Women in India have been sporting small dots between their eyebrows since the third or fourth century. The mark is called a bindi and is a Hindu tradition.
Historically, it has been worn for religious purposes or to show that a woman is married. Today, women of all ages wear the bindi just as a beauty mark.
A nonprofit organization based in Nashik, India has come up with a new reason to wear the bindi. The Neelvasant Medical Foundation and Research Center, in partnership with Grey Group Singapore, a company that makes advertisements, wants the bindi to become a source of iodine.
The two organizations initiated the Life Saving Dot program that coats bindis with a full daily recommended dose of iodine. Dr Prachi Pawar is the leader of the project. He explains that the skin can absorb the essential micronutrient, but the nonprofit is still studying just how efficient the dots are.
“It would have been more satisfying—and convincing—if [the organizers] had done a bit of work beforehand to show that it actually delivers iodine,” says Michael Zimmerman. He is a nutrition researcher for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Roland Kupka is a micronutrient senior adviser for UNICEF. He points out that no one knows for sure if the iodine stays on the bindi. There is a chance that it might evaporate off when women spend time in the sun.
India is one of 54 countries struggling with iodine sufficiency. The soil there lacks iodine and, therefore, so do the crops. Iodized salt is unavailable to a third of all families in the country. According to UNICEF, 66 percent of families worldwide have access.
Iodine is necessary for the manufacture of thyroid hormones. For pregnant women, it is crucial for the development of the fetus’ brain. Iodine deficiency is the greatest cause of preventable but irreversible brain damage in the world. It also causes depression and weight gain in adults. Children can suffer from mental health issues like retardation and even death.
So far, more than 30,000 women in about 100 villages throughout India have been given the special iodine bindis. The organizations are starting to plan a system to produce and distribute them on a large scale.
If the Life Saving bindis are successful at administering iodine, they will be an affordable nutritional supplement: 10 repees, about 16 cents, for a package of 30 bindis.
The Neevlasant Medical Foundation and Research Center is a nongovernmental organization that strives to support rural and tribal parts of India and other developing countries. Started in August of 2005, they have specific programs for health, environment conservation, finance, child/women development, mental health and water conversation.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-08 11:53:362024-12-13 17:53:59Life Saving Dot: The New Bindi
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, philanthropy is defined as “goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially active effort to promote human welfare.” Additionally, philanthropy is “an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes,” or “an organization distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes.”
This is interesting to consider. The majority of the time, most of us tend to think of philanthropy as the large donation of money to humanitarian or environmental causes. We tend to think of famous philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller. More recently, we might think of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
What is a Philanthropist
However, a philanthropist does not only have to be someone who donates large sums of money to worthy causes. The definition of philanthropy says that one has to have a goodwill to humankind and an interest in promoting human welfare. One can accomplish this in a multitude of different ways.
A philanthropist could be someone who is educating herself on humanitarian issues. She could figure out what issues are salient to her, what issues are most dire or what issues people do not acknowledge as much. She could also learn the most effective solutions to this issue. The philanthropist could use this education in order to build her dedication to an issue and make the most change.
A philanthropist could be someone who consistently does community service for a humanitarian organization or a cause that he supports. He could dedicate his time to this organization and help using the skills that he possesses.
A philanthropist could be someone who works for a nonprofit or humanitarian organization. This person could dedicate his or her career to a valuable cause. She could work on the ground or in policy reform.
Finally, someone could donate a percentage of their income to a cause or humanitarian organization. The amount of money does not necessarily have to be large.
In conclusion, it is important to remember that a philanthropist has to make an “active effort to promote human welfare.” This means that a philanthropist is not exclusively someone who donates a lot of money to humanitarian causes. A philanthropist makes a significant effort to change a societal problem, in the best way that he or she can. A philanthropist finds an issue resonates with her, and she does what she can to help. Philanthropy is about dedication to humanitarian issues. It is not always about money.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-08 10:49:392024-06-05 03:46:35What is the Definition of Philanthropy?
Advocacy is a concept with a short definition but an extensive explanation. In a very broad sense, advocacy is simply supporting a cause. The cause could be anything from human rights to animal rights and anything in between and beyond. An advocate works on behalf of another person or a group of people (or animals) who are voiceless or too vulnerable to promote their own causes and obtain help.
Advocates can work on the behalf of individuals, such as a parent for a child. Other examples include a teacher for a student, a doctor for a patient and a lawyer for a client. Relatives can also hire individual advocates who are trained and specialize in specific causes. Advocating for the disabled is one example.
Advocates can also work for groups that support individuals or larger numbers of people. Nonprofit organizations, such as charities or public arts organizations, are one type. An example is The Borgen Project. Another type are nongovernmental organizations that include Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International.
Depending on the context of the situation, whether it be social, legal, medical or political, advocates use different skills and types of activities to benefit the people they support. Most advocacy involves at least researching, educating and organizing. The following list of activities, while not comprehensive, includes the most common advocacy activities.
Research to gather the necessary information that reflects the reality as well as expose the myths of a cause or a person’s situation. Research also includes discovering relevant, beneficial resources.
Educate legislators, school administrators, the public or other parties who change the laws, make the decisions or can in any other way provide what is necessary. The education may include composing fact sheets, writing letters or speaking at meetings or with individuals.
Organize meetings, conferences and rallies in order to build a foundation of support and power within a community.
Collaborate with other advocates or groups of the same philosophy to fortify resources and staff. You’ll be better prepared to campaign for shared goals.
Attend conferences in order to network and share information with others of similar needs. This is one way to both research and collaborate.
Act as a watchdog to ensure that government agencies comply with existing laws and regulations.
Litigate to win in court for a person or cause.
Lobby for or against specific legislation in order to benefit a person or cause.
These activities help form the backbone of advocacy. They enable advocates to support, defend and safeguard the children, families, communities and causes they represent. In these small and large ways, advocacy efforts effectively empower the vulnerable and give voice to the voiceless.
In 2008, solar panels were considered to be an enviable luxury. Beginning in 2013, the prices thereof began to lower, and this year the cost of solar technology is at a record low and can actually save thousands of dollars per year on electric bills.
There are still a lot of factors to consider where the installation of solar panels are concerned: how much sunlight hits the roof, the local weather, or if there are any businesses nearby where someone could be hired to install them.
Since so many people have asked Google about solar energy, engineer Carl Elkin came up with the initial idea that has since become Project Sunroof. This online tool takes the data from Google Maps and gives all the necessary information including how much money could be saved by installing solar panels.
In the next few months, the project goal is to expand to more cities, more countries and eventually become accessible worldwide. “Elkin writes that Project Sunroof is part of Google’s wider vision of accelerating the wide-scale adaption of zero-carbon energy.”
Solar panels, also called photovoltaic panels, turn energy from the sun into electricity. That energy is then synchronized to become compatible with the power grid in the home. This process actually saves energy that was formerly reliant on carbon energy and replaces it with something that is actually better for the environment.
A popular myth is that solar energy is unreliable, so people will avoid considering the technology until it improves. In actuality, solar panels generally come with a manufacturer’s warranty of 25 years and also requires little to no maintenance during its lifetime. There are few existing electronics to date with 25-year warranties.
So, with all of the existing benefits of solar energy to the environment and to the people who utilize it, the solar subscription service Bright has decided to bring those benefits to developing countries starting with Mexico.
“Working with local partners, Bright provides the software, financing, and maintenance. Using its software, it monitors installations and deploys partners to fix any errors.” These initiatives make energy more affordable and therefore, more accessible and enjoyable.
Project Loon gives the developing world access to the internet, and Project Sunroof combined with the initiatives of services such as Bright gives the necessary energy for not only the maintaining of devices that connect to the internet but also for everyday activities.
So, not only can the developing world be provided with water mills and food, but can even (for example) be helped with alternative methods of storing them and keeping them fresh for longer periods of time.
Menstruation in low-income countries isn’t an issue often talked about, but one group is doing what it can to help teach girls about their changing bodies.
Grow and Know is an organization working toward educating girls who don’t have access to learning materials about menstruation. The company launched after successfully distributing a book on girl’s puberty in Tanzania.
The book, which was approved for use in primary schools by the Tanzania Ministry of Education, garnered positive responses from girls, mothers, fathers and teachers. There have been over 470,000 copies distributed throughout the country to date.
According to Grow and Know’s website, the organization “aims to develop books that are grounded into the local social, cultural, and economic context, and that capture the real perspectives of young people growing up today.”
It’s important to talk about menstruation in low-income countries, as many girls living in Africa, Asia and Latin America don’t have access to sufficient information, guidance and support about their changing bodies.
As a result, many don’t ask for assistance when first experiencing menstrual periods, as they feel too afraid, embarrassed or ashamed.
Without proper hygiene management, such as adequate information, safe and private places to change a menstrual cloth or pad, and water at school, girls may end up missing class, or stop going to school completely.
Educating girls, however, is shown to improve the overall health of not only their peers, but their communities as well.
When girls are more educated, they can live a healthier lifestyle, participate more in the labor market, make more money, have fewer children, and give their children access to better health care and education. Doing so improves the wellbeing of individuals in households and can spread throughout generations and communities.
After seeing success in Tanzania, Grow and Know worked to adapt the girl’s puberty book to Ghana, Ethiopia and Cambodia. All three countries’ Ministries of Education approved the book, and almost 300,000 copies have been distributed to date.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-08 01:30:412020-06-30 18:39:06Educating Girls about Menstruation in Low-Income Countries
Humanitarian relief projects involve massive undertakings, and often organizations employ hundreds or even thousands of aid workers to get the job done. It’s no surprise then that relief efforts require huge amounts of logistic planning and coordination.
This can be difficult to achieve accurately and quickly as communication infrastructure may be downed or poorly developed to begin with.
Further, it is difficult to track the individual efforts of aid workers across large developing, or vastly affected regions. As a result, relief may be slow, disorganized, and ineffective. In order to deliver aid more quickly and efficiently, the UN has teamed up with San Francisco based tech company Frog to develop the Humanitarian Data Exchange, or HDX for short.
The goal of the project is to streamline humanitarian data. In the past, relief workers compiled thousands of documents and data points in a variety of formats. The HDX standardizes the methods in which data is entered and collected, thus making finding specific data points easier with less crucial time wasted.
The HDX contains numerous data points, most complied by aid workers on the ground. The network can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. Users then search for a specific dataset using a basic search engine.
The data includes region-specific populations, available medical services and their inventories, national poverty indexes, the number of homeless in the area, and hundreds of others.
The UN first implemented the HDX in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic. Currently, aid workers coordinating earthquake relief efforts are most actively using the HDX in Nepal.
The HDX has currently 76 different datasets for Nepal; many of these include maps and topographical information, as remote Nepalese regions are difficult to traverse due to limited infrastructure.
Nepal is not the only country benefitting from more efficient aid; the HDX lists data in 244 locations. Data is available to the public as well, and can be found at their website.
Celebrities are constantly in the public eye and every move they make, from where they ate breakfast to who they might be dating, is highlighted in the media. So, when celebrities use their voices to make a positive difference in the world, it does not go unnoticed and it has the power to bring on major change.
Earlier this summer, One Direction launched their action/1D campaign, as part of action/2015, a powerful movement that believes 2015 is the year of creating concrete plans to eradicate extreme poverty, promote justice and equality and fight climate change.
Action/1D encouraged the millions of One Direction fans around the world to submit videos of themselves describing the type of world they would like to live in, in alignment with these plans.
Two months and 80,000 submissions later, action/1D released “Dear World Leaders,” a unique and compelling film composed of young people from 172 countries explaining what they like about the world, but what needs to change.
Calling on international leaders to end extreme poverty, promote universal education, provide clean, safe water for all people and end world hunger, “Dear World Leaders” features today’s youth touching upon many of the Global Goals, a set of 17 initiatives that align with the action/2015 movement.
Action/1D and “Dear World Leaders” provided young people around the world with the opportunity to contribute to important global conversations and movements. The youth of today are the future of tomorrow, so it is inspiring to see how much they care about current events and improving the world.
Now, One Direction is promoting “Dear World Leaders” through social media and on their “On the Road Again” tour, while also encouraging the public to share the film and the hashtag #action1D on social media platforms. Already, #action1D has reached 2.5 billion hits and trended on Twitter for 11 hours after the initial launch of the project.
One Direction unites their harmonic voices to make an important change in the world and impose a lasting difference that will ultimately improve the quality of life for many people. In the public eye, they have the power to raise awareness and gain support in the fight against extreme global poverty.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-08 01:30:352020-07-02 17:51:57One Direction Releases Film to End Poverty
The U.N.’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report, which was released earlier this month, has published findings that show a sharp improvement in overall global poverty.
The U.N.’s report highlights the progress that has been made since their Millennium Development Goals were first established in 2000. This plan, which set targets and timeframes for how to make an impact in global poverty by 2015, has ultimately been remarkably successful.
“What the goals did, by prioritizing and focusing, was actually put together major international donors, civil society partners on the ground, national governments focusing on the same sets of issues,” Mark Suzman, a U.N. official, told NPR. “And that allowed for a focusing of both policy change and resources and attention.”
The report highlights a number of significant changes that have been made since its inception over a decade ago. According to the report, the amount of people living in extreme poverty has dropped to less than half of what it was in 1990, from 1.9 billion to 836 million. The report also points out that overall primary school enrollment in developing regions has reached 91 percent.
“The report confirms that the global efforts to achieve the goals have saved millions of lives and improved conditions for millions more around the world,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The report doesn’t shy away from the work that still needs to be done, however. The report’s findings also include the fact that around one billion people still defecate in the open and 28 percent of children in South Asia younger than five can be classified as “moderately or severely underweight.”
“These successes should be celebrated throughout our global community,” Ki-moon added. “At the same time, we are keenly aware of where we have come up short.”
The World’s Children’s Prize (WCP), first established in 2000, honors advocates for children’s rights. 2015 Nominee Phymean Noun, based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, works to keep children from working in landfills and puts them in schools.
After the genocide caused by Pol Pot from 1975 to 1978, Cambodia’s infrastructure essentially collapsed. More than one-fourth of the country’s eight million people were killed through labor camps, famine or imprisonment during the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot sought to create an agrarian utopia, where people would simply live off of the land.
However, Pol Pot feared the educated or those who seemed to be smart and killed them. If one had glasses, went to school, had soft hands or had educated parents, one was likely to be persecuted by the Khmer Rouge, who carried out Pol Pot’s orders. Libraries, cultural artifacts and historical archives were destroyed as well.
By persecuting and murdering the educated and driving people from cities into labor farming camps, organizations such as hospitals, schools, news agencies and police stations collapse. There was no monetary system. After the genocide stopped, Cambodia was wrecked by famine, a lack of infrastructure and extremely limited domestic resources to improve the lives of its people. Consequently, Cambodia is one of the least developed nations in Southeast Asia.
Around 90 percent of the population lives in rural villages, which often lack access to health care, secondary education systems and even developed roads that can lead to these resources. The average income is around $2.76 per day, which is barely above the line for extreme global poverty.
The extensive poverty in Cambodia is exacerbated by the lack of funding for education in the country. Sixty-six percent of students do not move on to secondary school. The government provides approximately $1.75 per student per school year, and those who choose to go into teaching choose a salary below the poverty level. One-fourth of Cambodian public schools lack a toilet and one-third lack electricity. Class sizes are, on average, above fifty.
Cities have become a place for families to migrate in the hopes for a better life. However, the jobs for those who are uneducated and lack the funds to start their own business are often dangerous. Waste picking, in which individuals sort through trash in landfills to find products that they can sell, is an increasingly common profession, especially for children.
However, while waste-picking, the risk is high: sometimes individuals are crushed by machines or receive injuries from stepping or falling onto sharp objects. In Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, 3,000 people work as waste-pickers. Half of waste-pickers are children, which is illegal. This work earns them 50 cents to a dollar per day.
Phymean Noun has spent the past 13 years fighting for the education of children working in these dumps. She grew up during the Pol Pot regime, during which she lost many family members and worked in a labor camp. When she was 15-years-old, the loss of her mother threw her into the caretaker role and she had to give up her schooling that she hadn’t even been able to start until she was nine.
When she was older and working, she encountered street children who were fighting over the scraps of chicken bones leftover from her meal. This experience was life-changing; she quit her job and dedicated her life to improving the lives of children in Cambodia, particularly those who work as waste-pickers.
Noun has established three schools near Phnom Penh garbage dumps to educate children in both Khmer (the Cambodian language) and English. She provides money to families under the promise that they keep their children enrolled in school and out of the dump. Children enrolled in her schools also receive access to health care and clean water. She also built a children’s home for orphans and abandoned children.
By empowering children in Cambodia and giving them access to an education they would not receive otherwise, there can be more hope for the Cambodian people. With the majority of its population under 35, the education of youth is absolutely critical to help lift the country out of poverty. Through the funds awarded by the World’s Children’s Prize, Nean can further her work and continue to improve the lives of these children in need.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-07 01:30:462020-06-30 18:47:08WCP Nominee Advocates for Children in Cambodia
One of the largest and most difficult tasks that aid workers face in disaster relief is finding those affected shelters. When disaster strikes, it either forces people out of their homes or reduces residences to piles of rubble. As for the governments of the affected regions, there exists the enormously expensive logistical challenge of clean up. Structural debris and rubble are the largest solid polluter by volume. One Dutch company may have found a single solution to both of these problems.
The Mobile Factory is, as the name suggests, a compact, and portable concrete production facility. It fits into two standard size shipping containers, and can be sent anywhere in the world with relative ease. It is solar powered as well, and thus can be operated in areas with limited or damaged power grids.
Rubble is fed into the factory and it emerges as liquid concrete. This is only the first step. The concrete is then taken and molded into standardized bricks, called Q-Brixx, that resemble large Lego bricks.
Mobile Factory has pledged to instruct users in how to use the life size lego bricks to build, modestly sized, earthquake-proof shelters. The device allows communities to safely and affordably rebuild, while also removing environmentally and physically hazardous debris.
Mobile Factory is currently being tested on a small scale in Haiti. The 2010 earthquake left 1.3 million Haitians without a home and many of its towns decimated. The Mobile Factory is testing its product where it might be needed most.
The test village is being conducted in a town of 30 families. In addition to receiving Mobile Factory homes, the families are also being instructed in the factory’s operation and how to build the homes. Mobile Factory hopes that this instructional program will empower communities to teach each other how to rebuild.
Life Saving Dot: The New Bindi
Women in India have been sporting small dots between their eyebrows since the third or fourth century. The mark is called a bindi and is a Hindu tradition.
Historically, it has been worn for religious purposes or to show that a woman is married. Today, women of all ages wear the bindi just as a beauty mark.
A nonprofit organization based in Nashik, India has come up with a new reason to wear the bindi. The Neelvasant Medical Foundation and Research Center, in partnership with Grey Group Singapore, a company that makes advertisements, wants the bindi to become a source of iodine.
The two organizations initiated the Life Saving Dot program that coats bindis with a full daily recommended dose of iodine. Dr Prachi Pawar is the leader of the project. He explains that the skin can absorb the essential micronutrient, but the nonprofit is still studying just how efficient the dots are.
“It would have been more satisfying—and convincing—if [the organizers] had done a bit of work beforehand to show that it actually delivers iodine,” says Michael Zimmerman. He is a nutrition researcher for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Roland Kupka is a micronutrient senior adviser for UNICEF. He points out that no one knows for sure if the iodine stays on the bindi. There is a chance that it might evaporate off when women spend time in the sun.
India is one of 54 countries struggling with iodine sufficiency. The soil there lacks iodine and, therefore, so do the crops. Iodized salt is unavailable to a third of all families in the country. According to UNICEF, 66 percent of families worldwide have access.
Iodine is necessary for the manufacture of thyroid hormones. For pregnant women, it is crucial for the development of the fetus’ brain. Iodine deficiency is the greatest cause of preventable but irreversible brain damage in the world. It also causes depression and weight gain in adults. Children can suffer from mental health issues like retardation and even death.
So far, more than 30,000 women in about 100 villages throughout India have been given the special iodine bindis. The organizations are starting to plan a system to produce and distribute them on a large scale.
If the Life Saving bindis are successful at administering iodine, they will be an affordable nutritional supplement: 10 repees, about 16 cents, for a package of 30 bindis.
The Neevlasant Medical Foundation and Research Center is a nongovernmental organization that strives to support rural and tribal parts of India and other developing countries. Started in August of 2005, they have specific programs for health, environment conservation, finance, child/women development, mental health and water conversation.
– Lillian Sickler
Sources: NPR, YouTube, Neelvasant Foundation, Indian Journal of Medical Research, Huffington Post, The Times of India, WHO
Photo: Health Life
What is the Definition of Philanthropy?
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, philanthropy is defined as “goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially active effort to promote human welfare.” Additionally, philanthropy is “an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes,” or “an organization distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes.”
This is interesting to consider. The majority of the time, most of us tend to think of philanthropy as the large donation of money to humanitarian or environmental causes. We tend to think of famous philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller. More recently, we might think of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
What is a Philanthropist
However, a philanthropist does not only have to be someone who donates large sums of money to worthy causes. The definition of philanthropy says that one has to have a goodwill to humankind and an interest in promoting human welfare. One can accomplish this in a multitude of different ways.
A philanthropist could be someone who is educating herself on humanitarian issues. She could figure out what issues are salient to her, what issues are most dire or what issues people do not acknowledge as much. She could also learn the most effective solutions to this issue. The philanthropist could use this education in order to build her dedication to an issue and make the most change.
A philanthropist could be someone who consistently does community service for a humanitarian organization or a cause that he supports. He could dedicate his time to this organization and help using the skills that he possesses.
A philanthropist could be someone who works for a nonprofit or humanitarian organization. This person could dedicate his or her career to a valuable cause. She could work on the ground or in policy reform.
Finally, someone could donate a percentage of their income to a cause or humanitarian organization. The amount of money does not necessarily have to be large.
In conclusion, it is important to remember that a philanthropist has to make an “active effort to promote human welfare.” This means that a philanthropist is not exclusively someone who donates a lot of money to humanitarian causes. A philanthropist makes a significant effort to change a societal problem, in the best way that he or she can. A philanthropist finds an issue resonates with her, and she does what she can to help. Philanthropy is about dedication to humanitarian issues. It is not always about money.
– Ella Cady
Sources: Huffington Post, Merriam Webster, About.com, Biography Online
Photo: LTD
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is a concept with a short definition but an extensive explanation. In a very broad sense, advocacy is simply supporting a cause. The cause could be anything from human rights to animal rights and anything in between and beyond. An advocate works on behalf of another person or a group of people (or animals) who are voiceless or too vulnerable to promote their own causes and obtain help.
Advocates can work on the behalf of individuals, such as a parent for a child. Other examples include a teacher for a student, a doctor for a patient and a lawyer for a client. Relatives can also hire individual advocates who are trained and specialize in specific causes. Advocating for the disabled is one example.
Advocates can also work for groups that support individuals or larger numbers of people. Nonprofit organizations, such as charities or public arts organizations, are one type. An example is The Borgen Project. Another type are nongovernmental organizations that include Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International.
Depending on the context of the situation, whether it be social, legal, medical or political, advocates use different skills and types of activities to benefit the people they support. Most advocacy involves at least researching, educating and organizing. The following list of activities, while not comprehensive, includes the most common advocacy activities.
These activities help form the backbone of advocacy. They enable advocates to support, defend and safeguard the children, families, communities and causes they represent. In these small and large ways, advocacy efforts effectively empower the vulnerable and give voice to the voiceless.
– Janet Quinn
Sources: Alliance for Justice, Citizens’ Committee for Children
Photo: NAGC
Google Unveils Project Sunroof
In 2008, solar panels were considered to be an enviable luxury. Beginning in 2013, the prices thereof began to lower, and this year the cost of solar technology is at a record low and can actually save thousands of dollars per year on electric bills.
There are still a lot of factors to consider where the installation of solar panels are concerned: how much sunlight hits the roof, the local weather, or if there are any businesses nearby where someone could be hired to install them.
Since so many people have asked Google about solar energy, engineer Carl Elkin came up with the initial idea that has since become Project Sunroof. This online tool takes the data from Google Maps and gives all the necessary information including how much money could be saved by installing solar panels.
In the next few months, the project goal is to expand to more cities, more countries and eventually become accessible worldwide. “Elkin writes that Project Sunroof is part of Google’s wider vision of accelerating the wide-scale adaption of zero-carbon energy.”
Solar panels, also called photovoltaic panels, turn energy from the sun into electricity. That energy is then synchronized to become compatible with the power grid in the home. This process actually saves energy that was formerly reliant on carbon energy and replaces it with something that is actually better for the environment.
A popular myth is that solar energy is unreliable, so people will avoid considering the technology until it improves. In actuality, solar panels generally come with a manufacturer’s warranty of 25 years and also requires little to no maintenance during its lifetime. There are few existing electronics to date with 25-year warranties.
So, with all of the existing benefits of solar energy to the environment and to the people who utilize it, the solar subscription service Bright has decided to bring those benefits to developing countries starting with Mexico.
“Working with local partners, Bright provides the software, financing, and maintenance. Using its software, it monitors installations and deploys partners to fix any errors.” These initiatives make energy more affordable and therefore, more accessible and enjoyable.
Project Loon gives the developing world access to the internet, and Project Sunroof combined with the initiatives of services such as Bright gives the necessary energy for not only the maintaining of devices that connect to the internet but also for everyday activities.
So, not only can the developing world be provided with water mills and food, but can even (for example) be helped with alternative methods of storing them and keeping them fresh for longer periods of time.
– Anna Brailow
Sources: Voice of America, IFL Science, RE-volv, Bright
Photo: CS Monitor
Educating Girls about Menstruation in Low-Income Countries
Menstruation in low-income countries isn’t an issue often talked about, but one group is doing what it can to help teach girls about their changing bodies.
Grow and Know is an organization working toward educating girls who don’t have access to learning materials about menstruation. The company launched after successfully distributing a book on girl’s puberty in Tanzania.
The book, which was approved for use in primary schools by the Tanzania Ministry of Education, garnered positive responses from girls, mothers, fathers and teachers. There have been over 470,000 copies distributed throughout the country to date.
According to Grow and Know’s website, the organization “aims to develop books that are grounded into the local social, cultural, and economic context, and that capture the real perspectives of young people growing up today.”
It’s important to talk about menstruation in low-income countries, as many girls living in Africa, Asia and Latin America don’t have access to sufficient information, guidance and support about their changing bodies.
As a result, many don’t ask for assistance when first experiencing menstrual periods, as they feel too afraid, embarrassed or ashamed.
Without proper hygiene management, such as adequate information, safe and private places to change a menstrual cloth or pad, and water at school, girls may end up missing class, or stop going to school completely.
Educating girls, however, is shown to improve the overall health of not only their peers, but their communities as well.
When girls are more educated, they can live a healthier lifestyle, participate more in the labor market, make more money, have fewer children, and give their children access to better health care and education. Doing so improves the wellbeing of individuals in households and can spread throughout generations and communities.
After seeing success in Tanzania, Grow and Know worked to adapt the girl’s puberty book to Ghana, Ethiopia and Cambodia. All three countries’ Ministries of Education approved the book, and almost 300,000 copies have been distributed to date.
– Matt Wotus
Sources: Grow and Know, Medical Xpress, The World Bank
Photo: Grow and Know
Humanitarian Data Exchange Speeds Up Relief Efforts
Humanitarian relief projects involve massive undertakings, and often organizations employ hundreds or even thousands of aid workers to get the job done. It’s no surprise then that relief efforts require huge amounts of logistic planning and coordination.
This can be difficult to achieve accurately and quickly as communication infrastructure may be downed or poorly developed to begin with.
Further, it is difficult to track the individual efforts of aid workers across large developing, or vastly affected regions. As a result, relief may be slow, disorganized, and ineffective. In order to deliver aid more quickly and efficiently, the UN has teamed up with San Francisco based tech company Frog to develop the Humanitarian Data Exchange, or HDX for short.
The goal of the project is to streamline humanitarian data. In the past, relief workers compiled thousands of documents and data points in a variety of formats. The HDX standardizes the methods in which data is entered and collected, thus making finding specific data points easier with less crucial time wasted.
The HDX contains numerous data points, most complied by aid workers on the ground. The network can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. Users then search for a specific dataset using a basic search engine.
The data includes region-specific populations, available medical services and their inventories, national poverty indexes, the number of homeless in the area, and hundreds of others.
The UN first implemented the HDX in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic. Currently, aid workers coordinating earthquake relief efforts are most actively using the HDX in Nepal.
The HDX has currently 76 different datasets for Nepal; many of these include maps and topographical information, as remote Nepalese regions are difficult to traverse due to limited infrastructure.
Nepal is not the only country benefitting from more efficient aid; the HDX lists data in 244 locations. Data is available to the public as well, and can be found at their website.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Forbes 1, Forbes 2, RW Labs
Photo: Forbes
One Direction Releases Film to End Poverty
Celebrities are constantly in the public eye and every move they make, from where they ate breakfast to who they might be dating, is highlighted in the media. So, when celebrities use their voices to make a positive difference in the world, it does not go unnoticed and it has the power to bring on major change.
Earlier this summer, One Direction launched their action/1D campaign, as part of action/2015, a powerful movement that believes 2015 is the year of creating concrete plans to eradicate extreme poverty, promote justice and equality and fight climate change.
Action/1D encouraged the millions of One Direction fans around the world to submit videos of themselves describing the type of world they would like to live in, in alignment with these plans.
Two months and 80,000 submissions later, action/1D released “Dear World Leaders,” a unique and compelling film composed of young people from 172 countries explaining what they like about the world, but what needs to change.
Calling on international leaders to end extreme poverty, promote universal education, provide clean, safe water for all people and end world hunger, “Dear World Leaders” features today’s youth touching upon many of the Global Goals, a set of 17 initiatives that align with the action/2015 movement.
Action/1D and “Dear World Leaders” provided young people around the world with the opportunity to contribute to important global conversations and movements. The youth of today are the future of tomorrow, so it is inspiring to see how much they care about current events and improving the world.
Now, One Direction is promoting “Dear World Leaders” through social media and on their “On the Road Again” tour, while also encouraging the public to share the film and the hashtag #action1D on social media platforms. Already, #action1D has reached 2.5 billion hits and trended on Twitter for 11 hours after the initial launch of the project.
One Direction unites their harmonic voices to make an important change in the world and impose a lasting difference that will ultimately improve the quality of life for many people. In the public eye, they have the power to raise awareness and gain support in the fight against extreme global poverty.
– Sarah Sheppard
Sources: Global Citizen, Look to the Stars 1 , Look to the Stars 2
Photo: Flickr
UN Report: Overall Global Poverty Has Dropped Dramatically
The U.N.’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report, which was released earlier this month, has published findings that show a sharp improvement in overall global poverty.
The U.N.’s report highlights the progress that has been made since their Millennium Development Goals were first established in 2000. This plan, which set targets and timeframes for how to make an impact in global poverty by 2015, has ultimately been remarkably successful.
“What the goals did, by prioritizing and focusing, was actually put together major international donors, civil society partners on the ground, national governments focusing on the same sets of issues,” Mark Suzman, a U.N. official, told NPR. “And that allowed for a focusing of both policy change and resources and attention.”
The report highlights a number of significant changes that have been made since its inception over a decade ago. According to the report, the amount of people living in extreme poverty has dropped to less than half of what it was in 1990, from 1.9 billion to 836 million. The report also points out that overall primary school enrollment in developing regions has reached 91 percent.
“The report confirms that the global efforts to achieve the goals have saved millions of lives and improved conditions for millions more around the world,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The report doesn’t shy away from the work that still needs to be done, however. The report’s findings also include the fact that around one billion people still defecate in the open and 28 percent of children in South Asia younger than five can be classified as “moderately or severely underweight.”
“These successes should be celebrated throughout our global community,” Ki-moon added. “At the same time, we are keenly aware of where we have come up short.”
– Alexander Jones
Sources: Aizenman, Economic Times, Sengupta
WCP Nominee Advocates for Children in Cambodia
The World’s Children’s Prize (WCP), first established in 2000, honors advocates for children’s rights. 2015 Nominee Phymean Noun, based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, works to keep children from working in landfills and puts them in schools.
After the genocide caused by Pol Pot from 1975 to 1978, Cambodia’s infrastructure essentially collapsed. More than one-fourth of the country’s eight million people were killed through labor camps, famine or imprisonment during the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot sought to create an agrarian utopia, where people would simply live off of the land.
However, Pol Pot feared the educated or those who seemed to be smart and killed them. If one had glasses, went to school, had soft hands or had educated parents, one was likely to be persecuted by the Khmer Rouge, who carried out Pol Pot’s orders. Libraries, cultural artifacts and historical archives were destroyed as well.
By persecuting and murdering the educated and driving people from cities into labor farming camps, organizations such as hospitals, schools, news agencies and police stations collapse. There was no monetary system. After the genocide stopped, Cambodia was wrecked by famine, a lack of infrastructure and extremely limited domestic resources to improve the lives of its people. Consequently, Cambodia is one of the least developed nations in Southeast Asia.
Around 90 percent of the population lives in rural villages, which often lack access to health care, secondary education systems and even developed roads that can lead to these resources. The average income is around $2.76 per day, which is barely above the line for extreme global poverty.
The extensive poverty in Cambodia is exacerbated by the lack of funding for education in the country. Sixty-six percent of students do not move on to secondary school. The government provides approximately $1.75 per student per school year, and those who choose to go into teaching choose a salary below the poverty level. One-fourth of Cambodian public schools lack a toilet and one-third lack electricity. Class sizes are, on average, above fifty.
Cities have become a place for families to migrate in the hopes for a better life. However, the jobs for those who are uneducated and lack the funds to start their own business are often dangerous. Waste picking, in which individuals sort through trash in landfills to find products that they can sell, is an increasingly common profession, especially for children.
However, while waste-picking, the risk is high: sometimes individuals are crushed by machines or receive injuries from stepping or falling onto sharp objects. In Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, 3,000 people work as waste-pickers. Half of waste-pickers are children, which is illegal. This work earns them 50 cents to a dollar per day.
Phymean Noun has spent the past 13 years fighting for the education of children working in these dumps. She grew up during the Pol Pot regime, during which she lost many family members and worked in a labor camp. When she was 15-years-old, the loss of her mother threw her into the caretaker role and she had to give up her schooling that she hadn’t even been able to start until she was nine.
When she was older and working, she encountered street children who were fighting over the scraps of chicken bones leftover from her meal. This experience was life-changing; she quit her job and dedicated her life to improving the lives of children in Cambodia, particularly those who work as waste-pickers.
Noun has established three schools near Phnom Penh garbage dumps to educate children in both Khmer (the Cambodian language) and English. She provides money to families under the promise that they keep their children enrolled in school and out of the dump. Children enrolled in her schools also receive access to health care and clean water. She also built a children’s home for orphans and abandoned children.
By empowering children in Cambodia and giving them access to an education they would not receive otherwise, there can be more hope for the Cambodian people. With the majority of its population under 35, the education of youth is absolutely critical to help lift the country out of poverty. Through the funds awarded by the World’s Children’s Prize, Nean can further her work and continue to improve the lives of these children in need.
– Priscilla McCelvey
Sources: Angkor Project, USAID, World Bank Data, World Bank, World’s Children’s Prize,
Photo: World’s Children’s Prize
Life Size Lego: Turning Rubble into Homes
One of the largest and most difficult tasks that aid workers face in disaster relief is finding those affected shelters. When disaster strikes, it either forces people out of their homes or reduces residences to piles of rubble. As for the governments of the affected regions, there exists the enormously expensive logistical challenge of clean up. Structural debris and rubble are the largest solid polluter by volume. One Dutch company may have found a single solution to both of these problems.
The Mobile Factory is, as the name suggests, a compact, and portable concrete production facility. It fits into two standard size shipping containers, and can be sent anywhere in the world with relative ease. It is solar powered as well, and thus can be operated in areas with limited or damaged power grids.
Rubble is fed into the factory and it emerges as liquid concrete. This is only the first step. The concrete is then taken and molded into standardized bricks, called Q-Brixx, that resemble large Lego bricks.
Mobile Factory has pledged to instruct users in how to use the life size lego bricks to build, modestly sized, earthquake-proof shelters. The device allows communities to safely and affordably rebuild, while also removing environmentally and physically hazardous debris.
Mobile Factory is currently being tested on a small scale in Haiti. The 2010 earthquake left 1.3 million Haitians without a home and many of its towns decimated. The Mobile Factory is testing its product where it might be needed most.
The test village is being conducted in a town of 30 families. In addition to receiving Mobile Factory homes, the families are also being instructed in the factory’s operation and how to build the homes. Mobile Factory hopes that this instructional program will empower communities to teach each other how to rebuild.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: IndieGoGo, The Chive, The Mobile Factory
Photo: The Chive