Yemen has been through a whole lot in the past few years. While political unrest has plagued the nation for years, in the recent months, the country has been dealing with ongoing airstrikes.
“Some days it’s calm, and some days it’s not. It’s so unpredictable. Right now, we’re on day four with no electricity. When it does come on, it will only be one for an hour,” Hana reports. At 26-year-old, Hana is a youth assistant project manager for the Foundation for Peace project.
The project was founded in 2012 by the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), with the goal of teaching members of the community to effectively prevent and resolve conflicts. They focus on women and youth that typically do not have the opportunity to be influential or participate in dialogue.
So far, 560 youth, women, and local community leaders have received training. In addition, CARE has provided 15 water tanks for poor neighborhoods.
Many people in the country do not have nearby access to water sources and have to walk for miles every day. The limited amount of water sometimes results in clashes within communities.
In the past, wealthy business owners and merchants have paid for trucks to bring water to the poor. However, the trucks wasted a lot of water since they did not offer an effective method of collection. To rectify this inefficiency, the water tanks that CARE installed are permanent. They allow for people to obtain water with ease and less conflict.
Airstrikes and a naval blockade, however, have been preventing essential supplies, such as fuel and food, from reaching Yemen. Because of the lack of fuel, prices have soared and the cost to ride the bus has doubled. Service has also become undependable and people have switched to riding bikes for transportation.
The closure of many Yemeni schools poses another issue. Yemen has a very large population of young people and the majority of them are unemployed and out of school. This leaves them susceptible to recruitment into dangerous militant groups.
Yet, Yemen’s youth are finding ways to stay out of trouble and bring about dramatic change. For example, they initiate groups that spread awareness about issues like women’s rights. Women are fighting for the right to ride bicycles, which is traditionally not allowed in Yemen.
They turn destroyed buildings and windows into art and paint messages of peace all over their cities. Young people are passionate about promoting peace and developing their nation.
The United Nations Development Program gives out a yearly National Award for the Best Innovative Small Business Plan to Yemeni youth. Young people are able to submit smart business ideas for a chance to make their ideas into an entrepreneurship opportunity.
The goal of the award is to kick start the motivation and genius of Yemen’s youth, as well as generate new opportunities for employment. With the award, young people start their own businesses to contribute to their community and the nation’s developing economy.
The youth’s ability to take their lives and future into their own hands also grants them a hearty amount of satisfaction and self-esteem. There are five winners chosen who each are given $20,000 and support from the UNDP while executing their idea.
At the moment, Yemen receives funding from organizations like CARE. But even without aid in the future, the youth hope to keep inspiring progress and peace.
– Lillian Sickler
Sources: CARE, Yemen Innovation And Creativity Award, The Globalist
Photo: Care
United Nations Sets Sustainable Development Goals to End Global Poverty
The United Nations released the first draft of their Sustainable Development Goals this month in preparation for the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals, which were established in 2000.
In 17 simple steps, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to eliminate poverty, grow economies, increase equality and promote sustainable industry.
The overall goals, as defined in the official draft of the United Nations Development Agenda, are:
1) End poverty and hunger
This specifically aims to “end poverty in all forms everywhere.” According to an article published by The Guardian, Goal 1 seeks to reduce global poverty by at least half by 2030. The drafted plan calls for establishing equal access to economic resources, equal rights of ownership, and the creation of a firm policy framework at all levels in order to promote sustainable and accelerated economic growth.
2) Secure education, health and basic services for all
Goal 2 seeks to eliminate global food insecurity and promote sustainable agriculture. Again by 2030, the United Nations hopes to establish sustainable and year-round access to nutritious food, especially for the most poor and vulnerable. The goal is to establish sustainable agriculture and encourage investment in rural areas. The details of Goal 2 also include measures to address inequality among markets and trade restrictions, and to ensure the proper operation of food markets.
3) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
This goal is to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” This goal broadly encompasses many aspects of health and well-being across society. These aspects include reducing maternal mortality and the preventable deaths of newborns and infants, ending epidemics caused by communicable diseases, achieving universal healthcare coverage and more.
4) Combat inequalities within and between countries
5) Foster inclusive economic growth, shared prosperity and sustainable lifestyles for all
Goal 4 and 5 address access to education and gender equality. These goals include guaranteeing free and quality primary and secondary education for all children, providing equal educational opportunities to both boys and girls, eliminating violence against women and undertaking reform to ensure equal economic opportunity for women. The fifth goal goes further and calls for the creation of enforceable policies to protect the rights of women.
6) Promote safe and inclusive cities and human settlements
7) Protect the planet, fight climate change, use natural resources sustainably and safeguard our ocean
The remaining goals outline plans to create and maintain sustainability in multiple sectors. These goals include sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture and industry, sustainable use of the environment and sustainable economic structures. Some of the goals also specifically address the idea of “sustainable societies” and outline measures to reduce violence, increase equality between nations and promote global connections.
Although the initial response to the United Nations’ plan has been mixed, and some, according to another article by The Guardian, have warned that the plan has some serious holes, the ambitious set of goals sets a precedent for efforts to end global poverty and will serve as a benchmark for future endeavors.
– Gina Lecher
Sources: Sustainable Development, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2
Photo: Flickr
Child Marriage in India
Each year, approximately 15 million girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriage. These child brides normally have their husbands selected for them by their fathers, and they are not given any power or choice when it comes to their marriage. Many of them are forced to marry men much older than they are.
Child marriage is most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. India accounts for one-third of the total child brides worldwide, even though the legal marrying age in India is 21 for men and 18 for women, as established by the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act did not cause a significant decrease in the amount of child marriages that take place in India, where 47% of girls marry before the age of 18. Child marriage in India is more common in rural areas, where 56% of girls marry before the age of 18, than they are in urban areas, where 29% of girls marry before 18.
Societal traditions and norms allow child marriage to persist despite its illegality. Many brides are forced to marry early because the later they are married, the larger their dowry will have to be. It is still common in India to give a dowry or a present from the bride’s family to the groom’s at the time of marriage, although the practice was banned in 1961.
As The Guardian states, another reason why some parents marry their daughter at a young age is because they fear that their daughter might have sexual relations when she is a teenager, therefore shaming her family and lowering her chances of getting married later on. Child marriage is also widespread because poor families realize that marrying their daughter means that they have one less child to feed, since brides tend to go live with their husband’s family.
Since child marriage is illegal, weddings normally take place in the evening or at night. Police officers are bribed to not report the marriage.
The consequences of child marriage are devastating. Girls who marry young are not able to complete their education and are therefore forced to rely on their husband and his family. Even on the rare occasion that they have the chance to end the marriage, they are often not able to because they have nowhere to go and no way to support themselves. Girls under the age of 15 are also five times more likely to die in childbirth than those over the age of 20. Young brides are also more likely to contract HIV because they are forced to marry older men.
The International Center for Research on Women reports that girls in India who marry under the age of 18 are twice as likely to experience domestic violence. Child brides also experience sexual abuse, and many suffer from PTSD and severe depression.
Some girls are forced to enter a marriage agreement at an extremely young age and then go to live with their husbands when they reach puberty. This was supposed to be the case for Santa Devi Maghwal, an Indian girl from Rajasthan who was married at 11 months old and told that she would have to live with her husband when she turned 16. Maghwal is currently working with child right’s campaigner Kriti Bharti to annul the marriage. Luckily, Maghwal is not the only one who has turned to the law in order to end her marriage. Bharti made history in 2012 when she obtained India’s first annulment of a child marriage for sixteen year old Laxmi Sagara. Since then, Bharti has won 27 more annulments. While divorce is hard to come by in India, since courts are overburdened and take a long time to rule, annulments can be achieved as long as there is some proof — such as a birth or school certificate — that the bride was married before the age of 18.
Bharti has made progress, but India still has a way to go before it can truly end child marriage. For child marriages to end, societal norms and patriarchal customs need to end as well.
– Ashrita Rau
Sources: ICRW, CBN, National Geographic 1, National Geographic 2, UNICEF, Girls not Brides, The Guardian
Photo: Huffington Post
The Importance of Data Collection in Global Health
Data collection is essential to address public health concerns in the developing world. If a nonprofit or government institution cannot identify risk factors, outbreaks, health trends and vulnerable populations, aid cannot be targeted effectively at the people who need it the most. As Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization puts it, “without these data, countries and their development partners are working in the dark – throwing money into a black hole.”
That is why the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced the Roadmap for Health Measurement and Accountability and a Five-Point Call to Action. These initiatives are meant to encourage the governments of developing countries to strengthen their public health registration systems, with the goal of making health aid more effective while avoiding some of the data-collection pitfalls of the past.
While previous data-collection initiatives, many motivated by the Millennium Development Goals, led to dramatic improvements in public health knowledge gaps, they also had some negative consequences. These were mainly a result of the programs’ tendencies to fragment as well as detract from country-led approaches to data collection.
Jimmy Kolker, assistant secretary for global health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, points out that data collection should not be an “end in itself.” To be effective, governments need to have the political capacity to support, and act on, the data that they collect. In contrast to previous initiatives, the Roadmap and Call to Action are intended to empower countries to develop their own integrated health systems, which should be more sustainable and robust in the long-term.
The Five-Point Call to Action includes some very specific public health monitoring goals. For example, the third point emphasizes a need for adequate civil registration systems, with the goal of registering all births by 2030, as well as registering 80% of deaths and their causes. The reasoning behind being so specific in establishing broad standards is that in the past, data collection efforts were hampered by a lack of coordination; a poor focus on specific health issues also failed to reveal broad trends and strengthen public health systems. Thus, these initiatives emphasize establishing accurate measurements of a few basic indicators, such as births and deaths, as well as having basic reporting and public access mechanisms in place.
The Call to Action calls for adequate data collection and interpretation through modern technology, not just traditional registration systems. Point four emphasizes that by 2020 all countries should have “real-time disease surveillance systems in place, including the capacity to analyze and link data using interoperable, interconnected electronic reporting systems within the country.”
As technology has developed, aid agencies and governments have an ever-growing list of resources that can help them monitor, collect, and interpret health-related data. Up to two-thirds of the world’s population in 100 countries is absent from public registration systems, a gap that must be filled by modern data-gathering and reporting solutions. Mobile technology is an enormous boon to governments trying to build data collection and dissemination systems.
For example, since 2008 Bangladesh, with relatively little funding and prior to the aforementioned initiatives, has managed to strengthen programs for establishing electronic medical records, centralized databases, accessible online resources for data-entry and reporting, and citizen feedback mechanisms. Bangladesh is a great example of how a low-income country can rapidly modernize its public health data resources cheaply and efficiently, a model from which other developing countries might learn, spurred on by the recent initiatives by USAID, the WHO, and the World Bank. Perhaps, with some financial and technical support from these institutions, developing nations can create their own path toward improved public health.
– Derek Marion
Sources: MA4Health, World Bank, Devex
Photo: Leaning Forward
Education and Healthcare Access in Kenya
I will never forget hearing the story about the woman in Kenya who ran away when a soldier pulled out a condom. She had heard a rumor that if someone tried to use a condom, it meant that they had HIV.
In Kenya, healthcare and education about sex and general health is limited. Moreover, the small amount of health and sex education that does exist is often misguided.
In the past ten years, three people that my family and I were close to died of HIV. All three of them were parents and the breadwinners of the family. On Monday, my mother called to inform me that yet another person that we know is ill, and may be dying of HIV.
According to USAID, around 1.6 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya. In addition, about 1.1 million children in Kenya are orphans because of AIDS.
People in Kenya with HIV/AIDS, and those at risk, often lack access to healthcare.
In Kenya, healthcare is a constitutional right, but the cost is too high for a majority of Kenyans. In addition to the cost, the closest healthcare facility is often way too far away for poor Kenyans to reach.
According to the World Bank, “only 20 percent of Kenyans have access to some sort of medical coverage.” In April 2014, the Kenyan government launched the Health Insurance Subsidy Program in order to make healthcare more affordable for people in Kenya. While this is a good first step, it does not help the many people who are unable to reach a healthcare facility.
An article by Allianz states that if poor Kenyans living in rural areas are able to seek healthcare, they are often only able to find treatment at a primary care facility. These facilities are often under-staffed and under-equipped, and have limited medicines. One of the three people in my life who died of HIV/AIDs died in a hospital due to HIV-related dehydration. It is possible that he could have been saved by something as simple as an IV if the doctors had known what to do.
Luckily, organizations like USAID and the World Bank are working on treating and preventing HIV/AIDS and giving Kenyans greater access to healthcare.
In 2003, USAID launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The program is focused on prevention, treatment and care. These programs have made steps in the past 12 years. For instance, mother-to-child transmission rates have dropped from 28.3% to 8.5%.
However, transmission rates are not the only numbers that have been dropping. Between 2010 and 2013, USAID’s funding to Kenya was cut in half.
HIV/AIDS is continuing to spread in Kenya, and the people who need aid the most are not receiving it. The United States could be doing much more to aid the poor in Kenya. So why is the government decreasing funding, rather than continuing the work that has just begun?
– Clare Holtzman
Sources: Allianz Worldwide Care, USAID, The World Bank
Photo: Zakat
What Have the Millennium Development Goals Achieved?
What Have the Millennium Development Goals Achieved? In 2000, the United Nations set out on a clearly defined mission to end global poverty by means of tackling eight core areas of need. Now we are looking back, 15 years later, and seeing how successful the UN was in meeting their goals-and where the new Sustainability Goals will need to take up the slack.
The Millennium Development Goals were designed as a framework for developing impoverished nations by addressing the most critical needs of the society, like reliable food sources, access to education, and adequate health care.
Each goal had specific targets which the United Nations hoped they would meet by 2015. Some goals had more success than others.
The UN’s goal of halving global poverty was met with resounding success, as the number of people living on less than one dollar and 25 cents a day dropped from one point nine billion in 1990, to 836 million in 2015. An estimated 14 percent of the global population are living in extreme poverty today, down from nearly half in 1990.
The reduction in the proportion of undernourished people globally narrowly missed its target, coming within two percent of the 50 percent reduction goal. Though narrowly missing their target, given the exponential human population growth over the last three two decades, it is still a considerable success.
The goals suffered two more near misses in their attempts to increase educational opportunities for all, including establishing gender equality in schools. An estimated 10 percent of children are not receiving any formal education, and only about two -thirds of developing countries have achieved gender equality in the classroom.
Goals four and five of the Millennium Goals, which addressed child and maternal mortality, respectively, both failed to meet their targets. While both the mortality rate of children under five and maternal deaths were reduced by over half, both failed to reach the two-thirds reduction target.
Goal six, stop and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases was similarly not met in the given 15 year time frame. Although the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections has fallen by around 40 percent, an estimated two point one million people are still being infected annually. The fight against malaria and other diseases prevalent in developing areas has seen more success however, with an estimated six point two million malaria deaths averted between 2000 and 2015.
The final two goals of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals tackled strengthening infrastructure, sustainable development, and international partnership. While both goals are still on-going endeavors, over the last decade, two point six billion people have gained access to improved drinking water and official development assistance to developing nations has risen by nearly seven percent.
Overall, the United Nations has experienced great success in their struggle to address the needs of the poor around the world, but they are the first to admit that more work is needed. In the official Millennium Development Goals report, released earlier this month, Wu Hongbo Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs admitted that success has been uneven across developing nations. “Millions of people are being left behind, especially the poorest and those disadvantaged because of their sex, age, disability, ethnicity or geographic location. Targeted efforts will be needed to reach the most vulnerable people,” said Hongbo.
The Quick and Dirty of Hits and Misses:
Goal #1: Target goal met and exceeded
Goal #2: Target goal nearly achieved
Goal #3: Not met
Goal #4: Not met
Goal #5: Not met
Goal #6: Not met
Goal #7: Target achieved ahead of schedule
Goal #8: No target specified, on-going action
The Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 will pick up where the Millennium Goals left off and continue to guide the United Nations as they work to eradicate global poverty.
– Gina Lehner
Sources: The Guardian, UN
Photo: Global Classrooms
How Coca-Cola Is Helping Deliver Medicines
Coca-Cola products reach every corner of the world while essential medicines do not. ColaLife, a UK charity, noticed this and decided to make a change. ColaLife uses Coca-Cola to open up the private sector supply chain to deliver affordable and effective medicines.
ColaLife produced the Kit Yamoyo, an anti-diarrhea kit. Diarrheal diseases cause life-threatening dehydration, which is the second leading cause of death in children under the age of 5 in developing nations. Each year, it takes the lives of 760,000 children, even though it’s curable.
The problem is that these children do not have access to the cure, which is what ColaLife sought to solve. The Kit Yamoyo contains Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), soap, and zinc, which act as a cure. The package itself acts as a measuring device for water needed to mix up the ORS and zinc, and can also be used as a storage device as well as a cup.
The Kit Yamoyo has a v-shaped cup to easily fit into the Coca-Cola delivery crates. As a compact, low-cost product, the Kit Yamoyo piggybacks Coca-Cola’s supply chain to reach remote areas. It is a symbiotic relationship: Coca-Cola products continue to reach and get sold in remote areas, while the consumers gain access to more medicines than ever before.
The kits themselves are sold with Coca-Cola products. As the kits make their way out to the remote areas, the demand for them becomes greater. It’s a positive situation for everyone involved: Coca-Cola products are sold, the retailer makes a profit, and the consumer gets the medicine they need to help their children.
With enough funding, the Kit Yamoyo will have a big impact. It will widen vaccine coverage in remote areas and reduce death rates caused by dehydration and malnutrition. It will also encourage an increased investment in training and help health workers reduce child mortality rates. ColaLife has proven that the supply chain is just as important as the medicine itself.
– Hannah Resnick
Sources: ColaLife, University of Delaware, WHO, Zambia Daily Mail
Photo: Just Giving
Global Hunger Affects Fewer than 800 Million People
Currently, the number of people who face hunger is around 750 million people. The number of people living in hunger has been reduced by about 167 million people in the past 10 years. In the past year alone, the number of hungry people dropped by 10 million people.
This is incredible progress!
One of the main focuses of the Millennium Development Goals is to eradicate global hunger. Global hunger has dropped considerably, and this is a moment to recognize all that has been accomplished.
In South America, less than five percent of the population faces hunger. The number of hungry people has dropped by 50% in the past 25 years. Central and South East Asia, as well as Northern Africa, have seen a drop in the number of hungry individuals.
However, 44 percent of countries did not accomplish the Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by 50 percent in the last 15 years. South Asia still has 281 million people who suffer from hunger. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 23 percent of people do not get enough food.
Political instability in Sub-Saharan Africa may contribute to why hunger is still a problem. Twenty-four countries in Africa are currently experiencing food crises. This number is up from the 12 countries who were experiencing food crises in 1990.
Recently, bountiful food harvests and low oil prices have made the price of food drop considerably. These factors could have played a role in why hunger has been dropping.
Beyond economic growth, countries also have to focus on inclusive growth. For example, social investments, such as cash transfer programs, employment projects, food distribution schemes, healthcare and education could all reduce the number of hungry people.
Food is a basic necessity. It is extraordinary news that global hunger has dropped below 800 million. We need to continue to prioritize eradicating world hunger. If we continue progressing in this way, it is conceivable that world hunger could be eliminated.
– Ella Cady
Sources: Reuters, Deseret News,
Photo: Flickr
Disappearing “Poverty” in Britain
Poverty in Britain is quickly being removed from the country’s list of social reforms. Instead of new policies or legal changes sweeping the United Kingdom, poverty is being struck from Great Britain’s dictionary and being substituted with a much more stern response from the government. The very definition of “poverty” in Britain has become the focal point in this new era of British government.
An article published on July 2, by Britain’s flagship newspaper The Guardian, highlighted this new outlook by British Prime Minister, David Cameron. An excerpt from the article reads, “As an issue, poverty is to vanish, no longer a target or a word in the Conservative lexicon. Other things will be targeted instead – worklessness, family breakdown, addictions, debt and educational success. In doublespeak, the very meaning of the word poverty disappears when to be poor no longer means to lack money. To be poor will from now on mean to fail, to be poor apologies for human beings, people in error, in need of correction not cash.” Essentially, those in poverty are there because of a lack of work ethic to rise above the country’s poverty line.
The shift in attitude stems from the British government’s decision to focus primarily on attacking low national income to combat widespread poverty. While initially seen as a government abandoning a particular demographic, British officials maintain that this new direction will benefit the country the most in the foreseeable future.
An article by the Belfast Telegraph reported on the new approach to Britain’s economic issues. The article says, “the plan is to replace Labour’s Child Poverty Act, which established a duty for governments to eradicate the problem by 2020, with new legislation that will instead require ministers to report regularly on measures affecting a child’s life chances.” This reform aims to analyze data more carefully and make changes based on external factors affecting child poverty in Britain.
By making it a priority to target things such as unemployment, drug use and family breakdown, Britain’s government can effectively coordinate an appropriate response to nationwide poverty.
– Diego Alejandro Catala
Sources: The Guardian, Belfast Telegraph
Photo: The Independent
UK Government Set to Scrap Child Poverty Act as Rates Stay Consistent
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, announced this past week that the U.K. government will be scrapping its Child Poverty Act. The act, which promised to end child poverty in the United Kingdom by 2020, is being terminated after a recent report stated that current child poverty levels are “unacceptably high.”
Smith has stated that the government will be replacing the act with new perspectives on how to view child poverty, chiefly by changing its definition altogether.
The original act defined child poverty as a child living in a household with an income below 60% of the country’s average. Smith has spoken out against this definition, calling it “deeply flawed” as well as “a poor test of whether children’s lives are genuinely improving.”
Duncan’s new plan defines child poverty by “levels of educational attainment, worklessness and addiction,” as opposed to “relative material disadvantage,” according to The Guardian.
This news prefaces a large cut in tax credits to be introduced in the July 8, 2015 budget as a means to reduce the welfare budget. These cuts make the original 2020 goal all the more unobtainable.
The commission that oversaw the act, the Child Poverty and Social Mobility Commission, will be renamed to simply the Social Mobility Commission.
“We want to eradicate child poverty. This is not a departure from that proposal,” Smith said. “What we want to do is to ensure, however, that we do this by changing the long-term life chances of those who live in the poorest families.”
– Alexander Jones
Sources: BBC, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2
Photo: The Guardian
The Youth of Yemen Promote Peace
Yemen has been through a whole lot in the past few years. While political unrest has plagued the nation for years, in the recent months, the country has been dealing with ongoing airstrikes.
“Some days it’s calm, and some days it’s not. It’s so unpredictable. Right now, we’re on day four with no electricity. When it does come on, it will only be one for an hour,” Hana reports. At 26-year-old, Hana is a youth assistant project manager for the Foundation for Peace project.
The project was founded in 2012 by the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), with the goal of teaching members of the community to effectively prevent and resolve conflicts. They focus on women and youth that typically do not have the opportunity to be influential or participate in dialogue.
So far, 560 youth, women, and local community leaders have received training. In addition, CARE has provided 15 water tanks for poor neighborhoods.
Many people in the country do not have nearby access to water sources and have to walk for miles every day. The limited amount of water sometimes results in clashes within communities.
In the past, wealthy business owners and merchants have paid for trucks to bring water to the poor. However, the trucks wasted a lot of water since they did not offer an effective method of collection. To rectify this inefficiency, the water tanks that CARE installed are permanent. They allow for people to obtain water with ease and less conflict.
Airstrikes and a naval blockade, however, have been preventing essential supplies, such as fuel and food, from reaching Yemen. Because of the lack of fuel, prices have soared and the cost to ride the bus has doubled. Service has also become undependable and people have switched to riding bikes for transportation.
The closure of many Yemeni schools poses another issue. Yemen has a very large population of young people and the majority of them are unemployed and out of school. This leaves them susceptible to recruitment into dangerous militant groups.
Yet, Yemen’s youth are finding ways to stay out of trouble and bring about dramatic change. For example, they initiate groups that spread awareness about issues like women’s rights. Women are fighting for the right to ride bicycles, which is traditionally not allowed in Yemen.
They turn destroyed buildings and windows into art and paint messages of peace all over their cities. Young people are passionate about promoting peace and developing their nation.
The United Nations Development Program gives out a yearly National Award for the Best Innovative Small Business Plan to Yemeni youth. Young people are able to submit smart business ideas for a chance to make their ideas into an entrepreneurship opportunity.
The goal of the award is to kick start the motivation and genius of Yemen’s youth, as well as generate new opportunities for employment. With the award, young people start their own businesses to contribute to their community and the nation’s developing economy.
The youth’s ability to take their lives and future into their own hands also grants them a hearty amount of satisfaction and self-esteem. There are five winners chosen who each are given $20,000 and support from the UNDP while executing their idea.
At the moment, Yemen receives funding from organizations like CARE. But even without aid in the future, the youth hope to keep inspiring progress and peace.
– Lillian Sickler
Sources: CARE, Yemen Innovation And Creativity Award, The Globalist
Photo: Care