Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Three Best World Hunger Nonprofits

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It might be hard to believe that hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Roughly 800 million people in the world are chronically malnourished, with the majority living in developing countries. Here is a look at three nonprofit organizations that are fighting to end world hunger:

Action Against Hunger

This global humanitarian organization works not only towards ending global hunger, but also in creating long-term strategies that capitalize on self-sufficient workers. Malnutrition claims the lives of over a million children, although the disease is preventable and treatable. Most of Action Against Hunger’s funding goes directly to these life-saving programs. For every $1 they raise, $0.91 is spent on program activities. Charity Navigator has given the organization the highest four-star rating seven years in a row.

Stop Hunger Now

For the last 15 years, Stop Hunger Now has coordinated the distribution of food and other needed aid to children all over the world. They target vulnerable populations and aim to involve the global community in mobilizing the necessary resources. In 2005, the organization created the meal packaging program, which combines rice, beans, vegetables and the essential nutrients and vitamins all into one small package. With each meal costing roughly $0.29, SHN is able to ship and distribute the meals all over the world. In fact, one SHN packaging event can result in more than 1,000,000 meals.

CARE

A humanitarian organization that is fighting to end global poverty, CARE staff has worked in a multitude of countries serving some of the poorest communities and populations. Since it sent the first CARE package in 1946, the organization has been addressing the issues of food insecurity all over the globe. CARE often focuses on hunger caused by natural disasters and conflict. In countries such as Chad, Lesotho, Niger and South Sudan, CARE’s programs have helped reduce the risk of disasters and food insecurity by promoting environmental sustainability and empowering people economically.

– Leeda Jewayni

Sources: World Food Program, Action Against Hunger, Stop Hunger Now, CARE
Photo: Wesley-Luther

Pacific Islanders Block Australian Coal Terminal

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A group of Pacific Islanders has joined environmentalists in protesting climate change in Australia by blockading the Newcastle coal port, the world’s largest coal export terminal, with canoes, surfboards and kayaks. The members of island nations have come together in protest to attract scrutiny over Australia’s commitment to coal and its ultimate effect on the island nations.

The Pacific Climate Warriors’ Blockade

The activist group, the Pacific Climate Warriors, is comprised of members from a variety of island nations, including the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tokelau, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Although there has been an annual environmental blockade of the Newcastle coal port for many years now, this is the first time the blockade has been strengthened with a Pacific Islander activist group.

The blockade only acts as a minor delay for the ships, which are headed by police escorts. The ships are still capable of leaving the massive port that sees more than 4,000 ship movements annually. Demonstrating the serious consequences of climate change that has resulted in the imminent loss of their island homes, the protesters have chosen not to passively wait as their nations become submerged. Instead, they have decided to fight against climate change.

The evidence of climate change is already apparent to the islanders through coastal erosion and the rising sea level, forcing the relocation of whole villages and threatening the very existence of the Pacific Islands and especially the atolls that encircle the seaboards.

Natural Disasters and Protests

Earlier in the year, massive floods during the seasonal tides hit the Marshall Islands, engulfing the capital, Majuro, and forcing the island’s president, Chris Loeak, to declare a state of emergency. In addition to increasingly severe weather, the sea level is expected to rice seven feet by the end of the century, due to a melting ice sheet in Western Antarctica.

The protest follows the recent role the Pacific Islanders took at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in September, demonstrating to the many nations present at the summit the actions the island states were taking to combat climate change.

The protests have targeted Australia in particular due to its contribution to climate change. As the second largest coal exporter with the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world, Australia is heavily reliant on coal-fired power stations that employ tens of thousands of workers, causing whole towns to be reliant upon the mines for their livelihoods.

Hope and Politicians

In July, the conservative government, led by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, repealed a carbon tax on approximately 350 of the country’s largest polluters, depriving the government of an expected $7 billion over the next four years and requiring a new plan to reduce emissions that has yet to be seen.

Furthermore, a $16.5 billion project was approved over the summer to create what could possibly be the world’s largest coal mine. Despite the blockade’s physical ineffectiveness, the Pacific Islanders hope to amend the world’s apparent indifference to climate change.

– William Ying

Sources: The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, Al Jazeera 1, Al Jazeera 2, Huffington Post
Photo: Credo Action

ISIS Luring Girls Worldwide into Ranks

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Social media can be used for so much good in the world: it connects loved ones who lives in different countries, it can spread messages of good works and can easily inform users of the current events and issues happening not only in their community, state and nation, but in the world as well.

With all of the good content that can exist on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, bad content can be posted just as easily with specific target audiences in mind. One of the most recent groups to use social media sites with the intention of spreading their beliefs is ISIS, who is targeting teenage girls, as young as 14 years old, and young women. The videos produced by ISIS are “slick [and] well-produced … targeting impressionable teenagers often feeling they don’t quite fit in with the society around them,” CBS News reports.

Reports first began coming in of girls from European countries such as Austria, France and then England of girls leaving their homes and families, fleeing to Syria to join ISIS, with hopes to either become a militant themselves or dreaming of marrying a jihadist, an Islamic militant. It is believed many are being roped in by videos and messages, which say becoming a jihad is “a way of giving meaning to their lives,” while “looking for excitement [and] looking for adventure,” CBS News reports. In both cases, it’s believed the girls are going willingly to Syria to live out a “jihad fantasy.” Most recently, three girls from Colorado have left home, getting all the way to Frankfurt before being caught and brought back to the United States.

“Some of these girls are very young and naive, they don’t understand the conflict or their faith, and they are easily manipulated. Some of them are taking young children with them; some may believe they are taking part in a humanitarian mission,” spokeswoman of the UK Muslim Women’s Network Shaista Gohir said.

While the exact number of girls who have joined ISIS is unclear, reports indicate up to 50 British, at least 40 German, 14 Austrian and 63 French girls and women have joined. Hundreds of females are leaving the safety of their homes to fight for the Islamic Extremists.

– Kori Withers

Sources: Yahoo Screen,, The New York Times,, The Guardian,, CBS News
Photo: CNN

Tacoma Internships at The Borgen Project

Tacoma Internships

Looking for a Tacoma internship? The Borgen Project offers telecommuting internships in Tacoma. There are also internships available at The Borgen Project’s headquarters in Seattle. View details on current telecommute internship openings.

 

Tacoma Internship Openings

 

Political Affairs Internship

This is a part-time 14-hours per week telecommuting internship in Tacoma. The internship is 4-months and responsible for leading public and political outreach in the state and district assigned to. Must be available Monday’s 4:30-6:00 PM PST for The Borgen Project’s national conference call.

– Meet with members of Congress and/or Congressional staffers in your State and District.
– Represent The Borgen Project at various business, political and community events.
– Assist with fundraising. Create a personal fundraising campaign and meet targets.
– Mobilize individuals to contact their members of Congress in support of key poverty-reduction legislation.
– As needed, speak to groups, classes and organizations.
– Write letters of support for key programs to political leaders, media and other groups.

Qualifications:
– Outstanding writing skills.
– Self-starter who can produce great results with limited supervision.
– Strong oral communication skills and ability to lead meetings and give speeches.


To Apply: Please email your resume to openings@borgenproject.org.

Journalism Internship

This is a 12-week, part-time internship. The selected candidate will be able to work from home and set their own schedule, but must meet weekly deadlines. Articles submitted will appear on BORGEN Magazine or The Borgen Project Blog.

– Interview sources and research topics in-depth.
– Write 3 well-researched articles per week.
– Communicate with editors and supervisors.
– Assist with fundraising. Create a personal fundraising campaign and meet targets.
– Attend national conference call every Monday at 5PM PST.

Qualifications: Strong journalism writing skills. Must be able to work independently and meet deadlines with very little supervision. Experience writing for newspapers is helpful, but not required.

To Apply: Email your resume and 2 writing samples to hr@borgenproject.org with “Journalism Internship” in the subject line.

PR/Visual Editor Internship

The Borgen Project’s out-of-state PR (Public Relations) Intern is part of the content team. In this capacity, you will focus on creating photos for BORGEN Magazine and The Borgen Project Blog.
– Find images. Format, tint and resize images to meet website criteria (90% of internship).
– Promote articles via social media. Assist with fundraising.
– Create a personal fundraising campaign and meet targets.
– Attend national conference call every Monday at 5PM PST.
– Potential for Public Relations tasks.

Details: This internship is 260-hours. Hours can be completed on a full-time or part-time basis. Minimum of 4-days per week and 15-hours per week. The Borgen Project is located in Seattle and this position will operate remotely from home. This is an unpaid internship. Must be available Monday’s 5:00 – 6:00PM PST for The Borgen Project’s national conference call.

To Apply: Email your resume to hr@borgenproject.org with “PR/Visual Editor Intern” in the subject line.

Writer Internship (Tacoma, WA)

This is a 12-week, part-time Tacoma internship. The selected candidate will be able to work from home and pick their own schedule, but must meet weekly deadlines. Articles submitted will appear on BORGEN Magazine or The Borgen Project Blog.

– Write 3 articles per week.
– Research topics.
– Assist with advocacy efforts.
– Assist with fundraising. Create a personal fundraising campaign and meet targets.
– Attend national conference call every Monday at 5PM PST.

Qualifications: Strong research and writing skills. Must be able to work independently and meet deadlines with very little supervision. Experience writing SEO friendly content is helpful, but not required.

To Apply: Email your resume and 2 writing samples to hr@borgenproject.org with “Writer Intern” in the subject line.

 

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Livestock Production Brings Revenue for Women

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Ethiopia is oftentimes seen as a place of extreme poverty and famine with no opportunities for the locals to improve their business. The situation is especially difficult for women, whose potential is limited by cultural and legal inequalities. However, there is an opportunity that is considered which could provide many women with a stable source of income. That opportunity is livestock. Although women still are not fully capable of making financial decisions in Ethiopia, the dairy sector is monopolized by small business farmers and processing the milk is mainly a women’s job.

This traditional role for women in the past could have been seen as disempowering, however recently there has been a fresh view and women are turning dairy into an economic opportunity for themselves and their families. With the help of training and financial assistance from USAID, these women are able to obtain the skills needed to empower themselves in spite of their obstacles. The main industries that employ women are livestock fattening and dairy production, however there are still areas in Ethiopia that women do not have access to the training and knowledge that others take for granted.

The USAID Agricultural Growth Program, Livestock Market Development, project is a part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative and it aims to improve nutrition and increase revenue for women. The way it plans on doing this is through training and investments in dairy, meat and live animals. Both men and women will benefit from this project but there will be special attention given to helping women become entrepreneurs with training designed specifically for their empowerment.

Strengthening Ethiopian organizations to build effective partnerships is one of the main objectives for the project as well. USAID funding is helping meet these needs with an advanced cattle cross-breeding program to create offspring that is 10 times more productive than the current cow. The project has a five year execution plan and so far there are significant results from it. About 100 women were able to receive training on entrepreneurship and leadership in one session in 2013. The same women now act as business role models within their own livestock market.

Although extreme poverty is still a major issue throughout Ethiopia, programs like this are making it easier for everyone, especially women to break the cycle and make their own business successful. Women finding success is something new to Ethiopia and this program looks to continue to empower them and help the whole country work itself out of poverty.

– Brooke Smith

Sources: USAID  Feed the Future
Photo: Flickr

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Church World Service

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For about 66 years, the Church World Service (CWS) has been feeding the hungry and helping the most vulnerable populations in the world. The organization came about after World War II, with the churches of the United States realizing the dire need for humanitarian assistance and providing billions of pounds of food, clothing and medical supplies to war-stricken areas of Europe and Asia.

CWS consists of over 35 Christian denominations and communions that target areas ranging from agriculture, health, disaster relief, refugee resettlement, food production and water sanitation. The overarching goal of the organization is to eradicate hunger and poverty by collaborating with many local partners to create a sustainable environment.

Today, the work of CWS can be seen all over Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa. The organization strongly believes that development begins at the grassroots and that the citizens of the world must be empowered and self-sufficient.

In Indonesia, CWS worked with Two Degrees Food, among other organizations, to create a food security and nutrition program for local farmers. The project introduced sustainable agricultural methods to Indonesian farmworkers called Permaculture, also known as Permanent Agriculture. Some training involved making their own fertilizer and pesticides so crops could be protected properly and efficiently.

Consequently, food supply has seen a dramatic increase. Yance Banunaek, a female farmer, explains that the newly implemented program has allowed her family to eat a variety of vegetables. Banunaek states, “Before the assistance, sometimes my family would have no vegetables with our meal or only one type of vegetable, but the program has now helped my family to eat more nutritious foods.” She also says that she is able to sell her leftover vegetables in the markets, generating more income to feed her family and send her children to school.

– Leeda Jewayni

Sources: Church World Service, ActAlliance
Photo: Church World Service Harrisonburg

Tanzania’s Generation Z Sets Global Goals

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Malinzanga Village’s primary school educates the countries future leaders. How do we know this? Within minutes of asking 14-year-old children what their priorities of their families and communities were, they had named many key elements of new development goals. The key elements described by these children of Generation Z were things like access to more food, more community support to end poverty and better healthcare. All these issues are current topics that many representatives of every nation in the world are discussing right now.

With the help of Happy, a local youth activist from Restless Development, ONE co-founder Jamie Drummond spoke to 15 teenagers about what they would like to see happen for their country. Restless Development started in 1985 and its main mission is to help the younger generation take a leadership role in speaking up about important issues that face their countries and the world. Happy’s background with Restless Development proved to be helpful in motivating these kids to act on their ideas. Not only did these children give great suggestions on improving certain issues but they also have inspired Malala, Desmond Tutu to take these suggestions and put them in their open letter to world leaders.

With the recent Ebola outbreak, it has only reminded Generation Z that the impoverished health systems of Africa are fragile and often are the site where most of the tropical pandemics take place.  The Ebola epidemic has led to a great deal of anxiety, but this crisis fuels the flames of desire to address the issues that are needing attention and these teenagers see the future optimistically.

As the year 2014 comes to an end, the coming new year holds a lot of promise for ending poverty entirely or at least getting close. With the letter sent out to the world leaders warning them about making the right decisions for 2015, ONE and the kids from Malinzanga Village primary school gave their suggestions and hopefully, these get taken into account and change can finally take place.

– Brooke Smith

Sources: ONE, Restless Development

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What is Health Diplomacy?

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The United States government has led the world as one of the largest supporters of global health efforts, with foreign assistance investments in over 80 countries. Health Diplomacy is vital in maintaining strong relationships with the international community and is crucial in advancing foreign policy.

But what is health diplomacy exactly? Although defined in many different ways, in essence, it is a multi-level process that involves international stakeholders and local organizations that are aimed at improving healthcare delivery by exporting medical equipment, expertise and human resources to those who need it most.

As an interconnected global community, health diplomacy is demonstrated to help out the allies of the United States in creating sustainable health programs to meet the needs of the people. The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Health Diplomacy uses diplomatic outreach to promote shared responsibility for the well-being of the world’s citizens.

In cases where diplomatic efforts may be strained or negotiations are hard to come by, health diplomacy can open doors to foster new dialogue and create more partnerships on a non-political level.

On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services brings in much needed technical expertise and scientific research to the interrelated fields of public health and international development. By exchanging scientific and evidence-based knowledge with leaders and health educators abroad, the United States continues to maximize its objectives in security, development and health.

One of the greatest examples of health diplomacy is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Started in 2002, this international financing institution spurred a multitude of partnerships between foreign governments, civil societies and non-profit organizations to fight these three pandemics. From 2002 to 2016, 56 donor governments have pledged an astounding $42 million to the fund, with the U.S. being the largest donor. These donations will allow local experts to tackle the infectious disease issue whether it is by distributing mosquito nets to protect people from malaria, training health personnel or providing medical equipment for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

– Leeda Jewayni

Sources: Global Health Diplomacy Net, Global Health, U.S. Department of State, The Global Fund
Photo: Flickr

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SKYE Program Boosts Guyana Youth

SKYE
President Barack Obama’s Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) was implemented in the early part of this decade. The United States is working with nations in the Caribbean on substantially reducing illicit trafficking, increasing public safety and security and promoting social justice.

SKYE

SKYE, or The Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment, program was a direct result of this initiative. It is funded by USAID, managed by the Education Development Center and works with private sector partners, government ministries, community agencies and NGOs.

Their goal is to train and educate the community’s youth in the areas that have been identified as priorities by public and private sector employers in Guyana. Those areas are communications, personal development, local labor laws and financial literacy.

SKYE works with the local youth that are school dropouts, youth who have completed formal education or training but do not have the necessary skills to find employment, and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Not only does SKYE train these youth, but it sees them into the working force through the use of “employment coaches.”

It is often easy to train the youth, but to see them into the workforce is the daunting task. That is why many employment coaches stayed paired with their youth until they find work. As of June 2014, more than 1,100 youth have completed SKYE’s work readiness training and 400 graduates have already found employment.

Popularity and Success

The program has become so popular and received such a reputation for producing work-ready employees with positive attitudes that BK Quarries, one of the region’s largest employers, recently asked for twenty more SKYE graduates after hiring fourteen.

An April 2004 SKYE graduation ceremony, in which 57 youth graduated, was led by the U.S. ambassador to Guyana, D. Brent Hardt. In the ceremony’s opening speech, he said that SKYE was focused on “strengthening an environment that facilitates youth development, supporting the reintegration to society of high-risk populations, supporting Guyana’s youth in their efforts to find employment or start their own businesses, and supporting the greater engagement of young people as active Guyanese citizens.”

Fiona Wills, who directs SKYE, credited the program’s success to its emphasis on providing youth with one-on-one support and letting each one decide on a path that interests him or her: “Everything we do is about empowering young people to help themselves.”

With this momentum, the program will only continue to move forward at its empowering pace, as it is targeting the right demographic. For there to be a better tomorrow, in any country, we need to focus on breaking the preconceived notions of the youth.

Poverty, and the constraints it invokes, needs to be shown to be breakable. If the youth of a country can’t break free of the poverty cycle through employment programs and other aids, then that country is permanently stuck in poverty’s grip. With programs like SKYE in effect, the world has a better chance of elevating all of its citizens to a place where they can provide their own food, shelter, and clothing.

— Frederick Wood II

Sources: InterAction, Guyana Times, Embassy of the United States, USAID Blog
Photo: Flickr

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Jeffrey Sachs: Sustainable Development after MDGs

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In a presentation at the United Nations University earlier this month, Jeffrey Sachs gave updates on the Millennium Development Goals and projections for after 2015. Sachs, one of the developers of the Millennium Development Goals and Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University, discussed the post-2015 future of sustainable development. With the expiration of the MDGs set for 2015, attention is turning to the Millennium Villages Project and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Despite the progress of many nations agreeing to the framework of the MDGs, there is still room for improvement. In the midst of the Ebola crisis, the interdependency of the MDGs, especially focusing on maternal health, epidemic diseases and education, has emphasized a need for equal attention to the goals.

With expectations for exponential increases in global GDP and population, the need for advanced poverty relief is greater than ever. Under the new SDSN framework, set to be instituted by the United Nations after 2015, new goals will be created to target financial responsibility and climate change. In 2015, three conversations will take place in both developed and developing nations to tackle the next phase after the MDGs.

Jeffrey Sachs is seen to be among the frontrunners of the next several decades of continued development. Though the concrete plans implementing change are still yet to be solidified in the post-2015 meetings, cooperation between developed and developing nations is still going to be in the center of the plans.

In an article written in Horizons, Sachs writes, “Ours is a world of fabulous wealth and extreme poverty: billions of people enjoy longevity and good health unimaginable in previous generations, yet at least one billion people live in such abject poverty that they struggle for mere survival every day. The poorest of the poor face the daily life-and-death challenges of insufficient nutrition, lack of healthcare, unsafe shelter, and the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.” The gap between the OCED and developing nations is growing, and Sachs is acutely aware that the growing rate of the global economy will only aggravate the poverty gap. Achieving a basic standard of living will not eliminate the poverty gap, but will ease the daily struggles of the bottom quintile.

The sustainable development framework is working to achieve a universal standard of living. Though it was intended to reach this standard by 2015, realistically, additional work under a revised viewpoint will follow in the subsequent years.

– Kristin Ronzi

Sources: UN U, UN, UNSDN, Millennium Villages, CIRSD
Photo: Flickr