Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Causes of Human Trafficking in China

Causes of Human Trafficking in China
Human trafficking encompasses any exploitation or forced trade of humans against their will. This includes sex trafficking, child labor, forced labor and even forced adoptions and marriages. Human trafficking has risen to extremely high rates in China and the country has been identified as having one of the world’s highest rates of human trafficking in the world.

About Human Trafficking in China

Traffickers have transported Chinese trafficking victims to every single continent around the world. Approximately 600,000 workers willingly migrate to China on the basis of false promises regarding work opportunities, including escapees from North Korea. Instead of finding work, many are set up and sold into human trafficking organizations. They are usually forced into hard labor, prostitution or entertainment industries. There are numerous causes of human trafficking in China. Supply chain companies, many of which sell their products to the United States, utilize human trafficking to obtain cheap or free labor to mass produce their products.

Causes of Human Trafficking in China

The one-child policy has contributed to human trafficking in China and can be considered as one of the main reasons for this negative trend in the country. In an effort to control the growing population, the country limited each family to a maximum of one child. The prioritization of male children over females has led to an uneven gender distribution ratio.

This results in less marriageable women and, therefore, the purchasing of wives through human trafficking. Children are also kidnapped from poverty-stricken rural areas and sold to parents that are unable to have children themselves. Overall, the largest causes of human trafficking in China are the high unemployment rates in rural areas, mass production increase in urban areas and lack of enforced punishment by government and law.

Tackling the Issue

China does not meet the minimum requirement of standards necessary to combat the rise of human trafficking. However, as the entire world learns about the issue, the country has begun to make efforts to fight against human trafficking. The Central Committee, the State Council and local governments and institutions are designated to tackle this issue.

Many organizations, predominately those that women organize, have been prominent in providing knowledge about sex trafficking to uneducated women. Paired with the Ministry of Justice, the All China’s Women’s Federation has produced many anti-trafficking printouts and propaganda. China has increased cooperation with other countries attempting to investigate cases of Chinese trafficking overseas, as well as provided shelters for trafficking victims and funded awareness campaigns to increase knowledge surrounding the issue.

These efforts, however small, go a long way in helping prevent the rise of human trafficking in China. Providing awareness to uneducated and poverty-stricken rural areas is a large first step, as many people fall into trafficking simply by being unaware of what it is, what it looks like and how it occurs. There is a long way to go, but with the help and encouragement of international countries, the causes of human trafficking in China will begin to lessen. The first big step, the recognition of the problem, is already done.

– Mary Spindler

Photo: Flickr

EcoViva Generates Stability Through Community-Led Initiatives

Community-Led Initiatives
In 2017, El Salvador, a country of 6 million people, was one of the deadliest countries to live in that was not inside a war zone —  the country saw on average 10 homicides every day.

El Salvador is pained by low levels of economic growth. From 2010 to 2016, real economic growth averaged only 2.6 percent, which makes El Salvador the nation with the lowest GDP growth in Central America. In 2016, 31 percent of the population lived in poverty, and the World Food Program estimates that 36 percent of the rural population lives in poverty.

Poverty and Environment in El Salvador

El Salvador is vulnerable to several climate risk issues. According to a USAID-supported platform called Climate Risk, El Salvador has witnessed a consistent occurrence of extreme events — storms, floods and droughts — within the last 30 years. Deforestation and land degradation have also negatively impacted agricultural lands, increasing the country’s vulnerability to climate change.

Thirty percent of the El Salvadoran population lives on the coast. El Salvador’s Pacific coastline is highly vulnerable to the combination of sea level rise and El Niño events. In fact, it is expected that 10 to 28 percent of the Pacific Coastline will be inundated permanently by the end of the century.

El Salvador’s current economic and political climate is predominantly shaped by the war on drugs, civil war and multinational corporate resource exploitation. EcoViva, a California-based community building organization, supports grassroots movements in El Salvador to alleviate the effects of these legacies in its partnered communities.

EcoViva

Thankfully, the organization EcoViva generates stability through community-led initiatives. Since its inception in 1996, EcoViva has worked with communities in the Lower Lempa River Estuary on the precipice of sea level rise. This at-risk location is in El Salvador’s northern mountain range and the Bay of Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve.

EcoViva envisions works to create thriving ecosystems and communities in Central America by supporting community-led initiatives that support environmental harmony and ameliorate the effects of poverty. EcoViva serves more than 100 villages, reaching roughly 35,000 people. EcoViva and their partners are forming a green rural economy, addressing climate change, educating young people and ending gang violence in EcoViva’s partnered communities.

Shaping a Green Rural Economy

The Diversified Agriculture Program was created by the Mangrove Association, a partner of EcoViva, to reduce hunger and malnutrition experienced by communities in southeast El Salvador. The program provides free training and technical assistance to 120 farmers over a five-year period. The Mangrove Association also distributes 120,000 free organic vegetable seeds and fruit tree saplings to small-scale farmers each year.

The farmers are trained in permaculture, embracing practices that increase yields, diversify production and improve soil quality. These same practices protect the groundwater from chemical pollution and safeguard one of El Salvador’s last intact mangrove ecosystems in the nearby Bay of Jiquilisco, combatting a steady stream of chemical pollutants into the bay from industrial agriculture.

Empowerment and Education of Young People

Since 2002, EcoViva has supported youth programming in the Lower Lempa region of El Salvador, reaching a total of 500 youth. The programs reflect the needs of local youth so as to include leadership training, capacity building and educational opportunities.

Recently, youth have become entrepreneurs, putting their education and leadership training into practice by creating economic opportunities for themselves and other members of their community.

Ending Gang Violence

In 2001, EcoViva drew up three initiatives to bring about a gang truce in the partnered communities. One of the initiatives saw EcoViva help reintegrate former gang members into their communities by giving them the ability to remove their tattoos.

This initiative reduced the risk of former gang members becoming targets for gang violence and police repression; fortunately, 12 years have passed with virtually no gang-related violence in EcoViva partner communities.

EcoViva Generates Stability Through Community-Led Initiatives

EcoViva has been quite successful in its programs with partnered organizations and communities in El Salvador. In fact, 4,735 acres of mangroves are currently protected by community patrols; villagers and volunteers have build 94 composting toilets to decrease groundwater pollution and life-threatening illnesses; and 84 communities are equipped with an Early Warning System for disaster response. EcoViva generates stability through community-led initiatives, and other nations and organizations would do well to follow in its admirable footsteps.

-Sasha Kramer

Photo: Pixabay

Poverty and Sand Mining in Cambodia

The Connection Between Sand Mining and Poverty in Cambodia
The practice of sand mining has spelled disaster for fishing communities in Cambodia. For more than a decade, sand mining in Cambodia has contributed to the collective poverty of fishing communities as well as displacement. Although Cambodia officially banned the export of sand in 2017, the connection between sand mining and poverty in Cambodia is a lasting one.

Southeast Asian Expansion

Singapore has enlarged its landmass by almost a quarter its size since its independence in 1965, going from 224 to 277 square miles. Singapore considers reclamation a key strategy for accommodating its growing urban population. In fact, the country has artificially expanded the size of its landmass with sand, thus making the Southeast Asian nation one of the world’s largest sand importers.

After Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam grew tired of feeding Singapore’s insatiable appetite for sand; sand mining in Cambodia then took off in 2007 after Indonesia banned sand exports in the same year.

Cambodia, Poverty and Sand Mining

In 2007, the government of Cambodia began granting private companies concessions to mine rivers for sand. From 2007 to 2017, the U.N. reports that Singapore imported more than 72 million tons of sand from Cambodia. In 2015, Cambodia was number even on the top 20 list of sand exporting countries, to the tune of more than $53 million.

A practice called ‘dredging’ sucks up the sand a few feet below the marine floor, disturbing the water. Even temporary increases in turbidity interfere with spawning and suffocate coral reefs. Over-dredging in waterways can lower stream bottoms and disrupt the natural sedimentary processes, leading to the erosion of riverbanks.

Environmental Impacts

Environmental groups report that the dredging industry has threatened several species of endangered dolphins, turtles, otters and mangrove forests. Sand mining in Cambodia has also led to the destruction of Cambodia’s only natural protection against riverbank erosion, rising sea levels, tsunamis and hurricanes.

The connection between sand mining and poverty in Cambodia is seamless. The known dredging concessions were in Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk provinces on Cambodia’s western shore. Companies did not consult with people in the fishing villages and local authorities did not speak with them before operations began. In the village of Koh Sralau, sand dredging has ravaged the ecosystem that thousands of families depend on for their livelihood.

Detrimental Dredging

According to Global Witness, every month in 2010 dredgers extracted more than 850,000 tons of sand from Koh Kong province alone. In 2010, residents of Koh Sralau told Global Witness that the fish catch had declined by 50% since the dredging ships arrived. In 2016, residents of Koh Sralau told the Thomas Reuters Foundations that the sand dredging industry had sent their once-prosperous fishing community into poverty. One man said that before the Vietnamese sand dredgers occupied the area, he could expect to earn $50 a day fishing for crab; alternately, in 2016 he was only seeing $10 and was unable to afford to send his children to school.

Sand mining in Koh Sralau has incurred a wave of displacement. Since the sand dredging began, every family in Koh Sralau has lost a family member, which forces such people to migrate to other places and other countries to find work. People are quite literally losing the land they live on — banks along the rivers in both provinces have become so eroded that people have lost their homes, farms and shops due to landslides.

River Reclamation and Ban on Sand

After years of community organizing and protests by environmental groups, the fishing communities of Cambodia have their rivers back. In July 2017, Cambodia placed a permanent ban on sand for construction and sand mud exports. In addition to this good news for the fishing communities of Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk, Cambodia will no longer sell sand to Singapore, putting Southeast Asia in a stronger position for environmental and economic sustainability.

– Sasha Kramer
Photo: Flickr

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How Technology Transforms Agriculture

Technology Transforms Agriculture in Developing Countries
Smallholder farmers and their families make up to almost 75 percent of the world’s poor population. Struggling with access to health care, clean drinking water and education are just some of the daily challenges these people face. A digital technology company called Ricult is striving to improve the productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers in developing countries by solving agricultural problems with technology-based solutions. Ricult has already helped 10,000 farmers across Thailand and Pakistan and continues to prove that technology transforms agriculture in developing countries every day.

Technology Transforms Agriculture

Ricult requires farmers to enter in their geo-coordinates through their app. It then uses geospatial data streams that monitor the environment through weather, satellite, and soil analytics. This provides the farmer with valuable data such as soil conditions to ensure optimal growth.

Some of the basic problems that poor farmers face include inadequate access to weather data, no pest attack forecast, storage issues, low-profit margins and credit access. According to Usman Javaid, the CEO of Ricult, the biggest reason why microfinance institutions haven’t been able to alleviate poverty in developing markets is that they only focus on one part of the problem by providing credit.

The Work of Government of Pakistan

Providing credit is the main way the Government of Pakistan seeks to transform agriculture. The government has adopted a long-term development strategy that aims to remodel the country into an upper middle-income country by 2025. The government developed the Five Year Plan that aims to ensure national food security and reduce rural poverty by increasing productivity, competitiveness and environmental safety. Through this program, the government provides $3 billion in subsidies, grants and loans. They are also providing credit to farmers who own up to 12.5 acres of land and are facing massive irrigation costs.

Ricult as Example how Technology Transforms Agriculture

Javaid says that one of the biggest problems in developing countries is that when farmers receive cash, they will use it for anything and everything but not for agriculture. The country gives an in-kind loan of inputs delivered to the doorstep of the farmers and accompanies this with insightful and actionable agronomic data from optimal sowing times to yield forecasts. This is just one of the examples of how exactly technology transforms agriculture.

Another great component about Ricult is that it allows farmers to get paid within 48 hours. Farmers generally use a middleman who delivers produce from the farm to the markets. Middlemen often stagger payments and cost additional input. Ricult offers five times lower interest rates than middlemen. Ricult has received a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation and continues to transform agriculture in developing countries by making a positive impact in the lives of farmers.

A Pakistani farmer named Faraz Shah has said that the current system of informal credit was not working for the farmers. They were very upset, but Ricult has greatly improved their lives by offering credit at much cheaper prices and improving them with high-quality products. Thailand farmer BubpaWorawat said that Ricult dashboard with its color coding system lets him know in which part of his land growth is stunted so he can take immediate action unlike before when he could not personally scout the areas and he would not know about the problem until it was too late.

Ricult is only one example of how does technology transforms agriculture. Since agriculture is a prevalent way of life in less developed countries, in which most of the poor people of the world live, it is very important to develop the new ways and to use technology to help these people to be more effective in their line of work. By doing so, technology can help poor people get out of the cycle of poverty.

– Grace Klein

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Israel: The Arab-Jewish Divide

Education in Israel
Although Israel as a whole is a highly educated country, its Arab minority does not fare as well in attaining higher education. Arabs and Jews typically attend separate schools, and the state education budget is unevenly skewed towards funding Jewish schools. Unequal access to education has long term consequences and in most cases result in poverty and unemployment of Arab minorities.

An Educated Nation

Education in Israel is treated with importance. Consequently, the nation is a leader among OECD members for the percentage of citizens completing tertiary education. According to the 2013 OECD publication, 46 percent of Israelis aged from 25 to 64 hold a post-secondary degree, well above the group’s average of 32 percent. Additionally, Israel’s population is younger than the average. Over 42 percent of the population is younger than 25, providing a continuous stream of students and young professionals that are entering the workforce.

A precursor and important supplement to tertiary education in Israel is mandatory military service. Conscription begins at the age of 18, lasting three years for men and two years for women. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is structured into different units, with conscripts sorted among them based on military and technical aptitude. The most prestigious IDF unit is the Talpiot, noted for its scientific innovation. It combines military service with rigorous science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, giving its participants transferrable skills for university education and preparing them for the job market.

Challenges in Education in Israel

Primary education in Israel tends to be highly segregated. This segregation is representative of Israel as a whole as, according to Foreign Policy Magazine, 90 percent of Arab-Israelis live in all Arab communities. Separating children by ethnicity and religion limits their ability to learn about one another’s culture firsthand.

In addition to learning in isolation from their Jewish counterparts, Arab-Israeli schools receive less funding and do not meet the same educational benchmarks. Whether measured in standardized test scores, high school graduation rates or university matriculation, Arab-Israelis consistently lag behind. One of the more startling statistics regarding education in Israel is the per-pupil funding figure that can be almost 88 percent lower than that of a Jewish student. Furthermore, Arab-Israelis are not required to serve in the IDF, depriving them of the vocational training Jewish soldiers receive.

Consequences on the Country

Poverty in Israel is high compared to other Western industrialized nations and especially pronounced among Arabs. While poverty rates are decreasing, nearly half (49.4 percent) of Israel’s Arab population lives below the poverty line. Lack of education and underemployment plays a key role in Israel’s poverty rate, as over half of the poor families are working families.

Poverty creates a bad environment and makes people prone to crime, and the poverty present in Arab communities contributes to higher crime rates than Israel’s average. Most alarming is the increase in violent crime, including weapons violations and assaults. According to a 2018 article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Arab citizens were involved in 40 percent of violent offenses and in 60 percent of the murder cases in the country, despite only comprising 20 percent of Israel’s population. As many Arab-Israelis feel marginalized socio-economically, some resort to violence as a means to make ends meet.

Solutions to the Problem

Both the Israeli government and nongovernmental organizations are working to ameliorate the educational gap between Arabs and Jews. One nongovernmental organization called Hand in Hand that serves as a center for Jewish-Arab education in Israel strives to bring Arabs and Jews together in the classroom. According to the organization’s mission statement, it currently operates in six schools, with the goal of expanding in at least 10 schools and 20,000 pupils in the next decade.

In terms of governmental reforms, Minister of Education Naftali Bennett pushes for both increased spending and a curriculum overhaul. The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s 2019 education budget of around $140 billion will surpass its defense budget. This is an astonishing development for a country that faces a vast array of security threats in its immediate vicinity.

Addressing the academic gap between Jewish and Arabic students, Bennett urges Arab schools to emphasize Hebrew and English instruction claiming that its absence is a barrier to future employment. The future of education in Israel depends both on integrating Arab students with their Jewish counterparts and addressing the structural problems present in underperforming schools.

– Joseph Banish

Photo: Flickr

Natural Disasters & Relief Efforts in Indonesia

Relief Efforts in Indonesia
On September 28th, 2018 Indonesia was hit with a 7.4 magnitude earthquake; three days later and as a consequence of the earthquake, a massive tsunami devastated the Central Sulawesi province in Indonesia. Palu and Donggala were amongst the areas worst hit in the province. On October 21st, 2018, the death toll sat at 2,113 people. In fact, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman, Sutopo Nugroho, stated that 1,300 people were reported missing, 223,751 people were displaced from their homes and communities and 4,612 were reported injured. Relief efforts in in Indonesia began almost immediately and are still underway today.

Need for Relief

Fall 2018 wasn’t the first time relief efforts in Indonesia have been needed. Back in 2004, the country faced another devastating tsunami, known famously as the “Boxing Day Tsunami” — the deadliest recorded tsunami in history. Indonesia geographically sits in the “Ring of Fire” — a horseshoe-like basin that sits in the pacific ocean — that is notorious for earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its high tectonic movement. As a result of this proximity, the country faces constant natural threats.

The government of Indonesia has accepted foreign aid in hopes of accelerating recovery and relief efforts. Twenty-six countries have reported to offer help, and different organizations have stepped in as well. Three of which are stated below:

The Australian Council for International Development

The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) works closely with the Indonesian government and local partners to mobilize search-and-rescue and medical teams, and provide food, shelter and clean water.

ACFID has also made sure to create safe spaces for children — especially those missing parents and guardians. Keeping in mind the psychological effects of this disaster, the organization has offered psychosocial support to affected inhabitants.

Malteser International

Malteser International aids Indonesia by providing health facilities with medical equipment and medicine. The organization has made emergency funds available to help deliver relief materials.

Malteser International is dedicated to making sure that the affected have access to clean water in order to avoid the spread of disease. Unfortunately, the group finds it challenging to transport clean water to remote areas due to the destruction of roads and infrastructure.

The World Bank

The World Bank — perhaps offering the largest aid — has declared a $1 billion relief fund available to the Indonesian government. Based on scientific, economic and engineering analyses, the World Bank has estimated the physical loss in Sulawesi at $531 million with $181 million of that for residential housing, $185 million for nonresidential and $165 million for infrastructure.

The fund is piloted by a $5 million grant for technical assistance to ensure that the reconstruction is planned out and executed with efficiency and accuracy. It could offer cash transfers to 150,000 of the poorest families affected, which will support the local economy and employment levels during the recovery process.

The relief efforts in Indonesia are extensive, but the donations from these three organizations will go far in helping Indonesia get back on its feet and ensure that the inhabitants impacted by this natural disaster are taken care of safely and effectively.

– Mary Spindler

Photo: Pixabay

The Impact of Community-Led Development

Impact of Community-Led Development
If the world hopes to succeed in accomplishing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, people in power should listen to those who have successfully strengthened communities by putting the locals first. The Community-Led Development Movement (CLD Movement) advocates for allowing communities to decide their growth: “We believe that every human person has a fundamental right to voice in the decisions that affect their lives, and to equal and affordable access to the fundamental public services through which they can achieve their full potential.”

This statement sums up the way many people who work for the CLD movement or other NGOs feel towards community-first building. The group works towards the following goals: voice and agency for marginalized groups, adequate community finance, good local governance, quality public services and eventual self-resilience.

The following cases are examples of the impact of community-led development and how it has helped jumpstart new growth in communities.

Mercy Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan

The non-governmental organization (NGO) group Mercy Corps developed the research program, Learning for Effective Aid Policy and Practice (LEAPP) in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal of LEAPP was to implement community-led projects that bring the community and its leaders together in a positive fashion. Through this action, Mercy Corps hoped to create stability and trust between the community and its leaders as well.

On top of these accomplishments, the program also invested in citizens which then led to increased incentives in them to continue to better their communities. Through educating communities on how the future could improve after working with NGOs and community leaders, the Afghan communities’ optimism increased from 14 percent to 65 percent. In fact, the level of satisfaction of new infrastructure ranged from mid-fifties to mid-seventies.

On top of these facts, the jobs increased by 26 percent, satisfication with job growth grew to 40 percent and acessibility to education increased by 43 percent. The LEAPP program in Afghanistan and Iraq strived to give assistance beyond military intervention — the common adi protocol of the past.

Various NGOs in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has seen some of the best operations of community-first building. Several NGOs have worked with low income communities across the country to bring the nation better food, nutrients, jobs and opportunities for education. With NGOs like Grameen Danone, BRAC and the Poverty Eradication Program, several communities have felt a rise in income, confidence and optimism. A more specific inquiry into NGOs focusing on Bangladesh’s communities follows the work of Concern Bangladesh.

Concern Bangladesh is a subsector of Concern Worldwide and in 2017, the NGO responded to Cyclone Mora as well as the influx of 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. The organization combatted poverty by improving livelihoods, increasing access to basic rights and giving entitlements to the lowest-income communities. Concern Bangladesh worked to improve slums, provide homes for squatters and integrated multisector services to over 10,000 people in 2017.

The group did a specific project on the Char region of Bangladesh between 2012 and 2016. The report claims that over 120,000 people directly or indirectly benefitted from the work done in the region by Concern Bangladesh. People in the Char community worked with Concern Bangladesh, which not only provided themselves with jobs, but also helped create jobs for others in the community.

A More Stable Future

After researching and reporting on the impact of community-led development in different countries around the world, John Conrood from the Huffington Post said, “women and men have a fundamental right to be the authors of their own development, and that right must start in the communities where they live and work.”

Through giving people power over their growth at the ground level, there is more motivation, influence and trust in the rest of the system that then leads to a more stable future for everyone involved.

– Miranda Garbaciak
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Life Expectancy in China


China’s life expectancy has increased dramatically since 1990. The life expectancy in the country in the 1990s was more similar to that of the developing world, but recently, it resembles that of a high-income nation. China has managed to reduce its burden of disease in the last few decades and has increased its child mortality rate and maternal health dramatically. In the text below, top 10 facts about life expectancy in China are presented.

Top 10 Facts About Life Expectancy in China

  1. Newborns from the United States can expect to have a longer lifespan than Chinese newborns. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has determined that Chinese newborns have a healthier life expectancy and that, in the last 10 years of a life of U.S. citizens, health declines steadily. Chinese citizens can expect to live 68.7 healthy years, compared with 68.5 healthy years for U.S. citizens.
  2. China has the potential to lift its life expectancy by three years. This is only possible, however, if the country lowers its smog levels to WHO standards. China has taken strides towards reducing their air pollution and has vowed to reduce the impact of its air pollution in order to raise life expectancy to 79 years 2030.
  3. China has raised its life expectancy from 69.3 years in 1990 to 76.1 years in 2015. The leading factors for this substantial rise is the improvement in China’s child mortality rate and their maternal health. Child deaths due to lower respiratory infections and diarrhea have decreased by 90 percent since 1990.
  4. Tuberculosis (TB) is a major burden for China. The country has over a million new cases each year, more than any country except India.
  5. China carries 10 percent of the global burden of tuberculosis and the presence of drug-resistant TB makes battling the disease that much more difficult.
  6. China faces around 1.6 million premature deaths due to smog and air pollution. This poisonous air pollution is a combination of factories that emit dangerous particles, car pollutants and urban traffic, and indoor pollution in rural areas. Although the country has cut down on their air pollution, some fear that the damage has already affected adults and will continue to affect the vulnerable immune systems of the elderly citizens.
  7. China has made strides in reducing the cases of tuberculosis. TB incidence rate in the country has been declining by 3.4 percent every year since 1990. This rapid decline is due to government implemented programs that focus on the prevention and control of TB.
  8. Some researches show that there was an 11.2 percent difference in income inequality in the country. This kind of inequality can lead to varying life expectancies in different areas of China. It also means that each region faces different kinds of health problems. While one has eradicated an infectious and fatal disease, another may be still suffering under the burden of it.
  9. Tobaccos are one of the highest risk factors in the country. Chinese women use tobacco at an extremely low rate, but a majority of Chinese men smoke regularly and the exposure to secondhand smoke in the country is 72 percent. It has been discovered that there has been a 30 percent rise in tobacco-related deaths in the country since 1990.
  10. As China has reduced the burden of disease, child mortality and maternal health, new problems have arisen. These problems are non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These are chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or epilepsy. They cannot be passed on from one person to another, but have a great impact on a person’s quality and length of life. There are 15 million annual deaths attributed to NCDs in the country and 85 percent of those occur in low or middle-income countries.

China has made great strides in its mission to increase life expectancy and quality of life. However, the country still faces issues such as inequality, air pollution, tuberculosis and NCDs. These top 10 facts about life expectancy in China provide hope for an ever-increasing life expectancy in a nation that has risen out of poverty and ill-health.

– Olivia Halliburton

Photo: Pixabay

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Seahawks’ K J Wright Supports Clean Water in Kenya

Clean Water in Kenya
Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright is addressing the issue of clean water in Kenya. Currently, 41 percent of Kenyans (19 million people) still lack reliable, safe water sources for drinking water. While on vacation in the Maasai Mara region, Wright witnessed the challenges faced by locals, especially females, when it came to collecting drinking water and decided to start a fundraising campaign with the goal of building two wells in the village he stayed in.

The Global Issue of Clean Water

The availability of clean water has been a major issue across the globe. In July 2010, the United Nations deemed access to clean water and proper sanitation a human right. Yet in 2017, 2.1 billion people still lacked safe drinking water and 4.5 billion did not have sufficient sanitation services. Without safe management of sanitation services and wastewater from cities, businesses and farms, waterways are likely to be polluted. When these water sources are used by community members as drinking water, many health risks arise.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation remain the most common reason for child mortality and are associated with diseases including cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid and polio. By creating the infrastructure for water services, an impoverished community can significantly reduce the number of preventable health issues.

K.J. Wright’s Fundraiser for Wells in Kenya

Clean water infrastructure, however, can be expensive. To build a single well in the village K.J. Wright visited will cost $20,000. In order to adequately cover the expense of two wells, Wright has set a goal of $50,000 for his fundraising campaign. He will personally be donating $300 for every tackle he makes during the football season, which has added up to $1,500 as of November 2018. He has also created an online donation page through Healing Hands International for individuals wishing to support clean water in Kenya.

Women and girls are particularly affected by this problem because water sources are often miles away, and females are usually the ones expected to collect water for the family. Aside from the health impacts of walking great distances daily, the time invested in this chore also prevents many girls from attending school.

Seeing this had a profound effect on Wright. Commenting on his trip to Kenya, Wright said, “I noticed this young girl had dirty brown water. So, I just wanted to help this community. The young ladies have to walk many miles twice a day just to bring back water, and when they do get the water, it’s not even clean. […] I just want to bless this community that blessed me.” By building these two wells, Wright will be helping these young women not only by reducing the time it will take to collect water but also by giving them access to a clean water source.

Changing Lives

Local access to safe drinking water will drastically alter the lives of residents and improve the overall health of the village. Clean water in Kenya is just one example, but celebrity efforts, such as the steps taken by Wright, can have significant positive impacts on impoverished communities.

Fundraising campaigns and advocacy from public figures affect change quickly and can reach diverse audiences that otherwise would not be educated on issues of poverty, clean water, women’s rights and more. Wright plans on returning to Kenya next year and hopefully will continue supporting the world’s poor and inspiring others to take action as well.

– Georgia Orenstein
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Lithuania

Top 10 Facts about Living Conditions in Lithuania
Lithuania is a country of the rich history that dates as back as in the 1200s. It is home to lush forests, majestic glacial valleys and pristine rivers that flow from mainland Europe to the Baltic Sea. While the country still lags behind its fellow EU members economically, in the decade and a half since the country entered the European Union Lithuania has made a great stride in improving the quality of life for its citizens. These top 10 facts about living conditions in Lithuania will illustrate a place of progress and growth in the country and, most importantly, reasons for optimism.

Top 10 Facts about Living Conditions in Lithuania

  1. The future looks bright for the country. Surveys show that 63 percent of Lithuanians are optimistic about their own future, and 69 percent are confident about their children’s or grandchildren’s future. While most responders still found it difficult to make ends meet, they were more confident that they could do so than they were in years prior.
  2. Unemployment has decreased. In 2010, the effects of recession could be seen in the country as unemployment reached almost 18 percent. With improvements to the economy that number has almost been cut in half, as the unemployment rate was around 9.2 percent in 2017.
  3. More people feel in control of their lives in the country. While many people are still ambivalent, since 2011, the number of Lithuanians that see themselves as in-charge of their lives has grown. As of 2016, 28 percent strongly believe they “are free to decide how they live.”
  4. GDP per capita has almost doubled. Over the past 12 years, the country’s economy has grown significantly, from $7,800 to $14,380 and this has significantly shifted the standard of living in the country.
  5. The economy is shifting. Now growing towards a service economy, like many other developed countries, fewer and fewer people are earning a living in the agricultural and industrial sectors. With an increase in service work, more Lithuanians can choose to earn a living in a safer, more comfortable occupations.
  6. Inequality is increasing. Lithuania’s GINI Index, the extent to which the distribution of income within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution, stands at 37,  somewhat unequal, the same as its 2004 rating. For many years, inequality was on the decline, bottoming out at 32.5. Unfortunately, recent trends show inequality on the rise “washing away” progress, a cycle that has happened before.
  7. Hunger is not a major concern. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a measure of hunger that charts undernourishment and waste around the world. Lithuania has a low level of hunger and is one of 15 countries with a GHI score of less than 5. While not prevalent, stunted growth (due to hunger) affects 6 percent of Lithuanian children.
  8. Anemia is still a problem. Characterized by fatigue, weakness and dizziness, this iron deficiency affects almost 25 percent of Lithuanian women, making it a top health issue for the country.
  9. Doctors are more available than ever. Around 20 years ago, the health care system was very poorly organized and largely misunderstood. With a weak referral system, most patients would immediately visit a specialist for routine and often unrelated problems. Recent reforms have improved patient understanding of their own needs and improved the role of general physicians in medicine, resulting in a 45 percent increase in doctor availability nationwide.
  10. Infant mortality is dropping. As part of the overall improvements in health care services, virtually all childbirths are attended to by a skilled physician. Since 2005, the infant mortality rate has dropped by 43 percent.

While Lithuania may never reach the same standard of living as more developed Western Europe countries, the country has many things to look forward to. These top 10 facts about living conditions in Lithuania show that people in the country are optimistic about their outlook and they have a lot of reasons to be.

– John Glade
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