Qiyas Ergashev, a carpenter in Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan, builds houses for a living. In his spare time, he crafts wooden gifts—nut crackers, containers, cups, etc.—for foreigners who visit his city. He aspires to make more money from his woodcraft, but he lacks the means to market his products to a larger audience.
A San Francisco startup called GlobeIn has solved Qiyas’s problem.
GlobeIn is an online marketplace that allows users to buy goods that were handmade by people in remote parts of the world. Chief Executive Vladimir Ermakov has said that his business aims to “bring local artisans to the global market.” GlobeIn’s website has been described as “Etsy with a decidedly international feel to it.”
Site users can search for artisans by region, country or craft medium. Artists from over forty countries are represented on the site, selling a panoply of items that range from musical instruments to jewelry to furniture and more.
GlobeIn’s method is simple but effective. The company employs “Artisan Helpers” who travel to the artisans’ locations. During their meeting with a helper, an artistan gets their photograph taken, tells the helper about him or herself (for marketing purposes) and learns how to use any required technologies.
Afterward, the artisan’s work is posted on the website, immediately introducing him or her into the global marketplace. GlobeIn profits by marking prices up anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent—a form of commission.
In 2013, the company raised more than $1 million in order to develop new platforms, like its newly launched iOS app, which allows users to quickly search for and purchase crafts from around the world.
Investors included former IBM executive Doug Maine, as well as renowned author and physician Deepak Chopra. This latter investor also convinced Ermakov to shift his company’s marketing strategy away from a more traditional approach toward a storytelling approach. Now, each artisan’s website profile includes both his or her work and a short biography.
Chopra said he chose to invest in GlobeIn partly because of the company’s potential to “eradicate poverty.”
Indeed, GlobeIn seems uniquely capable of improving the standard of living for a traditionally impoverished group in developing countries—the craftspeople.
For example, the poorest denizens of the Indian state of Bihar rely on their “traditional cultural industries” for their livelihood. If these people could access the resources needed to market their cultural products to a global audience, their income could increase substantially. GlobeIn is actively providing these sorts of populations with the requisite resources.
Thus, as GlobeIn’s website suggests, the world is now open for business.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: GlobeIn, A G & CO, Tech Crunch, Forbes , World Bank
Photo: Barjeel Art Foundation
IMHO: Seeks Accessible Healthcare for All
In a world of rapid population growth and social and financial inequalities among different populations, the need for access to healthcare is ever-present. The International Medical Health Organization, or IMHO, seeks to maintain a world where health care is accessible to all.
Founded in 2004 as an international humanitarian organization, IMHO focuses on “developing and improving healthcare services and infrastructure in disadvantaged and needy regions worldwide.”
Health care professionals created the nonprofit in an effort to recognize the need for health care in impoverished communities. Specifically, the organization focuses on those affected by poverty, conflict or natural disasters. It places an emphasis on empowering communities to become proactive in their health and healthcare systems.
“We believe in the transformative power of education and the role this plays in improving the overall health and well being of people everywhere,” the organization says.
Through collaborations with local and international NGOs, IMHO focuses fundamentally on primary care and public health, education and training and capacity-building for those in need.
Despite being only 10 years old, IMHO maintains a record of success. The nonprofit assisted with the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the Pakistan earthquake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Burmese cyclone Nargis in 2008. All three disasters displaced thousands of individuals and cost many lives.
As a part of one of over 180 NGOs of InterAction, the largest coalition of United States NGOs, IMHO is also a registered Private Voluntary Organization with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Many developed countries continue to outspend developing nations substantially in healthcare expenditures. In fact, the U.S. notably sees billions of dollars spent on healthcare expenditures annually.
Since poverty is considered by many to be one of the underlying causes of inadequate healthcare, efforts by IMHO and other similar organizations will likely continue to be a sorely needed asset.
– Ethan Safran
Sources: The International Medical Health Organization 1, The International Medical Health Organization 2, The International Medical Health Organization 3, Business Insider
Photos: Hoolauna
British Jihadists in Syria
A recent video showing ISIS extremists beheading American journalist James Foley has caused global disturbance, not only because of the brutal act but also because the executioner was speaking with a British accent.
The Islamic State—deemed by several experts to be more fanatical than al-Qaeda—has been recruiting British-born militants, and it is estimated that between 400 and 500 British jihadists have traveled to Syria to fight. While dozens have been killed during conflict, half are believed to have returned to Britain.
A video released by ISIS entitled “There is No Life Without Jihad” includes testimonies by three British members. One said, “The cure for depression is jihad…. Feel the honor we are feeling, feel the happiness we are feeling.” Another maintains that jihad is an Islamic duty, and a common thread among militants is a sense of devotion to the “call of duty.” Briton Nasser Muthana elaborated on this devotion to ISIS, saying, “We will even go to Lebanon and Jordan with no problems, wherever our Sheikh (ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) wants to send us.”
Even within the United Kingdom, sentiment for jihad is strong in certain communities and across social media. One British Muslim man admitted to the BBC he was planning to fight with ISIS to fulfill a religious obligation: “God has commanded for the Muslims to go and fight jihad.” He added that to die as a martyr would be a blessing and a victory, and that it would guarantee the “highest paradise.”
But there has been backlash by a majority of the British Muslim community against extremists. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said Muslims condemned the actions of ISIS. He added that terrorists have distorted the tenets of Islam to justify their gratuitous violence. The Muslim Council of Britain proclaimed similar sentiments.
But how are British jihadists traveling to Syria and Iraq, and why can’t the British government prevent it? The BBC reports that most fly to Turkey and cross over the inadequately protected border into Syria and Iraq. Britons evade suspicion by claiming they are vacationing abroad or participating in humanitarian work, when in fact bogus aid agencies serve as a front to transport funds, resources and fighters in and out of Syria.
Once in the country, Britons can also meet up with organized jihadist networks that have the capacity to transport new militants to fighting zones. Traveling to Iraq and Syria remains legal, but if a British citizen is found to have joined ISIS and participated in violence he can be prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.
A large proportion of Western jihadists report traveling to the Middle East to join more moderate Islamic groups, but then being coaxed into joining ISIS by well-funded recruiters. Extremist social media also reinforces propaganda of adventure, brotherhood, faith and a fight against injustice. In addition, once involved in a terrorist group such as ISIS, it becomes difficult to extricate oneself physically and psychologically.
Jason Burke, journalist for The Guardian, said, “The environment of a group such as Islamic State, created around a cult of extreme violence and a worldview that dehumanizes all outside the organization, can quickly turn an individual from a misguided insurgent into a pitiless terrorist killer, more than happy to execute a defenseless hostage with a knife, on camera.”
– Mari LeGagnoux
Sources: The Independent, The Week
Iraqi Christian Refugees in France
ISIS continues to spread terror in Iraq and Syria as the Islamic extremist group targets non-jihadist Muslims, Christians and all ethnic and religious others who do not agree with the creation of an Islamic state. Millions of Iraqis have been murdered or displaced, many of them seeking asylum in European countries.
Last week, France welcomed 40 Iraqi Christian refugees whose lives were in immediate danger in their home country. The refugees in France flew from Arbil, the capitol of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Several hundred more Christians living in the Levant – a region including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, the island of Cyprus and part of southern Turkey – are expected to find shelter in France within the next month.
The Islamic extremists have been demanding that everyone convert to jihadist Islam. The alternative is torture or death. An estimated 1.2 million people in Iraq alone, not including the once-residents of contested territory in Syria, have moved from their homes and livelihoods in search of security.
In a recently uploaded Youtube video, an Iraqi man and woman who were transferred to a safer country spoke in anonymity about their fears.
“This is the last chance for us, because we don’t have anything,” the woman said. “We don’t have houses. We don’t have work. I have lost everything. I have lost my job. I was a teacher and now I am nothing.”
The man followed by confessing loss at ISIS’s egregious tactics and mission, then hope for a future in which his family is not plagued with perpetual anxiety.
“They [ISIS] rape women and girls and kidnap people,” he said. “We have Muslim friends who are very nice, but we don’t know why the jihadists are doing this. We’re just Christians is all. We’ll start from scratch. It’s going to be hard for us, but it’s going to be better for us than living under threatened security, always cautious, everywhere in Iraq.”
Shuttling everyone at imminent risk to a haven in France is a priority, but Iraqis who have an ongoing relationship with Europe are being favored by French officials. Iraqis who have relatives in France or who have been to France before will be given preferential treatment.
The planes that bring refugees to Europe have been carrying humanitarian aid items such as foodstuffs and medical supplies to Iraq on their way there. The planes utilize proactive round trips in Europe’s struggle against ISIS; and the round trips will likely continue.
Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister of France, said that the total number of refugees in France could reach “several thousand” by the time ISIS has stopped accumulating territory.
This marks the increasingly active role Europe and the developed world has taken to quell ISIS and end its reign of terror.
– Adam Kaminski
Sources: YouTube, BBC
Photo: GDE-FON
Limiting Post-Harvest Loss in Supply Chain
“Over 30 percent of all food produced in the world human consumption every year—which amounts to a staggering 1.3 billion tons of food—gets lost or wasted,” writes Jessica Ernst, of the Initiative for Global Development.
Consumers and producers at all levels are responsible for the waste. Citizens of higher income countries routinely buy more food than they can eat, while developing countries lose food due to harvest, storage and cooling issues as well as poor infrastructure.
One-fourth of the food lost every year would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people.
Dutch Agricultural Development & Trading Company is one company that is harnessing its power to contribute to a more effective use of crops.
Cassava is a root that is native to South America, but has existed in Africa for centuries. One of the issues in producing cassava is that once harvested, it has a limited amount of time to be processed and “split” before it spoils.
DADTCO introduced a technology called the Autonomous Mobile Processing Unit which travels to villages in sub-Saharan Africa during their harvest season so cassava can be processed on sight. DADTCO’s long term goal is to see cassava being used by national and international consumer and industrial products instead of other higher-priced materials.
Another private sector initiative is financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Initiative for Global Development received a grant from the Foundation to investigate the issue of post-harvest loss in agriculture supply chains, specifically in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.
Helen Mant, vice president of the Initiative for Global Development, explains her initiative, “We hope to identify market-driven solutions as well as opportunities for private sector partnerships that have the potential to significantly reduce post-harvest loss.”
As the world population grows, and demand for food rises, it is not production rates that need to go up. Companies are realizing that more effective ways of processing, distributing and consuming food need to be established, and the private sector is in a unique position to do so.
– Julianne O’Connor
Sources: Business Fights Poverty, Initiative for Global Development
Photo: CNN
MAP International: Distributing Medicines Globally
Map International is a Christian charitable organization, providing medicine to and preventing diseases for people and communities living in poverty.
In 1958, a major pharmaceutical company wanted to donate a surplus of medicine worth $25,000. J. Raymond Knighton, the director of a Christian nonprofit organization which oversaw the fellowship of doctors and students, knew exactly who needed the medicine most and accepted the task. Since then, MAP International has worked to fulfill its mission to distribute medicines and supplies to communities over the world.
MAP International has developed two signature programs: Medicine Shipments and Total Health Villages. Through the former, MAP International ships medicines and supplies to the developing countries and people who need them the most. For example, MAP International plans to raise $200,000 in needed medicines for those in El Salvador, $1,500,000 in Niger, $800,000 for Guatemala and $317,000 in the Philippines. It has already reached its goal for Niger and is still looking for support in order to accomplish the others.
MAP International has provided approximately $4 billion worth of medicines since 1954. Since 1990, it has benefited over 2 billion people in 174 countries and extends the lives of over 25 million annually.
MAP also promotes the Total Health program, where communities improve their own health in a comprehensive and holistic way. The goal of the program is to ensure that the participating villages are able to solve their own problems.
These villages, focus on the promotion of holistic beings through the prevention and treatment of diseases. To be more specific, the program supports sustainable practices such as teaching skills in livestock care to increase production and providing agricultural training and strategies.
Thus, the program focuses on long-term improvements in the village’s welfare. Total Health villages are expected to come up with innovative solutions when facing their own problems.
Also, MAP International has water sanitation programs in Kenya and can quickly respond to disasters. The organization is active in Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia and Uganda. MAP International earns its significant 98 percent efficiency rate due in large part to their endeavors to help people around the world.
– Jing Xu
Sources: MAP, Sawyer International
Poverty in Film: Kombit
The film was produced in response to a Sundance Film Institute’s challenge to filmmakers. The institute had partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was looking for short films that showed people overcoming poverty.
Directors Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman traveled to Port-au-Prince and unearthed a story about one community’s successful project in the post-earthquake context.
Of Cité Soleil, one of the film’s interviewees says the common perception is that the area is “hell,” but this perception ignores how people struggling to live there manage to get by. For example, in this “hell” people have developed a community garden, called Jaden Tap Tap, that has “considerably changed the view that nothing can work in Cité Soleil,” according to the aforementioned interviewee.
Initially, some denizens of Cité Soleil had started a soccer club to foster amity in the community, but many young people said they were too hungry to play soccer. Tactics were changed then, and Jaden Tap Tap was started.
First, some community members appropriated a spot that criminals had been using to covertly execute people, clearing the area to make it suitable for gardening. That was in 2006; now, Jaden Tap Tap is the largest urban garden in Haiti.
The garden has become a recourse for those in need. People can notify the garden manager, Blan, of their needs and stop by to harvest greens, carrots, olives or other produce. One interviewee said, “Thanks to the plants in the garden, like the olive tree, we fight malnutrition.”
“Look at my baby,” he continued. “He’s healthy.”
Jaden Tap Tap has inspired many Haitian families to begin growing their own food—thereby improving their food security and reducing malnutrition in a country where malnutrition is the leading cause of death for children five and younger. Even the smallest gardens, which are grown in car tires, help alleviate some of the burden of poverty.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: Youtube, The Celebrity Cafe, Time, Partners in Health
Photo: Flickr
Barbara Bush Advocates for Africa
While many recognize Barbara Pierce Bush for her legacy as the child and grandchild of two United States Presidents, the Yale graduate is carving a name for herself in the global health advocacy community. Having traveled several times to Africa in her adolescence, former first lady Barbara Bush was inspired by the trips and has dedicated her post-collegiate career to helping solve the global health crises on the continent.
Upon having seen the devastation of AIDS and malaria in Africa, Bush has followed a philanthropic path to help raise awareness and treat patients. Upon noting the large demand for medicines that were easily accessible and affordable in the U.S., Bush saw an opening for young professionals to be trained and to assist others.
As the CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps, Bush has mobilized a series of health professionals to address global health inequalities. In conjunction with non-governmental organizations as well as national government health departments, Global Health Corps is addressing the challenges that poverty creates in addressing some of Africa’s most preeminent health crises.
All of the Global Health Corps Fellows are under the age of 30, and Bush is investing in and training a new generation of global health advocates. In the past five years alone, nearly 500 fellows have participated in the Global Health Corps as they partnered with local medical facilities in over 12 countries.
Though there are many medically trained professionals to assist in the field, Bush sees policy making to be another field of possible improvement. Though the Global Health Corps aligns with national governments, there is still room for improvement in terms of resource allocation and public assistance. A large percentage of the fellows work in various African nations, some are allied with partner organizations in the U.S. to help influence access to healthcare and change abroad.
— Kristin Ronzi
Sources: AARP, KTEP, Global Health Corps
Photo: Kansas City Public Media
GlobeIn: Helping Artists in Developing Countries
Qiyas Ergashev, a carpenter in Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan, builds houses for a living. In his spare time, he crafts wooden gifts—nut crackers, containers, cups, etc.—for foreigners who visit his city. He aspires to make more money from his woodcraft, but he lacks the means to market his products to a larger audience.
A San Francisco startup called GlobeIn has solved Qiyas’s problem.
GlobeIn is an online marketplace that allows users to buy goods that were handmade by people in remote parts of the world. Chief Executive Vladimir Ermakov has said that his business aims to “bring local artisans to the global market.” GlobeIn’s website has been described as “Etsy with a decidedly international feel to it.”
Site users can search for artisans by region, country or craft medium. Artists from over forty countries are represented on the site, selling a panoply of items that range from musical instruments to jewelry to furniture and more.
GlobeIn’s method is simple but effective. The company employs “Artisan Helpers” who travel to the artisans’ locations. During their meeting with a helper, an artistan gets their photograph taken, tells the helper about him or herself (for marketing purposes) and learns how to use any required technologies.
Afterward, the artisan’s work is posted on the website, immediately introducing him or her into the global marketplace. GlobeIn profits by marking prices up anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent—a form of commission.
In 2013, the company raised more than $1 million in order to develop new platforms, like its newly launched iOS app, which allows users to quickly search for and purchase crafts from around the world.
Investors included former IBM executive Doug Maine, as well as renowned author and physician Deepak Chopra. This latter investor also convinced Ermakov to shift his company’s marketing strategy away from a more traditional approach toward a storytelling approach. Now, each artisan’s website profile includes both his or her work and a short biography.
Chopra said he chose to invest in GlobeIn partly because of the company’s potential to “eradicate poverty.”
Indeed, GlobeIn seems uniquely capable of improving the standard of living for a traditionally impoverished group in developing countries—the craftspeople.
For example, the poorest denizens of the Indian state of Bihar rely on their “traditional cultural industries” for their livelihood. If these people could access the resources needed to market their cultural products to a global audience, their income could increase substantially. GlobeIn is actively providing these sorts of populations with the requisite resources.
Thus, as GlobeIn’s website suggests, the world is now open for business.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: GlobeIn, A G & CO, Tech Crunch, Forbes , World Bank
Photo: Barjeel Art Foundation
Food Insecurity Among Syrian Refugees
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees recently reported that around 74 percent of Syrian families who have fled into Lebanon face food insecurity. With the refugee population in Lebanon expected to increase about 36 percent by next January, aid organizations are moving quickly to secure enough food for each Syrian family.
Conflict in Syria is the problem’s driving force. Heavy bombardments in Syria force refugees into Lebanon out of fear for their safety.
The influx of refugees strains Lebanese host communities, many of which lacked educational and economic resources even prior to the sudden population increase. Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Lebanon’s CPI has increased from values in the sixties to the current level of 100.61 Index Points—a reflection of the strain placed on Lebanese consumers. The influx creates challenges for farmers in Lebanon as well, as demonstrated by 2012‘s shortfall of 55,000 mt of cereal.
Despite all of this, the Lebanese government has not broken its commitment to 1951’s Geneva Convention: its borders have remained open. In Lebanon, Syrians can access education and health services, and 70 percent of those families who register with the UNHCR can obtain food vouchers regularly.
But assistance has on the whole been inadequate to ensure Syrians meet their physical needs. Syrians have struggled to make up the difference themselves. Nearly 20 percent of refugees lack jobs, and the average daily income of families has hovered around U.S. $15 per day. It has been estimated that families need $300 a week to meet their needs, so average incomes are far from sufficient at this point.
Food vouchers provide some relief, but rising food prices have reduced their efficacy.
However, even though the food security situation in Lebanon needs improvement, one must recognize the even worse situation in Syria. Speaking of her life in Syria, one woman from Yabroud said, “We couldn’t afford to buy anything, my children were living on bread.” She added, “They used to cry a lot from hunger.”
With such a powerful driving force as hunger, refugees will surely continue to pour into Lebanon from Syria. Since Syrians will rely primarily on organizations other than the Lebanese government for aid relief, now is perhaps an especially effective time to donate to aid organizations working in Lebanon. Organizations to consider are Doctors Without Borders, World Vision, CARE, the UNHCR and UNICEF—along with many others.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: Trading Economics, World Food Programme, ShanghaiDaily, UNHCR, CNN
Photo: flickr
Combining Vaccines May Boost Polio Immunity
New research has shown that the use of two vaccines in conjunction may dramatically increase polio immunity. Children who receive a vaccine shot after taking an oral vaccine show greater resistance to the disease than those who receive no follow-up shot, and even those who take a double dose of oral medication.
The World Health Organization announced that combining vaccines is starting to be used for mass vaccination campaigns in heavily affected regions, as well as for routine immunizations is developing countries. The double-vaccine method is currently being used in Nigeria and will soon be launched in Pakistan.
The fight against polio has been relatively successful. Within the last 26 years, the number of countries regularly affected by polio has dropped from 125 to three. The number of cases has fallen by 99 percent. But with increased international travel, the threat of polio is resurfacing in countries previously deemed free of the virus. In May, the WHO declared an international public emergency, reporting polio outbreaks in at least 10 countries.
Until now, researchers were unable to determine a vaccination programs that provided optimal results. But trials in India have established that two vaccines used together yielded the lowest amount of virus in subjects’ feces, one of the major ways the virus is spread.
Oral Poliovirus (OPV), the oral polio vaccine, consists of a two-drop dose of weakened polio virus. It induces immunity within the digestive tract, so it has long been used to disrupt person-to-person transmission of the disease. However, this type of immunity diminishes with time, and in certain cases OPV can actually trigger a vaccine-caused case of polio. This is why inactivated poliovirus (IPV), the vaccine shot, has been added to the procedure. IPV provides immunity stronger and more extensive immunity by traveling through the bloodstream, and also protects against potential infections caused by OPV.
“The results that clearly demonstrate that IPV substantially boosts both [intestinal] and [bloodstream] immunity in children previously vaccinated with OPV are historic and have major operational implications for the global polio eradication effort,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari, WHO’s director of polio operations. He added, “It could play a major role in completing the job of polio eradication once and for all.”
Developing countries still favor oral vaccination because it is less expensive and easier to administer. But OPV’s temporary effectiveness makes it necessary for children to receive repeated doses. The injected vaccine is more expensive, but it is deemed by experts to be worth the investment because only one dose is necessary and it eliminates polio in infected areas more rapidly.
Using the combination strategy is also effective when fighting endemic polio in remote and war-torn areas where oral vaccines may not always be safely or routinely delivered. “We want to take maximum advantage of each contact with a child, said CDC vaccine expert Dr. Steve Cochi. “It’s the start of the last stand for wild polio virus, and we’re trying to hit it with both vaccines.”
– Mari LeGagnoux
Sources: Yahoo, Tech Times, Medscape
Photo: flickr