,

The Jaden Tap Tap Initiative In Haiti

In the scorching city of Cité Soleil, Haiti, what was formerly a landfill in one of the most dangerous slums in the western hemisphere has grown into a beautiful community garden called Jaden Tap Tap that serves the people of the city.

Three men native to the city, Daniel Tillias, Herode Gary Laurent and Franz Francois, started the garden three years ago with the hope of providing a safe place for members of the community to come and take a break from their everyday lives.

“Making a garden is about more than cultivating plants, it’s about cultivating people,” Tillias said. “We want to give the people of Cité Soleil a model of success. Something to do. And something to eat too.”

The name of the garden, Jaden Tap Tap, is Haitian Creole for “garden taxi.” Tap tap is the name for the brightly colored taxis that circulate in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The community has embraced the meaning of the name by planting various colored flowers and a tree nursery.

The main tree that grows in the garden is called moringa. This type of tree is very beneficial for the people of the community. Its leaves are rich in protein and vitamins and can be added to juice, soup, cornmeal and rice. There are also 20 different types of vegetables and herbs grown in the garden, including peppers, chard, radishes, basil and parsley.

The garden has fostered a sense of self-sufficiency for many of its gardeners. Many families get their food from this garden, or they use this garden as a starting place for creating their own gardens. This has allowed the community to become more sustainable and has given many people a sense of pride in their community and themselves.

The Jaden Tap Tap initiative has grown into the largest urban garden in Haiti, and it has inspired other community-developing activities in the country. Various other gardens have been created and organizations have been formed to empower youth and develop sustainable lifestyles for Haitians.

– Hannah Cleveland 

Sources: The Guardian, Haiti Rewired
Photo: City Farmer News

Israeli Doctors Will Not Force-Feed Palestinian Prisoners

The hunger strike began in response to Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which permits Israel to hold any Palestinian indefinitely as a prisoner without charges or trial. The policy allows detainment from a period of one to six months, which can then be extended to 5 more years through Israeli military court. Israel currently imprisons 5,000 Palestinians of which 191 are imprisoned through the administrative detention policy.

A hundred Palestinian prisoners went on hunger strike in April 2014 and since then hundreds more have joined. Over the past two to three years, thousands of Palestinians have refused meals and there has not been one day without a prisoner on hunger strike since 2011.

Solidarity protests are occurring in support of the prisoners throughout several of Israeli occupied Palestinian territories including Gaza. Prisoner rights group, Addameer, calls the strike the longest in Palestinian history. Israel’s response is a bill that would allow the legal force-feeding of Palestinian prisoners, which gained initial approval this week.

This has resulted in the opposition of Israeli doctors and the medical community. This community includes Israel’s National Council of Bioethics, the World Medical Association and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Israeli doctors have equated force-feeding to torture. They note that they have no place in torture.

The opposing argument is centered on the concept of not letting people die. However, Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestine National Initiative, notes that force-feeding may also lead to death. The process can commonly result in aspiration, lung infections, and other serious problems.

The other concern is that this legislation is being used as a tool to stop international attention caused by the hunger strikes. Instead of having to address policy issues this will enable Israel to end the hunger strike using force.

In 2012, Samer Issawi, along with 2,000 other prisoners on hunger strike, gained international attention after refusing food for eight months. It is suspected that he was fed intravenously during this time. This dangerous but effective form of protest resulted in his eventual release from prison. Had this force-feeding legislation been in place during this time it is likely Issawi would have never been released.

Many are used to speaking and thinking of poverty in terms of resources. However, poverty comes in many forms all of which are connected. This network of suffering is not solvable without addressing all its aspects. Human rights is one of these aspects.

Poverty is often a result of oppression and in many cases that oppression enables further poverty. Force-feeding, in this case, is an act of oppression. By enacting this legislation Israel can suppress these prisoners and ultimately halt their escape from what is their poverty.

– Christopher Kolezynski

Sources: Al Jazeera, Ma’an News Agency, Daily Sabah, Daily Sabah
Photo: Huffington Post

, ,

The History of Advocacy

How long has advocacy been around, where did it start and where does the word advocate come from?

There isn’t a lot known about the history of advocacy programs or where advocacy began.

Advocacy has not always been considered “advocacy.”A long time ago, back when homo sapiens had barely begun to dominate planet earth, advocacy was considered common courtesy. People lived in large groups and helped each other out when they could.

However, as societies advanced and technology came into the picture, helping others seemed like it required a little too much effort. There is no set “first” advocacy program, but many advocacy programs claim to be the first of their kind.

However, perhaps one of the oldest advocacy programs still alive today is The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army began in 1852 just before The Red Cross, who is a close second and began its work in 1881.

Even before these two giant programs, there were orphanages and safe houses and programs to feed the hungry. Helping one another can be traced back to the very first animals.

Perhaps these earlier instances of advocacy are a little less “public support” and a little more “helping your fellow man,” but humans often learn from their surroundings.

According to the Oxford English dictionary the word advocate was first recorded in the English language in the 1300s as a noun. The word stemmed from the French word avocat and before that the Latin word advocatus.

Advocatus means to be called to or summoned, or more specifically to come to someone’s aid in the courtroom. This could mean the very first public advocacy program in the world involved the beginning of law and lawyers.

However, before lawyers there were churches that fed the hungry and protected the weak. There were armies who helped protect the city people from outside harm. There were people who gave the homeless shelter and the needy possessions and all of them called on others to do the same.

These actions were not considered advocacy the way we know it today. When they first started, these instances were just the act of standing up for someone who could not stand up for nor protect themselves. To speak for someone whose voice was being ignored or could not be heard.

In the beginning, advocacy was not something that had to be bought, bartered or begged for. It was something people did because it was what was right, not because they needed volunteer experience.

Over the years advocacy has morphed into something much different. Today, it is more organized to provide more aid to more people throughout the world that do not have anyone with enough power to provide and aid them nearby. Advocacy has become a global responsibility rather than a local one and needs more funding, more political support and more power to become something even greater.

Now, advocacy makes it everyone’s responsibility to rise to the needs of serious global issues and to help in any way they can.

– Cara Morgan

Sources: Grammaphobia, Oxford English Dictionary, The Free Dictionary, The Red Cross, The Salvation Army

, ,

Nigeria Still Marred by Instability

On April 14 approximately 276 girls were abducted from a boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria, by the militant group Boko Haram. The international attention and social media activism that have followed since have all been indicators of universal outrage. But most importantly they have underscored the instability which has crippled Nigeria in recent years.

With a $6 billion national annual budget for security forces, Nigeria’s recent mass kidnapping might seem surprising, but it is indicative of a broader spectrum of disarray. Nigeria is the most populous state in Africa and its leading economy, laying claim to the 26th largest economy in the world. However, its citizens are often bound by dire living constraints.

In Nigeria’s Borno state, home to capital city Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, the per capita income is $1,631 compared to $4,000 in political capital Abuja. It is evident that poverty has planted the seeds for violent extremism. Since 2009 Boko Haram, in their quest to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, has been implicated in the deaths of over 12,000 Nigerian citizens. In 2013 they were officially declared a terrorist group by the United States government.

Despite Nigeria’s trouble with internal uprisings, it has become clear that its government has been troubled by its own internal issues. Recent Nigerian media reports have revealed that 10 generals and five other senior officers have been court martialed and found guilty of supplying info and ammunition to Boko Haram. This level of extremist sympathizing, while detestable, is not altogether shocking given Nigeria’s current state of affairs.

Corruption on the level of high-ranking government officials has long been linked to poverty throughout Africa. Nigeria has been operating at annual levels of around seven percent economic growth over the past few years but its correlation between national economic growth and increasing living standards has become tenuous at best.

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has framed his country’s growing poverty problems as a problem of wealth distribution. Considering the highly concentrated nature of wealth and political capital amongst the country’s oil barons, this assessment is worth considering. With oil reserves of upwards of 37 billion barrels, only second to Libya in all of Africa, Nigeria is surely not pressed for revenue generating natural resources. However, its influx of oil revenue has not made it a wealthy state.

By 2030 Nigeria’s population size is expected to increase from its 2010 level by upwards of 60 percent, making it the world’s eventual fifth largest population. There are currently over 160 million people living in Nigeria, 42.8 percent of whom are age 14 or younger. However, of the school age children who actually begin formal education, only two-thirds complete primary school. Like the rest of the world, lack of education coupled with the presence of poverty makes for a corrosive pair. It will surely take increasing levels of stability and government accountability to fend the two off.

On June 9, 20 more girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in the northeastern town of Garkin Fulani, Nigeria. The abductions took place only a few miles from where the 200-plus girls were kidnapped in Chibok in mid-April. This most recent example of Nigeria’s internal security woes comes after President Goodluck vowed to protect this vulnerable and embattled area of Nigeria. Instead, another instance of atrocity has once again marred a Nigerian community still reeling from the effects of the past five years.

 — Taylor Dow

Sources: CNN, BBC, Global Public Square, Tribune, Business Day
Photo: The Indian Express

10 Quotes on Poverty

 

poverty quotes and sayings

 

“Poverty is relatively cheap to address and incredibly expensive to ignore.”

– Clint Borgen, President of The Borgen Project

 

 

In June of 1998, all heads of the U.N. agencies signed a statement defining the term “poverty.” The statement read,“Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity…It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to…It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.”

After the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the U.N. recognized the need to reduce “overall” poverty, as 117 member-states adopted a declaration and program of action dedicated to this cause.

What is significant about this concept of overall poverty is the idea that the U.N. considers it present in all countries, whether it exists as “mass poverty in many developing countries,” “pockets of poverty amid wealth in developed countries” or “the utter destitution of people who fall outside of family support systems, social institutions and safety nets.

Poverty has made itself a presence in everyone’s lives, whether it is in the form of a classmate, colleague, a friend in the neighborhood or a friend in a neighboring country. Below are several quotes on poverty from past and present prominent leaders, defining what poverty looks like to them.

 

Best Poverty Quotes

 

  1. “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” — Mother Teresa, Missionary and Saint.
  2. “These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little poorer.” — Pope Francis, current Head of the Catholic Church.
  3. “Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.” — Muhammad Ali, Professional Boxer.
  4. “People…were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.” — Muhammad Yunus, Author of “Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty.”
  5. “Where you live should not determine whether you live, or whether you die.” — Bono, Singer and Philanthropist.
  6. “If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather than dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.” — Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the U.S.
  7. “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.” — Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.
  8. “Just because a child’s parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” — Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund.
  9. “If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community.” — President Barack Obama, 44th and current President of the U.S.
  10. “Poverty is not only about income poverty, it is about the deprivation of economic and social rights, insecurity, discrimination, exclusion and powerlessness. That is why human rights must not be ignored but given even greater prominence in times of economic crisis.” — Irene Khan, former Secretary-General of Amnesty International, 2010.

– Blythe Riggan

Sources: BBC, Brainy Quote 1, Brainy Quote 2, Goodreads, OHCHR, Standford, The Book of the Poor
Photo: Bio

5 Facts about Education in Uzbekistan

Education in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, at 30 million, is the most populous country in Central Asia. Uzbekistan was once a part of the Soviet Union, but since the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Uzbekistan’s economy has been challenged by the sudden transition to independence. Due to the economic and social challenges caused by this transition, access to education in Uzbekistan has been difficult. Here are five facts about education in Uzbekistan:

1. The population of Uzbekistan is 26.5 million. Twelve percent of Uzbekistan’s Gross Domestic Product is spent on education. This is the highest spending on education in Central Asia.

2. In 2006, a study focusing on education in Uzbekistan was given to a sample of students and it was discovered that only 30 percent were considered proficient in mathematics and 30 percent proficient in literacy.

3. Education in Uzbekistan is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 18. The average enrollment rate in Uzbekistan’s primary schools is 97 percent while the rate of transition from primary to secondary school is at 100 percent.

4. There is no gender gap in Uzbekistan’s schools — boys and girls are offered equal access to education in Uzbekistan.

5. Despite the social and economic turmoil in Uzbekistan following the collapse of the Soviet Union, while re-building the country, the Uzbekistan government has made educational reforms a priority.

In the future, Uzbekistan is seeking to further improve the education it offers its citizens. Planned reforms for education in Uzbekistan include providing greater access to education for all children in Uzbekistan, improving  school evaluations and working conditions for teachers, instating a better program to keep track of which children are and are not enrolled in school and developing “second chance schooling” for students who drop out but then return.

 — Lily Tyson

Sources: Euroeducation, The Guardian, UNICEF
Photo: Flickr

, ,

10 Facts About Poverty India

According to the World Bank, India is one of the poorest countries in the world. Some of the main issues responsible for widespread poverty in India are poor health services, child malnutrition and inadequate education and training. Almost half of India’s population drops out of school by the age of 13 and only one in 10 people receive some form of  job training.

 

Top 10 facts about Poverty in India

1. India is estimated to have one-third of the world’s poor.
2. In 2012, 37 percent of India’s 1.21 billion people fell below the international poverty line, which is $1.25 a day, according to the Indian Planning Commission.
3. According to 2010 World Bank data, India’s labor participation rate (for those individuals over the age of 15) totaled 55.6 percent; however, the percent of wage and salaried workers of those employed only equaled about 18.1 percent.
4. According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that 98,000 people in India die from diarrhea each year. The lack of adequate sanitation, nutrition and safe water has significant negative health impacts.
5. Families can’t grow enough crops to feed themselves each year due to the lack of new farming techniques, difficult weather conditions, poor storage conditions, misuse of insecticides and lack of water.
6. A third of the world’s malnourished children live in India according to UNICEF, where “46 percent of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 percent are underweight and at least 16 percent are wasted.”
7. India has the highest rate of child marriage in the world, where one in three girls become child brides. Many girls are married off at an early age, become servants or even prostitutes just to survive.
8. The poorest parts of India are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
9. According to the World Bank, in 2009 an estimated 2.4 million were living with HIV/AIDS, with children (less than 15-years-old) accounting for 3.5 percent and 83 percent making up the age group 15-49 years. Around 39 percent of those infected were women.
10. Men are more than twice as likely as women to hold salaried jobs in the large and medium-sized towns that are increasingly important centers of economic life in the Indian countryside. As such, in 2013 women only earned 62 percent of a men’s salary for equal work.

However, it is possible to end poverty in India. The first step would be to help the poor create their own businesses so that they may develop their own incomes. The second step is to create jobs that would allow those in poverty to increase their incomes through wages or salaries. Lastly, selling products to those living in poverty would help them earn or save money.

 – Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: Huffington Post, The Telegraph, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, UNICEF 1, Inter Press Service News Agency, The World Bank 1, The World Bank 2, UNICEF 2, Catalyst, Rural Poverty Portal
Photo: U.N.

,

Good News for World Hunger

World hunger is a terrible thing, but in 2014 there seems to be more good news than bad.

The good news is that world hunger and chronic malnourishment have been decreasing in Latin American and Asian countries. It has, however, increased in some of the poorest African nations, but the increase in malnourished peoples was the lowest it has been in several years.

What advocacy groups and volunteers are doing is working; world hunger is completely solvable with just a little effort and a push in the right direction.

Advocacy for world hunger and global poverty began making good headway in reducing chronic malnutrition in the 1980s and the 1990s, but progress began to slow down between 2000 and 2010. Some of the more complicated and impoverished areas have seen growth in malnutrition since 2010, but overall things have either stayed the same or have slowly improved in the past four years.

More good news in world hunger is that the number of hungry people in the world has slowly trickled down from one billion to 870 million from 2009-2012, but has since gone back up to more than one billion.

There have been many advances on the war with hunger, however. There is a smaller percentage of the population in some areas (namely Latin America, Europe, the United States and Asia) of people who go without food.

As populations climb, the number of hungry people climbs with it, but through volunteer work and advocacy a larger percentage of the population has made it out of poverty.

Society has seen more technological advances to deal with world hunger and global poverty, but in recent years man power and monetary aid has declined, leaving the advancements instead of the people to take care of the problems.

According to UNICEF, world hunger will see more good news because in recent years global poverty and chronic malnutrition has become more manageable. It is now easier to donate than it ever has been through cell phone applications like the Spare Change Application or rounding up on purchases to help someone in need.

World hunger is seeing fewer donations, but it is also seeing a decline in the percentage of people living in poverty and with malnutrition. It has also become more manageable and less of an undertaking and many people can now donate and help without even a second thought.

Advocacy and aid is becoming easier in the digital age and because of that, world hunger is considered to be in decline in some countries.

– Cara Morgan

Sources: Grist, Lake Tahoe News, WFP, Yahoo
Photo: Working Abroad

, , ,

Water NGOs that Make a Splash

In industrial nations with established water purification and sanitation systems, people often take their ability to turn on the tap and drink a glass of clean water for granted. The reality is that nearly 1 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water and this is a serious problem.

Eighty percent of disease in developing countries is due to bacteria, worms and other organisms found in the unclean water that one-eighth of the world uses. Water-borne diseases are one of the top killers of children under 5, causing one in five deaths worldwide. In addition, an estimated 433 million school days a year are lost to sickness, caring for the sick or fetching water, all of which further perpetuate the poverty cycle. Fortunately, water is a solvable problem.

With the work of dedicated and forceful water NGOs and local governments, clean water has the potential to reach everyone around the globe. Here are some organizations that do particularly effective work.

1. Charity: water

Charity: water was founded by Kevin Rose in 2006 as a way of putting some direction into his life. Its overall mission is to bring clean drinking water to rural areas of developing nations. Charity: water also recognizes that women in developing nations may have to walk miles to get water for their families, and that the water they bring back often has disease carrying organisms. With this in mind, Charity: water aims to build water purification and gathering systems in local communities so that clean water is readily available.

Charity: water achieves its goals by appealing to the local needs and skills. The organization fully funds, supports, trains and aids the target community in building sustainable, easy to run and simple to maintain water collection projects. In addition, Charity: water does extensive research on the target community to establish which project would be most effective for the locals’ needs. The organization then helps design plans and builds systems, including hand-dug or drilled wells, rainwater catchments and water purification systems. Charity: water gets clean water to needy communities by establishing a system for water collection, building it and teaching the locals to use it. The organization then monitors its success and maintenance. Charity:water has found great success, with thousands of projects in Africa alone, and others in Central and South America and South Asia.

2.  Global Water

Global Water is based off the understanding that a lack of access to clean drinking water is the cause of much of the world’s hunger, disease and poverty. Its goal is to build permanent and sustainable sanitation facilities and clean water access to promote health, knowledge and hygiene in developing nations.

Global Water takes several approaches to reach its goals, most of which rely extensively on partnerships with local NGOs and governments. The company realizes that it is most effective as a support for the local installation and implementation of programs rather than a group that parachutes in, builds a system on its own and leaves.

Therefore, Global Water works with local groups to design an effective project, provides equipment, expertise and assistance in the building process, and inspects and monitors the project. This significant partnership with local groups makes Global Water unique and its projects lasting and effective.

Global Water has been involved in successful well drilling projects in Africa, building everything from hand washing stations to spring catchments in Central America.

3. The Water Project

The Water Project aims for better water programs rather than a large number of unsatisfactory ones. The campaign believes that the local community should dictate what method is used to ensure that the program is enduring and life changing. As a result, The Water Project insists on taking community feedback every step of the way.

The Water Project has worked in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Uganda. While this is a more limited range of regions than other organizations of similar type, The Water Project focuses on sustainability and success rather than creating a vast array of defunct programs, and a limited range supports this work model. On top of building structures like wells, sand dams and rainwater catchment devices, The Water Project also aims to educate the local community on water safety and hygiene.

In fact, education is a fundamental part of the organization. The Water Project process starts by teaching local people about how proper sanitation and hygiene relate to health. In addition, The Water Project focuses on getting the community involved by providing support for the project, either through labor, money, food for workers, etc. Then comes the installation of the project, during which The Water Project helps get permits and dig wells. Lastly, the company conducts a final education on the new system and proudly hands over a new water system and chance for a better life to the local community. Throughout the following years, The Water Project continues to monitor and maintain its projects to ensure their lasting success.

Overall, NGOs and campaigns that provide clean water to developing nations are often the same in their final product, like the wells and lavatories they install. But each has its unique outlook on the problem and its own reputation in local communities. Without the combined efforts of these organizations and more like them, water safety around the world would be an insurmountable challenge. But because of the success of companies like Charity: water and The Water Project, it is becoming more and more possible for the  world to have access to clean water and effective sanitation.

 — Caitlin Thompson 

Sources: The Water Project, Global Water, Charity:water
Photo: Charity:water

, , ,

Prostitution Increases for World Cup

Prostitution has increased during the World Cup as Brazilian women are turning to prostitution for the lucrative duration of the competition, which takes place June 12 – July 13 throughout 12 cities in the host country. Five to 6 of Brazil’s top cities are the targets of these workers, many of whom took up prostitution just before the tournament started.

The women are reported to be taking English classes to converse with clients from English-speaking countries. Interviews with some of the prostitutes revealed that many of them, especially the younger women, have high hopes of being swept off to another country and a more comfortable lifestyle as the result of a transaction.

Maria, an 18-year-old student, stated to a journalist, “I’m here to find a gringo to take me away and give me a quiet life. I do not want luxury but just to live with a little more dignity and to help my family.”

England fans seem to be the biggest target for the girls who can be seen in brothels, near the beaches and amongst street vendors near the football stadiums, some even wearing English football team shirts.

While some of the women have dreams of being whisked away by a wealthy foreigner, all the women have their own reasons for taking up the profession, whether temporarily or permanently. Some women have seen an opportunity to earn extra money; some have a more severe need for the income.

One woman, according to social worker Cleide Almeida in Vila Mimosa, took on prostitution as a second job due to financial necessity after her husband passed away. It is legal for women in Brazil to sell sex if they are over the age of 18, but women as old as 77 are reported to work in the industry. Many foreign clients are looking for something they can’t get legally, however, and underage workers are often available by delivery to various hotels.

There are 120,000 sex workers in the state of Rio, and Almeida expects trade to double to 10,000 serviced men per day during the World Cup. Women are charging the equivalent of about $27 for a half hour of their time and $44 for an hour.

The World Cup is one of the world’s most celebrated occasions, and for good reason. Through competition, the football tournament unites nations for a month of good sport and excited nationalism. Whether increased prostitution can provide access to money for these women or not, the trend reflects bigger issues concerning demand for sex work and lack of other opportunities.

 — Edward Heinrich

Sources: IBN Live, Mirror Online, Liverpool Echo
Photo: Flickr