Archive for category: Charity

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4 Charities Aiding Children in Sierra Leone

Charities Aiding Children in Sierra Leone
Life has been extraordinarily difficult for children living in Sierra Leone. An 11-year civil war, Ebola outbreak and poor quality of education have severely impacted children across the country. However, despite the hardship that children in the country have faced over the past 20 years, charities are working to improve education and health care for children in Sierra Leone.

4 Charities Aiding Children in Sierra Leone

  1. Save the Children. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Save the Children provides children with education and health support in more than 100 countries. Since 1999, it has worked in Sierra Leone to improve the health, education and protection of children in the country. In terms of learning, the organization provides children with educational tools and facilities to set them up for future employment. The children’s rights charity focuses on increasing school attendance and retention. Due to widespread poverty, Sierra Leone suffers from very low school attendance rates with a UNICEF statistic illustrating that only 22% of students complete upper secondary school. Absence from school prevents children from gaining employable skills that allow for an economically independent future. Save the Children puts focus on aiding the most marginalized children, such as those living in slums or in kinship care, to improve their future prospects and avoid contributing to already high unemployment and illiteracy rates.
  2. Sierra Leone War Trust for Children. Throughout Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, many children experienced both physical and mental trauma. The Sierra Leone War Trust For Children is a trust that promotes “education, health, rehabilitation and self-sufficiency” among children impacted by the nation’s history of violence so that they can live economically independent and prosperous lives as adults. The trust not only focuses on the harms of the civil war; it also aids children suffering from more recent issues in the country such as the Ebola outbreak of 2014. Ebola orphans have received school supplies from the trust’s projects to improve education and ensure future employability. The Sierra Leone War Trust For Children has aided 5,000 impoverished children in the country and has raised more than $1 million through donations.
  3. Lilomi. Lilomi is a children’s charity based in the U.K. that ensures better health care and educational facilities/resources for children in Sierra Leone. It works at the Jonathan’s Child Care school and orphanage in the city of Bo providing safe sanitary spaces and higher-quality school equipment, among other efforts. Inadequate access to hygiene and sanitation facilities remains a prevalent issue in Sierra Leone. The Lilomi team built a new set of hygienic toilet blocks in the school/orphanage in 2021 with the aim of protecting children against preventable illnesses. Schools across Sierra Leone are severely underequipped making it difficult for educational facilities to teach practical skills. In order to prevent this from limiting the horizons of children in Bo, in 2019, Lilomi provided the school/orphanage with funds for science equipment, now expanding the scope of learning in science and mathematics. Following this success, the charity has made plans to go one step further and build a science lab for the school.
  4. SOS Children’s Villages. SOS Children’s Villages is a nonprofit organization that has delivered support for children and young adults in Sierra Leone since 1974. The nonprofit organization provides children lacking parental care with a safe home. As a result of the civil war ending in 2002, a third of Sierra Leone became internally displaced and many children lost their families. SOS Children’s Villages helps children to find lost relatives so they can grow up with their families. In the case where a child has no relatives, the organization provides an SOS parent who supports them through difficult periods of adjustment. The organization also runs community schools and kindergartens that have given 3,000 children access to education.

Children-focused charities in Sierra Leone have made monumental efforts in combating the consequences of civil war, Ebola and widespread poverty. By prioritizing the safety of children across the country, charitable organizations can ensure a future generation of healthy and prosperous adults.

– Freddie Trevanion
Photo: Flickr

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5 Big Businesses that Give to Charity

Big Businesses That Give To CharityPhilanthropy among businesses and successful individuals has been seen since the rise of “big business” itself. In the late 1800s, business leader Andrew Carnegie owned a multi-million dollar steel enterprise and donated the majority of his fortune to philanthropic causes, such as the founding of 2,509 libraries. One of the key philanthropists of the modern world includes business magnate Bill Gates, who founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight world poverty and inequality. Below are five big businesses that give to charity and use their profitability to support philanthropic causes.

5 Big Businesses that Give to Charity

  1. Rolex. This watch company began business in 1905 as a brand that is now a widely recognized symbol of wealth, luxury and sophistication, with watches costing anything within the range of $5,000 to $75,000. While Rolex is, technically speaking, a for-profit company, it is owned by a nonprofit charity organization, the Wilsdorf Foundation. Rolex founder and altruist, Hans Wilsdorf, had hoped that his business would be a “perpetual force for good.” One avenue for the donation of Rolex’s profits is the initiative Perpetual Planet, which supports expeditions and data collection to tackle climate change and protect oceans. Funding from Rolex has supported Felix Brooks-church’s project to tackle malnutrition in Tanzania by fortifying flour with essential nutrients to benefit 2 million people daily. Rolex’s financial contributions have also supported Andrew Bastawrous’ Peek Vision project, which utilizes mobile technology to provide accessible eye care through smartphones in poorer countries such as rural Kenya, where Peek Vision provided more than 250,000 eye tests.
  2. Disney. Disney is another one of the big businesses that give to charity, with a total of $233 million worth of donations in 2022 through various channels. It invested in the organization Chicas en Tecnologia, which works to provide tech-focused education for girls in Argentina to help reduce the gender gap in technology. Disney partners with UNICEF to support programs such as a two-year initiative to prevent child labor in Vietnam and the P.L.A.Y initiative that provides mobile playgrounds in Haiti and Bangladesh. There is also a Disney Employee Matching Gifts initiative where the company pledges to match the charitable financial donations made by employees.
  3. BP. Founded by the BP oil company, the BP Foundation received its charitable status in 1953 and has since supported philanthropic efforts around the world. The foundation partakes in employee-led philanthropy through the Employee Matching Fund. The foundation gave more than $2 million in 2021 to match employee donations to nonprofit organizations. This fund encourages BP employees to commit their time and effort to charitable causes with the knowledge that the BP Foundation will make an equal contribution. The foundation also provides humanitarian relief, such as the $2 million it donated to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response program.
  4. Goldman Sachs. The global financial services company Goldman Sachs began its journey in 1869 in New York City and made a significant $62.8 billion in revenue in 2022 alone. As part of its commitment to community engagement, the company runs a Goldman Sachs Gives initiative, which partners with nonprofit organizations and contributes financial grants toward philanthropic initiatives. To date, the Goldman Sachs Gives initiative has granted more than $2 billion to 9,000 nonprofit organizations across 140 countries. Recent philanthropic efforts include $8.8 million in 2022 donated to various organizations across the globe providing relief for Ukrainian refugees fleeing war in their home country. Since 2000, Goldman Sachs Gives has supported the South African nonprofit Ubuntu Pathways with grants funding the provision of vaccines for more than 40,000 people in South Africa and a center that helps 2,000 children receive a quality education.
  5. Microsoft. Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men today, co-founded a leading, multinational technology company — the Microsoft Corporation. In line with Gates’ personal commitment to philanthropy, Microsoft as a company recognizes a corporate social responsibility that involves supporting fundamental human rights and protecting the planet. Microsoft also operates an employee donation matching program. In 2022, Microsoft and its employees donated a total of $255 million to nonprofits through this initiative. Through the Microsoft Tech for Social Impact scheme, in 2021, Microsoft allocated $2.5 billion in technology grants to nonprofits, and in 2022, Microsoft expanded this scheme to include access to cloud technology. By equipping nonprofits with technical equipment and knowledge of how to use it, Microsoft is helping to diversify and modernize the help given to the world’s poor.

Looking Ahead

Although some view big businesses as pioneers of capitalism acting only in the interest of individual shareholders, there are in fact many big businesses that give to charity. Rolex, Disney, BP, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft are key examples of large corporations contributing to philanthropic causes to aid communities that require support.

– Sophie Sadera
Photo: Flickr

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King Charles’ Charitable Efforts

King Charles’ Charitable Efforts
As Prince of Wales, Charles has long since made great efforts to transform lives and build sustainable communities. He has been a patron to more than 400 charities and in the last 10 years has raised approximately £140 million. However, as he takes his place as King, his new duties will necessarily require him to take a step back. Though expected to continue most of Elizabeth II’s 600 patronage involvements, he may have to offload or even entirely reconsider some of these commitments. What is sure is that Charles deeply values charitable action, and intends to go to great lengths to continue championing its cause.

King Charles’ Charitable Efforts as Prince

Charles waited his turn to become King for more than 70 years, an extended period that galvanized him to make a difference while Prince. By principle, he advocated a streamlining of the Monarchy, reducing expenditure that could make room for charitable efforts such as improving living conditions in some of the world’s poorest regions.

He has founded charities such as the Prince’s Foundation, an educational organization that aims to create a sustainable future for people of all ages and backgrounds, as well as the Prince’s Trust, which works towards a similar goal but exclusively within the United Kingdom.

Foremost among King Charles’ charitable efforts is establishing the Turquoise Mountain foundation, an NGO that works to protect heritage and communities around the world, providing “jobs, education and a renewed sense of pride” in developing regions. Since 2006, it has treated more than 160,000 patients at its Kabul clinic, built more than 50 small businesses in Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Middle East, and helped preserve precious cultures while driving economic development.
Another prominent accomplishment is his founding of Duchy Originals in the early 1990s, with the goal of improving “soil fertility, biodiversity and human health.” His interest in the environment dates back to the 1960s, long before it was ubiquitously supported. The brand donates all its profits to charitable causes, and in the decade since partnering with Waitrose, a leading British supermarket, in 2009 turned over more than £30 million.

The Legacy of Elizabeth II

As impressive as Charles’ own track record is, he will be succeeding his mother Elizabeth II who has been hailed by some as the most charitable monarch in history, having raised more than £1.4 billion for charities in her lifetime.
This succession raises some doubt surrounding the future of fundraising. The first big question concerns what will become of Charles’ previous charitable duties. According to The Conversation, it is generally understood that William will take on the majority, though there are some who doubt if William will be quite as involved in the minutiae of advocacy as his father was, and whether this could affect performance.
Secondly, exactly what will become of Elizabeth II’s patronage is unknown. Though Charles could take on the majority, some commitments could be up for review in the near future.

Charles’ Pledges for the Future

What Charles has so far indicated for certain as King is that, according to his Christmas speech in 2022, charitable organizations “which do such extraordinary work in the most difficult of circumstances” will remain an integral part of his focus.
Though he has only been on the throne for a short period, among King Charles’ charitable efforts thus far has been a new £1.95 million pledge from the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF) to seven personally important causes. One of these recipients will be Practical Action, which aims to support farmers in their transition to regenerative farming approaches in sub-Saharan Africa. This is not only beneficial to the environment; it secures the posterity of local farmers. Practical Action will receive £390,000.

Charles’ early actions as king and his impressive charitable efforts as Prince of Wales show that, despite questions over leadership roles in the wake of his succession, the fight against poverty will continue to receive a great deal of support and advocacy from the British Monarchy.

– Gabriel Gathercole
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in Pakistan

Charities Operating in Pakistan
Giving charity is important to many people living in Pakistan. In fact, a study from 2021 reported that 84% of people gave charity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or another. It was also reported that 79% of those unemployed also gave charity at some point. With the country currently struggling with financial debt and food crises, the value of charity has risen in importance. Below are five charities operating in Pakistan.

5 Charities Operating in Pakistan

  1. Islamic Relief: This charity operates throughout Pakistan, working with communities to implement sustainable and innovative projects. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the organization worked to show communities how to adapt to the effects of changing weather patterns. In the aftermath of the summer floods of 2022, Islamic Relief worked to rebuild villages, install water and sanitation facilities and helped to rebuild small businesses and housing. In addition, the charity had a seasonal aid program, including a 1:1 child sponsorship program. In 2005, Islamic Relief received an award from the Government of Pakistan for its efforts during the devastating earthquakes that year.
  2. AAM Nation Care: AAM Nation Care is a charity that aims to help those who are poor and less fortunate in Pakistan. Its work occurs through a multidimensional approach, as it will reach out to low-income communities and help them develop specific ways to grow and find aid. The charity’s work includes establishing a free online academy to educate poor students and provide lower-income families with food and cash.
  3. Save the Children: Save the Children is a world-renowned organization that is a global leader in helping children to prevent, prepare and recover from calamities due to changing weather patterns. The charity first started working in Pakistan in 1979, through its work with Afghan refugees. Today, its work includes providing child rights and development and humanitarian response programs. In addition, it works alongside many other charities operating in Pakistan and Pakistani civil society to implement programs that work with child health, nutrition, education, protection, disaster response and preparedness and gender equality. In the last year, Save the Children helped more than 19,000 children in Pakistan.
  4. Red Cross: The Red Cross is an organization that has been working for almost 150 years, and is the largest humanitarian network in the world. The charity worked tirelessly during the recent floods to ensure aid reached all the affected areas. The primary focus of their relief effort continues to involve saving lives, providing temporary shelter and blankets to those whose homes were destroyed and clean water, food, medical support and sanitation to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases. In addition, the Pakistan Red Crescent works currently to help relieve the pressure on the health care system, supporting households and helping local communities.
  5. Human Appeal: Since 2006, Human Appeal has been one of the major charities operating in Pakistan. Subsequently, they have implemented several different relief programs, by supporting education, livelihoods and clean water projects. Its current programs include constructing girls’ primary schools, education for orphaned girls, providing COVID-19 protection kits, supporting small businesses and providing schools with water coolers.

Looking Ahead

In Pakistan, estimates have indicated that 30% of people continue to live in poverty. The recent floods alleviated several issues in the country, including the loss of large amounts of agricultural land and livestock. However, there are many charities operating in Pakistan that work tirelessly and efficiently to provide aid to those who most need it.

– Saad Haque
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in Brazil

Charities Operating in Brazil
Between 2019 and 2021, 9.6 million people who were not previously impoverished fell below the poverty line. By 2021, 62.9 million people in Brazil (29.6% of the population) had a monthly per capita income of up to R$497. This was the highest level of poverty that the country had experienced since 2012. Although Brazil is facing a number of issues, such as homelessness and poverty, five charities operating in Brazil aim to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged citizens.

5 Charities Operating in Brazil

  1. The Favela Foundation. This organization came about in 2017 with the goal of, according to its website, “contributing to the development and growth of sustainable social and educational projects in the favelas of Brazil.” Essentially, the Favela Foundation provides various forms of support to grassroots initiatives working to advance education and improve social welfare in the favelas. The Foundation also works alongside NGOs to provide free English classes to people of all ages. Knowledge of English can help boost working and earning potential in Brazil. The Foundation’s main area of operation is in Rocinha — a favela located inside Rio de Janeiro and also the largest favela in the country.
  2. Catalytic Communities. This nonprofit organization is a Rio- based think tank and advocacy NGO. In short, this organization works as a news and research source that advocates for the well-being of the people who inhabit the favelas of Rio. This nonprofit plays a role in advocating for pro-favela legislation within the local and national governments by raising awareness and conducting research. Its most recent project is making a legislative proposal that would allow Community Land Trusts in Brazil. These trusts would help by essentially providing more affordable housing.
  3. Community in Action. Founded in 2004, this NGO focuses on social outreach with the goal of facilitating community development in the favelas through education initiatives and other projects. The organization has a large network of volunteers from all over the world. Volunteer opportunities include providing English lessons, assisting with child care, assisting with manual labor and urban gardening projects. With its plethora of volunteer opportunities, anyone who wishes to help has many options.
  4. ActionAid. This U.K.-based NGO has played a humanitarian role in Brazil since 1999. Most recently, ActionAid has made efforts to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Brazil’s most at-risk residents. It has helped vulnerable Brazilians amid the pandemic by providing food, hygiene kits and protective face masks to those in need. Prior to the pandemic, ActionAid focused on education for slum children, safeguarding girls from sexual exploitation and helping drought-ravaged areas to recover from extreme weather events and become more climate resilient, among other activities.
  5. Associacao Crescimento Limpo. This is a social services organization that is focused on the homeless population of Brazil. Located in a town outside of São Paulo, this organization provides services in the area of housing and job training. One of its most recent projects is a halfway house for people who are struggling with homelessness and drug abuse. Crescimento Limpo has made a positive difference by helping the homeless community in Brazil, with many success stories to prove it. One example of Crescimento Limpo’s success is visible in the story of Wayne. Wayne suffered from drug addiction and eventually sought help. He was later placed in one of Crescimento Limpo´s halfway houses. After recovery, he launched a new initiative with the organization called Caféla, a restaurant that provides jobs for unemployed residents.

Overall, through community initiatives, these five charities operating in Brazil are working to make Brazil a better and safer place. These organizations not only benefit Brazil but also contribute to the reduction of poverty worldwide.

– Timothy Ginter
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in Malawi

Charities Operating in Malawi
Malawi is a small country in Southern Africa with a population of more than 19 million. According to the World Bank, in 2019, about half of the population lived under the national poverty line. Climate shocks, low education completion rates, a struggling agricultural sector and slow infrastructure reform contribute to the high prevalence of poverty in Malawi. Below are five charities operating in Malawi with unique programs to address poverty in the nation.

5 Charities Operating in Malawi

  1. Aid Africa. This small U.K.-registered charity came about in 2004 to help improve the lives of vulnerable people in Malawi, such as orphans, the elderly, the disabled and those with HIV/AIDS. Aid Africa runs several programs in the areas of water and sanitation, food security, agriculture, education, reforestation and community development. The reforestation program aims to replenish the supply of trees and restore soils so that the natural resource does not run out. In Malawi, rural people rely on wood for constructing buildings and for fuel for cooking and heating water. This has led to deforestation, which has several consequences. For instance, deforestation exacerbates poverty as the soil quality reduces causing crops to fail and making farmlands susceptible to the destruction of flooding. The project trains locals to plant and care for trees while creating tree nurseries. In 2020, Africa Aid began the Moringa Groves Project, growing 100 moringa trees and green vegetables across several villages to resolve malnutrition in communities.
  2. Pump Aid. This local charity, established in 1998, holds a vision to end the water crisis in Malawi by the year 2030 through projects to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in rural communities. Pump Aid hopes to positively impact the education, health and nutrition of communities in this way, thereby helping people to rise out of poverty. The strategy encourages sustainability and self-reliance so that communities do not become aid-dependent. “We’re establishing small-scale businesses, creating prosperity and improved livelihoods for Malawians by training water entrepreneurs,” its website says. These local water entrepreneurs learn the skills to establish, maintain and repair water pumps in communities.
  3. Tiyeni. This is an NGO based in Malawi with a funding arm in the U.K. Tiyeni came about in 2004, and after years of research and trials, began working with 38 smallholder farmers in 2013 across four villages. The organization helps smallholder farmers improve agricultural productivity through affordable and technology-minimal strategies, such as Deep Bed Farming. Farmers have seen their yields multiply up to threefold as a result of incorporating strategies that improve soil quality and sustainability.
  4. Orant Charities Africa. This is an NGO with a 100% Malawian staff base. Orant Charities United States, based in Texas, supports this Malawian charity with free consulting and financial support to reduce fundraising costs. Orant Charities Africa strives to improve the quality of life of vulnerable Africans, putting gender equality at the forefront of these efforts. Its health care program is its longest-standing project. Its efforts to improve access to quality health care services in Malawi include the establishment of the Kasese Health Center in 2014. Orant’s mobile clinic helps the community and the ill by traveling daily to treat patients in remote rural areas.
  5. RiseUp Malawi. Founded in 2013, this organization provides educational programs in order to help vulnerable youth who live in extreme poverty in rural Malawi’s Mangochi District. RiseUp Malawi’s initial program was the “Youth Entrepreneurship After School Program,” aiming to provide free computer training, English classes and life skills lessons. Today, the program has more than 150 young participants. RiseUp also offers a scholarship program to fund the primary and secondary costs of private school education for exceptional children. In 2022, RiseUp positively impacted at least 40,000 individuals.

Looking Ahead

Agriculture, energy, education and health care strongly influence a country’s ability to prosper. These five charities operating in Malawi are making significant impacts on disadvantaged Malawians through their work to improve the quality of life in the nation.

– Naomi Kang
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in Sierra Leone

Charities Operating in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone has found itself in a dire situation with a 10-year civil war and a mass outbreak of Ebola. Despite this, some have been implementing large-scale charitable efforts. By prioritizing sanitation, gender equality and safety for children, charities operating in Sierra Leone can help dramatically improve living conditions in Sierra Leone. Here is information about five charities operating in Sierra Leone.

WaterAid

WaterAid is a charity that provides clean water and sanitary spaces to impoverished countries. Sierra Leone suffered from a mass outbreak of Ebola from 2014-2016. Statistics from WaterAid show that less than one in four households had access to wash their hands and one in 14 had access to soap. With poor sanitary spaces, the people of Sierra Leone suffered greatly with more than 14,000 cases of Ebola. A lack of clean water also results in the prevalence of diarrhoeal-related illnesses with more than 700 children under the age of 5 dying from the illness every year. WaterAid aims to provide clean water, toilets and other sanitary products to prevent the devastating impacts of various diseases. Through funding the construction of taps dispensing clean water, WaterAid strives to give the people of Sierra Leone access to clean water.

Sierra Leone War Trust For Children

Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war forced many young children to fight and see things beyond their years. Established in 1999, the Sierra Leone War Trust For Children aids those children most affected by the civil war and helps them find a safe future. Project funding has prioritized children’s health and education to give young children the best chance at a healthy and fulfilled life. Since its establishment, the charity has raised more than $1 million and has helped more than 5,000 Sierra Leonean children. Current projects involve giving aid to Ebola orphans who have lost parents and donating school supplies to improve the quality of education in the country. By giving children important skills, they have a better chance of finding employment in the future and growing the economy.

British Red Cross

The British Red Cross is a charity that strives to end human suffering around the world. The charity prioritizes education as a key to the nation’s health. For example, Red Cross volunteers visit households to educate families on disease prevention techniques. By giving Sierra Leonean people essential knowledge about the spread of disease, the risk of another outbreak is much lower. As a result of COVID-19, domestic abuse of women in Sierra Leone has been an increasing problem. Through cash grants, the British Red Cross has also emphasized the provision of education, medical attention and job opportunities to women suffering from domestic abuse.

Aberdeen Women’s Center

Charities operating in Sierra Leone are necessary to provide aid for women in society. The Aberdeen Women’s Center, operating in Freetown Sierra Leone, aids women who have suffered from female genital mutilation (FGM). The charity has gained significant popularity since it started in 2010 and the maternity ward now delivers more than 3,000 babies a year. By ensuring safe childbirth for young women, the charity is working to set a precedent by encouraging safety for women post-childbirth. With support from the Aminata Maternal Foundation (AMF), the charity also helps adolescent females post-childbirth learn employable skills and find a career path. Aberdeen Women’s Center is working to create a long line of healthy and economically stable women in a Sierra Leonean society where they are often marginalized.

UNICEF

UNICEF aims to increase safety for children in Sierra Leone by providing greater access to education and health spaces. It realizes the unprecedented circumstances children, especially girls, are facing, which is why the charity is a part of the “Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage.” This initiative has the goal of protecting adolescent mothers.

Due to extreme poverty, school attendance in Sierra Leone is low. UNICEF statistics show that only 44% of students complete lower secondary school, and even fewer complete an upper secondary education – 22%. The high frequency of teenage pregnancies and marriages has contributed significantly to these low numbers. According to UNICEF data from 2015, 30% of females married before the age of 18, and one in 10 teenage girls was pregnant. Moreover, high illiteracy and a lack of economic independence have led to women lacking a political voice in Sierra Leone. To stop this cycle from repeating, UNICEF is working on getting more girls into school by financially aiding The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE). The MBSSE supports a bridge program to help adolescent mothers re-enroll.

The Road Ahead

Overall, these charities in Sierra Leone have made monumental strides. By prioritizing sanitation, education and medication, these charities are greatly helping those in poverty. Although the country has a long way to go to escape widespread poverty, the efforts of these charities will contribute to a more prosperous future for Sierra Leone’s citizens.

– Freddie Trevanion
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in the Maldives

Charities Operating in the Maldives
 The Republic of Maldives is a South Asian island country located in the Indian Ocean. It is also known for being one of the smallest Muslim-majority countries and one of the smallest countries in Asia in general. Here are five charities operating in the Maldives.

5 Charities Operating in the Maldives

  1. Maldivian Red Crescent Society: This nonprofit is the first of the five charities operating in Maldives on this list. Maldivian Red Crescent Society is a member of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and has been providing humanitarian aid for more than 12 years. Since its founding, it has carried out emergency response, mental health, youth empowerment and patient transport programs.  One group this charity has focused on is migrants. It has helped many migrants with social inclusion and mental health improvement. The charity has also played an elemental role in the Maldives charity scene with its continued work in supporting the most vulnerable populations of the island.
  2. Coram International Maldives: This institution focuses on children’s rights. It provides research and consulting for a number of issues relating to children and human rights violations. Being an international institution, Coram provides assistance in more than 92 countries. In the Maldives specifically, the charity works to provide consulting and research related to education, child protection and youth unemployment. In 2019, Coram International paired with UNICEF Maldives to administer a situation analysis regarding the youth of the Maldives. This study developed an assessment report that could help organizations such as the U.N. and UNICEF better help the children of the Maldives.
  3. Maldives Family Foundation: The third on the list of five charities operating in Maldives is the Maldives Family Foundation. This foundation works to provide assistance to families through legal aid, psychological help, and financial guidance. Maldives Family Foundation also has a large presence on social media, with prominent Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. One way the charity has been helping the citizens of the Maldives is by raising awareness of the Child and Family Protective Services available within the country.
  4. UNICEF in Maldives: UNICEF is a worldwide organization that provides humanitarian aid to children. The charity has been operating in the Maldives since 1978. When UNICEF started in Maldives, it had a primary school enrollment rate of 15% and many children were dying before the age of 5. Since then, with the help of humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF, the Maldives has become a country with one of the lowest poverty rates in South Asia. One way in which UNICEF has contributed to the alleviation of poverty in the Maldives is through its partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics. In this partnership, the team created a Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index. This index collected data about “household income, consumption, and the complexities of deprivation and inequality among communities, and [shed] light on how these factors impact children.”
  5. Huvadhoo Aid: This organization is focused on providing for the Maldivian community in areas such as human rights, equality and the promotion of democracy. One project that Huvadhoo Aid undertook was a reproductive education and rights workshop in 2012. This workshop was held at a local preschool, where many youths gathered to learn about safe sexual practices. A core goal of the workshop was to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Maldives.

Looking Ahead

Whether it be working with climate issues, families, the youth or vulnerable populations, these charities are working to make the Maldives a better place. These organizations provide support, not just for residents of the Maldives, but for the international community.

– Timothy Ginter
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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Improving Life for Costa Rica’s Poor 

Costa Rica's Poor
In the last few years, Costa Rica has experienced an increase in poverty, despite predicted lowering rates. In 2021, poverty reached 23% of households. This is equivalent to 383,500 households. About 6.3% of these households live in extreme poverty, meaning they cannot meet their basic needs. Translated, this means that 376,800 people cannot meet their basic food needs to survive. Increasing unemployment rates, which rose to 18% in 2021, are partially to blame for the increased poverty level among Costa Rica’s poor.

Women and Poverty

Poverty affects women at a more significant percentage in Costa Rica. This is partly due to the low labor force participation rates of women in the region. Paired with the lower wage that women often make compared to men, it seems inevitable that more women in Costa Rica continue to fall into poverty. Single mothers are specifically at risk. More than half of single mothers live in poverty, and their situation continues to deteriorate.

Bringing Awareness to Slums

Slums are one of the most concentrated examples of the intense poverty throughout Costa Rica. According to GlobalGiving, “Costa Rica has over 300 of these precarios in which more than 35,000 families live, almost all of them existing below the poverty line.”

A video that The Tico Times posted walks viewers through Triángulo de la Solidaridad, one of the best-known slums, in a tour that Boy with a Ball, a nonprofit organization that is working to improve the community. The video depicts tiny homes made of tin and wood crammed closely together. The community has unreliable electricity and no sewage system. More than 500 families live in these conditions, with 50% remaining unemployed. In an effort to bring awareness and relief to these communities, Boy with a Ball offers tours of the slums to tourists. Matus, a tour guide for Boy with a Ball explains his motivation behind aiding the cause: “I like [the tours] because this way I can show the other side of Costa Rica that normally tourists wouldn’t see.”

Boy With a Ball

Boy with a Ball began in 2004 when a small group of volunteer workers moved to San Jose, Costa Rica to work in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods. Since then, the company has created teams working in Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria and multiple cities in the U.S. In 2021, the organization impacted 2,577 youth and had more than 1,000 volunteers. The organization has also created 11 tutoring centers with more than 60 operating small groups to create personal mentoring relationships with youth in poverty.

Boy with a Ball works to reach the youth in the slums who often become involved in crime and drug trades in an attempt to escape their circumstances. By providing mentorship and the resources necessary to transform them into leaders for the community, the volunteers hope to encourage the next generation to build a life outside the slums.

The Future of Costa Rica’s Poor

The organization Action Change has extended its work outside of the slums in an attempt to bring education to more children and lower future poverty rates. According to Action Change’s website, “Poverty is a huge factor in education, families that have parents with less than 6 years of education, tend to have lower income and their children don’t finish school.” In addition, low funding for schools has left many children without a safe space to learn and play, by gathering funding and empowering community members, Action Change hopes to grow local communities and develop education throughout Costa Rica. The organization encourages students to stay in school by providing them with better-quality learning materials and safer school environments.

Action Change has supported more than 50 projects worldwide and celebrated the 15-year anniversary of its work in 2020. Action Change has raised more than $2 million to fund its projects to help Costa Rica’s poor.

Both Boy with a Ball and Action Change hopes to change the future statistics of poverty by empowering the next generation to build sustainable and prosperous lives. One child at a time, Costa Rica works to prevent future families from suffering the same poverty as their ancestors.

– Brooklynn Rich
Photo: Flickr