Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Without Limits: United Cerebral Palsy

On the home page of the United Cerebral Palsy website, UCP.org, a picture of a young girl is posted. Her facial bis carefree and hopeful. Immediately above her, UCP’s logo is accompanies by the text: “Life without limits for people with disabilities.”

United Cerebral Palsy aims to remove barriers to success for people with disabilities. UCP started in 1949 in response to needs of parents of children with Cerebral Palsy by creating a network for information and resources.

Beyond Cerebral Palsy, UCP serves people with Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder and physical and mental disabilities. The organization works with over 100 other affiliates to provide services such as housing, help finding a job, technology training and family support.

United Cerebral Palsy is a civil rights movement for those with disabilities. UCP does this by ensuring the basic human right of opportunity and equal living standards through expansive networks and lobbying Congress. UCP is uniting people and organizations to give a greater voice to the disabled.

This year, UCP released “The Case for Inclusion,” which tracks progress in providing care and opportunities for the disabled. Only 15 states make support services for families with a disabled member available for at least 200 families of 100,000.

Case for Inclusion also provides rankings of states based on providing support for people with disabilities and their families. In 2014, Arizona, Michigan and Hawaii ranked in the top three. Virginia, Texas and Mississippi ranked last.

Poverty and disability are closely related. Worldwide, one billion people, over 10 percent of the world’s population, live with a disability. Around 80 percent of disabled people live in developing countries, with around 20 percent of disabled people in these countries living in poverty.

Oftentimes, lack of services provided to people with disabilities results in limited access to basic necessities, healthcare, education, employment and political participation.

The World Health Organization states that disability is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Lack of healthcare and limited nutrition contribute to disabilities created by poverty.

According to the WHO,” Poverty may lead to the onset of health conditions associated with disability including through: low birth weight, malnutrition, lack of clean water or adequate sanitation, unsafe work and living conditions, and injury.” For instance, 20 million women become disabled because of pregnancy and childbirth complications.

Many disabled people rely on a full-time caretaker. Most often, this caretaker is an immediate family member, so along with the disabled person, two members of the household do not receive a regular income. Disability also comes with extra healthcare costs and limited access to education and employment.

With the missing income and additional cost, poverty persists.

Beyond the U.S., disabled people lack the same network that United Cerebral Palsy provides for them and their families in the U.S. Giving a voice to the disabled and improving their quality of life plays a significant role in reducing global poverty, as a significant number of impoverished are disabled.

– Tara Wilson

Sources: Case for Inclusion, World Health Organization, United Cerebral Palsy, Huffington Post, Handicap International
Photo: Mandurah Mail

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How Healthcare and Income Inequality Intersect

healthcare and income inequality
While Ebola continues to spread in West Africa, one of the main dialogues focuses on the disconnect between the rural poor and accessible healthcare. Though this is not uniquely an Ebola problem nor a West African one, the rural poor populations have exacerbated this epidemic.

Many rural Africans, particularly in regions of East Africa, are still treated by local healers, many of whom are not certified and perpetuate myths about illnesses. With these healers, who are affordable for many lower income families, improper health care treatments are provided. Thus healthcare and income inequality spur one another on in turn.

Without access to the more costly but effective doctors, illnesses like Ebola and HIV/AIDS run rampant due to misdiagnoses and improper courses of treatment. Even with hospital care, the cost of travel to medical centers (usually over long distances), compounded with the cost of treatment and prescriptions, is often too great for people to pay.

Instead of getting proper treatment, poor populations are forced to settle for secondary, substandard care. In the cases that they are able to get free assistance, the demand is often too great to be supported by rural clinics, which are often sporadic in nature.

Part of the problem of such pandemics is the inaccessibility of rural patients. Because of the lack of money these people have for travel to the cities, doctors are instead forced to go out into the rural regions and try and find the people affected with the disease. But because newcomers are unfamiliar, villagers meet the doctor at times with hesitancy and confusion.

With the increase in medical technology and quality healthcare, poverty still remains a barrier to access – for both sides. The inability to access and properly treat a large proportion of the infected public has caused epidemics to be much worse. In order to help prevent future outbreaks, global health officials are reevaluating how to prepare and eliminate the poverty barrier in future cases.

– Kristin Ronzi

Sources: Reuters, Southern Times Africa
Photo: knowledge.allianz

Brownsville, Texas: The Poorest U.S. City

Last year, the United States Census Bureau, the federal statistical system that gathers information on the American people and economy, reevaluated a list of the country’s poorest cities. Topping the ranks was Brownsville, Texas, which passed McAllen, Texas, to become one of the most unprosperous places in the United States.

Brownsville is located at Texas’s southernmost tip, where it boarders Mexico and resides mere miles west from the Gulf of Mexico. Being so close to Mexico, Brownsville residents see immigration, as well as the often sorrowful lives of immigrants, firsthand. Violence from drug cartels is present as well.

Poverty, of course, is not restricted to non-U.S. citizens. The estimated median household income in Brownsville is only $29,619 per year. This is well below even Texas’ median income, which is $50,740.

To get a sense of the range in wealth of the states, look at median incomes across the board; Maryland is the wealthiest state, with a median household income of $70,004, while Mississippi is the poorest, with a median household income of $36,919. These statistics were updated in 2011. Even $36,919, the poorest state median, is well over Brownsville’s average.

Although income is not always a precise correlate to poverty, there is overlap. For one, low income may reflect low levels of education. In Brownsville, only 17.9 percent of residents over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or anything of equivalent academic value; 4.9 percent have graduate or professional degrees and 14.5 percent are unemployed.

In 2012, the per capita income was $14,313, putting roughly 36 percent of Brownsville’s population below the poverty line. For a four-person family consisting of two adults and two children, the threshold for census reported impoverishment is an annual income of $23,283, nearly nine grand over Brownsville’s per capita income. This figure is not, however, in per capita terms.

Difficulties arise when comparing this kind of poverty, impoverishment within the American border, to poverty within developing nations. On the surface, and with much accuracy, destitute conditions in sub-saharan Africa dwarf the problems of Texans making $15,000 per year.

Yet there’s another way of inspecting the two tremendously unfortunate situations, in an attempt to compare them. Ask the question, “what is the norm, and how far from it does the community fall?”

In American, an industrialized, economic-powerhouse, living in a place like Brownsville should qualify as living among severe poverty. In other, less-developed parts of the world, places where industrialization has not occurred and the economies are relatively small, the rich may by American standards look as impoverished as Brownsville residents, for whatever cultural, geographical or socioeconomic reason. Being impoverished in that nation, then, takes on another light and drastically different imagery.

This is not to say that Brownsville residents have it worst off or even as bad as those living in the slums of Nigeria, for example. Clearly the latter, without access to medical care, a good education, a stable environment or a supportive social network of family members suffers from a barrage of insurmountable hurdles.

It is to say, however, that poverty happens everywhere, and that poverty should be addressed everywhere. No nation should, or will be able to, hide from it. If one does, it is negligence that fuels the problem.

— Adam Kaminski

Sources: City of Brownsville, 24/7 Wall Street, Chron
Photo: Flickr

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Thousands of Displaced Iraqis Not Seen

Headlines covering Iraq focus on the brutal mass executions performed by the Islamic State (IRIS) or the thousands of refugees Kurdistan struggles to support. Lately, the news spotlight has shed its light on the plight of the Yezidis and their escape from the Sinjar mountains.

While coverage on these issues has been extensive and thorough, Iraq is an expansive country and there are thousands who are receiving little aid and whose stories remain unheard.

Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) recently investigated the 70,000 displaced Iraqis hiding out in Karbala and Najaf, two holy Shia cities. While these Iraqis do receive some support, the little that they are receiving comes mostly from mosques and local associations and it is not enough.

Abdul Ghafour Ahmed is a 67-year-old man who fled his home in early June. He explains his family’s journey: “After ISIS swept through our village, we tried to go to Kurdistan, but they didn’t receive us for being from the Shiite sect. They were receiving only Kurds and Sunnis. We spent four days at the main border entrance to Kurdistan, but got nothing.”

So the family of nine found their way to the few other safe zones in the country. They are among the lucky ones. As the international community scrambles to provide aid to the thousands in Kurdistan’s refugee camps, there are thousands more stuck in homes.

Amirli is a city half-way between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. IRIS militants surround the city and have it under siege, leaving up to 20,000 people trapped inside.

The United Nations has been attempting to get food to the city, but it is not enough. A doctor volunteering in the area told IRIN, “People are dying…The children are malnourished.”

Zaid Al-Ali, a lawyer in Iraq, expresses the complaint he says everyone — from officials to the general population — has, that, “Kurdistan is getting preferential treatment compared to Baghdad.”

Out of Iraq’s 19 governorates, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a presence in 12 of them.

“We are getting everywhere we can within our security limitations,” Kieran Dwyer, chief of communications for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, defends the U.N.’s lack of aid to cities like Amirli. “This is Iraq, the security limitations are not arbitrarily or unnecessarily applied; it’s a dangerous place.”

The U.N. and other aid agencies have a delicate line to walk, struggling to determine how to get the most aid to the most people without putting themselves in unnecessary danger.

Conditions, Dwyer says, are unstable in Iraq and one minute an area could be secure and the next it may need to be evacuated, and vice versa. The ICRC has been able to finally get supplies to Anbar, the region where IRIS caused over half a million residents to flee. But more is needed.

– Julianne O’Connor

Sources: IRIN
Photo: Neuron Learning

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Facebook Helps Eliminate Health Care Barriers in Africa

eliminate health care barriers
As part of a trend to eliminate healthcare barriers for the poor, Facebook is helping to provide free access to advantageous websites to impoverished women in Africa. Some of these websites target pregnant women and advocate and educate for better maternal health.

At this point, inaccessibility to expensive data plans has been a large barrier between women and the internet. With a new mobile app that the company unveiled this past week, women will have free access to websites like MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action) and WRAPP, which advocates for women’s rights. The application was designed in coordination with local government groups to fill in some of the communication gaps that persist.

With the first initiative scheduled for Zambia, the pilot program has the potential to branch out to other developing countries. Though the program is accessible to both men and women, women will be disproportionately helped through this program. With Zambia having a significant gender inequality gap, women will be able to gain more from having access to healthcare information and job postings that will now become more accessible.

As part of the growing technologies industry looking to expand their market to the estimated five billion people without internet access, Facebook is reaching out to the underexposed in Africa. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of the project, “I believe connectivity is a human right.” With the motivation to connect and network users of the application to other parts of the country and the world, Zuckerberg is well on his way to an integrated global community.

The application is a game-changer for women’s rights, particularly in traditionally oppressive governments. With support from many international women’s rights groups as well as vocal laudation from the Executive Director of U.N. Women, the Facebook app has the potential to create a social revolution around the world.

– Kristin Ronzi

Sources: The Telegraph, Tech Crunch
Photo: TechCrunch

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Hunger in Liberia

Widespread hunger in Liberia has plagued the country partly as a result of a coup d’état in 1980. However, a combination of president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s poverty reduction programs, other government programs and nongovernmental initiatives has led to a reduction in hunger.

In 1980, a military regime replaced the civilian government in Liberia. The people rebelled in 1989. The resulting conflict continued until 2003, when a peace agreement was signed. Then, in 2006, Sirleaf, the first post-war president, was sworn into office. The relative stability since 2006 proved helpful in the effort of reducing hunger in Liberia.

Nearly one-third of the Liberian population is undernourished. Every fifth household is food insecure, according to a 2012 government-led survey.

The staple food for families is rice. Liberia imports 90 percent of this commodity, so any change in price has a large impact on the Liberian people. For example, in 2008, the price for a 110 pound bag of rice equaled one month’s salary for a security guard in the country’s capital of Monrovia, a relatively well-paying position. That bag of rice could only feed a family of seven (the average is five in Liberia) for around two weeks.

In addition, about 14 percent of children under five are underweight and these children’s mortality rate was 7.8 percent in 2011. At one point in 2009, health officials feared that an estimated 74,000 Liberian children would die from malnutrition by 2015.

That fear motivated them to act.

In 2009, health officials succeeded in getting the government to adopt a policy committing them to improve food security, especially in the rural areas where it were most needed. John Agbor, head of child survival at UNICEF, said back then that the policy “refocuses nutrition and puts it where it ought to be—on the higher agenda of government.”

Sirleaf’s government did even more. Acknowledging that poverty and food insecurity are strongly correlated, Sirleaf’s government first implemented Poverty Reduction Strategy and then Poverty Reduction Strategy II, which built upon the successes its predecessor.

The policies’ successes were possibly reflected in 2013’s Global Hunger Index. While Liberia ranked only 50th out of 78 and remained in a “serious” status, its GHI ranking has been steadily improving since 1995.

Unfortunately, the recent Ebola outbreak in Liberia has presented Sirleaf’s government with new challenges in reducing hunger.

In a controversial move, Sirleaf ordered a quarantine of sizable villages, which have been cordoned off by the military. The villagers lack access to food and medical supplies, and the threat of starvation is motivating some to attempt an escape, which many fear will help Ebola spread.

Unless the government and other organizations can find a way to keep these quarantined populations fed, hunger among the people could make Ebola quite difficult to contain in Liberia.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources: World Food Programme, Action Against Hunger, IRIN, Newsweek, International Food Policy Research Institute 1, International Food Policy Research Institute 2, World Health Organization
Photo: Flickr

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What is the MCC?

Mennonite Central Committee is a faith-based organization involved with Anabaptist churches. According to its website, the three areas of focus are relief, development and peace.

Recently, its efforts have included providing shelter kits to typhoon victims in the Philippines and canned meat to Burundian refugees who have been kicked out of Tanzania. Volunteers also make quilts to be sold at relief sales to benefit those around the world.

Amy Boydell Zorrilla has over ten years of experience with MCC. She served in Bolivia and Honduras for seven years and worked for over four years in some of MCC’s domestic offices. She volunteered with the Materials Resource Center, which puts together kits to send abroad. Zorrilla and her family also contribute to the MRC through assembling school kits for children in need every Christmas.

She and her husband became interested in working with MCC because of “the faith values upon which the organization is based, its reputation for integrity and community centered development and relief and because of our interest in serving internationally.”

When she and her husband served in Bolivia from 1999 to 2002, they ran a program for working children, where they bolstered interest and support for getting an education. While in Honduras from 2009 to 2013, they served as country representatives. They attended to “administrative tasks, meeting with local partners and providing support to our team of international MCC workers.”

While in both places, they were exposed to a variety of socioeconomic levels. They lived in cities where “it wasn’t uncommon to see a nice SUV and a horse drawn cart on one of the main city streets.”

Because many people are moving from the countryside to the cities, “many communities or neighborhoods are still working to get basic amenities like running water or reliable electricity, decent roads and schools.”

Back in the U.S, Zorrilla worked in Human Resources from 2006 to 2009, finding locations for volunteers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Through her current work with MCC East Coast, she sees people “sewing, quilting, weaving, cutting up old t-shirts, recycling cardboard, repairing shoes, etc.” She appreciates the body of support for the MRC, with volunteers ranging from youth groups to senior citizens.

Zorrilla enjoyed her experience with MCC and learned a lot from her cross-cultural living: “One of the things that impacted me most has been seeing how resilient people are. The perseverance, hard work, creativity and commitment to family and the future of people who have very limited or no access to resources many of us take for granted.”

She also enjoyed getting to travel to other agencies nearby and see the work that was being done by others, reminiscing: “I remember a trip we took in Bolivia (to one of the mountain towns where MCC supported a project). It felt like going back in time. Despite the different context, the commonalities of our lives struck me more than the differences.”

Sometimes, it was difficult to witness the persistence of problems like poverty, injustice and violence. Zorrilla pointed out that Honduras’s homicide rate is the highest in the world; there are 90.4 murders per 100,000 people. Through her work with MCC and other partners in Honduras, she was able to try to fight some of these statistics, though she admits that “working to change that is complex, takes time, and requires agencies and people working together.”

Overall, she has a positive impression of MCC after her many years of working with the organization: “MCC is an organization that is committed to people, to service, and to doing things honestly and doing them well.”

She valued the faith basis, cross-cultural peace-building and placement of volunteers to serve as ambassadors between cultures, mentioning that, “MCC workers are encouraged to live among local residents and participate in local churches.”

She also appreciated that MCC partners with local agencies that are already in place, so that the agency does not come into a country believing they know the best way to fix a situation without listening to the people living there.

As of now, Zorrilla is working with MCC through its East Coast division, in its Ephrata, PA office. She is doing part time work, helping out where needed. Zorrilla is just one of MCC’s many volunteers working to bring relief, development, and peace to different regions of the world.

– Monica Roth

Sources: Mennonite Central Committee 1, Mennonnite Central Committee 2, Mennonnite World Review 1, Mennonnite World Review 2, Huffington Post, Personal Interview with Amy Boydell Zorrilla
Photo: Flickr

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Anti-Malaria Group Rallies on World Mosquito Day

Since 1897, August 20 has been a particularly important date for those in the developing world. On this day, British scientist Sir Ronald Ross made the breakthrough discovery that malaria, the deadly disease that kills 600,000 to one million people each year, was not caused by “bad air,” but rather by the female anopheles mosquito. His findings became the foundation for all scientific research and efforts to eradicate the widespread pandemic. And while institutions commemorate and celebrate Ross’s discovery with World Mosquito Day, anti-malaria groups perceive August 20 as a yearly reminder that the battle against mosquitoes continues.

Flash forward 117 years from 1897 and people are still dying from mosquitoes, with 3.4 billion people, or nearly half of the world’s population, at risk of malaria. According to the World Health Organization, there have been about 207 million malaria cases and an estimated 627,000 malaria-related deaths, particularly in poor countries in Africa. While virtually all of these deaths could be prevented by mosquito control and early treatment, malaria remains the fifth-leading cause of death from infectious diseases globally.

But since Ross’ discovery, increased malaria prevention and control measures have dramatically reduced the disease’s burden in many regions. Malaria mortality rates have fallen by 42 percent globally since 2000 and 49 percent in Africa, where 90 percent of the world’s malaria deaths occur. Cures and solutions such as artemisnin-based combination therapy drugs, insecticidal protection nets and indoor residual sprays have contributed to these decreased rates.

While people have been talking less about “malaria control” and more about “eradication,” it is clear that we are still far off from completely ridding the world of malaria parasites. But on World Mosquito Day, anti-malaria groups are organizing rallies to draw attention to the fight against malaria and empower those most at-risk to participate and take action.

In Cameroon, the NGO Malaria No More sent junior ambassadors to the country’s capital city to lead a raucous World Mosquito Day street rally. While some ambassadors dig out sewage trenches to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, others promote music, dancing and speeches to produce a celebratory atmosphere. Children are quizzed about malaria and given mosquito nets in exchange for right answers.

This is only a small part of Malaria No More’s efforts to diminish malaria outbreaks in Cameroon. In 2011, the organization launched NightWatch, a program that reminds Cameroonians to sleep under their mosquito nets through nightly television and radio advertisements, billboards featuring Cameroon’s celebrities and two hit songs about malaria by popular musicians.

Malaria No More also established a system to ensure that clinics are always supplied with malaria tests and treatments, known as SMS For Life. The initiative allows health workers to report stock levels of life-saving malaria medications before they run out to reduce the frequent shortages through simple cell phones.

A crucial role in Malaria No More’s mission to save lives from malaria in Cameroon and other African countries is advocacy. With cost-effective malaria interventions contributing to a 48 percent global decline in malaria deaths, the organization seeks to raise awareness and galvanize support among policymakers and businesses leaders for funding and policies needed to end the fight.

For Malaria No More, August 20 is another opportunity to increase recognition of the persistent disease and the millions that suffer from it. Olivia Ngou of Malaria No More claims that “maybe giving mosquitos as much publicity as the diseases they cause will help,” while encouraging other organizations and anti-malaria projects to draw attention to World Mosquito Day.

While we can celebrate how much progress we have made in the global battle with malaria, it is important to remember that mosquitoes will not become extinct any time soon.

– Abby Bauer

Sources: Global Post, Malaria No More, WHO
Photo: Blogspot

How Much Should I Donate?

How much should I donate? It’s a common question. Even if you have sworn off Facebook and eschew trendy news sites, you have most likely heard about or even witnessed the Ice Bucket Challenge, a social media craze that has resulted in more than $10 million being raised for the ALS Association. The nonprofit, which devotes its time and money to resolving amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (otherwise called Lou Gherig’s Disease), is benefiting from a challenge that tasks participants with donating $100 to ALS or pouring a bucket of ice water on themselves.

While people may simply relish vaguely altruistic deeds or experience a rush from partaking in the same event as Bill Gates and Kermit the Frog, contributing to the Ice Bucket Challenge can accomplish both an admirable goal and leave you better off financially at the end of the year.

The ALS Association’s designation as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization enables people to write off their monetary contributions on their tax forms. While there are numerous rules dictating how much you can donate, as long as the donations are made to the right organization, you can receive a significant tax break.

Let’s say you make $30,000 for your Adjusted Gross Income, or AGI, or net income. If you make a $15,000 monetary donation to the ALS, you can deduct $15,000 from your taxable income/AGI.

Still not clear? Let’s delve a little further. Your AGI is separated into different brackets. The amount you are taxed depends on your marital status, whether you are filing jointly and if you are the head of the household. For our purposes, you are single and making $30,000, slightly greater than the per capita average income from 2008-2012 in the U.S.. Using the tax percentages from 2011, you would pay 10 percent of the first $8,500 and 15 percent for the next $21,500. That means you owe $4,075 in taxes this year.

If you included a $15,000 cash donation to an eligible charity, the greatest amount possible, you would decrease your AGI to $15,000. Overall you would now owe $1,825 in taxes. While you don’t receive a 1:1 tax reduction for charitable donations, Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar calculates that donations lead to a 25 percent return.

While donating fifty percent of your income to a charity may be a reach, keeping track of all your small donations throughout the year can add up. If you have ever donated old clothes to Goodwill, books to a library or money to a church, you can write them off as charitable contributions so long as you provide documentation.

There are many, many rules to tax-deductible charitable donations, the most important of which is determining a charity’s eligibility. Generally churches, nonprofits and any organization bearing a 501(c)(3) designation qualify as recipients. If you are still unsure, the IRS provides a search tool that documents which organizations are eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions.

There are also rules about how much you can donate. As discussed previously, cash donations to public organizations may reach up to 50 percent of your AGI. Any additional donations can carry forward for up to five years. Private organizations have different rules and may only constitute 30 percent of your AGI.

For non-cash donations, the IRS permits goods in “good condition or better” to be deducted at their fair market value or the price at which both the buyer and seller agree.

Documentation is needed in these instances as well. Even if you give money, stocks or used goods to a qualified organization, you must provide an itemized list of the donations, proof that the transaction occurred and acknowledgement from the receiving organization if the price of the item exceeds more than $250. Items in excess of $500 must file form IRS Form 8283. Donations in excess of $5,000 may require a qualified professional to appraise their value.

Finally, motive plays a factor. Forbes journalist Tony Nitti wrote an article that examines donor intent and tax breaks. He assures readers that as long as the amount you deduct from your taxes does not exceed the benefits received from donating in the first place you are fine. For example, if you donated $100 to a charity dinner, but the dinner itself was worth $50, then the most you could deduct would be $50, not $100.

Donations to charities may seem like a desirable but imprudent decision to many people. However, if executed wisely and documented clearly, donations can benefit both the donor and the recipient. In short, you can donate however much you would like to charities, but do your research first if you want to guarantee a return on your taxes.

– Emily Bajet

Sources: ALS Association, How Stuff Works, IRS 1, IRS 2, Charity Navigator, TurboTax, MoneyChimp, The Simple Dollar, U.S. Census, Forbes, About Money
Photo: which country?

British Jihadists in Syria

british jihadists
A recent video showing ISIS extremists beheading American journalist James Foley has caused global disturbance, not only because of the brutal act but also because the executioner was speaking with a British accent.

The Islamic State—deemed by several experts to be more fanatical than al-Qaeda—has been recruiting British-born militants, and it is estimated that between 400 and 500 British jihadists have traveled to Syria to fight. While dozens have been killed during conflict, half are believed to have returned to Britain.

A video released by ISIS entitled “There is No Life Without Jihad” includes testimonies by three British members. One said, “The cure for depression is jihad…. Feel the honor we are feeling, feel the happiness we are feeling.” Another maintains that jihad is an Islamic duty, and a common thread among militants is a sense of devotion to the “call of duty.” Briton Nasser Muthana elaborated on this devotion to ISIS, saying, “We will even go to Lebanon and Jordan with no problems, wherever our Sheikh (ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) wants to send us.”

Even within the United Kingdom, sentiment for jihad is strong in certain communities and across social media. One British Muslim man admitted to the BBC he was planning to fight with ISIS to fulfill a religious obligation: “God has commanded for the Muslims to go and fight jihad.” He added that to die as a martyr would be a blessing and a victory, and that it would guarantee the “highest paradise.”

But there has been backlash by a majority of the British Muslim community against extremists. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said Muslims condemned the actions of ISIS. He added that terrorists have distorted the tenets of Islam to justify their gratuitous violence. The Muslim Council of Britain proclaimed similar sentiments.

But how are British jihadists traveling to Syria and Iraq, and why can’t the British government prevent it? The BBC reports that most fly to Turkey and cross over the inadequately protected border into Syria and Iraq. Britons evade suspicion by claiming they are vacationing abroad or participating in humanitarian work, when in fact bogus aid agencies serve as a front to transport funds, resources and fighters in and out of Syria.

Once in the country, Britons can also meet up with organized jihadist networks that have the capacity to transport new militants to fighting zones. Traveling to Iraq and Syria remains legal, but if a British citizen is found to have joined ISIS and participated in violence he can be prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.

A large proportion of Western jihadists report traveling to the Middle East to join more moderate Islamic groups, but then being coaxed into joining ISIS by well-funded recruiters. Extremist social media also reinforces propaganda of adventure, brotherhood, faith and a fight against injustice. In addition, once involved in a terrorist group such as ISIS, it becomes difficult to extricate oneself physically and psychologically.

Jason Burke, journalist for The Guardian, said, “The environment of a group such as Islamic State, created around a cult of extreme violence and a worldview that dehumanizes all outside the organization, can quickly turn an individual from a misguided insurgent into a pitiless terrorist killer, more than happy to execute a defenseless hostage with a knife, on camera.”

– Mari LeGagnoux

Sources: The Independent, The Week