Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Israeli Boys Found Dead

Naftali Frankel and Eyal Yifrach, 16, and Gilad Shaar, 19, were three Israeli boys found dead more than two weeks after being abducted on their way home from school in the West Bank in Israel. Since their abduction, the boys’ mothers were incredibly vocal about the return of their boys; Mrs. Frankel even addressed the U.N. to bring international attention to the issue. Now upon news of their death, those from Israel — and around the world — are looking for answers.

According to the Israeli military, the boys’ bodies were found on Monday afternoon in a field a few miles south of where they were last seen. The three boys were buried together on Thursday, and candlelight vigils honoring the boys lit up the sky in areas of the country. The discovery, which brought a tragic end to the search for the three boys, has laid further questions regarding Israel’s response.

Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly blamed the abductions and deaths on Hamas, the militant Islamist group. Upon hearing of the boys’ deaths, Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of summoned senior ministers to address further action. “They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood,” he said. “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.”

Yet fault may not be so clearly placed on Hamas. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an Egyptian group responsible for an alarmingly high number of bombings and attacks, came forward this week saying it killed the three boys. The claim, which was published on the Jihadist Media Platform, came the day after the group pledged allegiance to ISIS, the violent radical group which has conquered vast amounts of Syria and Iraq. Yet terrorist groups often make false claims, and many officials believe this could be a ploy to divert attention away from Hamas, with whom the Egyptian group has ties.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu ensures that the Israeli military will find those responsible for the boys’ deaths. “Whoever was involved in the kidnapping and the murder will bear the consequences,” he said. “We will neither rest nor slacken until we reach the last of them.” These actions are already well underway. More than hundreds of Hamas activists have been arrested; dozens of homes and institutions in Gaza have been destroyed, and the Israeli army has launched 34 strikes targeting terror infrastructure. While none of this can bring back the boys, many hope it will prevent future abductions. As Israel continues the investigation, many countries — including the United States — have voiced support against these horrific crimes.

– Nick Magnanti

Sources: CNN, Vocativ, TIME, CNN
Photo: Time

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You Are What You Eat: Nutrients for All

Nutrients for All
The world is presently facing a nutritional crisis. Over 2 billion people across the globe are malnourished. Both poor and rich countries alike are suffering from a nutrient crisis. Over a third of the United States population is suffering from obesity. Nutrients for All is an initiative to help repair this nutritional problem by carrying out a design called the nutrient value chain, which is the link between soil, farm, food and people.

Obesity is linked to diabetes and heart disease, which are growing problems. Recent studies show that there is a link between pregnant women suffering from malnourishment, which may cause obesity later in life. Access to the foods needed for proper nourishment has become a global problem. Many developing countries are living on nutrient-less subsidized diets.

Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, is working with Nutrients for All to help fight major social, environmental and economic concerns. Ashoka is a global network that whose goal is to bring these innovative ideas around the world.

Ashoka and other organization leaders from around the world are putting unconventional agricultural and management techniques to the test to help fight the global need for proper nutrients. These organizations implement plans that enrich soils in ways that nourish both crops and local ecological systems. This helps nourish communities and produce the right foods to farm. There are many factors that Ashoka and Nutrients for All entails for success.

The Nutrients for All soil plan includes reducing topsoil erosion, providing nutrient-rich food for local, regional and global supply chains, stabilizing and increasing recharge of groundwater and watersheds and reducing pollution and sanitation problems from industrial and residential sources.

These factors create a better understanding of soil management, and are used to help strengthen developing countries‘ economies and the well-being of those people.

The transformations of the economy provides proof that the Nutrients for All is a successful and innovative plan. Communities are more prepared for weather and natural disasters. Human vitality increases and communities share a lack of diseases across the board. More economic and food choices are brought to each community where Nutrients for All has been placed.

Nutrients for All wants to engage women farmers to produce not only for their household, but as a means to increases household income. A study performed by Ashoka staff shows that for a household with female farmers, the income and well-being increases 11 times.

One way we can take action to help get Nutrients for All’s message out is to empower others with new information. Either by being a consumer or practitioner, providing this information about nutrient conscious decisions for not only yourself, but for those around you, benefits everyone.

Help from sources like Nutrients for All can help change not only the way we eat, but the way we live. The evidence of the link between health and food is shown in the rising rates of cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: Nutrients for All, Nutrients for Life

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The Effects of Hunger

Everyone knows the feeling of an uncomfortable stomachache. If a person misses a single meal for one reason or another, he or she can feel the effect it has on mood, ability to concentrate and sometimes ability to even think straight. Thus, people try to avoid this feeling as much as possible, but what if one had no other choice but to be hungry?

Unfortunately, this is the reality that millions of people live with every day of their lives. According to the U.N., about 870 million people suffer from hunger, meaning one in eight people are hungry globally. Hunger has serious effects on the entire body, and extreme hunger only serves to continue the cycle of poverty.

Although hunger is normally a feeling associated with the stomach, hunger also directly affects the brain in several ways. Due to the lack of essential nutrients, vitamins, protein and minerals, severe and continuous hunger can inhibit the brain from developing cognitively, socially and emotionally, all of which affect an individual’s ability to read, concentrate, memorize and even speak.

Other key organs are also directly affected by hunger. Impaired vision and other eyesight issues result from a lack of Vitamin A, and the gums and teeth can become damaged due to calcium deficiency. Possibly even worse is the effect that extreme hunger has on the immune system. If the immune system lacks basic vitamins, nutrients and minerals, then it cannot properly defend the body against disease, which is why developing countries are constantly battling a variety of diseases.

As mentioned above, hunger can make it difficult to study and learn, which is why extreme poverty and hunger are often related to a lack of proper education. Especially in developing countries, children who experience hunger from a very young age tend to struggle academically and have a lower IQ when compared to the academic performance of well-nourished children.

Although all children should have access to nourishment, it is critical that newborns and infants receive the necessary nutrients. According to 30 Hour Famine, 70 percent of the brain develops during the first two years of life alone. If young children experience malnourishment, especially during that time frame, the brain could become damaged forever.

The effects of hunger and malnutrition are not only damaging, but can also be irreparable. Aside from a lack of comfort, hunger also causes serious health issues, which is why ensuring that everyone, especially those in developing countries, has access to the necessary nutrients they need to live a long and healthy life is such a critical issue.

– Meghan Orner

Sources: UN, 30 Hour Famine, The 40-Hour Famine
Photo: Poverty Around the World

Projeta Brasil: Fighting Child Exploitation

Coinciding with the World Against Child Labor Day, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is taking place in Brazil this year and it is important to note the link between these two events. Although children in Brazil below the age of 16 are not supposed to work, about 3 million children below that age are currently subjects of child labor. In 2013, 10,668 violations of children’s rights were largely registered on the Brazilian government’s Secretariat of Human Rights hotline.

During the World Cup, children will be on break from school, making the opportunity to become victims of exploitation and abuse even greater than normal. The Brazilian government, however, has begun to take steps toward improving the situation. In an attempt to preemptively respond to what could be an increased period of abuse by child labor, the government has been raising public awareness, expanding its police force and has supported and approved legislation that categorizes any sort of sexual exploitation of children or adolescents as a “heinous crime,” meaning punishments for these types of crimes will be more severe than ever.

Additionally, in order to address the problem even further, UNICEF just developed an app called Projeta Brasil. Projeta Brasil, also partnered with organizations such as Save the Dream and the International Centre for Sport Security, allows smartphone users to immediately report any instances of child labor or child abuse they may see. The report immediately alerts local authorities about the location, time and circumstances in which the event was witnessed. It also provides the chance for victims themselves to report instances of exploitation. While the app primarily acts as a reporting tool, it also serves to raise awareness about various forms of child exploitation to look out for during the World Cup.

The app puts the power to help in the hands of both Brazilians and tourists alike, and can be downloaded in various languages, such as Portuguese, English and Spanish. If you’d like to download or learn more about the app, you can find more information here.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: UNICEF Connect, Huffington Post, Global March, Projeta Brasil
Photo: WordPress

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5 Ways Hunger Hurts Learning

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Education is one of the very few opportunities for poor people living in impoverished, underdeveloped countries. Basic education programs provide children with the skills necessary to acquire employment, as well as basic knowledge pertaining to health, hygiene and disease prevention. And yet, according to the U.N., 250 million children — even those who have spent at least four years in school — are not able to adequately read, write or count.

While many factors play into this staggering statistic, hunger is a key culprit when it comes to the millions of uneducated children worldwide. Here’s how hunger hurts learning:

1. Children who are malnourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year, which means 160 missed school days.

2. Vitamin A deficiency, which is directly linked to malnutrition, is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness in developing countries; The World Health Organization estimates that each year, 500,000 children go blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency. Blindness makes it increasingly difficult for children to learn alongside their peers.

3. Malnutrition intensifies the symptoms and effects of diseases, such as malaria and measles. Children who are unable to combat these diseases lack the physical capacity to attend school and learn.

4. Malnutrition stunts not only physical, but also mental development, in young children, preventing them from reaching their full human and socio-economic potential as well as their potential to learn.

5. One out of five children born from an under-nourished mother is born with low birth weight. Low birth weight in children is linked to mental retardation, learning disabilities and blindness, all of which may prevent a child from receiving an education.

Hungry children suffer not only from malnourishment—and the litany of other harms it causes—but also from the incredible disadvantage of not being physically well enough to learn. Global education and global hunger are not mutually exclusive issues. A brand-new school with ample resources in Tanzania, for example, is useless without a classroom full of healthy children who are ready to learn.

Expecting Malaria-infected children to attend school and absorb information from excellent basic education programs is also impractical. We have a global responsibility not only to support education programs in third-world countries, but also to ensure that children are able to take advantage of the incredible opportunities education holds for them.

Due to the difficulty of learning while hungry and ill, in order to provide effective education, it is crucial that aid programs also address the global health and hunger crises in impoverished countries.

– Elizabeth Nutt

Sources: World Hunger, UN.org, UN.org, Hellen Keller International
Photo: Your Mind Your Body

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Zambia Sees Positive Water Delivery

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As 2014 nears its halfway point, the capital of Zambia recently reported positive water delivery to its residents inhabiting much of the city.

The Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, the water company that services the nation’s capital, promises a number of additional water projects to be undertaken in the months and years ahead.

“Now it is time to offer solutions because we believe that only through actions will we be judged and our actions can now tell a positive story of how we are transforming the city of Lusaka with improved service delivery,” LWSC public relations manager, Topsy Sikalinda, said.

Lusaka’s Strategic Revenue Improvement Report Programme noted the need for corporate and residential areas to see improved water reticulation, the commissioning of boreholes and an increase in water supply throughout the city.

Other incomplete projects include water supply upgrades in the surrounding parts of the city. Surrounding cities and areas expect to increase yields of cubic meters of water per day through the installation of additional infrastructure.

While Lusaka and its surrounding areas have witnessed positive water services, other parts of the country continue to struggle with their water infrastructure and services.

Recently, Devolution Trust Fund manager, Sam Ng’onga, stated that nearly 2 million Zambians inhabiting low-income housing do not have access to adequate drinking water. A larger number of Zambians do not have access to legitimate sanitation services.

According to UNICEF, nearly 25 percent of Zambian schools do not have access to clean water and sanitation facilities. Among both genders, the primary education completion rate is only 72 percent.

Even though the number of Zambians who have access to water and sanitation services continues to increase, the number will need to climb further in order for the nation to meet its goal of supplying nearly all of its residents with consumable drinking water in the coming years.

– Ethan Safran

Sources: allAfrica, UNICEF

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The World’s First Hookworm Vaccine

One-third of children and women living below the World Bank’s poverty line are infected with hookworm today, which often causes moderate to severe anemia. Hookworm and other Neglected Tropical Diseases, or NTDs, disproportionately affect the poorer Islamic countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria and others in North Africa and the Middle East.

Children and pregnant women are by far the most drastically affected by this disease. Children with long-standing blood loss from hookworm often experience sufficient mental and motor development delays. They can actually lose IQ points as well. These detrimental effects undoubtedly follow them into adulthood, making productivity more difficult.

The blood loss caused by hookworm may affect women in labor, making their chance of death much higher. Additionally, the baby is more likely to be born prematurely or with low birth weight. This makes those babies less likely to survive, contributing to the child mortality rate.

Additionally, the link between hookworms and anemia is a large concern because of its relation to disabilities. Anemia accounted for 8.8 percent of the total disability of the world in 2010. Today, children under 5 years old and women of all ages still hold the heaviest burden.

Fortunately, the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Product Development Partnership is developing the world’s first hookworm vaccine for human use. The Sabin Institute was established in 2000 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is the only Product Development Partnership in the world working to develop a vaccine for human hookworm infections.

The institute is receiving support from the European Commission FP7 program and uniting professionals from around the world to build research. This global consortium has been coined HOOKVAC and includes members from the Netherlands, the United States, Belgium, England, Germany and Gabon. This project aims not only to perfect the manufacturing process of the vaccine, but also to increase and share research on NTDs.

The first clinical testing of the vaccine will take place in Sub-Saharan Africa once it is ready. Gabon’s Lamberene Research Centre will lead clinical testing in adults and children in Gabon, a region plagued with hookworm.

The vaccine is being called the “anti-poverty” vaccine due to its vast potential to lower child mortality rates, save mothers in labor and improve health conditions for agricultural workers, who are the backbone of many poorer economies.

The vaccine, as of now, is intended only for use in the poorest regions of the world, where hookworm thrives. This means that the product will likely not be sold commercially by pharmaceutical companies, but will remain in the nonprofit sector with HOOKVAC.

The project will hopefully conduct trials in the coming years and bring health relief to millions, while contributing to the united fight against global poverty.

– Cambria Arvizo

Sources: Huffington Post, Sabin Vaccine Institute, American Society of Hematology
Photo: The Guardian

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Using EDM to Fight Global Poverty

Philanthropist Hugh Evans, co-founder of the Oaktree Foundation and Global Poverty Project, organized an electronic dance music festival on June 26 named the Thank You Festival. This benefit show is working to engage the millennial generation in the fight against global poverty.

The show will feature one of the most popular electronic DJs in the world, Tiesto, as well as Above and Beyond and a Maryland local electronic DJ by the name of Alvin Risk. The festival will utilize a 15-foot inflatable toilet to bring awareness to water and sanitation issues around the world. Electronic dance festivals, which are commonly associated with drug use and experimentation, may not seem an ideal place to speak about global poverty.

However, Evans notes that to reach the millennial generation it has to be done through the people they listen to, in this case through electronic dance artists. His previous work with the Make Poverty History concert in Melbourne, Australia was highly successful. The concert, which occurred simultaneously with the G20 meeting, was responsible for Australia doubling its foreign aid efforts. Other concerts Evans has been involved with include the 2012 Global Citizen Festival for which Evans secured the Great Lawn in Central Park, N.Y. The New York festival also occurred simultaneously with another international meeting, this time of the United Nations General Assembly.

The concert raised $1.3 billion in programs to aid the global poor. The June 26 concert is aimed at getting the United States to continue its aid efforts for child survival services as well as double the U.S. government’s funding of the Global Partnership for Education, which would total $40 million. Previous concert efforts of Evans have been associated with rock and pop music. This will be his first effort utilizing electronic dance music.

The festival will feature DJs, Evans and top U.S. Foreign Aid officials who will speak about the cause of eliminating extreme poverty and encourage fans to get involved. Tiesto expressed in an email that the festival provides a unique possibility to produce effective change. “I know that my fans are thoughtful, generous and caring and this festival is a great opportunity to show Washington D.C. what our community is really about.” The festival, which is partnered with Club Glow, the World Childhood Foundation, The Global Poverty Project and Global Citizen, will begin at 4 p.m. on June 26 at Merriweather Pavilion in Columbia, Md.

– Christopher Kolezynski

Sources: EDM, Spin, Washington Post

Photo: Oh So Fresh

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Thailand Under Threat of US Aid Withdrawal

As of  June 24, the United States announced the possibility of reducing U.S. foreign aid to the Kingdom of Thailand in response to the repressive military junta.

Typically, Thailand receives about $10.5 million in security-based aid from the U.S., and Washington, D.C. recently cut off $4.7 million from their long-time ally.

Another sign of high tensions between the two nations is the suggested removal of U.S. regional major exercises out of Southeast Asia. Since 1980, Thailand and the U.S. have participated in Cobra Gold, one of the biggest military exercises that also influences relations, together with about 13,000 participants from around the Southeast Asia region. It has not been confirmed whether the exercises will go on or be stopped.

The chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia, Representative Steve Chabot, acknowledged the possible dangers of continuing with the exercises, stating it “could clearly send the wrong message” to Thailand and other global figures “in light of the repressive nature” of the military junta currently puppeteering the nation.

Levels of unrest are also extremely high in Thailand at the moment due to the intense regime in which the constitution has been suspended. This forces many repressed people to find other, more combative ways, to express the dissent with the junta. Should the U.S. get too deeply involved by keeping the military exercise in Thailand this year, there is a threat of long-term expenses and involvement not accounted for by the U.S.

The U.S. is not the only world power to acknowledge the danger Thailand is facing. The European Union also commented in a statement on June 23 that they condemn the junta, stating that a credible government should form “as a matter of urgency, the legitimate democratic process and the Constitution, through credible and inclusive elections.” The response from Thai spokesperson, Sek Wannamethee, explains the disappointment felt by the lack of support from the E.U. for not viewing the coup from all angles and seeing the supposedly measured reasoning on the part of the military.

This military coup stands out from the previous ones experienced in Thailand before due to the oppressive measures taken and the sense of permanency it holds. Should this continue, it is likely that the U.S., as well as other nations, will withdraw more security-based funds as the junta continues their reign.

– Elena Lopez

Sources: Channel News Asia, Bangkok Post, Wall Street Journal
Photo: Flickr

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How to Help the Hungry

Help the Hungry
Helping those who suffer from malnutrition has become a lot easier in the 2010s, with advancements in modern technology.

Helping the hungry and needy can be as simple as clicking a button in the modern age. Funds and donations are one of the most important parts of helping the hungry worldwide along with volunteers and advocacy.

Using donations and monetary gifts, nonprofits are able to mobilize volunteers, some who work on the ground in impoverished areas and some who try to get their cause more well-known through advocacy.

Through the use of technology, including the Internet and social media, doing this has become much simpler. How to help the hungry and put an end to global poverty can be as simple as sending emails or tweets to representatives in government or radio stations.

Posting fliers is easier, spreading the word is easier, delivering food to hungry families is easier and even providing clean water is easier.

Posting fliers to raise awareness on social media can grab someone’s attention and if not the person for whom it was meant, then someone who is friends with them and can see it on their news feed.

Delivering food is made easier, especially in high risk areas through air drops and drones. Now cleaner water is within reach as well with technology that uses plasma to purify water as it is being brought up from a well.

There are also billboards and water tanks that collect water from the rain and humidity and purify it so people can have clean water to drink.

There are so many more ways to help the hungry than there has been in the past right now. But there are still hungry people in the world, struggling to get by on $1 or less per day. Hunger has increased in Africa by 153 percent in the last five years.

However, hunger is down in impoverished South American countries as well as in impoverished Asian nations because these nations see most of the technological advancements and learn to put them to good use.

It is rare for South African nations to see the same sort of technology and receive the same type of training other nations do in order to provide technologically advanced aid.

Much of the technology that is making it onto the market comes from South American inventors and nonprofits to help the impoverished, but as a nation stricken with poverty find it increasingly difficult to get their patents and designs to other nations in desperate need.

So, how do you help the hungry? Monetary gifts and food donations take little to no time at all; in addition, they help greatly with spreading knowledge and technological advancements in order to make fighting hunger, providing clean water and putting an end to global poverty much easier for generations to come.

– Cara Morgan

Sources: Feeding America, US News, WFP 1, WFP 2, World Hunger
Photo: Action Against Hunger