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
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
How to Help People in Peru
With its history of autocratic governments, Peru is in desperate need of governmental assistance and foreign aid to protect the rights of its citizens from corruption in the government. One organization whose aim is to prevent further governmental strife is the Peru Support Group. This organization fights corruption through meticulous research of Peru’s current political and social climate and from there uses the information to improve policy as well as provide expedient news on how to help Peru. One can support the ongoing success of the Peru Support Group through donations as well as by familiarizing oneself with the data created by the organization to breed awareness for the conflicts Peru faces today.
Given that a cornerstone of Peruvian culture emphasizes the values of the family unit, this mindset has encouraged families to grow as well as to integrate extended family members into a single household. This results in many people sharing the same roof with very limited resources. In order to meet the needs of their families, Peruvian children often are forced to work on the streets vending an assortment of products from gum to souvenirs.
On a visit to Peru’s capital of Iquitos, Paul and Sandi Opp were deeply affected by how this epidemic of poverty was especially burdensome for children and relentlessly sought information on how to help people in Peru. The two formed the organization People of Peru Project, which has built a crisis center and an administrative dormitory to provide for the poor of Peru from childhood to adulthood. Over the years, the project has seen Peruvian inhabitants grow from poverty to successful careers in fields such as medicine, law and engineering. The organization makes it easy for others to contribute to the organization through means of volunteering and/or donations on their site.
The most recent conflicts which have wrought disaster on Peru are the recurring instances of mudslides that are happening across the country. The current death toll stands at 100 people and countless others are suffering from homelessness after the series of mudslides tore through more than 800 cities. While the Peruvian government has made great strides in doing all that it can to prevent further havoc, the media has not done its part in raising awareness for international funding to counter the incidents.
Fortunately, great mobilization is occurring through grassroots organizations in the United States, such as the Peruvian community living in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to provide aid. Anyone can contribute to the cause of how to help people in Peru just through sharing articles on social media to gain attention from the media, but especially those living in the above-mentioned areas can donate to local Peruvian relief organizations.
Volunteering, raising awareness, and donating toward social, economic and political relief in Peru is not only an investment in the country itself but also in the future. The inequality, social discrimination, and government instability of Peru do not only affect it within its borders; if the natural resources of Peru are not protected and properly sourced then it jeopardizes the prosperity of several other South American countries. It is not merely a topic of concern in terms of altruism but of international practicality and pragmatism.
– Kaitlin Hocker
Photo: Flickr
Leading Causes of Poverty in Macedonia
Unemployment
Despite significant economic growth over the past ten years, the rate of unemployment in Macedonia remains high, sitting between 25 and 31 percent until it fell to 23.7 percent in 2016. Though employment is growing, labor force participation has declined, and those who are unemployed remain that way for extended periods of time. Of the unemployed population, 81 percent of people have been so for the long term. In addition, labor force participation is declining, particularly among the younger population. The World Bank reports that this decrease has been occurring gradually since 2012.
Rising real wages, growth in unskilled labor markets and increasing relevance of education programs had a notable impact on decreasing poverty in 2016. Poverty in Macedonia has declined from 34.3 percent in 2013 to 30.7 percent at the end of last year. As the 2016 programs continue to grow, the rate is expected to continue to fall.
Government corruption
While corruption is an internationally recognized vulnerability of the countries in the western Balkans, citizens of Macedonia have placed it among the most important issues facing their country, ranking it just below unemployment and poverty. Exposure varies significantly across regions, but, on average, 10.8 percent of Macedonians aged 18 to 64 have been directly involved in corruption or exposed through a member of their household. Such high prevalence is concerning, but what is more important is that nearly a third of bribes are offered by citizens without solicitation from public officials. Bribes requested by officials, directly or indirectly, account for about 50 percent of all those paid.
The fact that citizens are willingly devoting what is often a significant portion of their resources to corruption indicates a fundamental lack of faith in the government’s operating ability. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that 50 percent of citizens who participate in bribery intend to hasten procedure, 12 percent do so to ensure an outcome, 11 percent pay to receive preferential treatment and 12 percent pay bribes that lack a specific purpose. Improving the functions of Macedonia’s institutions will ultimately work to eliminate corruption, as the population begins to trust their bureaucratic services. However, corruption within the government remains a pervasive issue and must be addressed before such reforms can occur.
Political tensions
Macedonia has faced a tumultuous quarter-century since the breakup of Yugoslavia, leaving the state prone to internal political conflict which has led to instability and poverty in Macedonia. Macedonia’s democracy lacks healthy political-party competition, which has forced its government to often act as a clientelistic service rather than a presiding body. There has also been a resurgence of nationalism in Macedonia, prompting many international media outlets to declare a new ethnic crisis in the spring of 2017. While this so-called crisis ultimately culminated in unrest similar to many other periods in Macedonia, tensions along ethnic lines persist and are regularly exploited by the international community.
Macedonia’s ongoing efforts to bolster its labor force through developing opportunities for job-relevant education demonstrate that the state has recognized the importance of cultivating its human capital as a method for raising its international status as a trade partner and regional player. As the future of Europe moves toward the center of the world stage, the transparency of the Macedonian government and the country’s internal tensions will be under ever-increasing scrutiny, which will likely push Macedonia to seek improvement in both of these areas. While there is still progress to be made toward eliminating poverty in Macedonia, it is clear that the state has recognized the areas where it can improve, and, as pressures to join the E.U. continue to mount, Macedonia will only have further incentive to work toward this goal.
– Alena Zafonte
Photo: Flickr
Joint Effort to Address the Famine in the Horn of Africa
Earlier in the year, when senior U.N. official Stephen O’Brien claimed this was the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, he stated that an immediate injection of funds was necessary to avert the situation. “To be precise,” he said, “we need $4.4 billion.” This goal, however, has not been attained, and the international community has done little to reach that number. The Global Emergency Response Coalition, the first of its kind in the United States, has not established a concrete goal for its fundraising; however, the organization admits that it is far short of raising enough to fully solve the crisis. A big part of the joint effort to address the famine in the Horn of Africa is to create a campaign of awareness throughout the press and social media to bring attention to the issue.
The Global Emergency Response Coalition is formed by CARE, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision. Several companies have also committed to the joint effort to address the famine in the Horn of Africa; Pepsico and Blackrock have promised to match up to $1 million each for every dollar donated.
The situation is most dire in Yemen, where 18.8 million people — two-thirds of the country’s population — need desperate aid, and more than 7 million people do not know where their next meal will come from. In South Sudan, more than 7.5 million people need aid, up by almost 2 million since last year.
You can help the joint effort to address the famine in the Horn of Africa by donating to the Global Emergency Response Coalition or by following the GERC on all social media channels and sharing their causes to help raise awareness.
– Alan Garcia-Ramos
Photo: Flickr
Autism in Developing Countries
This disability has become increasingly common in children in the United States. CDC estimated that as of March 2013, about one in every 50 school children is diagnosed with autism.
However, outside of Western civilization, and into more under-developed countries, the number of people diagnosed with ASD is significantly lower.
Why is this? It is not necessarily because children in non-Western countries do not have ASD, but because the children are not being diagnosed with it. There are multiple reasons for this. Some of these include a lack of professional doctors, cultural skepticism and mere unawareness of the problem.
Lack of physicians is one of the main reasons why people are not being diagnosed with autism in developing countries. Harvard’s Global Health Review gives the example that “in South East Asia, there is one psychiatrist per 100,000 people, making mental health services or diagnoses extremely difficult to access.”
To combat this absence of doctors, the organization Autism Speaks funded a research study to help people in developing countries become aware of autism and teach them how to screen for this disorder within their community. The simple screening process involves a tool called Rapid Neurodevelopmental Assessment (RNDA). The screening device was tested in Dhaka, Bangladesh and showed tremendous potential. Autism Speaks points out that “while global infant mortality has decreased in recent decades, malnutrition and extreme poverty continues. This puts hundreds of millions of young children at risk for developmental disabilities.”
Another potential reason why autism in developing countries is so low is because of the culture’s views on developmental disabilities. Continuing with its example of South East Asia, the Global Health Review said, “In South Korea, the stigma of autism is so intense that many families of children with developmental delays will intentionally avoid diagnosis of ASD.”
Habits such as not looking someone in the eye or being brief in conversations could be signs of autism in children, but in some cultures it is seen as a cultural norm rather than a disability.
Whether parents are concerned they will be judged for having in autistic child or unwilling to admit that they do have one, ASD is not a matter that should be taken lightly. Although not a fatal disease, autism spectrum disorder is a serious condition that could affect even the simplest daily tasks.
With more resources and in-depth education, autism in developing countries can be addressed and families can become informed about how to treat ASD.
– Sydney Missigman
Photo: Flickr
Most Common Diseases in the Palestinian Territories
The most common diseases in the Palestinian territories are non-communicable; cancer and cardiovascular disease are especially common. Although there is not a lot of data on the matter, there is still enough to explain that these diseases are a serious problem. According to research, lung cancer is the cancer that is most responsible for male deaths in the Palestinian territories. Statistics also state that heart disease causes 26 percent of deaths there. While cardiovascular disease and cancer may be caused by people’s family histories and lifestyles, they remain an issue partially caused by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The division between the West Bank and Gaza makes access to healthcare more difficult to acquire for the people of the Palestinian territories. To cross the border, individuals need approved permits that allow them to do so. To make the process even more difficult, Israeli security services sometimes ask the patients to attend an interview in order to be granted access. The slow procedure of obtaining a permit results in health conditions worsening as the people wait for the opportunity to receive treatment.
Although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides the people with some obstacles, there have also been some advancements made. In 2015, Israeli authorities declared that men over 55 years and women over 50 years in age do not need permits. This caused the permit approval rate for West Bank patients to rise about five percent from the previous year. With improvements like this being made, healthcare access will hopefully continue to become more available and common diseases in the Palestinian territories – like cardiovascular disease and cancer – will become less common.
– Raven Rentas
Photo: Google