BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed received the prestigious World Food Prize on July 1 for his unparalleled accomplishments in alleviating global hunger.
The Bangladesh-based development organization combats global poverty in six ways. BRAC develops gender relations, provides grassroots-level services, provides quality health and education, supports small-scale farmers, uses microloans to build an inclusive financial environment, and upholds its values in self-sustaining solutions by using its surplus profits to reinvest back into its poverty reduction programs.
BRAC’s impact is enormous.
The site reports that its 97,000 health providers deliver basic healthcare ranging from maternal and neonatal services to child health services. These services tend to 24.5 million in Bangladesh alone. More than 1 million children found education in BRAC’s 38,000 primary and pre-primary schools, and 9.51 million received degrees. BRAC also provides youth empowerment clubs that have so far trained more than 260,000 teens from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The impact profile continues to report BRAC’s economic support. A total of 5.54 million people benefitted from microloans, totaling to a loan disbursement of $9.73 billion. In addition, 25 million received better hygiene and sanitation thanks to BRAC’s clean toilets.
Women living in poverty found solace in BRAC’s open forums for discussion, protests and proposals for change. Polli shomaj and union shomaj are two of BRAC’s 14,400 community-based organizations (CBOs). So far, there are 13,712 polli shomaj in 55 districts, serving an estimated 55 members per group. Similarly, there are 1,220 union shomaj in 55 districts.
Polli shomaj and union shomaj provide four much-needed services. They help poor communities access government and non-government organizations’ services and resources, protect female representation in rural regions, partner with local government developments and social initiatives, and actively thwart civil violence and conflict, especially against minority populations like women.
The BRAC site further profiles its contributions to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Since 1990, BRAC helped slash poverty and hunger in Bangladesh by 50%.
BRAC’s agricultural program developed two species of hybrid rice, one hybrid maize, one inbred rice and one vegetable strain for commercial sale, and more than 200 farmers have been trained in biodiversity creation and conservation. A total of 77,838 farmers practiced agriculture and aquaculture technology demonstrations, and 133,000 farmers learned how tech can improve crop yields. Further, 2,830 people in northern Bangladesh tried green methods in rice harvesting. By 2014, the program positively affected 107,157 people.
In 2012, BRAC’s integrated development programme (IDP) began to address health, education and microfinance in hard-to-reach areas. Two years after its launch, 7,951 people living in ultra poverty received soft loans. Concentrated livelihood planning was a success, as were BRAC’s many other programs in microfinance, social enterprise and investment, disaster relief, environmental protection, climate change reduction, health, nutrition, population, water, sanitation, hygiene, education, migration, advocacy for social change, community empowerment, gender, justice, diversity, human rights and legal services.
Thanks to Sir Fazle’s vision for change, BRAC’s work gave way for sustainable and lasting change, affecting millions of people worldwide.
– Lin Sabones
Sources: BRAC 1, BRAC 2, BRAC 3, World Food Prize
Photo: US News
Cuba’s Mother-to-Child Transmission Victory
This past week, Cuba has been a hot topic in the media. News about bridged U.S.–Cuba relations has taken over the news circuit. But Cuba has also recently reached a public health milestone in the fight against AIDS. Cuba has virtually eliminated HIV and syphilis mother-to-child transmission.
Health officials in the country credit a combined task force from the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. These organizations implemented programs aimed at improving prenatal care, sexually transmitted infection and HIV testing for pregnant women and their partners, treatment for mothers and babies, Cesarean section deliveries and substitutes for breastfeeding. These services were provided through a universal healthcare system to increase accessibility and affordability, two huge components of any health-related intervention program.
Worldwide, over 1.4 million women with HIV become pregnant, which if untreated, puts 15 to 45% of their babies at risk of infection at birth. However, by providing antiretroviral medicines to pregnant women and children after birth, the risk of transmission to their children can be reduced to a mere 1%. Reducing transmission rates is largely a case of improving accessibility and affordability. Through Cuba’s integration of maternal and child health programs with HIV and sexually transmitted infection programs, they can combat the problem on all fronts. By providing services through a universal health system, more women from varying income levels and geographical locations were able to take advantage of them.
The success brings hope in a long fight against HIV/AIDS. The case in Cuba is an encouraging step towards eradicating AIDS, despite not having a cure. The success also serves as an example for countries around the world to analyze and model programs after in their individual battles against the AIDS epidemic. The evidence supporting universal healthcare has gained new support from the Cuba’s success and as other countries continue to try to reduce transmission rates, they may be more compelled to imitate Cuba.
– Emma Dowd
Sources: CNN, Global Research, Time, Washington Post
Photo: Time
How Malnutrition Affects Pregnant Women in Developing Countries
Malnutrition is a significant problem in developing countries. Without substantial resources, many men, women and children go to bed hungry. Tackling malnutrition should be a priority for everyone, especially pregnant women.
A woman’s nutritional intake impacts both her health during pregnancy and the health of her baby. Without proper care, she is susceptible to illnesses and her baby’s health is at risk. Malnutrition during pregnancy can cause devastating results.
In many countries, tradition forces women to be the last to eat at meals, which may result in them receiving smaller portions. This notion severely impacts pregnant women.
A woman that is undernourished at the time of conception is at risk of serious health issues for both herself and her baby. Not only is it unlikely that her nutritional status will improve throughout the pregnancy, but her body also experiences additional demands due to the growing baby. Without enough food, she will most likely lose weight, which increases the risk of maternal mortality.
When her body is unable to obtain or store enough nutrients required to support embryo growth, the cells may not divide properly, resulting in a chance that the fetus’ development will be impaired. The placental cells, which support the fetus’ growth during pregnancy, are more likely to surround the fetus in large numbers, forcing the fetus to become smaller than it should be. This leads to the baby being born at a low birth weight, which in turn often leads to severe cognitive and developmental deficits.
A baby’s organs develop during the first five weeks of pregnancy. In order for the organs to grow properly, it is imperative for women to be healthy and have food supplies readily available.
A woman’s caloric needs increase with pregnancy. An additional 150 calories per day is needed to support the baby in the first three months of the pregnancy. In month four, the additional calories needed increase to 300 per day.
In addition, women must have the proper nutrients in their diet, such as foods with folic acid, iron calcium, protein, vitamin B12, vitamin D and vitamin A. According to the World Food Programme, half of all pregnant women in developing countries are anaemic (having an iron deficiency), which causes around 110,000 deaths during childbirth per year.
Without enough nutrients, a baby is at higher risk of neural tube defects, brain damage, premature birth, underdevelopment of organs, death and more. If a child becomes malnourished in the womb, the damage can be permanent.
Improving nutrition is an investment that could save the lives of women around the world; it will also decrease the number of birth defects and disabilities seen in newborns and young children. In many developing countries, nutrition is essential to promoting a happy and healthy lifestyle where no person goes to bed hungry.
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: Livestrong, Mother and Child Nutrition, Virtual Medical Center, World Food Programme
Photo: The Visible Embryo
Online Meal Planner Reduces Malnutrition in Ghana
Ghana is one of the most successful countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region in combating hunger and malnourishment. The proportion of undernourished people went from 23.5% in 1996 to 2.9% in 2013, allowing them to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) target for halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger.
In northern Ghana, 63% of the population lives in extreme poverty, and most rely on crop production. Most of the service and industrial industries are in the south, where poverty is less prevalent.
School feeding helps keep malnutrition low: every day, 368 million children around the world eat a meal at school. The World Food Programme (WFP) provides monthly rations to families who send their daughters to school, and they provide scholarships for secondary school to those who complete the program with an 85% attendance rate.
Over 1.7 million children every day are fed through the Ghana School Feeding Program. The Partnership for Child Development (PCD) is collaborating with the government to link nutrition with school meals and community training. One way the PCD is developing nutritious school meals is through the use of an online meal planner.
The web-based planner allows the user to create and add the costs from local ingredients. It links prices from local markets and displays the total cost of each meal. Only 12.3% of the population has access to the Internet, so for those who do not have access, the PCD developed an offline meal planner.
“By coupling high-tech digital resources such as the meals planner with low-tech engagement, integrated school feeding and health programs are vital if governments are to tackle the malnutrition crisis facing the next generation,” said Dr. Lesley Drake, executive director of PCD.
PCD is also combating malnutrition in Ghana through community meetings and 400 community-based champions of health and nutrition in order to convey the importance of proper nutrition and hygiene.
Feed the Future is fighting for food security in Ghana by focusing on rice, corn and soybean production to help farmers where poverty is most prevalent. The agricultural industry needs more support in order to do more research for crop-yielding and improve irrigation infrastructure.
USAID is committed to sustaining agricultural productivity by managing natural resources. Feed the Future and USAID activities support Ghana’s goals of reducing poverty and increasing food security.
Malnutrition in Ghana is declining due to programs like the online meal planner and the work of organizations like Feed the Future and USAID. Undernourishment and hunger continue to decline, but since 2007, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five in Ghana has only dropped 0.5% after declining 11.8% between 1997 to 2007. Today, 13.9% of children under five in Ghana are underweight.
– Donald Gering
Sources: HGSF, Impatient Optimist, Knoema, Social Progress Imperative, UNDP, USAID WFP 1, WFP 2
Photo: Modern Ghana
Cancer Seeing Glasses Developed by Nigerian Scientist
Dr. Samuel Achilefu, a Nigerian born scientist, has developed glasses that can see cancer cells. For this new technology, Dr. Achilefu was awarded the 2014 St. Louis Award.
This award is given to a recipient who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry and has demonstrated potential to further the profession.
Dr. Achilefu, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering, and his team developed glasses that contain imaging technology. The glasses are intended to help surgeons view cancer cells while operating, instead of operating “in the dark.”
The project began in 2012 when Dr. Achilefu and his team received a $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Before the grant, the team received limited funding from the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program.
The glasses were in the development stage for years, testing the technology on mice, rats and rabbits to confirm the effectiveness of the glasses.
In order to see the infected cells, two steps must be followed.
First, the surgeons must inject a small quantity of an infrared fluorescent marker into the patient’s bloodstream. The marker, also known as a tracer, contains peptides that are able to locate the cancer cells, and buries itself inside.
The tracer lasts about four hours. As it moves through the patient’s body, it will clear away from non-cancerous tissue.
By wearing the glasses, the surgeon can inspect the tumors under an infrared light that reacts with the dye. The combination of the tracer and infrared light causes the tumor to glow from within and allows the surgeon to see the infected cells.
This technology was first tested on humans at the Washington University School of Medicine in June 2015. Four patients with breast cancer and over two-dozen patients with melanoma or liver cancer have been operated on using the goggles.
Ryan Fields, a surgical oncologist who is collaborating with Dr. Achilefu says, “[the glasses] allow us to see the cells in real time, which is critical. Because the marker has not been FDA approved, doctors are currently using a different, somewhat inferior marker that also reacts with infrared light.”
Julie Margenthaler, a breast cancer surgeon, explains that many breast cancer patients must go back for second operations because the human eye cannot see the extent of the infected cells alone.
“Imagine what it would mean if these glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain, inconvenience, and anxiety”.
The Food and Drug Administration are still reviewing the cancer seeing glasses and the tracer developed by Dr. Achilefu and his co-researchers. But, if the glasses are approved, the removal of cancerous cells has been changed forever. And most importantly, patients will receive the care in order to treat their cancer.
– Kerri Szulak
Sources: IT News Africa, Premium Times, St. Louis Section of American Chemical Society
Photo: Pax Nigerian
Higher Education in Ethiopia Improves Despite Difficulties
In 2015, enrollment for higher education in Ethiopia reached only 8%, compared to the 32% global average enrollment rate. While enrollment numbers fall short, Ethiopia’s education system has improved since the end of their civil war in 1991.
Recovering from the damages of civil war is a difficult task and Ethiopia has been successfully making education a top priority. In 1990, 7.5% of government expenditure went to education and in 2009, 23.6% of government expenditure started going to education.
Most of the challenges for the infrastructure of higher education in Ethiopia are due to funding cuts and lecturers being committed to political parties. Anonymous workers at many universities say the schools require students to join the party and that spies report what is being said in the classrooms.
Over the next two years, Ethiopia plans to expand the number of universities to 42, an increase of 40 universities since 2000. The University of Jimma, which opened in 2013, has become one of the top research schools in Africa for materials science and engineering. Materials science and engineering is seen as the one of the most important fields for development and alleviating poverty in Ethiopia.
For primary education, the World Bank helped provide more than 78 million textbooks to students and improved conditions for teaching and learning in 40,000 schools through the General Education Quality Improvement Project. Teachers are becoming more qualified and many more are earning a three-year level diploma level.
Enrollment in primary education rose 500% from 1994 to 2009 with 15.5 million students in school. Today, 67.9% of school-aged children are attending primary school, a dramatic increase since the end of the civil war. Their progress in education exceeds the numbers of other war-stricken countries, such as Liberia, where only 40.6% of children are enrolled in primary school.
USAID is impacting the lives of 15 million children in primary school by improving their reading levels. In 2010, reading performances were low, and one-third of second grade students were non-readers. With the help of USAID, Ethiopia is experiencing an increase in reading and writing skills and more involvement from parents.
As primary and secondary education in Ethiopia strengthens, it is hopeful students will enroll in higher education and take part in PhD programs, which few Ethiopians have a chance to achieve. University of Jimma’s engineering department graduated their first 18 PhD students without any funding from the government.
The university staff volunteered their time to help students with the opportunity of gaining a high degree that will help propel those living in poverty and improve development in Ethiopia.
“You only need a couple of weeks in Ethiopia to realize that materials science is a priority,” says Pablo Corrochano, associate professor at Jimma. “Even in the capital you’ll experience cuts in power and water; in rural areas it’s even worse.”
– Donald Gering
Sources: The Guardian, ODI, Social Progress Imperative, USAID, World Bank
Photo: Pathfinder
This Year’s World Food Prize Winner
BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed received the prestigious World Food Prize on July 1 for his unparalleled accomplishments in alleviating global hunger.
The Bangladesh-based development organization combats global poverty in six ways. BRAC develops gender relations, provides grassroots-level services, provides quality health and education, supports small-scale farmers, uses microloans to build an inclusive financial environment, and upholds its values in self-sustaining solutions by using its surplus profits to reinvest back into its poverty reduction programs.
BRAC’s impact is enormous.
The site reports that its 97,000 health providers deliver basic healthcare ranging from maternal and neonatal services to child health services. These services tend to 24.5 million in Bangladesh alone. More than 1 million children found education in BRAC’s 38,000 primary and pre-primary schools, and 9.51 million received degrees. BRAC also provides youth empowerment clubs that have so far trained more than 260,000 teens from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The impact profile continues to report BRAC’s economic support. A total of 5.54 million people benefitted from microloans, totaling to a loan disbursement of $9.73 billion. In addition, 25 million received better hygiene and sanitation thanks to BRAC’s clean toilets.
Women living in poverty found solace in BRAC’s open forums for discussion, protests and proposals for change. Polli shomaj and union shomaj are two of BRAC’s 14,400 community-based organizations (CBOs). So far, there are 13,712 polli shomaj in 55 districts, serving an estimated 55 members per group. Similarly, there are 1,220 union shomaj in 55 districts.
Polli shomaj and union shomaj provide four much-needed services. They help poor communities access government and non-government organizations’ services and resources, protect female representation in rural regions, partner with local government developments and social initiatives, and actively thwart civil violence and conflict, especially against minority populations like women.
The BRAC site further profiles its contributions to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Since 1990, BRAC helped slash poverty and hunger in Bangladesh by 50%.
BRAC’s agricultural program developed two species of hybrid rice, one hybrid maize, one inbred rice and one vegetable strain for commercial sale, and more than 200 farmers have been trained in biodiversity creation and conservation. A total of 77,838 farmers practiced agriculture and aquaculture technology demonstrations, and 133,000 farmers learned how tech can improve crop yields. Further, 2,830 people in northern Bangladesh tried green methods in rice harvesting. By 2014, the program positively affected 107,157 people.
In 2012, BRAC’s integrated development programme (IDP) began to address health, education and microfinance in hard-to-reach areas. Two years after its launch, 7,951 people living in ultra poverty received soft loans. Concentrated livelihood planning was a success, as were BRAC’s many other programs in microfinance, social enterprise and investment, disaster relief, environmental protection, climate change reduction, health, nutrition, population, water, sanitation, hygiene, education, migration, advocacy for social change, community empowerment, gender, justice, diversity, human rights and legal services.
Thanks to Sir Fazle’s vision for change, BRAC’s work gave way for sustainable and lasting change, affecting millions of people worldwide.
– Lin Sabones
Sources: BRAC 1, BRAC 2, BRAC 3, World Food Prize
Photo: US News
Musicians Raise Awareness Through Global Citizen Festival
The 2015 Global Citizen Festival seeks to spread awareness of world poverty through music. The concert takes place on September 26 on the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City.
In 2000, countries around the world joined together to create the Millennium Development Goals, a kind of 15-year checklist for tackling world issues such as hunger, disease, lack of shelter, education and gender equality. For four years, the Global Citizen Festival has sought to engage citizens and world leaders with pressing world issues. This year, the concert aims to bring attention to the United Nations’ Global Goals, which are 17 new objectives for ending extreme poverty by 2030. World leaders from 193 countries will solidify these objectives in September.
Performers at the concert include Beyoncé, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Pearl Jam.
Beyoncé’s organization, Chime for Change, partners with the event. The group strives to empower, educate and protect women and girls around the world. Beyoncé hopes the concert will bring hundreds of initiatives that are dedicated to changing lives.
Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, agreed be the creative curator of the festival for the next 15 years, the same amount of time that the United Nations hopes to completely eradicate poverty.
English singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran says, “I look forward to sharing the stage with such an amazing lineup of artists in an effort to raise awareness, educate others and work toward the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. I truly believe it’s possible if we all work together.”
“People living on less than $1.50 a day deserve the opportunity to lift themselves up out of extreme poverty,” added Pearl Jam guitarist, Stone Gossard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rLHBQ282xE
Tickets to the concert are free. All that is required is a promise to take action against injustices around the world. Some of these actions could include sending emails to political leaders, signing petitions or making phone calls or sending tweets to senators.
The steps to earn tickets are called Action Journeys. By completing each action, participants are entered into a drawing to receive two tickets. After each drawing, new Action Journeys are opened. Not only will participants increase their chances of winning tickets by completing more Action Journeys, but they will also be increasing awareness of world issues.
The Global Citizen Festival will be targeting six essential world problems: girls and women, food and hunger, education, global health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and financing.
Chief executive of the Global Poverty Project, Hugh Evans, says, “The world has halved extreme poverty in the last 15 years, but to end it in the next 15, there’s a whole lot of things we need to make that a reality.”
To participate in the Action Journeys or to see more information, visit globalcitizen.org.
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: ArtsBeat, BBC, Cosmopolitan, Global Citizen, Rappler, Rolling Stone
Photo: Digital Trends
King Salman Humanitarian Center
In May 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a new, unified government humanitarian aid organization called the King Salman Humanitarian Center (KSC) — named after the nation’s new monarch.
Saudi Arabia is eighth largest aid donor in the world and spent over 736 million dollars in humanitarian aid in 2014. The new center has the potential to transform how Saudi Arabia donates, organizes and distributes millions of dollars in emergency aid.
This administration transformation was not widely reported, though the scale of this change is immense. A source in the UN reported to IRIN that he believes the King Salman Humanitarian Center will be Saudi Arabia’s version of USAID and that it will establish multiple departments such as monitoring, evaluation and research.
Rafaat Sabbagh, a KSC spokesman, elaborated on the new organization’s goals. “We are very ambitious… We are only one month and a half old. But at the same time we are very keen to learn to learn from the experience of DFID [in the UK] and USAID. Our work is not only for one country. Whenever there are people in need, especially with natural disasters, we will be there.”
Before the creation of KSC, Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian aid was notorious for being “highly unpredictable, hard to navigate, and – some argued – incoherent,” writes IRIN. There were often miscommunication errors between different branches, causing confusion and unnecessary overlap.
The Center plans to take a more direct, hands-on approach to its funding techniques, spending on local organizations rather than large international organizations.
The country is known for its large donations or powerful financial potential. For example, in 2008, it gave 500 million to the World Food Program in one large payment. In 2014, it also gave 500 million to help the Iraq crisis.
Donations like this are expected to be approved and processed by the KSC now, and some worry that Saudi Arabia’s involvement with UN aid programs will decrease.
These worries are not unfounded. Saudi Arabia has become increasingly frustrated with the United Nations in the past few years. “In late 2013, it rejected a seat on the UN Security Council, condemning ‘double standards’ in Syria and wasteful use of resources,” says the IRIN.
KSC spokesperson, Sabbagh, said to IRIN that the KSC will “avoid the bureaucracy that some organizations are suffering from” and will be “more flexible” than other organizations. Some believe this is a subtle critique of the United Nations.
At the same time, Sabbagh maintains that he wants to continue to work with the UN. “We are very keen to build a partnership [with the UN]. At the same time we have our own networks. Our work through the UN partnership can be complimentary,” he tells IRIN.
If the King Salman Humanitarian Center is successful, Saudi Arabia’s donations will become much more impactful, strategic and effective. The Center’s first project is to disburse 250 million dollars in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is involved actively in the civil war.
– Aaron Andree
Sources: Aawsat, Irin News
Photo: Today Online
New Study in UK Proposes a Solution to “Fuel Poverty”
“Fuel poverty” is generally defined as spending more than 10% of income on energy bills. The numbers don’t make it seem like a crisis, but for half the world’s population, it is. Fuel poverty affects the health of millions of people.
An answer to this problem, according to a study in the United Kingdom, lies in access to renewable energy and more efficient methods of cooking.
Some countries, like South Africa, heavily rely on coal and other fossil fuels while other countries like India rely on wood. Inefficient burning of these resources causes heavy indoor air pollution of carbon monoxide (CO) and respiratory suspended particulate matter. In the 21 most affected countries, this has caused a 5% death and disease rate.
U.N. Assistant Secretary General for Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination Robert Orr said, “Energy is central to everything we are trying to achieve on the development side of the equation. There are 1.3 billion people who don’t have access to [modern] energy. If you hook them up to the most polluting, damaging forms of energy you are doing significant damage to the planet.”
Indeed, through inefficiently burning solid forms of fuel, lasting damage is done to the planet and the overall health of millions worldwide. The United Nations crafted, within their Millennium Development Goals, an “agenda for action.” The plan for improved energy efficiency involves cleaner and more efficient methods of cooking.
In India, through support from nongovernmental local associations, BP Energy India developed the “Oorja Stove.” It’s designed with a built-in fan that provides oxygen and eliminates smoke. It’s also fueled by agricultural waste, so it’s cheaper and uses much less kerosene.
“Independent research has indicated that the stove reduces CO by 71% and lowers suspended particulate matter by 34%. Other reporting suggests that biomass use would drop from 1.5 to 2 tons to 0.4 to 0.6 per family per year.”
And to add to its benefits, the sale of these stoves has actually encouraged and convinced women to take on entrepreneurial roles.
The Netherland’s equivalent to the Oorja stove is the Philip’s Smokeless Cookstove, which can burn any biomass, and gasifies it before burning so it doesn’t produce any smoke. The saucer beneath the cookstove contains the same kind of fan found in the Oorja stove.
Sustainability initiatives such as these are a stepping stone toward eradicating energy and fuel poverty.
– Anna Brailow
Sources: Optimist World, Scientific American
Sources: Daily Record
Music School in Gaza Inspires Young Musicians
In 2009, during three weeks of bombing from Israel, the Gaza Music School was destroyed just weeks after its inaugural performance. After the 2014 attacks between Hamas and Israel, the school has become even more important to the young musicians.
The Gaza Music School was launched in 2008 and helps give young people in Gaza the chance to explore their creativity and show off their talents. Most of the students have never lived in a Palestine that wasn’t at war.
Outlets are necessary to help kids forget about the horrors they see during war.
There is a staff of 15 that take care of 195 musicians ranging from age seven to 16 and the school is competitive to get into. In order to help deprived by poverty, there is a scholarship program to ensure everyone has a fair chance. While there is no experience necessary, every student must pass a test of ear and rhythm.
In Gaza and the West Bank, 25.8 percent of the population live below the poverty line. The GNI per capita is $3,060 and economic growth fluctuates due constant instability of peace.
When you walk into the school you hear drums, cellos, pianos, flutes and a qanoun. These sounds help calm the students and their families by relieving stress and expressing themselves. Abu Amsha, the school’s academic coordinator, wishes to expand music education in Gaza to include more students.
“Music restores hope and joy for a nation not accustomed to happiness,” says Ibrahim Al Najaar, the Gaza Music School coordinator.
Learning music helps students with all types of learning. Music requires the use of multiple skill sets. Students use their ears, eyes, and muscles while playing with sheet music or singing while playing an instrument. Therefore, neurological activity increases and you’re using more of your brain.
For music education in Gaza, students receive one-on-one attention from a teacher and practice at that school twice a week and 40 minutes a session. Since power goes out often in Gaza, teachers will even conduct their sessions in the dark. The school refers to music as “candle in the darkness.”
This type of education in Gaza is important to the community and the students. They have the opportunity to receive certificates for their time spent learning music and it gives them the opportunity to study at universities internationally. It is joyful, promotes expression, creativity, and hard work.
“Music is very important, especially in times of war, or when you’re under siege as we live now,” states Al Najaar.
– Donald Gering
Sources: ANERA 1, ANERA 2, EI, The Independent, PBS, RT, World Bank
Photo: RT