivoire Adele Khudr stated in an article by UNICEF, “Mosquito net distribution is one of the most effective ways to reduce child mortality. [I]t is also important to inform people how to use nets properly in order to save lives.”
Due to lack of netting in Cote d’Ivoire, a nationwide campaign was launched in December 2015 to distribute 13 million mosquito nets to those in need in Cote d’Ivoire. It aimed to have one mosquito net for every two people in the country. This was made possible by a $55 million grant from the Global Fund.
With the introduction of this netting, 50 percent of the non-complicated malaria cases can be reduced, there can be a 45 percent reduction in severe cases of malaria and a reduction of anemia in children as well.
In addition to assisting in the above benefits, mosquito nets could also protect against the dengue fever epidemic in Abidjan. With the help of initiatives from the U.N., the Global Fund and others, the mosquito-borne common diseases in Cote d’Ivoire can be reduced and prevented.
– Sydney Roeder
Photo: Flickr
Awareness Programs Needed to Improve Water Quality in Nepal
With less than half of the population of 27 million having access to safe drinking water, poor water quality in Nepal and an inadequate supply of water has a dismal cost: about 45,000 children below the age of five in the country die each year due to water sanitation problems. Forty-two percent of the population lives below the poverty line and only 27 percent have improved access to sanitation.
The average life expectancy of about 68 years for men and 71 years for women is correlated with a lack of health care, access to clean water, and abject poverty in the country despite improving conditions.
For instance, it is estimated that child mortality can be reduced by 55 percent if water quality and sanitation issues are addressed to avert the public health risk.
Nepal has seen an increased number of floods, droughts, hailstorms, landslides, and crop diseases. This has mainly affected the subsistence and livelihood of the poor with no way to combat the effects of climate change.
Eighty percent of Nepalese have access to drinking water, yet the water provided or gathered is often polluted.
Though 92 percent of households in the country’s rural areas have access to a drinking water source, microbial contamination in these waters means that water is unsafe for consumption. An assessment in mid-western Nepal found that 70 to 80 percent of the taps do not deliver safe drinking water.
The Kathmandu Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has deteriorating surface and ground water due to natural and man-made contamination. Industry and domestic waste, the majority of which is produced from the capital city of Kathmandu, is commonly discharged into rivers and lakes. Water resources are also stressed due to a growing population and depleting natural water resources.
In 2016, doctors found an increasing number of waterborne diseases – such as diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, gastroenteritis and cholera – in Kathmandu due to water contamination and a lack of proper hygiene.
Baburam Marasini, chief of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under Department of Health Services, reported an “increase in the number of cases between 25 and 30 percent who [came] to visit hospitals suffering from diarrhea, typhoid and fever, mostly due to poor quality drinking water inside Kathmandu.”
Describing the unsafe conditions in rural areas, Marasini explained the causes for this increase. “The rains during the monsoon are responsible for outbreak of communicable water-borne diseases like cholera and diarrhoea in many rural villages,” he stated.
To improve the health and sanitation of the Nepalese, awareness programs are needed. The public has been said to lack awareness of the water sanitation issues, with some communities partaking in drinking contaminated water, failing to observe proper hygiene practices, and generally being unaware of waterborne diseases and their role in helping improve the water quality in Nepal.
Solar disinfection programs (SODIS) have been found to be an effective remedy to help improve water quality in Nepal. However, “heavy domestic and agricultural workloads, other cultural barriers, uncertainty about the necessity of treating the water, and lack of knowledge that untreated drinking water causes diarrhea” did not allow for a successful adoption of the SODIS program. Clearly, a more elementary awareness approach is needed.
Water quality in Nepal can be improved by making safe drinking water more available and accessible. Institutional coordination, public-private partnerships, low-cost technology like SODIS, establishment of water resource or awareness centers and educating people at the community level can all make a difference in sustaining human lives through the provision of safe, good quality water through the maintenance of a healthy water ecosystem.
– Mohammed Khalid
Photo: Flickr