Within the vast catalog of mental illnesses, there are few more debilitating than schizophrenia. The disease both distorts and impoverishes reality through a combination of “positive” symptoms, or symptoms that impose excess sensations and behaviors on reality (hallucinations, delusions, repetitive movements, disorganized thinking), and “negative” symptoms, or symptoms that detract from someone’s normal experience of and functioning in reality (dulled emotional responses, social withdrawal, inability to experience pleasure).
It is also a deadly illness. The onslaught of symptoms often cripples the sufferer’s ability to care for themselves. Passive neglect of health, poor coping habits, such as alcohol and drug misuse and a vastly increased risk of suicide contribute to a death rate among people with schizophrenia between two and three times higher than the general population.
Treating mental illness in the developing world is already difficult, beset by underfunding (less than 25 cents annually per person in low-income countries) and inadequate distribution of health care personnel (less than two psychiatrists per 100,000 people in many countries).
Some challenges schizophrenia poses for the developing world are tied to these preexisting conditions. Others are unique to the disease itself.
Conflicting Visions
The so-called “outcomes paradox” is a major hurdle. Beginning in the 1960s, the World Health Organization (WHO) undertook a series of studies comparing the health outcomes of schizophrenia patients in developing countries, such as Colombia, India and Nigeria, and developed countries, such as The United States, Denmark and Taiwan. Surprisingly, patients fared better in the developing world than in wealthier nations, experiencing less social impairment and higher rates of remission and recovery, and all with far less antipsychotic-drug therapy, a standard first-line treatment in the developed world.
These findings were attributed to several factors, and subsequent studies have untangled and complicated the paradox. The third and last of the WHO studies, known as the International Study of Schizophrenia (ISoS), surveyed patients from the previous study after 15 and 25 years and attributed the paradox to the social and cultural conditions in which the patients received treatment, stressing the importance of early intervention with a combination of social and pharmacological therapy.
The many years of work done by Dr. Vikram Patel, chair of Harvard’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, illuminate the bulk of this paradox and the path towards successfully and sustainably treating schizophrenia in the developing world. His 2008 analysis of 23 studies in low and middle-income countries showed wild variance in the incidence and severity of chronic schizophrenia across nations and time — a thicket of conflicting data further obscuring the underlay of the paradox. For instance, 4.5% of patients in India experienced chronic illness over five years, as opposed to 51.7% of twelve years in China. Many of the patients ricocheted between better and worse health outcomes and everything in between over the course of the analyzed studies, with disability and social outcomes for patients also varying widely by nationality.
A Clearer Path
Untangling this mystery is by no means superfluous to the here-and-now needs of the mentally ill poor. Still, in a 2007 paper co-authored by Patel, he outlines an approach that draws upon established knowledge about health care when it has to be built from the ground up. First comes identifying those in need, provided by networks of people familiar with the health of people in their community. Next, skilled health practitioners must provide treatment that focuses not only on the symptoms of schizophrenia but also on the overall physical health of each patient, which is so often affected by the illness. These efforts must take root within communities strengthened to cope with such a severe affliction. The empowerment of community health workers and the families and individuals they serve is key, supporting them with opportunities for paid employment and equitable systems of health care financing (voucher systems, insurance plans, fixed-monthly payments).
Many organizations around the world have taken up this mantle of community care and empowerment. The Schizophrenia Research Organization (SCARF), an Indian NGO based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, socially reintegrates its patients by providing them with livestock, supporting their small businesses and providing rural patients with access to health care using telemedicine.
BasicNeeds, founded in 2000 by English entrepreneur Chris Underhill and recently merged with Christian disability foundation CBM UK, is one of the world’s most widespread and well-organized examples of community care. Its model of psychosocial support has already helped over 650,000 people in 12 countries throughout Africa and Asia.
In their 2015 annual report, Dr. Syvanna Phompanya, a Laotian general practitioner working with BasicNeeds in Vientiane province, recounts a dramatic example of the healing work accomplished in his nation:
“One of my patients suffering from schizophrenia lived in a cage for 15 years. With regular medication and treatment, his symptoms have reduced, and he no longer lives in the cage. I’m so delighted with his progress and to see him living with his family. I’m pleased with the mental health work done in my district hospital, and I’m thrilled to be working in the area as there are a limited number of professionals in this field.”
– John Merino
Photo: Pixabay
Potential of Grass Charcoal for Improving Livelihoods in Ghana
As of 2023, there have been two successful pilot projects in Ghana’s savannah and upper-west regions. The potential of grass charcoal for improving livelihoods in Ghana is significant. The replacement helps reduce ecological risks like bushfires and deforestation, events that threaten food security, creating employment opportunities and opening new markets by selling surplus grass charcoal produced by local communities.
How Is Grass Charcoal Made?
Producers make grass charcoal by harvesting dried savannah grass and burning it to produce an organic carbonized matter. Making the grass briquettes requires a binding agent to ensure the organic carbonized matter sticks together. Instead of using income to buy a product that binds the organic matter together, the locals have “developed a cassava dough that works just as well.” Then, the mixture goes through a compressor, which creates the briquettes. Then, the briquettes dry and are ready for cooking or selling at the market.
The Grass Economy
Grass charcoal creates employment and income opportunities throughout rural Ghana due to the commoditization of grass; citizens can sell grass to people who produce briquettes, creating a grass market and an alternative form of income for locals. As of 2023, 488 people have been trained by the MITDS and FFF to sustainably harvest grass, produce briquettes and market any excess surplus for sale.
To further improve marketability to increase profits from the sales for local Ghanaian entrepreneurs making this charcoal, the MITDS and FFF have also developed grass paper used to package the charcoal to improve recognition of the product and allow producers to sell their goods at a higher price, increasing their profit margins. Furthermore, this grass paper has been identified as a good substitute roofing material for rural homes, improving insulation in houses and keeping them cool and dry during the dry season.
Another potential way grass charcoal can improve livelihoods in Ghana is through carbon offsetting. Every 100kg of grass charcoal burned saves two trees. According to the MITDS, if Ghana uses grass charcoal widely across the nation, it could potentially offset “over 44,000 tons of carbon a year.” In monetary terms, the potential estimated income from carbon offsetting would be around $394,000, which could be reinvested into the economy, further improving livelihoods in Ghana.
Increased Food Security
Using grass charcoal is essential for increasing food security in Ghana. During the harsh dry seasons, savannah grass often fuels large-scale bushfires. These disasters can decimate crops, affecting food security and livelihoods for people who rely on farming as a form of subsistence. In 2015, the Northern Region lost more than $5 million to the bushfires that destroyed farms and property.
In 2019, 400 hectares of rice farms were destroyed by bushfires in the Upper East and Northeast regions. Furthermore, in 2022, farmers living in Walewale, a small town in Ghana in the West Mamprusi Municipal, lost their livelihoods and produce to bushfires. The monetization of grass has placed an economic value on the resource, creating demand for harvesting and selling grass, consequently providing more protection from bushfires, reducing the damage done to farmlands and improving food security in the region.
The potential of grass charcoal to improve livelihood in Ghana has vast implications for food security, employment and income. Since it’s a relatively new invention and has only been trialed in specific regions of Ghana, it needs to be scaled up to see the full-scale impact. One of the main issues with grass charcoal is its cost,$8.95 per 100kg, around double the price of wood charcoal, with the higher cost attributed to the extra ingredients needed, mainly the binding agent used to make the briquettes. Policymakers are considering “government incentives to drive its adoption” to address this problem. This strategy has been used in Ghana, most notably when they promoted gas stoves as an alternative to wood charcoal stoves.
– Kishan Patel
Photo: Flickr
Conflicting Visions: Treating Schizophrenia in the Developing World
It is also a deadly illness. The onslaught of symptoms often cripples the sufferer’s ability to care for themselves. Passive neglect of health, poor coping habits, such as alcohol and drug misuse and a vastly increased risk of suicide contribute to a death rate among people with schizophrenia between two and three times higher than the general population.
Treating mental illness in the developing world is already difficult, beset by underfunding (less than 25 cents annually per person in low-income countries) and inadequate distribution of health care personnel (less than two psychiatrists per 100,000 people in many countries).
Some challenges schizophrenia poses for the developing world are tied to these preexisting conditions. Others are unique to the disease itself.
Conflicting Visions
The so-called “outcomes paradox” is a major hurdle. Beginning in the 1960s, the World Health Organization (WHO) undertook a series of studies comparing the health outcomes of schizophrenia patients in developing countries, such as Colombia, India and Nigeria, and developed countries, such as The United States, Denmark and Taiwan. Surprisingly, patients fared better in the developing world than in wealthier nations, experiencing less social impairment and higher rates of remission and recovery, and all with far less antipsychotic-drug therapy, a standard first-line treatment in the developed world.
These findings were attributed to several factors, and subsequent studies have untangled and complicated the paradox. The third and last of the WHO studies, known as the International Study of Schizophrenia (ISoS), surveyed patients from the previous study after 15 and 25 years and attributed the paradox to the social and cultural conditions in which the patients received treatment, stressing the importance of early intervention with a combination of social and pharmacological therapy.
The many years of work done by Dr. Vikram Patel, chair of Harvard’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, illuminate the bulk of this paradox and the path towards successfully and sustainably treating schizophrenia in the developing world. His 2008 analysis of 23 studies in low and middle-income countries showed wild variance in the incidence and severity of chronic schizophrenia across nations and time — a thicket of conflicting data further obscuring the underlay of the paradox. For instance, 4.5% of patients in India experienced chronic illness over five years, as opposed to 51.7% of twelve years in China. Many of the patients ricocheted between better and worse health outcomes and everything in between over the course of the analyzed studies, with disability and social outcomes for patients also varying widely by nationality.
A Clearer Path
Untangling this mystery is by no means superfluous to the here-and-now needs of the mentally ill poor. Still, in a 2007 paper co-authored by Patel, he outlines an approach that draws upon established knowledge about health care when it has to be built from the ground up. First comes identifying those in need, provided by networks of people familiar with the health of people in their community. Next, skilled health practitioners must provide treatment that focuses not only on the symptoms of schizophrenia but also on the overall physical health of each patient, which is so often affected by the illness. These efforts must take root within communities strengthened to cope with such a severe affliction. The empowerment of community health workers and the families and individuals they serve is key, supporting them with opportunities for paid employment and equitable systems of health care financing (voucher systems, insurance plans, fixed-monthly payments).
Many organizations around the world have taken up this mantle of community care and empowerment. The Schizophrenia Research Organization (SCARF), an Indian NGO based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, socially reintegrates its patients by providing them with livestock, supporting their small businesses and providing rural patients with access to health care using telemedicine.
BasicNeeds, founded in 2000 by English entrepreneur Chris Underhill and recently merged with Christian disability foundation CBM UK, is one of the world’s most widespread and well-organized examples of community care. Its model of psychosocial support has already helped over 650,000 people in 12 countries throughout Africa and Asia.
In their 2015 annual report, Dr. Syvanna Phompanya, a Laotian general practitioner working with BasicNeeds in Vientiane province, recounts a dramatic example of the healing work accomplished in his nation:
“One of my patients suffering from schizophrenia lived in a cage for 15 years. With regular medication and treatment, his symptoms have reduced, and he no longer lives in the cage. I’m so delighted with his progress and to see him living with his family. I’m pleased with the mental health work done in my district hospital, and I’m thrilled to be working in the area as there are a limited number of professionals in this field.”
– John Merino
Photo: Pixabay
Combating Child Illiteracy in Indonesia
With 42% of Indonesia’s population dwelling in rural areas, the lack of access to education and literacy programs for children is a pressing issue. According to UNICEF, in the remote Papua province, more than 50% of 5-year-old children have never attended school, and of those who are enrolled in education, only 6% of them can read. Another study that the Innovation for Indonesia’s School Children program (INOVASI) conducted revealed that 43% of Grade 2 students failed a basic literacy test.
The Situation
There are numerous contributing factors to the high levels of child illiteracy in Indonesia. Teacher training is poor quality, with repeated absences of teachers and principals. The value of education and literacy is often overlooked, especially in rural areas where skilled jobs and higher levels of education are largely absent. This leads to a community culture that does not value reading which is compounded by the fact that children’s books are often expensive and inaccessible, with public library services only operating in urban areas.
The effects of child illiteracy can reverberate long into adulthood, with fewer employment prospects available for those unable to read or write, as well as struggling to be independent due to the inability to make informed decisions based on reading material. Child illiteracy can also create generational patterns, as parents who grew up placing less emphasis on education and reading are more likely to prioritize education less for their own children. However, child illiteracy in Indonesia is now a well-recognized issue, with multiple initiatives in place working to improve literacy levels and the quality of education offered to children.
Early Grade Literacy
UNICEF initiated the ‘Early Grade Literacy’ program in 2015. The objective of the EGL project is to enhance students’ reading and writing skills by educating teachers on how to provide an efficient, effective and creative educational environment.
The teachers are trained in classroom admin, methods to develop literacy, positive discipline methods and how to manage libraries. Ibu Wanggai, a primary school teacher in Jayapura has seen a “remarkable” improvement in her students since working alongside the EGL program. After learning more creative methods to engage her students in learning, and creating a colorful “reading corner” in her classroom, her students are now much more able to make literacy advancements and spend more time reading.
Since the project’s inception, more than 40 primary schools in the Supiori District have received a total of 18,000 books and learning modules, reaching more than 2,500 children across the province.
Innovation for Indonesia’s School Children (INOVASI) Program
In collaboration with the Indonesian and Australian governments, INOVASI has been working to ameliorate child illiteracy in Indonesia since 2016. Following numerous surveys and analyses of the roots of the issue, the Indonesian Ministry of Education administered a list of books approved for early grades education, as well as new legislation that now makes it easier for authors to submit books for approval for early education.
INOVASI is also working alongside the government to update textbooks used in schools, with a special focus on gender and inclusivity. It has also connected Australian authors and illustrators with the Indonesian industry to boost the diversity of literature available to children. In 2022 alone, the government was able to grant more than 12 million books to 7,609 remote primary schools across the country.
Conclusion
The remoteness of many communities in Indonesia combined with the lower prioritization of reading and writing skills has meant that children in Indonesia are struggling in the classroom. Thanks to inspirational and effective initiatives such as the Early Grade Literacy program and INOVASI, efforts to combat child illiteracy are proving effective and bode well for the youth of the country.
– Eleanor Moseley
Photo: Flickr
3D Printing Food: A New Solution to World Hunger?
Food insecurity and global hunger remain an international crisis to this day, worsening year after year. In the 79 countries that the World Food Programme (WFP) operates in, more than 345 million people are suffering from high levels of food insecurity in 2023. This number is even more daunting as it has more than doubled since 2020. Specifically, since the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional 200 million people have faced extreme hunger.
To combat hunger and poverty, new technologies have sprouted up around the world. One such technology is the possibility of 3D printing food. Using edible materials, 3D printing food implements an extrusion-based method to ensure the production of high-quality food. In this way, the many benefits of 3D printing food offer an effective way to reduce hunger and the poverty associated with it.
How 3D Printing Reduces Hunger
The Future of 3D Printing Food
While 3D printing food is a relatively novel field, it offers many practical benefits that ensure access to affordable high-quality food. Although much more progress is necessary, printing food is an innovative approach to addressing global hunger and poverty.
– Manav Yarlagadda
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Fight Against Child Poverty In Mozambique
Here are 4 Organizations Ending Child Poverty in Mozambique
Though Mozambique has experienced an improvement in many growth parameters, childhood poverty remains a stiff challenge, especially in rural areas. The policies and interventions to ensure child welfare by the Government and organizations will help combat this challenge and create a better future for the young population of Mozambique.
– Atheeth Ravikrishnan
Photo: Flickr
3 Beirut Projects Supporting Poverty Reduction in Lebanon
The tragedy is “one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history,” and Beirut’s infrastructure suffered greatly. Around 50% of the country’s health centers were deemed unusable. The World Bank estimated at least $3.8 billion in damages. Since the explosion, Lebanon’s economy has struggled. The country’s GDP declined by approximately 2.6% in 2022. The country has one of the lowest revenue rates globally, at 6% of GDP in 2022.
Amid political and economic instability, poverty in Lebanon, particularly in Beirut, is rising. In 2023, around 80% of civilians were living in poverty. This poverty rate is almost double the rate from before the Beirut explosion. In 2019, the poverty rate in the country was 42%. In Beirut alone, an estimated 25,000 households live in extreme poverty. More than ever, poverty reduction in Lebanon is critical. Thankfully, the country’s strife has prompted many community projects supporting rebuilding the country.
Espace Fann
In 2019, just over 59% of Lebanese civilians enrolled in higher education. However, as the country’s economy declines, education opportunities are in crisis. Annual tuition fees have drastically increased, from LL885,000 ($58.90) in 2022 to LL12 to 13 million ($798.60 – $865.15) in 2023.
This economic decline and increased tuition fees inspired Nour Tannir and Yasmine Dabbous to develop Espace Fann. The project is based in Beirut and provides a creative space for residents. According to their website, the group offers ”art education and design classes to young and mature talents. While we focus on design thinking and skill building, our aim is to encourage creativity, sustainability and healing through the arts… At Espace Fann, we offer university-level art education, including courses and workshops, at affordable prices. Our instructors help students learn new skills, develop their creativity and launch new careers in the arts.”
The initiative developed in 2019, but the NGO Stand for Women aided Espace Fann after the blast. The Lebanon-based charity supports women’s economic freedom and gender equality and aids the women’s workforce across the Middle East.
In January 2022, the unemployment rate in Lebanon was 29.6%, almost a third of the population. Espace Fann tackles poverty in Lebanon by providing participants with skills to support employment. The affordable courses include website design, self-branding and promotion, filmmaking and various art courses.
The “BERYT” Project
The Beirut Housing Rehabilitation and Cultural and Creative Industries Recovery Project, or BERYT, is alleviating poverty in Lebanon by focusing on re-establishing housing for Beirut residents. U.N.-Habitat and the World Bank lead it. The project supports people in Beirut through four main objectives. To begin, BERYT contributes to restoring damaged buildings with “heritage value.” It also offers support in renting and offers grants for cultural productions. It also focuses on “project management and capacity building.” Concentrated efforts will be in areas within 5km of the blast’s center. Within these neighborhoods, buildings that housed more economically challenged families will remain a priority.
Matbakh El Kell: The Community Kitchen
Another aspect of poverty in Lebanon is food insecurity. In 2023, the U.N. estimates that 1.4 people in the country face food insecurity. This data includes high rates of malnutrition. 28.3% of women between 15-49 have anemia. In addition, low birth rates affect over 9% of infants.
Matbakh El Kell: The Community Kitchen is just one of many projects tackling food poverty in Lebanon. The kitchen serves over 2,500 meals a day, completely free. The project is in the blast epicenter and was developed due to the 2020 tragedy. Meals are for a range of vulnerable demographics. This demographic includes impoverished families, the elderly, hospital outpatients and orphans. Souk El Tayeb, a company founded in 2004, developed the kitchen. The company aims to support local cuisines and produce while uniting communities. Souk El Tayeb also oversees many farmer’s markets, further aiding the local economy.
The 2020 Beirut explosion was a tragedy many Lebanese citizens will carry with them for a lifetime. However, the disaster has seen various innovative, community-based projects focused on poverty reduction in Lebanon.
– Bethany Brown
Photo: Flickr
The Top 3 Facts About Child Poverty in Tajikistan
3 Facts About Child Poverty in Tajikistan
How USAID’s Feed the Future Program Is Working to End Child Poverty
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hunger reached half a million Tajik people. To support people’s health and wellness during this time, USAID provided necessary resources and aid. This included nutrition and health clinics for 178,748 children, as well as assistance for 2,782 children showing signs of malnutrition to overcome low weight and growth stunting. By making nutritious goods such as dense vegetables available to communities, the Feed the Future Program was able to increase proper nutrient intake from 18% to 53% in children 6 to 23 months old, and from 18% to 23% for those being breastfed.
They furthermore helped to amend local laws on access to clean drinking water, helping the Tajik government deliver safe water to its citizens. By providing $10.2 million in relief efforts, USAID was able to provide Tajik children with proper nutrition and sanitation.
– Nadia Soifer
Photo: Flickr
Fighting the Gender Wage Gap in Saudi Arabia
Viewed from a certain angle, Saudi Arabia has made impressive strides in recent years in closing the gender wage gap. Saudi law now prohibits gender wage discrimination, as well as discriminatory hiring practices. Women can at last access financial services as freely as men, not to mention travel to work without the permission of a male guardian. For a country that 20 years ago had one of the worst gender inequality ratings in the world, Saudi women today have the right to participate in the country’s economy as never before.
Behind these changes is Vision 2030, a vast government project aimed at diversifying the Saudi economy away from falling oil revenue. Since the project’s launch in 2016, sweeping reforms have radically altered women’s position in society. Today the World Bank ranks Saudi Arabia as one of the top Middle Eastern countries on its Women, Business and the Law Index, a measure of women’s legal equality when pursuing economic activity.
Nevertheless, whatever equal rights exist on paper, these have not yet translated into equal earnings for Saudi women. Female unemployment in the country remains nearly 10 times that of male unemployment, with 22.6% of adult women out of work according to UN Women. Where there is employment, the gender wage gap in Saudi Arabia remains significant: as high as 49% in the private sector. For every 100 riyals that a man earns, a woman earns 51.
The Situation
Given Saudi Arabia’s recent reforms, the legal barriers that once restricted women’s access to the economy no longer explain this difference in wages. Nor is a lack of education to blame: the female literacy rate, as low as 57% in 1992, is currently more than 95%. Saudi women now make up a slight majority in the country’s universities and are as likely as men to achieve a Bachelor’s degree. Yet despite the equity in lecture halls, female graduates still struggle to earn the same as their male counterparts. According to the OECD, only 41% of tertiary-educated women were in employment in 2018, compared to 94% of tertiary-educated men.
This situation points to continued gender discrimination and the limits of legal reforms alone in addressing the gender wage gap in Saudi Arabia. Equality Now, an NGO advocating for the human rights of women and girls, notes “unsettling discrepancies” between the progress made in the country and the reality for women living there. Despite headline-grabbing reforms granting women the right to drive, a system of male guardianship continues to dictate many aspects of female lives. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International this year both criticized the country’s new Personal Status Law — labeled “progressive” by the Saudi government — as formally codifying this male guardianship over women.
The Saudi workplace clearly needs cultural changes if women are to have acceptance and receive support and fair pay compared to their male colleagues. There are signs, however, that the ruling House of Saud is serious about capitalizing on the potential of its female citizens and integrating them into the economy — even if it is only willing to do so on its own terms.
Alnahda’s Efforts
Alnahda, a nonprofit closely linked to the royal family, is one organization advocating a more prominent role for women in Saudi society. Its mission, as stated on its website, is to promote a social environment that values women’s participation and prepares them for leadership roles. Alongside the government’s own Vision 2030, Alnahda shares the goal of getting more Saudi women into the workforce. The country has made undeniable progress toward this goal.
Between 2018 and 2020, female labor participation in Saudi Arabia rose by two-thirds, and 50% of women aged 15-24 are now in work. This represents a sea change not only for women’s rights in the country but also for the fight against female poverty. In 2017 the UN’s Special Rapporteur observed how, being excluded from employment, many female-headed Saudi households were reliant on charity and extended family for survival. Access to secure jobs should in theory make life less precarious for those women previously tied to private aid. The challenge for the future, however, will be ensuring the government makes good on the promise of equal wages for women enshrined in law.
– Alex Russell
Photo: Flickr
How AI in Cuba Can Help Improve Living Standards in Cuba
In 2019, the island of Cuba announced that it would collaborate with China to build an institution dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), with the aim of displaying AI’s “capacity and potential” to diversify technology and be beneficial for Cuban society. The Hebei University of International Studies is based in China and is under the direction of Dr. Yailé Caballero, one of the leading Cuban scientists of AI and international relations. This new facility is symbolic of the potential benefits of AI in Cuba to help reduce poverty and improve living standards in the country and has boosted interest in AI among Cuban scientists since it was announced.
The Way AI Can Detect Weather
In early 2023, the Institute of Meteorology of Cuba began work on a project that uses AI to forecast periods of drought or heavy rainfall. By estimating the behavior of rainfall and droughts up to a year in advance, AI can be used in collaboration with farmers to preserve crop yield and prepare for adverse weather patterns.
How AI Can Reduce Malnutrition and Food Poverty in Cuba
While recent efforts by social security services and the World Food Programme (WFP) have proved very effective in reducing levels of malnutrition and food poverty in Cuba, inflation levels have skyrocketed in recent times, slowing this progress. If a crop has a very low yield due to drought/excess rainfall, basic laws of supply and demand tell us that because there is less of it, the price of food will increase. With AI being able to forecast these weather patterns, the Cuban agricultural industry, in collaboration with water companies, is able to take necessary precautions and inform decision-making to keep yield high and prices down.
With lower prices and greater availability of food, living standards in Cuba are likely to increase as a direct result of AI. A report by the Economist Group found that AI should boost the GDP of Latin American economies by 5%, incentivizing investment in AI technology. Cuban agriculture is the nation’s largest industry and employs roughly 18% of the population, meaning that the use of AI to protect farming by forecasting weather patterns months in advance will also help to secure employment and wages for 2 million people. This shelters a significant portion of the population from the risk of poverty and upholds living standards in the country.
How AI Can Help Allocate Resources
Another way that AI could improve living standards in Cuba is in the allocation of resources. Cuba’s economy is centrally planned, meaning that the government exercises control over most economic planning through state-run companies. However, the impact of COVID-19, tight U.S. sanctions and a drop in oil supply from Venezuela have contributed to stagnant economic growth. A report from the Human Rights Commission found that certain algorithms that utilize AI can provide a more effective allocation of resources. By reducing government inefficiencies, money is better spent on programs that can boost Cuban living standards and alleviate those living in poverty.
While AI is still in its early development in Cuba, future plans for extra funding are likely to spur further innovation in the industry, especially once the benefits of using AI in agriculture and resource allocation are fully realized. It is important that Cuba not only rely on AI to boost living standards but instead employ it as an instrument for its pre-existing (and fairly successful) poverty alleviation programs.
– Tom Lowe
Photo: Flickr
Cows For Cambodia: Bringing Aid to Cambodian Families
Cows for Cambodia
Cows for Cambodia began when founder Andrew Costello visited Cambodia in 2011 and noticed the poverty level. He partnered with cattle expert Wallace Gunthorpe to bring his charity to life. By 2015, Cows for Cambodia had raised over $15,000 and given cows to 50 families. Today, it has become Cambodia’s biggest agricultural charity.
Cows for Cambodia is a cow bank. It loans pregnant cows to families who benefit from having them. The family looks after the pregnant cow, and when it gives birth, the family keeps the calf. The calf grows up, becoming worth $800 to the Cambodian family.
Many cows in Cambodia have bad reproductive performance, and calf survival rates have dropped significantly. Cambodian cattle also have poor body conditions and are susceptible to many diseases, such as foot and mouth disease and hemorrhagic septicemia. Worms, lice and flies also plague them. Cows for Cambodia’s goal is for each one of their cows to remain healthy and happy in Cambodia. Cows for Cambodia administers vaccinations and injections for each cow to ensure their health and happiness.
In Cambodia, a cow can be worth the same as a house, and many families only dream of owning one. Families can break free of the poverty cycle simply by owning a cow. Cattle are an important part of life in rural Cambodia, and they can become an investment for a family. Beyond just providing beef, families can use cattle as draft animals, and the cattle provide families with fertilizer so they can continue to farm. By owning a cow, a family’s finances improve, children stay in school longer and begin to lift themselves out of poverty.
Tours
In 2016, Cows for Cambodia had its first tour in Cambodia. Today’s tours center around charity work and cultural immersion in Cambodian villages. Participants of each tour have the opportunity to work with cows and families and learn about vaccinations and pregnancy testing at the cattle farm. Tours include cooking for kids and helping provide English lessons at the local village school. Tourists can also become a part of the world-famous rice run charity system and deliver over 3,000kg of rice to families who are in need.
Rice Runs
Cows for Cambodia began holding rice run donations in 2015, and they describe themselves as the fastest donation in the world. An Australian Facebook page asks people to donate $50 for a 50kg bag of rice. The donor can send a message to the Cambodian family that will receive the rice, which they write on the bag along with the donor’s name. The bag of rice reaches a Cambodian family within two hours, and the organization takes a photo of them with the rice, which they post on their Facebook page. This donation system ensures that 100% of the donation goes toward helping Cambodian families and allows the donor to see their donation’s use and who it helped.
How to Help
Cows for Cambodia offers ways donors can contribute to the cause and help these rural families. No matter the amount a donor is willing to donate, every amount can help a family. $15 can vaccinate a cow, $30 will feed a family for a month and $1000 will give a family a cow. Cows for Cambodia’s goal is to have 1,000 cows in the project, and each donation goes a long way toward achieving that goal.
– Jack Wells
Photo: Flickr