Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Drug-Resistant TB in South Africa

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Several are in shock about the tuberculosis situation in South Africa and no solution has been given. Patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis are being sent home despite the high likelihood that they will transmit it to their family members. These findings have been released after a study was published in the medical journal, The Lancet.

According to the report, 107 patients were monitored while they were treated for tuberculosis. Out of these people, 78 died in spite of being treated with six drugs to 10 drugs. These South African patients who were diagnosed as untreatable but infectious were discharged due to insufficient beds in hospitals. Several doctors are advocating for funding so that patients can be treated away from the community. Tuberculosis is highly infectious and can just as easily spread like the flu, ultimately infecting the lungs and potentially causing death.

South Africa does not have advanced treatments for tuberculosis and according to the World Health Organization, 450,000 people have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe, Asia and South Africa. Research professors are in support of reintroducing old sanatoriums so that these patients will have comfort and long-term care while they struggle with the untreatable disease. According to The Lancet, 42 percent of patients being sent home have drug-resistant tuberculosis. In several cases they were being sent back to their one bedroom homes shared with children and other family members.

Keertan Dheda, a professor of medicine in Cape Town reports that new drugs are urgently needed. Most tuberculosis patients may live for more than a year and are risking the lives of others they come in contact with during that time. Those with virtually untreatable tuberculosis, XDR-TB, pose extreme danger to communities. In one case, one patient passed on the infection to his brother and both died.

Such cases have led to global strategies in the past with development of new forms of tuberculosis control. Due to the current lack of funding, the situation does not look promising. There is a large need for investments in drug development and diagnostics for global tuberculosis research.

-Maybelline Martez

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters
Photo: MSF

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Mass Killings in Bangui

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In recent days the year-long struggle in the Central African Republic has been brought to the attention of the United Nations. On December 5, the UN Security Council voted unanimously for French and African forces to “take all necessary measures” in dealing with the conflict. On December 10, a UN spokesperson announced that “more than half a million” people had been “displaced within CAR since the crisis began in December 2012.”

Rebels in the Central African Republic began making assaults against the government in December 2012 before overthrowing former President Francois Bozize in March. Though there was hope that the new leader who was put in place could quell some of the violence in the area, in recent months the violence has escalated into near civil-war conditions.

As it happens, the violence in this region is felt most acutely by those living in the capital city, Bangui. It has been estimated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that over 100,000 people living in Bangui have been displaced in the last year. These refugees have been living in dirty camps that leave the people residing in them vulnerable to infections and disease.

On November 25, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson explained that an estimated 1 out of every 3 people from the population of 4.6 million are in need of food, protection, health care, water sanitation and shelter. The UN had previously put forward a $195 million appeal to help in the nation, but it has not even been half-funded as of that date.

Moreover, some of the worst violence in the region has occurred near the northern border with Chad, prompting worries that fighting will spill over into that country. The recent bouts between Christian and Muslims have also raised concerns, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius saying that the country “was on the verge of genocide.”

Mass killings in Bangui have, furthermore, sparked these concerns with the various reports coming out this month.  According to a United Nations report, 450 people were massacred within city in 3 days, while others fled for the refugee camps. Given the hatred that has been fostered in the country, it may be some time before the situation could be settled.

France hopes that it can have a positive impact on this nation it once colonized. French and African Union troops have entered the Central African Republic since the UN Security Council voted to take action within the nation. The troops are working to disarm the various militia groups, with the hope that a stable government could be established.

Though Africa, as a continent, looks to be on the upswing, there are still terrible conflicts happening in the Central African Republic. These conflicts need to be noticed, and with the work that the UN is doing, more people are learning about the situation. With luck, a new year could bring new hope for this beleaguered nation.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: United Nations, New York Times, PBS
Photo: AFP

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Nonprofit Careers

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For many people the nonprofit sector, also known as the “third sector,” can offer an exciting and rewarding career. With the exception of where the funding comes from, nonprofit organizations often are run very similarly to for-profit organizations. They also have to adhere to the same policies and may even hire similarly qualified people. This article will provide an overview of the types of jobs available in the nonprofit sector as well as some of the things to consider when looking for a non-profit job.

Development

The development department is one of the largest and highest paying job categories in the nonprofit sector. Development professionals work on gathering the resources that fund the programs and initiatives run by the organization. These jobs are needed in order for the organization to stay alive thus affording the position to pay well and stay in the position of not likely to be cut. Jobs in development also tend to be less competitive than jobs in other departments. Such jobs here can include:

– Director of Development
– Fundraiser
– Proposal Writer
– Communication Professional

Program

Being part of the program department is exciting and rewarding, especially since those who work in this department get to put their organization’s mission into action. These are the people who will be developing and implementing disaster relief plans in developing countries, or providing services to people with mental health challenges. Unfortunately program careers are very competitive and have a high burn out. These jobs include:

– Program Manager
– Program Assistant
– Policy Analyst
– Technical Advisor

Administrative

Just like private sector companies, nonprofit sectors also need an administrative team to help organizations keep on their feet and run smoothly. These jobs are also good stepping-stones into programs careers or management level jobs.

– Human Resources
– Office Manager
– Receptionist

Important Things to Consider About Careers in the Nonprofit Sector

1. You’ll have to wear many hats – Nonprofits don’t always have the funds to hire a large staff, this means you may have to be the graphic designer, the social media coordinator and the grant writer.

2. You need to be passionate about the cause – Employers aren’t just looking for talented qualified workers, they are also looking for people who are passionate about the cause and will work hard to achieve the organization’s goals.

3. You’ll probably make less money – Nonprofits have less resources, this means your office may be less plush and your salary smaller.

4. Volunteer first – It’s important to volunteer or intern at a nonprofit to see if you like the culture and are actually passionate about the job. This also proves your commitment to an employer and can open up job opportunities.

5. Nonprofits are run like any other business – Managing finances and being cost effective are just as important to nonprofits as they are to businesses.

– Elizabeth Brown

Sources: Miami University, US News, Forbes
Gif: Borgen Project

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Poverty is Reality for Struggling Spain

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The Great Recession brought economic progress to a virtual standstill in the Western World: property values plummeted, the stock market took a hit to the gut and unemployment rates spiked. In the United States, investors and employees are slowly getting back on their feet, but are still anxious due to the ping-pongish activity of the Dow Jones and mediocre new job numbers from the Department of Labor.

While Americans struggle to digest their nation’s 6.7 percent unemployment rate, some Europeans are choking on jobless numbers affecting upwards of 20 percent of the workforce, even over five years after the economy first took a nosedive.

The European Union’s austerity measures have yet to restore stability to pre-bailout levels and a recent Oxfam report revealed “only the richest 10 percent of Europeans…have seen their wealth rise” as a result of the well-intentioned policies. Macroeconomists measure the ongoing crisis in terms of government debt, budget deficits and income inequality, but the individuals and families affected in floundering nations like Spain feel the sting of poverty in an acute and personal way.

Spain, a pillar of culture and history on the European continent, hosts millions of tourists each year who yearn for a taste of Hispanic culture and a hint of the nation’s unique flavor. Few westerners would suppose that a historic power player overflowing with natural beauty is home to a poverty rate on par with former socialist nations Romania and Bulgaria.

Spain’s saga followed the same basic trajectory as that of the United States. In 2008, following a property boom, regional governments that had raked up pricey expenses found themselves with empty pockets and out-of-control debts. A shaky central government with debt of its own was unable to provide enough federal assistance to localities and the nation found itself in an economic tailspin.

E.U. interventions such as the aforementioned austerity measures have thus far been ineffective in creating jobs and a critical portion of the Spanish workforce has emigrated in search of opportunities suited for their skill set. Those remaining must clamor for dwindling, low-paying positions.

Many former middle class Spanish families have found themselves unexpectedly living under the poverty line.

A whopping 15 percent of Spaniards subsist on less than half of the national median income and nearly 10 percent have unfortunately arrived at “great poverty” status, indicating a household income below 40 percent of the national average. For Spaniards, these rates translate into monthly earnings of below 555 euros and 444 euros, respectively, for the two groups.

Women and young people are disproportionately affected by poverty in Spain. According to Eurostat, a full 1.2 percentage points (to the detriment of females) separate the number of impoverished men and women. Similarly, six percent more young people fewer than 25 years of age suffer in poverty than Spanish citizens in their late twenties and beyond.

Rising power bills, a frozen minimum wage and more expensive public transportation will add to the burden for a generation of Spaniards who, on an aggregate level, greet 2014 “a little poorer.”

Frustrated citizens, the backbone of 2011’s “los indignados” movement (a precursor to Occupy Wall Street,) will continue to push back against policy decisions negatively impacting an increasingly impoverished working class. Poverty will be synonymous with reality for over 20 percent of Spaniards until Spain’s anemic economy is jump-started back to life.

– Casey Ernstes

Sources: Eurostat, Forbes, Global Research Centre for Research on Globalization, Inequality Watch, Oxfam International, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post WorldPost
Photo: Food Not Bombs

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The Role of Music in Economic Development in Africa

Music exists everywhere in daily activities. People listen to music when driving, studying, or relaxing as well as in commercial. Music has the ability to move people in many mysterious ways. The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of music in economic development.

Music is one of the biggest industries in the world. According to International Federation of the Phonography Industry, the music industry sales was $5.8 billion, and performance rights revenue is growing the fastest to $943 million( up from $862 million in 2011). In the emerging world, people are exploring different kinds of music to fit their taste.

In addition, with the increasing use of the internet, it is easier to spread and create a new movement in music. Africa music can get bigger and gain more popularity around the world. Apart from record sales for African music, music can draw other kind of revenue such as concerts, tourist, and sales of band merchandise. The growth in these sectors will create more jobs in the local job market and in Africa as a whole.

Besides, the monetary effect of music on the economy, music can also have an effect on people’s mindset.

Music is the way for people to express and share themselves with others. When people are able to share their opinion with others, African musicians can encourage people to try harder and overcome daily life challenges and reach for higher goals.

Music can also draw attention to African countries and show citizens in developed countries that African is a growing continent not just a sad story for the world.

Nowadays, in Africa, many people are creating labs so that locals can produce music to spread the music effect to others. With low marketing cost, music can produce a steady stream of revenue for the economy and represent Africa in the eyes of people globally.

– Phong Pham

Sources: SXSW, Billboard, EthPress
Photo: USAID

Empowering Girls: Film in Liberia

Empowering Girls: Film in Liberia
A group of 20 girls from low-income areas of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, gather to listen to Divine Anderson. “We are going to help you make a short film about an accountability issue in your community,” she tells them.

“We don’t need to be politicians to push for the kind of country we want; our films can create change,” Anderson assures her audience.

She works for the Accountability Film School set up last year by the Accountability Lab and the girls she’s speaking to are 2014’s first class of pupils. The under-served girls will receive four weeks of instruction on low-budget film making and accountability issues. The girls will also complete self-directed film projects addressing problems of their own choosing.

Accountability Lab terms itself “an independent, non-profit organization that acts as a catalyst to make power-holders responsible in the developing world.” The organization achieves this through a three-prong approach, acting as: a sounding board on issues related to accountability and corruption, an “independent interface” engaging citizens all around the world, and an “operational hub” by supporting innovative accountability tools and communities.

And in the formerly war-torn Liberia, the lab saw much work to be done. Despite having the first female president in Africa, Liberia remains a male-dominated society in which power and resources are often skewed toward men. Its population is largely desperately poor, especially its female population, with soaring rates of illiteracy.

Sexual exploitation is also a huge issue, an issue tackled by Dorcas Pewee in her film “Say It.”

Pewee was one of the first graduates of the Accountability Film School back in the fall. Having lost her family in Liberia’s civil war, she had turned to hustling on the streets of Monrovia to survive. That is, until Anderson found her and brought her to the film school.

In September 2013, Anderson’s film, addressing the pressing issue of sexual exploitation in schools, won viewer’s choice at the first Liberian Film Festival. Pewee followed up her first film with another one on the unfulfilled promises made by Liberian politicians. And she’s found a job- helping Divine lead the current film school class.

On her experiences with the film school, Pewee is empowered. “I saw the light,” she reports.

Other students have addressed issues ranging from the lack of clean drinking water and electricity in cities to the absence of job opportunities for Liberian youth to injustices committed during the civil war.

The films are screened to activists, government employees, university representatives, and civil society members at festivals and are also distributed to local “video clubs” throughout Liberia. They function to create a dialogue about various issues within communities and to work as advocacy tools.

More than 50 students have now graduated from the film school and Anderson aims to train an additional 150 in 2014.

The sustainability of the program and its good work is evidenced by the existence of the Liberia Film Institute recently formed by graduates of the film school. Through the institute, they hope to further hone their skills and earn money through film making grants and contracts with Liberian companies and NGOs.

– Kelley Calkins

Sources: ONE, Accountability Lab Blog, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Photo: The World Bank

Fundraising Ideas for School

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of former United States President Lyndon B. Johnson’s State of the Union address where he boldly declared a war on poverty.

His New Deal created many welfare programs and provided millions of Americans with a social safety net.  If the U.S. wants to keep this tradition of helping the nation’s less fortunate population, it must continue to instill humanitarian values in our young generations.

Schools can help foster this sense of care and compassion by teaching lessons and engaging students in a variety of techniques that connect them to their communities and the world around them.  Many schools organize various activities that help raise funds that can be donated to worthy causes that combat poverty around the world.

Here are four fundraising ideas of activities one implement in their school so students, teachers, family and friends can join in the battle against poverty:

1. Walk-a-thon The idea here is simple: Organize an event at the school track.  Participants will run or walk a predetermined distance, for example, five kilometers, and sign up sponsors that are willing to pledge money for an agreed upon distance traveled.  The non-competitive nature of this event attracts people from all backgrounds and is a great way to meet community members and raise money for a worthy cause.

2. Penny Wars This contest works great in a high school setting.  For each school class (freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior), set up a container near the school’s cafeteria or other common areas.  Over a predetermined period, say, two weeks, students will dump pennies and other coins into the jars.  The idea is to see which student class can dump the most coins in the jars.  The winning class can receive a day off, can participate in a “fun day” such as wearing pajamas to school or receive a prize or certificate.

3. Car Wash The car wash has become one of the easiest and fun ways to raise money for a worthy cause.  Students can designate certain weekends during the school year or summer to wash their fellow community member’s cars.  In this do-it-yourself car wash, the school can provide soap, water, and towels for students.  Promote the car wash by posting signs throughout the town and have groups of students standing on corners attracting customers.

4. Raffle Attracting various business’s throughout the town to donate prizes for the raffle in exchange for advertising, students can hold a prize raffle by selling tickets to students during lunch breaks.  Proceeds can be donated to a worthy cause of the school’s choice.

– Sunny Bhatt

Sources: Scholastic, Brain Child
Photo: Eventish

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Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here

“I can’t do this all on my own” are the familiar musical lyrics that introduced each episode of “Scrubs” during it’s nine season run.  Though “Scrubs“ turned actor Zach Braff into a television and indie star, his new film project certainly shows how Braff cannot achieve his artistic goals “on [his] own.”

“Wish I Was Here” is a film written, directed and starring Zach Braff, picking up on the themes he first explored in his well-received debut film “Garden State” back in 2004.  The film follows a thirty-something actor, played by Braff, searching for a purpose in life and struggling to make ends meet for his two young children.

Other actors featured in the film include Kate Hudson, Anna Kendrick, Jim Parsons and “Scrubs” co-star Donald Faison. The film premiered to a standing ovation at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

What makes “Wish I Was Here” unique, however, is the fact that fans independently financed the film.  Braff, moreover, launched a Kickstarter campaign with a stated goal of $2 million since, according to the film’s Kickstarter page, Braff rejected traditional funding methods to avoid “signing away all artistic control.”

Braff also saw an opportunity for his fans to have a direct impact on the filmmaking process.

Incentives for donating to the film range from a production diary at $10 and a meet and greet with Braff for $600 to being cast in the film as a featured extra for $7,500.  These incentives, matched with the originality of the fundraiser, led to a final total of $3,105,473 donated by 46,520 individuals.

Though a $10 donation to Zach Braff’s film garners a production diary, 80% of the world’s population live off of less than $10 a day, with 660 million living on less than $2 a day.

What could you buy for the fight against global poverty with a $10 donation?

With $3, you could buy a bed net to protect one of the 18,000 children who die daily from mosquitos carrying deadly diseases while for $8.50, you could feed an entire family in a developing nation.  Though Braff’s film is no doubt an artistic achievement, it is easy to wonder what kind of impact his 46,520 backers could have made for global development.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: Kickstarter, UNICEF, Global Issues
Photo: Bustle

The Selfless Selfie

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Social networking sites have created platforms for individuals to engineer an online version of themselves, editing bits and pieces of their lives to portray to their friends or even to the world.  Users are armed with an array of tools that give them an unending soundboard to voice everything under the sun relating to their lives, thoughts or opinions.

Along with this focus on ones self comes the infamous #selfie.

The Oxford Dictionary recently even deemed “selfie” as the word of the year, defining it as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”  The dictionary’s word monitor indicated a 17,000% increase in the usage of the word “selfie” since last year.

Selfies have been used by a whole gamut of people, from everyday individuals to celebrities and politicians alike.  Even United States President Barack Obama was caught posing for a selfie during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, an image which the photographer says “seemed to get more attention than the event itself.”

While much focus on “selfies” seems a bit “selfish,” a couple of college students from Brigham Young University took the initiative to turn this popular craze into a force for good.  Chas Barton and Dustin Locke developed the “Selfie Police” Initiative last year as part of a 24-hour creativity competition.

When discussing how they came up with the concept, Barton said, “It’s tricky because we’re such a selfish generation, so the question we asked was not how do we make our generation charitable, but how do we turn selfishness into charity.”

The way the initiative works is by “selfie violators” voluntarily turning themselves in and donating a dollar for each photo, or by friends of violators tagging the selfies on Instagram or Facebook with Selfiepolice.org or #selfiepolice and urging their friends to pay up.  Since their launch a few weeks ago, the Selfie Police have raised $1,609.

According to their website, “one-hundred percent of funds raised by the #selfiepolice will be contributed to Vittana, an innovative organization dedicated to fighting world poverty by providing student loans to college aged kids in third world countries.”

In light of the self-absorbed tendencies cultivated by social networking, the founders hope that they can “create a culture of people who think of others, even when obsessing over themselves.”

– Rifk Ebeid

Sources: The Selfie Police, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, TIME

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Martin Luther King Quotes on Poverty

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will forever hold a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The immediate need for freedom from racism, discrimination and flat out brutality toward African Americans will forever be King’s message. However, Dr. King also used his platform to shed light on global poverty.

He expressed the need for poverty to be abolished and the need for nations to come together to combat this growing problem. Here are excerpts of Dr. King’s written documents concerning the dire need to end poverty.

Excerpts from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964:
“A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it’s nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist.”

“So it is obvious that if a man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag,’ he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”

“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”

“The time has come for an all- out world war against poverty.”

“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'”

Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Let My People Go” speech. Human Rights Day December 10, 1965:
“Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians.

We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention-the large majority of the human race is non-white-yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world.”

An excerpt from “Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community” written in 1967:
Sadly this is Dr. King’s last book before he was tragically assassinated.

“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective – the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the guaranteed income.”

“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”

Nearly fifty years after these words were breathed, they still reign true; especially since poverty continues to be a problem for millions of people in 2013. Let us not allow Dr. King‘s words to remain in the past. We must give them life again and continue to make this world a better place, as Dr. Martin Luther King did nearly fifty years ago.

– Amy Robinson

Sources: Nobleprize, RFKSA Film, Progress,
Photo: BAR Photography