Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Addressing Guatemala’s Food Emergency

Guatemalan Drought Creates Food Emergency
Over the last three years, Guatemala has experienced a drought that has taken a hungry nation and made conditions even more severe.

Before the drought, the nation experienced some of the highest levels of “inequality, poverty, chronic malnutrition and mother-child mortality in the region.” Almost 50 percent of children under the age of five suffer from chronic undernutrition; that is the highest number in their region and fourth highest in the world.

The drought has now taken what little bit of food supply the region can supply on their own and caused the crops to be stunted or not grow. Also, any food reserves have been depleted. Nearly one million hungry people are growing even hungrier with the drought.

The food emergency was an issue last year as well. On August 26, 2014, a state of emergency was declared in Guatemala after a particularly brutal drought was affecting the nation. The state of emergency was issued in 16 of the 22 provinces and at that time was affecting 236,000 families.

Currently, much of the nation’s population is relying on the government and U.N. handouts to feed their families.

Part of the reason that the drought is so devastating is the lack of improvements to the water infrastructure. The inefficiencies in collecting, storing and then irrigating the rainwater that does come expounds the problems that are associated with the drought.

Organizations are working to help those suffering most from the ravaging drought. The World Food Programme has created programs “geared towards reducing food insecurity, improving the nutritional status of mothers and children under 5 and living conditions of vulnerable groups by increasing agricultural productivity and farmer’s marketing practices.”

They cite two main programs they are conducting in Guatemala:

  1. Country Programme: 45,500 people will be given supplementary food in order to combat the chronic undernutrition, 12,000 subsistence farmers will be assisted and the program will help 3,000 farmers gain access to markets.
  2. Purchase for Progress: This program is working to link a much broader base of farmers and markets together. Also, guidance on best farming practices will be given to help grain quantity and quality.

While these programs may not directly stop the widespread hunger, it is putting food in the mouths of many who need it and creating an infrastructure to ensure that severe food shortages do not happen in the future.

They are also not the only programs that the World Food Programme is working on in Guatemala. There are long-term plans to help the country through future droughts and streamline food voucher distribution to help those hungry right now.

Guatemala has a long way to go. During this drought, so many people are suffering from worsening hunger. Unfortunately, this is not a new revelation or situation. The first area that has been addressed is the immediate need to feed the hungry.

But long-term action needs to be enacted. Thankfully, the Guatemalan government understands this and the World Food Programme has programs in place. Hopefully, in the future, a drought will not cause such widespread hunger again.

– Megan Ivy

Sources: Guatemala: WFP Country Brief, NBC, Trust, WFP
Photo: Flickr

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Re:Build System Focuses on Refugee Education

Build Rebuilds Refugee Education from the Ground Up
One of the main priorities for families living in refugee camps in the Middle East is the education of their children. Architects, nonprofit organizations, and a scaffolding company have teamed up to create the Re:Build construction system, a project that creates low-cost durable buildings built of readily available resources such as sand and soil. The buildings, which are planned to house schools, are easily set up and can be transported to other locations.

Children consist of a large proportion of refugees from Syria, and many of them have been out of school for several years. Building schools and providing them with education provides them with vast opportunities and empowers them to create their futures for themselves.

In order to better refugee education, these mobile, easily constructed schools can be expanded by adding extra modules, built by the refugees themselves, use sustainable materials that are locally and widely available, are weatherproof even in areas with seismic activity, and are designed with their communities in mind.

How do these systems work? They use wall frames filled with natural materials such as sand, gravel, or stones. The roof frame is topped with soil to provide insulation and a fertile place for micro-crops to grow. The structures have structures to reroute rainwater, come with solar panels, and have plywood flooring.

The Re:Build construction system was designed and implemented by architects Cameron Sinclair and Pouya Khaezli, nonprofits Save the Children and Relief International, and scaffold company Pilosio Building Peace. Together, they have constructed two schools in Jordan: one at Za’atari camp and another at Queen Rania Park in Amman. The Za’atari camp is the Middle East’s largest refugee camp which has now been existence for three years.

They are not only cost-effective but also mobile–they do not require construction crews to set up. According to Sinclair, many parents of the school’s new students helped construct the building. The cost of each school is still quite high – $30,000 each – but with crowdsourcing campaigns and local nonprofit donations, these schools are beginning to effect great changes for the children who use them.

In times of conflict, when many people feel as though they have no control over their situations and destinies, education can serve as an anchor for the heart.

“We victimize refugees by treating them as second-class citizens instead of understanding that they are some of the most resilient and hardworking people on the planet, said Sinclair. “By engaging the refugees as paid laborers ensures that they once again feel in charge of their own destiny and leave with the skills to reassemble the school back in their home country.”

– Jenny Wheeler

Sources: Huffington Post, “Building the Peace” Award
Photo: Flickr

Education in Egypt Post-Arab Spring

Education in Egypt
In 2011, tens of thousands of people took to Egypt’s streets to demand economic and political reform. Four years after the revolution, Egypt has seen many changes in leadership and policy. But how much has really changed for the country’s education system?

While Egypt has the largest public education system in the Middle East, it has one of the region’s lowest rates of public funding. Public schools are overcrowded, with classes of up to 100 students. Few schools have funds for suitable playgrounds or music and art programs.

Egyptian schools follow a rigid curriculum enforced by the central government. Since lessons focus solely on memorization, students have no chance to develop critical thinking skills.

Salma Wahba, UNICEF Egypt’s Youth and Adolescent Development Officer, has criticized Egypt’s education system, saying that it does not adequately prepare the country’s youth for the modern job market.

The Cairo Post reports that since the uprisings, Egypt’s youth unemployment rate has reached nearly 29 percent. Students who fail to develop marketable skills will go on to join the ranks of the young unemployed, Wahba says.

One of the main obstacles facing the Egyptian education system is the low wages for teachers. A study by British think tank Chatham House shows that teachers rarely make more than $281 a month.

Teachers are allowed to offer private lessons for additional fees. This leaves many underpaid teachers with little to no incentive to qualitatively teach. Students from poor families cannot afford private tutoring and consequently fall behind.

Although 2012 statistics from the Ministry of Education reported primary school enrollment rates at 93.3 percent, children can often be seen out in the streets during school hours. This discrepancy suggests that teachers frequently misreport student attendance.

The political instability of the past four years has also affected education in Egypt. Textbooks and curriculums that once favored the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak were changed to favor the Muslim Brotherhood. The books then changed again to suit the agenda of current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Even Egyptian private schools, which cater mostly to middle-class families, are far from well-run.

“Parents are proud to enroll their children in a private school. But it doesn’t mean that the quality is good,” one private school teacher said. He explains that because private schools must maintain prestigious appearances, teachers often inflate grades and make easy exams.

According to the 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report, Egypt had the lowest quality of primary education out of all 148 countries surveyed. The 2014 report showed that Egypt moved up three places in rank, a slight improvement.

But has the education system in Egypt always been this bad?

“The situation is so much worse now. I used to go to a public middle school, a public high school, and a public university. It wasn’t like that 10 years ago,” Mostafa Wafa, a recent Cairo University graduate explained.

Wafa’s observations of worsening school systems inspired him to form Mish Madrasa, an after-school program for children. Wafa focuses his work in Saft al-Laban, a poor Cairo neighborhood where just three public schools serve over 300,000 people.

The initiative provides well-trained teachers to fill in the gaps left by the public school system. For some students, Wafa notes, simply learning to read and write is an accomplishment.

Programs like Mish Madrasa offer a glimmer of hope in areas where government-supported schools have failed. While President Sisi’s administration has acknowledged the need for educational reform, it has implemented minimal concrete measures to date.

Last August, the new Education Minister Mahmoud Abou el-Nasr announced a complete revisal of the school curriculum. It also pledged to hire 30,000 better-qualified teachers and to raise teacher salaries by $140 per month. As of yet little has been done, but many hope that the reforms created in partnership with the European Union will eventually help mend a broken Egyptian education system.

– Caitlin Harrison

Sources: BBC, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, Al Jazeera, The Cairo Post, Foreign Policy Magazine

Photo: Wikipedia

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NEMA Issues Delivery Kits to Displaced Pregnant Women

NEMA
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), issued 410 delivery kits to internally displaced pregnant women housed at camps in Maiduguri, Borno State. Among the delivery kits were a wax print and infant feeding bottles along with a mattress, a blanket and a net for the expected newborns.

The kits also included a baby bag, diapers, a basket, a towel, baby soap, and supplements for the mother such as milk and cocoa drink. The supplies come at a vital time since some of these women are due to give birth in late August or September.

The north-eastern Nigerian Borno State has been the worst affected in the conflict against the Boko Haram insurgency which began in 2009. Sani-Sidi, NEMA’s director general, says insurgent attacks have displaced many people, leading to the creation of 23 IDP camps in Borno State.

“In all the camps in the state, 60 percent of the IDPs are women and children classified as vulnerable and needing more support,” he said. “As a result, 410 pregnant women were selected [to receive delivery kits] out of 1,980 identified pregnant women in 13 female IDP camps in Maiduguri.”

Aid from NEMA comes a month after a July donation by Deluxe Childbirth Services coordinated in partnership with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Population Fund, and two USAID projects – THE Expanded Social Marketing Project in Nigeria and the Targeted States High Impact Project.

During this donation, UNFPA’s Ratidzai Ndhlovu underlined an expected high in births among Nigerian IDPs, stating that there would be an expected 60,000 births by the end of 2015.

According to UNICEF, a Nigerian woman’s chances of death during pregnancy and childbirth are 1 in 13. Additionally, newborn Nigerian mortalities, which occur among the first week of life, make up about one-fourth of total deaths of children under five years of age.

A majority of these deaths arise from complications during birthing or pregnancy, which serves to highlight the importance of maternal and newborn health care access, especially within vulnerable and displaced populations.

– Jaime Longoria

Sources: Premium Times 1, Premium Times 2, UNICEF

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LIMBS International: Prosthetics for the Poor

prosthetics for the poorLIMBS International is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating affordable and durable prosthetics for the poor.

The demand for affordable prosthetics in the developing world is great and the supply is lacking. Prostheses that are affordable and sturdy enough are hard to come by.

Approximately 40 million people in the developing world are in need of prosthetics yet only five percent have any prosthetic options. Whether or not the five percent can afford the options is a whole other question.

LIMBS International works to reduce the number of amputees lacking prosthetics through innovative designs created with developing countries in mind. The organization is focused on finding cheaper and more efficient ways to produce practical prosthetics and has developed the first mass-produced, low-cost, multi-axis prosthetic knee.

The philosophy that LIMBS International uses is a holistic plan focused on education, community rehabilitation and technology development. The organization trains teachers to educate children on the needs of amputees in developing countries.

It also focuses on rebuilding the community through the Community Based Rehabilitation program to help address social, mental and emotional trauma that amputees have experienced. The technological development has an emphasis on creating low-cost, high-quality prosthetics.

Taking this further, the organization trains people to repair the prosthetic devices in their country of focus using material available in the region.

The prosthetic knee that LIMBS has built is manufactured in Bangladesh to be used in large-scale relief efforts by clinics and international organizations after natural disasters.

LIMBS International has launched a project called Project: Mobility to fit 250,000 amputees in the world with prostheses by 2024. The distribution of LIMBS International’s LIMBox to clinics that LIMBS partners with as well as to NGOs around the world will help reach that goal on time.

The organization is currently working in nine different countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Kenya and Mexico.

– Iona Brannon

Sources: LIMBS International
Photo: Wikipedia

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Sisters Fold Origami and Raise $650,000 to Build Wells

z1 splash
Every year about 842,000 people die from diarrhoea that causes dehydration and more than 840,000 people die from a water related disease each year. Worldwide, there are 750 million people who lack clean water access, which is more than twice the size of the U.S. population.

On average, it costs between $12,000-$15,000 to build enough wells to support an entire village of people. Five thousand dollars builds one well and provides enough water for 500 people. The costs include constructing the wells, preparing the community for the water project, and then monitoring and evaluating.

In 2011, Katherine Adams, age 5, and her sister Isabelle Adams, age 8, learned about the millions of people who go thirsty every day and about the girls who haul water all day instead of going to school. Therefore, both girls put their origami folding skills to use to raise money to build a well in Ethiopia.

With the help of their dad, they held an origami sale at a Starbucks in Dallas, Texas in order to help thousands of people without water. After eight weeks of selling origamis, the two girls raised more than $10,000, which is enough to benefit an entire village.

It has been almost four years since they started folding origamis, and the two sisters–now 9 and 11–founded an organization called Paper for Water that has hundreds of volunteers and helped raise more than $650,000. That is enough money to create clean sustainable water for about 63 to 65 villages or 32,000 people.

The origami ornaments are not easy or simple to make. The average ornament they make takes one hour and one volunteer took 22 hours to create a single ornament.

Globally, it would take about $20 billion to solve water and sanitation problems, which the girls believe is doable. Their origami ornaments are for sale online ranging from $10 to $100 per item and give you an option to donate without getting an origami gift.

 

– Donald Gering

Sources: Good News Network, Paper for Water, UNICEF, Water.org, The Water Project

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Kabul City: On the Road to Improvement

Kabul City: On the Road to Improvement
When we think of a “bad road,” often times we conjure an image of driving over narrow, uneven or pot-holed ridden paths, usually in the heart of a city or perhaps out in the middle of nowhere. But what if the main road we traversed in our walk to school every day or commute to work was in a state of even worse condition—unpaved and muddy, invisible beneath a cloud of dust?

For residents living in the Qala-e-Zaman Khan neighborhood in Kabul, traveling on roads which match this description was an everyday occurrence. A five minute walk to school became a 20 minute one, with students changing out of their mud-caked clothing several times a day, while also becoming more susceptible to illness as a result of breathing in the perpetual dust.

Left almost untouched for nearly half a century, the need for infrastructural improvements for roads in the neighborhood of Qala-e-Zaman Khan was dire. Fortunately, with the support of the Kabul Municipal Development Program (KMDP), implemented by the Kabul Municipality, a project to build and pave roads could finally begin.

This program was funded by a grant equaling $110 million from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF). Established in 2002, the ARTF provides a financial vehicle for the government of Afghanistan’s budget, allowing them to make a significant difference in areas such as education, health, agriculture, rural development, infrastructure and governance.

Aside from improving street conditions, an article from The World Bank states that the KMDP organization has more goals in store.

“KMDP’s objectives are to increase access to basic municipal services in selected residential areas of Kabul city; redesign Kabul Municipality’s Financial Management System to support better service delivery; and enable early response in the event of a relevant emergency.”

Since the creation of newly paved roads in this area of Kabul, the quality of living has improved for its people. Shopkeepers have seen their income double now that dust no longer settles on food. Children don’t dread the mud-splattered walks to school, taxi cabs have reduced their fares and those seeking hospitals save time on the newly constructed streets.

The KMDP plans to reach at least 770,000 people with their services throughout the 1,770 hectares of government-owned land. So far, at least 618 hectares have been improved.

The organization has also funded over 310,000 beneficiaries comprising over 100,000 from upgraded roads and more than 210,000 from trunk roads. At least 76,000 indirect beneficiaries have also benefited, including students and staff of schools and institutions of higher education.

With the construction of asphalt roads in neighborhoods that have only known dust and mud-covered paths, residents embrace the positive outcomes that continue to surface with each new step.

– Nikki Schaffer

Sources: World Bank, ARTF
Photo: Flickr

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The Benefits of the Egypt Recycling Program

New Wheels in Cairo: The Benefits of Egypt's Scrapping and Recycling
At 7 a.m. every Friday and Saturday, members of the Cairo Runners Club wake up and prepare to hit the soon-to-be crowded streets of Egypt’s capital. Yet these intrepid urban runners are not trying to exercise before work—the weekend actually has already begun (an Egyptian weekend lasts from Friday to Saturday).

Their early waking is rather a matter of health and safety than of discipline. By rising with the sun, they can avoid the noxious air pollution and congested streets that perpetually plague Egypt’s capital.

In fact, according to environmental data from the World Health Organization (WHO), Cairo is more polluted than even Beijing, Bangkok and Mexico City. It has a level of fine particulate that is seven times the WHO standards. These extreme levels of pollution often can lead to heart disease and cancer.

In order to curb air pollution, the Egyptian government has turned to a variety of strategies, including banning the burning of waste and spending more on public transportation. One program that is showing promising results is an initiative supported by the World Bank, which aims to replace old and inefficient mass-transit vehicles in the city.

The program, named Egypt Vehicle Scrapping and Recycling Program, provides cash incentives of up to 5,000 Egyptian Pounds, roughly 640 U.S. dollars, to taxi owners to relinquish and recycle their aging vehicles.

The Egypt recycling program also uses operating licenses to leverage compliance. Mass transit vehicles older than 20 years can no longer receive new operating licenses. Before the program, the age of the average taxi in Cairo was a whopping 32 years. Vehicles this old suffer from poor safety ratings, bad reliability and lack the catalytic converters that filter out pollutants from an engine’s exhaust.

Although the program is reinvigorating the transit fleet in Cairo, its effectiveness does not necessarily extend beyond the metropolitan area. In fact, since the program does not prescribe the method for disposing of these aging vehicles, owners can sell parts to private parties where the law is not in effect.

The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency also outlined a variety of challenges this program must face in order to succeed. First of all the program requires the complete motivation and organization of the vehicle owners, traffic department and the Ministry of the Interior.

The first project of its kind worldwide, the program also was entering uncharted waters and therefore only a small number could provide the required services. The complexities of Egyptian bureaucracy were also noted as hindrances to the program and would require attentiveness in order to coordinate affairs.

Nonetheless, since the program has been initiated in 2010, the World Bank has reported noticeable improvements. It estimates that during 2013 and in 2014, the program prevented over 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The program also has exchanged an impressive total of 40,689 old taxis with new taxis in Cairo alone.

Many of the old taxis were in excess of 50 years old, well above the already high average of 32 years. As Cairo replaces more of its aging taxis it can expect cleaner skies and perhaps even more runners.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: The World Bank 1, The World Bank 2, United Nations Environment Program, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, USA Today
Photo: Flickr

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Wood for Maternal Healthcare in Haiti

Wood for Haitian Maternal Health Care
The island nation of Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with one in four inhabitants of this small Caribbean nation living in extreme poverty. Plagued by political instability, as well as the devastating aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the country of Haiti is still struggling for recovery.

In the wake of the worst earthquake in a 200-year history for Haiti, an estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless. The rehabilitation process for the affected population is crippled by the financial hardships of the country. According to a World Bank report, one in two Haitians live in poverty, living on less than $3 a day.

The extreme poverty conditions in the country have unsurprisingly affected the healthcare system as well. The insufficient healthcare system was dealt a further blow after the earthquake of 2010, which is estimated to have destroyed 60 percent of the healthcare infrastructure in Haiti.

The deterioration of the healthcare system has especially affected the maternal and neonatal health in the country. According to UNICEF, maternal mortality in Haiti is 35 women out of every thousand; neonatal health care is equally abysmal, with 3.1 percent of newborns dying within the first month after birth.

Most of the maternal and neonatal deaths are considered largely preventable, given adequate healthcare resources. Accessibility to these resources is another important issue, with less than 36 percent of pregnant women giving birth in any healthcare facility.

The poor state of maternal health has spurred Maternal Life International — a nonprofit organization based in Montana — to direct its efforts for better maternal and neonatal health care at Haiti. Its objective is to build family health offices in the country to assist pregnant women and newborns.

As laudable as its mission is, it is faced with the difficulties of resource scarcity in Haiti. The lack of lumber in Haiti is a major obstacle in rebuilding the country.

The deforestation of Haiti has long been an issue of concern for the island nation, affecting the economic and ecological health of the country. Wood is quite significant for building structures in Haiti, as cement buildings are a danger in a region susceptible to earthquakes.

The volunteers for Wood for Haiti have a solution to the problem: lumber for the family healthcare facility building shipped straight from the forests of Montana. The group of volunteers from Missoula will assist in providing Maternal Life International procure 5 tons of lumber for construction of the family healthcare facility in Haiti.

The volunteers are working first to gather lumber in Butte, where Maternal Life International is based. The lumber is currently stored in a warehouse in Butte to be shipped to Haiti later when the construction projects begin.

The Wood for Haiti is a commendable effort by the Montana lumber industry. The donation of building materials is somewhat of a novel idea in an era of usually monetary donations. It does, however, provide for the delivery of natural resources, which Haiti needs but lacks.

It is not to say that lumber is all Wood for Haiti provides. It also provides vocational training to Haitians for the construction and rebuilding projects. With a combination of resource provision and training local labor, Haiti can be brought that much closer to economic stability.

The collaborative efforts of Wood for Haiti and Maternal Life International are anticipated to be a stepping stone toward improving the standards of maternal health in Haiti and ultimately conditions across the country.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: MATR, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, Maternal Life International, CIA
Photo: Google Images

Child Labor to Make Chocolate

Child Labor
Chocolate is produced from the cacao bean, often referred to as cocoa, which is primarily grown in Western Africa. More than 70 percent of the world’s cocoa comes from the countries of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa, where children are often employed in harsh, unsafe conditions to meet the demands of the market. Such labor takes place in order to increase production while keeping prices competitive.

According to the Food Empowerment Project, the farms of Western Africa supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars and Nestle. Cocoa is grown primarily as an export crop and accounts for 60 percent of the Ivory Coast’s export revenue.

Cocoa farmers, however, earn less than $2 a day, an income below the poverty line. As a result, farmers look for cheap sources of labor to keep their prices competitive.

These low wages perpetuate child trafficking and dangerous conditions for working children. According to the International Labor Rights Forum, children laboring on cocoa farms are exposed to chemicals, long working hours, and the denial of a formal education.

Children are also reportedly forced to use chainsaws and machetes, and they sometimes must drag more than 100 pounds worth of cocoa pods through the forest. If the children do not work fast enough they may be beaten.

The problem is getting worse. Between 2009 and 2014, Child Labor in cocoa production increased by 46 percent. Most of the children in West Africa begin working on the cocoa farms between the age of 12 and 16, although children as young as five have been found working.

An estimated 1.8 million children are being forced to labor on cocoa farms in Western Africa. In Ghana, 10 percent of the children do not attend school, while the number is as high as 40 percent in Cote d’Ivoire.

Despite its prevalence, in Cote d’Ivoire child labor is actually illegal. Offenders could receive one to five years of jail time and up to $2,200 in fines. These laws, however, are rarely enforced.

The country has invested about $40 million to implement projects such as the building and rebuilding of schools and a tracking system to keep at-risk children accounted for and safe. However, without the enforcement of the law many children are not protected by these measures.

Advocates have called on the $60 billion chocolate industry to help alleviate the problem of child labor by paying cocoa farmers a livable wage and consumers to avoid purchasing chocolate that is sourced from Western Africa.

– Drusilla Gibbs

Sources: Food Is Power, Labor Rights, Anti-Slavery
Photo: Flickr