Like all countries, Iceland is affected by a number of diseases that harm the nation’s citizens, putting their lives at risk. For the most part, the circulatory system is the most in danger for the Nordic island nation, as data published by Statistics Iceland suggests. In fact, close to half of the number of Icelanders who passed away in 2009 died of ischemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular disease.
Of course, there are a number of other top diseases in Iceland about which the country is most concerned, other than ones that affect the circulatory system. In 2009 again, for example, 175 people died of diseases that affected the respiratory system, such as cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, and emphysema.
Additionally, cancer affects a large percentage of the population, though one could argue that cancer poses a problem for many developed countries. According to Global Health Grove, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders are included in the top diseases in Iceland, causing the most harm overall for the country’s population.
Perhaps most surprising is the large effect of infectious diseases on Icelanders. This is surprising because the country enjoys a well-developed and prosperous economy, with a healthcare system provided by the state. All Icelanders who register for the healthcare system and contribute to it through their taxes are able to enjoy emergency services, screenings and exams, as well as many other services.
Yet, diarrhea, lower respiratory diseases and nutritional disorders still affect the population, killing nearly 200 Icelanders every year. One can look at the risk factors for these diseases and find a correlation. For instance, Iceland is in the top 10 list of countries that have the unhealthiest diets. This can explain the common nutritional disorders and circulatory diseases that killed more than 700 Icelanders in 2009.
Additionally, dietary risks, high blood pressure, and smoking tobacco are the main culprits in killing Icelanders every year.
Iceland has a relatively small population compared to other developed countries, which is why the number of deaths caused by the top diseases in Iceland may seem minuscule. In fact, as of 2017, Iceland only has around 333,000 people living on the island.
Until risk factors are assessed and accounted for, the diseases listed above will continue to pose a threat to the small population. Luckily, health services in Iceland are working hard to warn the dangers of an unhealthy diet and cigarette smoking, which will hopefully have a positive effect and limit the number of deaths caused by these factors in years to come.
– Jacqueline Nicole Artz
Photo: Flickr
Hunger in Sudan
Famine has been officially declared as people are dying from hunger in Sudan. The United Nations has said the situation is “desperate” in the Southern state.
Nearly 100,000 people are facing famine so serious that they are at risk of dying in the Southern Unity State of the country. One million people are currently on the border of famine and almost five million are in need of some type of humanitarian aid.
On February 22, 2017, the United Nations spoke out about the rising crisis of hunger in Sudan is leading to rising deaths. Five million South Sudanese do not have an adequate amount of food and that number is expected to rise. Over one million of those are severely malnourished children who are at immediate risk of dying.
South Sudan is a country of around 12 million people in Northern Africa. Around 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas, with more than 30 percent of the children under the age of five being undernourished. The average life expectancy is 55.7 years.
South Sudan became an independent nation from the Republic of Sudan in 2011 but has faced a civil war since 2013 that continues to this day. Many aid workers in the country have faced violence because of the ongoing war, with some even having been forced to leave the country.
The United Nations and its humanitarian partner organizations want to assist nearly six million people in 2017 in South Sudan, as well as other countries struggling with the same crises. The situation is expected to get worse in the coming months, due to the height of the lean season, if something is not done immediately. Emphasis has been placed on the fact that these types of issues are stemming from disputes, therefore they are preventable.
Some organizations working to provide aid for hunger in Sudan are UNICEF (The United Nations International Children’s Fund), FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Action Against Hunger, and WFP (The World Food Programme). These organizations work to provide a variety of types of support to those who are affected. UNICEF, focusing specifically on children, is working to provide treatment for children facing extreme malnutrition. FAO is working to make food more secure and to increase incomes. Action Against Hunger is working to provide emergency care and treatment. WFP is working to provide nutritious school meals, general nutritional support and provides money transfers for displaced people in need of food.
– Shannon Elder
Photo: Flickr
“Small Smurfs, Big Goals” and US Sustainable Development Goals
“Smurfs: The Lost Village” and the U.N. are working together on the Small Smurfs, Big Goals campaign. The campaign aims to promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The International Day of Happiness, which the U.N. has celebrated since 2013 on March 20, was central to this campaign.
Demi Lovato, Joe Manganeilio and Mandy Patinkin, three of the main voice actors from the “Smurfs: The Lost Village” movie, came to the International Model U.N. Conference to honor a few students for their projects to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Karan Jerath, a 20-year-old, created a device to protect marine life from oil spills. Sarina Davin, a 17-year-old, helped with a U.N. girl empowerment program. Noor Samee, also 17, blogs for UNICEF about social justice issues.
Patinkin, who plays Papa Smurf in the film, congratulated the students at the conference.
“On behalf of all Smurfdom,” he said, “thank you for your work in awakening everything, in your community, through your social media, all over the world, in the ways that you have chosen to encourage people everywhere to make this world a better place for those who are so vulnerable in every way imaginable.”
Each of the students received a symbolic key to Smurf Village.
The visit to the International Model U.N. Conference was one way the Small Smurfs, Big Goals campaign honored the International Day of Happiness and the SDGs. On March 20, the Smurf cast and the U.N. lit the Empire State building blue.
On the Small Smurfs, Big Goals website, visitors can take a quiz to find which Smurf they are most like based on the issues they care about. Then, they can share their smurfs and support or learn more about what they can do to support these issues.
The campaign also has a lesson plan for elementary school teachers to use “Smurfs: Lost Village” to teach children about SDGs.
World leaders in September 2015 adopted the SDGs for 2030 and implemented them in January 2016. The SDGs build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs.) The goals focus on education, equality, access to jobs and other key issues.
– Jennifer Taggart
Photo: Flickr
Hunger In Laos
Laos is a small country populated with mountains and more than 10,000 rural villages, situated on the Asian continent. It is not hard to understand why the people of Laos have a hard time with nourishment, as many of the rural villages lie in remote areas of the country that have trouble getting access to healthy food and clean water.
Hunger in Laos is a problem for the varied communities living in the country because of the threats it poses to health. While the country has worked on improving the state of malnourishment, the Global Hunger Index reports that the country has a high percentage of hungry people.
Facets of Hunger in Laos
The high level of hunger in Laos is attributed to factors like the lack of access to food sources and properly sanitized water. In fact, around one-fifth of the population of Laos consumes less than the minimum dietary requirements set by the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
The U.N. reports that malnutrition in Laos illustrates the inequality in the country, especially when one takes into account the regions and groups who demonstrate the most need.
Rural communities are common in the mountainous regions, but the areas that lack road access are typically those hit hardest with hunger in Laos. Furthermore, many of these areas report children with stunted growth and insufficient weight gain, both common results from undernourished communities.
In conjunction with the U.N.’s MDGs, Laos has halved the proportion of hungry people living in the country. However, more than 11 percent of rural households still report a lack of food sources, resulting in poor consumption habits.
There is still hope. With help from the U.N., the government is steadily moving towards the goal of decreasing the percentage of people who experience hunger in Laos. In recent years, rapid economic growth and agricultural prosperity have had great effects on the population, contributing to the notable decrease in the proportion of undernourished people.
Success has been slow but is expected to increase. With help from the U.N. and programs like the National Zero Hunger Challenge, which works to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, Laos can decrease the number of hungry people in the country and ensure the population is living a healthy lifestyle.
– Jacqueline Nicole Artz
Photo: Flickr
Throughout the Years: 5 Facts About Poverty in Montserrat
Montserrat is a Caribbean island that is a part of the Lesser Antilles chain and a British Overseas Territory. Poverty in Montserrat reached its peak after numerous volcanic eruptions, resulting in significant damage to the south of the island and to social and economic structures. Drastic improvements have been made through grants, loans and support from the community, as the citizens of Montserrat rebuild areas of weakness and work to return to life before natural disasters struck. Here are five facts about poverty in Montserrat.
Despite the series of eruptions that impacted two-thirds of the tiny island, internal damage and the rate of poverty in Montserrat has improved immensely. Since the crisis, British taxpayers have invested large amounts of aid toward repair efforts for the island, which have taken the form of a new airport and housing for displaced residents in the region.
– Mikaela Frigillana
Photo: Flickr
Can Cash Handouts Alleviate Poverty in India?
When India gained independence in 1947, around 70 percent of the population lived in poverty. By 2012, this statistic decreased to only 22 percent. However, as the second-largest population in the world — more than 1.3 billion people — 22 percent means hundreds of millions of people are struggling with poverty in India.
In order to alleviate this, India is considering a Universal Basic Income (UBI), which involves a government making payments to its citizens no matter their employment status.
India’s annual Economic Survey proposed giving 7,620 rupees per year to citizens, which translates to about $113 USD. While this idea may appear radical, the report argues differently. Thus far, other welfare strategies have hit dead-ends: rather than bring people out of poverty, people felt excluded while misallocations and leakages plagued the welfare system. Because of this, the idea of a UBI has been met with surprising enthusiasm.
What are the positives of UBI?
According to India’s Economic Survey, there are many. To name a few:
In summary, UBI promotes liberty, equality, and productivity.
What are the negatives?
In summary, a UBI may remove the motivation to work and prove to be too expensive. Regardless, UBI will not be implemented any time soon, if at all.
The coordinator of the India Network for Basic Income, Sarath Davala, believes the government will not use the UBI model outright, but a modified version of it. For example, he said a greater likelihood would be “cash payments to the poorest 10 percent of the country first and then to 40 percent.” The universal aspect of UBI, then, may not result in being so universal.
Advocates, however, remain hopeful. As a test-run in 2011, a UBI was given to every man, woman, and child in eight villages in Madhya Pradesh for 18 months. When results came in, nutrition and healthcare among children had improved dramatically, along with school attendance and performance. Not only this, but the freedom to make decisions was more significant than the money itself. As the Economic Survey pointed out, when people carry personal finances, they also carry personal choice.
What the government will decide remains to be seen, but a UBI may very well lead to the eradication of poverty in India.
– Brenna Yowell
Photo: Flickr
5 Things to Know About Childhood Hearing Loss
Childhood hearing loss is at an all-time high. The number of people with hearing impairments increased from 42 million in 1985 to 360 million in 2011. Hearing loss can be particularly hard on children since it affects the child’s ability to develop speech, language, and social skills. The WHO is working on treating childhood hearing loss, and here are some things to know about the condition.
Thirty-two million children are living with disabling hearing loss, and most of them are living in impoverished countries. More than 90 percent of chronic ear infections are in the Southeast Asian, Western Pacific, and African countries, as well as among the ethnic minorities of the Pacific Rim.
Three-quarters of children under fifteen years of age in low and middle-income countries have hearing loss that is preventable, but due to lack of access to healthcare, many children in impoverished countries do not get the luxury of treatment. Some examples of congenital causes of hearing loss, which are usually present before or during birth, are low birth weight, birth asphyxia, inappropriate use of drugs during pregnancy, or severe jaundice. Some causes of childhood hearing loss occur during the child’s lifetime and include infectious diseases like meningitis, measles, mumps, chronic ear infections, and collection of fluid in the ears. Chronic otitis, which describes any type of infection and inflammation in the middle ear, is one of the most common causes of childhood hearing loss.
There are many ways childhood hearing loss can be treated. If a baby younger than six months has signs of hearing loss, the baby should receive intervention right away. The earlier the intervention, the greater the improvement to a child’s development. Developing countries could also introduce more hearing aids, since only 10 percent are given the amount that they need.
There have been success stories about children being cured of their deafness. Recently, 16 Palestinian children were able to hear after Israeli doctors gave them cochlear implants. The Peres Center for Peace coordinated these 16 successful surgeries over the course of last year.
Since most hearing loss is preventable, how can people prevent their children from permanent ear damage? Providing better healthcare to impoverished countries can decrease the likelihood of children receiving ear infections that could result in hearing loss. Some precautionary measures include: immunizing children from diseases such as measles, meningitis, rubella, and mumps, immunizing mothers to prevent their unborn babies from receiving those diseases, providing hygienic practices including healthy ear care, screening children for otitis media and reducing exposure to loud noises.
Childhood hearing loss can be preventable and treatable if access to healthcare is provided.
– Emma Majewski
Photo: Flickr
What One Woman Is Doing to Bring Change to Poverty
Sarah Emerson is the Director of Women Empowered Initiative at PCI Global and is the driving force behind the idea that women’s participation in the global economy can allow them to live up to their full economic and social potential while reducing global poverty.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), more than 27 percent of the gross domestic product in developing countries is lost each year due to women being denied entry into the global economy.
Women like Emerson are driving change while empowering other women to do the same. These women are lifting their families out of poverty and transforming businesses and economies around the world.
Reducing Poverty Worldwide
The initiative has been a mechanism for empowering over 400,000 women around the world to pool their resources and become active participants in their communities while addressing food insecurity and reducing the impact of poverty. It is funded in part by USAID and focuses on self-sustaining women’s savings groups by building self-worth and not just capital. The initiative also builds leadership skills like goal setting, action planning and decision making about investments. These skills allow women to take the lead in the most important areas of their lives.
Emerson continues to bring change to poverty, while addressing many other economic issues, through her campaigns and future development programs launched all over the world, including San Diego. San Diego is the home for many former refugees, resettled by the U.S. State Department, who need further aid to lift them out of poverty.
PCI Global focuses on women located on the Pacific coast of California who struggle with meeting the basic needs for survival. It also provides empowerment opportunities to low-income ethnic groups who require food, housing and access to medical care to create better standards of living.
PCI Global believes that the initiative has the trajectory to bring change to poverty, one woman and one community at a time.
– Rochelle R. Dean
Photo: Flickr
Government to Pay for High School Education in Ghana
Nana Akufo-Addo, The President of Ghana, ran as a candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the national liberal-conservative party, in the past three election cycles. He was defeated in 2008 and 2012 by candidates from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the national social democratic party. Nevertheless, he defeated the NDC candidates in 2016 after accusations of electoral fraud.
In 2016, the NPP campaigned on a promise of free Senior High School (SHS). President Akufo-Addo has since followed through, assuring Ghanaians the government will fund the costs of public SHS education in Ghana for all those who qualify for entry in the 2017-2018 academic year.
The SHS policy assures no cost to students or families for tuition. Tuition, as well as admission fees, library services, science center fees, computer laboratory fees, examination fees, utility fees are all free. The policy also includes provisions for free textbooks, boarding and meals for full-time and daytime students.
The announcement was made in the President’s speech as a guest of honor at the 60th-anniversary celebration of Akuapeman SHS in the Eastern Region. The initiative has been authorized in hopes of improving the quality of education in Ghana.
Akufo-Addo detailed that a society that wants to develop into a modern, profitable and constructive participant in the global market requires an educated pioneering and labor pool. By that logic, he argues, the nation must enact its educational policies swiftly and effectively.
The President believes that education is the factor limiting the nation’s economic development and, for that reason, is committed to providing a free public SHS education in Ghana.
Along the same lines, the government intends to create incentives for a higher standard of teaching. President Akufo-Addo hopes this initiative will motivate hard work at both ends of the classroom.
Overall, the goal is to provide all children with equitable and accessible education in Ghana.
– Jaime Viens
Photo: Flickr
Top Diseases In Iceland
Like all countries, Iceland is affected by a number of diseases that harm the nation’s citizens, putting their lives at risk. For the most part, the circulatory system is the most in danger for the Nordic island nation, as data published by Statistics Iceland suggests. In fact, close to half of the number of Icelanders who passed away in 2009 died of ischemic heart diseases and cerebrovascular disease.
Of course, there are a number of other top diseases in Iceland about which the country is most concerned, other than ones that affect the circulatory system. In 2009 again, for example, 175 people died of diseases that affected the respiratory system, such as cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, and emphysema.
Additionally, cancer affects a large percentage of the population, though one could argue that cancer poses a problem for many developed countries. According to Global Health Grove, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders are included in the top diseases in Iceland, causing the most harm overall for the country’s population.
Perhaps most surprising is the large effect of infectious diseases on Icelanders. This is surprising because the country enjoys a well-developed and prosperous economy, with a healthcare system provided by the state. All Icelanders who register for the healthcare system and contribute to it through their taxes are able to enjoy emergency services, screenings and exams, as well as many other services.
Yet, diarrhea, lower respiratory diseases and nutritional disorders still affect the population, killing nearly 200 Icelanders every year. One can look at the risk factors for these diseases and find a correlation. For instance, Iceland is in the top 10 list of countries that have the unhealthiest diets. This can explain the common nutritional disorders and circulatory diseases that killed more than 700 Icelanders in 2009.
Additionally, dietary risks, high blood pressure, and smoking tobacco are the main culprits in killing Icelanders every year.
Iceland has a relatively small population compared to other developed countries, which is why the number of deaths caused by the top diseases in Iceland may seem minuscule. In fact, as of 2017, Iceland only has around 333,000 people living on the island.
Until risk factors are assessed and accounted for, the diseases listed above will continue to pose a threat to the small population. Luckily, health services in Iceland are working hard to warn the dangers of an unhealthy diet and cigarette smoking, which will hopefully have a positive effect and limit the number of deaths caused by these factors in years to come.
– Jacqueline Nicole Artz
Photo: Flickr
Top Three Deadliest Diseases in Ireland
Like many developed countries, Ireland, with its green mountainsides and frequent rainfall, is home to many preventable, lifestyle-driven, diseases. Increasingly sedentary lifestyles and high rates of smoking mean the Irish people are susceptible to deadly but often avoidable diseases. Discussed below are the top three deadliest diseases in Ireland and their causes.
Deadliest Diseases in Ireland
1. Coronary Heart Disease
Ireland’s deadliest disease is coronary heart disease, which accounts for eight percent of deaths. While treatment options have improved, preventative measures are even more crucial, as 80 percent of coronary heart disease is preventable. Deaths from the disease have actually halved since the mid-1980s. This is due mostly to lifestyle changes such as eating healthier and exercising.
2. Lung Cancer
Cancer causes 30 percent of deaths in Ireland, six percent of which are due to lung cancer. While lung cancer is only the third most common type of cancer in Ireland, more people die from it than any other type. This makes it one of the deadliest diseases in Ireland. Smoking plays a large role, as it is the number one cause of lung cancer in Ireland, as well as the leading cause of preventable deaths. However, there is good news. Smoking rates have dropped more than seven percent since 2004, due in part to a ban on workplace smoking.
3. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, makes up five percent of deaths in Ireland each year. Smoking is also largely to blame for COPD. Though working or living in areas with large amounts of smoke or dust can also cause it. COPD mostly affects people over the age of 35. There are treatments for COPD that can help improve breathing. However, most doctors recommend lifestyle changes that would prevent further exposure to pollutants.
While Ireland has made significant progress in decreasing the rate of these preventable diseases, they still harm thousands of people each year. Continuing to push for healthy lifestyle changes will help combat the deadliest diseases in Ireland.
– Alexi Worley
Photo: Flickr