On August 11, the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund allocated $13.2 million to humanitarian efforts in the Central African Republic (CAR) in order to provide much needed life-saving aid to those affected by the ongoing conflict in the African country.
The funds will go toward supporting local humanitarian aid agencies that provide clean drinking water, access to education and healthcare, food, protection, and shelter to vulnerable and displaced people. Though the amount of funds will provide some people with necessary help, it is not nearly what is needed to be able to provide aid for the entire population in need.
“Thanks to donors who have contributed in 2015, this CHF allocation allows humanitarian partners to continue helping thousands of displaced people and host families,” said Aurélien Agbénonci, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in the African country. “However, it is only three percent of the $415 million we still need by the end of the year if we are to save more lives and reach all people in acute need in 2015.”
The Civil War in the Central African Republic between the Muslim Séléka alliance and the anti-Balaka militias with CAR government forces, which are predominantly Christian, began at the end of 2012 and has claimed many civilian lives and displaced many more. Additionally, the Lord’s Resistance Army continues operations within the southeastern region of the country.
According to the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of June 2015, there are about 463,400 refugees from the Central African Republic, and 368,900 internally displaced people. In total, OCHA concludes that there are presently 2.7 million people in the Central African Republic who are in critical need of humanitarian aid.
Unfortunately, the CAR is reportedly “one of the most difficult and dangerous environments in the world for aid workers.” On July 22, the UN condemned a surge of violence against aid workers along with the July 18 attack on a World Food Program food convoy which left a driver dead.
It is crucial that international humanitarian aid organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to aiding those in need. The UN’s latest allocation of funds, though not sufficient to provide for every single victim, sent the right message. Aid organizations must never falter in the effort to protect and preserve the lives of innocent civilians, even in the face of danger.
As Middle Eastern migrants travel to Western Europe, many must make the voyage across the Balkan Peninsula. Hundreds of migrants, half of whom are from Syria and Afghanistan, stop in Belgrade, Serbia as a jumping-off point into Hungary. The majority of migrants claim to be headed to Germany, while some say they plan on arriving in Sweden.
Around 500-700 people take up temporary residence in Belgrade’s parks near the city’s central transportation lines. Here, they generally wait 2 days for transport into Hungary. As they wait, they battle temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit and a lack of supplies.
A total of 60,000 migrants have entered Serbia through Macedonia and Bulgaria during the first six months of the year though it is speculated that the numbers could indeed be higher.
Fortunately, Serbian organizations, restaurants, and people have begun distributing aid. Mikes House, a cultural and designer house, has distributed water, food and clothes. Residents of the city have also begun to gift old clothing along with water. Many simply come to speak to migrants and share stories.
On April 12, Belgrade authorities began to park water tanks in the parks and have organized services to clean the parks and rid them of garbage.
Médecins Sans Frontières has also started providing general healthcare to the migrants as their journeys take a brief pause in the northern Balkans.
All of this comes at a time when Europe as a whole experiences major surges in migration due to one of history’s largest refugee crises. Germany, in particular, has had to raise its projected influx from 450,000 at the beginning of 2015 to a projected 800,000 by the end of the year.
As a contingency plan, on August 10 the European Commission approved 2.4 billion euros of aid for the next six-year period, in the hopes that it may help curb the strain many countries will be feeling as migrants begin to settle within state borders.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 07:12:522024-05-24 23:52:05Middle Eastern Migrants Well-Received in Serbia
The Tribal Huk gang of Ngaruawahia, in New Zealand, has been working for the last four years to help feed the country’s poor children. Every day, the gang has been making and delivering sandwiches to thirty-one schools in the area and putting food in more than four hundred hungry children’s mouths.
Jamie Pink, the president of the organization, called Kai 4 the Future, knows what it is like to grow up in poverty. As a child, he barely ever had enough food for himself. When he grew to be an adult, he knew he wanted to do something about it. Although he does admit he likes violence, he says he liked helping people even more.
Now, Tribal Huk leases fifty acres of farmland around Horotiu and Ngaruawahia, and owns dozens of beef, sheep and pigs. Some animals are sold to finance the foundation while the rest go in the sandwiches.
In New Zealand, 270,000 children live below the poverty line, according to the country’s Children’s Commissioner. Although the government has implemented a $9.5 million program in the last couple of years to help solve the problem, children remain hungry.
Pink laments that New Zealand has enough water, food and other resources- sheep even outnumber people ten to one- to support their population, but children are still going hungry. He hopes to get government assistance so the gang can make even more sandwiches every day.
He is also hoping to start a new trust in which people donate just $5 a week to the Foundation. If 50,000 people pay this amount for a year, they would collect $30 million – enough to feed every hungry child in the country.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 07:06:322024-05-24 23:56:18New Zealand Gang Feeds Children
Innovation Countdown 2030 (IC2030), an initiative led by an international nonprofit organization, released its inaugural report on July 13, which features 30 innovations that have the potential to transform global health and save millions of lives by 2030.
The report, Reimagining Global Health, was announced at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa.
IC2030 is led by PATH, the frontrunner when it comes to global health innovation, with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The report involved a yearlong process in which more than 500 innovations were nominated from over 50 countries, with a goal of propelling investment and support for health technologies.
Each innovation was assessed by dozens of international health experts, leading to the 30 that are featured in the report. Each innovation was selected for the potential it has to save lives and transform global health.
The innovations cover four health areas: maternal, newborn and child health, infectious diseases, reproductive health and non-communicable diseases.
The report also includes commentary from leading experts in health, business and technology on the important role innovation plays in driving health impact.
One such expert is Amie Batson, the chief strategy officer for PATH. In the report, she emphasizes four key strategies to help further innovations in global health.
The strategies are: sourcing health solutions globally, pinpointing the most cost-effective innovations, creating new devices concentrating on financing and coordinating investments.
These approaches are seen in PATH’s cost impact modeling process, a feature the nonprofit created with its partner, Applied Strategies.
Specifically, the model measures how many lives are saved, the number of cases of disease avoided, and the costs for health innovations.
Two innovations seen in the report and evaluated with PATH’s cost impact modeling process have to do with preventing infections in newborns and stopping diarrheal disease from contaminated water from reaching children.
Chlorhexidine is a low-cost antiseptic used in umbilical cord care to prevent infections in newborns. Every year, thousands of newborns die as a result of unsanitary conditions during birth and not having access to antiseptics for the first week after being born.
Chlorhexidine, which comes in liquid and gel form, can be applied to the umbilical cord stump after birth at a safe and effective concentration. By doing so, the chance of infection is greatly reduced.
More importantly, health workers or family members can use the antiseptic at home.
It’s estimated that, by using Chlorhexidine, 1,004,000 neonatal lives can be saved between 2015 and 2030, with a nine percent reduction in deaths caused by sepsis. A scaled-up use of the antiseptic is expected to cost $81 million.
The second innovation has to do with preventing diarrheal disease in children by using chlorine to disinfect water in small communities.
Developing countries often have shortages in clean water, as not only are most public water systems inadequate, but many households don’t have the necessary resources to purchase treated water.
As a result, new tools have been developed to disinfect water at sources in small-scale communities. One such tool, the Zimba automated batch chlorinator, fits on hand pumps and community taps, and chlorinates the water with no need for electricity or moving parts.
The device has the capability to disinfect up to 8,000 liters of water before the chlorine dispenser needs to be refilled.
Estimates show that, by chlorinating water in small-scale communities, 1,515,000 child lives will be saved, with a 16 percent reduction in diarrhea-related deaths. In addition, the disinfecting devices will save $1.2 billion because of the decrease in the number of cases of diarrheal disease, leading to a reduction in treatment costs.
Moving forward, PATH wants to build on IC2030 to give a greater voice to global innovators. The organization also wants to engage experts from different subject matters and raise awareness and visibility about possible lifesaving innovations.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 07:03:422024-12-13 17:52:02New Report Casts Light on Global Health Innovations
Flu shots are synonymous with cold and wintry conditions. Lines stretching hundreds of feet from the doors of CVS and middle schools become commonplace during the first months of a new year.
Every year, children squirm awaiting the dreaded shot, vaccinating them from the clutches of the dreaded flu. We’ve become accustomed to this process over the years, but the reality is that this tedious cycle may be coming to an end with new medical advancements on the horizon.
The world’s first universal vaccine may be right around the corner. Researchers at Rockefeller University are working to develop a new type of vaccine that, according to the Times of India will, “harness a previously unknown mechanism within the immune system to create more effective and efficient vaccines against this virus which may ultimately result in a vaccine that provides life-long immunity against flu infections.”
The vaccine operates by targeting all varieties of flu strains and utilizes modified antibodies.
These new antibodies are being formulated to target flu strains that often are not treated by standard vaccines. An article in EurekAlert examined the science behind this bold undertaking by scientists.
“Work in the Ravetch lab suggests a new alternative: chemical modifications to the Fc region of antibodies. These regions go on to form complexes with vaccine antigens, which then modulate the evolving vaccine response,” reads an excerpt from EurekaAlert.
Essentially, once the new vaccine is administered to the patient, it continually evolves to combat any future flu strains that may arise in the patient.
The possibility of a universal flu vaccine being only years away would revolutionize world health. By only needing to be administered once, the vaccine could be distributed all over the world.
This would allow for those in poverty to receive vaccination and have life-long immunity. Mortality rates all over the world would decrease incrementally with life-long vaccination a reality.
– Diego Catala
Sources: Eurekalert, Times of India Photo: Google Images
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 02:20:102024-12-13 17:51:47Vaccinating the Masses
The President of the United States, often called the leader of the free world, tops the shortlist of influential politicians. However, those vying for that title are also key players.
Hillary Clinton is more than well known and has been an incredibly successful and influential politician, but as she campaigns for the Democratic nomination it has become increasingly difficult to learn about her positions or platforms amongst the constant news bits of what she wore or the Chipotle burrito she ordered.
Below is a collection of Clinton’s positions on issues surrounding global poverty.
Clinton on U.S. involvement with humanitarian missions:
“I believe strongly that we have to get back to leading on issues like health care and education and women’s rights around the world. I have introduced bipartisan legislation called The Education for All Act, to have the US lead the world in putting the 77 million kids who aren’t in school into school. I believe we should demonstrate our commitment to people who are poor, disenfranchised, disempowered before we talk about putting troops anywhere. The US has to be seen again as a peacekeeper, and we have lost that standing in these last seven years. So I think we have to concentrate first and foremost on restoring our moral authority in the world and our standing in the world.” (2008)
Clinton on foreign aid:
“I think many people are mistaken about how much money we spend on foreign aid. We spend 1%, and many believe we spend 25%. That 1% investment has made a difference in solving problems but also in helping America to be stronger by solving problems around the world. We sometimes learn lessons we can bring home. I want us to continue to be a leader, and you don’t lead from behind walls. You don’t lead by walking away from the world. I think you lead by remaining engaged and trying to shape events.” (1997)
Clinton on micro-finance:
“From the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to the Self-employed Women’s Association in India, or to the work in Ghana, to banks and programs modeled on these from Indonesia to the Dominican Republic, to my own country, we have seen that microlending works. Women who have received loans from the Grameen Bank, for example, have a repayment rate of 97%, and often within one year. And they invest their money well.” (1995)
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 01:30:592020-07-02 11:03:03Hillary Clinton on Global Poverty
Actress Jessica Biel and actor and singer/songwriter Justin Timberlake will be honored in Los Angeles in the fall by GLSEN, a non-profit focused on schooling. The couple will receive an education award for their commitment to children’s education.
The GLSEN Respect Awards began in 2004 and have been held annually in Los Angeles and New York to broadcast the charity work of educators, students, influential individuals and corporations who have made an exemplary difference.
Recently, GLSEN announced this year’s honorees to voice the organization’s excitement for the Respect Awards and to showcase the humanitarians receiving the awards. GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard said that GLSEN is thrilled with their diverse selection of philanthropists. Byard also said that Biel and Timberlake have been great supporters of the cause.
“Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake have been visible and committed allies,” she said.
Biel and Timberlake will receive the Inspiration Award that will highlight the couple’s continual and thorough pledge to improving the lives of children.
Biel and Timberlake have participated in work for water sanitation, women’s rights, human rights, poverty, disaster relief, refugees, slavery and human trafficking and health — all causes that contribute to a quality standard of education.
Biel has taken to Twitter to use her celebrity to raise awareness for Charity: Water, an organization that seeks to provide clean water for areas without.
“In Orissa, India #water & sanitation solutions can change lives,” Biel said.
She also asked that her followers visit the Charity: Water Twitter page and website for more information and to retweet her tweet.
Timberlake contributed a song to Songs for the Philippines, a collection of 39 popular tracks, to benefit those displaced after the supertyphoon in 2013.
All charity work aside, Biel and Timberlake are a celebrity couple who understand the importance of a safe environment for education. GLSEN does, too.
Since 1990, GLSEN has made it a point to research and create programs for primary education systems. The organization has successfully helped to implement student leadership plans and educator training, as well as federal advocacy.
According to UNICEF, creating a safe and successful learning environment is difficult in areas of war and poverty. In one UNICEF article titled “Finding a Safe Space for Learning in a Country Beset by violence,” displaced refugees and citizens in areas stricken with conflict may miss years of schooling because of their unfortunate living conditions.
The article also describes the struggles of a teenage girl named Nicolette Divine who moved out of her area so that she could attend school in a safe setting.
“My mother said that a school at the monastery was starting, so that was why I came [to Bangui], so that I can study,” Divine said.
GLSEN has employed many tactics and ideas to ensure the safety of children in school. With the power of voice and opinionated thinking, GLSEN has successfully executed programs that created special days dedicated to social and educational movement towards safe and positive schooling systems.
In previous years, GLSEN Respect Awards have honored actress Julia Roberts, NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt, athlete Jason Collins, as well as corporations like MTV and Johnson & Johnson.
The lineup for the GLSEN Awards features actor Dave Karger, actress Jessica Capshaw, athlete Mike Irvin, country music artist Terri Clark and more. The event will take place at the Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills on Oct. 23.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 01:30:472024-05-27 09:27:43Education Award for Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake
On Sept. 26, the fourth annual Global Citizen Festival will take place — a unique concert that uses music to raise poverty awareness. Celebrity activists and humanitarian leaders have banded together to organize this year’s festival. They hope to channel hype and excitement over the concert into anti-poverty action.
The Global Citizen Festival began as an anti-poverty platform in 2012. Each year, the concert acts as a hub for campaigns that work towards global development and poverty eradication. This year, the festival will be timed to coincide with the launch of the United Nations’ new Global Goals, designed to end poverty by 2030.
Global Poverty Project, an organization that aims to end extreme poverty by increasing the number of people taking anti-poverty action, hosts the yearly concert. This year, the concert will take place on the Great Lawn at Central Park. Coldplay’s Chris Martin has played a leading role in creating the concert’s lineup.
For the second year in a row, MSNBC will be serving as a media partner of the Global Citizen Festival. The network will air a live simulcast of the full concert on their website. Youtube is also a worldwide digital streaming partner for the Festival, and will feature a special live stream of the concert which can be found here.
Last year, celebrity activists including Hugh Jackman, Adrian Grenier, and Jessica Alba, and world leaders like United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the musical acts. The all-star lineup included Beyonce, Jay Z, Sting, Tiesto, No Doubt, Carrie Underwood, and more.
As 2015 is an especially important year for the global fight against poverty, this year’s festival is sure to not disappoint. This September at the UN General Assembly in New York, world leaders will announce a new set of global goals designed to fight inequality, protect our planet, and most importantly to end extreme poverty by 2030.
Organizers of the Global Citizen Festival hope that this year’s concert will act as a launching pad for essential policy and financial commitments needed to achieve these goals. Early initiation of such commitments is indeed a critical step.
For those who seek immediate anti-poverty action, Global Citizen is offering a chance to win free tickets to the concert on their website, www.globalcitizen.org. By following the outlined poverty-fighting steps on the organization’s website, people can maximize their chances of earning a free concert ticket!
Keeping in line with the anti-poverty spirit, H&M is also offering points towards winning tickets to the festival for those who donate gently used clothes at any store location. Clothing donations will start being accepted on Sept. 17 and will continue up until the concert.
Stephen Colbert, Salma Hayek, Deborra-Lee & Hugh Jackman, Kerry Washington, and Olivia Wilde will be hosting the event. Perhaps even more exciting is this year’s lineup, which includes—among others—Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, and of course, Coldplay.
With the perfect location, rock star hosts and performers and an incredibly noble cause, this year’s Global Citizen Festival is sure to live up to its hype. By pairing live entertainment with global development goals, the Global Poverty Project has certainly raised the standard of strategic anti-poverty innovation.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 01:30:462024-12-13 18:05:01Upcoming Global Citizen Festival
In Lebanon, crucial civil services have been shut down as a result of political gridlock. For a few weeks, many businesses and households have been left with intermittent access to electricity and water. As if conditions were not difficult enough, a garbage crisis has emerged as trash collection has been halted.
Additionally, amid concerns of overfilling, the government has closed the country’s largest landfill and has not established any coping measures. As a result, the streets of Lebanese cities have been riddled with trash and waste.
The politics of Lebanon is based on a power-sharing structure amongst the various religious sects. While representative of the population, the country is susceptible to situations such as this as consensus can be difficult to achieve.
The capital of Beirut is home to over half the total Lebanese population and is the epicenter of the waste buildup. The situation has gotten so out of hand that citizens have begun burning trash in the streets. The fumes from burnt trash can contain toxic chemicals and create their own set of serious health concerns.
Calling the situation a “major health disaster,” The country’s Health Minister, Wael Abu Faour, has called for the government officials to end the gridlock and fix the escalating garbage crisis in Lebanon.
Citizens have begun to mobilize and take to the streets to voice their objections to the trash as well as the government. Movements have adopted the slogan “You Stink” as a literal and figurative metaphor for the government and the situation they have created.
“You Stink” organizers have begun using social media outlets to pass information and spread the word on protests. Recently, a protest of over 20,000 civilians took place in Beirut. However, police suppressed the protestors with billy clubs and fire hoses. A litany of footage documenting police violence has been uploaded to Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
“You Stink” protesters hope that the utilization of the internet and social media will raise awareness to the international community. With the added attention, organizers hope their Lebanese government will face mounting pressure to proactively solve this crisis.
The protests and concerns have certainly caught the attention of Prime Minister Tammam Salam. In a televised speech, he stated, “The trash issue was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the story is larger, much larger than this straw, and it is the story of the political trash in the country.”
As we stumble into a dark room, it is only natural that our hands reach for the light switch — a motion that takes only a moment before we are bathed in artificial golden rays illuminating the enclosed space in which we stand via electricity.
In our homes and about our daily lives, we do not place a schedule around the daylight hours; with a generous supply of electricity, we can be productive at any time.
We neglect to think about the children who cannot finish their homework each night, the markets which cannot operate in the evenings, the businesses which can’t get off the ground or the schools and clinics which fail to provide the most basic services in areas without electricity, laments a video by the World Bank which describes the harsh reality of living in such circumstances.
When we think of places that have no electricity, often images of remote villages come to mind, but surprisingly, many of those who are lacking access to power are those living in urban slums.
Two years ago in the slums of Nairobi, as many as two million people lived in “informal settlements” which were not equipped with power, or if they were, they were unsafe, unreliable and illegal connections prone to catching fire or causing electrocutions sold by local cartels. This unsafe environment was not desirable and for any change to occur, the Kenyan community would have to embrace the notion of safe and affordable electricity.
At first community members were skeptical of Kenya Power, Kenya’s national utility which focused on taking down illegal connections in the slums from 2011-2013. Community members associated Kenya Power with dismantling their source of electricity, despite how unsafe it may be they were unhappy, often putting up another illegal connection within days.
Kenya Power adapted a community approach and conversed with people, opting to leave the illegal connections alone and just focus on providing safe electricity. In just one year, the number of legal connections would grow from just 5,000 in May 2014 to 150,000 and counting in May 2015.
With the reliability and affordability of such a system in place, its usage has become contagious, “Most consumers use pay-as-you-go scheme, buying pre-paid chits, available at any corner store, and paying for electricity in small increments.
In fact, many of the former vendors of illegal electricity are now in the (legal) business of selling Kenya Power chits,” says the World Bank, which provides funding for Kenya Power and also offers a South-South Knowledge exchange including Kenyan workers and experts from utilities in Brazil, Colombia and South Africa.
Support from the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid and World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program are also a part of the given support and part of a much larger $330 million World Bank project to help Kenya Power expand, modernize and light up its cities’ slums.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/borgen-project-logo.svgBorgen Project2015-09-05 01:30:282020-07-02 13:07:07A Bright Future for Kenyan Slums with Addition of Electricity
UN Funds Humanitarian Efforts in Central African Republic
On August 11, the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund allocated $13.2 million to humanitarian efforts in the Central African Republic (CAR) in order to provide much needed life-saving aid to those affected by the ongoing conflict in the African country.
The funds will go toward supporting local humanitarian aid agencies that provide clean drinking water, access to education and healthcare, food, protection, and shelter to vulnerable and displaced people. Though the amount of funds will provide some people with necessary help, it is not nearly what is needed to be able to provide aid for the entire population in need.
“Thanks to donors who have contributed in 2015, this CHF allocation allows humanitarian partners to continue helping thousands of displaced people and host families,” said Aurélien Agbénonci, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in the African country. “However, it is only three percent of the $415 million we still need by the end of the year if we are to save more lives and reach all people in acute need in 2015.”
The Civil War in the Central African Republic between the Muslim Séléka alliance and the anti-Balaka militias with CAR government forces, which are predominantly Christian, began at the end of 2012 and has claimed many civilian lives and displaced many more. Additionally, the Lord’s Resistance Army continues operations within the southeastern region of the country.
According to the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of June 2015, there are about 463,400 refugees from the Central African Republic, and 368,900 internally displaced people. In total, OCHA concludes that there are presently 2.7 million people in the Central African Republic who are in critical need of humanitarian aid.
Unfortunately, the CAR is reportedly “one of the most difficult and dangerous environments in the world for aid workers.” On July 22, the UN condemned a surge of violence against aid workers along with the July 18 attack on a World Food Program food convoy which left a driver dead.
It is crucial that international humanitarian aid organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to aiding those in need. The UN’s latest allocation of funds, though not sufficient to provide for every single victim, sent the right message. Aid organizations must never falter in the effort to protect and preserve the lives of innocent civilians, even in the face of danger.
– Jaime Longoria
Sources: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN News Centre 1, UN News Centre 2
Photo: UN News Centre
Middle Eastern Migrants Well-Received in Serbia
As Middle Eastern migrants travel to Western Europe, many must make the voyage across the Balkan Peninsula. Hundreds of migrants, half of whom are from Syria and Afghanistan, stop in Belgrade, Serbia as a jumping-off point into Hungary. The majority of migrants claim to be headed to Germany, while some say they plan on arriving in Sweden.
Around 500-700 people take up temporary residence in Belgrade’s parks near the city’s central transportation lines. Here, they generally wait 2 days for transport into Hungary. As they wait, they battle temperatures nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit and a lack of supplies.
A total of 60,000 migrants have entered Serbia through Macedonia and Bulgaria during the first six months of the year though it is speculated that the numbers could indeed be higher.
Fortunately, Serbian organizations, restaurants, and people have begun distributing aid. Mikes House, a cultural and designer house, has distributed water, food and clothes. Residents of the city have also begun to gift old clothing along with water. Many simply come to speak to migrants and share stories.
On April 12, Belgrade authorities began to park water tanks in the parks and have organized services to clean the parks and rid them of garbage.
Médecins Sans Frontières has also started providing general healthcare to the migrants as their journeys take a brief pause in the northern Balkans.
All of this comes at a time when Europe as a whole experiences major surges in migration due to one of history’s largest refugee crises. Germany, in particular, has had to raise its projected influx from 450,000 at the beginning of 2015 to a projected 800,000 by the end of the year.
As a contingency plan, on August 10 the European Commission approved 2.4 billion euros of aid for the next six-year period, in the hopes that it may help curb the strain many countries will be feeling as migrants begin to settle within state borders.
– Jaime Longoria
Sources: BBC, Reuters, Ukraine Today
Photo: BBC
New Zealand Gang Feeds Children
Jamie Pink, the president of the organization, called Kai 4 the Future, knows what it is like to grow up in poverty. As a child, he barely ever had enough food for himself. When he grew to be an adult, he knew he wanted to do something about it. Although he does admit he likes violence, he says he liked helping people even more.
Now, Tribal Huk leases fifty acres of farmland around Horotiu and Ngaruawahia, and owns dozens of beef, sheep and pigs. Some animals are sold to finance the foundation while the rest go in the sandwiches.
In New Zealand, 270,000 children live below the poverty line, according to the country’s Children’s Commissioner. Although the government has implemented a $9.5 million program in the last couple of years to help solve the problem, children remain hungry.
Pink laments that New Zealand has enough water, food and other resources- sheep even outnumber people ten to one- to support their population, but children are still going hungry. He hopes to get government assistance so the gang can make even more sandwiches every day.
He is also hoping to start a new trust in which people donate just $5 a week to the Foundation. If 50,000 people pay this amount for a year, they would collect $30 million – enough to feed every hungry child in the country.
– Radhika Singh
Sources: Stuff, RadioNZ
Photo: Stuff
New Report Casts Light on Global Health Innovations
Innovation Countdown 2030 (IC2030), an initiative led by an international nonprofit organization, released its inaugural report on July 13, which features 30 innovations that have the potential to transform global health and save millions of lives by 2030.
The report, Reimagining Global Health, was announced at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa.
IC2030 is led by PATH, the frontrunner when it comes to global health innovation, with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The report involved a yearlong process in which more than 500 innovations were nominated from over 50 countries, with a goal of propelling investment and support for health technologies.
Each innovation was assessed by dozens of international health experts, leading to the 30 that are featured in the report. Each innovation was selected for the potential it has to save lives and transform global health.
The innovations cover four health areas: maternal, newborn and child health, infectious diseases, reproductive health and non-communicable diseases.
The report also includes commentary from leading experts in health, business and technology on the important role innovation plays in driving health impact.
One such expert is Amie Batson, the chief strategy officer for PATH. In the report, she emphasizes four key strategies to help further innovations in global health.
The strategies are: sourcing health solutions globally, pinpointing the most cost-effective innovations, creating new devices concentrating on financing and coordinating investments.
These approaches are seen in PATH’s cost impact modeling process, a feature the nonprofit created with its partner, Applied Strategies.
Specifically, the model measures how many lives are saved, the number of cases of disease avoided, and the costs for health innovations.
Two innovations seen in the report and evaluated with PATH’s cost impact modeling process have to do with preventing infections in newborns and stopping diarrheal disease from contaminated water from reaching children.
Chlorhexidine is a low-cost antiseptic used in umbilical cord care to prevent infections in newborns. Every year, thousands of newborns die as a result of unsanitary conditions during birth and not having access to antiseptics for the first week after being born.
Chlorhexidine, which comes in liquid and gel form, can be applied to the umbilical cord stump after birth at a safe and effective concentration. By doing so, the chance of infection is greatly reduced.
More importantly, health workers or family members can use the antiseptic at home.
It’s estimated that, by using Chlorhexidine, 1,004,000 neonatal lives can be saved between 2015 and 2030, with a nine percent reduction in deaths caused by sepsis. A scaled-up use of the antiseptic is expected to cost $81 million.
The second innovation has to do with preventing diarrheal disease in children by using chlorine to disinfect water in small communities.
Developing countries often have shortages in clean water, as not only are most public water systems inadequate, but many households don’t have the necessary resources to purchase treated water.
As a result, new tools have been developed to disinfect water at sources in small-scale communities. One such tool, the Zimba automated batch chlorinator, fits on hand pumps and community taps, and chlorinates the water with no need for electricity or moving parts.
The device has the capability to disinfect up to 8,000 liters of water before the chlorine dispenser needs to be refilled.
Estimates show that, by chlorinating water in small-scale communities, 1,515,000 child lives will be saved, with a 16 percent reduction in diarrhea-related deaths. In addition, the disinfecting devices will save $1.2 billion because of the decrease in the number of cases of diarrheal disease, leading to a reduction in treatment costs.
Moving forward, PATH wants to build on IC2030 to give a greater voice to global innovators. The organization also wants to engage experts from different subject matters and raise awareness and visibility about possible lifesaving innovations.
– Matt Wotus
Sources: PATH, PR Newswire, The IC2030 Report
Photo: Flickr
Vaccinating the Masses
Every year, children squirm awaiting the dreaded shot, vaccinating them from the clutches of the dreaded flu. We’ve become accustomed to this process over the years, but the reality is that this tedious cycle may be coming to an end with new medical advancements on the horizon.
The world’s first universal vaccine may be right around the corner. Researchers at Rockefeller University are working to develop a new type of vaccine that, according to the Times of India will, “harness a previously unknown mechanism within the immune system to create more effective and efficient vaccines against this virus which may ultimately result in a vaccine that provides life-long immunity against flu infections.”
The vaccine operates by targeting all varieties of flu strains and utilizes modified antibodies.
These new antibodies are being formulated to target flu strains that often are not treated by standard vaccines. An article in EurekAlert examined the science behind this bold undertaking by scientists.
“Work in the Ravetch lab suggests a new alternative: chemical modifications to the Fc region of antibodies. These regions go on to form complexes with vaccine antigens, which then modulate the evolving vaccine response,” reads an excerpt from EurekaAlert.
Essentially, once the new vaccine is administered to the patient, it continually evolves to combat any future flu strains that may arise in the patient.
The possibility of a universal flu vaccine being only years away would revolutionize world health. By only needing to be administered once, the vaccine could be distributed all over the world.
This would allow for those in poverty to receive vaccination and have life-long immunity. Mortality rates all over the world would decrease incrementally with life-long vaccination a reality.
– Diego Catala
Sources: Eurekalert, Times of India
Photo: Google Images
Hillary Clinton on Global Poverty
Hillary Clinton is more than well known and has been an incredibly successful and influential politician, but as she campaigns for the Democratic nomination it has become increasingly difficult to learn about her positions or platforms amongst the constant news bits of what she wore or the Chipotle burrito she ordered.
Below is a collection of Clinton’s positions on issues surrounding global poverty.
Clinton on U.S. involvement with humanitarian missions:
“I believe strongly that we have to get back to leading on issues like health care and education and women’s rights around the world. I have introduced bipartisan legislation called The Education for All Act, to have the US lead the world in putting the 77 million kids who aren’t in school into school. I believe we should demonstrate our commitment to people who are poor, disenfranchised, disempowered before we talk about putting troops anywhere. The US has to be seen again as a peacekeeper, and we have lost that standing in these last seven years. So I think we have to concentrate first and foremost on restoring our moral authority in the world and our standing in the world.” (2008)
Clinton on foreign aid:
“I think many people are mistaken about how much money we spend on foreign aid. We spend 1%, and many believe we spend 25%. That 1% investment has made a difference in solving problems but also in helping America to be stronger by solving problems around the world. We sometimes learn lessons we can bring home. I want us to continue to be a leader, and you don’t lead from behind walls. You don’t lead by walking away from the world. I think you lead by remaining engaged and trying to shape events.” (1997)
Clinton on micro-finance:
“From the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to the Self-employed Women’s Association in India, or to the work in Ghana, to banks and programs modeled on these from Indonesia to the Dominican Republic, to my own country, we have seen that microlending works. Women who have received loans from the Grameen Bank, for example, have a repayment rate of 97%, and often within one year. And they invest their money well.” (1995)
– Brittney Dimond
Sources: On the Issues 1, On the Issues 2
Photo: Flickr
Education Award for Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake
The GLSEN Respect Awards began in 2004 and have been held annually in Los Angeles and New York to broadcast the charity work of educators, students, influential individuals and corporations who have made an exemplary difference.
Recently, GLSEN announced this year’s honorees to voice the organization’s excitement for the Respect Awards and to showcase the humanitarians receiving the awards. GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard said that GLSEN is thrilled with their diverse selection of philanthropists. Byard also said that Biel and Timberlake have been great supporters of the cause.
“Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake have been visible and committed allies,” she said.
Biel and Timberlake will receive the Inspiration Award that will highlight the couple’s continual and thorough pledge to improving the lives of children.
Biel and Timberlake have participated in work for water sanitation, women’s rights, human rights, poverty, disaster relief, refugees, slavery and human trafficking and health — all causes that contribute to a quality standard of education.
Biel has taken to Twitter to use her celebrity to raise awareness for Charity: Water, an organization that seeks to provide clean water for areas without.
“In Orissa, India #water & sanitation solutions can change lives,” Biel said.
She also asked that her followers visit the Charity: Water Twitter page and website for more information and to retweet her tweet.
Timberlake contributed a song to Songs for the Philippines, a collection of 39 popular tracks, to benefit those displaced after the supertyphoon in 2013.
All charity work aside, Biel and Timberlake are a celebrity couple who understand the importance of a safe environment for education. GLSEN does, too.
Since 1990, GLSEN has made it a point to research and create programs for primary education systems. The organization has successfully helped to implement student leadership plans and educator training, as well as federal advocacy.
According to UNICEF, creating a safe and successful learning environment is difficult in areas of war and poverty. In one UNICEF article titled “Finding a Safe Space for Learning in a Country Beset by violence,” displaced refugees and citizens in areas stricken with conflict may miss years of schooling because of their unfortunate living conditions.
The article also describes the struggles of a teenage girl named Nicolette Divine who moved out of her area so that she could attend school in a safe setting.
“My mother said that a school at the monastery was starting, so that was why I came [to Bangui], so that I can study,” Divine said.
GLSEN has employed many tactics and ideas to ensure the safety of children in school. With the power of voice and opinionated thinking, GLSEN has successfully executed programs that created special days dedicated to social and educational movement towards safe and positive schooling systems.
In previous years, GLSEN Respect Awards have honored actress Julia Roberts, NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt, athlete Jason Collins, as well as corporations like MTV and Johnson & Johnson.
The lineup for the GLSEN Awards features actor Dave Karger, actress Jessica Capshaw, athlete Mike Irvin, country music artist Terri Clark and more. The event will take place at the Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills on Oct. 23.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Billboard, JessicaBiel.com, Look to the Stars 1, Look to the Stars 2, UNICEF
Photo: Us Weekly
Upcoming Global Citizen Festival
The Global Citizen Festival began as an anti-poverty platform in 2012. Each year, the concert acts as a hub for campaigns that work towards global development and poverty eradication. This year, the festival will be timed to coincide with the launch of the United Nations’ new Global Goals, designed to end poverty by 2030.
Global Poverty Project, an organization that aims to end extreme poverty by increasing the number of people taking anti-poverty action, hosts the yearly concert. This year, the concert will take place on the Great Lawn at Central Park. Coldplay’s Chris Martin has played a leading role in creating the concert’s lineup.
For the second year in a row, MSNBC will be serving as a media partner of the Global Citizen Festival. The network will air a live simulcast of the full concert on their website. Youtube is also a worldwide digital streaming partner for the Festival, and will feature a special live stream of the concert which can be found here.
Last year, celebrity activists including Hugh Jackman, Adrian Grenier, and Jessica Alba, and world leaders like United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the musical acts. The all-star lineup included Beyonce, Jay Z, Sting, Tiesto, No Doubt, Carrie Underwood, and more.
As 2015 is an especially important year for the global fight against poverty, this year’s festival is sure to not disappoint. This September at the UN General Assembly in New York, world leaders will announce a new set of global goals designed to fight inequality, protect our planet, and most importantly to end extreme poverty by 2030.
Organizers of the Global Citizen Festival hope that this year’s concert will act as a launching pad for essential policy and financial commitments needed to achieve these goals. Early initiation of such commitments is indeed a critical step.
For those who seek immediate anti-poverty action, Global Citizen is offering a chance to win free tickets to the concert on their website, www.globalcitizen.org. By following the outlined poverty-fighting steps on the organization’s website, people can maximize their chances of earning a free concert ticket!
Keeping in line with the anti-poverty spirit, H&M is also offering points towards winning tickets to the festival for those who donate gently used clothes at any store location. Clothing donations will start being accepted on Sept. 17 and will continue up until the concert.
Stephen Colbert, Salma Hayek, Deborra-Lee & Hugh Jackman, Kerry Washington, and Olivia Wilde will be hosting the event. Perhaps even more exciting is this year’s lineup, which includes—among others—Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, and of course, Coldplay.
With the perfect location, rock star hosts and performers and an incredibly noble cause, this year’s Global Citizen Festival is sure to live up to its hype. By pairing live entertainment with global development goals, the Global Poverty Project has certainly raised the standard of strategic anti-poverty innovation.
– Sarah Bernard
Sources: MSNBC, Audio Ink Radio, Global Citizen
Photo: Google Images
Garbage Crisis in Lebanon
Additionally, amid concerns of overfilling, the government has closed the country’s largest landfill and has not established any coping measures. As a result, the streets of Lebanese cities have been riddled with trash and waste.
The politics of Lebanon is based on a power-sharing structure amongst the various religious sects. While representative of the population, the country is susceptible to situations such as this as consensus can be difficult to achieve.
The capital of Beirut is home to over half the total Lebanese population and is the epicenter of the waste buildup. The situation has gotten so out of hand that citizens have begun burning trash in the streets. The fumes from burnt trash can contain toxic chemicals and create their own set of serious health concerns.
Calling the situation a “major health disaster,” The country’s Health Minister, Wael Abu Faour, has called for the government officials to end the gridlock and fix the escalating garbage crisis in Lebanon.
Citizens have begun to mobilize and take to the streets to voice their objections to the trash as well as the government. Movements have adopted the slogan “You Stink” as a literal and figurative metaphor for the government and the situation they have created.
“You Stink” organizers have begun using social media outlets to pass information and spread the word on protests. Recently, a protest of over 20,000 civilians took place in Beirut. However, police suppressed the protestors with billy clubs and fire hoses. A litany of footage documenting police violence has been uploaded to Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
“You Stink” protesters hope that the utilization of the internet and social media will raise awareness to the international community. With the added attention, organizers hope their Lebanese government will face mounting pressure to proactively solve this crisis.
The protests and concerns have certainly caught the attention of Prime Minister Tammam Salam. In a televised speech, he stated, “The trash issue was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the story is larger, much larger than this straw, and it is the story of the political trash in the country.”
– The Borgen Project
Sources: New York Times 1, Huffington Post, New York Times 2, LA Times
Photo: New York Times
A Bright Future for Kenyan Slums with Addition of Electricity
In our homes and about our daily lives, we do not place a schedule around the daylight hours; with a generous supply of electricity, we can be productive at any time.
We neglect to think about the children who cannot finish their homework each night, the markets which cannot operate in the evenings, the businesses which can’t get off the ground or the schools and clinics which fail to provide the most basic services in areas without electricity, laments a video by the World Bank which describes the harsh reality of living in such circumstances.
When we think of places that have no electricity, often images of remote villages come to mind, but surprisingly, many of those who are lacking access to power are those living in urban slums.
Two years ago in the slums of Nairobi, as many as two million people lived in “informal settlements” which were not equipped with power, or if they were, they were unsafe, unreliable and illegal connections prone to catching fire or causing electrocutions sold by local cartels. This unsafe environment was not desirable and for any change to occur, the Kenyan community would have to embrace the notion of safe and affordable electricity.
At first community members were skeptical of Kenya Power, Kenya’s national utility which focused on taking down illegal connections in the slums from 2011-2013. Community members associated Kenya Power with dismantling their source of electricity, despite how unsafe it may be they were unhappy, often putting up another illegal connection within days.
Kenya Power adapted a community approach and conversed with people, opting to leave the illegal connections alone and just focus on providing safe electricity. In just one year, the number of legal connections would grow from just 5,000 in May 2014 to 150,000 and counting in May 2015.
With the reliability and affordability of such a system in place, its usage has become contagious, “Most consumers use pay-as-you-go scheme, buying pre-paid chits, available at any corner store, and paying for electricity in small increments.
In fact, many of the former vendors of illegal electricity are now in the (legal) business of selling Kenya Power chits,” says the World Bank, which provides funding for Kenya Power and also offers a South-South Knowledge exchange including Kenyan workers and experts from utilities in Brazil, Colombia and South Africa.
Support from the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid and World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program are also a part of the given support and part of a much larger $330 million World Bank project to help Kenya Power expand, modernize and light up its cities’ slums.
– Nikki Schaffer
Sources: World Bank, Kenya Power
Photo: World Bank