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Scholarships for Students from War-Torn Countries

Scholarships for Students
According to the United Nations, “100 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.” Many of these individuals have lost their chances of obtaining a higher education. In particular, three universities are offering scholarships for students from war-torn countries.

HEC Paris

The HEC Foundation and HEC Paris created “HEC Imagine Fellows” in October 2021 — a scholarship program for students from war-torn countries. The two-year-long program helps students pursue a master’s degree in management. Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and joint-CEO of Mirakl and graduate of HEC Paris, funded “HEC Imagine Fellows.” HEC Paris greeted its first enrollment of students at the beginning of the 2022 academic year.

HEC Paris believes that promoting “diversity, intercultural comprehension and tolerance” between its students from different cultural backgrounds will create more peace in the world. For this reason, the scholarship program will choose successful applicants based not only on their academic excellence but also on their interest in intercultural understanding and peace.

During the academic course Business & Peace, students will examine the role that private businesses may play in helping to keep peace and stability in areas that have experienced violence or war. In Business for Peace & Development, applicants will explore how private businesses could collaborate with NGOs in post-conflict areas to “support integrated growth, climate, and biodiversity initiatives,” Bloomberg says.

In Public Policy & Social Responsibility, students will research the problems with child labor in underdeveloped and conflict-torn countries and propose ways to reduce its occurrence. HEC Paris has made it a priority to cover the yearly tuition of approximately 10 students from conflict-ridden countries.

Columbia University

Columbia University established Scholarship for Displaced Students as an attempt to assist foreign students who cannot finish their higher education studies due to conflict or other types of danger in their home countries. As a sign of Columbia’s support, the university will award these students “up to full tuition, housing and living assistance while pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees across all 19 Columbia schools and affiliates,” Columbia Global Centers reports.

Annually, the program will provide up to $6 million in funding to each cohort of around 30 students. Schools, the scholarship program and student organizations at Columbia will offer mentoring and assistance to these refugee students. The scholarship program has already helped 33 students from 19 nations to further their studies in 14 educational institutions. The scholarship has no age limitations but there are eligibility requirements.

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester Humanitarian Scholarships came about at the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, but extends to “any international applicant who has been displaced because of armed conflict or is at serious risk of persecution or violence due to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” its website says. As many as 20 refugee students will receive a fully funded scholarship. The university provided “10 undergraduate and 10 postgraduate-taught” positions in the initial year and covered tuition, living expenses and visas. The estimated annual operating cost of the scheme is £5 million.

People who are currently residing outside of the U.K. and those who have sought asylum in the U.K. are eligible to apply to the university. The program requirements are flexible. Apart from the University of Manchester Humanitarian Scholarships, the university also provides other scholarships as a part of its social responsibility agenda. For example, there are Equity and Merit Scholarships for sub-Saharan African students and Undergraduate Access Scholarships for “U.K. applicants who have been in care or estranged,” its website says.

Education should be accessible to everyone who is willing to learn and expand their knowledge and war or persecution should not limit this. For this reason, scholarships for students from war-torn countries are necessary and essential.

– Elizaveta Medvedkina
Photo: Flickr

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Child Marriage in Bangladesh

Child Marriage in Bangladesh
UNICEF defines child marriage as the marriage or “informal union” of a girl or boy younger than the age of 18. According to a UNICEF report, Bangladesh currently holds the fourth-highest rate of child marriage worldwide and the highest prevalence in the Asian region. Though child marriage rates are on the decline in South Asia, with an 18% drop from 1985 to 2010, it is still common for young females aged 15-18 to enter into unions. However, with the help of programs that the UNICEF headed, child marriage in Bangladesh is declining.

Child Marriage in Bangladesh

A 2016 brief by the World Bank has approximated that, in Bangladesh, six in 10 women still marry “early.” To be precise, 59.4% of women currently aged 18-22 entered into unions before reaching their 18th birthday. According to the brief, on average, these women were just 15.8 years old at the time of marriage. Moreover, 0.5% of these women married before the age of 12.

Such high rates of child marriage in Bangladesh are the result of a combination of economic and social practices; in communities where marrying young is most prevalent, girls and young women are treated as subordinate to their male counterparts. Infringing on a child’s “right to free and full consent,” as a result of religious and/or cultural practices, or even in exchange for a social or economic imperative, brings about severe consequences.

Marriage at a young age increases a child’s “risk for physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse.” Not only is child marriage a humanitarian issue but it also contributes to delayed economic development. Child marriage often arises as a consequence of poverty — impoverished families seeking economic relief by marrying off their daughters. Child marriage consequently also contributes to poverty rates by eliminating working potential.

Approximately 38 million child brides live in Bangladesh, according to a 2020 UNICEF report, and the World Bank estimates that national poverty rates in Bangladesh reached nearly 40 million in 2016, showing a clear correlation between child marriage and poverty.

With child brides not having access to educational opportunities and their own “decision-making power,” Bangladesh is eliminating a potential working class.

Action to Reduce Child Marriage

With the intervention of actionable programs, like UNICEF’s Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, which responds to the complexities of child marriage practices, rates are on the decline.

In 2016, UNICEF and the UNFPA launched the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage to address the issue in the countries with the highest rates of child marriage, including Bangladesh.

The program “promotes the rights of adolescent girls to avert marriage and pregnancy and enables them to achieve their aspirations through education and alternative pathways,” the UNICEF website explains. On a  household level, the program works to change attitudes about child marriage and the status of girls in society. On a broader, legislative level, the program advocates for legislation and policies that uphold the human rights of girls and encourages data-informed approaches to the development of such policies.

In 2021, 480 child journalists in Bangladesh, with girls accounting for 50% of this team, received skills training and tools from UNICEF to create videos to raise awareness on “child marriage, gender equality and girls’ empowerment.” The country’s “first-ever children’s online news platform” broadcasted the video content.

A Child Helpline and Conditional Cash Transfers

One way UNICEF’s program intervenes in the issue of child marriage in Bangladesh is through a toll-free national helpline, which it established with the Bangladesh government in 2015. In April 2020, the child helpline received 450 calls related to cases of child marriages.

The helpline saved Yesmin, a child bride, on the day of her marriage. After facing harassment from an “older man,” her family arranged her marriage as a means of protecting her. Upon receiving an anonymous tip of her arranged union through the helpline, police came to the scene, negotiating with her father to call off the marriage. In a UNICEF report, Yesmin shared, “I was so happy when I realized it wasn’t going ahead after all.”

UNICEF also offers conditional cash transfers to households that are at high risk of pushing their children into child marriages. UNICEF provides the grants on the condition that girls stay in school, do not marry and do not engage in child labor. Parents must also attend UNICEF educational sessions focusing on the negative impacts of child marriage.

In treating and supporting young girls equitably, the program boosts girls’ decision-making power and independence — qualities child marriage deprives young brides of.

By focusing on educating community members on the consequences of child marriages, supporting those betrothed as children and addressing gender discrimination, Bangladesh is on the way to effectively ending child marriage. With the work of UNICEF, a world of opportunities is opening for the youth that would otherwise come to an abrupt end as a result of child marriage.

– Micaella Balderrama
Photo: Flickr

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NGOs Resume Programs in Afghanistan

Programs in Afghanistan
Three NGOs resumed programs in Afghanistan after an order from Taliban authorities on December 24, 2022, prevented women from working in non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Organizations like Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and CARE have now restarted work across the country.

The order for both foreign and local NGOs to suspend female staff came after the Taliban claimed that female aid workers were not adhering to the strict dress code currently enforced in Afghanistan. As Taliban rules dictate that men must not deliver assistance to women, the ban has made it extremely difficult for NGOs to work, as they can only effectively support half the population. As a result, most NGOs have now suspended operations in Afghanistan.

Humanitarian Programs Resume

However, three weeks after the Taliban announced the orders, Save the Children, the IRC and CARE resumed their health and nutrition services after receiving assurances from the Ministry of Public Health that it would be safe for their female staff to return to work. Save the Children has also confirmed that it is restarting some education programs, while the IRC is working with provincial authorities to discuss the possibility of female staff returning to work in other sectors.

This week, the U.N.’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, also confirmed that Taliban ministers were in the process of drawing up new guidelines to allow some humanitarian organizations to employ Afghani women. Mr. Griffiths told the BBC that he thought the Taliban were “listening” and had received “encouraging responses” after numerous meetings with Taliban leaders to discuss the ban on female NGO workers.

Restrictions on Women’s Rights and the Humanitarian Crisis

The Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers is just one of the numerous restrictions placed on women in the country since they came into power in 2021. Driven by an oppressive and patriarchal interpretation of Islam, the Jihadist group has undone much of the previous efforts to liberalize the country in years before their takeover. Women in Afghanistan are currently subject to strict dress codes, unable to attend schools or universities and cannot enter certain public spaces such as gyms or parks.

Women are witnessing the loss of their liberties and autonomy amid an unprecedented humanitarian emergency. With 18.9 million people experiencing food insecurity, an extraordinary amount of people are set to suffer from malnutrition, starvation and preventable diseases this year. In light of this, the need for NGOs to provide aid and address inequalities is more prevalent than ever.

NGOs Helping

As NGOs resume programs in Afghanistan, services from Save the Children, the IRC and CARE in Afghanistan will hopefully provide some relief during this humanitarian crisis. Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Save the Children has provided more than 3.3 million people (1.8 million of those being children) with nutritional, educational and mental health services, as well as essential aid such as blankets, materials to build shelters and hygiene products.

The IRC has also provided aid to thousands of villages across nine provinces in Afghanistan. It is currently supporting more than 100 health centers, helping locals with community development projects and improving access to education, particularly in rural areas. The organization is also leading the fight to protect and empower women and girls in the country by providing them with education opportunities, giving advice on women’s health and teaching them advocacy skills in its Afghan Women and Girls Program.

CARE runs three programs in Afghanistan. Its Resilience Program works to protect women’s social and political rights and seeks to promote female engagement in business, for instance through agricultural production. Its Education Program also provides children with access to education through a community-based approach, whilst its Health Equity and Rights Program provides health care to vulnerable adults and children.

While some of these services are still under suspension due to the ban, the resumption of programs in Afghanistan in the health and nutrition sector is bringing some hope and optimism to a struggling country. With continuing negotiations between the U.N. and the Taliban to try and reverse the decrees restricting women’s rights, it is vital that people continue to support NGOs in the hope that more humanitarian sectors will start to open up for women to work in.

– Priya Thakkar
Photo: Flickr

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3 Groups Working to Improve Education in Africa

Improve Education in Africa
Asante Africa, Street Child and Literacy for Life are three groups working to improve education in Africa by expanding primary access to strong educational programming in African countries. Developments in this field are vital for global growth in the future.

The Importance of Learning

Quality education remains an important factor for economic growth in countries that exist in states of poverty. If younger generations are able to learn key skills in their youth, they will be able to contribute positively to job development, employment and technological advancement.

Concern Worldwide reports on estimates by UNESCO indicating that “if all students in low-income countries had just basic reading skills (nothing else), an estimated 171 million people could escape extreme poverty.” Therefore, improving educational systems is integral to economic growth and development in struggling countries.

Because of this, aid programs that expand upon current educational programs and resources have the ability to end the cycle of poverty in impoverished nations. In Africa specifically, local NGOs working to increase access to quality education are making a difference on a large scale.

3 Groups Working to Improve Education in Africa

  1. Asante Africa. This organization works in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with the hopes to soon expand to Rwanda and goals to use education to positively affect the lives of 1.6 million children and young adults by 2025. It sponsors three main programs for students in these countries. The first, named the Youth Livelihood Program, is focused on teaching the leadership skills necessary for a successful future of entrepreneurship, employment and empowered living. The next program, named Wezesha Vijana, works to improve the education of young girls. This demographic faces specific challenges when it comes to education and Asante Africa works to alleviate some of these struggles by addressing the roots of these issues. It educates girls about their rights, teaches financial literacy, encourages leadership skills and facilitates safe learning environments in schools. The final program, titled the Accelerated Learning Program, focuses on expanding access to technological resources and helps support teachers to further develop their educational knowledge. Each of Asante Africa’s specific programs helps focus on key issues hindering progress in education in order to improve education in Africa.
  2. Street Child. As an organization working to improve education in Africa, Street Child’s “interventions are integrated, coupling instantaneous change for children alongside increasing the capacity of caregivers, communities and schools to support sustainable, long-term change,” its website says. This means that it addresses the problem from both sides, improving education while expanding upon support systems to continue growth. To complete this mission, Street Child builds schools, trains teachers, helps schools increase income and changes the narrative around the importance of improving education. To date, Street Child has helped almost 413,000 children access education while supporting 682 schools by building, revamping and training more than 12,000 teachers. Street Child operates in many countries, focusing on those in Africa but supporting students across the globe. Its practices allow for higher-quality educational systems, which will have significant effects on the minimization of poverty.
  3. Literacy for Life. This nonprofit has been operating in South Africa since 2015. Its main goal is improving early childhood development (ECD) and assisting in preparations for future education. It supports underprivileged schools through the donation of resources and systems to set schools up for success in aiding the development of young students. This work is bolstered with nutritional programs for youth in underprivileged households, allowing more children to have the ability to focus on education rather than food insecurity. In an interview with ITNewsAfrica.com, Eloïs Lack from Literacy for Life explains that “children will be at a greater advantage when they are in Grade 1 if they have had exposure to a pre-writing and numeracy program that helps to develop visual discrimination, gross and fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, body image and muscle memory.” Therefore, early childhood developmental programming is integral to a successful future in the educational system. Literacy for life has placed a focus on expanding this sector and working with ECD schools to expand accessibility, thereby improving educational quality in South Africa.

Looking Forward

The work of these organizations helps to reduce poverty in Africa by improving education to promote future growth. Many similar NGOs, initiatives and nonprofits exist across Africa and the world and their work is changing learning systems for the better.

– Hailey Dooley
Photo: Flickr

The Success in Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease

Guinea Worm Disease
The once common guinea worm disease, which used to be present in Africa and some parts of the Middle East and Asia, has almost been eradicated. Guinea worm disease is a parasite-caused disease that is prevalent in areas that lack access to clean drinking water. The worm’s larvae exist in many various types of water such as wells and lakes and fleas carry them making it easy for people to ingest them into their bodies. Guinea worm disease is a disease that directly affects people suffering from extreme poverty, as only exists in the 10% of the world’s population that lacks access to clean and safe water along with adequate health care.

How it Affects the Body

Someone who has contracted guinea worm disease often experiences symptoms such as fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, rash and more. People can remove the worm from the skin in a painful procedure, however, removing the worm can lead to many complications along with the possibility of bacterial infection. If a person does not fully extract the worm from the body, the dead worm’s remains in the skin can cause even more discomfort and issues in the surrounding area.

Though death is not terribly common with this disease, guinea worm disease can result in disabilities and impairment to the affected individual. The pain can become so extreme that mobility becomes difficult. These complications result in losing many days of work, schooling and many other important aspects of life and can even leave people impaired for months at a time. This leads to many financial losses for those suffering from the disease due to the inability to work.

Cases Over the Years

In 1985, there were around 892,055 cases of guinea worm disease worldwide. These cases mostly occurred in areas such as Western Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya along with countries in Asia such as Pakistan and India. In 2022, however, there were only 13 cases worldwide, making it an all-time record low of reported cases. There is no vaccine or medicine that can prevent this disease, so the progress that the world has seen in eradicating this disease is in part to many volunteers heading to these remote places in the world. The Carter Center, which former president Jimmy Carter co-founded, became the leader of the fight to eradicate this disease in 1986. Since then, the volunteers that went to help these communities provided water filters, larvacides (an insecticide to kill mosquitos) and proper water safety education.

Eradication

With only 13 cases worldwide as of last year, guinea worm disease will become the second disease after smallpox to undergo eradication without a vaccine or medicine. Former President Carter was pleased to hear about the low number of cases, saying “Rosalynn and I are pleased with this continued advance toward eradicating Guinea worm disease. Our partners, especially those in the affected villages, work with us daily to rid the world of this scourge. We are heartened that eradication can be achieved soon.” Through the extensive work of these volunteers, this horrible and debilitating disease has become virtually eradicated in these poverty-stricken countries. Providing these villages with the proper education and equipment in order to properly fight this disease has led to the amazing progress that occurred over the past few decades.

– Olivia MacGregor
Photo: Flickr

How Indonesian Coffee Farming is Closing the Gender Wage Gap

Indonesian Coffee Farming
Indonesia is not the world’s largest exporter of coffee, but its coffee industry is nothing to scoff at when it employs millions of coffee farmers annually. Coffee farming is a profitable industry in Indonesia. The Asian nation has an ideal climate for coffee bean growth and has had incredible coffee output, averaging the production of more than 600,000 tons of coffee or 4 million bags. International aid organizations are beginning new initiatives and investments to solidify economic stability, decrease poverty rates and end gender disparities.

Indonesia’s Gender Disparities and Poverty

Indonesia is notorious for its patriarchal attitudes and the U.N. has ranked Indonesia 85th out of 149 countries for its gender wage gaps. Its ranking is among the highest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with women earning less than 60% of their male counterparts, despite often having the same levels of education.

Indonesia has widespread economic gender disparities, which could make women more likely to live in or fall into poverty than the male population. Data from the Central Statistics Agency recorded that in March 2022, at least 9% of Indonesia’s population lives in poverty. To combat the poverty rates that put women at a disadvantage in comparison to Indonesian men, women are seeking out jobs in sectors with greater chances for a steady and reliable income, mainly in agriculture.

According to a Springer Journal study, women lack access to training for sustainable farming practices, marketing and managing businesses connected to the agricultural sector. However, crop yields and production would likely increase by 2.5-4% if women were to integrate into the agricultural workforce. By 2018, 49% of Indonesia’s agricultural workforce consisted of women. Without them, agricultural stability would decrease, with the rural economy losing significant income and poverty rates increasing.

Indonesian Coffee Farming Practices

Agriculture is one of Indonesia’s three dominant business sectors. In 2021, it was responsible for 13% of the nation’s GDP. Agriculture has historically been one of the primary sources of income for Indonesians. Indonesia’s agriculture sector is a crucial global producer, with coffee as one of its critical exports. Since the 1960s, Indonesian coffee farming has steadily grown and expanded to offer more and more job opportunities for farmers nationwide.

Indonesian coffee farming occurs mainly on small shareholder farms. Small shareholder farms are beneficial as they safely sustain the economy of the rural populations, help with expanding markets and protect natural resources. Protecting natural resources is especially helpful as Indonesia relies on its agricultural systems.

This farming practice involves renting or not owning a great deal of land on which the coffee is grown. Coffee plantations cover 1.24 million hectares and small-shareholder farmers operate more than 90% of Indonesia’s coffee farming land, according to Indonesia Investments. Each farmer works on only one to two hectares. The small sizes of the farms might not seem impressive, but the reliability of the farms entices investors worldwide. Indonesia’s government works to revitalize the land at any sign of slowing output and international aid organizations work to keep Indonesian coffee farming a viable option for jobs, especially as women take more jobs in the sector to end the wage gaps.

Female Coffee Farmers Taking Indonesia By Storm

Women are integrating into the coffee workforce at an incredible rate and are working as small shareholder farmers. Even though female farmers lack formal training, in some regions of Indonesia, they are 80% of the coffee farming workforce. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) began working with Indonesia’s female coffee farmers to train them to improve their productivity and increase their income. Working on a flexible schedule, the IFC trained 1,600 women and helped open new loan businesses that cater to Indonesia’s coffee farming needs. The number of female coffee farmers trained rose to 27%, up from 16%, and productivity and income improved by 92% on average. Helping female coffee farmers improve their productivity and market profitability will bring them new economic opportunities to lift them out of poverty and improve local economies.

USAID announced its new program, Indonesia Coffee Enterprise Resilience Initiative (Resilient Coffee). The program creates partnerships with Keurig Dr. Pepper and Root Capital, a U.S.-based non-government organization. The program intends to provide credit for Indonesia’s rural agricultural businesses. USAID Indonesia Mission Director Jeff Cohen stated that the program, “expand[s] public-private capacity and commitment to strengthening and increasing inclusive economic growth, as well as prioritizing investment in women’s economic empowerment.” USAID’s new program will expand Indonesian coffee farming’s economic opportunities and “invest in women’s economic empowerment.” Empowering female coffee farmers will help end the gender wage gap and poverty struggles while bringing new economic opportunities to the region that benefit all involved.

– Clara Mulvihill
Photo: Flickr

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How Charities are Fighting Poverty With AI

Poverty With AI
With the rapid emergence of widely accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, such as Chat GPT, it is getting easier for small organizations to leverage the power of AI in everyday use as technology becomes less expensive. Charities can now take advantage of the accessibility of AI to greatly benefit philanthropy and fundraising to effectively carry out their roles and aid in the fight against global poverty.

Fighting Poverty with AI

Artificial Intelligence has already helped combat global poverty around the world. The founding director of the Sandford Poverty & Technology Lab, Elisabeth Mason, says that technology and the emergence of AI “puts us in a better position to solve issues we’ve never been able to solve.” While Mason claims that technology alone may not be able to fully eliminate poverty, the involvement of other factors such as low education levels, lack of workplace skills and unaffordable food and resources could help the world fight poverty with AI.

Some researchers are using AI to track impoverished zones most in need. One impactful example of how AI has helped combat global poverty is in 2020, when Marshall Burke, David Lobell and Stefano Ermon led a team of researchers at Stanford to develop a powerful tool that uses AI to track the development of poverty levels across villages in Africa. They managed to achieve this by combining AI with satellite imagery that is both free and accessible to the public, which allowed them to be able to predict poverty in these areas with an accuracy between 81% and 99%.

Another way scientists have integrated AI into techniques for combating poverty is by improving agriculture. According to the World Bank, almost 65% of working adults living in poverty rely on agriculture, as there is an intricate link between global poverty and agriculture. Sending aid and resources can only do so much for helping the world’s poor, and thus it is vital to invest in the agriculture sector to give farmers a way to elevate their financial status, as investments in the agricultural sector produce four times more effective results in poverty reduction than any other economic sector.

Agricultural development is a powerful poverty-reduction tool, and therefore, Carnegie Mellon University launched FarmView as a project to solve the global food crisis and fight poverty with AI. FarmView essentially uses robotics that AI powers to improve the agricultural yield of certain staple crops and plant breeding, especially sorghum. Sorghum is tolerant of both drought and heat, which is valuable in developing countries like Nigeria, India and Ethiopia as it thrives in famine-prone parts of the world.

Taking Advantage of AI

These new emerging techniques to fight poverty with AI could mean significant developments for charities that are advocating for the world’s poor. Here is a list of measures that charities may take to adopt AI into their battles against poverty and better improve their organization and techniques for fundraising and philanthropy:

  1. Targeted Outreach: As seen with the example from Stanford, charities can use AI to analyze past and current data on poverty levels to provide helpful information by identifying individuals and communities most in need and delivering services and necessities to the poor. This allows charities to target their efforts and reach a wider range of people living in poverty more effectively.
  2. Virtual Assistants and Chatbots: Charities can use AI-powered chatbots and other types of virtual assistants to aid in technical tasks that would make the operation of the charity smoother and more effective. For example, chatbots can help answer frequently asked questions, provide information on different services and collect donations.
  3. Predictive Modeling: Charities can help analyze poverty-related factors, including unemployment and rising costs of living, to predict future trends and needs. This can help with planning for future challenges and allow charities to allocate resources accordingly.
  4. Fraud Detection: Detecting fraud can be easier than ever, as accessible AI is able to analyze patterns of donations, identify suspicious activity and prevent charities from losing funds.
  5. Automation: Charities can also automate certain manual labor tasks to fortify the process of running a charity, including data entry, which allows charities to redirect funds and savings to other poverty-related efforts, and ensure the smooth operation of the charities.

The Beginning of a New Era

Charities have already begun adopting AI into their operations, and they will only continue to explore the possibilities technology can bring to fight poverty with AI. Tech giant IBM, for instance, has partnered up with the nonprofit organization St John’s Bread & Life to establish the Emergency Food Best Practice project. With the organization helping “serve more than 2,000 meals a day” in New York, IBM plans to develop a tool based on the data and distribution model of St. John’s Bread & Life and share it with other organizations to produce results benefiting those most in need.

– Noura Matalqa
Photo: Flickr

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5 Organizations in India that Help Women Who Faced Violence 

Organizations in India
In India, 52% of women and 42% of men consider it acceptable for a husband to physically abuse his wife. Additionally, according to U.N. Women, one in three women globally encounter physical or sexual assault, in most cases from their partner. However, there are many nonprofit organizations in India that help women and girls who faced violence. Here are five of the organizations in India.

International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC)

International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) began its journey in 2001 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It develops services to help female victims of assault. The organization offers emergency and long-term rehabilitation assistance. Additionally, it offers housing services for women and children, as well as counseling, financial assistance and opportunities for skill development and employment.

The organization has a Dhwani Crisis Hotline that works around the clock and provides instant help as well as follow-up and referral services that offer guidance at different phases of the healing and rehabilitation process. The number of calls to the Dhwani Hotline during the lockdown in March 2020 grew by three times. In 2020, the hotline got 1,275 crisis calls and 4,141 follow-up calls.

My Choices Foundation

Elca Grobler established the My Choices Foundation in Hyderabad, India, in 2012. The foundation strives to eliminate domestic abuse and stop sex trafficking in India. In the same year, it opened its first Operation PeaceMaker counseling center where local women offer support to domestic abuse victims. Now it operates in 10 states in more than 6,500 locations around India.

According to its 2021 report, in 2014, the foundation introduced its anti-sex trafficking wing – Operation Red Alert. Next year it created an anti-trafficking interference initiative – Safe Village Program which helps prevent trafficking from happening in villages and communities. Also, it opened India’s first national toll-free hotline to combat human trafficking. Other than that in 2018, it created Lotus Safe Home which offers protection to women and children who manage to flee from abuse. The following year it established a domestic violence helpline for women.

During the lockdown in 2020, the foundation delivered necessary supplies to more than 13,000 people which helped 5,169 families that the pandemic affected. By the end of 2022, the foundation trained 290 peacemakers, provided counseling to 14,971 families, educated 3,270,844 people on domestic abuse and 32,530,534 people on sex trafficking and got 71,548 calls through the sex trafficking helpline.

Sayodhya Home

A group of women activists who worked with at-risk children founded the nonprofit organization Sayodhya in Hyderabad in 2010. After seeing a rise in the number of incidents of abuse against women and children, activists decided to create this home. Sayodhya Home became a short-stay home (from one day to a month) for women and children who have faced physical abuse.

Since 2010 Sayodhya has given emergency shelter to more than 3,000 women and young girls. The organization also opened free family counseling centers in 10 urban slums in Hyderabad. Besides that Sayodhya enabled training in tailoring to 500 women, helped 600 students find jobs, provided legal and psychological counseling to 1,500 women and supported the education of 600 girls.

ActionAid Association India

Among other organizations in India that help women is ActionAid Association India which is a part of ActionAid International that operates in more than 40 countries worldwide. It focuses on issues like “Women’s and girls’ rights, Child Rights, Natural resources, Democracy and governance.” In India, it provides services across 25 states. Because of the organization’s work more than 1,180,500 families from underprivileged neighborhoods in 317 districts lead better lives.

According to its 2017-18 report, ActionAid Association India is running 22 one-stop crisis centers (OSCC) in cooperation with the government to address the abuse that women experience. These centers are working in four states: Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, OSCC got 39,000 calls and 11,000 of those were from women. The organization linked 214 women with the police, provided 94 women and children with support, gave a short-stay shelter to 108 women and linked 13 minor girls with education and 33 women with skill development training. In Uttar Pradesh, the organization rescued 171 women and 18 children, gave 100 women shelter and helped 249 women with legal support.

Majlis Law

The original members of Majlis were active in the early women’s movement in Mumbai. One of the founders is Flavia Agnes, a legal scholar on women’s rights. The organization got its registration as a Society and Public Trust in 1991.

It is an all-female team of attorneys and activists that offers legal and social help to victims (women and children) of domestic and sexual violence from underprivileged social groups. The team assists victims during investigation and trial and provides social support from counseling to shelter. Bombay High Crout approved the Maharashtra State Handbook on Domestic Violence that Majlis Law created. Its achievements include providing legal support to more than 80,000 victims, providing social support to more than 100,000 victims, conducting more than 150,000 training sessions and reaching more than 1,500 collaborations.

These five organizations in India are helping women survive and start their lives over. With more recognition and support, more women and girls should be able to lead better and happier lives in India.

– Elizaveta Medvedkina
Photo: Flickr

Artificial Intelligence in South African Schools

Artificial Intelligence in South African Schools
With driverless taxis hitting the streets of San Francisco last year, evidently, humanity’s trust in artificial intelligence (AI) has turned a significant corner. No longer is the idea of computers being able to evolve and learn reserved to the pages of science fiction novels or Steven Spielberg blockbusters. In fact, this automated, adaptive technology will soon be arriving in schools in developing nations across the African continent; helping to educate future generations and alleviate millions from the confines of entrenched poverty. 

What is Adaptive Learning Technology?

Adaptive learning is a concept that has been around for decades and depicts a method whereby teachers try to suit the unique requirements of individual students by customizing activities specifically for them. By having students work on computers with adaptive learning technology software installed, individual pupils can receive hints and tips on how to solve problems separately from their peers, who may not require the extra help. This boosts confidence in struggling students and ensures they do not end up behind. 

Who is Behind It?

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies announced the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence Institute at the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali in September 2022. Ntshavheni stated that it was crucial that South Africa invests significantly to provide its youth with “access to modern training, skill sets and formal education.” To achieve this, the Department of Basic Education has introduced robotics and coding to the country’s school curriculum for Grades R to 3 and Grade 7 for the year 2023. This desire to introduce artificial intelligence in South African schools has come just months after Kenya became the first African country to teach coding as a school subject in March 2022. 

Which Companies are Pioneering the Software?

The ADvTech Group, a Johannesburg-based company that operates within the education industry, has become the first initiative to roll out its own artificial intelligence in South African schools. The new digital learning platform ADvLEARN aims to “enhance learning in Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematical Literacy.” MathU, a “software as a service (SaaS)” company based in Pretoria that specializes in adaptive learning technology and software engineering is creating this technology. The ambition is to create “personalized learning pathways” which will fill in any gaps in students learning, providing each pupil with the equivalent of a one-on-one tutor. 

Who is Benefitting From AI?

Daniel Makina, writing in the SA Financial Markets Journal, notes the boom in AI agricultural start-ups such as Aerobotics, MySmartFarm and DroneClouds, which are “spurring the technological revolution” in South Africa. The employment of AI in the agricultural sector has led to significant and permanent changes that will have lasting implications. In helping to identify diseases and enable the monitoring of soil health without the need for laboratory testing infrastructure, AI will allow future farmers to broker better prices with suppliers. Similarly, the introduction of artificial intelligence in South African schools, will help educate the next generation, and not just the brightest students but all those who would otherwise end up behind by a lack of customized tuition in large classrooms. 

Ultimately, those that wish to see a prosperous South Africa will welcome the increased involvement of adaptive technology in classrooms. The capacity to provide more support for students who may otherwise slip under the radar could have long-term benefits for future generations. Education is one of the key components in alleviating whole generations from the spiral of poverty and the introduction of artificial intelligence in South African schools may well serve as a catalyst in improving the lives of many of the nation’s poorest.

– Max Edmund
Photo: Flickr

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Netflix’s “The Swimmers” Fights Stigma Against Refugees

Stigma Against Refugees
“The Swimmers” is a 2022 Netflix production telling the remarkable true story of two sisters, Sara and Yusra Mardini, as they flee the war in their hometown of Damascus, Syria, in search of a better life in Germany. Inspired by true events, the movie captures the harrowing journey refugees undertake in their pursuit of safety and a brighter future, and in doing so, fights stigma against refugees by allowing the audience to empathize and relate to the characters.

The characters first journey to the Greek island of Lesbos, risking their lives in the open sea on an overcrowded boat. To prevent the boat from sinking, Sara and Yusra jump into the water and swim for the remainder of the journey. What follows is their arrival in Berlin and the path that led Yusra to compete for the refugee team in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The Realities Refugees Face

A strong script and good production capture the journey and realities that the refugees face across the sea and once in Europe. The contrast between friendship and life in Damascus with a near-death experience in open sea creates enduring empathy and humanizes the characters involved as the audience witnesses them separate from their families and the place they once called home.

The detail of the account makes the film an educational experience, outlining the process involved in accommodating such numbers of people and the lengthy bureaucratic procedures necessary to obtain official documentation. The scenes after the refugees’ arrival in Berlin are hauntingly endearing. The movie also highlights the susceptibility of refugees to exploitation and abuse along the journey.

The German government under Angela Merkel admitted more than 1 million refugees into the country in 2015. The movie depicts this once the sisters and their cousin process their photos and fingerprints, after which authorities separate them into male and female shelters. The identical dorms are scattered across a massive floor plan of what appears to be a warehouse, offering beds and storage space, but little to no privacy and personal space for the people inside. A beautiful scene, in the recognition of the government’s investment and efforts to accommodate the asylum seekers, with the somber aftertaste of realizing that many refugee needs still go unmet.

The Refugee Journey

As much as the story focuses on the journey and relationship of Sara and Yusra Mardini, the movie has a split dynamic, dancing on the line that separates the collective from the individual. This cleft dynamic is a central theme. The plot follows the story of the two sisters and is set against the backdrop of millions who have undertaken the same treacherous journey, with continuous reminders of the fortune of those who survived and succeeded in obtaining refuge.

According to data by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of mid-2022, there were more than 100 million forcibly displaced people globally, 32.5 million of which are refugees, with 6.8 million having fled Syria.

The outcome of the split approach the movie adopts highlights the collective plight of refugees and the far-reaching impacts of mass forced displacement while emphasizing the individuality of every person undertaking the difficult journey in search of refuge.

Changing Perceptions Through Information and Education

The efficacy of movies in conveying complex issues and situations is irrefutable. Sensory targeting of the auditory and visual imaginations transports the audience into the character’s shoes, creating empathy and understanding. Yusra emphasizes the importance of the education system in addressing the stigma against refugees by disseminating information and dispelling myths. Yusra, since her appearance at two back-to-back Olympic Games, has become a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and states that the movie will have a strong impact on fighting the stigma against refugees, enabling people to discuss displacement more openly and gain a better understanding of it.

This is a crucial step to take in addressing the stigma against refugees. The prerequisite to changing perceptions of refugees is understanding and acknowledging their struggles and their human need for safety and a stable future. People flee from war and poverty in search of better conditions to live their life. The harsh reality is that for many, conditions do not improve much. Globally refugees struggle to meet their basic requirements for health care, education and sustenance. UNHCR data outlines that four in five Syrian refugees in Jordan lived below the national poverty line prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the movie, Yusra struggled with being unable to represent her birth country, Syria, at the Olympic games. Initially fearing earning her Olympic place due to pity, her experiences eventually amalgamate into a sense of pride at representing the Refugee Olympic Team and turn her into a voice of inspiration and advocacy for all those experiencing what she went through.

Effectively capturing the plight of refugees in a movie fights the stigma against refugees by providing the foundation for this education to begin. This is a story of struggle, hardship and love, the intensities of which many cannot hope to fathom, condensed into a runtime of two hours and 15 minutes.

– Bojan Ivancic
Photo: Flickr