After being abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 13, Grace survived two years in the Northern Ugandan bush before she was able to escape. Today, Grace, among 22 other formerly abducted women, are employed as seamstresses by an organization known as Mend.
Since 1987, Kony’s army has abducted over 30,000 children, forcing them to become soldiers in his army or wives to his soldiers.
Grace, among thousands of other women, suffered the physical, emotional, and mental pain of being held captive by these men. Although the seamstresses were fortunate to escape, many were ostracized by friends and family upon return due to involvement with the rebels. In order to address these issues and work through traumatization, all of the women employed by Mend received three months of counseling and tailoring training through Invisible Children.
The Invisible Children is an organization that began in 2006 as an initiative to end the LRA conflict in Uganda. In addition to establishing numerous campaigns that rehabilitate and educate formerly abducted people, Invisible Children formed Mend as a social enterprise in 2009 in order to give women employment opportunities and create awareness around circumstances in Uganda.
As their Mother’s Day promotion, Mend seamstresses created beautiful limited edition clutches for women to receive on Mother’s Day. The clutches are a thoughtful gift for a mother that supports a mother in need.
In addition to clutches, MEND seamstresses, like Grace, also sew purses, handbags, and laptop sleeves all specifically designed by the Mend design team. Mend products range anywhere from $35 to $300. “It is an immense responsibility,” designer Juan-David Quinnones shared, “to make something that will last, add value to people’s lives, and tell an amazing story.” As Quinnones refers to, each bag shares a message from the woman who created it through a tag that has her picture and story on it.
When asked “Where did you get that great bag,” customers have the opportunity to share not only where their bag is from, but also who made it and why. Exchanges like these, thanks to Mend’s dedication, has transformed consumerism into a form of activism.
“One of our bottom lines is the growth of our seamstresses in all aspects of their lives,” professed Mend director Chris Sarette. In addition to the employment opportunity, Mend provides their seamstresses with a full-time social worker, literacy classes, and financial meetings to help the women grow holistically, for themselves and their families.
The Invisible Children Shop
– Heather Klosterman
Sources: Mend
Photo: MPc Magazine
Israeli Entrepreneurs and Global Development
In recent years, Israel has often been dubbed “Startup Nation” – a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation. Tel Aviv is ranked the world’s second startup ecosystem behind California’s Silicon Valley, and Israeli entrepreneurs set up around 600 to 700 million new tech companies each year. These entrepreneurs are extraordinary when it comes to implementing creative ideas and raising early stage funding, contributing to Israel’s record of having the largest venture capital industry per capita in the world.
There are certainly explanations for the success of Israel’s startup scene; a well-educated entrepreneurial population, long work hours, strong funding and high employment for new startups can all be seen as contributing factors. But while Israeli citizens are doing an incredible job of setting up their companies, they have not yet established a history of building long-lasting ones. Instead, it is common for Israeli startups to sell out to larger firms after a few years. These larger firms are almost always foreign companies, who quickly acquire the startups and convert them into research and development centers.
Lately, however, the trend appears to be shifting. Israeli entrepreneurs are making efforts to build lasting, full-fledged businesses. Additionally, more Israeli companies are striving to go public in the United States. Around 70 companies listed on the NASDAQ are Israeli or affiliated with Israel in some way – the most out of any other country, with the exceptions of only the United States and China.
Israel is also looking to use its booming startup scene to contribute to global development. A Devex article noted that new companies should focus on pressing issues like poverty and child mortality, emphasizing the need to concentrate “not only on creating the next Waze to help people navigate around traffic, but also to find solutions for some of the world’s most pressing development challenges.”
Currently, 1.2 million people live in extreme poverty, and 19,000 children under the age of five die each day. Many of those deaths are preventable, and Israel’s track record of startup victories could be the answer. Recently, 70 young entrepreneurs, innovators and international development professionals met at the 2014 Israeli Designed International Development (ID2) to discuss entrepreneurship for global development. These 70 people are at the vanguard of social entrepreneurship – designing medical devices to fight cervical cancer, developing online platforms to address high unemployment in rural areas, providing a way for the poor to design and pursue their own community impact projects.
Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Program, was reportedly “blown away” by the entrepreneurial strength of the ID2 participants. And ID2’s venue of choice – Israel – was well-chosen. Israeli entrepreneurs are already making great strides toward development challenges and social betterment. For example, the Chilean government successfully alerted millions of citizens to an approaching tsunami in early April with the help of eVigilo, an Israeli startup that serves as a mass notification and emergency communication platform. With its innovative spirit and entrepreneurial clout, Israel is capable of producing many more social enterprises like this. In time, “Startup Nation” could truly make its mark in global development.
– Kristy Liao
Sources: Devex, Forbes, Wharton, JNS
Photo: Baruch College
NGO Disappointed with 2015 House Budget Proposal
In its recently released April 2014 newsletter, Bread for the World voiced its “deep disappointment” for the 2015 fiscal year House budget proposal. This proposal, introduced by Representative Paul Ryan, makes deep cuts to programs that help poor and hungry people in the United States and abroad.
The budget proposal cuts over $5 trillion over 10 years and calls for many changes to low-income programs. These policy changes will kick an estimated four million people out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, program. The changes to SNAP are significant, as assistance will now come in the form of a federal block loan and will not be able to increase should need arise. Negative impacts also reach Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and low-income tax credits.
The House’s proposal also cuts the International Affairs budget by 11 percent. Decreases to the International Affairs budget are detrimental to the success of food aid and other humanitarian efforts and undermine U.S. ability to fight poverty in the world’s poorest countries. The proposal also moves the Millennium Challenge Corporation to the position of lead agency for foreign development assistance, diminishing USAID’s role in ending global hunger.
Although many agree that federal spending is out of control, David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, believes that pulling funding for programs that support the most vulnerable is clearly a poor reallocation of resources. “Fiscal responsibility means not sacrificing our commitment to reducing hunger and poverty for the sake of reducing a deficit that vulnerable people did not create,” Beckmann states. “Lawmakers must stop violating the basic principle to protect ‘the least of these’ in budget decisions, which Congress has adhered to in all major budget agreements over the past 30 years.”
– Madisson Barnett
Sources: Bread for the World, Bipartisan Policy Center
Photo: PennLive
Mend: Restoring Hope One Stitch at a Time
After being abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 13, Grace survived two years in the Northern Ugandan bush before she was able to escape. Today, Grace, among 22 other formerly abducted women, are employed as seamstresses by an organization known as Mend.
Since 1987, Kony’s army has abducted over 30,000 children, forcing them to become soldiers in his army or wives to his soldiers.
Grace, among thousands of other women, suffered the physical, emotional, and mental pain of being held captive by these men. Although the seamstresses were fortunate to escape, many were ostracized by friends and family upon return due to involvement with the rebels. In order to address these issues and work through traumatization, all of the women employed by Mend received three months of counseling and tailoring training through Invisible Children.
The Invisible Children is an organization that began in 2006 as an initiative to end the LRA conflict in Uganda. In addition to establishing numerous campaigns that rehabilitate and educate formerly abducted people, Invisible Children formed Mend as a social enterprise in 2009 in order to give women employment opportunities and create awareness around circumstances in Uganda.
As their Mother’s Day promotion, Mend seamstresses created beautiful limited edition clutches for women to receive on Mother’s Day. The clutches are a thoughtful gift for a mother that supports a mother in need.
In addition to clutches, MEND seamstresses, like Grace, also sew purses, handbags, and laptop sleeves all specifically designed by the Mend design team. Mend products range anywhere from $35 to $300. “It is an immense responsibility,” designer Juan-David Quinnones shared, “to make something that will last, add value to people’s lives, and tell an amazing story.” As Quinnones refers to, each bag shares a message from the woman who created it through a tag that has her picture and story on it.
When asked “Where did you get that great bag,” customers have the opportunity to share not only where their bag is from, but also who made it and why. Exchanges like these, thanks to Mend’s dedication, has transformed consumerism into a form of activism.
“One of our bottom lines is the growth of our seamstresses in all aspects of their lives,” professed Mend director Chris Sarette. In addition to the employment opportunity, Mend provides their seamstresses with a full-time social worker, literacy classes, and financial meetings to help the women grow holistically, for themselves and their families.
The Invisible Children Shop
– Heather Klosterman
Sources: Mend
Photo: MPc Magazine
Bread for the World: The Faith to End Hunger
Bread for the World, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit organization, is urging government leaders and communities of faith to end hunger.
Every day, around 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. 1.5 billion people live in extreme poverty in developing nations around the world, but developed nations are not exempt from the problem of hunger – nearly 15 percent of those living in the U.S. have struggled with food insecurity at some point in their life.
Motivated by the belief that ordinary people can do “plenty” to end global hunger, Bread for the World seeks to empower U.S. citizens to voice their support of hunger-fighting policies to their elected representatives. A bipartisan “collective Christian voice,” their network includes thousands of individuals, churches and denominations – therefore creating an impact that reaches far beyond their local communities.
After analyzing policy, Bread for the World creates strategies to move toward their ultimate goal – to end hunger at home and abroad. The movements they create within churches, campuses and other organizations help build political commitment to overcome poverty. Bread for the World accomplishes their work with integrity, earning a four star Charity Navigator rating and spending an impressive 82.9 percent of their budget on deliverable programs and services.
Bread for the World Institute, the educational wing of Bread for the World, exists to conduct extensive research on food policy and provide information to Bread for the World’s advocacy network. Their studies empower constituents with information to ultimately change the politics of hunger.
For 2014, Bread for the World is focusing its efforts on reforming U.S. food aid, calling for the economically powerful U.S. government to use their resources more efficiently and effectively. Bread for the World estimates that with improvements and changes, 17 million more people could benefit from food aid each year without any additional costs to taxpayers.
Find more information and extensive educational materials, visit www.bread.org.
– Madisson Barnett
Sources: Bread For the World, Charity Navigator
Photo: Food Tank
Transformation Through Loans
Ever heard of Whole Foods, Ben & Jerry’s or Starbucks? These fortune 500 companies all started out of generous individals’ belief in the store founders. This belief manifested in the form of financial investment and loans given to the companies that Americans know and love today.
The American dream promotes the idea that anyone, no matter the circumstance, can achieve success. Although there are many rags to riches stories built on hard work alone, Kiva International founder Jessica Jackley shared, “85% or more of funding for small businesses comes from friends and family.” One of the best gifts in life is to be recognized, valued and believed in by someone. Jackley holds this belief as her approach to eradicating global poverty and creating lasting change. Change, according to Jackley, happens not when we give to relieve our own suffering but when we give out of a “genuine hope in change.”
By providing small loans to farmers, seamstresses and goat herders abroad, among others, Kiva creates relationships between lenders and borrowers that promote respect and maintain dignity.
On the Kiva website there are stories featuring young entrepreneurs like Virginia in the Philippines who needs money to help buy fertilizer and insecticide for her rice production. Lenders can give one time loans in the amount of $25 to help borrowers like Virginia reach their goals.
Think of success stories like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. If no one had ever believed in or invested in those men we would have a very different world today.
Africa is host to millions of men and women that, if believed in and invested in have potential to better the world as well. Now, their requests are simple, such as buying another goat to make money to pay for their child’s education. That child, however, is another story to be believed in.
2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Muhammad Yunus is known for his pioneering of microfinance, or “financial services to low-income individuals or those who do not have access to typical banking services.” Yunus started what is known today as microfinance by lending money to poor women in Bangladesh in the 1970s.
Eventually, Yunus opened his first bank for the poor, Grameen Bank, meaning “rural,” or “village” in the Bangla language in 1983. The Grameen Bank is built on a structure that drastically opposes conventional bank norms. Yunus’ bank is majority owned by low-income women with no collateral or legal instrument. Rural borrowers own 90 percent of the banks shares whereas government owns only 10 percent.
With organizations and efforts like Kiva International and Grameen Bank, about 160 million people in developing countries are served through microfinance. (http://web.worldbank.org)
– Heather Klosterman
Sources: Business Pundit, Kiva
Photo: WordPress
Financial Reform Law in Bolivia
Last August, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a bill that would reform the country’s financial sector. The reform bill has more than 550 articles and is expected to force the private sector banks in the country to become more competitive as interest rate ceilings and mandatory-lending quotas are implemented. The law will boost the competitiveness of state-owned bank Banco Unión and the many microfinance institutions operating in the region.
The reform is also intended to focus on financial inclusion and reducing economic inequality, an issue that is extremely important for Morales and his large indigenous following. The private banks in the region will need to become more efficient as well, but fortunately for the banks the Bolivian government has been implementing the changes gradually. It is unknown how much the reform will cut into the bank’s profitability.
During the last few years, however, Bolivia has enacted harsh taxes designed to reduce its “excess” profitability. The private banks’ average return on equity fell from 21% in 2007 to 17.5% in 2012, then to 14% in 2013. This latest dip came from the imposition of additional taxes on extraordinary earnings and a tax on exchanges related to foreign exchange.
The law also states that at least 60% of a bank’s loan portfolio should go to financing the productive and social sectors. This will be difficult for Bolivia’s banks, however, as they are currently focused on specific markets. Despite this new requirement, the government is giving the banks a period of two years to four years to implement it.
Another requirement states that the interest rate ceiling on loans for houses to be set at 5.5 to 6.5%, a figure that depends on the value of the house. Banks currently set the loan ceiling to a figure of 7 to 8%. This loan ceiling is designed to allow more people to be able to better afford a house and is a part of the movement towards more financial inclusion in Bolivia.
Bolivia’s private banks should be able to weather this new reform with continued profitability as the Bolivian economy is buoyed by its 6.5% growth rate in 2013 and its credit growth of 20%.
– Jeff Meyer
Sources: BNamericas, BNamericas, laRazon
Photo: The Telegraph
Violence Against LGBT Community in South Africa
In 1996, South Africa became the first in the world to provide constitutional protection for LGBT people. South Africa is also the only African country on the continent that recognizes same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, there is a rise in the attacks against the LGBT community, especially lesbians. These attacks against lesbians are known as corrective rape, which is when a man rapes a lesbian in thought that the action of rape will turn that person straight. One 26-year-old lesbian living in Cape Town stated that “Men do it because they hate what we are. The feel threatened by us.”
One example of corrective rape in South Africa was a five-hour-long brutal rape that consisted of beatings and strangling of a young lesbian by the name of Millicent Gaika. She survived the attack and her rapist Andile Ngcoza was arrested and found guilty for rape. Although, he was arrested his bail was set at six dollars and he escaped prosecution.
Another example of a LGBT hate crime occurred this year. David Olyn, a 21-year-old gay man was beaten with bricks and burned to death in South Africa, as a group of teens watched. Accordingly, the teens were not shocked at this behavior because this is something that is a weekly occurrence. Therefore, the teens did not tell authorities.
Due to these horrific events the United Nations has launched a program called Free the Equal in 2013. This program is an effort to create an education program aimed at promoting respect for the LGBT community in South Africa.
South Africa does have the best recognition for gay rights on the continent, but these brutal attacks and rapes are still on the rise. However, the South African government is taking steps to combat the hate crimes and violence. These steps include the proper training of officials for the LGBT community’s needs. A young woman in the South African LGBT community stated that “Lots of my friends have been raped for being a lesbian. It is not an unusual thing.” Furthermore, new laws are being implemented to send the message that hate crimes will not be tolerated in South Africa.
How can the United States help with the South African government’s aid in combating LGBT violence? The United States has been working with prosecutors for the past decade in legal protection for LGBT rights. The United States can lend a hand in the South Africa government by showing correct methods used for training and prosecution for the protection of the LGBT community in South Africa and also share the experience from the past in dealing with hate crimes.
– Rachel Cannon
Sources: Human Rights First, Human Rights Campaign
Photo: The Guardian
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Upon the founding of the United Nations, there was much discussion of the purpose of the organization. The founding years in the late 1940s were immediately following the horrors of World War II, and the representatives UN had made it a priority to set the world on a new path of peace. One of the mission documents for the attempted new world order was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document put forward some great ideals for the rest of the Twentieth Century, but there is still much work that has to be done to meet the goals of the Declaration.
The first sentence of the document describes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” That sentence gives a great amount of hope for the UN and its mission, yet for a reader over 65 years later, we see how far things still have to go. We see in a number of developing nations how women are still discriminated against, as well as religious and ethnic discrimination. The feelings after World War II might have given a sense of optimism, that those horrors would never come again, but that is one claim that the UN has yet to achieve.
The Declaration contains a pledge by the UN member nations that “in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This statement, as part of a founding document for the UN, stands out when considering the situation in Syria. The UN has worked for the past three years to alleviate the plight of Syrians, yet there has been criticism from some of its own members. This pledge in the Declaration shows the need and responsibility the UN has to help in a situation of humanitarian plight.
Article three of the Declaration reads “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.” Out of the many instances where this principle has not been upheld, the recent anniversary of the Rwandan genocide is one of the most egregious examples. The genocide of 1994 resulted in the death of almost a million Rwandans. The UN unfortunately did little to stop the killings, and after 20 years the genocide is still a large black mark on the international community.
Overall the Universal Declaration of Human Rights put forwards what we would all hope would be the best for the international community. It gives an idea of what the UN stands for, and while there have been a number of instances when the league has not held up to their lofty standards, the UN has carried out countless missions to help the impoverished. Hopefully they will learn from their slip-ups, however, and do more to accomplish their stated mission.
– Eric Gustafsson
Sources: UN, Youth for Human Rights
Photo: Encyclopædia Britannica
Africans Pay Super Tax On Remittances
Every day, people make the difficult decision to travel across the globe in search of better opportunities for their families and for themselves. They risk deportation, social stigma and alienation, and work in areas that native-born citizens would scorn.
More than 230 million people live outside of their country of birth, many of whom send part of their income to relatives and friends living in their home countries. Known as remittances, these cash flows accounted for an estimated $404 billion sent to developing countries in 2013, equivalent to more than three times the size of official development assistance.
This process is generally viewed as favorable to all parties involved, including the world economy which benefits from the exchange of ideas and optimization of worker productivity. However, a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) reveals that not all overseas workers benefit equally from current remittance practices.
African immigrants living in the European Union and United States are typically charged 12 percent for each $200 money wire, nearly twice as much as the global average. Equivalent to $1.8 billion annually, ODI reports the elimination of this super tax could pay for the education of approximately 14 million sub-Saharan African primary school children, improved sanitation for 8 million, or clean water for 21 million.
Furthermore, these remittances account for 2 percent of the region’s GDP, or $32 billion. With international aid to the region expected to stagnate in the coming years, lowering the wire charges down to the G8 and G20’s pledge of 5 percent would increase the overall flow of transfers and a greater proportion of the transfer would reach the intended beneficiaries.
Factors such as Africa’s poor infrastructure are often blamed for the high cost of transfer rates. However, organizations such as the ODI argue that “in an age of mobile banking, internet transfers and rapid technological innovation, no region should be paying charges at the levels reported for Africa.’
In a realm of cryptocurrency, where Bitcoin may be a viable alternative to the vast surcharges accrued by African migrant money wires, having such a large discrepancy between overseas remittances seems more than archaic. Instead of blaming undeveloped aspects of Africa as the reason for these high percentage rates, companies should be investing in innovative techniques to bring African migrants’ remittance rates down to the rest of the global standard.
– Emily Bajet
Sources: ODI, World Bank, Aljazeera
Photo: The World Bank
The Rising Middle Class in Latin America
When people are asked to picture Latin America, an image of poverty usually comes to mind. Yet while it is true that Latin America has historically been a region of high rates of poverty and income inequality, income inequality has in fact declined in 13 of 17 countries as measured by the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is used to determine the level of income inequality in a country wherein a score of 0 is given to countries with complete equality (countries whose citizens have the same income) while a score of 1 is given to perfectly unequal countries (those in which one person owns all the income).
Recent data by the World Bank suggests that there has been a successful push to reduce poverty in the region, with the number of people living in extreme poverty (defined as those living on less than $2.50 a day) halved to 12.3 percent between 2003 and 2012. The largest proportion of the population, at 38 percent, includes those that are most vulnerable to falling back into poverty. This last part includes those making between $4-$10 a day. The middle class in Latin America is growing extremely rapidly at 34.3 percent of the population and is set to overtake the most vulnerable to become the largest segment of Latin America. The middle class is defined as the number of people who earn between $10-$50 a day.
Yet these numbers are a bit misleading. There continues to be a large degree of inequality between Latin Americans of different ethnicities. In Brazil, 76.4 percent of primary school children who are descended from Europeans are enrolled in school, while only 65.3 percent of indigenous or African children are enrolled. Similarly, in Chile 97 percent of families of European descent are enrolled in school, while 74.4 percent of children of indigenous or African descent are enrolled.
This is significant because as the middle class expands, it’s going to be able to expend more money on disposable goods and fuel economic growth. It will also be interesting to see what happens as the middle class demands more of a stake in the political process.
– Jeff Meyer
Sources: World Bank, IARIW
Photo: Not Adam and Steve