Poor health is not only an effect of poverty but also is one of its root causes. This is particularly true for Central America’s second poorest country, Honduras, where 62.8% of the population lives in poverty. Many of the top diseases in Honduras are preventable; however, the fact that Honduras is not a first-world country with good access to health care makes illness more severe.
Without access to affordable health care, a lack of clean water and sanitation methods and a shortage of health centers, the poor are most susceptible to becoming ill from diseases in Honduras.
But what are the top diseases in Honduras?
Diabetes
Diabetes is the second-leading cause of death amongst Hondurans and occurs when a person’s pancreas fails to make enough insulin or does not use insulin correctly. As a result, people who suffer from diabetes often experience an increase in exhaustion, hunger, thirst, urination and weight loss.
For the 3.6 million people who live in rural areas, diabetes is a severe problem and one of the more menacing top diseases in Honduras. While it is an arguably treatable disease in first-world countries, diabetes can be fatal for those who do not live near clinics with adequate testing methods, or for those who do not live near clinics at all. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveals that Latin American clinics rarely have the tools to diagnose diabetes early.
Cerebrovascular and Ischemic Diseases
Cerebrovascular disease causes 6.1% of mortalities in Honduras and refers to any condition that restricts blood flow to the brain, such as stroke, embolism or aneurysm. Ischemia includes coronary heart or artery diseases that usually result in heart attack.
Those who smoke, have high blood pressure, have diabetes, have high cholesterol or are obese are at higher risk of developing a cerebrovascular or ischemic disorder. This is especially concerning for Honduras, where the World Bank reports seeing a rise in overweight individuals eating high-fat diets with decreased levels of physical activity.
Lower Respiratory Diseases and Influenza
According to an NIH study, respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, are the primary cause of death among children five years old or younger living in rural regions.
Tropical regions often see a higher frequency and hospitalization rate for the flu than more northern areas of the world. The study also showed that parainfluenza and influenza were the most prevalent viral agents amid the children surveyed. While the flu is a common and treatable occurrence in the developed world, that is not the case for resource-poor Honduras.
HIV/AIDS
In 2015, there were 20,000 Hondurans living with HIV, 1,000 died due to AIDS and 18,000 children became orphans. Honduras’ most at-risk citizens include sex workers, men who have sex with men, inmates and the ethnic group known as the Garifuna.
An Afro-Caribbean community whose descendants were West African slaves, the Garifuna are not only marginalized from the rest of society but also more likely to live in poverty, experience gender discrimination and lack access to health care or education. These are all contributing factors as to why the Garifuna’s HIV prevalence rate is 4.5% — five times Honduras’ national rate.
Malaria, Dengue Fever and Zika
Some of the top diseases in Honduras are transmitted via mosquitos. Mosquito-born diseases are extremely common in most Latin American countries, including Honduras. Luckily, cases of malaria in Honduras decreased by 78% between 2000 and 2011 due to community awareness education. The government aims to eliminate malaria’s deadliest strain by next year.
In 2013, Honduras experienced a widespread outbreak of Dengue fever which resulted in death in five percent of all cases due to hemorrhage. Although Dengue is typical in urban environments, it is a real concern for Honduras’ rural regions riddled with trash sites and where water is not regularly delivered. With piles of trash and pools of stagnant water, rural Hondurans are at severe risk of being infected.
Currently, there is an outbreak of Zika in Honduras. While many people infected with the Zika virus do not show any symptoms, it can lead to neurological difficulties such as Guillan-Barré syndrome, which causes temporary paralysis, and microcephaly in babies with Zika-infected mothers. Honduras recently declared a state of emergency over Zika after noticing a spike in the infection rate.
– Kristina Evans
Photo: Flickr
The Lord’s Resistance Army Legacy in Northern Uganda
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) took a stronghold in Northern Uganda in 1986. Its leader, Joseph Kony, commanded his troops to overthrow the Ugandan government by abducting thousands of children and forcing them to work for him.
The Lord’s Resistance Army only had access to Northern Uganda, leaving half of the country in disarray while the other side of the country focused on economic and social advancement.
During its malevolent attacks, the LRA was known to kill the weak and old with machetes, swords, or stones. To further elicit fear, Kony would maim victims, leaving his mark on villages.
Kony’s attacks have scarred and uprooted the lives of nearly all Acholi people, who make up the majority of persons living in Northern Uganda. Due to fear, many have taken refuge and fled their homes. Many continued to stay in hiding even after Kony’s attacks became less frequent beginning in 2006.
Due to Joseph Kony’s reign of terror, nearly the entire population of Northern Uganda was displaced. Little was done to ensure that children had access to education, leaving the region with two generations of uneducated youth.
As the Acholi people began to feel safe enough to return to their homes, they became aware of the destruction that happened in their villages. There were no real jobs available, there was no access to education and there was no infrastructure.
Unlike in the rest of Uganda, where children have a chance to receive an education, the dire lack of facilities in Northern Uganda reinforces the cycle of poverty.
Many international organizations are trying to give Acholi children access to education and to help break the dreadful cycle of poverty that is looming over them. For example, War Child is an organization that seeks to ensure that children’s lives are not ruined by war.
War Child is helping by sending 2,000 of the poorest Acholi children to school. This involves training and giving grants to parents, siblings and other family members. In some cases, the grants are given to children directly, so that they may set up their own income-generating enterprises.
The organization is also training teachers in Northern Uganda to teach at a higher standard and to run schools efficiently. War Child also has a Youth Entrepreneurship Operation which provides loans to young Acholi people money to start their own businesses. War Child provides not only funding, but also mentorship and verbal support.
Between getting children in school, hiring and educating teachers and providing entrepreneurship starting blocks, War Child is bringing hope back to a recovering region. The humanitarian community hopes that other organizations will soon be inspired to undertake similar initiatives, in order to help rebuild lives in Northern Uganda.
– Bella Chaffey
Photo: Flickr
6 Facts about Poverty in South Africa
South Africa is a nation with a very deep and turbulent history. Since the official end of apartheid in 1994, the country has been struggling to combat entrenched poverty and inequalities. In order to further understand the issues, here are six facts about poverty in South Africa:
While poverty in South Africa is still a large problem, the recent government and international initiatives have had a dramatic effect on poverty reduction and economic redistribution.
– John English
Photo: Flickr
The Hippo Roller: A Water Collection Solution
Almost 1 billion people in Africa struggle for access to water. According to the Water Project, this is equal to one in eight of the world’s population. Water supplies are often many miles from the village. Women and children must travel to collect water and carry full buckets back home.
However, solutions like the Hippo Roller are helping revolutionize this process.
When water supply points are as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) from home, water is often carried in 20-liter (5 gallons) buckets balanced on top of heads. The Hippo Roller is a simple solution that allows the people who collect water to collect up to five times more.
The Hippo Roller is a 90 liter (24 gallon) container that is rolled along the ground. The water collectors are usually elders, women and children. Instead of being carried on the head, as usual, the water is rolled–either pushed or pulled. This allows more people to access water, which improves food security and income generation.
Two South Africans, Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker, invented the Hippo Roller in 1991. They both knew the water crisis’ effects on daily life. The Hippo Roller Project was established in 1994 with the mission of “helping communities to improve access to water–90 liters at a time.”
As of Sept. 2015, there had been 46,000 Hippo Rollers distributed in 20 countries. This has helped 300,000 people in families where the average size is seven. The ability to roll the water instead of carrying it reduces injuries and gives more time for school and other activities.
Grant Gibbs, Project Leader for Hippo Water Roller Project explains that women in rural Africa can spend up to 26 percent of their time collecting water. This automatically includes the children. When women can collect more water at a time, they can spend more of their day on other important tasks. When children are needed less to collect water, they can go to school.
The innovation of transporting more water more efficiently makes more “time available for education, household tasks and food production.” The design allows for hygienic collection and storage of water and even irrigation of crops.
– Rhonda Marrone
Photo: Hippo Roller
Poverty in Central America: Advancements and Needs
The area of Latin or Central America includes the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Central America also includes the Caribbean Islands. Poverty in Central America is pervasive: half the population lives below the poverty line.
In rural areas, the figure rises to two-thirds. Seventy-five percent of rural people struggle to meet basic food needs. Income from traditional exports, agriculture and textiles is in the control of a few of the most powerful and richest.
Despite considerable advancements in wealth distribution, vast inequalities still exist. According to a report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), “The poorest 20% of the population receive only 3% of all income; the wealthiest 20% receive 60%.”
The farms generally belong to the wealthy; the poor work on them. Small farmers often work deteriorating plots that produce low yields. This leads to food insecurity, hunger and the need for other wage-producing work.
Rural poverty in Central America is widespread, but percentages differ within separate countries.
Honduras is the worst affected: 75% of the country’s rural population lives in poverty and 63% live in extreme poverty.
Guatemala is next: 54% of its rural population lives in poverty.
Nicaragua and El Salvador both have 47% of their rural population living in poverty.
Panama has 37% and Costa Rica has 23% of rural poverty rates.
Indigenous populations have the highest rates of poverty in Central America. They also have the lowest income and lack access to much-needed services. Some of these include housing, schools and healthcare.
Indigenous peoples account for more than 40% of the total population in Guatemala and 75% of them live in poverty. In Panama, indigenous peoples make up eight percent of the population and 95% live in poverty.
Agriculture is a major employer of the rural poor, providing jobs for more than 30%. As a result, IFAD believes that agriculture could be used to help ease poverty in Central America. The area is a major producer of the world’s bananas, coffee, maize and sugar.
IFAD reports, however, that the area is “highly vulnerable” to the world market. It is also vulnerable to other factors it has no power over, such as climate change and natural disasters.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced in June that there has been much progress in reducing poverty in Central America. Despite these advancements, the area still desperately needs more social services.
UNDP called on the governments of the area to invest in “better employment opportunities, in financial systems that prevent over-indebtedness and reducing gender gaps.”
In a press release on June 16, 2016, UNDP stressed that “The main threat to progress in Latin America and the Caribbean is the relapse of millions of families back into poverty.”
The poor and those who are not considered living in poverty but who are not cushioned from external forces need four important elements to keep them from falling back into poverty: public security systems, healthcare systems, economic assets and job skills.
– Rhonda Marrone
Photo: Pixabay
Child Poverty in Japan: A Hidden Epidemic
The media covers news regarding poverty in developing countries, but rarely does one see media coverage of poverty in a first-world country like Japan.
First-world countries are defined by their developed infrastructures, capitalist economies and mass industrialization. Because it is a first-world country, there is an assumption that the level of poverty in Japan would be relatively low, yet this is not the case.
In fact, in 2014 the Japanese government found that the relative poverty rate (those who live on less than half of the national median income) was 16 percent of the total population of Japan. According to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the national median income of Japan is around ¥2.75 million, which converts to $27,323.
The majority of people who fall in that 16 percent do not have permanent employment contracts, instead relying on irregular work at construction sites or manufacturing production lines. So while unemployment in Japan falls below 4 percent, irregular and part-time workers (who fall in the relative poverty rate category) comprise around 40 percent of the Japanese workforce.
Another hidden hardship for the country is the amount of child poverty in Japan.
One in six children lives in poverty in a dual-parent family; one in two children live in poverty in Japan with a single parent.
A large contributing factor to child poverty in Japan is the cost of education. Parents living on less than ¥3mil a year struggle to afford the ¥200,000 a year required for their child to attend public high school full time in addition to rent, utilities, food, clothing and other miscellaneous expenses.
Inability to get the education they deserve deprives the Japanese workforce of the skilled laborers necessary to keep the economy thriving.
Community centers, such as the one established in Saitama by the Saitama Youth Support Net, a nonprofit organization run by university student volunteers, help combat the problem of child poverty in Japan by offering free tutoring services to financially strapped families who cannot afford expensive schools or private tutors for their children.
Other anti-child-poverty advocates have created a petition on Change.org for a state-backed scholarship program for poor families; as of June 2016, it had garnered over 5,000 supporters.
Hopefully, more progress will be made to help make education more accessible to all children in Japan in the future.
– Bayley McComb
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Iraq Refugees
Former bustling cities like Ramadi, Iraq are now left in shambles and deserted due to the atrocities of war. Recently, the city of Fallujah has been liberated from ISIS control. However, 85,000 residents have been uprooted. Even within their country’s borders, many Iraqi refugees are under refugee status because of the enormous problem of internal displacement. Here are 10 facts about Iraq refugees:
Though the 10 facts about Iraq refugees are disheartening, triumphant work has been accomplished thus far. UNICEF has reported two million people newly displaced by conflict received Rapid Response Mechanism kits within 72 hours of the trigger for response and 131,200 children received structured, sustained resilience or psychosocial support programs.
In recent news, Mosul is the next city to be perused by the Iraqi government to release the residents of Mosul from ISIS rule. If the mission is successfully completed, it would be a severe moral and strategic loss for ISIS and a triumph for Iraq refugees wanting to return home.
– Mariana Camacho López
Photo: Pixabay
Top Diseases in Honduras
Poor health is not only an effect of poverty but also is one of its root causes. This is particularly true for Central America’s second poorest country, Honduras, where 62.8% of the population lives in poverty. Many of the top diseases in Honduras are preventable; however, the fact that Honduras is not a first-world country with good access to health care makes illness more severe.
Without access to affordable health care, a lack of clean water and sanitation methods and a shortage of health centers, the poor are most susceptible to becoming ill from diseases in Honduras.
But what are the top diseases in Honduras?
Diabetes
Diabetes is the second-leading cause of death amongst Hondurans and occurs when a person’s pancreas fails to make enough insulin or does not use insulin correctly. As a result, people who suffer from diabetes often experience an increase in exhaustion, hunger, thirst, urination and weight loss.
For the 3.6 million people who live in rural areas, diabetes is a severe problem and one of the more menacing top diseases in Honduras. While it is an arguably treatable disease in first-world countries, diabetes can be fatal for those who do not live near clinics with adequate testing methods, or for those who do not live near clinics at all. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveals that Latin American clinics rarely have the tools to diagnose diabetes early.
Cerebrovascular and Ischemic Diseases
Cerebrovascular disease causes 6.1% of mortalities in Honduras and refers to any condition that restricts blood flow to the brain, such as stroke, embolism or aneurysm. Ischemia includes coronary heart or artery diseases that usually result in heart attack.
Those who smoke, have high blood pressure, have diabetes, have high cholesterol or are obese are at higher risk of developing a cerebrovascular or ischemic disorder. This is especially concerning for Honduras, where the World Bank reports seeing a rise in overweight individuals eating high-fat diets with decreased levels of physical activity.
Lower Respiratory Diseases and Influenza
According to an NIH study, respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, are the primary cause of death among children five years old or younger living in rural regions.
Tropical regions often see a higher frequency and hospitalization rate for the flu than more northern areas of the world. The study also showed that parainfluenza and influenza were the most prevalent viral agents amid the children surveyed. While the flu is a common and treatable occurrence in the developed world, that is not the case for resource-poor Honduras.
HIV/AIDS
In 2015, there were 20,000 Hondurans living with HIV, 1,000 died due to AIDS and 18,000 children became orphans. Honduras’ most at-risk citizens include sex workers, men who have sex with men, inmates and the ethnic group known as the Garifuna.
An Afro-Caribbean community whose descendants were West African slaves, the Garifuna are not only marginalized from the rest of society but also more likely to live in poverty, experience gender discrimination and lack access to health care or education. These are all contributing factors as to why the Garifuna’s HIV prevalence rate is 4.5% — five times Honduras’ national rate.
Malaria, Dengue Fever and Zika
Some of the top diseases in Honduras are transmitted via mosquitos. Mosquito-born diseases are extremely common in most Latin American countries, including Honduras. Luckily, cases of malaria in Honduras decreased by 78% between 2000 and 2011 due to community awareness education. The government aims to eliminate malaria’s deadliest strain by next year.
In 2013, Honduras experienced a widespread outbreak of Dengue fever which resulted in death in five percent of all cases due to hemorrhage. Although Dengue is typical in urban environments, it is a real concern for Honduras’ rural regions riddled with trash sites and where water is not regularly delivered. With piles of trash and pools of stagnant water, rural Hondurans are at severe risk of being infected.
Currently, there is an outbreak of Zika in Honduras. While many people infected with the Zika virus do not show any symptoms, it can lead to neurological difficulties such as Guillan-Barré syndrome, which causes temporary paralysis, and microcephaly in babies with Zika-infected mothers. Honduras recently declared a state of emergency over Zika after noticing a spike in the infection rate.
– Kristina Evans
Photo: Flickr
Climate Smart Crops: Helping Farmers in Asia and Africa
Addressing Submergence in South Asia
In South Asia — where the majority of the wold’s rice is grown — submergence stress causes $1 billion in annual losses. However, breeders have developed a new form of rice, known as Sub-1 or “scuba rice” which is capable of surviving underwater. This innovative breed of rice aids smallholding farmers in their fight against flooding.
“Scuba rice” possesses the ability to lay dormant in floods. Normal rice will wear out or develop root rot, which significantly lowers crop yields.
In addition, the Stress Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project, coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has distributed “scuba rice” to 5 million farmers in South Asia within five years.
Overcoming Drought in Southern Africa
Conversely, Southern Africa is undergoing one of its worst droughts in nearly three decades.
Farmers have implemented climate smart crops, including drought resistant maize and beans, across sub-Saharan Africa.
Plant breeders have designed these new varieties deliberately depending on the climate change and growing conditions of the area. Farmers using climate smart crops produce crop yields of equal or greater value in comparison to commercial crop varieties.
The Drought-Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project has released nearly 200 unique drought resistant maize varieties since 2007. Similarly, the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance has released more than 450 new bean varieties within the past two decades.
Farmers in Rwanda who are using the improved bean varieties have seen their yields increase by more than 50 percent.
Edward Mabaya is an agricultural economist and the Associate Director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture & Development. Mabaya grew up on a small rural farm in Zimbabwe and understands the impact that agricultural development can have on developing nations.
In his article for Al Jazeera, Mabaya said, “I owe my education, and my consequent escape from poverty, to improved seed varieties.”
Climate Smart Crops and Poverty Alleviation
Agricultural research and development allow for the creation of products like climate crops. Countries in need of innovative solutions to poverty and hunger benefit greatly from their distribution.
“When the Gates Foundation started focusing on poverty alleviation in the developing world, the co-chairs realized that agricultural productivity was going to be a very important part of the process of getting people out of absolute poverty,” stated Gary Atlin, Senior Program Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an article for Devex International Development.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with other non-profit organizations, have invested in STRASA and other projects helping to make agricultural innovation a priority in the fight against poverty and hunger.
– Kristyn Rohrer
Photo: Pixabay
Sign Language Education in Developing Countries
Humanitarian organizations are finally taking the time to address the unique challenges of providing accessible education for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Education in developing countries, in general, is relatively underfunded, with less than two percent of humanitarian aid being direct towards the sector. This problem is compounded when dealing with education, like sign language education, for children and adults who require special accommodations.
In the case of hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 360 million people suffer from hearing loss severe enough to affect their everyday lives, with the majority of them living in low to middle-income countries.
In a statement, the WHO noted, “In developing countries, children with hearing loss and deafness rarely receive any schooling. Adults with hearing loss also have a much higher unemployment rate. Among those who are employed, a higher percentage of people with hearing loss are in the lower grades of employment compared with the general workforce.”
Recently, more organizations have made an effort to address these problems with education for the deaf through humanitarian aid. For example, Discovering Deaf Worlds partners with deaf advocates in developing countries to help provide access to sign language and education for those in need.
Among other core values, Discovering Deaf Worlds emphasizes allowing the deaf and hard of hearing to choose their preferred communication method, but posits that accessibility is a basic human right. They hope to allow for deaf and hard of hearing communities to more readily engage with the hearing world at large and collaborate with both to try and make that goal a reality.
The USAID EXPAND program is an extension of the 2012 EMPOWER program funded by the U.S. Department of State. The original program focused on giving deaf Filipinos the opportunity for training in advocacy, policy and outreach. EXPAND aims to further those goals and allow for higher participation from deaf individuals in their culture and society.
By providing resources such as sign language education, Discovering Deaf Worlds and (other organizations like it) can create a pool of deaf leaders that can best advocate for education for themselves and the rest of the deaf and hard of hearing communities. Such a focus on increasing diversity in the workforce is a key step in fighting to end poverty and discrimination in developing countries.
– Sabrina Santos
Photo: Flickr
What Everyone Should Know About Poverty in Egypt
For years, poverty in Egypt has been no anomaly. Over a quarter of the population lives below the national poverty line, and many have found it difficult to secure work in a turbulent economy.
From 1995 to 2000, poverty in Egypt began to recede. The percentage of the population living under the national poverty line decreased from 23% to under 17%. However, progress began to reverse itself. In 2010, over 25% of the population was living under the national poverty line.
This rate has failed to drop since the Arab spring in 2011.
However, the Egyptian government and various international organizations have not been idle in addressing this problem. In recent years, millions of dollars have been donated to instill sustainable growth and development and to chip away at the current percentage of those living in poverty.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is at the forefront of international organizations helping Egypt achieve economic stability and poverty reduction. It has created a plan called the UNDP Strategic Plan 2014–2017 for Egypt. The plan prioritizes the elimination of poverty in Egypt.
UNDP’s strategies are wide-ranging and beginning to gain a great deal of traction due to Egypt’s recent governmental transition.
Human development, gender equality, environmental development, transparency and sustainable development are some of the many focuses that the UNDP has for the Egyptian people in an effort to make them self-sufficient in the long term.
The Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID) is a pilot program the UNDP is testing in Egypt. The premise of the program is to empower individuals in rural areas by upgrading public services and providing more efficient agricultural and off-farm occupations.
Through these efforts, people can build and grow their own businesses. This will promote sustainable economic growth and development in these areas long after ENID discontinues aid.
ENID has given a special focus to women through the course of its debut. Seventy percent of the 573 individuals employed by ENID’s activities between 2012 and 2014 were women.
Outside rural areas, the UNDP is also creating jobs in the most impoverished govern-orates for young men and women. The majority of these new jobs are for women.
These programs are working wonders among the Egyptian people, but unfortunately they are not free to operate. The Egyptian Government foots the bill of the majority of these programs, followed by Japan and a collection of European states and organizations. The total amount of contributions from these organizations is just over $280 million USD. In a country of nearly 90 million residents, this amounts to roughly $3 per person.
Tackling Poverty in Egypt
Despite great progress towards poverty reduction in Egypt, there must be bigger changes. Just recently, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi emphasized the need for foreign investment in large and small Egyptian enterprises. President Sisi pointed out that the government has made stellar improvements to the national infrastructure, but it still needs aid in developing businesses to use these new resources effectively.
By 2030, Egypt hopes to be well on its way toward sustainable development and a transparent governmental system. Though the country still needs help to develop its domestic affairs, many are optimistic that Egypt will be able to stand on its own within a decade.
– Preston Rust
Photo: Flickr