Four years have passed since investigators discovered major fragments of a North Korean torpedo in a sunken South Korean warship. In the wake of this attack, South Korea imposed strict sanctions and refused to participate in any humanitarian aid helping North Korea, until now.
On August 11, South Korea pledged to donate $13.3 million to the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization. The aid South Korea donates will be strictly humanitarian and will provide food and medicine for malnourished babies and mothers.
The news is greatly welcomed by citizens of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, where assistance is sorely needed for a number of reasons. First, the country never quite recovered from a harsh famine in the 1990s. Secondly, two-thirds of the population relies on twice-monthly rations provided by the government. Even more distressing is the quality of the rations—they are often comprised of barley, maize, and rice, which means children and infants have severe protein deficiencies.
The North Korean government, which had already proved it was hardly capable of feeding 24 million citizens, suffered another setback due to a drought in 2012. Conditions worsened as a lack of clean water and sanitation led to diarrhea becoming the leading cause of death. In addition, North Korean healthcare, while free, is characterized by understaffed hospitals whose technology is decades old.
The promise of international foreign aid, especially from the state’s neighbor, is a gesture of goodwill and savvy politics in the context of previous fiascoes in foreign efforts.
The first of these was in 2011 when the U.N. called for $218 million in foreign aid for North Korea. Despite the dire need, only $85 million was reached. This is due in large to the fact that most of the world doesn’t trust Pyongyang to dole out the money for humanitarian efforts, but suspects money would be spent more on military efforts.
One year later, the U.N. again asked, this time for $198 million. The United States prepared 240,000 metric tons of food and other humanitarian aid. But the States retracted the offer when the benefactor-to-be tested a military rocket.
The proverbial door that South Korea has opened will have a positive net effect. Operating through the WFP and the WHO will make it more difficult for North Korea to allot funds for military opportunities. Yet the pledge was also the first step in reopening conversation between the countries separated by war six years ago.
The last high-level meeting between the two countries was in February, and was deemed a success. The Koreans managed to look past extreme tension caused by the North’s nuclear tests and threats of force, and agreed to let relatives from the countries visit one another for the first time in three years.
It is more than likely that South Korea will seek to arrange another grace period around September 8th. The day is the Korean Thanksgiving and is a holiday that places importance on the assembly of the family.
While North Korea has not responded yet, recent actions suggest the country has grown aware of the disadvantages of alienation and may place a higher premium on the quality of life of citizens. The country, once set on boycotting the Asian Games in the fall, has decided to send a national team to the event. It has also re-opened the case of two Japanese individuals who were kidnapped during the Cold War.
While the gestures might be symbolic, it is a step in the right direction.
– Andrew Rywak
Sources: New York Times 1, New York Times 2, Veooz, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, New York Times 3
Photo: The Guardian
Children of Brazil Swamped in Garbage
Brazil’s metropolis, Recife, is often associated with mystical bridges, vibrant entertainment and picturesque beaches. The splendor of this tourist hub, however, has recently been blighted, when in November the Jornal do Commercio released a photo of a nine-year-old boy swimming in a garbage-filled canal beneath one of the most famous bridges. What’s more, he was picking cans out of the contaminated water so that he could sell them.
Although Brazil has the ninth largest economy in the world, it is fraught with extreme economic disparity. Half of the country’s income is enjoyed by a meager 10 percent of the population, while the poorest 10 percent receive less than one percent.
Half of the country’s 60 million children live in poverty.
The photo of nine-year-old Paulo Henrique exposes this grim reality. According to government accounts, in Recife alone nearly 65,000 children live in the slums in the Arruda and Campina Barreto neighborhoods on the city’s north side. And a good majority of them are making their fortunes by wading through waste.
In reaction to the photo, the Brazilian government promised to provide welfare for Paulo, his mother and his five siblings. As a more all-encompassing response to the issue of poverty, the country created the first global center for poverty reduction in March. Mundo Sem Pobreze (World Without Poverty), will become a market of ideas and experiences in applying programs to benefit the most disadvantaged citizens.
The inspiration behind Mundo Sem Pobreze came from Bolsa Familia, the most successful Brazilian program in history. In just one decade since its advent, the program has managed to reduce poverty by half in Brazil, 50 million people of which were low-income Brazilians.
Though the photo of Paulo is saddening and morose, it has opened up a national conversation in efforts to address the issue of poverty. Photos can often have a profound impact on society; historically, they have served as galvanizers of radical change. During the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the iconic photo of a young African American man being attacked by a police dog in Birmingham, Alabama pushed the U.S Government to finally intervene after decades of discrimination and violence.
Photos have the capacity to reach an entire nation, even an entire world. The photo of Brazil swamped in garbage has created a dialogue that will hopefully set the pace for a united national movement to eradicate extreme poverty.
– Samantha Scheetz
Sources: Save The Children, Vice, World Bank
Photo: VICE
ActionAid USA: Aiding Over 25 Million People
ActionAid USA is working to end global poverty and further enhance human rights. Operating in over 40 countries around the world, through their work the organization has been able to reach and impact the lives of approximately 25 million people.
ActionAid addresses a variety of issues that affect the daily lives of people in an assortment of countries. The organization works to change policies surrounding biofuels (in the hopes of stabilizing food prices) and to help countries in poverty adjust to the shifting changes in climate.
It also focuses its attention on aiding countries that are hit by natural disasters and do not have the resources to help themselves. In providing relief, they have been able to respond to 87 of these occurrences and help about 7 million people.
Additionally, the organization has been looking for new ways to empower women, engage the youth and improve the overall quality of life for people across the globe.
One of ActionAid’s most recent projects has been advocating for President Obama to approve the Assessing Progress in Haiti Act, which he signed on August 8, 2014.
In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, although billions of dollars were donated to Haiti, the money was not always spent in the most efficient way. The new act requires that the U.S. government submit an extremely detailed report stating exactly how the money donated to provide relief for the Haitian people is being spent.
The organization, however, is not so supportive of President Obama’s backing of the “New Alliance” plan regarding agriculture in Africa. It claims putting agriculture into the hands of big businesses will hurt smaller farming communities and increase poverty levels. Buba Khan, the ActionAid International Advocacy Officer, stated that, “Companies should be part of Africa’s cultural future, but profit should not be prioritized over people’s rights.”
As part of their efforts to effectively combat global hunger and poverty, ActionAid works to make sure that their opinions on what the U.S. government is doing right and what the U.S. government is doing wrong are clearly expressed.
– Jordyn Horowitz
Sources: Lee House
Photo: ActionAid USA
South Korea Donates to North Korea
Four years have passed since investigators discovered major fragments of a North Korean torpedo in a sunken South Korean warship. In the wake of this attack, South Korea imposed strict sanctions and refused to participate in any humanitarian aid helping North Korea, until now.
On August 11, South Korea pledged to donate $13.3 million to the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization. The aid South Korea donates will be strictly humanitarian and will provide food and medicine for malnourished babies and mothers.
The news is greatly welcomed by citizens of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, where assistance is sorely needed for a number of reasons. First, the country never quite recovered from a harsh famine in the 1990s. Secondly, two-thirds of the population relies on twice-monthly rations provided by the government. Even more distressing is the quality of the rations—they are often comprised of barley, maize, and rice, which means children and infants have severe protein deficiencies.
The North Korean government, which had already proved it was hardly capable of feeding 24 million citizens, suffered another setback due to a drought in 2012. Conditions worsened as a lack of clean water and sanitation led to diarrhea becoming the leading cause of death. In addition, North Korean healthcare, while free, is characterized by understaffed hospitals whose technology is decades old.
The promise of international foreign aid, especially from the state’s neighbor, is a gesture of goodwill and savvy politics in the context of previous fiascoes in foreign efforts.
The first of these was in 2011 when the U.N. called for $218 million in foreign aid for North Korea. Despite the dire need, only $85 million was reached. This is due in large to the fact that most of the world doesn’t trust Pyongyang to dole out the money for humanitarian efforts, but suspects money would be spent more on military efforts.
One year later, the U.N. again asked, this time for $198 million. The United States prepared 240,000 metric tons of food and other humanitarian aid. But the States retracted the offer when the benefactor-to-be tested a military rocket.
The proverbial door that South Korea has opened will have a positive net effect. Operating through the WFP and the WHO will make it more difficult for North Korea to allot funds for military opportunities. Yet the pledge was also the first step in reopening conversation between the countries separated by war six years ago.
The last high-level meeting between the two countries was in February, and was deemed a success. The Koreans managed to look past extreme tension caused by the North’s nuclear tests and threats of force, and agreed to let relatives from the countries visit one another for the first time in three years.
It is more than likely that South Korea will seek to arrange another grace period around September 8th. The day is the Korean Thanksgiving and is a holiday that places importance on the assembly of the family.
While North Korea has not responded yet, recent actions suggest the country has grown aware of the disadvantages of alienation and may place a higher premium on the quality of life of citizens. The country, once set on boycotting the Asian Games in the fall, has decided to send a national team to the event. It has also re-opened the case of two Japanese individuals who were kidnapped during the Cold War.
While the gestures might be symbolic, it is a step in the right direction.
– Andrew Rywak
Sources: New York Times 1, New York Times 2, Veooz, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, New York Times 3
Photo: The Guardian
Cookstoves in Impoverished Countries
The majority of the developing world uses open fires and biomass stoves to cook their food and purify water. These methods are not efficient, requiring constant fuel for the fire to burn. In addition, the emissions are unclean and often cause health hazards for the women and children who breathe them in regularly.
These cooking methods waste valuable time, with the user having to constantly seek out fuel. The cookstoves and open fires further waste time when the user becomes sick more often because of the dirty fumes.
Open fires and burning biomass also release fumes like black carbon and methane into the environment, which speeds up climate change and increases air pollution.
This release of chemicals has taken its toll on its users. About four million premature deaths occur annually from the smoke exposure.
Smoke related illnesses include child pneumonia, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cataracts (which lead to blindness), heart disease and even low birth weight (for the babies of mothers who intake smoke regularly during pregnancy).
Luckily, the world’s change makers are acknowledging the importance of this issue, and organizations are being created to solve it.
Colorado University has teamed up with Baylor University to create a clean burning, fuel efficient cooking stove that is affordable and will last five years. They have financial backing from Shell Foundation, which is willing to grant $25,000,000 to make 10,000,000 of the clean stoves if the project is successful.
Top Third Ventures Ltd. has studied the traditional, developing world stove, and has used this model to create a fuel efficient, clean-burning innovation that maintains cultural similarities. The stove has the same physics as the classic “three stone fire,” but it involves less work to operate and produces less smoke.
While some organizations are focusing on the creation of the stove innovations, others are stressing the implementation of these stoves into poor households.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves has adopted the ambitious goal of ensuring 100 million households are provided with a clean cookstove by the year 2020. They are promoting the use of stoves and fuels that are affordable, sustainable and culturally acceptable among users.
The group has prioritized six countries, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, to start enabling market growth so households can obtain a stove, and producers in the country can supply them.
With the combined forces of science teams creating cleaner cooking technology and logistic teams focusing on the new stoves’ circulation, the possibility of a cleaner, healthier future is well on its way.
– Courtney Prentice
Sources: Energy for Development, Clean Cookstoves, Baylor, Indie Go Go
Photo: Carbon Finance for Cookstoves
UNDP and Microsoft Partner in Ethiopia
The United Nations Development Programme in partnership with Microsoft East Africa Limited, has a launched an initiative to support the continued development of entrepreneurship activities in Ethiopia.
The initiative, which is a part of Microsoft’s 4Afrika Initiative, will bring mentoring and support to around 200,000 young entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will also have access to Microsoft’s BizSpark program, which provides free software to start-up entrepreneurs, helping them to launch their products and gain global recognition.
To date, there are 625 start-ups supported through this program. In addition, specific assistance geared toward micro and small business entrepreneurs will be included through a ‘Build Your Own Business’ training program.
Ethiopia has a population of 96 million, the second largest of all African countries. With over 40 percent of those 96 million between the ages of 0-14 and 20 percent between 15-24, creating an entrepreneur program geared toward younger people interested in business can have a powerful long-term effect.
As UNDP is Ethiopia’s first private sector partnership, there are high expectations on all ends. However, UNDP and Microsoft have successfully worked together and built programs in the past which now promote sustainable development, work to eradicate poverty, advance women’s rights agendas and encourage good governance.
This newest program is focused on empowering citizens and preparing them to join both their local and the global workforce. Based on the belief that technology can and will have a big role to play in Africa, the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative provides one step forward in empowering local people through practical skills.
Microsoft has been active in Africa since 1992 and currently has 22 offices in 14 countries. It has also been named one of the top employers in Africa in both 2012 and 2013 by Certified Top Employers.
Empowerment through skill training is a good way to provide Africans a way to enter the global marketplace, contribute their ideas and raise their level of income and that of those living around them. Eradicating poverty is a battle that can be fought on many different fronts and the new partnership in Ethiopia is one step toward making eradication in that country a reality.
– Andrea Blinkhorn
Sources: Biztech Africa, BERNAMA, Microsoft 1, Microsoft 2, Microsoft 3, The Borgen Project, CIA
Photo: Africatime
Poverty in Film
Director Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece “The Tree of Wooden Clogs,” a Palme d’Or winner from 1978, remains today a poignant depiction of poverty in film, despite its temporal setting of 1898. Interestingly, viewers of the film sometimes disagree in their interpretations of the main characters’ poverty: some see it as a positive, some as a negative and some as a little of both.
“The Tree of Wooden Clogs” portrays peasant life on a farmstead in Lombardy, a northern region of Italy. The peasants’ life can be summarized, as one critic has said, as: “Plant. Cultivate. Harvest. Eat. Drink. Sleep.” This simple lifestyle tends to charm viewers who discover a kind of nobility in the rural rhythms of peasant life.
However, one cannot ignore the harsh realities of that life, which are not a focus of the film but are essential parts nonetheless.
In his review of Olmi’s film, critic Roger Ebert wrote: “We grow devout in the presence of poverty, particularly when it is not our own.” His point is that people who don’t live in poverty often idealize it when they see it, especially the agrarian poverty depicted so vividly in the film. Olmi does encourage viewers to admire peasant life at times, but ever present in his movie are the oppressive realities of nature that make an idealization of poverty impossible.
Those realities create “natural drama” in a film that occasionally borders on documentary. In one scene, a family finds their cow has become sick and call a veterinarian. The veterinarian advises them to butcher the cow for the few coins it will afford them before the animal dies of natural causes. The family’s matriarch responds, “Not this too, you can see what condition we’re in. We don’t have enough to live.”
The film swings between the stark desperation of these moments and the positivity of other scenes that depict life’s fundamental joys.
Olmi, a son of peasants, perhaps reveals his own mild bias toward the simple pleasures of peasant life from time to time. This seems especially evident during a scene in which three families do nothing but sing and shuck corn together. The images, photographed at eye-level and bathed in a soft yellow light, exude only warmth and positivity—a testament to humankind’s ability to find joy even in harsh circumstances.
But Olmi’s film goes on to show that the hardships of the peasant’s poverty cannot be suppressed for long. Specifically, he blames the social system in northern Italy for exacerbating those hardships. The message is universal, though, for social systems the world over are actively keeping populations in poverty.
One must recognize the ways in which the film is universal, or else the characters’ poverty will get cast aside as a historical phenomenon only. Today, 1.2 billion people live with $1.25 or less a day in income and are deprived of healthcare and education, as the peasants in Olmi’s film were.
For this reason, “The Tree of Wooden Clogs” is still an effective way to learn about the struggles of the modern poor through the vicarious experience of fiction.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: UNDP, Roger Ebert, The New York Times, The Guardian
Photo: Mubi
MAG America: Improving Post-War Zones
People know that war leaves scars, on bodies, minds, families and homes. Those affected live with the destruction, adapting to the best of their ability, and attempt to go on with their lives. While international support in the wake of conflict is great, little thought is given to the scars left behind in war zones.
When peace is brokered, troops leave behind bullets, elaborately packaged, carefully hidden explosives and yet-to-be-detonated fireworks of the military grade variety. Farmers fear working their fields. The building of roads, schools and water lines is halted indefinitely. Economic recovery is nearly impossible, at least until the threats are eliminated.
The Mines Advisory Group, or the MAG, has tasked itself with removing such lingering threats. Since 1989, MAG America employees have provided extensive training to volunteers living in post-war zones. Teams clear landmines and explosive weapons that did not go off when fired, and remove abandoned weapons, strategizing to prevent their proliferation.
To protect communities where mine contamination and weapons surpluses remain, the MAG offers programs that teach people how to recognize threats, what areas to avoid and emergency procedures. The MAG employs 2,400 people in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The 2,400 individuals make up about 90 percent of the MAG staff. Most are from severely underprivileged communities. Not only do these individuals benefit from the steady salary, they additionally receive professional training as mine destruction specialists, educators, community liaison specialists and medics.
The MAG is currently working to secure military storage in El Salvador, where access to small arms has fueled the second highest homicide rate in the world. Land clearing operations in Lebanon are ongoing, as they are in Iraq. The organization is aiding seven nations in Africa and four nations in Southeast Asia.
Manchester is home to the MAG’s international operations, while MAG America is based in Washington, D.C. More volunteers and staffers are needed, but the MAG recommends three ways to join its cause: become a “team driver” by building your own awareness, a “medic” by raising awareness in your community or a “virtual deminer” by fundraising or donating.
– Olivia Kostreva
Sources: MAG 1, MAG 2, MAG 3, MAG 4, Idealist
Sources: MAG
What is Monkey College?
Run by the Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation in Boston, the Monkey College trains monkeys as service animals. Helping Hand monkeys, those who successfully graduated from the Monkey College, are placed in recipients’ homes to assist them with daily activities. Most of the recipients suffer spinal cord injuries.
At the college, monkeys are paired with highly disciplined trainers. There are three levels of training in which monkeys can learn easy and sophisticated skills, step-by-step. Trainers use laser pointers and simple words to instruct the monkeys. They also give praise and offer food rewards to practice new skills during the training.
In the final phase, monkeys are trained in an environment imitating an apartment. This aims to let the monkey get used to a homelike environment. By the end of the training, they will be able to cook, open containers and fridges, hand over remote controls and play CDs or DVDs.
Robert Foster and his monkey, Hellion, have lived together for more than 25 years. Foster is a quadriplegic, disabled due to a car crash, and Hellion has been with him ever since. She helps with daily activities that Foster can’t manage on his own.
“She’s my family. She’s my kid,” Foster tells CBS.
Craig, a California resident, is another individual receiving assistance from a Helping Hand monkey. Craig (who did not provide his surname) suffered a C-5 spinal cord injury in a car crash just before his 30th birthday. He and his monkey, Minnie, have been together for about 10 years.
“My independence has been increased and I have the security of knowing that Minnie can assist me with tasks that would be impossible for me without her. She really alleviates the pain of being in a wheelchair,” Craig tells the Helping Hands website.
This innovative approach provides a constructive solution for patients who suffer spinal cord injuries around the world. Many of them are unable to live independently and need family members to take care of them. This alternative can provide recipients with independence.
– Jing Xu
Sources: Monkey Helpers 1, Monkey Helpers 2, CBS News
Photo: Worth1000
Bankers Without Borders
Bankers without Borders started with 100 volunteers but, in the past five years, has grown to include 16,000 business professionals, academics and students coming from over 170 countries, working to increase the impact and sustainability of poverty reduction projects. So far, BwB has used its consulting and coaching to help more than 1,000 projects in 38 countries.
BwB was founded in 2008 by the Grameen Foundation, the original banking organization working through microfinance. Its motive for creating BwB was to expand its services to gain coverage in areas not originally reached by Grameen Bank.
The company reaches out by partnering with other organizations, including nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies or poverty-focused social enterprises. The experts work for free, and the Grameen Foundation likes to refer to them as “Skillanthropists;” rather than donating money, the workers are donating their skills, time and knowledge.
The volunteers’ involvement ranges from sparing a few hours a week at the comfort of their desks at work or home, to living and working in the field for weeks or months at a time. The wide range of skills and commitment BwB requires makes it possible for many people of different skill sets to make an impact through the company.
BwB’s volunteers are involved in a wide variety of fields. These include financial consultants, legal professionals, translators, researchers, a marketing staff and even a Human Resource Reserve Corps to address human capital related issues for nonprofit partners abroad.
From an economic standpoint, BwB continues to prove useful. For every dollar spent creating a BwB project, an average of $10 in skill and time has been donated by its pro bono staff, adding up to over $10 million worth of skilled work.
The volunteers work not to create temporary relief for recipients, but rather to implement a sustainable solution for clients to have successful, profit-making businesses.
BwB has formed many useful partnerships over its five years of operation, notably with J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Google, Bloomberg, John Hopkins University and the Washington Center. As of August 5, BwB has added Wells Fargo to its arsenal of partnership companies, as well.
From the quickly-expanding volunteer base to the quantitative economic data to the qualitative success stories shared on BwB’s website, it is clear that the Grameen Foundation’s extended project has proven successful.
– Courtney Prentice
Sources: Triple Pundit, Bankers Without Borders, Grameen Foundation, Grameen-Jameel
Photo: HW Production
Obesity and Food Insecurity
According to nutrition epidemiologist Barry Popkin, in roughly 15 years, obesity rates in Mexico among men and women went from a small proportion of each population to 65 and 71 percent, respectively. Mexico’s situation is part of a trend of increasing obesity on a global scale. Around 2.1 billion people in the world are now either obese or overweight.
Because more than half of all the world’s obese and overweight live in fewer than 20 countries—developed countries, mostly—the temptation exists to disregard obesity’s impact on many developing countries.
However, one study found that “obesity rates tripled in developing countries between 1980 and 2008,” whereas it only increased by about half that amount in developed ones.
Developing countries tend to struggle with high levels of food insecurity, though, which one might assume would lead to lower weights, not obesity. Researchers are perplexed as to how the two factors— obesity and food insecurity —can coexist and they have been searching for data that will establish correlation, causation or both.
The recently released Global Food Security Index, which just added a new obesity indicator to its model, studies the matter in detail. Its overall conclusion affirms that co-existence is possible. Despite the correlation, it remains that the relationship between obesity and food security/insecurity is still poorly understood on a global scale.
The index helps to explain the presence of obesity in highly food insecure countries by noting differences between classes. It is the wealthier classes in developing countries, which are more food secure, that have experienced the largest increases in obesity (often after switching to more Western lifestyles).
The study also points out that obesity is increasing among the poor, as well, and experts have proposed various explanations for this phenomenon.
Some maintain the poor have to rely on high-calorie, low-nutrient food, which leads to obesity. Others look to “feast-famine cycles” for answers: poor populations swing between binging and starving—a cycle that changes one’s metabolism. Still others say obesity among the poor is rising because obesity is a wealth-indicator for the poor.
Causality remains exceedingly difficult to prove, though, because many factors, such as diet, wealth and level of physical activity, can all help cause obesity. Moreover, even correlation has been hard to establish in every developing country. In fact, studies in Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago show food insecurity correlated with lower weights, but results from studies in Malaysia were more complex.
Thus, no conclusion can be drawn as to what single factor is causing obesity in developing countries. It may be that no such factor exists.
Nevertheless, researchers will continue to search for causes. Three million people die every year from health problems that obesity contributes to. Researchers know that if they can pin down the causes of obesity, it could help to save the lives of millions.
– Ryan Yanke
Sources: Global Food Security Index, Scientific American, Huffington Post, Reuters
Photo: Today Online