While Zambia continues to make strides economically and socially, there are clear problems that need to be addressed, according to a report by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The most pressing issue, the report states, is the growing number of unemployed youths in Zambia.
The Statistical Context
This past decade has been quite fruitful for Zambia’s economy, which has grown at an annual rate of 6 percent since 2000. However, poverty still afflicts 60.5 percent of the population. Moreover, from 2004 to 2013, the population has increased by 3.3 million to 14.5 million. The result is a disproportionately large population of Zambian youths.
This expansion amounts to an annual average rate of 3 percent, which exceeds the 2.7 percent average of other sub-Saharan countries.
According to the U.N.’s World Population Prospects, the working age youth population is expected to grow at a rate of 34 percent for the next two decades. This means that the youth labor force is expected to nearly double from 5.5 million to 10.1 million.
While Zambia’s economy has shown significant growth, the expected influx of youth into the labor market presents a challenge and a question: How can they all be absorbed into the workforce?
Currently, youth make up 64.2 percent of the working-age population. And of that pool, only 11 percent obtain public jobs. The private sector, on the other hand, accounts for a small percentage of the employed youth.
Not surprisingly, agriculture accounts for the majority of the jobs that youths hold as the economy continues to rely on that industry for growth.
This fact suggests that the economy has not undergone a structural transformation. In other words, the Zambian market has not yet incorporated technology-intensive manufacturing firms. And this has left otherwise able youth underemployed, performing marginal jobs of an irregular nature.
The Underlying Factors
Zambia boasts tremendous improvement in primary school enrollment rates, having increased from 72 percent in 2002 to 94 percent in 2012. However, as the report notes, the true indicator of a stable and effective education system is the progression rate of students from primary school all the way to tertiary school.
In that regard, Zambia performs poorly: out of every 100 primary school children, only 1.07 will enroll at a tertiary institution (i.e. university or vocational school).
This rate is six times below the average of neighboring countries and 19 times below the world average. Since many Zambian youth do not complete secondary or tertiary school, they are unable to find jobs and many may resort to agricultural or household work.
The struggle in transitioning from school to work depends on several factors. The quality of education is one, but it is not uncommon for young Zambians to be in and out of school trying to find sponsors to pay for their education.
Some end up graduating secondary school (i.e. high school) in their twenties.
For this reason, entrepreneurship is quite popular among Zambians as a compelling option for those who leave school. And, while the business set up have so far not been very stable — as a result of their establishment being out of economic necessity rather than opportunity — many see promise if these individuals are better supported.
The Solutions
Technical and vocational educational training schools or TVETs have been created to address the huge scarcity of skilled workers and a need for out-of-school students to find training.
However, there are two challenges facing these schools. First, is a lack of capacity: about 300,000 Zambians leave the school system every year, yet the universities and TVETs can only absorb 14,000 students.
Second, there has yet to be much stock put in the graduates of TVETs as compared to graduates of universities. Historically, TVET graduates are viewed as favorably as university graduates even though they possess the technical skills needed for a growing young economy like Zambia’s.
The government has enacted soft policies to help combat youth unemployment. The National Youth Policy (NYP) was first adopted in 1994 and was later readdressed in 2013.
The result was the National Action Plan on Youth Employment in Zambia, which developed a framework to monitor and evaluate youth unemployment to better produce jobs and resources.
Donor communities and Zambia’s NGO sector also assist. Street Kids International established the Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative, giving youth in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, opportunities to earn daily income and learn life skills. Another venture, BongoHive, acts as a networking hub for young graduates to program and gain employable skills.
– Shehrose Mian
Sources: Bloomberg, IDRC, Bongohive
Photo: The World Bank
Tackling Tuberculosis Across the Globe
Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for 4,000 deaths daily, killing more adults around the world than any other infectious disease. Here are some key facts on TB:
Tackling Multidrug-resistant TB
Unfortunately, after decades of use, anti-tuberculosis drug resistance is becoming widespread. Disease strains that are resistant to a single anti-TB drug have been documented in every country surveyed by WHO.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to Isoniazid and Rifampicin, the two most common anti-TB drugs.
The primary cause of MDR-TB is inappropriate treatment. Inappropriate treatment ranges from an incorrect use of anti-TB drugs to the use of poor quality medicines.
“If we don’t act promptly, if we don’t act now, then the problem of drug-resistant TB will just get worse,” reported Peter Cegielski, team leader for Drug-Resistant TB and Infection Control in the global TB branch at the CDC.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reported this year alone more than 480,000 people will develop MDR-TB and fewer than 20 percent will receive the medications they need.
The USAID responded to this global health concern by announcing two new partnerships to add resources and cutting-edge technology to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson, announced a $15 to $20 million pledge to combat MDR-TB. Cepheid, a maker of molecular systems and tests, is also teaming with USAID in an effort to increase access to rapid, accurate diagnostic tools.
“USAID remains committed to addressing the global rise of MDR-TB,” Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health, said. “With the successful implementation of this plan, we have an incredible opportunity to make a significant impact on the emergence and spread of MDR-TB. We will continue to harness mutually rewarding partnerships, like the ones with Janssen and Cepheid, to lead international efforts against MDR-TB.”
– Kara Buckley
Sources: USAID, VOA News, WHO
Photo: All Africa
Internet Celebrity Charity Takes Center Stage
Reelio specializes in linking companies with Youtube stars to promote their brands, and Reelio Cares specializes in linking charities with social media influencers to promote their causes. CEO Pete Borum believes that the time has come for Reelio Cares, as many nonprofits have difficulty reaching their target audience via traditional methods like mail and television.
Already, online celebrities have become a force in charity work. In 2013, PewDiePie raised over $160,000 in just two weeks for Charity: Water, a nonprofit that specializes in providing clean drinking water to countries all over the earth. LoadingReadyRun has raised more than $450,000 for Child’s Play over several years. Child’s Play brings toys and games to sick children in hospitals worldwide.
Internet celebrity charity is advantageous to all parties involved. For nonprofits, it provides a free way to contact a young, engaged audience willing to give. For online stars, it lets them change the world in a positive way. According to one such star, woodworking sensation Steve Ramsey, “Many have huge audiences that they weren’t really expecting. They start to think ‘Do I want to just keep making videos or do I want to do something with those videos, with this audience and really use it for good?’”
Besides promoting charities, the videos also promote the online celebrity’s site. Reelio reports that videos with a positive, charitable message receive two-and-a-half times as many views as normal videos. This is because of the way these drives usually work.
For the number of views a video receives, the celebrity will donate an ever-increasing number of dollars to a cause. As such, subscribers are encouraged to share with their social network as much as possible. As more people see the video, they also donate their own money to the cause. In the end, the online celebrity only contributes a small portion directly to the charity. It’s the audience who contributes the lion’s share.
Demographically, the shift to internet celebrities makes sense for nonprofit charities. According to CNN in November 2015, teens spend roughly nine hours a day on social media. Advertising agencies such as BrightRoll report that the majority of their customers find online advertising to be at least as effective as television.
While it may be too soon for traditional celebrities to step aside, the time has come for them to share center stage with internet celebrities. Social media lets charitable organizations reach an audience that’s not only willing to give, but willing to share their message with as many people as possible. It lets them reach young people who are as familiar with Youtube sensations as they are with movie stars. As the information age advances, internet celebrity charity is destined to positively change the planet.
– Dennis Sawyers
Sources: CNN, Financial Times, Marketing Land, Reason Digital, Reelio
Photo: Google Images
Millennium Challenge Corporation Seeks Expansion
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is seeking approval from Congress to expand its operations over the coming years via the Millennium Compacts for Regional Economic Integration (M-CORE) Act.
In a recent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, MCC CEO Dana Hyde argued that the organization would be more effective if given the authority to make regional investments, in addition to the single-country investments it is currently authorized to make.
“By making coordinated regional investments across multiple eligible countries, MCC can help countries work together to build and grow regional markets…and help generate new business and market opportunities for U.S. and other companies,” Hyde said.
The MCC has a singular mandate: reduce poverty through economic growth. The organization does this by initiating joint public-private investment projects in countries working toward democratic governance, open markets and human development.
Since its creation in 2004 by President Bush, the Millennium Challenge Corporation has committed $10 billion in over 58 projects in 25 countries. Around 70 percent of this investment has gone into infrastructure projects like highways and ports and an increasing percentage is being invested in energy.
The organization is currently only allowed to initiate projects within single countries, which, according to Hyde and other experts, is an impractical development strategy.
According to Hyde, countries cannot develop economically if they are unable to trade with their neighbors. Regional projects like cross-border highways and railways could make a bigger impact – especially among groups of small states.
“It’s easy to think about how regional engagement might be beneficial in the context of electricity,” said Center for Global Development President Dr. Nancy Birdsall. “The logic of a shared grid across borders is clear. To work, countries involved need to commit to a strong regulatory and financial structure outside the auspices of a single government for power trading and pricing.
However, initiating projects across multiple countries also poses a number of challenges. One such challenge occurs because neighboring countries are often not at the same level of development. For example, if the MCC wanted to begin a project across two countries, one may meet the required indicators for open governance and human development while the other might not.
The organization currently bridges this gap by undertaking threshold programs designed to assist near-eligible countries to become ready for investment.
Now, it wants the additional authority to conduct threshold programs at the same time it begins investment projects – meaning countries can begin projects before they are fully eligible to do so.
It may seem counter to MCC’s mandate, but Hyde argued that it is a necessary.
In her testimony, Hyde said the Millennium Challenge Corporation has a proven record of implementing successful country projects and is well equipped to take on the challenges of regional investments without straying from its mandate.
– Ron Minard
Sources: American Progress, Senate.gov 1, Senate.gov 2, MCC
Photo: Wikipedia
Education in Namibia and Its Role in Development
The United Nations recently presented its Human Development Report in Windhoek, Namibia. The Report included the U.N.’s Human Development Index (HDI) which not only measures a nation’s economic well-being but also that of its citizens. Many find the HDI useful because it takes into account the citizenry’s quality of life.
The Report provided sobering news for the host nation when it was revealed its HDI rank was 126 out of 188. Despite its status as an upper middle-income nation, Namibia ranks fairly low on quality of life metric.
The HDI shows that a rising gross domestic product cannot cover up the citizen’s poor standard of living. The HDI points out that there is wealth inequality, poverty, poor healthcare and educational underperformance in Namibia.
Babatunde Omilola, the United Nations Development Programme’s chief of development planning in New York offered his opinion on solutions to these issues. In particular, Omilola noted that Namibia “could do better if it invests more in education.”
For example, Namibia invests billions of dollars in its education, yet only 30 percent of 12th graders in 2013 met the requirements for college admissions. With statistics showing that college graduates earn more throughout their lifetime, Namibia’s lack of collegiate students translates to unrealized potential.
By improving education in Namibia, it is likely that its citizens will benefit from increased opportunities and a higher HDI as the country tries to overcome a staggering poverty rate of 30 percent.
Omilola also noted that education “allows people to enhance their capabilities by providing them with acquired skills and knowledge.”
He then concludes this by saying Namibia’s “Education and skills need to be boosted.”
With a greater focus on education in Namibia, it is hoped that the country will produce more college graduates that have 21st century skills. These graduates will be able to fill the nation’s skills gap, and take advantage of the nation’s abundant resources.
– Andrew Wildes
Sources: Capacity4dev, World Bank, UNDP, Namibian 1, Namibian 2, Namibian Sun, WHO
Photo: UNDP
Fighting Starvation: Madaya Finally Receives Aid
The World Food Programme announced that trucks carrying food for more than 40,000 people safely reached Madaya, Syria on Jan. 12, 2016.
Boxes of food containing rice, wheat flour, vegetable oil, salt, sugar, canned food, beans and lentils came on what Madaya’s residents hope to be the first of many aid convoys according to the World Food Programme.
“You could see a mixture of hope in people’s eyes and disbelief that this thing was actually happening,” Pawel Krzysiek of the International Committee of the Red Cross told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Unfortunately, residents of Madaya have been suffering from starvation as aid had not reached the area since Oct. 18, 2015, according to CNN; however it is not for a lack of trying.
Yacoub El Hillo, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria and Kevin Kennedy, regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria Crisis released a statement from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) on Jan. 7, 2016 indicating that Madaya has been, “inaccessible since then despite numerous requests for access.”
The statement calls for unimpeded humanitarian access to reach those in need in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria and claimed that the almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation.
“We do not want to see this as a one-off,” El Hillo told BBC News. “Ultimately the real solution to this predicament, to the plight of the people besieged in these towns, is for the siege to be lifted.”
World Food Programme Spokeswoman Abeer Etefa told CNN the recent convoy should sustain 40,000 for a month.
Oxfam America issued a press release on Jan. 11, 2016 expressing relief that aid was scheduled to reach those starving in Madaya, but warned that this may not be sufficient.
“Madaya is one of 15 areas across Syria under siege, with inhabitants restricted from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other supplies,” according to Oxfam America’s press release. “People in these areas also desperately need assistance and protection, yet access to them keeps deteriorating.”
The World Food Programme reported that nutritional items from UNICEF, medical supplies from the World Health Organization (WHO) and items from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were delivered with their convoy.
The second aid convoy is reported to have reached Madaya on Jan. 14, 2016 according to BBC News.
– Summer Jackson
Sources: BBC, CNN, Oxfam America, Relief Web, WFP, News Yahoo
Photo: Catch News
Mobile Weather Texts Prepare West African Farmers
Swedish technology company and social enterprise Ignitia has teamed up with Business Call to Action (BCtA) to send tropical weather forecasts via text message to 1.2 million small-scale west African farmers by the end of 2017.
The BCtA is backed by the UNDP and encourages businesses to include poverty-level populations and help to achieve sustainable development goals.
Founded in 2010 as a physics and meteorologist research team, Ignitia offers weather forecasts to prepare west African farmers for inclement weather.
The company has since developed algorithms that provide weather forecasts to 3,400 small-scale farmers in Ghana – with an 82 percent level of accuracy, compared to the 39 percent standard, according to Ignitia .
Here’s how it works: Ignitia’s weather forecasts are reported through Iska as text messages and are sent directly to small-scale farmers throughout tropical regions. Each forecast is tailored to a specific farmer’s crop location via an automated application that finds its GPS coordinates.
Farmers receive these forecasts by subscribing to an SMS service for $0.04 per day that can be paid in installments or from pre-paid credit on a mobile phone. This equals less than two percent of a farmer’s total expenditures, according to The Guardian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sy0INKw_bg
Iska offers warnings of heavy rains and dry spells, specific start and end dates for the rainy season and provides two-day forecasts to west African farmers daily, in addition to a monthly outlook report and two six-month seasonal reports.
About 40 percent of the world’s population lives in the tropics where most livelihoods come from small-scale farming, with sub-Saharan African farmers seeing the lowest yields in the world.
Since tropical weather conditions can change drastically in a short amount of time, monitoring crops can be a tricky task for farmers. Changes in weather patterns and the unpredictability of severe weather make traditional farming methodologies less dependable.
Iska’s short-mid and long-range forecast messaging offers these farmers a vital way of adapting to climate change. The Guardian reports that at least 20 percent of yields are lost due to weather, but meteorology updates like the ones Iska provides can help increase a farmer’s income by 80 percent.
In West Africa, Iska demonstrated an 84 percent accuracy rate during the 2013 and 2014 rainy seasons, according to Ignitia.
“With Iska, smallholder farmers receive the vital information they need to mitigate risk and create resilience. In doing so, farmers are able to increase yields and improve their livelihoods, year after year,” said Liisa Petrykowska, Ignitia’s chief executive officer.
Ignitia has provided over six million weather forecasts to 80,000 small-time African farmers and plans to expand its services to 20 other countries throughout Southeast Asia, Central America and other regions of Africa.
– Kelsey Lay
Sources: Ignitia 1, Ignitia 2, Ignitia 3, The Guardian
Photo: Times Higher Education
Finding Solutions for Unemployed Youth in Zambia
While Zambia continues to make strides economically and socially, there are clear problems that need to be addressed, according to a report by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The most pressing issue, the report states, is the growing number of unemployed youths in Zambia.
The Statistical Context
This past decade has been quite fruitful for Zambia’s economy, which has grown at an annual rate of 6 percent since 2000. However, poverty still afflicts 60.5 percent of the population. Moreover, from 2004 to 2013, the population has increased by 3.3 million to 14.5 million. The result is a disproportionately large population of Zambian youths.
This expansion amounts to an annual average rate of 3 percent, which exceeds the 2.7 percent average of other sub-Saharan countries.
According to the U.N.’s World Population Prospects, the working age youth population is expected to grow at a rate of 34 percent for the next two decades. This means that the youth labor force is expected to nearly double from 5.5 million to 10.1 million.
While Zambia’s economy has shown significant growth, the expected influx of youth into the labor market presents a challenge and a question: How can they all be absorbed into the workforce?
Currently, youth make up 64.2 percent of the working-age population. And of that pool, only 11 percent obtain public jobs. The private sector, on the other hand, accounts for a small percentage of the employed youth.
Not surprisingly, agriculture accounts for the majority of the jobs that youths hold as the economy continues to rely on that industry for growth.
This fact suggests that the economy has not undergone a structural transformation. In other words, the Zambian market has not yet incorporated technology-intensive manufacturing firms. And this has left otherwise able youth underemployed, performing marginal jobs of an irregular nature.
The Underlying Factors
Zambia boasts tremendous improvement in primary school enrollment rates, having increased from 72 percent in 2002 to 94 percent in 2012. However, as the report notes, the true indicator of a stable and effective education system is the progression rate of students from primary school all the way to tertiary school.
In that regard, Zambia performs poorly: out of every 100 primary school children, only 1.07 will enroll at a tertiary institution (i.e. university or vocational school).
This rate is six times below the average of neighboring countries and 19 times below the world average. Since many Zambian youth do not complete secondary or tertiary school, they are unable to find jobs and many may resort to agricultural or household work.
The struggle in transitioning from school to work depends on several factors. The quality of education is one, but it is not uncommon for young Zambians to be in and out of school trying to find sponsors to pay for their education.
Some end up graduating secondary school (i.e. high school) in their twenties.
For this reason, entrepreneurship is quite popular among Zambians as a compelling option for those who leave school. And, while the business set up have so far not been very stable — as a result of their establishment being out of economic necessity rather than opportunity — many see promise if these individuals are better supported.
The Solutions
Technical and vocational educational training schools or TVETs have been created to address the huge scarcity of skilled workers and a need for out-of-school students to find training.
However, there are two challenges facing these schools. First, is a lack of capacity: about 300,000 Zambians leave the school system every year, yet the universities and TVETs can only absorb 14,000 students.
Second, there has yet to be much stock put in the graduates of TVETs as compared to graduates of universities. Historically, TVET graduates are viewed as favorably as university graduates even though they possess the technical skills needed for a growing young economy like Zambia’s.
The government has enacted soft policies to help combat youth unemployment. The National Youth Policy (NYP) was first adopted in 1994 and was later readdressed in 2013.
The result was the National Action Plan on Youth Employment in Zambia, which developed a framework to monitor and evaluate youth unemployment to better produce jobs and resources.
Donor communities and Zambia’s NGO sector also assist. Street Kids International established the Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative, giving youth in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, opportunities to earn daily income and learn life skills. Another venture, BongoHive, acts as a networking hub for young graduates to program and gain employable skills.
– Shehrose Mian
Sources: Bloomberg, IDRC, Bongohive
Photo: The World Bank
Creative Industries Offer Economic Opportunity
However, the cultural and creative industries are consistently overlooked as viable avenues for economic growth. These industries include food, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, performing/visual arts, museums and more.
Africa is no exception to the massive potential benefits that these industries could yield. The recent worldwide growth of tourism serves to further generate increased exposure and outside interest as well.
Further, the labor-intensive aspect of the creative industries offers an opportunity to generate more skilled and unskilled jobs. Additionally, this is a sector where modern technology can be adopted at a relatively low cost of investment.
Though there is no shortage of creative talent in Africa, there are logistical and infrastructural obstacles.
These barriers include a lack of skilled managers and industry professionals, lack of avenues for training artists’ technical competence, poor packaging and lack of standardization of cultural products, and poor distribution systems.
In order to move forward, governments will need to increase investments and implement relevant policies for the cultural and creative industries. An increase in economic opportunity in Africa through the arts requires government support.
Global and regional supply chains across the continent should also be built that will, in turn, create new trade patterns for African economies. For this to happen, there needs to be increased collaboration between global and Africans brands, designers/manufacturers, and development partners and governments.
Though there is a lot of work to be done, recent developments point to the strong possibility of incoming progress in the future.
Efforts to direct focus to the arts and address obstacles have recently emerged. For example, at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stakeholder meetings in May 2015, the fifteen member states were urged to shift their focus from timber, cocoa and mineral exports to the introduction of relevant policies and funding for arts and cultural industries that will generate new economic opportunity in Africa.
In addition, ECOWAS members were called upon to support artists with training and offer them opportunities to collaborate with international partner organizations to help quality, standardization and packaging.
Further, the African Development Bank’s Office of the Special Envoy on Gender (AfDB) launched several initiatives in 2015. Such initiatives included Fashioeconomics, an event which brought together fashion designers and development partners to talk about the challenges of securing financing to build up the sector.
Additional forums and events regarding the fashion industry have also taken place, with participants highlighting the needs for innovative financing mechanisms to provide incentives to grow the industry.
Participants also highlight the need for fresh approaches to scale up African design firms through entrepreneurship, training and skills development, and boosting access to finance and global markets.
– Anton Li
Sources: The Africa Report, XinhuaNet, Daily Nation, African Development Bank Group (AFDB)
Photo: Flickr
4 Steps for Refugee Resettlement in the US
The U.S. first opened its doors to refugees in 1948 following World War II, when over 200,000 Europeans fled from Nazi persecution. The 1948 Displaced Persons Act granted these refugees permanent residence and the right to employment in the U.S. Later, the Refugee Act of 1980 standardized the process of refugee resettlement in the U.S. by defining official refugee status and becoming the legal framework for today’s U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Refugee Resettlement Process
Qualifying as a Refugee
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) defines refugees as “people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.” In the past, this has included people fleeing Nazi persecution or Communist regimes.
Today, thousands are fleeing Central America to avoid escalating violence as well as Syria to avoid what has been referred to as “the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.” The process by which refugees can enter the U.S. can only begin if a person is considered an official refugee under U.S. immigration law. If a person qualifies as a refugee, they must then be admitted to the U.S. Resettlement Program (USRP).
Being admitted to the U.S. Resettlement Program (USRP)
If a person qualifies as a refugee, they must then be admitted to the U.S. Resettlement Program (USRP) through a referral from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Department of State or a family member already in the U.S. seeking to reunite. Nine Resettlement Support Centers (RSCs) around the world receive these referrals and assemble eligible applications for further consideration.
These centers are largely faith-based nonprofit organizations approved by the U.S. government to ensure utmost security when recommending an applicant for resettlement. Part of the application process requires a security screening (handled by the Department of Homeland Security and USCIS) and a health screening to ensure that applicants with a security concern or an infectious disease do not enter the U.S.
This process, on average, takes between 18 and 24 months.
Refugee Resettlement in the U.S.
If all is cleared, a refugee is paired with a sponsorship program, such as Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR) or Immigrant Connect, which provide new immigrants with counseling, translation and interpretation services, cultural orientation, English tutoring, financial stability during their transition to the U.S. and job search help.
Organizations like SOAR depend on community involvement in sponsoring or co-sponsoring a refugee and donating necessities such as clothing, bedding, lamps, dishes, diapers and toiletries. Volunteers help new immigrants navigate the public transit system, pick up their social security cards, obtain health services, and register for school. Refugees do not pay out of pocket for the initial cost of transitioning to the US.
Many sponsors receive grants from non-profit organizations that enable them to cover the first month’s rent and food for refugees so that newcomers may focus their energy on assimilating into the American way of life. Refugees are placed in the U.S. primarily according to connections they may have in a particular state.
A State Department spokesperson, speaking about refugees resettling in the U.S., explains, “We try very hard to get refugees close to people that they know because we think that they have a better chance of success if they have [a] support network when they first arrive, aside from just the volunteers.” Other factors include easy access to healthcare depending on personal medical conditions, fluency in English, and job prospects.
Assimilation and building a new life
After the initial chaos and novelty of entering a new country subsides, new immigrants seek to build a new life. They must acquire the appropriate credentials sanctioned by U.S. standards to continue in a field such as medicine or teaching. As a result, many immigrants find themselves at first in low-skilled jobs.
Though refugees do not pay out of pocket for any of their costs at the time of their resettlement, they must begin repaying their travel loan 6 months after arrival.
Though they receive up to three month’s rent, they do not enter subsidized housing, and therefore must find a job shortly after resettling in the U.S. In addition, U.S. agencies, such as Catholic Charities USA, are set up to help refugees apply for jobs and find education and training for their trade.
Just like any American citizen, they are free to relocate as they wish. Local organizations are set up in many cities to continue giving support to refugees.
– Mary Furth
Sources: Refugees, State.gov, UWB, USCIS, US News
Photo: Googgle Images
Karam Foundation: Reconstructing Education in Syria
The Karam Foundation is an American-based charity, that operates outside of Turkey. Its main purpose is to raise funds to rebuild schools in Syria, as well as to secure opportunities for Syrian children.
The organization’s mission is especially important at a time when the conflict in Syria has led to the recent closure of some schools in the protectorates of Raqqa, Deir-ez-Zour and other rural areas. These combined factors have disrupted the education of more than 670,000 students, according to UNICEF.
In addition, the majority of the country’s 5,000 schools cannot be used because they have been damaged, destroyed, or recently bombed. Some schools have even become bases for the armed forces and rebel groups. In 2015, more than 120 schools were bombed, in some cases, deliberately.
Not surprisingly, many parents have stopped sending their children to school. Syrian teachers have also paid a heavy price, as many have been forced to leave their jobs as a result of the ongoing conflict.
However, Karam Foundation has proposed that even in the face of adversity, it is necessary to invest in the children living in Syria by rebuilding their education and promoting prosperity.
The Foundation is focused on reconstructing the education system to ensure sustainability instead of finding short-term solutions that may not be durable.
The Karam Foundation also explains on its website that it is, “On a mission to build better future for Syria, this initiative is dedicated to providing aid that matters and finding the most effective and impactful ways to help the Syrian people.”
The Foundation has implemented both creative and therapeutic programs, with the help of dozens of experts that bring inspiration to thousands of displaced Syrian children. Through its sustainable development mechanism, the organization also provides innovative technology, effective business models and grants for Syrian children who desire to maintain themselves.
Moreover, year round, Karam Foundation provides basic necessities, such a food, clothing and heating fuel to thousands of Syrian families.
– Isabella Rölz
Sources: Karam Foundation, UNICEF, FIP
Photo: Wikipedia