Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Yemen Calls to End Drone Strikes, What Does That Mean for the U.S.?

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In December 2013, the United States drone campaign in Yemen came under intense scrutiny when a drone meant for an al-Qaeda operative accidentally hit a wedding party, killing 15 civilians. In the month since that strike, there have been three more U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. In this most recent strike, another civilian was accidentally killed while walking through a village.

After the initial strike, the U.S. launched an internal investigation into how this mistake happened. The strike came a few months after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to decrease the number of drone strikes and hold the program accountable to minimize the loss of civilian life. The U.S. has also faced increasing international criticism over its drone campaigns in countries across the Middle East.

Yemen’s Parliament issued a statement calling for an end to U.S. drone strikes within Yemen borders. The vote was nearly unanimous and issued a ‘strong warning’ to the U.S. Government and Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A Yemeni government official was quoted saying, “The Yemeni public is angered by the drone strikes…the people’s representatives reflected on the tone of the streets.” Not only is the public outspoken against drone strikes, human rights groups on the ground have issued similar statements denouncing the action taken by the U.S.

Yemen and the US carry out some of these attacks as a joint program because the Yemeni military does not have the capability to reach some remote areas. The program is dedicated to combatting al-Qaeda, which has a strong presence in rural parts of the country.

It is estimated over 50 civilians have been killed by drone strikes in Yemen. Human Rights Watch in Yemen has said the drone strikes may be backfiring with the Yemeni public, especially in rural areas that see the most activity. They even go as far as to say drone strikes have help al-Qaeda turn formerly peaceful tribes who have been affected directly. With public opinion increasingly turning against the Yemen government working with the US drone campaign, the politically unstable country will continue to see major problems.

– Colleen Eckvahl

Sources: CNN, Long War Journal
Photo: Wall Street Journal

International Arts in the Congo

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) often brings to mind images of conflict, famine, and disease. It is about as an unlikely home for the arts as one could find, and yet the Institute for Human Activities (IHA) aims to make it just that.

Its project is designed to bring art to the jungle and keep it there. As part of a partnership between Yale University, University College Ghent and the Akademie der Künste der Welt in Cologne, the Institute set up shop beside a palm oil plantation in the heart of the rainforest.

It calls the effort an experiment with gentrification. The problem as they see it is that the art created about (or for) disadvantaged areas of the world such as the DRC is shipped off to cosmopolitan Western cities like New York and London and is not received in its native land.

The IHA believes by keeping the arts in the community, a culture can be transformed economically and intellectually from the bottom up.

In five years, the IHA hopes to have created an international arts center for artists and thinkers from around the globe to study, work and grow. Additionally, it hopes to continue researching the affects of keeping art near its source as opposed to exporting it to the West.

They claim art has the economic power to power investment and business around areas of cultural capital such as galleries and theaters. For the DRC and nations like it, this means that starting with cultural and artistic development might lead the way to economic and political stabilization.

This, undoubtedly, is a unique approach to solving the economic crises developing nations face in the process of modernization. However, the reason for keeping art at its source is not all economics.

The IHA website offers political reasons as well, arguing that “Art may expose the need for change in Nigeria or Peru, but in the end it brings opportunity, improved living conditions, and real-estate value to Berlin-Mitte or the Lower East Side,” the point being that the political potency and relevance of the art is lost in the Western gallery.

The IHA may have only just begun its project in the DRC, but it is already grabbing international attention. If it proves to be successful, perhaps it will signal a new model in the development of some of the world’s poorest nations.

– Chase Colton

Sources: Institute for Human Activities, The Huffington Post
Photo: The Culture Trip

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Foreign Aid: How It Works

Every year, the United States spends more than $30 billion on foreign aid. This figure appears to be substantial, but comparatively on average, Americans spend more than $45 billion on pet care and more than  $30 billion on candy each year. Foreign aid accounts for only less than one percent of the federal budget. However, foreign aid is the combination of both diplomacy and development in other countries. The actual budget for poverty is only 0.55 percent of the federal budget.

Poverty is not only a concern in developing countries. Developing countries’ economies have direct effects on the world economy; if developed countries want to grow their incomes and expand to other parts of the world, erasing global poverty is the first step to achieve these objectives.

The objective of foreign aid is to fight poverty and to spur or speed up the growth of economies in developing countries. Foreign aid activities vary from providing clean water, helping local farmers, and supporting the healthcare systems, to increasing education level for the people in poverty. If the global economy is stable, the human race can help one another to reach higher goals.

Even though the success of foreign aid is different from country to country, the most successful stories generally come from countries that have low corruption levels and good political policies. In this sense, diplomacy plays an important role in helping these countries develop policies that will attract investment from around the world.

By increasing education levels and decreasing child mortality rates, foreign aid will help produce skilled workers who are ready to capture the opportunities in the promising but challenging environment.

The foreign aid budget is heavily influenced by the legislature, so legislators need to be aware of the real situation and garner support from the public. Our duty as American citizens is to bring these matters to the attention of legislators and give them our support for a better life, not only for poor people, but ultimately for all of us as Americans.

– Phong Pham

Sources: OXFAM America, NYT, The Guardian
Photo: New Security Beat

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Tuberculosis Crisis Bridges North Korea and U.S. Hostility

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Despite the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea’s penchant for holding Americans hostage and despising the United States on principle, the country has nonetheless reached out to a Stanford University-led research team to help solve its mounting tuberculosis (TB) crisis.

North Korean doctors first approached Stanford Medical School and California-based tuberculosis experts in 2008. Since that time, the North Korean government has invited members from the Stanford Medical School to address the state of TB in the country, the worst in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa.

Tuberculosis affected 8.6 million people in 2012 and claimed 1.3 million lives. While it is largely eradicated in industrialized societies, the respiratory disease still affects developing countries located in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific.

North Korea’s problems with TB arose in the 1990’s, when the country was wracked with floods, droughts and ultimately wide-spread famine after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1990. Without aid from their former Communist ally, widespread malnutrition overwhelmed the country’s inhabitants, resulting in upwards of 2.5 million starvation related deaths.

Improper nutrition coupled with few medical supplies led to a resurgence of TB in the country. In 1998, the Ministry of Public Health began implementing Directly Observed Treatment Short (DOTS) course, a repetitive and now defunct method of TB treatment.

Unlike other regions that evolved their treatment methods (like sub-Saharan Africa,) North Korea continued use of DOTS resulted in Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB,) particularly virulent strains of the disease that do not respond to basic antibiotic therapy.

Although North Korea does not keep drug-resistance records, a report by Eugene Bell, an NGO specializing in patient relapse, revealed large numbers of TB relapse in North Korea, signifying particularly high levels of MDR TB.

“We had anecdotal information from North Korean doctors, who were right on this one. They weren’t able to diagnose drug resistance, but they could see what happens when they treated people with drugs and they came back,” says K.J. Seung, a Eugene Bell doctor and author of the MDR TB report in the Public Library of Science. “Now we have original scientific data that clearly documents drug resistance.”

The notoriously xenophobic regime’s plea for help has resulted in the 2013 installation of North Korea’s first diagnostic laboratory to test drug-resistant MDR TB. In collaboration with the TB Consortium and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit working to strengthen global security, the team is dedicated to improving North Korea’s treatment facilities and teaching North Korean doctors modern methods of controlling the disease.

The invitees must remain apolitical and are constantly monitored by minders, government-appointed tour guides that ‘mind’ what one sees and does in the hosting country. Despite these constrictions, researchers have continued their efforts to bolster MDR TB resistance efforts, noting the health of North Korea and the world depends on their efforts.

– Emily Bajet

Sources: Global Post DDN News, Stanford, Stanford, Stanford Medical School, North Korea Now, Mother Board, World Health Organization
Photo: Vice

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World Hunger Relief and Christina Aguilera

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In 2007, Yum! Brands Inc., the world’s largest fast food restaurant, created the World Hunger Relief program. Using its nearly 40,000 stores and 1.5 million employees, Yum! Brands Inc. leads the most expansive private sector hunger relief effort. The World Hunger Relief and international superstar Christina Aguilera are teaming up to help save the nearly 1 billion people around the world who are hungry.

Consisting of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurant chains, the company uses its network to raise awareness and funds in order to benefit the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) that reaches more than 90 million people worldwide. Since its inception, the World Hunger Relief program has raised over $150 million for the WFP and other hunger relief organizations, breaking their annual donation record every year. Every one-dollar that’s donated provides four meals for hungry children at school.

In 2012, the World Hunger Relief provided 132 million meals in more than 45 countries. This was attributed to the record-breaking $33 million raised by the program.
The World Hunger Relief takes advantage of Yum! Brands Inc.’s huge employee base that enlists friends and family to volunteer for hunger relief efforts. Together, they have logged millions of volunteer hours in communities around the world.

The aid provided to emergency operations conducted by the WFP has helped thousands of men, women, and children. Other achievements of the World Hunger Relief include:

• Directed $1.5 million to relief funds in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan

• Providing assistance so that a school feeding program in Ethiopia, reaching 438,000 primary school age children, can continue for one year

• Those affected by floods in Bolivia were given fortified meals for one month

• Those affected by civil conflict in Somalia were provided fortified meals for one month

• Provided 132,000 people affected by floods with fortified meals for one month

• After a major earthquake in Peru, 80,000 survivors were provided with rice for one month

• Following Cyclone Sidr, victims in Bangladesh were provided with fortified meals for one month

– Sunny Bhatt

Sources: Hunger to Hope, Business Wire, World Food Programme
Photo: BGR

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Poverty in Uruguay: A Success Story

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The number of Uruguayan citizens living below the poverty line of less than $1.25 a day has halved since 1990. This drastic reduction in poverty in Uruguay means the South American country has successfully achieved the first of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

In 2012, the rate of poverty in Uruguay, defined as those earning less than $1.25 a day, decreased to 12.4 percent of the overall population. Uruguay’s Minister of Social Development, Daniel Olesker, points to labor and health reforms to explain these achievements.

Ever since the 2002 economic collapse of its neighbor, Argentina, Uruguay has slowly struggled its way out of indigence. In 2004, the poverty rate hit a high of 39.9 percent and has steadily decreased since due to efforts on behalf of the government to provide more funds for social inclusion programs.

In early 2005, the then-President of Uruguay, Dr. Tabaré Vasquez, revealed a two-year Emergency Social Program to aid the most vulnerable members of Uruguayan society. The program addressed pressing issues such as food, shelter, health, work and education for the most destitute in Uruguay.

Other programs aimed at reducing poverty in Uruguay include a family allowance program wherein “vulnerable” families are given a subsidy of around 700 pesos per month, a sum equal to about $31. Families in more extreme conditions may receive up to double that amount.

As a result of these reforms, the number of homeless people living in Uruguay fell to .5 percent of the population. Despite the success of these public policies, it continues to elude the segment of the population in the lowest rung of the income distribution.

The current President of Uruguay, José Mujica, is known as a champion of the poor and sets an example for citizens of Uruguay by living modestly. He donates 90 percent of his income as president to charities working on housing for the poor and lives on a small farm outside Montevideo instead of the presidential palace.

– Jeff Meyer

Sources: Presidencia, The Guardian, El Mundo, Xinhuanet, La Republica
Photo: IPS

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Lumos Foundation: J.K. Rowling’s Magical Venture

J.K. Rowling may be most famous for her adventurous and classic tales of witchcraft and wizardry, but the author of the Harry Potter franchise has much more up her sleeve. The Lumos Foundation, Rowling’s charitable organization, has bettered the lives of millions.

A well-known advocate for international human rights, Rowling spent time volunteering for Amnesty International prior to her breakout success.  Rowling cites her time with the organization for teaching her about the kind of impact she wishes to have for humanity.  In the wake of her celebrity status, Rowling became the 12th richest woman in the world.  With her wealth, Rowling decided to donate half of it to charitable causes, taking a pledge alongside other billionaires and initiated by Bill Gates.

 

The Lumos Foundation

 

Rowling’s shining charitable achievement, however, is the Lumos Foundation. The Lumos Foundation is an organization committed to providing basic human rights services for over eight million children living in institutions.  The organization seeks to provide community-based services such as primary education and healthcare as replacements for institutions that often neglect these basic needs.

While the Lumos Foundation is globally minded, it focuses most specifically on Eastern European nations.  Moldova, for example, has one of the highest institutionalization rates among children of any nation.  “Most of these vulnerable young people are not orphans and poverty has separated them from their parents,” says Lumos, concerning orphanages in Moldova.  Furthermore, many of these children are placed in institutions due to gaps in the education system.  Children with disabilities are especially at a disadvantage and have a high chance of being institutionalized.

“Lumos works on every level, with every actor, to transform an outdated and harmful system into one which supports and protects children and enables them to have a positive future.”  Founding the Lumos Foundation and supporting the development of the world’s most vulnerable citizens, children, shows how dedicated Rowling is to advocacy (even without Hogwart’s training.)

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: Lumos, The Borgen Project
Photo: Mirror

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Why We Must Fight for Disabled Children in Africa

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93 million children around the globe have a moderate or severe disability.  Many of these children live in developing nations that do not have the financial or social tools to make necessary accommodations for special needs children.  Even more disturbing is the discrimination against children with special needs, making children who need our support the most feel abandoned.

This is where Able Child Africa (ACA) steps in.  ACA was founded in the wake of the Ugandan Civil War in 1984 with a vision of helping children with disabilities realize a future of equality and inclusion in society.

The organization seeks to break down the social barriers that demean special needs people.  These barriers are broken down into three categories: physical and environmental barriers that prevent access to buildings, transportation and the like as well as institutional barriers such as governmental policy that fails to recognize the equality of disabled people and negative popular attitudes about disability.

ACA works locally with communities in order to help create a sustainable culture of change for special needs children.  For example, ACA is partnered with the Ugandan Society for Disabled Children.  Together, the two organizations oversee support groups for parents of special needs children and run training programs to teach elementary and secondary school teachers how to be more inclusive.  ACA also runs two centers in Kenya and Tanzania, respectively.

Although 63 percent of children in African countries are now completing a primary education, only two percent of children with disabilities complete this stage.  In 2006, the United Nations held the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which requires all member nations to be inclusive for disabled persons in all levels of education.  With such a gap between traditional and special needs students, much work must be done.  ACA is willing to take up the fight.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: UNICEF, Able Child Africa
Photo: The Guardian

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The Vow of Poverty and the Vow of Devotion

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In an age where the acquisition of wealth and all of its shiny, glossy and overpriced accompaniments dominates the American dream, groups of individuals around the world elect to relinquish their worldly possessions, embracing a life of material destitution. Individuals who take the formal vow of poverty typically belong to a religious order, specifically, the Catholic faith.

The vow of poverty is often accompanied by the vow of chastity and the vow of obedience. Together, these three vows comprise the evangelical counsels. When an individual takes the vow of poverty, he or she chooses to renounce personal worldly possessions and instead engage in communal sharing of resources.

However, there is variation in the vow of poverty. For instance, the vow may abide by the vow for an extended or a limited amount of time. The vow may also apply to different classes of property rather than property as a whole. Additionally, the vow may apply to goods available in the present or goods expected in the future. Oftentimes, the vow entails the loss of rights over one’s personal industry. For instance, in certain cases, the vow of poverty rebukes the acceptance of any personal material profit, such as profits from labor.

In the Catholic faith, men and women have attempted to devote their lives to God through partaking in the evangelical counsels. In doing so, these individuals follow in the path of Jesus, whose life was defined by detachment from earthly possessions and earthly pleasures. Symbolically, the evangelical counsels represent an individual’s determination to resist, what religious organizations often view as, the temptations and perils of modern society.

Although individuals who take the vow of poverty renounce their non-sacred material possessions, they elect to secure spiritual, reputational, and humanitarian wealth instead. Furthermore, these individuals profess that God is the source of all wealth and therefore materialism distracts people from focusing on God.

Furthermore, another perspective motivating people to take the vow of poverty is the sheer inequality in the world. Rather than simply acknowledging the existence of poverty, individuals who take the vow gain first-hand experience, an experience that may better equip them to aid the poor in the future.

– Phoebe Pradhan

Sources: Children of Priests, Holy Cross Vocations, New Advent
Photo: Breaking in the Habit

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What $10 Buys in World’s 10 Poorest Countries

Often, the assumption is that the world’s poorest countries must have a low cost of living; unfortunately, the average annual income (GNI) in poor countries is often too low to purchase many of the things Western Civilization considers basic necessities of life. With this discrepancy, it is possible to see how so many people are going without food and an education. Below is a list of what you can buy with $10 in the World’s 10 poorest countries.

Afghanistan (GNI = $426): $10 buys 35 pounds of Pakistani sugar, or 17 pounds of rice

Madagascar (GNI = $450): $10 buys five dozen eggs, five liters of domestic draft beer or two seats for an international film release at the cinema

Malawi (GNI = $900): $10 buys 22 pounds of rice

Niger (GNI = $3,716): $10 buys 20 cigarettes

Central African Republic (GNI = $800): $10 buys four and a half pounds of apples, or 11 pounds of potatoes

Eritrea (GNI – $403): $10 buys ten liters of gasoline

Liberia (GNI = $436): $10 buys 15 liters of mineral water

Burundi (GNI = $160): $10 buys five and a half pounds of rice, or one combo meal at a local fast food joint

Zimbabwe (GNI = $150): $10 buys a meal in an inexpensive restaurant, or five cappuccinos

Democratic Republic of the Congo (GNI = $120): $10 buys financial literacy training material for one woman

This list demonstrates how important it is to provide the means rather than the product; shipping water across the ocean rings up an endless bill, but digging a well could save hundreds and is a one-time labor. A small loan is all it takes to provide a woman with the knowledge to later provide for herself and her children.

The cost of food skyrockets when there is a shortage and evaporates when there is abundance, so rather than a single meal, they often need support for their agricultural systems to provide a cushion for farmers. Our money would be well served providing farmers with the knowledge and equipment to maintain a reliable price on their product. This would not only allow farmers to feed and care for their families, but keep food available and affordable for the masses.

– Lydia Caswell

Sources: Asia Times, FINCA, Global Giving, International Women’s Rights Action Watch, Maps of World, The Richest, The Washington Post, The World Bank, World Vision
Photo: Vando Nascimento