Archive for category: Children

Information and stories addressing children.

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How Foreign Aid Can Stop the Migrant Crisis

Stop the Migrant Crisis
Circulating the United States news cycle as of late is the migrant crisis at the border. From the conditions in which authorities hold migrants to the bills Congress is pushing, such as the Keeping Families Together Act and the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, migrants from Central America have captivated the news as well as the minds of most Americans. One might wonder why so many Central Americans are making their way to the border. This article will explore how increasing foreign aid may stop the migrant crisis.

The Migrant Crisis

The majority of migrants at the border are coming from Central America, specifically El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, or the Northern Triangle of Central America. These are some of the most dangerous countries, with each of them being on the top 10 list of most homicides in the world. People in these regions face violence, such as gender-based violence and gang violence, political instability and extreme poverty, which makes the perilous journey to the United States seem like the most optimistic of options.

These countries face factors that can help explain why people are fleeing their home countries at such a rate. Studies have found that for every 10 homicides in these all three countries, six children wish to enter the United States. In 2018, there were 51 homicides per 100,000, with around 3,340 homicides in El Salvador. Police attributed these murders to the two prominent gangs in El Salvador called MS13 and the Barrio 18. Guatemala had a homicide rate of 22.4 per 100,000 and Honduras had a homicide rate of 40 per 100,000, both being extremely high compared to the homicide rate of other Central and South American countries.

What Caused the Crisis?

One can possibly attribute the recent influx of migrants from these countries to the foreign aid cuts that the current administration has made. According to the State Department, the 2019 fiscal year cut nearly $700 million in funding to these countries. Some believe that these cuts would force people to stay in their countries while others believe that keeping the cuts would allow people to save their money and use it to immigrate to the United States.

The money the United States gave to Central America funds social programs in order to build these countries up and tackle the root causes of their problems. Some of these root causes are violence, lack of education, food insecurity and poverty. The money mainly funds social programs or government reform that would improve living conditions, incentivizing citizens to stay. These programs include after-school programs, programs to create jobs and programs that help strengthen police forces and the court systems.

How Foreign Aid Helps

In these cases, the foreign aid funding these programs and helping different social agencies and NGOs does in fact work. For example, in El Salvador, a United States funded program trains children for employment. The area that implemented this program saw that homicide rates lowered by 78 percent. The United States Global Leadership Commission also breaks down what the funding in each country does and the different programs it funds. In El Salvador, the commission focuses on improving the rule of law and citizen security. However, in Guatemala, funding focuses on fighting poverty, and in Honduras, funding goes towards fighting corruption. In all of these different endeavors, funding has made a positive difference and helped improve living conditions for citizens. This further shows that to stop the migrant crisis, the United States must increase foreign aid.

Conclusion

Using funding for these social programs allows Central Americans and their countries to grow, thrive and prosper. When a country succeeds and gives its citizens ample opportunities to be successful and live their life to the fullest, those citizens may want to stay in said country. Therefore, it seems that the only way to stop the migrant crisis would be an increase in foreign aid to give the Northern Triangle people a reason to stay in their homes and enjoy a better life in their own countries.

– Sydney Toy
Photo: Flickr

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What is the Malawi Project?

The Malawi Project

Malawi Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3), Christian, nonprofit, humanitarian organization that focuses primarily on improving the physical and spiritual health of men, women and children in Malawi. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Malawi Project has provided aid to Malawi in areas as diverse as education, medicine, famine relief, agriculture and community development. The Borgen Project had the opportunity to speak with Richard Stephens, co-founder of the organization about the Malawi Project’s impact to date.

The Borgen Project: Is the Malawi Project the biggest provider of humanitarian aid to Malawi?

Richard Stephens: First, allow me to give some background about the nation and people of Malawi. According to USAID, More than one-half of the country’s 17 million people live below the poverty line, and more than one-third consume less than the required daily calories, contributing to the stunting of nearly one-half of children under 5 years of age.

The agency notes, “Malawi continues to score poorly on major health indicators for maternal, infant and under-5 mortality. Eighty-five percent of households engage in agricultural activities and most rely almost exclusively on rain-fed subsistence farming that is particularly vulnerable to cyclical droughts.

These challenges are compounded by threats from the highest rates of deforestation and population growth in the region.” Only 50 percent of children complete primary school, and of those, only 60 percent successfully pass the exam to access public secondary school; only 15 percent of girls are enrolled in secondary school.” However, the Malawi Project would not be the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Malawi.

TBP: What is the organization’s biggest accomplishment?

RS: According to Dambisa Moyo, a recognized Zambian economist, in her book “Dead Aid,” developed nations delivered over $1 trillion in aid to Africa over the past 50 years. The result? Moyo notes that from 1970 to 1998 when that aid was at its peak, the unemployment picture went from a low of 11 percent in 1970 to a high of 66 percent in 1998. 

Obviously, something was wrong in the way aid was administered. The Malawi Project is proud of its stance of supplying its aid packages in such a way as to inspire creative thinking among the recipients, development of oversight and management by in-country local management, and the creation of an infrastructure to carry out their own work with little or no outside oversight or management.

The Project supports grassroots development of businesses, churches and community groups that will build up and develop the nation from within. Action for Progress is an example. Made up of business, church and community leaders from all three regions of Malawi, this not-for-project organization is taking the lead in the identification of specific need areas and the successful distribution and follow up reporting on nearly all of the aid currently being delivered to Malawi by the Malawi Project.

In the past 26 years, more than 375 forty-foot shipping containers have delivered over $300 million in aid from the Malawi Project. This aid has been delivered to every region, every religion and every walk of life. Additionally, more than 800 people have traveled to Malawi with Project teams to assist the citizens.

More than $3 million in cash infusion has been delivered in the form of locally purchased food, and through a food processing plant constructed under the sponsorship of [our organization] employing more than 100 people, purchasing raw food materials from over 1,000 Malawi farmers, and feeding over 60,000 people a day — as well as an agricultural village, inspired by the Malawi Project, is training 50 farm families a year in current agricultural practices. Additionally, a five-building, 110-bed medical complex serves the needs of people north of the capital and a 27-building childcare center takes care of more than 160 parentless children. These programs are now working independently of support from the Malawi Project and many others are in the development stage of creating this same independent approach to their future.

TBP: Does the Malawi Project ever collaborate with other humanitarian organizations? If so, could you provide some examples?

RS: Yes, the Malawi Project has teamed up with Feed the Children, Nourish the Children, USAID and the governments of Canada, Sweden, Israel, Holland and Germany to supply food and medical assistance to Malawi. Organizations such as Universal Aid and Compassionate Resources in Canada, World Emergency Relief, Amigo International, Breedlove Foods in the U.S. have supplied food, medical assistance and agricultural assistance through the Malawi Project. Hoffnung fur kinder in Germany, Children’s Hope Fund in Hong Kong and Aid to Africa in Washington D.C. have all given financial assistance. Healing Hands International has supplied technical expertise in areas of food processing and agricultural development. Proctor and Gamble, Adidas and Nike are but a sampling of corporations that have extended assistance through the donations of various products.

TBP: How many Malawians have been helped by the Malawi Project?

RS: “The number would be impossible to estimate, but one can note that medical supplies have gone into every district of the nation, to some 600 medical facilities, and school supplies and textbooks have been delivered to well over 1,000 schools and colleges throughout the nation.”

The scope of the Malawi Project work and the impact it has made in Malawi make it an excellent humanitarian organization. In fact, GreatNonprofits recognized the organization as a top-rated nonprofit in both 2017 and 2018. Yet, Stephens’ answers reveal that there is still great need throughout Malawi. Thus, he and the rest of the Malawi Project have no desire to end their work in this country any time soon.

– Jacob Stubbs
Photo: Wikimedia

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Building Schools Using Recycled Plastics

Building Schools Using Recycled Plastics
Education in Cote d’Ivoire continues to be a major challenge in the country which has had a literacy rate of 53.02 percent among 15 to 24-year-olds as of 2014. In fact, more than 2 million children are out of school due to a lack of infrastructure. Classrooms are often full beyond capacity with more than 100 students. Fortunately, West Africa is building schools using recycled plastics as a ground-breaking initiative to change the status quo.

The Fighting Women

Abidjan, a city in Cote d’Ivoire, produces about 288 tons of plastic waste every day. The country recycles only 5 percent of the waste, and when it is, it is usually women that do so informally. These women recover the waste and use it to make money.

A women’s group called The Fighting Women makes a living from collecting plastic and selling it for recycling. However, The Fighting Women is now a part of a project that will not only clean up the environment but will also help improve education. The Fighting Women is an organization of 200 women that collect plastic. A woman named Mariam Coulibaly runs the organization and she has been collecting trash for 20 years. Coulibaly’s organizational skills are what made the project possible. The plastic that these women collect go into bricks in order to build schools.

Conceptos Plasticos

UNICEF in Cote d’Ivoire has partnered with Conceptos Plasticos, a for-profit plastic recycling Colombian company that will turn plastic to bricks and build schools for children. This project will help reduce the issue of overcrowded classrooms and give children the opportunity to attend school.

In 2018, the first African recycled plastic classroom emerged in Gonzagueville. It only took five days to build this classroom as opposed to the nine months it would take to build traditional classrooms. In addition, within the first year, two small farming villages, Sakassou and Divo, constructed nine demonstration classrooms. These new classrooms included bricks that are cheaper and lighter than traditional ones, and also last longer.

Before the new plastic classrooms, children would go to school in traditional mud-brick and wood buildings. The mud-brick would erode from the sun and rain, and require repairs constantly. However, the newly built plastic classrooms are way better and longer-lasting. The classrooms are fire retardant and stay cool in warm weather. In addition, the classrooms are waterproof, have excellent insulation and can fight off the heavy wind. UNICEF and Conceptos Plasticos are planning to build 500 classrooms for more than 25,000 children with the most urgent need in the next two years.

Further Success of the Project

On July 29, 2019, a plastic converting factory opened in Cote d’Ivoire, which is also the first of its kind. This factory produces easy to assemble, durable and low-cost bricks others can use to build classrooms. The factory will solve a lot of major education challenges that children in West Africa face. According to UNICEF, kindergarteners from poor areas will be able to join classrooms with less than 100 students for the first time. Once the factory is fully functioning, it will recycle 9,600 tons of plastic waste a year and provide a source of income for women that collect trash. Moreover, there are plans to expand this project to other countries where there is a high percentage of children that are out of school.

Now, children are able to sit comfortably in classes that were once too overcrowded. This project of building schools using recycled plastics has not only constructed classrooms, but it has also reduced plastic waste in the environment. Although there is still a large number of children out of schools, this innovative project to help build schools in West Africa has been tremendously successful and has impacted the lives of many women and children.

– Merna Ibrahim
Photo: Flickr

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Beca 18: An Educational Program that Brings Hope

scholarships
Lack of educational opportunity is one of the principal reasons why people may get stuck in the cycle of poverty. In many places, people are at least required to have a high-school level of education to get a minimum wage job. Most high-paying positions, however, expect people to have a college degree education, something that for many low-income Peruvians, is very hard to obtain.

In the year 2015, Peru ranked 64 out of 70 on the International Programme for Student Assessments: A standardized test that measures student’s performance on academics. The problems don’t lie within the lack of teachers or a good infrastructure; it lies within the fact that most Peruvians don’t have access to a decent education. Most of the most competitive schools and colleges are in major cities, and with usually high tuition costs.

This difference is prevalent in the countryside where some children have to walk for hours to go to school. In the Peruvian Andes, children are less likely to go beyond high-school education and much less pursue a college degree. As of the year 2017, only 16 percent of young adults were pursuing a college degree, principally because of the inability to pay the high tuition. Fortunately, a governmental program called Beca 18 (Scholarship 18) may soon change that.

The Story of Beca 18

Beca 18 is not the first program that has given scholarships to well-deserved students. The National Institute of Scholarships and Educational Loans, was founded in 1972 and lasted until 2007. While they did offer necessary scholarships and loan payments, they only centered in Lima. After 2007, the new Office of Scholarships and Educational Loan opened, with a more polished selection of students and with a clear focus on trying to reach scholars located on problematic areas of the country, but by all merit have achieved academic excellence.

The Office of Scholarships and Educational Loan worked until 2012, the year on which the former president Ollanta Humala “upgraded” it, becoming the National Program of Scholarships and Educational Loans, also known as Beca 18. The program works as an administrative unit of the Peruvian Ministry of Education with 24 regional offices, giving around 52 236 scholarships around 25 regions from 2012 to 2016. Most of the students that benefited were living in extreme poverty.

How the Program Works

The first thing that applicants have to know is if they meet all the appropriate requirements. For Beca 18, a student’s living conditions have to be below the poverty line, attending the last year of high school or have recently graduated and been on the honor roll. The Scholarship has other ramifications that cater to different students, like Beca Albergue, that centers around students that lived in foster care.

After meeting the requirements, the next step is applying to the National Exam, which can be done by just accessing the scholarships webpage during the call-up time, that happens around December each year. Each student needs to present their essential legal documentation; however, depending on what portion of Beca 18 the student is interested in they may submit additional paperwork. After taking the exam, hosted by many public and private schools around the country, each student receives guidance to get into their desired college. Once accepted, the process of applying for the Scholarship can begin, only students with satisfactory grades on both the National Exam and their college entrance exam, are granted the scholarships.

What Costs Are Covered

Depending on each of the holder’s family and economic situations, the scholarships cover the costs of the admissions exam, full tuition and other work materials, such as a laptop. If needed, the awards include accommodations, transportation, and pocket money. A private tutor is also an option but only for public universities, as privates often offer that service to its students. These, of course, help students that either came from the Andean of Rainforest Regions of the country or lived in an extreme poverty situation.

Famous Recipients

As mentioned before, Beca 18 is an excellent opportunity for many people that couldn’t afford higher education but had exceptional academic abilities. Like Omar Quispe, a recipient that now is a developer for ElectroPeru. He is currently working on a project that could bring good quality electricity to his native Huaylas, a district surrounded by extreme poverty. Another famous case is of Abel Rojas Pozo, that upon graduation started to help local guinea pig farmers spend their business. These efforts were to make his hometown one of the centers of guinea pig exports.

With an educated population, the chances of escaping poverty are higher. And like the recipients of Beca 18, they can use their new-found knowledge to help their families and their communities.

– Adriana Ruiz
Photo: Wapa

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Ending Child Witch Hunts in Nigeria

Child Witch HuntThree priests stand around Joy, a 15-year-old girl, pinching and slapping her. Joy, like many other children, is a victim of the child witch hunts in Nigeria. “My grandmother was sick, and her leg became very swollen. She said I was the one responsible, that I was a witch,” Godbless told Al-Jazeera. Now he is one of the many street children on the outskirts of Calabar, scouring dumpsites for plastic bottles and cans to cash-in for food.

Child witch hunts are not exclusive to Nigeria. Cases have been documented in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia, Guatemala, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and even communities in Europe and the United States.

The “Simple” Answer to Complicated Problems

In some regions, witchcraft has become a way to explain misfortune and hardships, such as death, divorce or illness in families and communities. A part of the problem is limited knowledge about illnesses, which when coupled with strong cultural beliefs, prompts people to search for metaphysical answers. Children who seem aggressive, solitary or have physical deformities are more likely to be accused, as well as orphans raised by relatives, such as Godbless.

Children and even babies have been branded witches, and cases of abuse include being ostracized, chained, starved or beaten. Some children are even set on fire and are beheaded. Humanitarian organizations have reported an increase in accusations of witchcraft over the past 10 years and especially against children.

In the Niger Delta, child witch hunts are a manifestation of severe socio-economic problems, such as poverty, conflict and HIV/AIDS. Although the region has an abundance of natural resources it remains crippled by economic underdevelopment, inequality and environmental degradation, with up to 46 percent of the population living in poverty. The average daily wage is a little more than a dollar. Economic pressure and misfortunes make children in the Delta an easy scapegoat for familiar problems. In the Congo, the first cases of child witchcraft came with the rise of urbanization due to poverty and war, and the emergence of religious sects.

Homelessness is a Common Outcome

In 2010, researchers found that 85 percent of street children in Akwa Ibom, a state in Nigeria, were accused of witchcraft. An earlier report estimated that 15,000 children in Akwa Ibom and Cross River were accused. In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 20,000 street children were victims of the child witch hunt phenomenon. In 2017, 640 boys and more than 1,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 17 were accused of witchcraft in the Congo and subjected to violent exorcisms.

Examples of Solutions

Despite these concerning statistics, today, there are numerous local and international organizations dedicated to protecting victims, raising awareness of child abuse and improving education, legislation and law enforcement.

Nigeria’s criminal code and 2003 Child Rights Act outlaws abuse and accusations of witchcraft, although implementing the law at the state level has been slow. Only three-quarters of Nigeria’s states have domesticated the law. The charity, Safe Child Africa, however, was able to persuade the Akwa Ibom state government to make child witchcraft accusations illegal. By investing in sheltering and educating alleged child witches, Akwa Ibom is the only state that is specifically providing for the abuse of children accused of witchcraft.

In Cross River, UNICEF has been working with the ministry of sustainable development and social welfare to address their version of the Child Rights Act, which does not explicitly outlaw witch-branding. Cross River’s 2018 budget included shelter for children at risk of being accused of witchcraft.

The orphanage DINNoedjaelp – founded by the Danish humanitarian Anja Ringgren Loven – provides medical care, food and education to over 30 alleged child witches. “Right now, Nigeria is the African country with the most children out of school. When the Nigerian government does not use agents to inform and educate, we must through our educational work try to stop the superstition,” Loven told People Magazine.

Reuniting Families

The small Nigerian volunteer organization, Today for Tomorrow, meets street children near the Lemna dumpsite in Calabar – where Godbless now lives – to provide food and health care. Way to Nations, DINNoedhjaelp and other Nigerian organizations do not only rescue children but try to reunite them with their families as part of restoring and educating communities.

“Home visits is the most important part in our advocacy program. When children, who were previously accused of being witches come back to their family and village again, and look healthy, strong, speak good English, have gotten their confidence and hope back, that gives the whole village something to think about,” Loven said of reuniting the children with their families.

Ending child witch hunts requires education just as much as addressing widespread poverty. After government agencies held a series of meetings regarding the issue of child witches and abuse, religious and civil liberty organizations began working to end the hysteria, including several Nigerian Pentecostal churches, who mobilized people through sermons, print media and film. According to Dr. Utibe Effiong, churches have started producing movies that highlight the damage these accusations cause.

Although change is happening, the fight is far from over. Providing a stable future for children in Nigeria and beyond means alleviating poverty by revitalizing economies and educating the masses, so cultural and economic change can happen.

– Emma Uk
Photo: Flickr

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How Oral Rehydration Therapy is Saving Lives

Oral Rehydration TherapyDiarrhea is both preventable and treatable, yet 1.6 million children die a year from diarrheal disease. Survivors are more susceptible to malnutrition, stunted growth and learning disabilities. In direct relation to poor sanitation, inadequate access to clean water and limited education, diarrhea has a particularly devastating impact in impoverished areas.

Background

Children in impoverished countries are diagnosed with dehydrating diarrhea approximately four times per year. Most cases of diarrheal diseases can be prevented with proper hygiene, sanitation and access to clean water. However, when prevention efforts fail, oral rehydration therapy has proven to be an effective treatment option for diarrhea.

Treatment

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) uses available fluids such as breastmilk or rice water mixed with salt to rehydrate the ill. Oral rehydration solutions or ORS is a specific way of delivering ORT. Discovered in the 1970s, ORS is a mixture of sugar, salt and water that can be made at home to replenish electrolytes. In 2001, a new version of ORS, with reduced sodium and glucose, was packaged and distributed in powdered form.

The 2001 low-osmolality ORS reported decreases in stool volume and vomiting by 25 and 30 percent, respectively. Since the implementation of ORT in the 70s, it has saved 50 million lives at an individual cost of less than 30 cents per package. Further, supplementary zinc treatments have proven to reduce the duration and recurrence of diarrheal illness, and provide strong supplementation to oral rehydration solutions.

However, ORT use between 1992 and 2005 decreased in 23 developing countries because they had no knowledge nor access to oral rehydration solutions. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that ORT has the potential to save an additional 300,000 children’s lives each year with ORT and zinc supplementation, but, currently, only 42 percent of children in prioritized countries are receiving ORT treatment. Further, only 7 percent receive both ORS and zinc.

Even though oral rehydration solutions sell for only 25 cents, impoverished families living on less than $1 a day cannot afford these costs. Additionally, there are common misconceptions in poor, less educated, communities that those suffering from diarrhea should be restricted from the consumption of food and fluids including oral rehydration solutions.

Solution

The Global Maternal, Child Health Network and the American Public Health Association have worked together to create a strategy involving international policymakers and health organizations with four main components:

  1. They must appoint a U.S. agency within one year to assume the role of global “children’s champion.” Their job is to coordinate efforts among United States’ and international, public and private, organizations.
  2. The WHO and UNICEF must update their 2004 recommendation for diarrhea treatment to include new information about oral rehydration therapy and zinc. Additionally, they should provide training for local health providers, and fund maternal education and community case management programs.
  3. They must refocus efforts to improve health standards for children under five with a coordinated strategy across many organizations, so no children die from a preventable disease such as diarrhea.
  4. Funding for diarrhea treatment and prevention must be allocated under universal health coverage. Funding should include the co-packaging of zinc and ORS as home-based diarrheal treatment.

While prevention efforts such as improving hygiene and sanitation should remain a priority, it is not always possible to address the consequences of poverty. Approximately, 58 percent of diarrhea fatalities in low and middle-income countries is a result of poor sanitation and inadequate access to clean water. This problem cannot be fixed overnight, however, if provided to everyone, oral rehydration therapy is an affordable treatment that could prevent 93 percent of diarrhea deaths.

– Haley Myers
Photo: Flickr

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Children’s Hunger Fund Provides Meals to Families


Located on the junction of the Interstate 5 and Highway 14 is Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF), which nestles between the yellow, brownish foothills that lead to Santa Clarita. The drive to CHF ends in an industrial, office-complex space along northern Balboa Boulevard, in what people know as Sylmar, which is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Yet the heart and work of this organization belie its rather nondescript location. CHF is a Christian nonprofit with the mission of delivering hope to suffering children by equipping local churches for gospel-centered mercy ministry. Per its name, Children’s Hunger Fund most tangibly fulfills its mission through the delivery of meals to families in need and equipping local churches in an international network in order to build relationships and support communities for those families.

The Numbers

CHF operates in at least 24 mercy-network countries. There are seven countries in North and Central America, two countries in South America, seven countries in Africa, four in Eastern Europe and four in Asia. Since its founding in 1991, CHF served approximately 1,055 churches. In 2017 alone, the nonprofit delivered approximately 44.1 million meals across 503 international churches and 271 domestic churches in the organization’s network.

The Volunteers

At the nucleus of CHF’s worldwide impact is its volunteers who put in over 70,000 hours and packed over 90,000 Food Paks in 2017. Each food packs can provide up to 48 meals worth of food. Besides packing boxes of food, volunteers help with a variety of projects, such as packing bags of beans, macaroni and lentils in a packing facility at Children’s Hunger Fund’s headquarters. They also sort through gift-in-kind (GIK) products from Costco to give to local churches.

Volunteers, led by Children’s Hunger Fund staff, come in for two-hour-long shifts between Wednesday and Saturday, whether they come on their own or with their church, school or business. Volunteers can serve in a variety of ways, especially if they do not live near CHF headquarters in California or Texas.

For example, around 100 high school and college students in Johnson City, New York met at their local K&K The Old Tea House for bubble tea, music, board games and socializing. Organizers of the event sold wristbands and donated proceeds to Children’s Hunger Fund.

In August 2019, volunteers from Zion Lutheran Church in Texas organized a project to package approximately 3,000 boxes providing around 144,000 meals. Children’s Hunger Fund achieved that calculation from the fact that $0.25 translates to one donated meal.

The International Mission

With over $80 million in donations and gifts-in-kind, Children’s Hunger Fund generates and distributes Food Paks that start a relationship. The Food Paks specifically offer churches an open door to pray, serve and minister to these families and invite them into the network of support and hope. The hope is that these Food Paks can start the process of providing for the material, social and spiritual needs of those in poverty and hunger.

Education through the Poverty Encounter

Beyond its work and mission, CHF’s most recent development is the Poverty Encounter, which provides visitors with an interactive encounter with poverty around the globe. The 90-minute tour takes visitors through four different countries including Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal and Romania. In each room, visitors receive experiential education on four different aspects of poverty. Learning about hunger in Guatemala, visitors follow the life of a young boy living in a landfill. To explore disaster in Haiti, children share stories in the wreckage of the earthquake in 2010. The injustice in Nepal shows through children slaving away in brickyards. Finally, visitors witness hope in Romania, where children must live in the sewer systems of cities. The tour ends with giving visitors the opportunity to volunteer, packaging beans or macaroni in CHF’s packaging facility.

CHF’s international work, its army of volunteers, partnerships with corporations and ventures into poverty education all speak to its overarching mission to FACE poverty. FACE stands for feed, aid, connect and equip where it feeds families in need; aids those families with hygienic, educational or other material supplies; connects those families to a local church and support network and equips churches to meet these families needs.

Children’s Hunger Fund is always looking for volunteers. These efforts show that sometimes it only takes 25 cents to make an impact. Anyone can join the fight against poverty and hunger.

– Luke Kwong
Photo: Flickr

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Improving Conditions for Children in India

Children in India
Conditions in India are constantly improving and the country has one of the highest rates of poverty reduction. Between the years 2005-06 and 2015-16, India transformed into a lower-middle-income economy by decreasing the number of poor people from 630 million to 360 million. By improving the standard of living, bettering nutrition and increasing public expenditure, India became home to the largest number of people coming out of poverty. While this improvement has greatly boosted India’s economy, children have also undergone positive changes that improved their lives in many aspects.

There are multiple issues children in India face, and although the challenges continue today, many children live a better life than they did 10 years ago. Here are some of the main problems children in India face and the ways in which the conditions have improved.

Education

Due to poverty, overcrowding and the lack of teachers, less than 50 percent of children receive a proper education. However, in the past two decades, the government has worked toward putting more children into schools. For example, India’s Education For All program has helped educate 200 million children, making it one of the biggest elementary education programs in the world. Additionally, this program has put around 20 million children into primary school since 2001. The government hopes to enroll all children in school regardless if they live in urban or rural areas. Ideally, students would complete school up until grade eight. Hundreds of millions of children would be uneducated and not have the opportunities they have now without the help of the government and the program.

Health Issues

Health has always been a serious issue in India, especially up until the 21st century. The gap between the rich and poor caused the poor to have little medical support which, in turn, increased the spreading of diseases. Private sectors, as well as the government, have set out to reduce the spreading of diseases and, so far, it has eliminated yaws, leprosy, Guinea worm and polio. Infant mortality rate, another serious health problem, has been steadily declining over the past decade. The National Family Health Survey taken in 2015-16 indicated that since the previous survey (2005-06), 57 children out of 1,000 died before reaching the age of one. Now, the number has decreased to 41 deaths out of 1,000. The improvements in underweight children younger than five years have also decreased from 42.5 percent in 2005-06 to 35.7 percent in 2015-16. These health improvements are continuing to help the lives of many children and families.

Violence

Inequality between males and females has caused violence to emerge toward women and girls alike. Violence, abuse and exploitation are all serious struggles faced by many, and UNICEF, along with many other programs and organizations, has been acting to prevent such brutality. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) has begun to standardize the response to sexual violence. The government has also recently launched the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) which protects all children in the country.

A lack of education, health issues and violence continue to threaten the wellbeing of children in India, but through government legislation and the work of NGOs, these conditions have been improving. If all goes well, they will continue to improve.

– Veronica Bodenstein
Photo: Flickr

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Kerala’s Innovative Health Policy

health policyKerala, a state within India, is renowned for its effective policies in education, literacy, and healthcare. Kerala has the second-lowest rate of poverty in India, and that figure has been steadily declining since 1994. Health policies that provide affordable and accessible healthcare to the state’s low-income populations have been critical in its success defeating poverty, but relatively high levels of inequality and emerging health challenges, including an aging population and lifestyle diseases like diabetes, remain policy challenges for Kerala moving forward.

Kerala’s Current Health Needs

One of Kerala’s most pressing healthcare challenges is caring for its rapidly aging population. Kerala’s population over the age of 60 is expected to double by 2050, and as a larger proportion of people are retired, the state needs a healthcare infrastructure designed to support the health needs of the elderly.

A trustee of an NGO focused on healthcare for the underprivileged in Kerala, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out changing lifestyles as the cause of some of Kerala’s growing health issues. Non-communicable diseases are on the rise; cancer and diabetes have become the two largest causes of death in the state.

While infectious diseases remain under control compared to other parts of India, re-emergence of certain diseases have led to rather high morbidity in some areas. Additionally, despite significant efforts on the part of the state to place healthcare in the hands of local authorities, and what the NGO trustee says is the highest ratio of doctors to the public in rural areas of any state in India, rural parts of Kerala still do not receive the same quality of care as do urban areas. Likewise, although Kerala has the lowest infant mortality and maternal mortality rates of any Indian state, the government still aims to reduce these rates further.

Policy Solutions

Because healthcare in India is managed at the state level, Kerala’s state government is responsible for formulating its own comprehensive healthcare policy. The state has a history and culture of providing health services to the public; as early as 1879, vaccinations were made mandatory for specific subsets of the population. Since India’s independence in 1947, Kerala has worked to expand easy, community-based access to primary care, prevention services, and specialized treatments.

Kerala’s decentralized healthcare model is a key component of its success in providing affordable and accessible care. After a statewide movement towards expensive private healthcare in the 1980s due to a lack of resources in the public health sector, in 1996, Kerala’s state government decentralized public healthcare through the People’s Campaign for Decentralized Planning. Decentralization shifted approximately 40 percent of state healthcare funding to local governments, prioritizing creating community-based services that are accessible to all regardless of income or caste, as a private-dominated system was consistently barring the poor from accessing care across Kerala.

Looking to the Future

Another key element of Kerala’s healthcare successes has been its willingness to generate policies anticipating future healthcare needs. As the state’s population ages rapidly, policy is already being generated to combat this coming issue. Senior care facilities are already being constructed across the state, existing facilities are being made more equipped for geriatric care, and the Pain and Palliative Care Policy of 2008 has increased the amount of home-based care at the local level.

Likewise, to combat the re-emergence of infectious diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, and Dengue fever, Kerala has invested in information-gathering at the household level in order to observe the spread of such illnesses. As diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease came to account for more than half of all deaths in Kerala, the National Programme for Prevention of CVD, Diabetes, Cancer and Stroke (NPCDCS) was introduced in Pathanamthitta district in 2010 and has since been expanded statewide.

This year, Kerala’s government passed a policy for comprehensive healthcare reform. This new policy seeks to reshape the state’s health services to better account for an aging population, re-emerging infectious diseases and non-communicable lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and to expand mental healthcare. It will increase public spending on healthcare more than eightfold in order to further lower the price of public health services as well as providing treatment guidelines to ensure a more even quality of treatment across the state. This comes at the same time as the state is expanding its public health insurance coverage.

Impact on Poverty

Despite the government’s continued efforts to decrease the cost of healthcare and the fact that privatized healthcare services are still largely inaccessible to the poor, Kerala has accomplished several significant victories in providing affordable and accessible healthcare. According to the NGO trustee, no one needs to travel more than 10 kilometers to a primary health centre (PHC), and medicines are provided for free at PHCs across Kerala. Decentralization of healthcare has cut costs significantly, and the state’s new health policy seeks to encourage subsidized public healthcare even further while increasing insurance coverage.

Certainly, Kerala’s innovative health policy is a critical component of its low and steadily decreasing poverty rate. However, underprivileged individuals–including the poor, those in rural areas, women, and the elderly–continue to receive lower quality care and less of it. That is why NGOs and nonprofits like the trustee’s organization must continue to exist, and why the government continues its fight for constant improvement of Kerala’s health policy.

– Macklyn Hutchison
Photo: Flickr

 

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10 Facts About Child Labor in Morocco

10 Facts About Child Labor in MoroccoOutside of tourists’ eyes, child labor still operates throughout Morocco in the form of forced labor and agricultural work. Little choice resides in the child, his or her guardians signing the contract instead. Some children, however, do make a choice to enlist themselves, previously working at younger ages and unable to find another way to make a living. Below are 10 facts about child labor in Morocco describing its harshness and prevalence.

10 Facts About Child Labor in Morocco

  1. Worst Forms of Child Labor: The Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (Convention No. 182) established a list of the worst activities a child could work. Some categories this list included were forced domestic work and begging. UNESCO data shows that 4.5 percent of children ages 10 to 14 work, which equates to 150,178 children. These kids participate in the listed worst activities including working in illegal sand extraction, restaurants or houses and begging for food and money.
  2. Female Child Labor and Sex Trafficking: The families of rural Moroccan girls between the ages of 6 and 15 often send them to work in homes in Morocco and other African countries. They are often vulnerable to abuse in these situations, and in some cases, commercial sexual exploitation.
  3. Lack of Education: Besides the unfortunate act of trafficking, children in Morocco face other blockages that prevent them from obtaining a fulfilling education. Living long distances from established schools, including a lack of security and fees for attending school limits the inclusiveness of rural or disabled children. The requirement of a present birth certificate for higher schooling adds to the blockade. This lack of education forces children into labor.
  4. Domestic Work Provides Loopholes for Employers: The Morocco Labor Code allows a maximum of 44 hours a week; however, this limit does not cover domestic workers. In interviews with the Human Rights Watch (a nonprofit organization that investigates human rights), girls reported that they sometimes work 100 hours a week with no breaks or days off. One even detailed a task from 6 a.m. until midnight. Parents and middlemen often lie to the girls, presenting the employers as kind people and working conditions as favorable.
  5. Salaries Almost Never go to the Kids: Interviews that the Human Rights Watch conducted with children showed that parents and employers negotiated almost all agreements to work. Most children received no wages at all, with all wages going to the parents or guardians. Furthermore, the monthly salary that the children in domestic work earned totaled only $61 on average. In Morocco’s industrial sector, salaries reach up to $261 per month.
  6. Self-Employed Children Do Not Follow the Labor Code: Similar to domestic work, Morocco cannot enforce the 44-hour limit for children who work as artisans or ones who even tend to private farms. These children risk exploitation and some may even feel obligated to work overtime in their self-employed job to cover expenses for their families.
  7. Work in Other Industries Can Also be Dangerous: Besides domestic work, some children operate in carpentry or repairing automobiles. Children use dangerous tools daily, exposing them to dust, chemicals and loud noise. Cutting trees, another option for work, involves the use of dangerous equipment and tools as well. Meanwhile, fishing presents a danger for children because they could drown. While some jobs are less binding than others, children still unwittingly expose themselves to constant risks.
  8. Morocco’s Trafficking Spreads to Other Countries: Reports detail that child prostitution not only occurs in local cities but in the capital and coastal ones as well, Rabat and Casablanca among the list. Both boys and girls fall victim to sex tourism in sites attracting customers from the Persian Gulf and Europe. Traffickers send children to these countries for forced labor or sexual exploitation. Children put themselves up for prostitution, usually previous victims of domestic service unable to find shelter.
  9. Labor Inspectors May Solve Some Dilemmas: One challenge is that there is a lack of people to monitor the working conditions of children. The Human Rights Watch suggested effective methods including identifying and removing underage children from households and studying the conditions of those with appropriate age. These recommendations have yet to gain traction, though. With these, however, investigators could enforce the law, and fine or arrest employers that do not follow limitations set in place.
  10. The Situation is Improving…Somewhat: In 2017, the government supported the Law on Setting Up Employment Conditions of Domestic Workers. This passed bill restricts the recruitment of children between the ages of 16 and 18 for domestic work. Morocco’s government also supports the Tayssir Conditional Cash Transfer Program, which directly sends financial aid to families with kids unable to meet school criteria. These improvements are restricting an increasing number of children from dangerous work and causing the issuing of fines for violations of child labor.

While the solutions that these 10 facts about child labor in Morocco present only slightly reduce the overarching problem, child labor should lessen as the issues that people associate with it reach the spotlight of the media. Human Rights Watch suggests that the government take direct action to protect children.

Domestic workers and government actions are currently helping end contracts in houses across Morocco. The steps to ending child labor have only begun, yet the future looks promising. Programs such as the Cash Transfer Program reached 2 million children, allowing kid’s shoes to pass through the school gate. Other social programs give assistance to children at-risk for entering child labor with vocational training.

– Daniel Bertetti
Photo: Flickr