For thousands of vulnerable Georgians, poverty is not an abstract concept; it directly means an empty refrigerator, untreated illness or aging alone. The Chernovetskyi Fund tries to close these gaps by giving concrete help and necessary aid to those living in unfortunate circumstances and who poverty inflicts most severely.
What Is the Chernovetskyi Fund?
The Chernovetskyi Fund is one of Georgia’s largest private charitable organizations, launched by philanthropist Leonid Chernovetskyi in April 2012. The organization works to support Georgians struggling to meet basic needs due to income insecurity, illness, disability or age. The Fund’s mission focuses on supporting socially vulnerable groups, including those living below the poverty line, large families and the most vulnerable individuals facing illness, including children and adults.
Its programs are rooted in practical assistance that meets immediate needs while upholding dignity.
Home Care for the Elderly and Bedridden
The Fund’s most consequential program includes home care for older people and bedridden. Caregivers help beneficiaries perform their daily chores, including cleaning, food preparation and taking medicine. The program helps reduce health risks and helps families who can’t afford private care.
The home care initiative protects older adults from medical emergencies or institutionalization in homes and communities.
Family-Type Orphanages and Child Protection
Children who lack parental care are significantly less likely to achieve upward mobility in life and far more likely to experience long-term poverty. According to a report, children raised in unstable family environments face higher levels of social exclusion, poorer educational outcomes and greater economic disadvantage later in life. The Chernovetskyi Fund addresses this issue by supporting family-type orphanages that provide children with stable housing, education and emotional support.
Unlike large institutional settings, these homes offer a family-based environment that leads to stronger long-term outcomes and a lower risk of poverty in adulthood.
Day Centers, Canteens and Social Patrols
Food insecurity is still a daily fact for many low-income Georgians. The Fund has day centers and canteens that serve hot food to older people, people with disabilities and people without homes. Social patrol teams broaden this outreach and help locate individuals requiring immediate support.
By carrying out outreach in neighborhoods and public spaces, these teams make sure that people who do not choose to seek assistance still obtain it. This strategy not only protects against devastating deprivation but also against social isolation itself. In addition to well-defined initiatives, the Chernovetskyi Fund provides direct assistance, including food parcels, medications and household items.
Staff members assess each case individually to match aid with specific needs, ensuring appropriate support. For chronically ill children or adults caring for children, medical expenses can push families deeper into poverty. Targeted aid and caregiving help cover these costs, enabling caregivers to remain employed while keeping the household intact.
Scale and Measurable Impact
The Chernovetskyi Fund has provided more than $9 million for social assistance initiatives since its inception. In other words, thousands of vulnerable people across Georgia have benefited from its programs. The Fund’s scale enables it to respond quickly to crises while also delivering long-term support.
Reliable funding ensures continuity of care, which is crucial for addressing chronic poverty rather than offering only short-term relief.
Success Stories
Six-year-old Anna-Maria grew up in a family struggling with both poverty and illness. According to the Chernovetskyi Fund, her home once lacked consistent access to food and basic supplies, making everyday life a challenge for her and her family. After the Fund provided targeted assistance, including food, clothing and essential household items, Anna-Maria’s mother began to recover from the health issues that had heavily burdened the household.
The most joyful change came from Anna-Maria herself: she thanked supporters for helping her mother and shared, “Now she laughs and plays with me,” a profound shift from their earlier hardships.
Three young siblings—Tornike, Lazare and Luka—represent another heartwarming example of the Chernovetskyi Fund’s impact. According to the organization, the boys once lived in conditions of hardship and uncertainty. With the Fund’s support, they received essential care, meals and family outreach services that helped stabilize their home life.
Today, the brothers are healthy and happy, participating in family and community activities that poverty had once made out of reach.
Many elderly Georgians face poverty and loneliness, especially without family support or sufficient income. The Chernovetskyi Fund has reached people like Grandma Oliko and Grandpa Givi, who once lived with daily uncertainty and minimal access to care. The Fund provided regular food assistance, companionship through social visits and coordinated support that helped them remain safely in their home.
Staff and volunteers report that the couple is deeply grateful, not only for the material aid but also for the dignity and respect that come from sustained attention and care.
These personal stories show how a charity like the Chernovetskyi Fund can go beyond statistics to create real change in people’s lives. From a child’s laughter to a family finding peace and from elderly neighbors feeling seen to receiving care, the Fund’s work demonstrates a key lesson: when communities and donors engage in targeted, human-centered support, poverty becomes less permanent and more preventable.
Each example reflects the Fund’s core mission—to ensure that no one in Georgia is left behind in accessing food, health care, shelter or social support—and highlights how individual lives can improve when everyday kindness is paired with organized action.
A Compassionate Path Forward
The Chernovetskyi Fund’s work demonstrates that the most harmful effects of poverty can be mitigated when programs are targeted and human-centered. Its approach shows that dignity-focused aid, delivered consistently and at scale, can stabilize lives and strengthen communities. In the face of Georgia’s inequality and demographic challenges, the Chernovetskyi Fund plays an indispensable role.
– Salome Jincharadze
Salome is based in Tbilisi, Georgia and focuses on Good News, Politics for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Unsplash
Parliamentary Quotas Increase Women’s Political Representation
Parliamentary Quotas Aim To Correct Political Imbalances
Multiple nations in the Western Balkans have now adopted quota systems to address the existing gender disparities within their political institutions, including Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Parliamentary gender quotas require a political party to include a minimum percentage of women on candidate lists during elections. Legislators design these measures to tackle the persistent structural barriers.
Unequal access to party networks, campaign financing and political mentorship are all consequences of the absence of gender quotas. By incorporating gender quotas into electoral law, women’s visibility in politics can increase and governments can expand opportunities for female politicians to compete for office on an equal footing with men.
Women’s Representation Has Increased Following Quota Laws
The implementation of quota legislation resulted in countries in the Western Balkans achieving measurable gains in women’s parliamentary representation. Serbia is now ranked among the top nations in Europe for women’s representation in the national parliament, with women holding 37.2% of parliamentary seats. Additionally, steady increases were reported in Montenegro and North Macedonia.
This reflects the effectiveness and positive impact of quota requirements on election eligibility, as well as how they can rapidly change the gender composition of political institutions when properly enforced.
Effective quota systems rely on enforcement and in Montenegro and Serbia, electoral commissions require parties to comply with quota laws; failure to do so may result in disqualification from elections. These stringent enforcement mechanisms have prompted political parties to recruit and train female candidates, rather than placing them in symbolic or noncompetitive positions. As a result, parties have expanded leadership pipelines for women, increasing long-term political participation beyond a single election cycle.
Why Women’s Political Representation Matters for Poverty Reduction
Women’s political participation plays a crucial role in poverty reduction. Research indicates that women legislators are more likely to prioritize policies related to education, health care, social protection and labor rights compared to men. Effectively, these policy areas disproportionately benefit low-income households, including children and marginalized communities.
In the Western Balkans, inclusive governments have supported the expansion of social assistance programs, gender-responsive budgeting and family benefits. All these reforms play a massive role in reducing poverty risk, especially for single mothers and rural populations.
Despite notable gains, challenges remain as cultural resistance, unequal access to campaign financing and uneven enforcement continue to limit women’s political advancement in parts of the Western Balkans. Women from rural areas, ethnic minorities and low-income backgrounds remain underrepresented. This highlights the need for complementary reforms. Without continued political persistence, quota systems risk stagnation or symbolic compliance.
Looking Ahead
The effectiveness of parliamentary gender quotas in the Western Balkans has proven to be an impactful strategy for increasing women’s political representation in the region. With continued international support and legal reform, women’s leadership can further expand and reduce poverty by promoting an inclusive and responsive government system. As the region advances toward greater political and economic integration, women’s representation remains essential to maintaining long-term stability and equitable growth.
– Hana Abulkheir
Photo: Flickr
Addressing Child Marriage in Argentina
In Argentina, the gender pay gap is leading more girls and women to poverty. UN Women states that “Women and girls aged 15+ spend 23.4% of their time on unpaid care and domestic work, compared to 9.2% spent by men.” The power dynamics girls face regularly put them in a position where they do not have the resources to withstand poverty, therefore, leading them to child marriage in Argentina.
Leading Factors for Child Marriage
Girls Not Brides has stated that “16% of girls in Argentina marry or enter a union before age 18, and 2% marry before age 15.” The percentage of girls getting married as adolescents is proof of the scary reality that women and girls have to live through every day.
The law in Argentina works to prevent marriage before 18, however, parents and guardians have the right to enforce marriage at 16. This power dynamic is another social norm which influences gender inequalities to prevail. Other factors that result in child marriage include getting pregnant at a young age, which socially isolates young girls from their families and education. Girls also may feel compelled to stay in a union if it is their only support.
Improvements to Child Marriage in Argentina
Thankfully, there is a plan to eradicate child marriage in Argentina by 2030. Argentina is actively co-sponsoring legislation to prevent child marriage. It also aims to prevent violence, which enforces gender-based inequality and leads to issues such as child marriage. Significantly, the government will be prioritizing services to support those involved in child marriage.
People all over the world have been actively helping to stop child marriage in Latin America as well. This includes organizations such as Girls Not Brides. It has given a voice to girls and women who feel like they cannot speak freely.
In Argentina specifically, Girls Not Brides is improving the lives of young girls by utilizing The Foundation for Studies and Research on Women (FEIM). It researches and advocates against the issue of child marriage in Argentina, while training people to provide education on child marriage.
Meanwhile, SOS Children’s Villages has actively been working to stop adolescents from falling into the trap of entering marriage before 18. This organization creates a living environment for children to grow up in, providing them with education and support in their childhood and helping them move into the future independently. So far, “SOS Children’s Villages supports 1,270 adults and children, 1,610 attend their school and further training, 150 children grow up in their care and 840 are supported on their way to independence.” These factors all play a part in preventing child labor and marriage, and increasing quality of life.
Looking Ahead
While the injustice many young girls in Argentina face is immense, Argentina’s government and various organizations have actively worked toward protecting the rights of girls and improving the quality of life for girls in the country. Hopefully, with continued action, child marriage in Argentina will completely disappear.
– Freya Bryers
Photo: Flickr
Addressing HIV/AIDS in Malta
What Are HIV and AIDS?
HIV, also known as human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus that results in illness from a weakened immune system. The virus attacks healthy cells in the body, ultimately exposing the body to other infections. People most commonly spread it through unprotected sex, contact with the body fluids of someone with HIV or even when sharing injection equipment.
Eventually, if people leave it untreated, it can lead to AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS is described as the last stage of HIV, where the body’s cells and immune system are severely damaged. It can eventually lead to death if people leave it untreated during the initial HIV stage.
The Times of Malta recorded Malta’s first case of AIDS in 1984. In 1986, an estimated 25 individuals had a positive HIV test, which triggered a national health response. The Health Education Unit published leaflets named Fatti dwar 1-AIDS, to warn people of the untreatable infection. Moving into the 2000s, positive HIV tests mounted to 210 in 2003. According to The Times of Malta, “HIV was then named a notifiable infection on January 27, 2004.”
According to the HIV Justice Network, Malta passed a disease transmission law in 2005, which made it a crime for someone with an HIV infection to recklessly or intentionally pass it on to another. The sentencing powers include life imprisonment, and monthly sentences or fines.
Poverty in Malta – HIV/AIDS Prevalence Amongst Migrant Groups
While Malta’s economy continues to excel as a developed nation, poverty still affects the less fortunate, in this case, migrants fleeing their home to settle elsewhere. According to Trading Economics, Malta’s risk of poverty in 2024 reached 16.8%. Over the years, Malta has seen a fluctuating poverty rate, with both high and low peaks. Its highest recording reached 17.1% in 2019. The factors influencing poverty in Malta include variations in living conditions, unemployment rates and income inequality.
Across Malta, HIV/AIDS prevalence in migrants is more common than in nationals. To date, the country has welcomed 2,000 asylum seekers and 11,000 refugees, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). HIV testing is free for all individuals in Malta; however, if migrants receive a positive test, the treatment policy differs. Ultimately, those who do not have legal employment must pay for their treatment, resulting in higher untreated cases amongst migrants, due to high medical costs ranging between €600 to €1,500 monthly according to HIV Malta.
Background on HIV Malta
HIV Malta is a non-governmental organization working to help focus on the well-being and necessary quality of life of those with HIV/AIDS in Malta. The NGO addresses HIV in Malta by implementing educational programs, prevention methods, advocacy groups and support services. Its main aims also include:
Key Accomplishments and Collaborations
We Are Positive is an advocacy group that HIV Malta created in partnership with Checkpoint Malta and activist/artist Emma Grima. It aims to humanize HIV and promote sexual health in communities.
Its first artistic action, held in 2014 at the LOVE Monument in Spinola Bay, St Julian’s, included plastering the monument with 620 self-testing boxes and urging people to interact with them. The general public engaged in conversations, and people received encouragement to tell their HIV journey story. The box contained cards and stickers explaining where people could get tested. They highlighted the success of the campaign across their web page.
Checkpoint Malta also set up monthly peer support in 2024, encouraging those living with HIV to share their experiences in a confidential and safe space. Their ongoing monthly meetups provide an opportunity for people to communicate outside of medical settings.
The Future of HIV/AIDS in Malta
With HIV Malta leading as a forefront NGO in providing expertise to reduce the spread and risk of HIV transmission across Malta, the country is looking at a promising decline in infections. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new HIV infections in Malta (per 1,000 uninfected population) has remained at 0.1 per 1,000 since the 1990s up until 2024. HIV/AIDS in Malta is showing promising progress with the availability of testing methods, prevention methods and treatment from expert clinics and hospitals. However, changes to treatment availability across the country, particularly for migrants, will help tackle the decline in positive infections.
– Zara Ashraf
Photo: Unsplash
Women’s Cooperatives in Guatemala
Economic Independence
The most immediate impact is a dramatic rise in household income. Cooperatives like the Cojolya Association guarantee members more than twice the local market rate, shattering legacies of exploitation and establishing women as primary economic actors. This empowerment was a product of necessity, born from the ravages of a civil war that left countless women widowed.
Survivors, now solely responsible for the welfare of their families and the rehabilitation of their communities, founded cooperatives like Trama Textiles, which has grown into a network of more than 400 weavers. Cooperatives like Ixoq Ajkeem demonstrate the power of a collectivist approach with their strategy of pooling resources, leveraging bulk orders and constructing common storefronts. In this way, women’s cooperatives in Guatemala integrate vulnerable and disparate artisans.
They unite them under a single, resilient organizational model. This structure protects families from economic volatility. It also shields individual producers from the unpredictability of the market.
Investing in Health and Nutrition
This economic power creates a direct second ripple: improved family health and nutrition. As primary earners, women consistently reinvest in their families’ well-being, marking a critical shift in a country where a severe poverty crisis drives chronic malnutrition. Through cooperatives, this care becomes institutionalized.
UPAVIM, for instance, has channeled its collective resources into a medical and dental clinic while also initiating targeted campaigns, like a soymilk program, to combat child malnutrition. The women of rural Guatemala continue to teach a lesson in ingenuity by using the cooperative model to transform earnings directly into community health care, ensuring the windfalls of their work are felt throughout their entire locality.
Keeping Children in School
The third ripple and perhaps the most foundationally transformative, manifests in education. Protection from poverty enables children to return to the classroom instead of toiling away in the workforce of manual labor. This commitment is structurally embedded in cooperatives like UPAVIM, which operates its own school.
It also provides members’ children with scholarships for school supplies and meals. These efforts significantly reduce costs and make education accessible to many more families. The result is both tangible and visible. Children in school uniforms are now a common sight.
This change reflects their mothers’ success in securing a right to education denied to earlier generations by poverty. It also signals systemic transformations capable of breaking long-standing cycles of deprivation.
Building Skills and Confidence
The impact of women’s cooperatives in Guatemala transcends material gain, mounting to a fourth ripple of personal empowerment. Beyond the loom, women receive vital training in financial literacy, business management and leadership, highlighting cooperatives as institutions for holistic human development and collective self-sufficiency. This newfound expertise fuels a powerful shift in communal identity. As one weaver from the Aj To’ooneel cooperative asserted, “Women today are entrepreneurs.”
This transformed identity is reproduced at home, reshaping the perceptions of forthcoming generations. “The children of the artisans are seeing that women also have an important role or they occupy the same position as men in the family,” observed Lidia Garcia of Mercado Global. This cycle of empowerment, once begun, becomes self-perpetuating.
Strengthening the Entire Community
These individual ripples converge into a fifth: community fortification, transforming cooperatives into vital civic institutions. Aside from its school, UPAVIM established a health clinic and bakery, establishing a grassroots community support system. This role as a community pillar becomes most evident and most critical during crises.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, cooperatives like Multicolores, Kakaw Designs and Mercado Global leveraged their networks to facilitate emergency food baskets, hygiene supplies and public health information when state aid was insufficient. Ultimately, these women’s textile cooperatives in Guatemala amount to something far greater than the sum of their parts; they weave a stronger, more resilient social fabric for the future.
Final Remarks
The story of Guatemala’s cooperatives is a testament to how women’s empowerment creates a cascade of change. From individual economic independence to healthier families, educated children and resilient communities, the ripple effect is lifting rural communities in Guatemala out of poverty. These cooperatives demonstrate that the most sustainable path to development is not through top-down aid alone, but by empowering those at the heart of communities to become the architects of their own futures.
– Georgio Moussa
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Educational Reform in Egypt: Successes and Setbacks
According to Egypt’s government, Egypt established Strategic Vision 2030 in 2016, a national agenda for sustainable development across social, economic and environmental dimensions. A key intention of the strategy is to enhance the quality of life for Egyptian citizens and achieve inclusive, sustainable economic growth. In 2018, the Egyptian government introduced an educational reform program as part of Vision 2030.
Egypt’s reform program was backed by the World Bank in 2018, with a $500 million project between the two. Egypt has also established an Education Sector Plan for 2023-2037, a strategy outlined to effectively transform Egypt’s educational system.
Reform Goals
The investment and prioritization of educational reform in Egypt underscores the intrinsic importance of education within the broader context of sustainable development, enhancing lives and reducing poverty. According to 2021 World Bank Data, the poverty rate (the percentage of the population that lives below the national poverty line) in Egypt is 33.5%. According to the World Bank, education is “one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace and stability.”
By working to improve educational outcomes, Egypt enhances the country’s economic and social standing, as well as that of its population. Egypt’s educational reform occurs within the context of a contemporary job market where employees require skills that traditional education systems have been unable to provide. A major goal of the project is to transform the examination system into one that fosters analytical and critical thinking skills, better equipping students for career success.
A feature story published by the World Bank includes testimony from a secondary student in Egypt. They say the new examination system has given them a greater sense of personal responsibility for their education and the ability to apply their learning to real-world situations. The student states, “My father is ill; sometimes my biology readings enable me to help him.”
Other goals of educational reform in Egypt include improving access to and the quality of early childhood education, expanding access and use of education technology and “enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders.”
Persistent Challenges
While there have been several victories for educational reform in Egypt, challenges endure as well. According to Egypt’s 2023-2027 Education Sector Plan, some of the setbacks include: overcrowding and insufficient infrastructure in schools, a shortage of fully trained and qualified teachers and gaps in educational participation across different demographic groups. According to the report, Egyptian students rank low in foundational knowledge and skills internationally.
These setbacks underscore the need for ongoing reform and adaptable strategies. Though challenges may prove persistent, Egypt’s strides in educational reform show the potential of such reform projects.
Project Successes
University of Illinois professor Linda Herrera documented the ongoing reform of Egypt’s educational system, recognizing the digital transformation of education in Egypt. According to Herrera, in 2016, the Egyptian Knowledge Bank was established, featuring 120 databases, videos, books and other materials. The online library is accessible free of charge to anyone with an Egyptian ID.
Herrera notes the significance of this reform when considering Egypt’s greater context: it is the largest country in the Arab world by population, with a major influence on other Arab countries. According to Herrera, Egypt is an exporter of teachers, learning materials and ideas to its Arab neighbors. What Egypt does to bolster its own education system can have a reverberative effect across an entire region.
Summary
The successes of the educational reform in Egypt have been a result of several projects and partnerships, including with the U.S. According to the 2018 USAID audit report, USAID’s collaboration with MOE resulted in nine STEM schools being established in Egypt by 2016, surpassing the initially expected three to five schools. The report states that this is a testament to MOE’s capability not only to implement but also to advance and replicate the STEM model.
In 2017, numerous STEM students in Egypt participated in local and international science competitions and many received international scholarships or were placed in exchange programs. The fact that there had been no students achieving such things previously shows the impact of Egypt’s advancements in STEM education. Subsequently, the Egyptian Government planned to open more STEM schools in each of the 27 governorates, indicating the program’s staying power and potential for expansion.
– Emma Kelsey
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
5 Charities Operating in China
Poverty Persists
However, poverty in China has not disappeared entirely. While China has eliminated extreme poverty under the national standard of $2.30 a day, the World Bank, using a higher poverty benchmark of $8.30 a day, shows that around 15% of the population still lives in poverty, which is nearly 300 million people. Using a higher poverty standard line typical of upper-middle-income countries such as China, set at $6.85 a day, around 17% of the population still lives in poverty, with close to half living in rural areas.
Following the elimination of extreme poverty, China has shifted its focus toward the goal of common prosperity with charities operating in China playing a key role in supporting vulnerable communities and reducing inequality.
China Charity Federation
Founded in 1994, the China Charity Federation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to poverty alleviation and helping disadvantaged and vulnerable groups across Chinese society.
The Federation assists people living in poverty or facing other difficulties through a wide range of initiatives, including emergency relief, elderly and orphan assistance, as well as medical and educational aid. Over the years, it has raised more than 160 billion yuan ($ 22.4 billion) in charitable funds, benefiting tens of millions of people.
The Happy Home Village and Community Mutual Aid Project provides rural villages with a digital platform to raise and manage funds for projects supporting poverty alleviation, rural revitalization and community development. Beyond fundraising, the project also provides volunteers to support children, the elderly, the poor and other groups requiring assistance.
Red Cross Society of China
The Red Cross Society of China is part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network. It aims to protect human life and health, safeguard human dignity and promote peace and progress. The society provides emergency relief and humanitarian assistance in emergencies, such as war or natural disasters.
Following the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, the organization raised funds, collected supplies and distributed aid, clothing and emergency items. It also supported the reconstruction of homes for vulnerable families, providing training and financial assistance to help them rebuild earthquake-resistant houses. In addition, it implemented programs to help families generate income and recover economically, while building disaster preparedness systems to strengthen communities’ capacity to respond to future emergencies.
China Foundation for Rural Development
The China Foundation for Rural Development focuses on tackling the root causes of rural poverty. One major challenge it addresses is child malnutrition in rural areas, where many students lack access to balanced meals or to meals at all. The problem is that many schools do not have the necessary equipment to prepare nutritious meals, and many communities are unaware of the importance of proper nutrition.
Its Nutritious Meals Program aims to improve rural children’s nutrition by providing a daily serving of milk and eggs to students, equipping schools with kitchen facilities and equipment and offering nutrition training and education for parents and teachers. Since 2008, the program has delivered around 57 million nutritious meals to more than 1 million children and established approximately 2,000 “Love Kitchens.”
The Amity Foundation
The Amity Foundation is an independent Chinese organization committed to public health, social welfare and community development. One of its programs focuses on the education of young people in rural areas, aiming to provide students in underdeveloped regions with access to equal educational opportunities. This initiative seeks to provide educational equity by improving access to quality education and creating supportive learning environments. Schools benefit from upgraded infrastructure, along with sports and learning equipment, to support both academic and physical development. The program places particular emphasis on supporting orphans and girls, for example, by offering financial aid to female college students. It helps students return to school and supports university students in completing their studies. Amity’s work contributes to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by fostering inclusive, continuous and holistic education for disadvantaged children in China.
One Foundation
Founded in 2007, One Foundation is dedicated to public welfare for all, focusing on three main areas: disaster relief, childcare and development and public welfare support and innovation.
Its Water Purification Plan aims to improve drinking water conditions in rural school campuses by providing water, purification equipment, drinking cups and water and health education to students and staff.
Coca-Cola partnered with the initiative by creating a bottled water brand that supports providing clean drinking water to rural schoolchildren. Under the slogan: “Drink Good, Do Good,” their sales supported One Foundation’s efforts to build water facilities and improve access to safe water in rural areas.
The Path to Common Prosperity
Charities operating in China play a vital role in supporting vulnerable communities, providing education, healthcare, nutrition, disaster relief and other essential services. Their work helps reduce inequality and lays the groundwork for the country’s broader goal of common prosperity.
China has made common prosperity, a society in which wealth and opportunity are widely shared, a central policy objective. The country aims to make significant progress by 2035 and fully realize this vision by 2050. Xi Jinping has described common prosperity as transforming China’s current income distribution, which he compares to a pyramid, with many poor people at the bottom and a few very rich, into the shape of an olive with very few people at either extreme and a more balanced distribution of wealth. Key strategies include implementing rural revitalization and urbanization initiatives, ensuring equal access to basic services such as health care and education, revitalizing underdeveloped regions and supporting low-income individuals facing special difficulties. Common prosperity aims to reduce the wealth gap between China’s rich and poor.
– Jeanne Pellet
Photo: Unsplash
How Internet Access in the Solomon Islands Reduces Poverty
Limited electricity further worsens the situation, as many rural schools are not connected to a stable power grid and depend on generators or solar systems to operate basic technology. Teachers working in these communities often face severe resource shortages. They must adapt their lessons creatively without access to modern teaching tools.
Why Internet Access Remains Uneven
The Solomon Islands comprise hundreds of islands scattered across a vast oceanic area, making infrastructure development challenging and costly. Although fiber-optic cables now connect some provincial centers, many outer islands still rely on slower satellite-based connections. This uneven development has created a digital divide in which urban communities experience stronger connectivity while rural areas remain largely offline.
As a result, internet access in the Solomon Islands varies sharply depending on geography.
How Digital Exclusion Deepens Poverty
More than 25% of the Solomon Islands’ population lives below the poverty line, with more than 80% of those affected residing in rural areas. Limited internet access prevents many families from using digital financial services such as e-wallets and electronic transfers. In regions where bank branches are scarce or nonexistent, poor connectivity makes it difficult for households to save money, receive remittances or build financial security.
Small businesses, women and young entrepreneurs also struggle to reach broader markets or adopt digital payment systems, which limits their income growth and innovation. Students face similar challenges, as weak digital infrastructure hinders their ability to acquire the skills necessary for future employment.
The Solomon Islands government has identified digital transformation as a key pathway toward inclusive economic development. Its ICT in Education Master Plan aims to connect schools to the internet and equip them with computer labs to support digital learning. Earlier initiatives, such as the Distance Learning Centers Project, expanded satellite-based internet access to rural schools and community centers.
Together, these efforts help reduce isolation by improving affordable access to information and communication technologies.
Evidence of Progress and Future Impact
Improved connectivity has supported platforms such as the iResource online portal, which distributes educational materials digitally across the country’s islands. The national curriculum directly links digital skills to self-reliance and paid employment, showing how technology supports improved living standards. Expanded internet access in the Solomon Islands also improves the growth of an inclusive digital economy that benefits women, youth and small businesses.
By continuing to invest in digital infrastructure, the Solomon Islands can reduce geographic isolation and create new opportunities to help families lift themselves out of poverty.
Conclusion
Better internet access in the Solomon Islands can make a real difference for people living in remote areas. When communities can access the internet, students have more opportunities to learn, families can utilize basic financial services and small businesses have a better chance to grow. These changes may seem small, but together they can help reduce poverty over time.
By continuing to expand internet access, the Solomon Islands can give more people the tools they need to improve their lives and build a more connected future.
– Aila Alsakka
Photo: Pixabay
How the Chernovetskyi Fund Supports Georgia’s Vulnerable
What Is the Chernovetskyi Fund?
The Chernovetskyi Fund is one of Georgia’s largest private charitable organizations, launched by philanthropist Leonid Chernovetskyi in April 2012. The organization works to support Georgians struggling to meet basic needs due to income insecurity, illness, disability or age. The Fund’s mission focuses on supporting socially vulnerable groups, including those living below the poverty line, large families and the most vulnerable individuals facing illness, including children and adults.
Its programs are rooted in practical assistance that meets immediate needs while upholding dignity.
Home Care for the Elderly and Bedridden
The Fund’s most consequential program includes home care for older people and bedridden. Caregivers help beneficiaries perform their daily chores, including cleaning, food preparation and taking medicine. The program helps reduce health risks and helps families who can’t afford private care.
The home care initiative protects older adults from medical emergencies or institutionalization in homes and communities.
Family-Type Orphanages and Child Protection
Children who lack parental care are significantly less likely to achieve upward mobility in life and far more likely to experience long-term poverty. According to a report, children raised in unstable family environments face higher levels of social exclusion, poorer educational outcomes and greater economic disadvantage later in life. The Chernovetskyi Fund addresses this issue by supporting family-type orphanages that provide children with stable housing, education and emotional support.
Unlike large institutional settings, these homes offer a family-based environment that leads to stronger long-term outcomes and a lower risk of poverty in adulthood.
Day Centers, Canteens and Social Patrols
Food insecurity is still a daily fact for many low-income Georgians. The Fund has day centers and canteens that serve hot food to older people, people with disabilities and people without homes. Social patrol teams broaden this outreach and help locate individuals requiring immediate support.
By carrying out outreach in neighborhoods and public spaces, these teams make sure that people who do not choose to seek assistance still obtain it. This strategy not only protects against devastating deprivation but also against social isolation itself. In addition to well-defined initiatives, the Chernovetskyi Fund provides direct assistance, including food parcels, medications and household items.
Staff members assess each case individually to match aid with specific needs, ensuring appropriate support. For chronically ill children or adults caring for children, medical expenses can push families deeper into poverty. Targeted aid and caregiving help cover these costs, enabling caregivers to remain employed while keeping the household intact.
Scale and Measurable Impact
The Chernovetskyi Fund has provided more than $9 million for social assistance initiatives since its inception. In other words, thousands of vulnerable people across Georgia have benefited from its programs. The Fund’s scale enables it to respond quickly to crises while also delivering long-term support.
Reliable funding ensures continuity of care, which is crucial for addressing chronic poverty rather than offering only short-term relief.
Success Stories
Six-year-old Anna-Maria grew up in a family struggling with both poverty and illness. According to the Chernovetskyi Fund, her home once lacked consistent access to food and basic supplies, making everyday life a challenge for her and her family. After the Fund provided targeted assistance, including food, clothing and essential household items, Anna-Maria’s mother began to recover from the health issues that had heavily burdened the household.
The most joyful change came from Anna-Maria herself: she thanked supporters for helping her mother and shared, “Now she laughs and plays with me,” a profound shift from their earlier hardships.
Three young siblings—Tornike, Lazare and Luka—represent another heartwarming example of the Chernovetskyi Fund’s impact. According to the organization, the boys once lived in conditions of hardship and uncertainty. With the Fund’s support, they received essential care, meals and family outreach services that helped stabilize their home life.
Today, the brothers are healthy and happy, participating in family and community activities that poverty had once made out of reach.
Many elderly Georgians face poverty and loneliness, especially without family support or sufficient income. The Chernovetskyi Fund has reached people like Grandma Oliko and Grandpa Givi, who once lived with daily uncertainty and minimal access to care. The Fund provided regular food assistance, companionship through social visits and coordinated support that helped them remain safely in their home.
Staff and volunteers report that the couple is deeply grateful, not only for the material aid but also for the dignity and respect that come from sustained attention and care.
These personal stories show how a charity like the Chernovetskyi Fund can go beyond statistics to create real change in people’s lives. From a child’s laughter to a family finding peace and from elderly neighbors feeling seen to receiving care, the Fund’s work demonstrates a key lesson: when communities and donors engage in targeted, human-centered support, poverty becomes less permanent and more preventable.
Each example reflects the Fund’s core mission—to ensure that no one in Georgia is left behind in accessing food, health care, shelter or social support—and highlights how individual lives can improve when everyday kindness is paired with organized action.
A Compassionate Path Forward
The Chernovetskyi Fund’s work demonstrates that the most harmful effects of poverty can be mitigated when programs are targeted and human-centered. Its approach shows that dignity-focused aid, delivered consistently and at scale, can stabilize lives and strengthen communities. In the face of Georgia’s inequality and demographic challenges, the Chernovetskyi Fund plays an indispensable role.
– Salome Jincharadze
Photo: Unsplash
5 Facts About Education in Iran
Yet, even in a fast-paced, tech-driven world, literacy remains an important skill. Many countries continue to struggle to provide children with safe and effective education. In recent years, Iran has taken steps to strengthen its education system, introducing several reforms aimed at improving learning outcomes.
With that being said, here are a few facts about education in Iran:
Literacy Rates
As of 2023, the literacy rate in Iran is relatively the same for both men and women. According to a study by the World Bank Group, women, specifically those aged 15 to 24, have a literacy rate of 99%. Currently, this represents the country’s peak literacy rate for this group, with the lowest rate recorded at 42% in 1976.
Similarly, the literacy rate among men in Iran mirrors that of women. As of 2023, men, specifically those aged 15 to 24, had a literacy rate of 99%. The lowest literacy rate among men in Iran was 71% in 1976.
With that data in mind, historically, Iranian women have had a lower literacy rate than men, with a 29% gap between the two groups. In another study by UNESCO, in 2019, it was reported that around 2% of Iranians, particularly those under the age of 24, were considered to be “absolute illiterates.” Of course, with the newly presented data, this statistic may not be as accurate following the release of the World Bank Group’s 2023 literacy data.
Low Education Funding
Education in Iran is very underfunded. The National Council of Resistance in Iran reports that the annual salary or the amount of money earned by Iranian teachers in a year, is less than $2,000, even below the international wage average in the country. This may be the contributing factor to the current national teacher shortage.
After completing mandatory primary education (ages 6–11), students spend three years in a guidance cycle designed to assess their academic strengths and determine which vocational track they will follow in high school. These tracks may be academic, vocational or science-based.
Unsafe Learning Environments
Budget cuts affect far more than teachers’ salaries. Beyond staff shortages caused by low pay, many schools struggle to provide safe learning environments. Issues range from unsafe transportation, sometimes resulting in the deaths of school-aged children, to poor infrastructure, including faulty heating systems and collapsed walls.
In rural areas, classes are often held in mud huts, temporary shelters or tents, creating additional health and safety risks for students.
What’s To Come?
The U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child calls on Iranian authorities to guarantee every child’s right to education on an equal basis. It urges the government to make primary education fully free and to expand access to secondary education, providing more opportunities without cost to children or their families.
– Megan Akers
Photo: Flickr
All About Higher Education in Chile
Workers with higher education earn 112% more than the average income in Chile. Education level is a widely recognized social determinant of health and the completion of higher education is associated with more positive health outcomes.
Inequality in Higher Educational Attainment
In Chile, disparities in tertiary education attainment are closely linked to social factors, including parental education, socioeconomic status and gender. Children of parents who have completed tertiary education are more likely to pursue higher education than those whose parents have not. In 2023, 68% of adults aged 25-34 with at least one parent who had completed tertiary education also attained tertiary education, compared to 25% for adults whose parents did not complete tertiary education.
However, the rate of young adults pursuing tertiary education whose parents did not complete tertiary education increased by 7% between 2012 and 2023. Higher family socioeconomic status is also associated with an increased likelihood of completing higher education. In 2006, 12.7% of adults aged 25-34 from the lowest income decile enrolled in tertiary education, compared to 53.3% of the top income decile.
Furthermore, women enrolled in tertiary education are less likely to pursue a degree in STEM and other high-earning fields of study. In 2023, only 19.8% of students pursuing degrees in a STEM field were female.
A Largely Privatized System
Chile’s higher education system consists of three main types: universities, professional institutes (Instituto Profesional – IP) and technical training centers (Centro de Formación Técnica – CFT). While overall enrollment in tertiary education has continued to rise, the majority of growth since 2010 has occurred in private institutions. As a result, Chile has one of the most privatized higher education systems in the world.
In 2023, fewer than 20% of students enrolled in a tertiary education institution attended a public institution. Hence, Chilean families pay more than 75% of costs for higher education, compared to 40% for U.S. families and 5% in Scandinavian countries.
Gratuidad
A notable wave of protests demanding more affordable, high-quality higher education in Chile occurred in 2011. In 2016, the Chilean congress passed a tuition-free policy known as gratuidad to provide free university education for families in the bottom 60% of the income range. A lack of studies on the impact and effectiveness of gratuidad makes its success in creating a more equitable tertiary education system unclear.
The reform’s implementation has initiated slow progress toward expanding access to financial aid for low-income students, as approximately 90% of students who qualify have already received financial aid before the reform. However, the idea of free education likely incentivizes people from low-income families to pursue higher education, as 15% of students in the gratuidad program claim they would not have pursued higher education otherwise.
Conclusion
Attaining a higher education in Chile reduces the likelihood of living in poverty. Creating a more equitable and inclusive education system is key to reducing the 6.5% of Chile’s population living below the national poverty line. Expanding access to tertiary education for individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and those whose parents lack tertiary education, as well as increasing the representation of women in STEM fields, are key focal points for reducing poverty.
– Sarah Merrill
Photo: Pixabay