In 2003, psychiatrists Vikram Patel and Arthur Kleinman suggested that there is a correlation between poverty and depression, as well as other common mental illness, in developing countries. They argued that the “experience of insecurity and hopelessness, rapid social change and the risks of violence and physical ill-health” explain why impoverished people are so vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression.
In the United States, as of 2011, 30.9 percent of people in poverty are depressed. While this isn’t a global statistic, it does illuminate the relationship between the global depression phenomenon and global stressors, such as insecurity, violence, etc. These external factors are crucial to the development of depression, but so are internal or hereditary ones; a combination of the two is what neuroscientists now believe causes the neurological disorder.
Studies of the neurology of depression center around the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical messenger found in the brain associated with feelings of well-being, mood regulation, memory and cognition. Neurons release serotonin into the synaptic cleft, the space in-between neurons, and receptors on adjacent neurons receive it.
Different receptors have specialized effects. The two most important serotonin receptors in depression research are 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1A (5HT1A) and 2A (5HT2A.) The former is associated with increased activity, while the latter is associated with decreased activity.
One theory is that depression is caused by an uneven ratio of 5HT1A to 5HT2A receptors, with an excess of 5HT2A. This is an hereditary occurrence that leaves one more prone to depression, though not necessarily depressed. If there is insecurity, violence, etc. in this person’s environment, however, he or she is likely to develop symptoms of depression.
Another theory suggests that people suffering from depression naturally produce less serotonin than those who do not. This is, again, genetic and will only ever make one vulnerable to depression; it’s most likely a combination of genetic predisposition and external influences from one’s environment that cause this mental illness.
To counteract genetic predispositions to depression, neurologists, commonly use an antidepressant medication called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs. They block what is called re-uptake, a process during which neurotransmitter transporters limit the amount of a neurotransmitter – in this case serotonin – in the synaptic cleft by taking it from receptors and driving it to other areas of the brain. Blocking re-uptake increases one’s serotonin levels where it counts, in the synaptic cleft where neurons communicate.
The effects of this medication may seem counter intuitive.
“Regardless of the emotion being happy or sad it would seem SSRI drugs dampens the experienced intensity of the emotion,” said Albert Gjedde, a neuroscientist who studies antidepressant SSRI drugs. “People in treatment with SSRI dugs describe it as if the peak of their emotions are cut away.”
Drugs such as SSRIs can help people with innate biases toward depression, but until poverty and its consequences are reduced, there will always be those at risk. Neuroscientists and philanthropists must work in tandem to mitigate the effects of depression and, eventually, to annihilate it.
– Adam Kaminski
Sources: The Atlantic, ScienceNordic
Photo: Salon
The Seva Foundation
Subas Maya Rai lives in a remote area of Nepal. A few years back she became blind from cataracts in both eyes, and from that point on lived life in a vulnerable and isolated darkness. Having to rely on her husband, she wanted to give up hope, and began waiting for death to take her.
Her husband began hearing news that a Seva-sponsored eye camp would be coming, and together, they made a four-day journey by foot to the camp. The surgery took two days, and after a few days, Subas removed her bandages and was finally able to see again.
Starting out as a gathering of friends and colleagues at the Waldenwoods Conference Center located near Ann Arbor Michigan, The Seva Foundation began as a group of people looking to be of service. The conference was comprised of health professionals and activists who were introduced to Dr. G Venkataswamy, a retired eye surgeon who dreamed of making cataract surgery ubiquitous. Seva was soon born, focused on restorative eyesight methods.
The vision of Seva comprises the promotion of a world of people who are healthy and autonomous.
The Seva Foundation is best known for eyesight restoration to more than 3.5 million people in need of vital eye care service.
They have operated in 20 countries including Bangladesh, sub-Saharan Africa, Cambodia, Nepal and Tibet, and have operated with Native Americans in the United States. They support community outreach to spread awareness of services available for proper eye care. With their Global Sight Initiative, the organization collaborates on an international level to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of its 50 partner eye-care institutions around the world. Its methods, in turn, increase the overall productivity and quality of eye-care treatments.
Yet, performing eye surgery requires trained staff/volunteers and up-to-date equipment. In response to the needs of the poor, Seva brings its vision centers to local communities and trains ophthalmologists, ophthalmic assistants and community health workers to use specialized equipment in order to exercise quality care.
The ability to bring people together in service of others is an innate quality of this organization. It stands to serve those who are underserved, and shines a beacon to those stranded in the dark.
– Ashley Riley
Sources: Seva Foundation 1, Seva Foundation 2
Photo: SFGate
Venezuela’s Black Market
In the last few years, the economic wellbeing of Venezuelans has become highly dependent on their ability to obtain dollars. In a crumbling economy, people’s socioeconomic standing depends not on the job they have or their level of education, but their ability to trade currency.
In no other place is this so evident as in the country’s ports. In the crumbling city of Puerto Cabello, women from all over the country anxiously await freighters carrying sailors who bring dollars into the country. Elena, a 32-year-old prostitute from the western state of Zulia, has taken the 280 miles journey from her hometown to the port city of Puerto Cabello after hearing about the arrival of a Liberian-flagged freighter manned with Ukrainian, Arab and Filipino soldiers.
For prostitutes and many others in Venezuela, the practice of trading dollars in the black market has translated into the doubling of their earnings.
Since President Maduro took office in 2013, after the late Hugo Chavez, the value of the bolivar in the black market has dropped to from 23 to 71 against the dollar. Until recently, the official exchange rate was 6.3 bolivares to the dollar. And as far as basic foods, medicine and other necessities it remains pegged at this rate.
While this practice keeps basic consumer goods at reasonable price, their scarcity makes for a whole different outcome in practice. For over a year now, Venezuelans have had to stand in line for hours to have a access to limited quantities of basic products such as rice, flour or even toilet paper.
However, this is only the case for those who do not have access to foreign currency. For those able to get paid in dollars, such as prostitutes, travel agents and taxi drivers, the dollar shortage holds the key to their ability to overcome shortages and inflation. This gives them the choice of skipping the lines and buying these regulated products at a cost several times (sometimes 9 times) over the regulated price.
This has made Venezuela one of the most expensive countries in the world or expensive; it all depends where do one gets your money. If a citizen is able to tap into the highly demanded illegal and secretive black-market system, his or her odds at succeeding are much higher. Ironically, this has turned Venezuela into a two-tiered society composed of those who can get dollar and sell them in the black market and those who cannot and have to manage with what little comes their way.
– Sahar Abi Hassan
Sources: Bloomberg, NPR
Photo: Quartz
Success in the Fight Against Poverty
In the fight against something as daunting as extreme poverty, success often gets buried under all of the staggering statistics. Looking at how far the world has come in the fight against extreme poverty involves observing what has been done and what is possible in the coming years. This lens makes it clear that the humanitarian efforts of thousands of people have made a very clear difference in the lives of millions exposed to poverty.
In 1990, the global poverty rate was at 36 percent, which decreased to 18 percent in 2010. This fulfilled a Millennium Challenge Goal to cut the global poverty rate in half, and it did so five years ahead of schedule. The call to action outlined in the Millennium Challenge Goals has inspired many to rally around the cause and make improvements.
In addition to the poverty rate changing, the number of children who die from preventable diseases every year has decreased by 30 percent in the past 15 years, indicating an improvement in the standards of living for thousands of children.
Education in developing countries has seen improvement with higher annual enrollment rates, which will see more apparent return in the future when these children are more prepared and qualified to support their families and contribute to a more stable society.
The future of the fight against poverty smacks of success, given that the fight maintains momentum. Were progress to continue at the current rate, or better yet, speed up, the goal of lifting one billion people out of poverty could be met between 2025 and 2030. Bill Gates posited that there could be almost no impoverished countries by 2035.
There are various initiatives being developed by various humanitarian organizations that show promise of success. In December of 2013, 46 countries all over the world stepped up to accelerate the fight against extreme poverty by committing to a composite $52 billion donation over a period of three years that will go directly to the International Development Association, a fund established by the World Bank to support the world’s poorest.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, Warren Buffett, Feed the Future — the list of people and organizations willing to help is endless. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. In a world that is more technologically capable than ever with the resources necessary to feed the whole world and the money to establish stable communities around the world, the fight against extreme poverty is more manageable.
The fight is not over, nor will it be an easy fight to win. Worldwide, there are nearly 1 billion people who survive on $1.25 or less every day. Proportionally compared to the world population, we are facing a smaller fraction, but it is still an overwhelming number. Keeping in mind the progress of the past and the promise of the future, the world can continue to successfully fight against extreme poverty.
– Maggie Wagner
Sources: The World Bank, MSNBC, The World Bank, Mic.com
Photo: Konnect Africa
World Neighbors: Helping Communities
World Neighbors is an international non-profit organization working to improve the lives of people in struggling communities around the globe.
The organization was founded by Dr. John L. Peters, who was inspired to fight global poverty after experiencing it firsthand during his service in World War II.
Upon returning home in 1951, Dr. Peters created World Neighbors. In regards to a speech he gave at his local church after coming home, “I talked about the things I’d seen, but I spoke mostly about the things I felt: that the gulf between the rich and the wretched was intolerable; that we were brothers to, not keepers of, the world’s needy; that we must learn to do things with, not to – or even for – others; that they must share in electing priorities and procedures.”
To this day, the organization’s work is shaped around these principles. Before World Neighbors begins working with a community, the highest priority issues are determined by the community members rather than by the organization.
This ensures that each program is tailored to help whichever issues the community itself deems most important. The organization gives much importance to “listening to people, without predetermined ideas, to identify and address their needs, resulting in greater community involvement and long-lasting impact.”
Once the goals have been determined, the organization utilizes long-term development methods rather than short-term aid, taking a “big-picture, integrated approach focused on the entire community rather than on one issue.”
While multidimensional methods are stressed, World Neighbors divides its work into four different areas: hunger, poverty, disease and the environment. Within each category, the organization focuses on long-term solutions.
To combat hunger, World Neighbors educates communities about sustainable agriculture practices to help them gain more food security over time. In regards to the environment, the organization runs natural resource management programs, which ensure that the ecosystems rural communities survive on remain healthy and productive.
World Neighbors’ long-term initiatives, usually lasting between 8-12 years, focus on taking actions today that will create self-sufficient populations for tomorrow. In World Neighbors’ words, “We seek to strengthen local autonomy rather than create dependency.”
The organization is currently in eleven different countries, benefiting half a million people. Hopefully World Neighbors will continue to aid impoverished populations on a large scale over the coming years, as its long-term methods ensure that partner communities will continue to reap program benefits even after direct support has left, improving sustainability and the lives of struggling people around the globe.
– Emily Jablonski
Sources: The World Bank, World Neighbors
Photo: Ionok
BRCK: Kenya’s Power Outages
When it comes to developing products that are durable and useful in the developing world, many of the innovative ideas and products that appear in the media come from NGOs and students from the developed world. Recently however, many local companies and startups in the developing world have begun to take matters into their own hands by addressing the problems their countries face, from traffic congestion to securing a reliable data connection.
One such of these innovative products is BRCK, a power source and a reliable mobile data connection for people who experience frequent power outages in both urban and rural areas around the world. The idea for creating a durable power source emerged from Kenya’s power outages that a group of Nairobi-based engineers were experiencing on a daily basis. Realizing that both urban and rural people needed a more secure power source, as well as a reliable connection to data for mobile devices, the engineers came up with BRCK.
The BRCKs were launched this year on July 17, when the first 700 units were shipped out across Kenya and the world. The initial market for the device was for small and medium businesses, but the sales of the first 700 included people from 45 different countries as well as biotech companies and nonprofits operating in the developing world.
The device has eight hours of battery life in full power mode and five different low power states that help extend that time. It can be charged on anything from a computer to a car battery making it versatile for a wide range of people and conditions. It is marketed as a “rugged” power source that can withstand dust and any formidable weather.
Realizing that there were bound to be questions and concerns with the launch of their product, the team behind BRCK included a forum on their website that allows people from around the world to connect and discuss topics from troubleshooting to technical support to bandwidth quotas.
Devices like the BRCK are important because they not only address the energy needs of the bottom billion, but also foster innovation, development and production in the developing countries. However, one challenge that the team behind BRCK faced was the infrastructure to actually manufacture the device in Kenya, something that many African nations are still developing.
As a result, while the idea originated in Nairobi, Kenya, the manufacturing was done in China and the assembly in Austin, Texas. Working to decrease costs and bring assembly to Kenya will be a work in progress for this young company. Despite the challenges however, the need for the product is great, as anyone who has ever lived or visited a developing country can confirm.
In the mean time, BRCK is addressing a much needed energy supply for people in Kenya, by people in Kenya, a truly remarkable accomplishment.
– Andrea Blinkhorn
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, BRCK 1, BRCK 2, BRCK 3
Photo: Forbes
AME-SADA’s Health Work
Many churches around the world donate to charities to fight poverty. However, the African Methodist Episcopal Church created its own agency to support the poor in Africa and the Caribbean. Its Service and Development Agency (AME-SADA) has been providing humanitarian assistance and development aid in Haiti and Africa for decades.
Though AME is an American church, it was founded by those of African descent. The church has three stated purposes, and the third addresses its work through its Service and Development Agency : to “provide continuing programs which will enhance the entire social development of all people.”
AME-SADA was founded 28 years ago, with the aim to “help people help themselves.” However, the church itself has been working in Haiti for more than 125 years. AME-SADA receives financial support from its own church members, the American government, donators and foreign institutions. In 2011, the agency was awarded the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help their Cholera Prevention Program in Haiti.
In line with its motto of helping people help themselves, the Service and Development Agency provides health, education, and micro-credit programs. However, in emergencies such as the Haitian earthquake in 2010, AME-SADA provides quick relief.
In Haiti, AME’s Service and Development Agency has a Child and Maternal Health Program that offers services such as pre and post-natal care for women aged 15-49, newborn care, disease and malnourishment care, family planning and counseling. The agency also supports outpatient clinics for treatment, health education and counseling. It provides water purification tablets, cleansers, disinfectants and oral rehydration packets for the treatment of cholera.
SADA-KREDI is closely related to AME-SADA’s healthcare programs. Some groups in the Haitian communities asked the agency for help supporting the clinics, and so AME’s Service and Development Agency brought members from clinic support groups to work at village banks. Three thousand women participate in an orientation for business and group dynamics, which lasts for 9-12 months. Then they are given loans of $500 in local currency for nine months.
AME-SADA also provides health care in Port-au-Prince in Haiti for 30,000 elementary school children.
Though the majority of AME-SADA’s work is in Haiti, the church has other programs in South Africa. AME has had churches and schools in the country since 1896. The agency’s college, Wilberforce Community College, provides higher education and encourages younger students to stay in school.
– Kimmi Ligh
Sources: African Methodist Episcopal Church 1, African Methodist Episcopal Church 2, AME-SADA 1, AME-SADA 2, AME-SADA 3, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Our Health Ministry
Photo: Our Health Ministry
Hack North Korea: Hackathon to Deliver Info
From Aug. 2-3, 2014 the Human Rights Foundation will host a two-day hackathon in San Francisco to devise methods of delivering info to North Korea. The event entitled ‘Hack North Korea’ will utilize the expertise of Silicon Valley’s brightest to create solutions to break down the knowledge barriers of one of the world’s most closed societies.
Attendees will include various well known North Korean defectors who will give talks on current methodology for information distribution into the country, such as dropping CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, shortwave radios, and leaflets from balloons.
Following the presentations, participants will divide into teams and begin exploring the ways in which to effectively supply knowledge to North Korea’s 25 million inhabitants.
Safety is an important issue to consider when proposing schemes to dispense information in North Korea. The North Korean penal code considers listening to unauthorized foreign broadcasts and the possession of sectarian publications “crimes against the state.” These infractions can result in severe castigation such as hard labor, life prison sentences, and the death penalty.
The main goal of Hack North Korea is not to promote the access of classified data, but rather to encourage solutions for disseminating information and promoting freedom of knowledge to a region that is highly restricted from utilizing common communication portals such as the Internet.
According to The World Bank, North Korea has the lowest Internet usage in the world. The country’s leadership does permit Internet access to a few selected member of its regime. The total number of users is estimated to be in the hundreds.
Although ownership of a personal computer in North Korea is formally banned, close to 4 million computers have been distributed to a minority of its citizens. These individuals have gained the right to access a few closed-off intranets that are heavily monitored and utilize a government-controlled operating system, “Red Star.”
Additionally, the country has only one Internet café, which is located in the capital and is primarily used by foreigners.
HRF president Thor Halvorssen considers the efforts behind the Hackathon as an “information lifeline to ordinary North Koreans, who have no means to learn about the world beyond the lies of their government.”
A study by the research group, the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU,) revealed that nearly half of North Korea’s population of 25 million lives in extreme poverty. Yet, as the United Nations (UN) continues to promote access to information technology as a means to alleviating the world’s poor, the HRF’s hackathon may prove to be helpful solution to breaking the cycle of poverty in the region.
HRF remains hopeful that as more North Koreans gain access to information, they will be empowered to defy and conquer the oppressive nature of the current dictatorship and improve the lives of its citizens.
– Talia Langman
Sources: CNBC, Freedom House, PBS NewsHour, The Guardian, United Nations, US News
Photo: Boing Boing
Venezuela Evicts Residents of the Tower of David
Slum. Shantytown. Gang haven. Shelter for squatters. Whatever you want to call it, the Tower of David in Caracas, Venezuela, will no longer offer a roof to the poor families that currently call it home. On June 22, Venezuelan soldiers, officials and authorities began removing families from a 45-story building notorious for offering shelter to poverty-stricken families and gang members.
The Tower of David got its name from the original owner and investor of the building, David Brillembourg. The building is currently the third highest skyscraper in the country and was initially designed to be a banking center that would signify the new and prosperous future for Venezuela.
However, the building stopped construction in 1993 after Brillembourg’s death and was quickly abandoned. It wasn’t until a housing crisis in 2007 that homeless people and gangs moved in, which quickly led to the building gaining a reputation as the world’s tallest slum. But this new effort from the Venezuelan government looks to change that.
This recent move is designed to give those who live in the building better accommodations and to help clear the longtime symbol of poverty and lack of law. Those who currently live in the building, numbering around 3,000 residents, are being given new homes in the town of Cua, south of the capital city of Caracas. More than 100 families have already been relocated, and it is estimated that more than 1,150 families will leave the tower by the end of the process. As of this writing, there is no timetable for removing all of the residents from the tower.
Ernesto Villegas, the minister for the revolutionary transformation, made it clear during an official statement that this move is “…a coordinated operation, in harmony with the community in the tower.” This attitude is reflected by many of those who were relocated, who recognized that as residents of the building, which had erratic water and power supplies and was a consistent target of police raids, they needed a more stable and all-around better living environment. Hopefully this symbolic act of clearing the Tower of David will help spark further reforms to help increase the standard of living for many Venezuelans who find themselves in poverty.
– Andre Gobbo
Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, The Atlantic
Photo: National Post
Poverty and Depression in the Developing World
In 2003, psychiatrists Vikram Patel and Arthur Kleinman suggested that there is a correlation between poverty and depression, as well as other common mental illness, in developing countries. They argued that the “experience of insecurity and hopelessness, rapid social change and the risks of violence and physical ill-health” explain why impoverished people are so vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression.
In the United States, as of 2011, 30.9 percent of people in poverty are depressed. While this isn’t a global statistic, it does illuminate the relationship between the global depression phenomenon and global stressors, such as insecurity, violence, etc. These external factors are crucial to the development of depression, but so are internal or hereditary ones; a combination of the two is what neuroscientists now believe causes the neurological disorder.
Studies of the neurology of depression center around the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical messenger found in the brain associated with feelings of well-being, mood regulation, memory and cognition. Neurons release serotonin into the synaptic cleft, the space in-between neurons, and receptors on adjacent neurons receive it.
Different receptors have specialized effects. The two most important serotonin receptors in depression research are 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1A (5HT1A) and 2A (5HT2A.) The former is associated with increased activity, while the latter is associated with decreased activity.
One theory is that depression is caused by an uneven ratio of 5HT1A to 5HT2A receptors, with an excess of 5HT2A. This is an hereditary occurrence that leaves one more prone to depression, though not necessarily depressed. If there is insecurity, violence, etc. in this person’s environment, however, he or she is likely to develop symptoms of depression.
Another theory suggests that people suffering from depression naturally produce less serotonin than those who do not. This is, again, genetic and will only ever make one vulnerable to depression; it’s most likely a combination of genetic predisposition and external influences from one’s environment that cause this mental illness.
To counteract genetic predispositions to depression, neurologists, commonly use an antidepressant medication called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs. They block what is called re-uptake, a process during which neurotransmitter transporters limit the amount of a neurotransmitter – in this case serotonin – in the synaptic cleft by taking it from receptors and driving it to other areas of the brain. Blocking re-uptake increases one’s serotonin levels where it counts, in the synaptic cleft where neurons communicate.
The effects of this medication may seem counter intuitive.
“Regardless of the emotion being happy or sad it would seem SSRI drugs dampens the experienced intensity of the emotion,” said Albert Gjedde, a neuroscientist who studies antidepressant SSRI drugs. “People in treatment with SSRI dugs describe it as if the peak of their emotions are cut away.”
Drugs such as SSRIs can help people with innate biases toward depression, but until poverty and its consequences are reduced, there will always be those at risk. Neuroscientists and philanthropists must work in tandem to mitigate the effects of depression and, eventually, to annihilate it.
– Adam Kaminski
Sources: The Atlantic, ScienceNordic
Photo: Salon
Pakistani Kiln Worker: Labor Till Death
For Pakistani kiln worker, Amna Bhatti, the only escape from debt is death. Bhatti explains to the Washington Post, “We are poor, and we will always stay poor. When you enter this road, the only way out of it is death.” Many other Pakistani kiln workers face a similar reality.
According to the U.N., 21 percent of the population of Pakistan lives below the poverty line and some are left with no choice but to take out loans in exchange for labor. These loans can have very high interest rates, creating a cycle of bonded labor.
Workers labor in the hot sun to pay off their debt and, many times, their family’s debt, which can be passed down through the generations. Although this practice of paying off loans through labor has been outlawed by the Pakistani government since 1992, actual enforcement of the law is not practiced.
Most of the time, work is done for far less than minimum wage since employers regularly do not keep records and authorities have limited resources to oversee the industry. According to Kahlid Mahmoud, the director of the Labour Education Foundation located in Lahore, no more than a dozen kiln factories in Punjab, Pakistan pay the country’s minimum wage of $7.50 per 1000 bricks.
Actual pay can amount to as little as $1.25 cents a day. Workers are not excluded because of age either.
Child labor in Pakistan encompasses over 12 million children according to the International Labour Organization. Two million of these children work up to 14-hour days in the brickmaking industry. According to the Maplecroft risk analysis firm Pakistan places sixth in their list of 10 countries with the worst rankings for child labour. Many times these children work side by side with their parents.
Pakistan has also been ranked by the 2013 Global Slavery index as having “the third highest prevalence of modern-day slavery.” Female kiln workers are among the worst treated. Zakaria Nutkani of Action Aid explains, “Female workers have virtually no rights, as most of them do not even possess a national identity card, which is a basic document to prove a person’s existence in government records.” Nutkani explains further that female workers are often the lowest paid and face never-ending work because of additional responsibilities maintaining their households.
Cases of sexual abuse of women and children are common. Ghulam Fatima of the human rights advocacy group Bonded Labour Liberation Front explains that workers face extreme repercussions for refusing to work.
These repercussions can include murder or being sold to human traffickers. The punishments can even extend beyond the individual and to their families. Kiln worker Naser explains to CNN about his work conditions simply stating, “He beats me up if the work doesn’t get done.”
Options of escaping bonded labor are rare or non-existent. Bonded laborer Muhammad Mansha sold his kidney to buy his children out of their family’s debt.
Poverty allows conditions such as these to continue to thrive. It greatly limits the options and opportunities people could otherwise have access to. For these Pakistani kiln workers, this is their reality and they know it all too well.
– Christopher Kolezynski
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, United Nations Development Programme in Pakistan, CNN World