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10 Facts About Refugees in Bolivia


Bolivia is a mountainous landlocked country in the heart of South America. With 36 languages and 51 indigenous groups, it is a mosaic of the diversity in the Andes. Since establishing independence in 1825, the country has experienced serious political turmoil, with the total number of revolutions and coups around 190. With so much chaotic political history, the incredible story of refugees in Bolivia is often forgotten. Here are 10 facts about refugees in Bolivia.

10 Facts About Refugees in Bolivia

  1. As the Holocaust intensified, so did measures across the world to prohibit Jewish refugees from immigrating into safer countries. In the famous case of transatlantic liner St. Louis where nearly 1,000 German Jews aboard were denied entry to Cuba, then the United States and finally Canada showed the shameful policy of turning people back to the countries they were fleeing to face certain death. While most countries were closing their borders, Bolivia opened its immigration policies, welcoming 30,000 Jewish refugees from 1938 to 1941.
  2. Bolivian consulates in capitals across Europe provided visas. The refugees then flew to Chile where they boarded a train to La Paz. Due to the large amount of Jewish refugees on this train route, it became known as El Expres Judio (the Jewish Express).
  3. Tin mining tycoon Mauricio Hochschild has been referred to as the “Bolivian Schindler” because he orchestrated the escape of between 3,000 and 9,000 Jews. He then put the men to work running the mines and created charities such as daycares for the children. This incredible effort was even larger than Oskar Schindler’s plan, which saved around 1,000 Jews.
  4. Uruguayan rock star Jorge Drexler is the grandson of German refugees escaping Nazi persecution, who were welcomed to Bolivia under the open door policy. He recently composed a song called “Bolivia” to commemorate this event.
  5. Bolivian President Evo Morales recently held the World Without Walls Conference on World Refugee Day, where he used very radical language for a head of state, saying that we should work towards “universal citizenship” and that is impossible for a person to be “illegal.”
  6. Bolivia is currently facing a crisis of climate refugees. When Lake Poopo dried up, it was the death of a cultural resource so important that locals referred to it as “mother” and “father.” It has led to nearly a thousand refugees coming down the mountain and forming shanty towns outside of La Paz. It is one of the most catastrophic events for refugees in Bolivia.
  7. Bolivia has also produced political refugees such as former consul general in Washington, D.C., Carlos Hugo Jiminez. He fled to Canada after becoming the target of death threats due to his political affiliation. As of 2016, he had been waiting for four years to receive his asylum status.
  8. The Bolivian government is a vocal advocate for statehood for refugees across the world. It is one of the countries to formally recognize Palestine as independent and is a vocal advocate for a Polisario-based state in the Western Sahara.
  9. Lack of economic opportunity and changing climate conditions are creating large flows of migrants from Bolivia across the Argentine border. The Argentine government has responded by calling for a special border police force and some right-wing lawmakers calling for a wall.
  10. Water access and extreme poverty are driving factors for immigration and refugees in Bolivia today. The glaciers of the Andes are melting at an extreme rate and, by most estimates, all of them will be gone by the end of the century. Thirty percent of the 2.3 million people from El Alto and La Paz depend on these glaciers for water.

Water protests have shut down entire cities in Bolivia, especially in the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000. The melting of glaciers, drought and changing climate conditions could be a huge source of instability, refugees and immigration in the future. Bolivian President Morales shows commitment to the environment going as far as to legislate granting rights to the land and Earth itself. Regional and international partners will be necessary to tackle the climate challenges that will otherwise be left unaddressed and create more refugees in the future.

– Jared Gilbert

Photo: Flickr

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How Sustainable is the McGovern-Dole Program?


The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program was established in 2000 by former Senators George McGovern and Robert Dole. It has fed millions of children all over the globe by way of school meals made from surplus U.S. agricultural products. In 2006, McGovern and Dole were awarded the World Food Prize for their work on the program. This award is seen as the “Nobel Prize for hunger.”

The program is credited with helping improve school attendance as well as feeding the hungry, as free school meals provide families with an extra incentive to send their children to school. This is especially the case for girls, as parents sometimes decide to keep them home from school to do housework.

McGovern-Dole has made recent news because the Trump administration’s 2018 budget outline proposes eliminating the program, citing that it “lacks evidence that it is being effectively implemented to reduce food insecurity.”

Forbes contributor Tim Worstall contends Trump’s claim that McGovern-Dole fails to reduce food insecurity is accurate. He points out that because McGovern-Dole consists only of food donations, it lacks sustainability, doing nothing to inject money into local economies or help farmers grow their crops. Although the program feeds people effectively, it is not a long-term solution to ending hunger locally.

This being said, McGovern-Dole does have sustainability measures in place, though they may not address food insecurity directly. The program is concerned with education. All meals through the program are offered through schools. This allows McGovern-Dole to track data such as the number of kids taking medication or learning to read at school. This helps other education-centered organizations focus their efforts. McGovern-Dole also implements teacher training, school infrastructure improvements and nutrition programs for pregnant women in the communities it serves.

Alternatives to direct food aid programs are not always reliable. The cash-based transfer, a form of assistance by which individuals in need receive bank transfers or vouchers to exchange for food at stores owned by the World Food Programme, is ineffective in communities with extremely unstable markets or bank services. Direct food aid like McGovern-Dole provides hungry individuals with food regardless of the state of the market in a community.

– Caroline Meyers

Photo: Flickr

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How Has U.S. Foreign Assistance Has Helped South Korea?

U.S. Foreign Assistance Has Helped South Korea
U.S. foreign assistance has helped South Korea rise from poverty and the economic devastation of The Korean War. South Korea now sustains a prosperous economy and contributes to foreign assistance worldwide.

The United States’ $35 billion investment in economic foreign assistance has helped the Republic of Korea (ROK), once one of the poorest nations, become the world’s 12th largest economy.

Ways U.S. Foreign Assistance Has Helped South Korea

The overall health of South Koreans has improved, including a better life expectancy, a decreased infant mortality rate, improved sanitation and prevention of infectious diseases. South Korea’s transformation is not only evident from the increased wellbeing of its people. The country’s GDP per capita grew from $876 in 1950 to $36,500 in 2015, with a GINI index of 30.2, indicating the distribution of wealth.

South Korea is now the U.S.’s seventh-largest trading partner due to its economic gain and position as a world power. In 2010, the U.S.-Korea trade agreement amounted to approximately $88 billion. According to estimates by The U.S. International Trade Commission, tariff cuts in the agreement increase U.S. exports by $11 billion annually.

Since overcoming poverty and benefiting from U.S. Foreign Assistance, South Korea has become an international donor of foreign aid and a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC), one of the world’s largest funders of foreign assistance.

Seoul, one of U.S.’s most important allied cities in the Asia-Pacific, contributes to international development assistance and increases foreign relational values. Its $680 million investment in Afghanistan has helped reconstruction efforts. They have helped build medical facilities and police training stations, paved roads and trained Afghan civil servants. Furthermore, in December 2013, Seoul invested $43 million in Afghanistan to improve women’s rights and access to medical services.

Ranked the world’s most innovative country in 2015, South Korea leads global development and expands opportunities for sustainable solutions. Its ingenuity yields significant results in public-private partnerships and in research and development.

Among South Korea’s contributions is its Creative Technology Solution (CTS), launched by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs also funded this program. KOICA CTS supports socio-economic growth, as well as reducing inequalities between countries and social classes. It also aims to create decent jobs and promote science, technology and innovation in the context of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

South Korea, once a beneficiary of U.S. foreign assistance, is now a leading contributor to foreign aid and global development. U.S. foreign assistance has helped South Korea to create a prosperous economy and become a model example of foreign aid investment and surmounted poverty.

– Sarah Dunlap

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About the Education of Refugees


According to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than half of reported refugees, 6.1 million people, are under the age of 18. Given this large youth population, the lack of education of refugees has become a significant roadblock for these children and adolescents’ future successes. Here are 10 facts about the education of refugees at present.

10 Facts About the Education of Refugees

  1. The UNHCR reported in 2016 that of the 6.1 million school-aged refugees, 3.7 million had no access to education. 1.75 million of these had not received a primary education, and 1.95 million had not received a secondary education.
  2. Comparing the education of refugees to the global average, refugees are reportedly five times less likely to attend school.
  3. The global average of children attending primary school is 91 percent, while the average for refugee children is 50 percent. Secondary school is even less likely for refugees, with an average of 22 percent attending, where the global average is 84 percent. Only one percent of refugees receive a college- or university-level education. This global average is 34 percent.
  4. The education of refugees became more difficult when the refugee population grew by 30 percent in 2014 and is predicted to continue growing. The UNHCR predicts the need for 12,000 additional classrooms and 20,000 additional teachers annually.
  5. Refugees are displaced from their home country for an average 20 years. Because this exceeds school-age and because the education of refugees is difficult, the potential for refugee children and adolescents to access education is minimal.
  6. Of the 3.7 million out-of-school refugees, more than half come from Chad, Jordan, Turkey, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lebanon.
  7. Long-term conflict tends to reverse positive trends in education. For example, 94 percent of Syrian children in 2009 received an education, but this number dropped to 60 percent in 2016.
  8. Progress has been made towards the education of refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey through an increase in encouraging school enrollment and reinforcing the “double-shift system.” This means that two groups of students receive schooling at different times with the same faculty. A lack of funding threatens this system’s future as the uneducated refugee population increases.
  9. The education of refugees is primarily covered by emergency funds rather than long-term programs. Given the current refugee crisis, sustainable funding is crucial for the education of refugees.
  10. There are a number of potential solutions to the refugee education crisis. The main three proposed solutions are accelerated education programs, online courses and expanding vocational training. Each of these is promising because they offer the flexibility that makes school attendance a realistic option.

Education has the potential to provide a safe haven for refugees and may even prevent future conflict, but the education of refugees will require systematic changes to become sustainably successful.

– Haley Hurtt

Photo: Flickr

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The End of Malaria in Sri Lanka Brings Hope for Other Nations

Malaria in Sri Lanka
In the mid 20th century, Sri Lanka lied among the most malaria-stricken countries in the world. However, in September 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the successful elimination of malaria in Sri Lanka. A remarkable public health achievement, Sri Lanka is the second country in South East Asia to eliminate malaria (the Maldives being the first).

Eighty percent of Sri Lanka’s population lives in rural areas– the ideal environment for the mosquito species Anopheles culicifacies, the main vector of malaria in the region. The Plasmodium falciparum parasite causes the disease and is carried by Anopheles mosquitoes that feed on the blood of humans.

For seven decades, the country prioritized making the nation malaria-free. Malaria in Sri Lanka soared in the 1970s and 1980s, and the nation started an anti-malaria campaign in the 1990s. A strategy targeted the parasite in addition to the mosquito.

In 1991, the country’s number of cases of malaria reached up to 400,000. The country’s civil war put soldiers in the most vulnerable positions, with 115 people dying from malaria in 1998.

At the end of the war in 2009, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health launched a malaria elimination program, funded in part by the Global Funds to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The campaign included mobile malaria clinics in high transmission areas with effective surveillance, community engagement and health education.

This program enhanced the ability of the authorities to respond. Ever since the implementation of this campaign, the introduction of high surveillance maintains the elimination of the parasite in Sri Lanka.

The eradication of malaria in Sri Lanka raised the hopes of 30 other nations to end the disease that kills 400,000 people every year. As the director of the WHO’s Global Malaria program stated, the island country demonstrated that any government can eliminate malaria with improved efforts.

– Aishwarya Bansal

Photo: Flickr

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Engineers Without Borders Creates Accessible Drinking Water

Accessible Drinking Water
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is an organization of 16,800 volunteers who hope to give worldwide communities the opportunity to sustainably meet basic human needs. They install footbridges to accommodate travel, solar panels to facilitate energy and light and, in a world where one in 10 people don’t have accessible drinking water, Engineers Without Borders is implementing technology that can help. Here are six places where EWB is bringing water to those who need it most.

Cyanika, Rwanda

This northern community rests near the country’s border with Uganda, and for many villages, the closest accessible drinking water is kilometers away. Women and children make multiple trips to collect water, and when they arrive they must pay for their water, often leaving them with the decision of choosing between hunger or dehydration. They wait in line, sometimes only to realize that the well is dry. Engineers Without Borders has installed three unique community rainwater catchment systems, two single tank systems and one system of four tanks in the larger town of Munini. In Gasebeya and Nyarotosho, the single-tank systems save an average of 11 hours that would usually be spent collecting water. The saved time leaves community members with opportunities for raising more livestock and developing more income, and the saved income and time also means that they can maintain the systems on their own.

Mugonero, Rwanda

Along the western border of Rwanda, Mugonero was hit incredibly hard by the 1994 genocide, with 3,000 people killed in the community. Rebuilding continues slowly but surely in this small community accessible only by a small dirt road of switchbacks. Engineers Without Border worked with L’Esperance, a local NGO in Mugonero, and despite the NGO closing in 2013, EWB’s efforts in the region have been maintained for years and continue to benefit the community. Engineers Without Borders installed three rainwater catchment tanks, a UV water treatment system and an irrigation system that drastically improved the conditions of accessible drinking water.

Amayo, Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, 800,000 people do not have access to safe drinking water, leaving 37 percent of rural communities reliant on contaminated sources. EWB partnered with Potters for Peace, a U.S. nonprofit that uses clay pottery techniques to create water filters, to install 30 water filters. Accessible clean water means safer health conditions for the community, which uses the clay filters for both drinking and cooking. In addition, Potters for Peace educated locals (often rural women) on how to reproduce the water filters. This element of community engagement left Amayo highly self-sufficient and far healthier.

Jinotepe Hogar de Ancianos, Nicaragua

The Hogar Board of Directors, a local municipal body, benefitted from the reserve water system installed in Jinotepe by gaining the respect of their community. The reserve uses gravity in a 2,500-gallon tank to bring a fresh water supply to the community. Unfortunately, the tank itself has been in need of repairs since 2015, but the community feels that the current emphasis on health and the faith in the Hogar Board would be impossible without the EWB project. Accessible drinking water is now a priority of the community, thanks to the (albeit temporary) system provided by EWB, and the Board of Directors has a new confidence and dedication to provide it. Funding will remain a challenge.

Pueblo Nuevo, Nicaragua

Reaching clean water required long and frequent trips for the community members of Pueblo Nuevo. Engineers Without Borders cite the benefits of their integrated water distribution system as providing men with more time to tend to crops, children with more time to make it to school, and women with the liberation from five to six daily trips to the river. The distribution system does rely on rainwater, and so the impact it has can vary from serving 150 to 350 people. It pumps water from a hand-dug well to a holding tank, which then is distributed to three different districts. The rationing and maintenance required to benefit from the distribution system mean that the community has not only benefited from increased accessible drinking water but from increased community organization.

Guatemala

Seventeen projects are in the “implementation” phase in Guatemala, and 15 are considered “complete,” but most are still under review to evaluate their impact. The involvement of Engineers Without Borders in Guatemala is incredibly concentrated on potable water projects. These efforts comprise 58 percent of EWB’s Guatemala Project. At least five systems are considered functioning, each reaching between 350 and 1,500 people depending on the size of the community. The largest system involves 26 kilometers of pipe, and the projects have brought flowing water to every tap in the community. In addition to putting this infrastructure in place, the Guatemala projects focused on whether it was necessary to introduce a circuit rider (water technician) to the community to maintain the system. As implementation continues with new systems, Engineers Without Borders has placed an emphasis on training for pump maintenance, so that Guatemalan communities can be self-sufficient and continually have accessible drinking water.

– Brooke Clayton

Photo: Flickr

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The Role of AHGOs in Providing Humanitarian Relief

AHGOs
In the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis, a new form of relief organization has emerged, known as Ad Hoc Grassroots Organizations (AHGOs). In a study that explores their role in Lesvos, Greece, the Public Library of Science (PLOS) identified 41 AHGOs and interviewed 13 of them.

AHGOs are helpful at providing quick humanitarian relief. They are particularly potent when governments are not able to respond as quickly to disasters. According to the report done by PLOS, in the future, AHGOs should be recognized as new humanitarian actors.

These groups are created specifically to provide relief for a particular cause. AHGOs previously provided relief during the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In this instance, the 13 that were contacted were formed in 2015 with the intent of assisting refugees that fled the crisis in Syria, made their way over the Mediterranean, and landed in Lesvos.

Organizations are different than nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). After they serve their purpose they are rendered ineffectual. Their expiration date might make the notion of them seem unnecessary. How might temporary ad hoc organizations be more effective at providing relief than other pre-existing organizations?

PLOS explores this notion in its article. Because of their lack of infrastructure, AHGOs provide ordinary people who want to help by responding to disasters. Many volunteers working in Lesvos were there because they expressed a simple desire to help and were surprised that more aid had not already been sent by the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).

Volunteers working with AHGOs in Lesvos expressed that their lack of structure could also be negative. The volunteers tended to take the form of paramedics, nurses, and those experienced in the wilderness. Despite the skills that the volunteers brought with them, many were ill-prepared for refugee care.

However, on the positive side, AHGOs have the ability to reach surge capacity quickly. Surge capacity, in a humanitarian context, is defined as “the ability of an organization to rapidly and effectively increase its available resources in a specific geographic location.” The Humanitarian Practice Network defines surge capacity as the ability to “scale operations [people, money, and materials] up swiftly, smoothly and productively.”

Reports on standard INGOs express their inability to reach surge capacity. Therefore, the AHGO’s ability to reach surge capacity is favorable. It further demonstrates the speedy effectiveness of grassroots movements. Humanitarian aid can benefit from the buffed and nuanced structure of longstanding INGOs as well as the small-scale potency of AHGOs.

– Rebeca Ilisoi

Photo: Flickr

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Poor Living Conditions for Those Who Live in Slums

Live in Slums
Between 2000 and 2014, the percentage of the urban population in developing countries who lived in slums decreased from 39 percent to 30 percent.  While these statistics are encouraging, the bottom line is that the number of people living in slums continues to grow. Globally, 828 million people live in slums today. This fact means that one in eight people in the world suffers from poor living conditions.

A slum, as defined by United Nations Habitat, is a household that may suffer one or more of the following conditions: lack of access to water protected from outside contamination, lack of access to sanitation facilities that separate human waste from human contact and lack of adequate living area (more than three people living in one room of four square meters minimum).  These conditions also include a lack of housing durability (the structure must be on non-hazardous land and must be able to withstand extremes in climate) and a lack of security of tenure (protection by the state to ensure the unlawful eviction of inhabitants of homes).

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. However, urban areas only account for three percent of the earth’s land. Over 90 percent of urban growth is occurring in developing nations. The increase of people living in cities can predictably rise to 60 percent in 2030 and to 66 percent by 2050.

There are approximately 200,000 slums throughout the world. Mexico City is the home to the largest slum in the world. The Neza-chalco-Itza province began developing in the early 1900s and today houses roughly four million people. A younger slum in Karachi, Pakistan is only ten years old and houses 1.5 million citizens over 22 square miles.

Some other large slums include Mumbai, India, where Dharavi houses one million people in one square mile. The slum of Khayelitsha began after abolishing apartheid in South Africa and grew since the 1980s to 2.4 million people. Fifty percent of its inhabitants are under 19 years old. Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa, has the highest population of more than 200 slum dwellings located in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi. 2.5 million people dispersed amongst these 200 slum dwellings represent only six percent of the land in the city. Kibera houses 250,000 of these people.

Urbanization is a key focus under the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals. The eleventh goal on this list is to make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The task of establishing anti-poverty measures and reducing global poverty can improve the urban areas where the slums reside. When the poor no longer have to live in slums, their quality of life will improve.

– Jene Cates

Photo: Flickr

A Global Issue: 5 Ways Climate Change Impacts the Poor


According to reports by the World Bank, climate change could send 100 million more people into poverty by 2030. Although climate change impacts people regardless of their socioeconomic status, people living in poverty are hit the hardest. Here are five ways climate change impacts the poor.

5 Ways Climate Change Impacts the Poor

  1. Natural resources. The World Wildlife Fund estimated in 2014 that over-exploitation of natural resources created a global decline of 60 percent of many vital natural resources, such as arable land, fish, water and wood. Marine and forest ecosystems, which provide jobs, food and resources for some of the world’s poorest people, are expected to experience significant losses as a result of pollution and over-exploitation of resources like fish and wood.
  2. Water. Already a key topic of discussion surrounding global poverty, water scarcity and pollution is expected to increase as a result of climate change. UNICEF estimates that around 175 million children each year over the next 10 years will be affected by water extremes caused by climate change. Accessibility to clean water is tied to health, sanitation and food security, especially for people living in developing countries. All of these are expected to worsen as a result of climate change.
  3. Food. Food prices are expected to rise by 17 percent on a world scale by the year 2080, with the greatest impacts in poor regions. A 77 percent increase in food prices is expected in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to only a three percent increase in Europe and Central Asia. Rising food prices hit people living in poverty the hardest. Poor households spend nearly 60 percent of income on food, compared to wealthy households which can spend less than 10 percent. Food scarcity issues caused by climate change are projected to create a 20 percent increase in the risk of hunger and malnutrition across the world by 2050.
  4. Health. The World Health Organization estimates that climate change will account for 250,000 deaths per year by malnutrition, malaria, heat stress and diarrhea between 2030 and 2050. This will generate $2-4 billion in climate change related costs each year by 2030. Globally, 20 percent of health care costs are paid out of pocket, but this number grows to 47 percent in low-income countries and to 55 percent in lower middle-income countries. This means that climate change increases health risks of those living in poverty and decreases the ability to recover from them.
  5. Natural disasters. An overall increase in natural disaster frequency can be expected as a result of climate change. The World Food Program estimates that 90 percent of all natural disasters are droughts, floods and storms. All of these calamities will increase in frequency, along with other out-of-the-ordinary disasters. Natural disasters hit poor people the hardest, as they live more exposed to the elements and experience greater losses as a result of such disasters.

The most important fact about how climate change impacts the poor may be the preventability of these issues. Tools such as heat-resistant crops, improved warning systems for disasters, emissions reductions plans, international aid, carbon pricing and universal health coverage are only a few of the many ways to fight climate change. With policies such as the Paris Climate Agreement and what the World Bank calls “rapid, inclusive, climate-smart development,” informed decisions about climate change today can decrease sources of poverty in the near future.

– Cleo Krejci

Photo: Flickr

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Radio Used to Gain Support for Women’s Education in Malawi


The need for developing education in Malawi is continual. For example, in 2010, around 10 percent of primary aged children were not in school, and the primary school repetition rate reported in at 24 percent for boys and 29 percent for girls.

Girls in Malawi are exceptionally more vulnerable to a lack of education than boys. In fact, 32 percent of girls aged 14 to 17 are not in school compared to 23 percent of boys this age. Additionally, while 72 percent of boys 15 and older are literate, only 51 percent of women in this age group can read and write.

Part of this gap is caused by the high child marriage rate in Malawi, which is 11th highest in the world. UNICEF reports that approximately 50 percent of Malawian girls marry before they turn 18. Fortunately, this year the Malawian government moved to make marriage legal only after a woman is 18 years old.

Marshall Dyson, founder of the Girl Child Education Movement, is one of many Malawians who recognizes the need for resolution of the educational gender disparity. Dyson’s idea incorporated broadcasting an open discussion of child marriage and girls’ education over the radio. Both men and women of a variety of ages and backgrounds participated in the talk.

The discussion about girls’ education in Malawi broadcasted over Radio Islam, the only Islamic radio station in Malawi. Dyson strategically chose this platform since Muslims rested at risk of discrimination.

Dyson got his start in radio via an internship with Kumakomo Community Radio Station in Zimbabwe. There he served as the content manager of 12 volunteers.

The impact of this position is especially significant, considering that radio acts as the main source of news for most Malawians. According to USAID, the two-hour broadcast “was a collaboration across the YALI and Mandela Washington Fellows networks, and with Regional Leadership Center participants — young leaders between 18 and 35 enrolled in USAID-supported leadership training programs in sub-Saharan Africa.” Around three million people tuned in.

USAID states that “the Muslim Association of Malawi, who attended the event, agreed to open new offices in rural areas where communities can access up-to-date information about education and scholarship opportunities for girls.”

Education in Malawi still has much room for improvement, and humanitarians like Marshall Dyson act as major catalysts in that process. Through work such as his, Malawi is destined to achieve higher standards of education than ever before.

– Emma Tennyson

Photo: Flickr