Since the fall of socialism in 1991, Albania has made great strides in establishing itself as an economic and political power in Europe. The country has joined the United Nations, NATO, World Trade Organization and the Council of Europe. It is poised to join the European Union.
One of the factors holding the country back has been the exclusion of its minorities, primarily the Roma and Egyptians. This exclusion has left 75 percent of Roma and 70 percent of Egyptians categorized as very poor, compared to the 28.8 percent of Albanians with the same rating.
This socioeconomic status is due largely to of a lack of education, employment and basic infrastructure. This has led many members of these groups to seek wages in the informal labor market, which includes prostitution, women and child trafficking and drug trafficking.
While the government has claimed to include these minority groups in Albania, Egyptians have not been given minority status. The government claims they have not met the criteria necessary. Egyptians must share the same language (other than Albanian), have documentation to prove its distinct ethnic origin or national identity and have distinct customs and traditions or a link to a kinship state outside of the country.
However, the Roma have met these criteria, and, as of 2005, the Albanian government has signed up for the Decade of Roma, a World Bank initiative designed to help in four key areas: education, employment, health and housing and gender and non-discrimination. To date however, the results are not very encouraging, as the number of Roma still labeled as very poor continues to rise.
Against this very bleak picture, several rays of hope have begun to shine on the Roma and Egyptian communities from several organizations. One of these organizations is the United Nations Development Plan, implemented by the Ministry of Social Welfare and funded by the European Union.
These organizations have constructed a project designed to promote social inclusion of Roma and Egyptians through vocational training to increase their employability and strengthen artisan and entrepreneurship skills, especially for women and girls.
The training entailed learning how to cultivate medicinal plants. It was a week-long program where participants were trained how to cultivate, collect and dry medicinal plants. They also learned how to start a business. Additionally, women who owned pieces of land were given sage seeds to help get them started.
Within six months, several of the women who took the course were entrepreneurs employing up to three other women in their businesses. The UNDP recruited sage specialists to assist farmers throughout the process and help them in timing their sales and marketing their product.
Luan Ahmetaj, Director of the Medicinal Plant Institute in Tirana, Albania said, “What makes this intervention unique is the involvement of women in business dominated and run by men. This contributes in empowering those communities.”
There is a huge potential for Albanian medicinal plants. According to the U.S. Agricultural Department, 57 percent of sage imports into the U.S. come from Albania. There are close to 300 members of Roma and Egyptian communities in the regions of Berat, Korca and Vlora that are now benefiting from the initiative, almost half of them women.
Another aspect of this program has been the support of interventions into infrastructure identified by Roma and Egyptian Community Councils, such as kindergartens, road rehabilitations and other interventions. These programs also support the Government of Albania in its efforts to achieve the objectives set forth in the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015. It also promotes respect for human rights and appreciation for cultural diversity, as prerequisites for the country’s EU accession.
– Frederick Wood
Sources: Minority Rights 1, Minority Rights 2, UNDP, UN Albania, ERRC
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
Empowering Minority Groups in Albania
Since the fall of socialism in 1991, Albania has made great strides in establishing itself as an economic and political power in Europe. The country has joined the United Nations, NATO, World Trade Organization and the Council of Europe. It is poised to join the European Union.
One of the factors holding the country back has been the exclusion of its minorities, primarily the Roma and Egyptians. This exclusion has left 75 percent of Roma and 70 percent of Egyptians categorized as very poor, compared to the 28.8 percent of Albanians with the same rating.
This socioeconomic status is due largely to of a lack of education, employment and basic infrastructure. This has led many members of these groups to seek wages in the informal labor market, which includes prostitution, women and child trafficking and drug trafficking.
While the government has claimed to include these minority groups in Albania, Egyptians have not been given minority status. The government claims they have not met the criteria necessary. Egyptians must share the same language (other than Albanian), have documentation to prove its distinct ethnic origin or national identity and have distinct customs and traditions or a link to a kinship state outside of the country.
However, the Roma have met these criteria, and, as of 2005, the Albanian government has signed up for the Decade of Roma, a World Bank initiative designed to help in four key areas: education, employment, health and housing and gender and non-discrimination. To date however, the results are not very encouraging, as the number of Roma still labeled as very poor continues to rise.
Against this very bleak picture, several rays of hope have begun to shine on the Roma and Egyptian communities from several organizations. One of these organizations is the United Nations Development Plan, implemented by the Ministry of Social Welfare and funded by the European Union.
These organizations have constructed a project designed to promote social inclusion of Roma and Egyptians through vocational training to increase their employability and strengthen artisan and entrepreneurship skills, especially for women and girls.
The training entailed learning how to cultivate medicinal plants. It was a week-long program where participants were trained how to cultivate, collect and dry medicinal plants. They also learned how to start a business. Additionally, women who owned pieces of land were given sage seeds to help get them started.
Within six months, several of the women who took the course were entrepreneurs employing up to three other women in their businesses. The UNDP recruited sage specialists to assist farmers throughout the process and help them in timing their sales and marketing their product.
Luan Ahmetaj, Director of the Medicinal Plant Institute in Tirana, Albania said, “What makes this intervention unique is the involvement of women in business dominated and run by men. This contributes in empowering those communities.”
There is a huge potential for Albanian medicinal plants. According to the U.S. Agricultural Department, 57 percent of sage imports into the U.S. come from Albania. There are close to 300 members of Roma and Egyptian communities in the regions of Berat, Korca and Vlora that are now benefiting from the initiative, almost half of them women.
Another aspect of this program has been the support of interventions into infrastructure identified by Roma and Egyptian Community Councils, such as kindergartens, road rehabilitations and other interventions. These programs also support the Government of Albania in its efforts to achieve the objectives set forth in the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015. It also promotes respect for human rights and appreciation for cultural diversity, as prerequisites for the country’s EU accession.
– Frederick Wood
Sources: Minority Rights 1, Minority Rights 2, UNDP, UN Albania, ERRC
Photo: Flickr
Sex Workers At High Risk for HIV/AIDS
Sex workers, along with other marginalized groups, are at high risk for contracting HIV/AIDS due to a multitude of reasons. The levels of risk vary greatly from country to country, depending on whether they work on the “streets” and have access to contraceptives, among other things. Even within countries, there can be great variance with the rates of HIV/AIDS. In Mumbai, India, sex workers have a HIV/AIDS prevalence of 4.6 percent, whereas brothels in Maharashtra have a rate of 29 percent. No matter the diversity, sex workers all over the world share common obstacles that increase their exposure to HIV/AIDS.
A sex worker usually has an extremely high number of sexual partners. If condoms are used consistently, then transmission of the disease is diminished, but that is not likely to be the case abroad. The 2010 UNAIDS global report found that only a third of the 86 countries researched reported 90 percent of workers using condoms with their last client. In many instances, sex workers lack access to condoms or are not aware of their importance. Moreover, many sex workers are not able to negotiate condom use, because it can mean he or she will be paid a lesser amount.
In addition, laws in many countries do little to protect sex workers, often ostracizing them from society. Although sex work can be partially legal in a few countries, legislation and policies do not punish the action of clients that can put these sex workers at risk for HIV/AIDS. For instance, a sex worker who has been raped will most likely be unsuccessful in taking the perpetrator to court. The lack of protection in these cases puts sex workers at very high risk of getting HIV/AIDS.
Despite all of this, there has been progress in places like Nairobi, Kenya, where women are taking charge of their own fate. Viviane Muasi, a female sex worker, is a peer educator with the Sex Workers Outreach Progamme. When she is not working at night, she spends most of her time advocating for HIV testing and consistent condom use. SWOP, run by the University of Nairobi and Canada’s University of Manitoba, has enabled over 3,000 women to get tested for a variety of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. During the clinic visits, medical staff hands out prevention packages to halt the transmission of HIV/AIDS. These packages include instructions for condom use, different family planning methods and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Hopefully by promoting and supporting condom use and early detection, the rates of HIV/AIDS among sex workers will greatly decrease.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: IRIN News, ADVERT
Photo: BAM
Top Five Games for Charity: More Points, Less Poverty
If you are a gamer, then you know exactly what it feels like the moment you beat your highest score after what can be hours of not blinking or eating—excitement, pride and pure joy.
It’s an amazing feeling, really. Whether it’s seeing your name at the top of the scoreboard or earning more points for free upgrades and new features, gaming is a world of its own. But what if you expanded that world by sharing your skills with people who actually can not afford to eat or blink away a virtual reality? What if there was a way to give without losing?
Here are the top five games for charity that let gamers do just that: lend gaming skills to people in need by winning more points and lowering poverty.
1. Free Rice
Free Rice is a nonprofit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme that not only provides education to everyone for free, but also helps end world hunger by giving rice to hungry people. This is a fun way for anyone with a computer to invest in something greater than the education absorbed from the game. Not only do players learn new vocabulary, but for each correct answer, Free Rice donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end world hunger.
2. Quingo
Quingo combines trivia and bingo in a game that gives players the power to use points to donate to one of six charities, five of which are based in Seattle. In the game founded by Seattle-based development, Game It Forward, players around the world can choose from the following charities to which to donate: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Kiva, PAWS, Seattle Children’s, Splash or The Martinez Foundation. The revenue generated from ads and in-game purchases is split between Game It Forward and its charity partners. This game is accessible through iTunes.
3. Charitii
Charitii is a free word game that donates unlimited, clean drinking water to communities living in poverty. For every correct word selected by the player, five ounces of water will be donated to a charity. Charitii is able to use all the money it raises to fund water and sanitation projects in 11 of the poorest communities in Africa and Asia. These projects range from hand-dug wells, boreholes, spring protections, rehabilitations and more.
4. Spin for Good
Spin for Good turns gamers into gamblers in the best way possible. With real money at stake, players compete in online tournaments on behalf of their selected charity, turning a small donation into a larger charitable gift. There’s no real loss at hand as 100 percent of the winnings go toward the charity of choice; charities include WonderWork, PEER International and the Music Resource Center. Here’s a chance for gamers to win big to give big!
5. Goodgames
Good Games allows visitors to earn a penny for every three times a game is played. These games range from arcades, cards, word searches, puzzles, strategy and much more. Every video or display ad the player sees will also generate funds for donations.
– Chelsee Yee
Sources: Free Rice, Geek Wire, PR Web, Spin for Good, Good Search
Photo: Lazy Gamer
Mark Zuckerberg Giving to Ebola Relief
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with his wife Priscilla, has donated $25 million to help eradicate the Ebola epidemic sweeping the world. According to a Forbes article that quoted Zuckerberg, the disease has already infected 8,400 people and is projected to infect over a million in the coming months if it continues at this rate.
The money donated by Zuckerberg will be put toward the Center for Disease Control’s Global Disaster Response Fund. The money will support safe burials, services for the dead, the training of more medical staff, medical supplies and more. Approximately 150 members of the CDC will be heading to West Africa to address the issue in person.
Zuckerberg posted on Facebook, “We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.”
Ebola has quickly become a topic of concern, constantly permeating airwaves and worrying the majority of the world. Accordingly, there are other wealthy philanthropists reaching out in the campaign against this deadly disease.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $50 million to U.N. agencies and other groups giving supplies to those suffering from Ebola. Bill Gates’ business partner, Paul Allen, initiated the Tackle Ebola campaign, setting an example by giving $20 million. Allen strongly remarks, “A winnable battle should never be lost.”
Zuckerberg is considered one of the top philanthropists in the United States, he is involved in various charities and willing to donate financially. With contributions like Zukerberg’s, Ebola relief efforts can advance.
– Kathleen Lee
Sources: Business Insider, Forbes
Photo: Flickr
Crisis in South Sudan
It is the world’s newest country, having only declared its independence three years ago in 2011. It was an uproarious jubilation when nine million people finally found a place in Africa to call home.
Yet, in December 2013, civil war broke out in South Sudan. It was initiated by the desire for political power that quickly turned into ethnic dividing lines. President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. The deposed deputy denied the accusations, but immediately began to rally rebel militias.
The continued fighting has internally displaced 1.1 million Sudanese citizens. It has also raised those that are going hungry to 1.5 million. The number of hungry are expected to rise to 2.5 million by March of 2015 tipping the hunger epidemic to a full-scale famine.
Brokered ceasefires between the Sudanese government and rebel bush fighters have been attempted at several Ethiopian hotels, but as of the moment, no resolutions have been made due to petty grievances and pride.
Alongside this war a killer outbreak of cholera, that has affected thousands of people in South Sudan, has been raging its way across the country. Sue Lautze, head of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization says, “[it is] the world’s most unfortunate coincidence.”
With the current outbreak of war, disease, and famine more than 100,000 Sudanese people have sought refuge across eight camps run by the UN. However, these camps aren’t without problems of their own. The rainy season in South Sudan can range anywhere from six to nine months.
In Bentiu, the capital of Unity State and one of the most contested cities in South Sudan’s civil war, the camp has been perched on swampland that was never intended to house people. Since July, due to the rains, much of the camp has been knee-deep in sometimes waist-deep in water.
As the rains have flooded the makeshift houses, many of the refugees have resorted to scooping buckets of water out of windows through the night in an attempt to keep the disabled and their children dry. The rains have also destroyed over 200 latrines leaving many to relieve themselves in the open.
Concern Worldwide, together with Danish Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders, sprang into action when they dug a 2.2 kilometer trench to redirect the floods. It dropped the water level by 25 percent. However, according to Subodh Vijapure, Concern’s water, sanitation, and hygiene manager “It is still inadequate. People are living in sub-human conditions here.”
Despite these conditions the Sudanese people won’t leave. Many have stated that they have nowhere else to go. Stepping outside the camp’s perimeter could result in being shot, or slowly dying from diseases.
Concern Worldwide and its humanitarian partners are mobilizing as quickly as they can to raise the level of sanitation and increase food stock. With the end of the rainy season fast approaching recruitment of child soldiers is on the rise and the intense fighting is expected to resume.
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: InterAction, BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, Country Studies
Photo: Flickr
Great Quotes on Poverty
Poverty affects us all, whether indirectly or directly. Here are 10 quotes on poverty to get you thinking:
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
― Aristotle
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Once poverty is gone, we’ll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They’ll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society – how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.”
― Muhammad Yunus
“History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything.”
― Jeffrey D. Sachs
“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
―Confucius
“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”
―Benjamin Franklin
“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.”
―Ban Ki-moon
“Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.”
―A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
―James A. Baldwin
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: GoodReads, BrainyQuote
Photo: Flickr
Wo-man Foundation: Helping One Girl at A Time
Uganda shares many of the same struggles most African countries have, including defilement. The Guardian states that defilement is a, “sex crime against juveniles that seems to thrive on widespread poverty.” Because of the poverty, many reported cases of defilement are dropped because parents are paid off with large sums of money so the defendant won’t face imprisonment.
Girls have to endure this abuse and so much more. Young girls are married off and have no control over who they marry, when they marry them and when they will begin birthing children. Wanting to put an end to this inequality, Ugandan Nargis Shirzai founded the Wo-man Foundation.
The Wo-man Foundation was created to empower women and girls of Uganda, “by working to improve their sexual and reproductive health and rights,” Global Citizen reports. One of the campaigns the foundation is initiating is providing girls with sexual and reproductive classes and providing girls with sanitary pads so that girls do not miss class because of their menstrual cycle and a lack of sanitization. When girls can stay in school, they’re more likely to graduate, marry later in life, survive pregnancy, and continue the trend of education.
Partnered with AFRIpads, Ugandan girls in rural areas who typically have to use rags or paper, now have access to reusable sanitary pads.
In addition to classes and providing sanitation, Shirzai intends to hold the government accountable to its commitments of FP2020, which will supply citizens with necessary supplies for family planning, increase the budget from $3 million to $5 in the next five years and be accountable for financial distribution. Holding to these promises will likely prove a vast improvement to the health and well-being of the country.
– Kori Withers
Sources: Global Citizen, Family Planning 2020, The Guardian, The Observer
Photo: Flickr
Somalia Reclaiming Territory Taken by Al-Shabaab
Following a joint operation that began in August 2014, the Somalia government is taking back the lands that the Islamic militant group seized control over.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced on Oct. 27 that, “Al-Shabaab has lost all its territory …” This announcement came after months of strategic air strikes and reconquering cities in Somalia by Allied forces.
Joint Operation Indian Ocean was sent into motion on Sept. 1, including the Somalia military, AMISOM (African Union Mission to Somalia) and the United States. AMISOM is a regional peacekeeping mission controlled by the African Union. The U.S. ignited the operation with an airstrike against the terror group.
“U.S. special operations forces using manned and drone aircraft destroyed an encampment and a vehicle using several Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions,” Fox News reported this Pentagon statement in order to confirm the strike.
Later that week, the Pentagon confirmed that it was in that very strike that Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed, a victory not just for the United States, but for all groups involved in the operation.
Since, the Somalia military and AMISOM have been able to retake territory of Somalia that was taken by the terrorist group since it began its strike against the country in 2006. AMISOM took to Twitter to show its followers and the world that progress was being made by posting a map. The map showed the territory loss from January of this year to October, depicting Al-Shabaab’s loss of over more than half of its conquered territory.
U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said this Oct. 29, “Al Shabab’s power is declining, but it is not gone. I congratulate the Somali National Army and AMISOM for their advances and the contributions to peace and stability of Somalia. It is critical that they now secure roads to newly recovered areas to enable commercial traffic and humanitarian access,” UPI reported.
– Kori Withers
Sources: UPI, UPI 2, BBC, CNN, Fox News
Photo: Flickr
Organization Improves Education in Bangladesh
As one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh has long struggled to accommodate its growing population. With only half of Bangladeshi children receiving an education, Volunteers Association for Bangladesh (VAB) has set out to improve access to education, especially in the rural parts of the country.
Around 3 out of 4 Bangladeshis live in rural villages, making it difficult to access schools. More often than not, these areas lack adequate infrastructure, funding and teachers, hindering children’s ability in receiving quality education. VAB is currently working on providing scholarships and tutors to students, in addition to training teachers.
VAB mainly focuses on high schools, where the future remains bleak in rural Bangladesh. There tends to be a very high dropout rate that many attribute to the alarmingly high rates of poverty. Many students cannot afford to go to school and do not receive any stipends when they do. In addition, there is poor subject knowledge and insufficient teaching methods among school staff, creating a difficult learning environment for Bangladeshi students. In addition, the staff has limited equipment to use in their classrooms. Since there is very little spent on education in Bangladesh, high schools in rural areas often lack computer labs, necessary textbooks and enough classroom space.
In 2010, VAB developed a five-year plan to move forward. One of their main goals is to decrease dropout rates and keep classroom sizes much smaller than the average of 60 students that classrooms have now. The strategy also focuses significantly on school faculty involvement, with the hopes that teachers can identify improvement projects and help implement them.
Given that the most important resource of any country is its people, Bangladesh has invested more in education. The country’s national budget has also allocated more funds towards educational programs, as well as to make it more accessible to a larger segment of the population. These efforts have shown improvements, and the Bangladesh education system is markedly better than it was a few years ago. The Bangladesh education board has also taken steps to improve teaching practices, which will hopefully provide students with a brighter future.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: Volunteers Association for Bangladesh
Photo: Flickr