With nearly 5,900 dead and monetary growth stalled, loss has become commonplace in the wake of Nepal’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The tourism sector, constituting eight percent of the country’s gross domestic product, now looks gutted – a reality that could have grim implications for Himalayan Sherpas.
Jagged snow-capped peaks and olive-green farmlands frame rural villages in Nepal. It is here, with the beast’s shadow looming, that backpackers from across the world come to tackle Mt. Everest. Himalayan Sherpas, indigenous people notorious for their mountaineering prowess, lead nearly 100,000 through the unforgiving ice fields each year.
Making upwards of $7,000 in a single trekking season, 10 times the average Nepalese wage, the Sherpas contribution benefits Nepal’s economy. By filling hotels, airplane seats and sporting goods stores, the sun-aged workers have created their own niche in tourism.
This once lucrative business, however, is taking a turn for the worse following April’s earthquake.
In Chaurikharka, a rural area in Nepal, villagers and Buddhist monks gather in a hut, its walls crumbling and sagging in the dim lamp light. They mourn the loss of Dawa Chiri, a 27-year-old Himalayan Sherpa killed alongside 17 other trekkers and guides during an avalanche caused by the quake.
Dawa’s wife, Phura Yangzi, is now left with an 18-month old child. With the baby strapped to her back, Yangzi explains that she will now turn to street vending, selling soda and mineral water in hopes of supporting the family.
“It will be difficult but I will try,” she said. “I have to.”
Mountaineering companies, hearing of these tragic and devastating stories, have called off all spring expeditions. From teahouses to airlines, the effects of a poor trekking season will be felt by many – a big blow for Nepal’s economy.
“Foreign clients will be reluctant to climb next year,” David Morton, executive director of the Juniper Fund charity, said. “There are concerns about danger, sure, but also cost, after climbers lost all that money.”
With nearly 40 percent of villages already living below the poverty line, this drastic decline in tourism will leave high-altitude families reeling. Most, now camped in makeshift nylon tents, may never secure the funds to rebuild their homes.
“I have lost everything,” Pasang Lamu, a 55-year-old villager in Khunde said, choking back sobs. “Please help us.”
Foreign aid efforts, though effective for urban centers, prove futile for most Himalayan towns. The only way in or out is by foot making travel for international aid workers, reporters and government officials impossible.
“It has been the main economic driver for many people and now, the industry will take a hit,” nonprofit director Ben Ayers said of the tourism sector. “We are looking at hunger, disease and suffering for a lot of people.”
Yangzi will be one of those people. Her face tired, the 22-year-old widow explains how she wishes her husband’s death was simply a nightmare. She tries to think of it as a dream, but then remembers the last words he spoke a day before the earthquake.
“Tomorrow,” the Sherpa said. “Is my rest day at base camp.”
– Lauren Stepp
Sources: Bloomberg Business, CNN, The Economic Times
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in Chennai, India
There is a substantial amount of people living below poverty lines in several states of India. Although India’s economy has seen growth over the past few decades, an estimated 1.1 billion people survive on less than $1 a day.
In India, poverty rates are three to four times higher in the country’s poorest regions than the more advanced regions. The poverty alleviation rate in India has remained stagnant; rates are still the same as they were 20 years prior, especially in more remote parts of India such as Chennai.
Chennai is one of the largest and most populous cities in India and is ranked the 31st largest urban city in the world with a population of 4.3 million. It is a port city located in India and is considered a large tourist destination.
Chennai is also known as one of the largest industrial and commercial cities in India, which contributes to its economic stature. However, with large populous urban cities, comes the slums. More often than not, the impoverished are found living in the slums of the cities they are connected to.
The slum population has been increasing over the past few decades, almost doubling the population of people living in poverty in the past two decades alone. As India’s total population increases so does the slum population. Despite reform efforts and aid, many of those living in the slums do not have access to electricity and clean water.
In 2011, an estimated 29 percent of the population in Chennai were living in the slums of the city, which is less than other parts of India. For example, in 2011 30 to 40 percent of the population living in Mumbai and Kolkota were living in the slums.
The slums of Chennai are found in the back alleys of the city, where huts line the dirt streets. A majority of the slums found in large cities such as Chennai are crowded, single room houses with poor sanitation and unclean drinking water, which ultimately contributes to the spread of disease.
However, compared to other cities in India where the population is in the millions, Chennai has been doing considerably well with poverty alleviation. Chennai’s poverty rate currently stands at 8.7 percent and is considered to have one of the lowest poverty rates in the entire country, while other cities such as Coimbatore’s and Madurai’s poverty rates are as high as 17 to 22 percent.
What differentiates Chennai from other cities such as Coimbatore and Madurai is the plan in place. Chennai has developed an effective policy that helps empower people. However, even though Chennai has one of the lowest poverty rates, it still houses a large number of slum neighborhoods and people living on less than a $1 a day.
A contributing factor to the continuity and growth of these neighborhoods is rapid urbanization and unemployment. Many people move to the city in hopes of finding jobs; however, when they don’t they have trouble surviving and may ultimately end up in the slums of the city.
– Nada Sewidan
Sources: Travelmag, India Online Pages, U.N.D.P., The World Bank, The Hindu
Photo: Jacobin
Bike Power Gives Rural Coffee Growers a Boost
Near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, coffee is a staple crop. Coffee growers range from huge commercial enterprises with factories and automated systems, to family farms doing everything by hand. The commercial farms have the clear advantage, but a new technology designed by an international crew of innovators may help the smallest farmers close the gap.
To make coffee, farmers must harvest the bright red coffee cherries and split them in half to access the bean inside. This process, called pulping or shelling, is vital to coffee production and is extremely labor intensive. Doing it by hand is too slow to be feasible. While the big factory farms have machines that require very little labor to operate, smaller villages make do with hand-powered cranks that require a great deal of strength and patience.
The MIT-sponsored International Development Innovation Network Summit this past year played host to hundreds of inventive individuals looking to solve problems like this one. The group included Tanzanian business school student Yesse Joshua Olijange, whose parents are farmers originally from Leguruki and Bernard Kiwia, a Tanzanian bicycle mechanic turned inventor.
Kiwia supervised the summit team Olijange was a part of. The team also included self-taught Tanzanian inventor Mwanaharusi Goha, Brazilian engineering student Eduard Eric Schardijin Ghanaian, engineering student Helen Amorin, German industrial designer Mona Mijthab and El Salvadorian nonprofit worker Geovany Moreno. Together, they designed a simple improvement to the hand-powered pulper.
According to designer Mona Mijthab, “Most people [in Leguruki] have bikes,” she said, “We thought, we can use parts of the metal pieces instead of the real bike. Things like the frame—these materials are available.”
The team attached the pedals of a bike onto a sturdy metal frame and hooked it up to the hand-cranked pulping machine. Now, instead of requiring immense upper-body strength, a person can operate the machine as they would ride a bike. The machine, which is around three feet tall, takes raw cherries in through a funnel on its top and runs them through a rotating drum with spikes on its interior. The spikes take the outer shell off of the coffee and spits them out separately from the beans. Using a hand crank, farmers can pulp about 33 pounds of cherries every 10 minutes. With the new prototype, the time is reduced to two minutes.
This is only one of many exciting prototypes to come out of the IDIN Summits. Since 2012, IDIN has been connecting innovators from different countries and industries around the world to challenge them to develop not only designs, but prototypes that can improve the lives of those living in poverty. Interest in IDIN’s methods and solutions is growing, and this year three summits will be taking place in Colombia, India and Botswana.
These summits are part of a bigger trend in innovation as the world’s most creative minds apply themselves to solving the problems facing the world’s poorest populations.
– Marina Middleton
Sources: Smithsonian, International Development Design Summit, International Development Innovation Network, D-Lab
Photo: Enlightened Consciousness
Poverty in Jakarta
There are over 28 million people in Indonesia considered to be poor according to national standards. The Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, focuses on standards of living and measures 10 indicators of multiple deprivations in a household. The 10 indicators include issues of education and health. To be considered multi-dimensionally poor, a person needs to be deprived in at least three out of the 10 indicators.
In Jakarta, 20.8 percent of the population has multiple deprivation and 12.2 percent is vulnerable to multiple deprivations. The intensity of deprivation means the degree to which the average percentage of the people is in multidimensional poverty. As of 2014, this was 45.9 percent.
The population of Jakarta is 10 million at night and increases to 11.2 million in the day as individuals travel into the city for work. As of 2014, the poverty rate and Gini coefficient ratio, a measurement tool for the gap in income, have increased immensely due to increasing rates of inflation and the weaker rupiah. The result is a higher poverty index.
The poverty index ratio increased to 8.9 percent from eight percent in the previous year. The country average for Indonesia is 8.3 percent. The coefficient ratio has gone from a measurement of .364 in 2013 to .436. The ratio illuminates the income distribution among the city’s population as well as the inequality of the economy.
There has been an increase in the poor population from 3.7 percent in 2013 to 4.9 percent. Based on the population of Jakarta, the number of poor has increased from 371,000 to 412,790. Due to poverty, issues of malnutrition, no proper sanitation, lack of electricity and limited educational opportunities are often issues occurring in tandem.
It is important that proper indicators are used to determine the amount of the population that is poor in order to correctly assess their needs. In the words of Amartya Sen, author of the book, “Development as Freedom,” poverty should be seen “as a deprivation of basic capabilities, rather than merely as low income.”
Currently, the national poverty line is based on monetary measures. These measures, utilized by the Millennium Development Goals to indicate the national poverty line, have assisted in growth and processes that have recently been taken by the Indonesian government. In addition, budgeting and planning resources have been observed.
– Erika Wright
Sources: Jakarta Post 1, Jakarta Post 2, U.N. Habitat
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
IKEA’s Better Shelters
Nearly four million refugees have fled Syria in the last four years. In 2013, almost 51 million people were displaced from their homes worldwide. This marks the highest global refugee population since World War II. In camps, the only shelter these displaced families have are flimsy tents. A new mobile shelter called the Better Shelter could offer a safer, more dignified solution to the challenge of housing refugee families.
IKEA Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have joined forces to improve the housing options for displaced families. The shelters come in two flat cardboard boxes, can be assembled without additional tools by as few as four people in less than a day. At 188 square feet, they can house up to five people and come with weather-proof panels, a solar powered lamp and cellphone charger and a door that locks.
Shaun Scales, Chief of Shelter and Settlement at UNHCR, has lauded the Better Shelters as, “…an exciting new development in humanitarian shelter and represents a much needed addition to the palette of sheltering options mobilized to assist those in need. Its deployment will ensure dramatic improvement to the lives of many people affected by crises.”
The houses were designed by a team in Sweden with the goal of making a temporary housing solution that was sustainable socially and environmentally. After UNHCR and IKEA became involved in the project, Better Shelter was tested by refugees in Ethiopia and Iraq. Their needs and critiques were central to the design process and helped shape the final product.
The Better Shelters cost about $1,150, about twice as much as the makeshift tarp tents that spring to mind when refugee camps are mentioned. This is mostly because the shelters are more akin to mobile homes. The locking doors add a layer of security and privacy that is currently all but forgotten in the overcrowded camps, and could help reduce the staggeringly high rate of sexual assault. With weatherproof walls, interior lighting and a solid foundation, the shelters are designed to last for about three years. That’s six times as long as the standard tents usually last.
“Even though the upfront price is double that of an emergency tent, the solution is still more cost effective considering its longevity,” explains Johan Karlsson, head of Business Development at Better Shelter. “We’re working hard to get it below $1,000, and we see good potential to achieve this within the next two years.”
UNHCR has purchased 10,000 of the Better shelters and plans to distribute them this summer, potentially housing 50,000 refugees. Although 50,000 of the 13 million people who rely on UNHCR may seem like a drop in the bucket, it is a promising start for a product that could ease the pain of displacement.
– Marina Middleton
Sources: World Mic, The Huffington Post, Better Shelter, Mashable, DIHAD
Photo: Mashable
Crimes Against the Homeless
Murder rates are much higher in large cities compared to in smaller towns. In general, violent crimes are more prevalent in heavily populated areas, in particular, impoverished urban communities.
In densely populated areas, crime rates can be influenced by the increase in peer contact. Individuals have more contact with one another, which allows for the potential for more crimes to be committed overall. An urban setting also entails more bars, convenience stores and other vulnerable businesses meaning there is an abundance of potential targets.
Statistically speaking, gender affects the number and types of crimes committed. On average, males commit more street crime than females due to the socialization to be aggressive and assertive. In addition, younger individuals commit at a disproportionate amount of street crime, in part because of peer influence as well as their lack of desire to conform.
The most targeted and vulnerable of the population is the poorest of the poor: the homeless. The abuse, death and crimes against this population is often undocumented.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of violent crimes committed against the homeless. “Bum fights” are a new phenomenon where people videotape their attacks against the homeless for entertainment. The more recent and violent attacks have gotten the attention of the United States Justice Department, which acknowledges not only that this a growing and serious national issues but is also a hate crime. However, the homeless are not considered to be a federally protected class.
Crimes committed against the homeless are brutal and violent and include but are not limited to drowning, burning, shooting and stabbing.
Factors that make the homeless more vulnerable includes a criminal’s lack of discrimination against their victim; in essence there is not a targeted victim. Given a lack of trust in the police on the part of the homeless, many of these crimes go unreported. Homeless individuals become easy targets. Environmental factors also impact a homeless individual’s vulnerability. No walls, locks or keys and a transient lifestyle increase the likelihood that a homeless person will be targeted and become a victim.
Crimes that target the poor and homeless are a problem in the United States. Support for legislative change and policy updates that allow the homeless to be considered a protected class is the first step to help this population.
– Erika Wright
Sources: LardBucket, Common Dreams, Desert News
Photo: Flickr
How to Write to Congress
Contacting representatives in Congress is one of the most important things a citizen can do to be heard. Some people assume that representatives do not pay much attention to the opinions of their constituents, but this belief is wrong. Because representatives are elected to reflect the district’s or state’s opinions, they are attentive to constituent voices when contacted. Reaching out is key and lets representatives know what their constituents think about certain issues.
Without constituent initiative, opinions can go unheard. Thankfully, contacting representatives has never been easier, both by email or by writing a letter. Here is how:
Emailing
The easiest way to contact representatives is through email. Finding the correct email address is the hardest part of this process.
First, search for your representatives’ names. Visit the following website to search for a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives by zip code: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/.
To find a representative by his or her name, or to search by state, visit this website: https://www.house.gov/representatives/.
Conduct the same search for your representatives in the U.S. Senate by visiting the following website: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.
Upon finding the names of the representatives, visit their individual websites. Once there, find the “Contact” section of the website, where there is usually an automated email option. This is the official way to contact your representatives as this ensures the email is sent to the correct alias.
Another great, efficient way to write to Congress is through The Borgen Project website. In the “Act Now” portion of the website, click on the “Email Congress” link. After choosing the issue to be supported, enter all the necessary information to find your representatives in Congress. Once the representatives are located and selected, the representative(s) will receive an email with the simple click of a button!
Writing a Letter
Using the representatives’ websites, locate the postal addresses listed for their offices under the “Contact” section of each individual website. Many representatives have an office located in their district along with an office in Washington D.C. Both offices are receptive to constituent letters.
– Erik Nelson
Sources: U.S.A.gov, United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, The Borgen Project
Photo: Impowerable
Himalayan Sherpas Left Lost Following Nepal Quake
With nearly 5,900 dead and monetary growth stalled, loss has become commonplace in the wake of Nepal’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The tourism sector, constituting eight percent of the country’s gross domestic product, now looks gutted – a reality that could have grim implications for Himalayan Sherpas.
Jagged snow-capped peaks and olive-green farmlands frame rural villages in Nepal. It is here, with the beast’s shadow looming, that backpackers from across the world come to tackle Mt. Everest. Himalayan Sherpas, indigenous people notorious for their mountaineering prowess, lead nearly 100,000 through the unforgiving ice fields each year.
Making upwards of $7,000 in a single trekking season, 10 times the average Nepalese wage, the Sherpas contribution benefits Nepal’s economy. By filling hotels, airplane seats and sporting goods stores, the sun-aged workers have created their own niche in tourism.
This once lucrative business, however, is taking a turn for the worse following April’s earthquake.
In Chaurikharka, a rural area in Nepal, villagers and Buddhist monks gather in a hut, its walls crumbling and sagging in the dim lamp light. They mourn the loss of Dawa Chiri, a 27-year-old Himalayan Sherpa killed alongside 17 other trekkers and guides during an avalanche caused by the quake.
Dawa’s wife, Phura Yangzi, is now left with an 18-month old child. With the baby strapped to her back, Yangzi explains that she will now turn to street vending, selling soda and mineral water in hopes of supporting the family.
“It will be difficult but I will try,” she said. “I have to.”
Mountaineering companies, hearing of these tragic and devastating stories, have called off all spring expeditions. From teahouses to airlines, the effects of a poor trekking season will be felt by many – a big blow for Nepal’s economy.
“Foreign clients will be reluctant to climb next year,” David Morton, executive director of the Juniper Fund charity, said. “There are concerns about danger, sure, but also cost, after climbers lost all that money.”
With nearly 40 percent of villages already living below the poverty line, this drastic decline in tourism will leave high-altitude families reeling. Most, now camped in makeshift nylon tents, may never secure the funds to rebuild their homes.
“I have lost everything,” Pasang Lamu, a 55-year-old villager in Khunde said, choking back sobs. “Please help us.”
Foreign aid efforts, though effective for urban centers, prove futile for most Himalayan towns. The only way in or out is by foot making travel for international aid workers, reporters and government officials impossible.
“It has been the main economic driver for many people and now, the industry will take a hit,” nonprofit director Ben Ayers said of the tourism sector. “We are looking at hunger, disease and suffering for a lot of people.”
Yangzi will be one of those people. Her face tired, the 22-year-old widow explains how she wishes her husband’s death was simply a nightmare. She tries to think of it as a dream, but then remembers the last words he spoke a day before the earthquake.
“Tomorrow,” the Sherpa said. “Is my rest day at base camp.”
– Lauren Stepp
Sources: Bloomberg Business, CNN, The Economic Times
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About the Senate Appropriations Committee
The Senate Appropriations Committee first formed in March of 1867 in order to reduce the labor hours needed for the combined tasks of tax writing and appropriations. The Senate Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction over all spending legislation in the U.S. Here are some quick facts about the committee:
– Erik Nelson
Sources: Committee on Appropriations 1, Committee on Appropriations 2, Committee on Appropriations 3, Thad Cochran
Photo: Flickr
Drowning in Bangladesh: A Public Health Crisis
When one thinks of a public health crisis, maybe the mind goes to the incidence of AIDS, the measles outbreak in Disneyland or maybe even obesity. Rarely does one think of drowning as a public health issue, yet over 350,000 people die every year due to drowning.
In Bangladesh, this problem is particularly severe. Drowning accounts for 43 percent of all deaths among children between one and four years of age, making drowning the leading cause of death among children.
In a region crisscrossed by many rivers and frequented by monsoons and cyclones, flooding is a constant concern during the rainy season. As expected, the death rate rises rapidly during these rainy months. Many children drown close to their homes when adults leave them unsupervised to go to work. Many children die because they do not know how to swim.
Bangladesh is hastening to control the problem. In collaboration with UNICEF, the Alliance for Safe Children and the Royal Life Saving Society Australia, an NGO named, SwimSafe, is providing training to community swimming instructors. These instructors teach children to swim and float, to be confident in the water, to save someone who is drowning and to identify life-threatening water hazards. By using ponds that are in close proximity to schools and health centers as makeshift pools, SwimSafe is able to generate interest in the program and has taught more than 130,000 children in Bangladesh water survival skills. The Bangladeshi government has now made swimming compulsory in schools.
The Johns Hopkins Injury Research Unit at the Bloomberg School of Public Health is working on evaluating the effectiveness of two initiatives on reducing drowning in Bangladesh. One is providing adult supervision by enrolling families in community daycare centers and the other is implementing playpens that would effectively restrict the ability of children to access water hazards. To date, nearly 30,000 children have been enrolled in 2,000 daycare centers and playpens are being designed and manufactured locally. In this effort, they are being supported by WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies which has committed $10 million to this cause.
Apart from initiatives like these, Bangladesh needs approaches that can reduce the flooding that is endemic to the country. The WHO provides five recommendations for national efforts that can reduce the impact of floods including better land use and conservation of wetlands and forests. Without a doubt, improving infrastructure such as developing better irrigation methods, safer bridges and stagnant water control will contribute significantly.
Most importantly, early warnings of impending floods and disaster conditions delivered in accessible ways to the local population can alert them to take appropriate precautions. Bangladesh also needs rapid response methods for when disaster strikes. International cooperation by neighboring countries will go a long way to help provide disaster relief to a region that experiences severe storms and cyclones on a regular basis.
Greater attention given to drowning as a real public health crisis will bring in more funding and solutions to this problem that claims thousands of young lives everyday.
– Mithila Rajagopal
Sources: BBC, Bloomberg 1, Bloomberg 2, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, SwimSafe, WHO
Photo: Flickr
Hunger in Lao PDR
Since 1990, hunger in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or PDR, has dropped from 34.5 percent to 20.1 percent in 2014. Though this decline of over 14 percent is promising, Lao PDR remains one of the world’s hardest hit countries by poverty. Citizens, mostly in northern and rural provinces, suffer from malnutrition, stunting and what the International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI, calls “hidden hunger.”
Child nutrition is significantly lacking in Lao PDR. Forty-four percent of children are stunted due to poor diets that are lacking in key nutrients, including vitamin A, iodine, healthy fats and protein. As a result, over 40 percent of children in Lao PDR are anemic. The problem of “hidden hunger,” or a pronounced deficiency of key nutrients in childhood, has long term effects on the brain and the physical development of a child.
Lao PDR has the second highest rate of poverty in Southeast Asia, after Timor-Leste and continues to deal with gaps in its economics and wealth distribution. According to the IFPRI, Lao PDR ranks 61 out of 76 countries facing extreme hunger, with the country ranking at 76 being the most affected. Poverty and extreme hunger remains alarming in rural regions of the country, where access to healthcare and adequate nutrition remains scarce.
For example, in the province of Houaphan, 50.5 percent of the population faces extreme poverty. Those who live in this province often depend on agriculture to work and eat; however, the region is susceptible to natural disasters and wavering weather conditions, causing productivity to be low.
Recognizing the impact of climate and environmental factors on the nutrition of individuals, the government of Lao PDR launched the National Nutrition Strategy, aimed at addressing the causes of malnutrition, hunger and economic disparity. In conjunction with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Administration, this strategy will tackle hunger at its most basic causes.
The FAO said, “To address the immediate causes (at the individual level), the focus will be on improving nutrient intake and reducing infectious diseases that affect the biological utilization of food.”
As the completion of the Millennium Development Goals quickly approaches, Lao PDR is still not quite on track when it comes to meeting them. Resources are needed to complete these goals and not enough are being provided to Lao PDR that will improve overall development.
Lao PDR depends largely on agriculture and farming, yet those regions are affected by poverty and lack the resources to contribute to the nation’s economic stability. It is in the nation’s best interest that the government develop those programs that focus on educating rural families on sustainable farming practices and how to effectively maintain agriculture and livestock in the face of climate change, so that poverty will give way to sustainability.
– Candice Hughes
Sources: FAO, International Food Policy Research Institute, UNDP, WFP
Photo: Flickr