Tobacco and global poverty have an often overlooked connection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in many low-income countries, spending on tobacco products often represent more than 10 percent of total household expenditure.”
The WHO, the U.N. and other international organizations have recognized and researched this link to decrease tobacco use and poverty rates. Here are five ways tobacco control reduces poverty globally:
1. Tobacco control will relieve financial hardships.
Tobacco addictions exacerbate an already stressful financial situation for those living in poverty.
Families, as a result, have less to spend on food, education, healthcare and other necessities. Bangladesh, for example, spends 10 times the amount on tobacco than on education. Tobacco control reduces poverty by helping families spend less on tobacco, freeing up more income to spend on necessities.
2. Tobacco control will save lives.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 6 million tobacco-related deaths worldwide per year. Tobacco users die 10 years earlier than non-users. Smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Tobacco control is known as one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption. Its implementation would reduce the amount of smoking-related illnesses, keeping more workers in the labor force and ease health care expenditures for families.
3. Tobacco control will reduce exploitation.
Tobacco also affects those who produce it. Farmers who produce tobacco on a small-scale in developing countries depend heavily on the tobacco industry. Although large corporations provide credit for farmers, including seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and technological support, they expect the farmers to forgo profits and sell at the company’s contract price. This is further evidence that tobacco control reduces poverty.
Furthermore, farmers’ children have saved the tobacco industry an estimated $1.2 billion in production costs through unpaid child labor. The industry employs 63 percent of children in tobacco-farming families, preventing 10-14 percent from attending school for work’s sake.
The lack of education drives individuals deeper into poverty. Tobacco control reduces poverty not only by giving farmers better opportunities to provide for themselves, but also eliminating the need for children to sacrifice school for work, ultimately granting them the chance to move up social classes in the future.
4. Tobacco control will improve economies.
Tobacco takes away 1-2 percent of the world’s GDP annually. A 2011 WHO report found that governments can introduce effective tobacco control measures for as little as $0.11 per person per year. If governments allocated the extra revenue from such taxes to their health budgets, WHO found this year in a report that “public expenditure on health would increase by four percent globally.”
Currently, the costs of tobacco production outweigh the profits. For example, although Tanzania earns $50 million from tobacco sales annually, the African country spends $40 million on health care for tobacco-related cancers.
Tobacco control in the form of taxes would increase government revenue and funds for the poor.
5. Tobacco control will help the achieve the SDGs.
The U.N.’s Division for Sustainable Development seeks to reduce poverty and coordinate the 17 internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aforementioned effects of tobacco control directly align themselves with the SDGs, as they include no poverty or hunger, good health and well-being, quality education and economic growth worldwide by 2030.
Because of its negative byproducts, tobacco use is considered a hindrance to global development.
However, with proper tobacco control, individuals, governments and organizations believe it can provide sustainable benefits.
– Ashley Leon
Photo: Pixabay
Brick Kilns in Bangladesh Reduce Emissions and Poverty
Poor children who drop out of school to feed their families become a source of cheap labor for kiln owners in the northwestern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. These children often develop health problems as a result of long-term exposure to smoke and coal dust.
Along the same lines, an openDemocracy article published on July 21, 2016, revealed the cycle of debt and poverty generated by brick kilns in Pakistani Punjab.
Traditional fixed chimney kilns are also an environmental concern. According to the World Bank Group, an estimated 8,000 traditional kilns emit 10 million tons of carbon dioxide every year in Bangladesh alone.
The Bangladeshi HHK project, which began in 2008, has sought to address the many problems associated with traditional kilns. Thanks to financing and support from the World Bank Group and the Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IIDFC), there are now nine HHK brick kilns in Bangladesh.
HHK technology originated in Germany but has been modified to fit local needs. By recycling waste heat from the kiln and using a greener mix of coal and clay to burn the bricks, HHKs use only half as much coal as fixed chimney kilns, reducing pollution by 50 percent.
In addition to being environmentally friendly, the new brick kilns also have incredible economic benefits; their technology allows them to operate year-round. An HHK kiln can produce an average of 11 million more bricks per year than can a fixed chimney kiln. More efficient production means higher income for kiln workers.
Reduced pollution becomes an additional source of revenue for HHK kiln operators. By cutting carbon emissions, they receive certified carbon credits (CERs), which the World Bank Group’s Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) and the Danish government then purchase from them. Kiln owners must spend some of the money they earn from carbon credits on healthcare, better facilities and new safety measures.
The biggest problem with HHKs is the price tag. Building an HHK kiln costs 15 times as much as building a traditional one. It will take an estimated $3 billion to construct 1000 HHKs. However, their many environmental and economic benefits make these improved brick kilns a worthwhile investment.
– Philip Katz
Photo: Flickr
Education and Improving Sanitation in Developing Countries
Sanitation in developing countries is a very pressing issue. Globally, almost 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation and almost 1 billion of these people practice open defecation. Poor sanitation not only leads to the rapid spread of disease, but can also affect education and the environment.
Though improper sanitation affects both rural and urban communities, open defecation is more common in rural communities, often resulting from traditional beliefs or a lack of education.
While traditional beliefs are important, some beliefs can be damaging in terms of sanitation. For instance, some communities in Madagascar believe that using an outhouse can cause an expecting mother to lose her child. There is also a common belief that defecating in the ground is disrespectful to those who have died and been buried.
These myths create an environment where poor sanitation practices like open defecation are commonplace. Unfortunately, these practices can lead to contaminated food and water sources. Consuming contaminated food or water causes high rates of bacterial diarrhea, which is the second largest killer of children under the age of five in the world.
To fight the effects of beliefs that lead to poor sanitation in developing countries, education programs must be implemented. In fact, in addition to avoiding deaths due to diarrhea, communities benefit in multiple ways from hygiene and sanitation education.
According to the World Health Organization, when educated about the link between sanitation, hygiene, health and economic development, communities have a higher demand for improved sanitation facilities. Additionally, when children are not sick from consuming contaminated food or water, they are able to attend school more often and focus on their studies.
For children in developing countries, every moment of schooling can have a large impact. It has even been found that one additional year of schooling can increase a woman’s income potential by up to 20 percent in developing countries.
Yet in order for education effectively improve sanitation in developing countries, it must be implemented correctly. Education has the largest impact on children, and they can take hygiene practices home and show them to their family members. When children eventually grow up to be parents, they can raise their children with the hygiene practices instilled in them.
Education is even possible in illiterate communities. One organization offers sanitation education in the form of puppet shows.
Global sanitation has a lot of room for improvement, but by implementing simple yet effective hygiene and sanitation education programs, the world could take an important step forward in the fight against not only poor sanitation in developing countries, but global poverty as a whole as well.
– Weston Northrop
Photo: Flickr
Bride Burning in India Becomes a Thing of the Past
The human rights tragedy of bride burning occurs when individuals drench and burn a female bride using flammable liquid after she has not procured enough dowry money for the groom’s family. Although bride burning occurs in several countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, the practice is most common in India and has been one of the country’s major issues for decades.
Bride Burning
In India, bride burning accounts for the death of at least one woman every hour. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, over 8,000 reported cases of dowry deaths occurred in 2010. This travesty is related to the ancient tradition of dowry and society’s effects of poverty. A dowry is an exaction of money or material goods given to the groom’s family as a wedding token. Most families who require a high dowry do so to advance their economic situations.
Bride burning occurs when the groom’s family believes they have not received enough money for their son at the time of the wedding. The family of the groom may be from a higher caste, publicly known, or just want more money.
Parental Control
Syed, a man from Chennai, India, blames his family’s high dowry as the reason why he is still unmarried at age 35. When he asked his mother why she demands such a high dowry from the bride, she says, “We have spent so much on you, for your education, for raising you and now we will marry you off and most of the money you earn will go to your wife. So she will benefit from all the money we spent on you. For that, they can pay an amount to have our son.”
This story is an example of the views of many Indian parents. Some males are opposed to dowries but in the end, their parents are the determining factor.
Dowry Prohibition Act
In 1961, India established the Dowry Prohibition Act. The law banned paying and receiving dowries and set penalties for violators. Some amendments have been proposed or added in reference to the Act over the years. Additionally, the Indian Penal Code tailored their law in 1983 to specifically tackle dowry-related issues. The Code also added penalties for harassment of a woman by her marital family.
In 2014, the National Commission for Women in India proposed several amendments to the Dowry Act. These amendments would redefine the word “dowry” and included penalties and provisions for misuse of the act. Although these amendments did not prove favorable, they were a step in the right direction in bringing forward legislation to protect women.
Several women’s rights organizations in India help provide victims with places to stay and counseling sessions. The government also started numerous grass-roots organizations to provide family counseling. The incentive is to promote, mediate, and strengthen family ties.
With the help of global awareness and proposed legislation, India will be able to tackle its patriarchic and misogynistic perspective towards women and the poor. One way to prevent bride burning can be through education, narrowly tailored laws and greater public awareness.
– Needum Lekia
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in South Korea: Remembering a Forgotten Generation
In 2012, speakers and screens worldwide played “Gangnam Style,” a song that illustrated the life of the city that contains seven percent of South Korea’s GDP in an area of 15 square miles. The hit surpassed two billion views on YouTube, but the opulence within the video is in no way representative of the true poverty in South Korea.
However, beneath the luxury, technology, and consumerism that characterize the nation is a forgotten and struggling generation largely responsible for transforming South Korea into a modern economy — the elderly.
Elderly Disproportionately Affected by Poverty in South Korea
Every Thursday, seniors line up for hours outside churches to receive the equivalent to 50 cents and a juice box or a banana. Organizers of this short-term relief program for poverty in South Korea report 300 to 500 seniors at each church every week.
“Half of the elderly is poor in [South] Korea. So it’s really a very serious problem,” Seoul National University professor Ku In-hoe told NPR. The country has the highest elderly poverty rate of the 34 developed nations.
The elderly living in poverty in South Korea earn 50% or less of the median household income, which amounts to U.S. $9,890 per year, according to the IB Times.
The government does provide alleviation with pensions of $200 per month for the retired, but the National Pension Research Institute Survey revealed this amounts to merely a quarter of the minimum income needed for single households. Furthermore, only an estimated 35% of seniors receive the pension.
While 7.9% of households with a retired senior describe their living expenses as “comfortable,” 41.7% rated them as “inadequate” and 20.4% as “extremely inadequate”.
Those living in poverty in South Korea increasingly rely on loans to survive. The national household debt recently topped US $971.6 billion, or 81% of the South Korean GDP.
“Before the 1990s, usually younger people supported their parents during their retirement so it was not that serious of a problem,” Ku added in his interview with the NPR. “But elderly people [now] live longer, and younger people also experience economic difficulty.”
In fact, the declining birth rate in South Korea will stymie the ability of the young to meet the demands of a growing population. The most recent Korean Census shows the elderly rose from seven percent of the population in 2000 to 12% in 2013. Experts expect a continued increase as more baby boomers age and retire.
An organizer of the church and mobile soup kitchen services, Pastor Choi Won, also cites the waning of Confucian traditions as a contributor to the elderly poor in an interview with Korea Portal.
“Gone are the days when children looked after their parents,” he said. One in three seniors lives alone in South Korea.
The South Korean government plans to provide more assistance in the future, as the pension system that began in 1988 evolves. Officials predict, “90 percent of people aged 64 and over will receive pension by 2060,” according to Korea Portal.
In the meantime, churches will continue to provide additional assistance to elders who experience poverty in South Korea.
– Ashley Leon
Photo: Flickr
Environmental Conservation in Kenya Benefits Development
Since Kenya gained independence in 1963, the country has prioritized the protection of its land alongside the development of its people. The focus on environmental conservation in Kenya benefits agriculture, alleviates poverty and promotes sustainable development.
Kenya is rich in biodiversity, containing deserts, savannas, wetlands, coral reefs and over 1 million hectares of closed-canopy indigenous forests. The country has nearly 35,000 known species of plants, animals and microorganisms.
Historically, Kenya has been active in international climate conventions. In 2010, with the adoption of a new constitution, the Kenyan government made environmental conservation a civil obligation. The 2010 constitution takes an ecological perspective to sustainable development, advocating for conservation in the interest of both the earth and humanity.
The Need for Environmental Conservation in Kenya
Environmental management and rehabilitation strategies are essential in Kenya, as 70% of the country’s workers are employed in agriculture. In addition to this, ecotourism makes up nearly 20% of the country’s GDP.
Despite Kenya’s economic reliance on environmental health, 80% of the country’s land is arid or semi-arid. Only a small percentage of land is suitable for growing crops, and even these fertile areas are fragile. With poor agricultural management, the topsoil is easily washed away.
Kenya’s poorest are the most likely to live in arid regions. Poverty cyclically increases with the scarcity of productive soil, clean water, effective sanitation and market opportunities. Without these critical resources, the poor are unable to improve their livelihoods.
Environmental conservation in Kenya is key to its development. While enforcing conservation is challenging due to population pressures, raising public awareness of environmental issues could also raise support for such measures.
As smallholder farmers seek arable land, they encroach on Kenya’s indigenous forests. Because of Kenya’s richness in non-timber forest products such as medicinal plants, essential oils and beeswax, the destruction of its forests harms both its wildlife and its economy. Conserving the forests is pivotal to protecting both Kenya’s resources and its 50 endangered species.
The beautiful mangrove forests and coral reefs that line Kenya’s Indian Ocean border are also a substantial form of revenue for the country, providing both ecotourism destinations and ecosystem services.
Communities Work Together for Sustainable Conservation
To further promote the ecological perspective of Kenya’s government, the Nature Conservancy and the Northern Rangelands Trust have collaborated to develop community conservancies in the northern semi-arid grasslands. These conservancies cover three million hectares, within which over 200,000 people from 17 different ethnic tribes reside. They strive to help Kenyan communities engage in environmental conservation.
The conservancies protect communal land for livestock and wildlife, teach grazing management techniques and provide opportunities for alternative income sources such as tourist lodges and campsites. The Northern Rangelands Trust also helps connect pastoralists to their markets, helping them access fair prices for their sustainably raised livestock.
Environmental conservation in Kenya greatly benefits its economic and social development. Sustainable development can help Kenya achieve the Kenya Vision for 2030, transforming the country into a clean, secure, middle-income nation.
– Larkin Smith
Photo: Flickr
The Rise and Impact of Renewable Energy in Africa
Renewable energy in Africa is one of the continent’s most promising industries. The Africa Progress Panel acts as one of the many entities responsible for making renewable energy such a priority across the continent.
The Africa Progress Panel
The Africa Progress Panel is run by 10 members and founded in 2008. Kofi Annan, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize and one-time United Nations Secretary-General, serves as chairman for the panel.
The remaining members come from all walks of life and numerous professional backgrounds. Politicians, economists and advocates representing organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank make up the Africa Progress Panel.
The overarching mission of the panel is to “advocate for equitable and sustainable development for Africa.” The organization’s advocacy covers numerous areas, including agriculture and education, but the group’s most recent focus is energy.
Africa and Renewable Energy
Africa’s natural resources represent a great opportunity for renewable energy to prosper in the continent, but millions of Africans continue to live without access to electricity. The role of the Africa Progress Panel is to influence African governments and international entities, such as The World Bank, to invest in low-carbon or renewable energy projects that move away from the dangers of fossil fuels and bring quick and widespread energy access to citizens.
Caroline Kende-Robb, the Africa Progress Panel’s executive director, wrote in an editorial piece that the panel hopes by 2030 energy will be available worldwide. The Africa Progress Panel’s 2015 “Power, People, Planet” edition of their annual publication — the Africa Progress Report — focused on achieving this goal.
Power, People, Planet
In this report, the panel outlines a number of proposals to governments, organizations and companies both inside and outside of Africa. These recommendations include terminating subsidies for fossil fuels, creating new urban centers with renewable energy in mind, setting higher goals for energy production, increasing international financing and enhancing both innovation and transparency.
Thankfully, the panel’s recommendations are taking hold — Africa is quickly becoming a hotbed of renewable energy. Solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal projects are expanding across the continent as countries begin surpassing their benchmarks for energy expansion and financing.
A recent article by CNN explores many of these projects, including the Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant in Kenya, which will eventually energize more than 250,000 homes throughout the country, and Rwanda’s Solar Power field, which brings electricity to 15,000 households.
Poverty-ending Potential
These new initiatives in renewable energy in Africa have the potential to end poverty for millions of Africans. According to the Africa Progress Panel’s Africa Progress Report 2015 — Power, People, Planet, new renewable energy bring “prices as low as US$1-2/kWh, implying cost reductions of 80-90 percent”.
Many Africans are extremely dependent on agriculture, as it is one of the continent’s largest industries. The Africa Progress Report 2015 expressed that the inconsistent availability of energy is damaging yields for farmers and forcing them to use techniques that are harmful to the environment. New technology will not only bring electricity to countless homes, it will also re-energize agriculture in Africa by helping to produce more food and protecting the ecosystem.
This rise of renewable energy in Africa will introduce light to the dark, impoverished and long-forgotten corners of the continent.
– Liam Travers
Photo: Pixabay
Australia’s Refugee System and the Nauru Detention Center
Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia without a valid visa are transferred to either the Nauru or Manus Island Detention Center, where they spend an average of 445 days behind bars.
Australian law dictates that there is no limit on the length of time a refugee may be held in a detention center.
This militarized system of dealing with refugees is designed for the ease of processing on staff. It is also easier to sell to other countries as “effective” rather than identifying and adapting the Australian refugee system to current changing global migration patterns.
Despite criticism that its refugee system is inhumane, the Australian government’s methods in their detention centers are often envied and copied by other countries, particularly because of the hostile mood toward refugees in recent years.
In contrast to Germany, which accepted over one million refugees in 2015, Australia placed only around 13,750 refugees in their Humanitarian Program in the 2015-2016 year.
Recently, the Nauru Detention Center, in particular, has come under scrutiny since the release of around 2,000 staff incident reports from the Center. These detail, among other things, sexual and physical abuse of refugees as well as self-harm among refugees.
In July 2015, there was an average of one incident of a refugee self-harming every two days. These “incidents” ranged from slashing wrists or overdosing on pills to self-immolation.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton stated in a press release that refugees lied about the incidents of sexual abuse at Nauru Detention Center and deliberately self-harmed in order to garner sympathy and speed up their immigration process.
Though the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has resisted holding a royal commission on the state of Nauru Detention Center, Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs called for immediate action on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, calling the Detention Center’s methods illegal and immoral.
Three non-governmental organizations have also petitioned the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse to investigate Nauru, based on the released reports of abuse.
Because the reports on the maltreatment of Nauru Detention Center prisoners were released so recently (first published by The Guardian on August 10th, 2016), there is no current information on whether the Australian government plans to close the detention center or allow it to remain open. There is also a dearth of information on what solutions the government will propose to fix the allegations of sexual and physical abuse to refugees.
Until the mistreatment of asylum seekers at Nauru Detention Center can be investigated thoroughly, proposed solutions are based on testimony alone. These solutions include improved living conditions, faster processing, and more visitations between refugees and any relatives/loved ones who live on the mainland. An increase in healthcare, especially mental healthcare, for those living in the detention center is also a proposed solution.
– Bayley McComb
Photo: Flickr
Circle of Sisterhood: Global Impact
Circle of Sisterhood was founded in 2010 by Ginny Carroll. She was inspired by the best-selling book, Half the Sky, which focuses on women’s education around the globe. The Circle of Sisterhood website quotes the aforementioned book which states, “one study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty. Schooling is often a precondition for girls and women to stand up against injustice, and for women to be integrated into the economy.”
Carroll saw the Greek community as perfect volunteers for her mission as “they’re already organized, they already understand philanthropy, they already give millions of dollars a year to domestic work… the vision was, this was a way for all sorority women… to have a global effect.”
Sorority chapters on college campuses around the nation who choose to participate as volunteers for Circle of Sisterhood raise funds to build schools and create scholarships for girls and women around the globe. Chapters may opt to host a bake sale, trivia night, or any other fundraising event to collect donations from fellow students. Many campuses even host screenings of the documentary version of Half the Sky to inspire more women to volunteer.
According to Circle of Sisterhood website, “as college educated women, we know the value of achieving an education… every girl in the world deserves the opportunity to go to school.” Considering that only around seven percent of the world’s population currently holds a college degree, many sorority women feel it is their duty to try to spread their educational good fortune.
As of 2015, Circle of Sisterhood had already impacted 17 countries and built five new schools, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and others. The organization has also raised almost $500,000 in grants.
After six years, sorority women involved in Circle of Sisterhood have continued to show their gratitude for their own educations by helping other women and girls to achieve the same.
– Carrie Robinson
Photo: Flickr
Five Ways Tobacco Control Reduces Poverty
Tobacco and global poverty have an often overlooked connection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in many low-income countries, spending on tobacco products often represent more than 10 percent of total household expenditure.”
The WHO, the U.N. and other international organizations have recognized and researched this link to decrease tobacco use and poverty rates. Here are five ways tobacco control reduces poverty globally:
1. Tobacco control will relieve financial hardships.
Tobacco addictions exacerbate an already stressful financial situation for those living in poverty.
Families, as a result, have less to spend on food, education, healthcare and other necessities. Bangladesh, for example, spends 10 times the amount on tobacco than on education. Tobacco control reduces poverty by helping families spend less on tobacco, freeing up more income to spend on necessities.
2. Tobacco control will save lives.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 6 million tobacco-related deaths worldwide per year. Tobacco users die 10 years earlier than non-users. Smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Tobacco control is known as one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption. Its implementation would reduce the amount of smoking-related illnesses, keeping more workers in the labor force and ease health care expenditures for families.
3. Tobacco control will reduce exploitation.
Tobacco also affects those who produce it. Farmers who produce tobacco on a small-scale in developing countries depend heavily on the tobacco industry. Although large corporations provide credit for farmers, including seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and technological support, they expect the farmers to forgo profits and sell at the company’s contract price. This is further evidence that tobacco control reduces poverty.
Furthermore, farmers’ children have saved the tobacco industry an estimated $1.2 billion in production costs through unpaid child labor. The industry employs 63 percent of children in tobacco-farming families, preventing 10-14 percent from attending school for work’s sake.
The lack of education drives individuals deeper into poverty. Tobacco control reduces poverty not only by giving farmers better opportunities to provide for themselves, but also eliminating the need for children to sacrifice school for work, ultimately granting them the chance to move up social classes in the future.
4. Tobacco control will improve economies.
Tobacco takes away 1-2 percent of the world’s GDP annually. A 2011 WHO report found that governments can introduce effective tobacco control measures for as little as $0.11 per person per year. If governments allocated the extra revenue from such taxes to their health budgets, WHO found this year in a report that “public expenditure on health would increase by four percent globally.”
Currently, the costs of tobacco production outweigh the profits. For example, although Tanzania earns $50 million from tobacco sales annually, the African country spends $40 million on health care for tobacco-related cancers.
Tobacco control in the form of taxes would increase government revenue and funds for the poor.
5. Tobacco control will help the achieve the SDGs.
The U.N.’s Division for Sustainable Development seeks to reduce poverty and coordinate the 17 internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aforementioned effects of tobacco control directly align themselves with the SDGs, as they include no poverty or hunger, good health and well-being, quality education and economic growth worldwide by 2030.
Because of its negative byproducts, tobacco use is considered a hindrance to global development.
However, with proper tobacco control, individuals, governments and organizations believe it can provide sustainable benefits.
– Ashley Leon
Photo: Pixabay
Top Five Facts You Should Know about Haitian Refugees
As the poorest country in the northern hemisphere, Haiti continues to strive for economic and political stability years after the quake. While the Haitian government rebuilds Haiti’s economic and social infrastructure, the U.S. and other countries play a major role in supporting the integration and well-being of Haitian refugees abroad.
One way to ensure that the U.S. provides vital humanitarian support to refugees is by expanding the International Affairs Budget. The funds of the International Affairs Budget are imperative to helping refugees and the world’s poor but unfortunately, this resource is grossly underfunded.
To help alleviate the Haitian refugee crisis, call or email your congressional leaders in support of increased funding for the International Affairs Budget.
– Daniela Sarabia
Photo: Flickr