RENO, Nevada — When people say they want to help the world, or even America’s impoverished people, they think of the hungry, the homeless and the uneducated. Often those with disabilities are overlooked.
According to the World Health Organization, disabled persons are the world’s largest socially marginalized group. Compared to those without disabilities, they suffer from poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer work opportunities and higher rates of poverty.
It was reported in 2012 that of the 19.9 million American citizens with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64, 5.8 million of them live below the poverty line. This equals a poverty rate of 29.2 percent. Comparatively, 13.6 percent of citizens ages 18-64 without disabilities live below the poverty line. Those disabled that are blind or visually impaired the unemployment rate is over 70 percent.
The average median income of males without disabilities has been reported at $48,000 and women without disabilities earn a median of $37,000. Compared to men with disabilities who only earn a median of $41,500 and disabled women who only earn $32,000.
The American Psychological Association has shown that this effect on a disabled persons socio-economic standing is what contributes to their poor health and under education.
Even when disabled person do receive the support and attention they deserve which are viewed as basic human rights they are more often than not forced to live in poverty. The answer to this puzzling dilemma lies in the benefits the disabled receive.
Those with disabilities will generally be awarded Supplemental Security Income. This is one of two government programs designed to help those either born with a disability or those that develop a disability. The latter group will normally receive Supplemental Security Disability Insurance.
In order to retain these benefits, and their health insurance, individuals with disabilities are not allowed to earn more than $700 a month or have savings in excess of $2,000. Even with their benefits these figures leave many disabled persons surviving well below the poverty line.
At the end of September of this year that all changed. Championed by a woman born with down syndrome. Sara Wolf, now 31, has been working for her godfather’s law firm for the last thirteen years. In July, of this year, she testified before a U.S. Senate committee in Washington. Her goal was to pressure law makers into passing the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act.
The ABLE Act would let people with a disability create tax-exempt savings accounts, up to $100,000, to help them pay for things like a home, higher education, transportation, job-hunting costs and health care. This money would not count towards their savings, or income limits, which would endanger their disability income and health insurance.
As Wolff toured the country rallying support for her cause she managed to drum up 261,000 signatures for her online petition. Her efforts paid off as she acquired 380 sponsors in the House for her bill and 74 sponsors in the Senate. In July, the House Ways and Means Committee passed the bill unanimously.
Wolf said she wanted to take control of her future in the same way that many other Americans do. “I want people to know that I’m just like you,” Wolff said. “I could do whatever I put my mind and heart to.”
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: APA, Disability Scoop, Huffington Post, Disability Compendium, Al Jazeera
Photo: Flickr
Disability Equals Poverty, But Not Anymore
RENO, Nevada — When people say they want to help the world, or even America’s impoverished people, they think of the hungry, the homeless and the uneducated. Often those with disabilities are overlooked.
According to the World Health Organization, disabled persons are the world’s largest socially marginalized group. Compared to those without disabilities, they suffer from poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer work opportunities and higher rates of poverty.
It was reported in 2012 that of the 19.9 million American citizens with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64, 5.8 million of them live below the poverty line. This equals a poverty rate of 29.2 percent. Comparatively, 13.6 percent of citizens ages 18-64 without disabilities live below the poverty line. Those disabled that are blind or visually impaired the unemployment rate is over 70 percent.
The average median income of males without disabilities has been reported at $48,000 and women without disabilities earn a median of $37,000. Compared to men with disabilities who only earn a median of $41,500 and disabled women who only earn $32,000.
The American Psychological Association has shown that this effect on a disabled persons socio-economic standing is what contributes to their poor health and under education.
Even when disabled person do receive the support and attention they deserve which are viewed as basic human rights they are more often than not forced to live in poverty. The answer to this puzzling dilemma lies in the benefits the disabled receive.
Those with disabilities will generally be awarded Supplemental Security Income. This is one of two government programs designed to help those either born with a disability or those that develop a disability. The latter group will normally receive Supplemental Security Disability Insurance.
In order to retain these benefits, and their health insurance, individuals with disabilities are not allowed to earn more than $700 a month or have savings in excess of $2,000. Even with their benefits these figures leave many disabled persons surviving well below the poverty line.
At the end of September of this year that all changed. Championed by a woman born with down syndrome. Sara Wolf, now 31, has been working for her godfather’s law firm for the last thirteen years. In July, of this year, she testified before a U.S. Senate committee in Washington. Her goal was to pressure law makers into passing the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act.
The ABLE Act would let people with a disability create tax-exempt savings accounts, up to $100,000, to help them pay for things like a home, higher education, transportation, job-hunting costs and health care. This money would not count towards their savings, or income limits, which would endanger their disability income and health insurance.
As Wolff toured the country rallying support for her cause she managed to drum up 261,000 signatures for her online petition. Her efforts paid off as she acquired 380 sponsors in the House for her bill and 74 sponsors in the Senate. In July, the House Ways and Means Committee passed the bill unanimously.
Wolf said she wanted to take control of her future in the same way that many other Americans do. “I want people to know that I’m just like you,” Wolff said. “I could do whatever I put my mind and heart to.”
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: APA, Disability Scoop, Huffington Post, Disability Compendium, Al Jazeera
Photo: Flickr
Dengue Fever in Asia
Dengue fever has caused mayhem in developing countries, with over 2.5 billion people in the world at risk for infection. The World Health Organization estimates that anywhere from 50-100 million people are affected yearly, showing an increase of incidence rates in the last few decades.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-born viral infection often found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Today, the disease is endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Western Pacific. In 2010, cases in Southeast Asia, the Americas and Western Pacific accumulated to 2.3 million, and this number is only rising.
Incidence rates are not only going up, but there have been recent outbreaks in Europe, including Croatia, France and Portugal, that are concerning to neighboring countries.
However, there is no region that has been quite affected by dengue fever than Asia. Southern China is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of dengue fever in the last 20 years, with more than 1,000 reported cases emerging daily. In October, it was reported that there had been six deaths and over 21,000 infections in Guangdong province.
Malaysia and Taiwan have also experienced more deaths in 2014 than previous years, while Japan suffered its first outbreak of dengue since 1945. Twenty-two cases had been confirmed in Japan, with the health ministry believing visitors to Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park were the first to contract the disease.
Another study illustrated that dengue fever rates in India may actually be 300 times more than what has been officially reported, costing the country around $548 million annually.
With no approved vaccine, dengue fever is difficult to treat. The disease causes severe joint and muscle pain, but does not usually result in fatalities. According to WHO, the only way to prevent the transmission of dengue fever is to fight vector mosquitos. Some ways to do so include disposing waste properly, using personal household protection such as window screens and cleaning water storage containers.
The Government of Japan is taking all necessary precautions to combat the disease, especially in Yoyogi Park, by putting up warning signs, spraying insecticide and draining ponds. Japan has also set up a hotline specifically for dengue fever cases. These precautionary methods will hopefully decrease the transmission of dengue fever in Asia.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: World Health Organization, CNN BBC
Photo: North Jersey
New Technology Can End Poverty
As we near the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, there needs to be something done to increase our progress towards ending poverty. Last month, the Frontiers in Development Forum had many visitors who had bright ideas about what would be best to try to achieve our main goal. Leaders like the Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Secretary of State John Kerry attended the forum, along with many different innovators, who have been creating mobile apps to combat human trafficking.
What was decided at the forum was that bringing new technologies into play and creating new partnerships is essential in the plan to end extreme poverty. In the U.S., many new technologies have changed the way Americans communicate, work and earn with one another. But there was something launched about two decades ago called the Leland Initiative, which was an effort to help increase access to information for 20 African countries.
To build more onto this idea, USAID has partnered with the U.K., Google.org and the Omidyar Network to create something new called the Alliance for Affordable Internet. This was created in an effort to reduce the cost of internet access and to bring to the table new opportunities for doctors, entrepreneurs and local leaders across the developing world.
Another way that USAID is trying to speed up the process of ending poverty is by using mTrac in Uganda. mTrac is a tool that helps local health workers send the government reports via text message. For example, the Ministry of Health used mTrac to survey 10,000 health workers on whether their health unit had a fridge that was used to keep perishable drugs and vaccines cold. The survey ended up costing only $150 and was done in just less than three days.
New technology is something that many in the Western World are used to and often take for granted, but in Senegal, rice millers are learning about how important technology can be for their community. For example, the rice millers buy expensive Asian imports, while local rice farmers are having a hard time selling their crops. USAID is helping to build the supply chains and improve the quality of the harvests by teaching the farmers to share their information through Excel and Dropbox. This allows the millers to track the local crops, schedule shipments and collect payments online.
This is just the start of what technology can do for the world in helping end poverty, and there is still a long way to go. USAID iterates that creating apps just for the sack of having them is not what will help the world achieve the overall objective of ending poverty. But by looking at the need in countries where technology is not overflowing and creating a solution for that will be the key component in ending extreme poverty.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: USAID Blog, USAID
Photo: Flickr
Suicide Bomber in Nigeria Kills Students
On November 10th, in the Northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum, a suicide bomber killed around 46 students ranging from 10 to 20 years of age during a school assembly. The bomber was wearing a school uniform and entered the boys’ school in Yobe state unnoticed. Yobe’s state governor has shut down all public schools in the region and requested urgent action be taken by the Nigerian government.The suicide bomber was among the dead, another 79 were severely wounded.
Police have suggested the terrorist organization Boko Haram is responsible for the attack. The militants have continuously targeted schools “during a deadly five-year insurgency” with the aim of establishing an Islamic state. Boko Haram, whose name translates to “Western education is sin”, believes that girls should not be able to go to school and boys should only receive an Islamic education.
The group has conducted a series of attacks and kidnappings, the most recent at the Government Science Secondary School. Boko Haram’s attack against the non-Quranic school was one of the worst attacks to date.
In Potiskum alone, Boko Haram has attacked roughly 10 schools, while another 5 schools in the surrounding parts of Yobe state have been targeted. However, the militant group rarely claims responsibility for individual attacks. Despite the large number of bombings against schools, there is still a huge lack of security for students.
The Nigerian military has not been deployed to safeguard school grounds in the North and the only protection at the Government Science Secondary School included a few local guards armed with sticks.
Citizens have been requested to report suspicious activities to security agencies. In addition, and in order to identify people with ill intent, people who rent property are asked to thoroughly check renters so criminals cannot hide in their midst.
Government officials have indicated to local communities that security is a collective responsibility, and that peace can only be achieved through collaboration with all interested parties.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: BBC, The New York Times, Reuters
Photo: Daily Mail
Inflatable Baby Incubator Wins James Dyson Award
The main focus of the James Dyson Award is on design and engineering, but there is also encouragement and support given to medical and scientific research to bring great change. The organization itself has donated over $14 million to these causes through grants, machine donations and fundraising endeavors led by the people at Dyson.
The James Dyson Award is aimed towards young people from 18 countries who think differently than others and come up with ideas to change the future. “Whatever the design, as long as it solves a problem, it’s got a chance of winning the James Dyson Award,” its website reads.
Along with the recognition, a $45,000 prize is given to the international winner to help take the idea from a prototype and launch it into a commercial product. The winner for this year’s award goes to a product called the inflatable baby incubator. The inventor is a Loughborough University graduate by the name of James Roberts. The project overall is called and referred to as “MOM” and is said to cost a fraction of the price of other alternatives currently in the market.
With the award money, Roberts is planning on continuing the project and perfecting it to bring to the market in 2017. The remarkable thing about this project is that it is delivered as a flat package to wherever its destination may be. The product is meant to be assembled at the site where it will be used. The inflatable incubator is a sheet of plastic that contains inflatable panels that can be blown up manually and heated by a ceramic element, which then keeps the newborn baby warm. When opened, it will stay open and not collapse on the baby. An Arduino computer keeps the temperature at a stable heat and also controls the humidification, a lamp and an alarm.
This product is huge step in taking care of infants, because it is safe for the baby and costs a lot less. Other incubators cost more because shipping the incubator requires large boxes. This incubator as mentioned above, ships flat and is easy to assemble once it is received.
The main purpose of this incubator is to decrease the number of premature child deaths within refugee camps. According to the MOM Incubator website, “Every year, an estimated 150,000 child births occur within refugee camps. Of these child births, 27,500 will die due to lack of sufficient incubation.”
Moving forward, the plans for MOM include using the money to perfect the prototypes and, if needed, doing a possible redesign to gain the best possible outcome for an inflatable incubator system.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: MOM Incubators, BBC, James Dyson Foundation
Photo: Flickr
Girl Scouts Arise in Refugee Camps
The Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. is an organization known for building girls’ confidence, courage and character in order to make the world a better place. Girl Scouts is active in more than 92 countries across the globe and is a part of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), which comprises of over 10 million girls and adults in 145 countries. The Association’s purpose is to connect member organizations and promote girls and young women to develop to their fullest potential.
Two U.S. college students have taken the initiative further and brought Girl Scouts to refugee camps in Jordan. U.S. college students Howlader Nashara and Ameera Naguib are the troop’s leaders. They started with helping the girls get to know each other, and they planned the different badges they wanted the girls to earn throughout the year. Because of the troop, the girls are now versed in skills that they would not have had the opportunity to learn otherwise, such as first-aid, self-defense, gardening, computer skills and financial literacy.
A grassroots effort, the Collateral Repair Project, has joined forces with the Girl Scouts and is sponsoring more than 20 Girl Scout troops, assisting girl refugees of the Syrian civil war three years ago. The mission of this grassroot effort is to bring assistance to refugees and other victims of war/conflict. The Collateral Repair Project seeks to repair this damage, offer guidance, assistance and even temporary homes to thousands of Iraqis and Syrian refugees.
Girl Scouts empowers girls and encourages them to discover that life can be filled with fun, friendship and the power of forming a community. Through field trips, sports clinics, community service projects, cultural exposure, environmental stewardship and basic life-skills training, girls are able to grow and reach their true full potential.
– Charisma Thapa
Sources: The Girl Scouts, Good News Network Collateral Repair Project
Photo: Flickr
PAK-Energy Saves Lives
In Pakistan, 16 million families don’t have access to clean-burning fuels for cooking and heating. The result of this is increased health problems, especially for women and children. A solution has been developed by PAK-Energy to help reduce this issue. Ranked in the list of “10 Incredible Tech Innovations from 2014 that will Benefit Humanity” on the ONE website, PAK-Energy knows where the need lies and seems to be working towards a better alternative for people living in Pakistan.
Ali Raza of PAK-Energy has created a small, sustainable domestic biogas unit that produces biogas good enough to take care of a family’s cooking and heating needs. This biogas unit will also help the family save money by reducing the cost of fuel. The other benefits of it include reducing waste production and producing nontoxic organic residues that can be sold later on for fertilizer.
PAK-Energy has a vision that is committed to becoming part of a green revolution for Pakistan. It does this by providing energy solutions that are more cost efficient and better for the community like the one mentioned above.
So what is biogas exactly? Organic waste like animal manure, kitchen waste, agricultural residue and even industrial waste can be turned into biogas. This biogas can be used for cooking, heating, lighting and electricity generation for families. There are also economic benefits to biogas such as employment generation, industrial growth, additional source of income with fertilizer, rural development, low cost product and create a sustainable economy.
PAK-Energy has received a lot of recognition for its progress in helping the poor for example in 2011, it received an invitation from the Prime Minister of Turkey to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Also within that same year, it one the first prize in the Young Entrepreneurs Business Challenge in Lahore, Pakistan.
So far, PAK-Energy has made a big impact by creating seven pilot projects in Lahore, Pakistan. This helps families save money and it helps the environment as well. As a plan moving forward, PAK-Energy has a goal of 25,000 units to be installed within the next five years.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: ONE, PAK Energy Solution
Photo: Flickr
Senegal Fights Ebola With Text Messages
In late August, Senegal’s first case of Ebola was confirmed in a man who had previous direct contact with a patient in Guinea and then traveled to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. In collaboration with the World Health Organization, the Government of Senegal took immediate measures to stop the virus dead in its tracks.
Nearly 5,000 people have died from the Ebola virus and over 10,000 people have been infected. To prevent the spread of Ebola within Senegal, the Ministry of Health sent out over 4 million SMS messages to the general population warning of the new Ebola case and ways to individually prevent the contraction of the virus. The messages, based off a social campaign previously used for diabetes, were sent to citizens in Dakar and Saint-Louis, another heavily populated region in the country. The SMS campaign entailed multiple partnerships with local mobile phone companies and urged people to contact health authorities with news of anyone showing signs of fever and bleeding by calling the number provided. The messages received were then broadcast in large public events, such as sports games and rallies.
Dr. Mbayange Ndiaye Niang, a project leader at the Ministry of Health, says the “SMS campaign was part of a much larger national project in Senegal focused on awareness, prevention and care for people with Ebola.” Other awareness methods included flyers, radio announcements and messages posted on government websites. Washing hands regularly and avoiding contact with infected persons and animals was heavily reinforced.
The SMS campaign was extremely successful and, to date, there has only been one Ebola case in Senegal. The efficient and quick reaction by the Ministry of Health was possible due to the existing platform designed to help people manage their diabetes, called mDiabetes. The campaign began during the holy month of Ramadan, where fasting elevated risks associated with having diabetes. By registering with the program, persons with diabetes could receive free tips and advice via text messages on how to control problems associated with fasting. Thus, when Ebola reached Senegal, the government already had mechanisms in place to send text messages on a large scale.
The SMS campaign in Senegal proves that the technology platform can present an opportunity to target awareness on any disease, ranging from HIV/AIDS to the flu. In a world where phones and mobile devices have taken over all forms of paper, governments should invest in more technology-based initiatives.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: World Health Organization, UN Multimedia
Photo: Text Magic
Noonday Collection: Style Changing Lives
Creativity comes in many forms. For example, it can be when one combines fashion and justice to bring business to impoverished communities around the world — and that is exactly what Jessica Honegger did when she created Noonday Collection.
What started as a trunk show by a woman who wanted to raise money to adopt a son from Rwanda soon became more than a one-time fundraiser, It has become an innovative business model that allows women to use fashion to create jobs at living wages for artisans in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Since its launch in 2011, Noonday Collection has provided women in the U.S. the opportunity to earn an income through entrepreneurship while still alleviating global poverty, creating a mutual beneficiary relationship that strays from the charitable “handout.”
Using fashion and design to create economic opportunity for impoverished communities, women can become social entrepreneurs known as Noonday Collection Ambassadors.
As ambassadors, women use their fashion sense to change the world and collaborate with others to make an impact simply by shopping, styling, sharing and advocating.
Noonday Collection states it best on its website: “Your fashion sense can now restore dignity to abandoned women in Ethiopia, empower communities in Ecuador, and create business opportunities for Ugandans.”
Noonday Collection Ambassadors partner with artisans in developing countries by selling jewelry, winter scarves, headbands and other accessories through trunk shows and personalized e-commerce sites. Artisans earn a percentage of the sales commission.
By partnering with artisans in developing countries, ambassadors can empower others to create a marketplace for their goods in their own community while still being able to help those in poverty earn a sustainable business to support their families.
Noonday Collection pays for all its products up-front and even makes advanced payments to provide artisans the money flow they need to start a sustainable business.
The company also sends members of its team to train artisans on what practices are best to design for the U.S. market among other topics to help them understand their business.
In addition, Noonday Collection offers scholarship programs, emergency assistance and donate a portion of sales from adoption trunk shows to help place orphans in a permanent home.
If you would like to take part in this growing movement that has supported more than 1,200 adoptive families through its entrepreneurial insight and fashionable taste, visit the Noonday Collection website to learn how to become a Noonday Collection Ambassador: http://www.noondaycollection.com/become-an-ambassador.
– Chelsee Yee
Sources: Noonday Collection 1, Noonday Collection 2, Toms
Photo: Flickr
Movement Made Toward Sustainable Communities
Sustainable communities are achievable when a community is economically, environmentally and socially healthy and resilient. A sustainable community, just like any other, is faced with many challenges, but it takes more community-based approaches to tackle the issues and meet their goals. A sustainable community is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as a community that “should establish goals and a vision by developing more efficient and effective ways in which to live and grow. It also will involve the participation of the entire community in creating a vision of the community’s future that balances economic, environmental and social needs.” The Institute for Sustainable Communities focuses on empowering communities so they can achieve the state of sustainability in their environment, social and economic sects of the community.
The Institute for Sustainable Communities was formed in 1999 by former Vermont Governor Madeleine M. Kunin. ISC focuses on communities uplifting and motivating themselves towards a built sustainable environment.
“A sustainable community seeks a better quality of life for the whole community without compromising the wellbeing of other communities, healthy ecosystems, effective governance supported by meaningful and broad-based citizen participation and economic security,” said Governor Kunin.
The ISC works in different countries across the world, focusing on the climate, citizen, industry and urban situations. The countries include the U.S., Serbia, China, Bangladesh and India. The ISC recognizes that each country, city and community is unique and has its own adversaries to face. These communities are used as a stepping stone for countries that already have working visions of becoming a fully-functional sustainable community. Countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, with the largest outputs of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, include the U.S., China and India. They are given ideas for successful urban systems and sustainable manufacturing.
Urban systems focus on creating alliances, academies, educational services, etc. that can be utilized in the different countries. For example, the Western Adaptation Alliance (WAA) focuses on connecting 13 different cities in Southwest USA, who all have similar climate adaptation plans to form a support group discussing future ideas, impacts, benefits and drawbacks of their current situation. The urban systems are specific to issues in an area, as climate change is very region specific. So the urban systems for each area could be entirely different, depends of the resiliency of the city, current infrastructure and typical weather patterns in the area.
On the other hand, sustainable manufacturing can be more universal. All areas need a sustainable system of manufacturing as a solid basis towards a sustainable built environment. Sustainable manufacturing through training centers, global partnerships and technologies try to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in an area. For example, in China there are centers located in the two most industrious cities in China that trains factory managers to focus on reducing greenhouse gases in the industry, the environment, health safety, lowering hazards and overall improving the quality of life of worker’s.
Through outreach, training, agencies, alliances, conferences, workshops and education, the Institute for Sustainable Communities is achieving their goals towards a more sustainable built environment. They measure their successes in real-time based on the initiatives that the place in a community and the sustainability they achieve. Through their commitment to the climate, industry, citizens, and urban infrastructure, they are able to transform communities into fully-functioning sustainable places to live.
– Charisma Thapa
Sources: EPA, ISCVT
Photo: RE Sources