2015 represents an important year for the United Nations to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Among the goals that the United Nations has to eradicate poverty and hunger are: to reduce by half the amount of people that make less than $1 per day, accomplish employment and work for everyone including minorities such as women and to reduce by half the amount of people who are suffering from hunger.
The United Nations partners with different organizations and foundations in order to achieve these goals to eradicate poverty.
The Zero Hunger Challenge, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and the UNDP-IKEA Foundation are three movements that the United Nations are partnering with.
1. Zero Hunger Challenge
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gives the invitation to every country to work for the future, a future in which every person has adequate nutrition and doesn’t lack food.
The Zero Hunger Challenge involves having no stunted children, 100 percent access to adequate food, sustainable food systems, 100 percent increase in smallholder productivity and zero food waste.
According to this challenge, the investment in agriculture, rural development and equality of opportunity helps to eradicate hunger.
This challenge promotes different strategies and cooperation in order to strive for results that combat hunger.
2. Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement
The principle of this movement is that everyone has the right to good nutrition and food. This movement is supported by donors, people from the government, the United Nations and various others.
This movement seeks to address malnutrition by activities such as implementing programs and collaborations.
The principles of engagement are to be transparent and honest about the impact that collective action has, bring solutions that can be proven and interventions to scale, have a commitment to support the rights and equity of all human beings, resolve conflicts if they arise, be responsible so stakeholders can feel collectively accountable to the commitments, establish priorities and be communicative toward what works and what doesn’t.
3. UNDP-IKEA Foundation
This is a foundation that is benefiting 50,000 women from India.
This foundation has helped 9,000 dairy producers to form a company through provided financial literacy training. Profits also double within a year through the participation of the members.
The United Nations also contributes with other organizations, such as the UNDP and Brazil’s Natura Cosméticos, which brings training to beauty advisors in areas that vary from direct sales to customer training.
It is clear that the United Nations uses different methods to obtain results in the different humanity issues that it focuses on.
While they address different issues such as climate change, terrorism, food production, human rights, health emergencies and many others, global poverty and the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is under the Millennium Development Goals that the United Nations has, and partnering with different associations, movements, organizations and foundations has resulted in a way to reach for success in addressing these issues in the year of 2015.
– Diana Fernanda Leon
Sources: United Nations 1, United Nations 2, Scaling Up Nutrition
Photo: Flickr
Explore Corps Empowers Youth
Explore Corps’ mission is to explore different communities, educate locals and empower youth. The Explore Corps’ team consists entirely of volunteers who are equipped to work with challenging communities and address the complexities of enacting youth projects. Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds including outdoor education, recreational programming and youth development.
Explore Corps has worked on four major projects comprising of the Search Spark Stoke Tour, which took place in 2012, The Gaza Surf Club, Surfing 4 Peace, and Gaza Surf Relief. These projects focus on using local resources in Gaza, like surfing, to help children on the Gaza Strip affected by war.
The Gaza Surf Club was founded by Explore Corps director, Matthew Olsen, in 2008. The project serves as an educational opportunity for Palestinian surfers on the Gaza Strip. Members of the clubs work with local organizations to develop workshops and tailored educational programming to educate locals on how to properly utilize local resources, development training and international outreach. The team consists of 25 surfers who dedicate their time to teaching.
The Search Spark Stoke tour took place in the winter of 2012 after Concrete Wave Magazine creator, Michael Brooke, approached Explore Corps to help him initiate his project, Longboarding for Peace. Brooke worked to secure the funding and public relations side of the project, while Explore Corps was in charge of creating venues and workshops and assembling instructors for the tour.
Longboarding for Peace successfully created a new delivery system for peace programming on the Gaza Strip while permanently creating an after school longboarding program for students.
Another project started by Explore Corps is Surf 4 Peace. Surf 4 Peace works to break through cultural and political barriers between communities in the Middle East and bring everyone closer together. The project was started in 2007 by surfer, Arthur Rashkovan and ambassador, Dorian Paskowitz and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Gaza Surf Relief was created to raise funds for Gaza’s surf community. The project was started in the summer of 2007 by Seweryn Stalkoper, who is an associate for Hedge Fund Trading. He worked from his home in Santa Monica, California gathering donations and successfully raised enough money to buy 15 brand new surfboards, several used surfboards, board shorts, t-shirts, and rash guards among other items. Explore Corps currently has several new projects in the works that will continue to help the youth living on the Gaza Strip utilize surfing.
– Julia Hettiger
Sources: Explore Corps, BBC, The Goodwin Project
Photo: The Goodwin Project
Education and the Sustainable Development Goals
However, the days of the Millennium Development Goals are over. They expired this year after 15 years mixed with success and failure. A new set of global development goals is now on the horizon: the Sustainable Development Goals. Once again, there will be a specific goal tailored to improve equal education access for all. But before delving into how that goal is currently shaping up, it is worth examining how education fared with the Millennium Development Goals.
Goal two of The Millennium Development Goals aimed to achieve universal primary education. The goal only had one target: “ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”
Unfortunately, this target was not met. On the bright side, the number of children globally that now attend primary school has risen dramatically since 1990. Enrollment in the developing world has risen to 91 percent, but the goal was for universal primary education, meaning all children everywhere. There is also still a fairly large gender gap in some areas. Of the 57 million kids out of school, 33 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa and 55 percent of those 33 million children are girls.
So where are the Sustainable Development Goals heading in terms of education development in the next 15 years? First off, education gets another specific goal for itself. The target this time is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” not all that different from the Millennium Development Goal before it.
The Sustainable Development Goals’ “vision is to transform lives through education, recognizing the important role of education as a main driver of development.” Looking to continue with the progress created by the Millennium Development Goals, goal four of the Sustainable Development Goals will look to expand access to all by providing 12 years of free, publicly-funded, high-quality equal education. Nine of these years will be compulsory.
Particular emphasis is put on the quality of education going forward. By increasing quality of education, the 100-year education gap between the developed and developing has the potential to be reduced. Another benefit of an improvement in the quality of education is that it will improve learning outcomes. How can this be done? By “strengthening inputs, processes and evaluation of outcomes and mechanisms to measure progress.”
Another facet to quality education is ensuring that the teachers are well trained, empowered, motivated and supported. This ensures a higher level of quality when it comes to education.
Often seen as a gateway out of poverty, education is an extremely important issue when it comes to development in the developing world. It will be interesting to track the evolution of the Sustainable Development Goals’ development toward a fully-fledged goal. Hopefully, it can continue the inroads created by the Millennium Development Goals and improve education for the millions of children without it.
– Gregory Baker
Sources: UNDP, UNESCO UN Millennium Goals, UN Sustainable Development,
Photo: Flickr
Five Charities that Make a Different Kind of Difference
1. Development Media International (DMI) — DMI creates and broadcasts radio and television programs that help educate and encourage people to adopt healthy practices that can improve a community’s standard of living and individuals’ longevity. Instead of using their funding to distribute soap for hand washing or toothbrushes, they teach simple practices that can make long-term differences, practices that can be taught to children and passed along through generations.
2. Kiva — Kiva is a nonprofit that works to alleviate global poverty through individual micro-loans. Donors invest in the form of a small personal loan for individuals to accomplish a project or improve their businesses. Microfinance institutions allow individuals and communities to lift themselves out of poverty by giving them the tools to be economically successful.
3. The Global Alliance For Improved Nutrition (GAIN) — GAIN is an organization that works to eliminate iodine deficiency, which can lead to impaired cognitive development and is common in developing countries. GAIN’s Universal Salt Iodization program uses the funds they raise to provide technical assistance, supply needed equipment and train government officials. In addition, salt producers monitor the results of changes made in developing countries. GAIN targets the root of iodine deficiency and funnels its efforts toward rectifying it instead of simply managing the consequences.
4. VillageReach — VillageReach is a nonprofit that develops, tests and implements new systems, technologies and programs that improve health in rural or poor communities. In the past few decades, there have been great advancements in the medical field, but because of a lack of access to clinics, medicines and trained professionals, many people in the developing world are isolated from these advancements and do not reap the benefits of improved health and healthcare.
This is where Village Reach comes in; instead of focusing money on more vaccines or more doctors, they focus on removing barriers that stand in the way of communities receiving the healthcare they need. VillageReach partners with institutional stakeholders, such as governments and global health partners, to implement the change needed to extend the reach of adequate healthcare.
5. The Borgen Project — Donations made to The Borgen Project have the intention of alleviating global poverty. While your donation will not directly purchase a meal for a hungry child, it has the power to feed, clothe and provide power for an entire community or country. Funds that are raised by The Borgen Project go toward program services, and fund development and operation expenses. This means that donations are used to fuel the machine that pushes political leaders to allocate funds in a way that benefits those living in poverty in developing countries. So your five dollars could influence the U.S. government to pass legislation that provides millions of people with clean drinking water.
– Brittney Dimond
Sources: Give Well, KIVA, Village Reach
Photo: Flickr
Nonprofit Helps Vaccinate Children in Developing Countries
Braun, a former pre-med student at Cornell University, started the company after spending a summer traveling to villages in Peru to remind mothers to take their children in to get vaccinated.
Immunizations are critical in developing countries, where they can save the lives of children and help protect the health of others.
Due to donors such as the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joining forces, the number of immunizations in developing countries has soared in recent times. Estimates reveal that immunizations have prevented the future death of seven million children since 2000.
However, developing countries are still facing the problem of young mothers forgetting to vaccinate children on time, as vaccine schedules are becoming more complex. That’s where Braun stepped in to help.
Alma Sana creates flexible bracelets to serve as tiny calendars to remind mothers to make sure their children receive necessary immunizations on time.
The bracelets, which are made from silicon, fit around the ankle of a newborn child and contain symbols and numbers to communicate vaccination information. Words aren’t used so illiterate mothers have an easier time understanding.
A laminated information card comes with each bracelet and is used to decode the symbols.
For example, a triangle, circle, X and square are below the number four on the bracelet, representing four months of age. The triangle represents the vaccine for polio, the circle equals the vaccine for pneumonia, and the X represents the vaccine for rotavirus. The square serves as a reminder for the pentavalent shot, an immunization that protects against five diseases.
Once a child receives an immunization, a nurse will punch a hole in the symbol or number corresponding to the vaccine.
Funding for the bracelets came via a grant from the Gates Foundation, which Braun used to test the tiny reminders in clinics in Ecuador and Peru. The bracelets cost less than 10 cents and come in both blue and pink.
Braun is currently working on a video fundraising campaign to support a trial of the bracelets in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Colombia. The trial will be randomized and controlled, involving around 5,000 mothers and infants.
You can check out her video below:
– Matt Wotus
Sources: Alma Sana, Gavi, The New York Times
Photo: Flickr
Global Dental Relief: Changing Lives One Pearly White at a Time
“Developing countries face great challenges in their optimal oral care,” Dr. Tin Chun Wong, President of the World Dental Federation, noted. “Oral health is integral to general health and a basic human right, and we must ensure cost-effective solutions become available to all.”
Global Dental Relief started out as a small, short-term relief project in Nepal in 2001. Founders Laurie Matthews and Andrew Holececk were inspired to do something about the lack of dental care in impoverished countries when they took a sabbatical in Nepal. There were 120 dentists for a population of nearly 24 million people at the time.
Fourteen years later it has become a nonprofit organization offering free dental care to children in poverty in six different countries. More than 1,500 volunteers have gone on the trips hosted by Global Dental Health and 93,930 patients have been seen through their clinics since the organization was originally founded.
Global Dental Relief hosts 16 different six-day trips for volunteers to go to one of the six countries to serve those who have little to no dental care. In 2014, 249 volunteers provided free preventative care as well as oral health education to 13,000 in Nepal, India, Vietnam, Guatemala, Kenya and Cambodia.
Global Dental Relief offers people the opportunity to help improve dental health in poor countries through volunteer work and donations. Volunteers include dentists, assistants, hygienists, as well as those with no dental experience.
Global Dental Relief gives people the option to sponsor children when donating. A mere $50 sponsors complete dental care for five children and $5,000 sponsors a 6-day dental clinic that will serve between 500 and 1,000 children.
– Iona Brannon
Sources: Andrew Holececk, Colorado Expression, FDI World Dental Federation, Global Dental Health 1, Global Dental Health 2, Global Dental Health 3, World Health Organization 1, World Health Organization 2
Photo: Global Dental Relief
Goats and Chickens Can Help End Child Marriage
In Ethiopia and Tanzania, many families are given livestock in exchange for marrying off their young girls to adult men. However, if these girls already own animals, the trade becomes less vital for poor families and the marriages are less likely to occur.
Population Council, an organization that conducts research on health and development issues, spent three years in Ethiopia and Tanzania implementing methods to reduce child marriage rates. They discovered that educating the community, donating school supplies and providing girls with goats and chickens were the most effective ways to end early marriage.
Child marriage is most closely associated with poverty because struggling families are in desperate need of the dowry that adult husbands are willing to pay. In Tanzania and Ethiopia, nearly 40 percent of girls are married before they turn 18, and in just Ethiopia, nearly 20 percent of girls are married before age 15.
Population Council conducted research in Ethiopia that drastically reduced the possibility of illegal child marriage. They discovered that by giving girls between the ages of 15 and 17 two chickens every year, they were half as likely to be married by 18 than those who did not receive the animals. Additionally, 12 to 14-year-olds who were given school supplies were 94 percent less likely to be married as a child.
In Tanzania, the legal marriage age is 15, but by providing 15- to 17-year-old girls with goats, the odds of child marriage could be reduced by more than 60 percent.
Early marriage prevents girls from attending school and receiving an education. It heightens the risk of HIV/AIDS and limits a girl’s potential to get a job and earn a wage. Child marriage ultimately dehumanizes young girls by taking away their right to choose what they do with their lives.
Still, more than 14 million girls around the world are married each year before they turn 18. Educating developing communities on the harmfulness of child marriage and providing school supplies so girls can attend school are basic yet successful ways to reduce the rates at which young girls marry.
Goats and chickens, too, are playing a highly successful role in ending child marriage and breaking the cycle of global poverty. Hats off to Old MacDonald. E-I-E-I-O.
– Sarah Sheppard
Sources: Take Part, Girls Not Brides 1, Girls Not Brides 2, Population Council
Photo: Girls Not Brides
Sierra Leone Reports No New Ebola Cases
On August 17, Sierra Leone began to display signs of truly positive results — an epidemiological week had passed, and Sierra Leone reported no new Ebola cases since the beginning of the outbreak in 2014.
Efforts in Sierra Leone have now entered what is known as “Phase 3,” in which efforts are concentrated on swiftly closing any remaining chains of transmission that may remain. This procedure involves tracking down every single person who may have come into contact with the chain, monitor the subject for 21 days and immediately transfer them to a treatment center if symptoms begin to develop.
As of now, there exists only one remaining open chain that has its source in Freetown and extends into Tonkolili. The chain was carried via a young man who used to work in Freetown and returned home each month with food and money for his family.
Dr. Anders Nordstrom, WHO representative in Sierra Leone, asserts, “This is very good news but we have to keep doing this intensive working with communities to identify potential new cases early and to rapidly stop any Ebola virus transmission.”
The WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, has called for reforms throughout her organization in order to facilitate future preparations for potential similar outbreaks, “including the establishment of a global health emergency workforce, an operational platform that can shift into high gear quickly, performance benchmarks and avenues aimed at acquiring the needed funding.”
As recovery in West Africa begins, it is important not to forget that the outbreak had far-reaching consequences for many vulnerable populations. For example, 70,000 Liberian children were not registered at birth during the outbreak, leaving them “vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion,” as well as unable to access social services and healthcare, without official identity documentation and at risk of being trafficked or unlawfully adopted.
In 2013, before the outbreak took place, Liberia had about 79,000 registered births. In 2014, due to medical facilities’ closures, registered births decreased 39 percent to a mere 48,000. Sierra Leone also experienced the same drop in birth registrations during the outbreak, as demonstrated in a recent registration and vaccination campaign in which 250,000 children were in need of registration.
– Jaime Longoria
Sources: UNICEF, UN News Centre, WHO
Photo: Flickr
How the UN Fights Global Poverty
Among the goals that the United Nations has to eradicate poverty and hunger are: to reduce by half the amount of people that make less than $1 per day, accomplish employment and work for everyone including minorities such as women and to reduce by half the amount of people who are suffering from hunger.
The United Nations partners with different organizations and foundations in order to achieve these goals to eradicate poverty.
The Zero Hunger Challenge, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and the UNDP-IKEA Foundation are three movements that the United Nations are partnering with.
1. Zero Hunger Challenge
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gives the invitation to every country to work for the future, a future in which every person has adequate nutrition and doesn’t lack food.
The Zero Hunger Challenge involves having no stunted children, 100 percent access to adequate food, sustainable food systems, 100 percent increase in smallholder productivity and zero food waste.
According to this challenge, the investment in agriculture, rural development and equality of opportunity helps to eradicate hunger.
This challenge promotes different strategies and cooperation in order to strive for results that combat hunger.
2. Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement
The principle of this movement is that everyone has the right to good nutrition and food. This movement is supported by donors, people from the government, the United Nations and various others.
This movement seeks to address malnutrition by activities such as implementing programs and collaborations.
The principles of engagement are to be transparent and honest about the impact that collective action has, bring solutions that can be proven and interventions to scale, have a commitment to support the rights and equity of all human beings, resolve conflicts if they arise, be responsible so stakeholders can feel collectively accountable to the commitments, establish priorities and be communicative toward what works and what doesn’t.
3. UNDP-IKEA Foundation
This is a foundation that is benefiting 50,000 women from India.
This foundation has helped 9,000 dairy producers to form a company through provided financial literacy training. Profits also double within a year through the participation of the members.
The United Nations also contributes with other organizations, such as the UNDP and Brazil’s Natura Cosméticos, which brings training to beauty advisors in areas that vary from direct sales to customer training.
It is clear that the United Nations uses different methods to obtain results in the different humanity issues that it focuses on.
While they address different issues such as climate change, terrorism, food production, human rights, health emergencies and many others, global poverty and the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is under the Millennium Development Goals that the United Nations has, and partnering with different associations, movements, organizations and foundations has resulted in a way to reach for success in addressing these issues in the year of 2015.
– Diana Fernanda Leon
Sources: United Nations 1, United Nations 2, Scaling Up Nutrition
Photo: Flickr
How Artificial Tweezers Can Prevent Disease
What happens is that once CLR01, also referred to as an “artificial molecular tweezer,” interacts with lysine, it disrupts the formation thereof while also interfering with the structure on the surface of the HIV also called the viral envelope.
According to the coauthored article published by eLife journal entitled ‘A molecular tweezer antagonizes seminal amyloids and HIV infection’, “CLR01 counteracts both host factors that may be important for HIV transmission and the pathogen itself.
These combined anti-amyloid and antiviral activities make CLR01 a promising topical microbicide for blocking infection by HIV and other sexually transmitted viruses.”
CLR01 was actually tested on other STIs, and it was found that the molecular tweezers also interfered with the viral envelope of the herpes simplex virus and the hepatitis C virus. This is good news for people in developing countries who have, for years, been suffering from preventable diseases.
According to UNAIDs, around one billion people currently lack access to health care and an estimated 33.4 million people were living with HIV in the year 2008.
In Africa specifically, there have been measures taken to increase funding for health care, but there are many economic problems that have not been addressed. Associations like the World Bank and IMF have required governments to sacrifice needs in favor of macroeconomic growth.
“The failure to prioritize public health denies its significance in promoting long-term economic growth. As the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health recently concluded, health is more than an outcome of development, it is a crucial means to achieving development.”
Breakthroughs such as that of the molecular artificial tweezers would not only be beneficial to those living in first world countries but all over the world.
–Anna Brailow
Sources: eLife,, Global Issues,, Health Freedoms
Photo: IFL Science
Kenyan Marathon Runners Walk for Peace
In mid-July, star marathon runners tied up their laces for peace. The group included world record holders Wilson Kipsang, Tegla Loroupe and international marathon champion, John Kelai, all of whom raised awareness of violence in Northern Kenya.
The runners traveled from Lodwar to Lake Bogoria, 520 miles in 22 days. They carried an Olympic-style torch, which was passed from walker to walker.
Although many of the runners have been touched by ethnic violence, Kelai launched the walk to commemorate the loss of his three uncles who were killed by cattle rustlers 25 years ago.
“Last year at least 310 people were killed and more than 220,000 fled their homes as a result of inter-communal conflicts attributed to competition over land and water resources, cattle rustling, and struggles over political representation,” says the United Nations.
The Aegis Trust, a British non-governmental organization, coordinated the walk. The Kenyan runners engaged with young people at risk of violence and the group posted photos of their journey on Twitter with the hashtag, #kenyawalk4peace.
The runners shouted “Amani! Amani!” – which means peace in Swahili, Kenya’s language.
Elim Okapel, a Turkana elder, decided to join the athletes on their journey. He says, “It is now 48 years that we have preached peace and we have not got a remedy. We have decided walking was the only solution.”
Kelai, who believes education is key to avoiding violence as a lifestyle, says, “To achieve any precious thing, you must pay a price so that you can be crowned. For peace to be realized and enjoyed in this region, we must go that extra mile.”
Kelai hopes that the Kenyan government will soon build schools in the north to help change the lives of all who are subjected to violence.
He says, “With the young generation being educated better than our parents, it will be easy to transform the way of life.”
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: Business Insider, The Guardian, NPR
Photo: Flickr