Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Poverty in South America

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Poverty in South America is considered living on $4 per day.

The northern tip of the continent (the countries closest to Panama) are the countries with the largest headcount of impoverished people in South America; they range from 20 percent to 40 percent of the population. Guyana and Suriname range between 46 percent and 53 percent of the continent’s population living on $4 per day; some live on less than that amount.

The southern half of South America has a much lower percentile of the population living below the poverty line, excluding Bolivia, which is at a steep 48 percent. Chile and Uruguay are at 11 percent and Argentina is at 7 percent.

Poverty in South America has declined within the last two decades. In 1990, 12.2 percent of the population was living on $1.25 per day; that number has dropped to 5.5 percent despite the population’s rising from 422.3 million in 1990 to approximately 581.4 million.

The main target of poverty in South America is the rural population and this is due to the increasingly warm temperatures and global warming’s affect on agricultural areas. 20 million people living in Brazil live in the barren parts of the country. The poorest people in South America are the native people of Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru who live in the mountainous Andes regions.

Many people have moved to large cities in search of employment, but 35 percent of the region’s poorest still live in the rough climate of the Andes Mountains.

Rural poverty is caused not only by the drastic changes brought on by global warming, but also because of the “lack of access to and unequal distribution of productive land, and inadequate access to information and productive assets for smallholder farmers.” Geographically, many living in rural areas have very little access to other people, which can make selling food and obtaining agricultural necessities difficult.

During recent years, governments have adopted policies that have led to a decline in interest and investments for rural farmers, which has been a factor in the increase of rural poverty in South America and the decrease of housing, health providers and education available to smallholder farmers.

– Rebecca Felcon

Sources: Rural Poverty Portal, World Bank
Photo: Merco Press

Poverty in Honduras Taking an Extreme Toll

Poverty in Honduras
Poverty in Honduras remains an issue. Honduras is the second-poorest country in Central America. With a population of approximately eight million people, poverty in Honduras affects roughly 60 percent of these individuals.

Out of 187 countries, Honduras ranked 121 on the United Nations Development Programs 2011 Human Development Index. This index is a “comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living for countries worldwide.”

Majority of the poverty in Honduras is reserved for the more rural areas. With 36 percent of the population living under conditions of extreme poverty overall, 50 percent of rural individuals live under these terms.

Over 64 percent of Hondurans live below the poverty level of $2 per day, according to Proyecto Mirador, a website that highlights the poverty in Honduras and what can be done about it.

Under- and unemployment rates in Honduras reside at 36 percent. The majority of families lack access to clean water and access to medical care or electricity is slim to none.

 

Rural Poverty in Honduras

 

Around 75 percent of the rural population lives in the central hillside areas in the interior highlands; this is also where majority of poverty in Honduras is the most prevalent.

An extremely evident force behind the country’s high level of emigration is the lack of employment opportunities in rural Honduras. With 28 percent of the country being agricultural land, 39 percent of the population is employed by the agricultural sector. However, the terrain in Honduras is extremely susceptible to erosion, causing much of the land to have come eroded over time. As a result of this, productivity has decreased immensely.

Natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, also plague Honduras. In 1998, Honduras was the victim of Hurricane Mitch, which destroyed much of the economic and social infrastructure in the country. This set back the economic advancement of Honduras for quite some time.

Subsistence farmers make up 70 percent of farming families. With extremely restricted access to land, these farmers depend on finding off-farm employment or remittances from other family members to support themselves.

Small-scale farmers “have access to more land and generally produce basic food crops, but many are forces to seek off-farm work in order to survive.”

Honduras stands as the country with the most unequal distribution of income in the region, according to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. The majority of the wealth in Honduras is controlled by few families and national assets are treated as personal patrimony.

Aside from the extreme poverty that hinders Honduras’s growth, a surge in violence in recent years has resulted in the killings of politicians, human rights advocates, labor activists, journalists, and others. The road to improvement for Honduras is a long and enduring one, but the most important step will begin with socioeconomic equality.

– Samaria Garrett

Sources: Rural Poverty, Proyecto Mirador, LA Times
Photo: Pulitzer

Shoes for the Homeless: Putting Their Best Foot Forward

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According to a report from the National Center on Family Homelessness, in 2010 there were more than 1.6 million homeless children across the span of the U.S.

Lacking any sort of permanent residency, these children often stay on the streets, in shelters, motels, cars and abandoned buildings.

At the age of five, a young boy by the name of Nicholas Lowinger visited a homeless shelter with his mother. His excitement to show his new light-up sneakers to the other children was apparent, but his mother advised him not to do so.

After interacting with the children at the shelter, Nicholas soon realized that they were living under conditions quite different from his own. Lowinger recalls seeing children whose shoes were tattered, worn, and falling apart. Or there were the extremely unfortunate individuals who had no shoes at all.

Now the age of 15, Nicholas says, “I have been very fortunate to grow up in a family that is able to provide me with whatever I need. A lot of kids here in the U.S don’t have the same opportunities.”

Following this visit Nicholas began to donate his older shoes to local shelters. Although he made an effort, he soon realized that his donations were not as helpful as he had hoped.

Due to the lasting impression that his first visit to a homeless shelter left and his desire to make a difference, at the age of 12, Nicholas began a program that donates new shoes to children who are homeless.

“Homeless children shouldn’t have to worry about how they’ll be accepted or how they’ll fit in,” Nicholas said. “They shouldn’t have to worry about not being able to play sports or go to school because they don’t have a pair of shoes.”

Initially, the program began as a part of a community service project, building up to his bar mitzvah. Noticing the difference that was being made, though, Nicholas wanted to ensure that the program would go on even after his bar mitzvah ceremony ended.

With the assistance of his parents, Nicholas began the Gotta Have Sole Foundation. Since it’s start-up, this organization has provided more than 10,000 children with new footwear, in over 21 states.

“New shoes can make a child feel good about him or herself. They gain confidence; they’re able to do better in school,” Nicholas said.

In the Lowinger family garage, one would find an abundance of new shoes that have been donated by footwear companies, stores, and individuals. Any size or style that they do not already have is acquired through the organizations monetary donations.

Over 1,000 volunteers help with this organization, and Nicholas himself works 15 hours a week on it. Nicholas thoroughly encourages young individuals to not allow their age to get in the way of achieving their dreams.

– Samaria Garrett

Sources: CNN, Gotta Have Sole
Photo: 100k Homes

Challenges to Development in India

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Development in India faces many challenges despite being one of the fastest growing economies in the world.  In fact, two-thirds of students in the government public schools in India cannot even read a simple story. To put it into a better perspective, the poverty levels across India can range from anywhere worse than Malawi to better than Mexico, so there is still a large range of development that can happen through foreign aid.

India has spent a large amount of its funds in an attempt to lower infant mortality rates, but has spent more and achieved less than Bangladesh. In 1980, India had much more infrastructure than China and now it has completely reversed, with China leading radically.

It is vital that the fastest growing economy in the world does not leave behind its youth. The majority of young people’s lives in India are hindered from progress by preventable health issues like malnutrition, lack of education about HIV and how to prevent it and restricted access to health care and reproductive/sexual health services. Also, the youth of India struggles with gaining a more influential role in the decision-making process. There are many issues with gender disparity in employment and education; in addition, there is a lack of career guidance for youth.

Development in India faces two main challenges today, the first being it needs to find a way of sustaining rapid growth while spreading its benefits more widely among the entire population. The best way to maintain the rapid growth that has been occurring in India for years is to invest in the infrastructure in order to create more jobs for the lower-class, which is comprised largely of less-educated, semi-skilled workers.

In doing this, policies need to be put into place to empower the poor to be a part of the market, to restore labor regulations, and to improve both infrastructure and agronomic technology.

The other main challenge facing India today is it needs to refine its core public services. It is crucial that the people of India empower their well-being so they can reform and create more operational systems of public sector accountability. By doing so, they can improve their education, power supply, water supply and overall health care. This can be done by producing reliable information for the general public, creating public-private partnerships or decentralizing to local governments.

A great way to kick-start this development in India is to get the news out there and get support. The former first lady of France, Valerie Trierweiler, visited the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, India on January 27.  She was there working with the Nutrition Rehabilitation and Research Center and the Action Against Hunger (ACF) to advocate for human rights and combat undernourishment in children.  She plans to commit herself to humanitarian work.

– Kenneth W. Kliesner

Sources: Restless Development, The World Bank
Photo: The Wall Street Journal

The Life of Albinos

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United Kingdom native, Harry Freeland was inspired to spread awareness of  albinism through a film documentary after his first encounter with the condition in Senegal. “A woman approached me in the street, held out her [albino] child and said ‘here, take it back, where it comes from.’ [B]ecause I’m white, she thought the child belonged to me in some way–her husband had left her for having a white child and accused her of sleeping with a white man,” said Freeland.

Albinism, a total lack of pigmentation in hair, skin and eyes, can affect people of every race, but is particularly prevalent in Tanzania and throughout East Africa, where it’s estimated that one in every 2,000 people are affected with it. The condition is passed to a child when both parents carry the gene, regardless of whether the parents have albinism themselves.

The real danger for those with albinism isn’t their heightened vulnerability to the sun, but the stigma that still exists concerning the potentially magical qualities of their body parts in potions and rituals performed by witch doctors. The miseducation and superstition surrounding individuals with Albinism has created a horrific market for their body parts in Eastern Africa. Many regions still believe that spells done with an albino’s hand, foot, breast or genitals will result in great wealth or miraculous healing.

Men with HIV/AIDS have been known to rape albino girls in the hope of curing their disease, and children with albinism are regularly kept home from school for fear that they will be attacked during their walk. Mothers are regularly blamed of sleeping with white men or devils to have produced a white baby, and many women prefer to kill or abandon their albino children rather than face the hardship of living with them.

Freeland’s film, “In the Shadow of the Sun”, follows Josephat Torner, a man with albinism, who has spent his life trying to break through the social stigmas surrounding his condition. Despite faces immense social injustice, Torner received his education, started a family, and climbed Africa’s tallest mountain, Kilimanjaro.

Torner and Freeland believe in fighting the mythologies of albinism by demonstrating to people the truth of the condition. The education and integration of albino children into society as working citizens, as well as the punishing of those who hunt them, is the only way to eradicate this dehumanizing practice.

– Lydia Caswell

Sources: Vice, CNN, UN News Center
Photo: National Geographic

4 Years After Earthquake, Haiti Tries to Rebuild

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In January of 2010 Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed over 100,000 people. There was an immediate outpouring of relief for the beleaguered island nation, with supplies and relief workers pouring in to help rebuild. Four years later there is still a lot of work to be done in the nation and the aid relief that came in 2010 is not available now. 

Immediately following the earthquake there were 1.5 million Haitians living in tent cities, and while that number is currently down to 146,000 people the country is hurting to relieve those displaced citizens. There is a sense that the United States and United Nations have failed the Haitian people considering the massive problems that still exist in the country and Haitians face on a daily basis.

Obviously one of the biggest issues facing post-earthquake Haiti was the shortage of safe housing with the million Haitians displaced. According to a Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) study, only 7,515 houses had been built in Haiti out of a planned 15,000. This points to a lack of money gone directly through the Haitian government and being used as efficiently as it could be.

The lack of safe housing has kept many in the refugee camps that were set up for temporary use after the earthquake, but the pressure put on those administering the camps has caused the Haitian government to make some drastic decisions. In December of 2013 at least 54,000 people had been removed from camps in Canaan, a suburb of the capital of Port-Au-Prince, according to a CEPR report. That was the largest example of a series of forced evictions from these camps in 2013. The UN Refugee Agency has not extended Internally Displaced Person (IDP) protections to those in Haiti’s camps, leaving them at the whim of the government.

Part of the problem with the still-standing IDP camps is the risk for spreading disease compacted by unsanitary conditions. Cholera outbreaks have been pandemic over the last few years with thousands falling victim to the disease though it had never been reported in the nation prior to the earthquake. Over 8,000 people have died of cholera in Haiti during that that time, with 65,000 cases being reported in 2013 alone.

Since cholera had never been an issue in Haiti prior to the earthquake, there was no infrastructure to deal with the disease. While agencies and aid groups from other nations have been brought in to deal with these problems as they arise, some Haitians feel that they have just made the cholera crisis worse. In October the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) filed a lawsuit against the United Nations claiming their practices inadvertently caused and exacerbated the epidemic. Over 5,000 Haitians were listed as plaintiffs in the suit.

There is still much work to be done in Haiti, a nation that was in dire straits even before the 2010 earthquake. There are clearly still many Haitians suffering in the aftermath of the quake, and it does not help that outside assistance has been at times hard to come by and misdirected. The situation in Haiti points to the importance of outside assistance and the need to sustain efforts well after an event like the earthquake happens. It goes to show that the events of today have far-reaching consequences and must be kept on aid agendas well after public shock has subsided.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: YouTube, Amnesty International, CEPR, Washington Post
Photo: The Washington Post

Roma Gypsies are being Persecuted

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The Roma people—also vernacularly referred to as “gypsies”—have become a widely discussed topic in the European Union over the past few years. Despite being Europe’s largest, stateless ethnic minority (more than 10 million people), they are still mired in poverty and bereft of opportunity and political representation all across the continent.

With Romania and Bulgaria, two member states containing a considerably large Roma population, becoming party of the Schengen Area this year, some Western European politicians are deploying xenophobic rhetoric to their own advantages. Much of this xenophobia is targeting Romanian Roma immigrants.

Comprising somewhere between 5-10% of Romania’s total population, an estimated 80% of Romanian Roma population lives in poverty. With the rise of the far-right across Europe, the community has fallen target to racial discrimination and violent abuses; an extremist organization in Romania even suggested that Roma women should be sterilized.

The socio-economic tribulations that grip the Romanian Roma community stem from centuries of segregation and prejudice. Furthermore, the widespread prejudice to view them as unwilling to work and as free riders also contribute to the tension between the majority society and the Roma community.

In many parts of Europe—Western and Eastern alike—Roma people live in segregated communities with inadequate access to water and electricity. They are also at constant risk of forced eviction and hostility from surrounding majority population. The latter of which often manifests itself violently. In many cases, they are relocated to suburban landfills with no access to running water or electricity. With sometimes more than 13 people living in a single room, their hygienic wellbeing is greatly at risk. To make matters worse, being placed in remote locations also deprive the children of the opportunity to attend school since often times they are outside of school bus routes.

In 2012, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights conducted a survey whose findings were truly shocking for a continent that boasts some of the highest human development indexes in the world. In Romania alone, nearly a quarter of Roma children aged 7 to 15 do not attend school and nearly a third of respondents aged 20 to 64 are unemployed, in contrast to the average of 11% among the country’s non-roma population.

Since Romania has at last joined the Schengen Area and its people have finally received full rights as citizens of the EU, many politicians in more prosperous member states such as the UK have found the anti-immigrant discourse to be a convenient tool in winning over public opinion. Unfortunately, unless the EU soon finds measures to solve the millennium-old prejudice towards the community, the Roma will inevitably be exploited as the political bête noire within the politics of inter-Schengen migration.

– Peewara Sapsuwan

Sources: Amnesty International, Express, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Romania-Insider, SPIEGEL Online International
Photo: March Inbetween

Global Poverty 3 Must-Reads

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Some stories are just too big to tackle in the newspaper – and global poverty is one of them. The past few years have seen an incredible amount of literature from authors who are experienced in the deeply embedded issue of poverty and are now putting their storytelling skills towards the fight against it. These three recently published texts provide a knowledgeable glimpse into the problems of the world today, and are perfect for a reader with a humanitarian mind.

1. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

A love story is not the traditional plot line for a novel delving into issues of corruption, violence, poverty and racism. Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz, however, expertly intertwines these in his account of failed and messy romance, set against the backdrop of an immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey. The novel follows the narrator, Yunior, across various stages of his adult life, as he struggles to navigate the difficulties of human relationships, further complicated by his racial, economic, and gender identity.

Through Yunior, Diaz challenges what it means to be a young Latino man from the Dominican Republic now living in the United States. This means breaking down a range of stereotyped assumptions, as well as internalized insecurities. Additionally, Diaz sheds light on the depth of poverty in both of the narrator’s home countries, the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. Global poverty is a powerfully destructive force, which alters the characters’ lives in unexpected ways.  Still, though, it cannot destroy Yunior’s strong emotional attachment to his Dominican heritage.

2. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

Images of Haiti, the western hemispheres poorest nation, have flooded the media in recent years, showing a nation struggling with natural disaster, political turmoil, and horrible living conditions. In her new novel, Danticat presents an alternate and more insightful image of family, love and community.

Danticat’s characters are certainly not immune to the structural problems of poverty and corruption. The novel focuses on the heart-wrenching decision of one fisherman to give up his daughter, Claire, so as to provide her with a better life. However, it also portrays individuals eager to fight back against the outside injustices that have augmented their situation, through political activism. Overall, Danticat presents a beautiful story illuminating the humanity and agency of the Haitian community.

3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Poverty is often hidden in plain sight, as this non-fiction Pulitzer Prize nominee seeks to describe. Boo, a former journalist, gives a touching and tragic account of her time in Mumbai, where the poorest of the community live in direct contact with the most affluent, although their neighborhoods remain socially isolated.

The story is one of upward mobility, highlighting the unique hardships of a family from the Mumbai slums of Annawadi hindering their success. Boo describes individuals who have aspirations shared by many universally, such as finding a better job, wanting security for their loved ones and renovating the kitchen.  However, the starkly divided social dynamic accompanying poverty in India is distinctively interpreted.

– Stefanie Doucette

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian, NPR
Photo: Extraordinary Experiences

Geneva II Peace Talks and Hom Relief at Standstill

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With humanitarian conditions dire in Syria, the Geneva II peace talks between the National Coalition and the opposing Syrian government largely lack progress.

Led by Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian regime has been in violent conflict with the National Coalition since 2011. Claiming over 130,000 lives with nine million more displaced, the peace talks nestled in Switzerland’s town of Montreux are far from arriving at a solution.

The situation on the ground in Syria is sorely lacking in electricity, heat and most importantly of all, food and water.

A recent shipment of food relief arrived in the Yarmuk camp of Palestine, independent of the on going peace talks in Switzerland, yet blockades and the fear of “terrorists” in certain areas leave the greater population of Hom without the relief packages.

In fact, the continued presence of violence and the inadmissibility of evacuation resulted in over 1,870 people killed since the beginning of conflict mediation on Jan. 22. Of those, 498 were civilians.

The continued supply of armaments to the National Coalition from the United States and to the Syrian government from Russia continues to exacerbate the situation, reports Oxfam. A ceasefire, though proposed, is far from being executed. Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations mediator, arbitrates in Montreux, with reports stating that both opposite sides refuse to address one another.

The agenda is said to begin with the issue of humanitarian aid and the release of political prisoners. The real hard-hitting issue of a transitional government, however, is the stalling point.

Hom is located in the heart of Syria and has been a battleground since the start of conflict. For those in Hom living in starving conditions, people are turning towards growing radish and spinach indoors. The infrastructure is in ruin and little medicine available.

Though food envoys are ready to be released, neither side appears ready to allow humanitarian aid access to the famine-stricken city of Hom.

– Miles Abadilla

Sources: CBS News, Global Post, The Guardian, The Independent, Oxfam, Thomson Reuters
Photo: GuardianLV

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After Years of Conflict, New Crisis in Mali

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At this time last year, France had just lead an intervention into Mali as Al-Qaeda militants had control over much of the country. The French sent troops in after the government became alarmed by the direction Mali was going. Within three weeks, the French had driven out many of the jihadists that had once seemed like they would take hold of the country.

While there are still worries about a remaining Al Qaeda presence in the region, the tumult that ensued in the last few years has severely affected the nation’s food situation. Many residents were displaced from the fighting and harvests have been disrupted as well.

Thus, a number of food programs have stated that 800,000 people are in need of “immediate food aid,” and that “three million people nationwide are at risk.”

Food shortages have been an ongoing problem amid the tumult going back to 2012.

This looks to be the largest crisis facing the country at the present time, yet the help that came last year to fight the jihadists has not been there to fight hunger. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, “the ‘lean’ season… will start early this year. The late arrival of rains, the low availability of cereal stocks… mean that people have not been able to recover.”

These factors, along with the instability that has been much publicized, has brought Mali to the food crisis they are now facing. It is up to organizations like The Borgen Project to raise the proper awareness about the food crisis. The United Nations appeal for help in the food situation was only able to raise half the funds it set out for.

The Oxfam director in Mali said, “We have to invest in agricultural and pastoral policies that… make people less vulnerable to shocks.”

The next few months will be very important for the future of Mali. It is just this sort of food crisis that could cause the desperation that allowed the jihadists to come into Mali previously. If the Western world identifies the issue beforehand, they will be able to save the money and resources that another intervention would entail. Mali is a banner example for the importance of foreign poverty relief, and the background of the past two years should weigh heavily on the work the West can do.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: Trust.org, The Economist, ABC News, The Guardian
Photo: Voice of America