Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

NGO Brings Light to Rural India with Solar Lamps

India_Solar_Energy_Poverty
A single NGO and India’s foremost energy research institute, Teri, has single-handedly provided solar-powered lights to over 500,000 homes throughout rural India.

No less than five years ago, much of rural India had no access to electricity, instead using kerosene lamps that were not only dangerous but also bad for the environment. These 400,000 people had no access to any form of electricity, and another 100,000 had only an inconsistent and unreliable connection.

In the last five years, Teri has provided these people with a much better alternative – solar-powered, LED lamps using solar panels and batteries.

As part of the Lighting One Billion Lives initiative, started in 2007, the NGO coordinates the distribution of lamps to some 2,000 villages, works with vendors and manufacturers to lower the price of lamps, trains personnel and provides tech support, and works with various other organizations to help run the charging stations. Each charging station provides around 50 solar-powered LED lamps that also double as phone chargers.

Teri has already seen a huge improvement in the cost and efficiency of the lamps. When started, the lamps costed around $100 each, however, the price is now down to $15-30 per lamp, and the battery life has tripled.

Teri, other NGOs, Bollywood stars, and individuals sponsor villages to provide the lanterns initially, after which a local villager becomes in charge of renting each lantern, for no more than the price of kerosene, on a daily basis.

The benefits of the program have been huge, including increased health benefits and cleaner air, more light for children to continue their schooling after dark, benefits for medical practices and shops, and entrepreneurship that villagers learn by manning the charging stations. At the current rate that Teri is coordinating villages to receive charging stations, soon almost every Indian village may have a clean, renewable light source.

Although India has been aiming to improve and increase its energy grid, the priority has been on cities and businesses, with rural villages not expected to receive electricity infrastructure for years, if at all.

Teri plans to expand their system of charging stations and LED solar lamps to various other countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Pakistan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.

– Christina Kindlon

Source: The Guardian

Take a Quiz – Feed a Family in Syria

Take a Quiz - Feed a Family in SyriaBy taking this short quiz, participants can literally feed a family in Syria. Sponsored and facilitated by the UN World Food Program (WFP), the five questions survey will help you learn more about the crisis in Syria and how the WFP is responding.

The questions range from the cost of living expenses to refugee status. One question asks, “Of all the refugees now living in Jordan how many are women & children?” Answer: of this particular Jordanian population of 60,000 refugees – 75% are women & children. The WFP provides nutritious ready-to-eat meals for anyone in need.

The UN has just counted the one-millionth refugee coming out of Syria. More than 70,000 people have died and two million have been internally displaced since the conflict began almost two years ago. Starting as demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the protests quickly turned violent as opponents of Mr. Assad took up arms against the brutal crackdown coming from the authorities. There is still no resolution in sight.

Find out more – and feed a family in Syria for a day.

– Mary Purcell

Source: WFP, BBC
Photo: unostamps

What Elections in Kenya Mean to the United States

What Elections in Kenya Mean to the United States
Uhuru Kenyatta is slated to be the next President of Kenya. The elections in Kenya on Monday were a monumental and happy moment because they were one of the most peaceful elections the country has ever had. And now, as ballots are being counted, Kenyatta has the lead.

For the United States, while the peaceful elections are celebrated, Uhuru Kenyatta becoming President may lead to some serious problems. Kenyatta has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a long list of heinous crimes. He has been accused of stirring up the local militia to conduct retaliation attacks in the previous election that killed numerous people, including innocent women and children.

The United States has invested a lot in Kenya, serving as an important ally to the region. Even more, Kenya has become a crucial center on Terror.

Yet, the United States is dedicated to justice. And supporting or working with a president that has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against human rights, against women and children, would not be living up to this value. President Obama’s administration, as well as the administrations of many of its allies, are faced with the very tough decision to either completely distance themselves from Kenya, because even small things like diplomats shaking Kenyatta’s hand could be problematic, or figure out a way to work with Kenyatta and still put forth a message of justice.

Jendayi Frazer, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said, “This is going to pose a very awkward situation. Kenyatta knows he needs the United States, and the United States knows it needs Kenya.” Some even say that the United States needs Kenya more than Kenya needs the United States.

The Obama Administration has refused to talk about the situation, only saying, in the words of President Obama, “The choice of who will lead Kenya is up to the Kenyan people.” Once Kenyatta is announced President, the United States, and its allies must proceed very cautiously.

– Angela Hooks

Sources: NY Times, CNN
Photo: Forbes

USDA Invests Heavily in Global Food Security

USDA Invests Heavily in Global Food SecurityIn an effort to both invest in America’s rapidly advancing growing technologies as well as solidify the nation’s status as an agricultural superpower, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that they will be allocating 75 million dollars for grants and educational funding towards global food security.

This amazing opportunity towards bolstering global food security is also, in part, thanks to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) as well as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) Food Security program. Recently, much interest has been shown in developing the United States’ wonderfully rich topsoil and varied growing climates in order to maximize yields while maintaining the soil’s nutritional efficacy. Considering that many countries around the globe are continuing to experience severe shortages and food insecurity, the US has adopted a mutually-beneficial policy that will attempt to ameliorate any and all future global food security challenges.

Agricultural Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan was on hand to present the good news to Biological Sciences faculty members at South Dakota State University’s Brookings campus. After announcing the exciting news, Deputy Secretary Merrigan remarked that “The grants announced today will help policymakers and others better recognize the food and nutrition needs of low-income communities in our country, while improving the productivity of our nation’s agriculture to meet those needs.”
Thanks to the $75 million pledged towards finding realistic solutions for the continuing battle against world hunger, global food security might actually be attainable in the present generation.
– Brian Turner

Source Agri-Pulse
Photo University of California

Green Energy Can Fight Poverty and Pollution

Green Energy Can Fight Poverty and PollutionAccording to a new study, green energy is the only sustainable solution in eradicating poverty for a large number of the world’s poor and preventing “a climate disaster.”

The study, released by the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, warns that the widespread use of clean energy, as opposed to fossil fuels, is the only way to prevent further damage to the environment and to eradicate poverty throughout the world. The World Bank, International Energy Agency, and other major institutions have also given similar warnings.

The UN has implemented a program called the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4All) that aims to “double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency” by 2013, double the amount of renewable energy used, and bring electricity to more of the world’s poor. Joeri Rogelj, who worked on the study, says that meeting these goals and also preventing widespread deforestation is the only way to prevent a climate crisis.

Rogelj’s study confirmed that the SE4All initiative’s funding would actually cost less than the current subsidies the fossil fuel industry is given, which are estimated to be about $523 billion in 2011 alone. Comparatively, the funding for SE4All is slated to be around $30 to $40 billion per year. The study also asserts that the conversion to clean energy would also aid in making the Millennium Development Goals of downsizing poverty and promoting international development.

Thus far, several countries are on track to switch much of their energy sources to renewables – Iceland uses 81% clean energy and Scotland has a mandated 100% clean energy by 2020. Denmark is also following suit to become 100% dependent on renewable energy in the near future.

The study concludes that “achieving the three SE4ALL objectives could put the world on a path toward global climate protection,” and that getting rid of fossil fuels would eliminate the health hazards associated with pollution in many developing countries and low-income communities, as 1.5 billion people worldwide still live without electricity.

– Christina Kindlon

Source: Business Mirror

Seed Monopoly In India Creates Poverty

This video of environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva explains how a seed monopoly in India creates poverty and destroys farming’s previous self-reliance on seeds.

First, a big corporation comes into a community and tells the local farmers that their seed is no good, “primitive,” and that they offer a better option. Companies even pay farmers to try the new seed – thus seed replacement starts. Gradually they go to every farmer in the area and do the same. The farmer no longer uses their own seed, the local small companies that did sell seed no longer have customers and go out of business, and now the corporation has a monopoly on providing seeds for an entire region.

Monsanto, the cotton seed supplier in this one case, then increases the cost of the seed by 8,000%. Of course a small farmer cannot afford these prices. The corporation then promises to provide seed that will make the farmer rich by producing huge harvests. The farmer barrows the money from the corporation to buy this new seed, mortgaging their land against the loan. And when the crop does not produce as promised, the farmer goes into debt and eventually loses her/his land – no income, no assets, no home, extreme poverty.

This is why Dr. Shiva started Navdanya, a network of seed keepers and organic producers, spread across 17 states in India. They have set up 111 community seed banks, trained over 5,000,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture over the past two decades. They have helped set up the largest direct marketing, fair trade organic network in the country, and run a learning center on biodiversity conservation. Navdanya is a women-centered movement actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. They keep the power of self-reliance in the hands of the farmer.

– Mary Purcell

Source: Vimeo, Navdanya

 

The 2013 Kenyan Election

The 2013 Kenyan ElectionOn Monday, the first general elections since December 2007 were held in Kenya. In 2007, the Kenyan election resulted in weeks of bloodshed, making this election an important push for political peace. These elections are also the first held under the new constitution passed during the 2010 referendum designed to avoid violence. Millions of Kenyans arrived at polling stations to cast ballots and vote for their representatives, members of parliament, governors, senators, and president. Running for President are Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta along with his running mate William Ruto are facing trial by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, accused of organizing the riots that took place in the 2007 Kenyan election.

In the minds of every Kenyan election is the violence that occurred in 2007. After incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected, riots erupted all over Kenya. Supporters of the opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, were enraged by allegations that the election was rigged by supporters of Kibaki. Ethnic violence erupted between members of the Kikuyu, Kibaki’s tribe, and the Luo and Kalenjin tribes, as opposed to the Kikuyu. Eventually, an agreement was reached wherein Kibaki would hold the position of President and Opposition leader Raila Odinga would be Prime Minister. Up to 1,000 Kenyans were killed and 600,000 displaced during the riots which lasted for more than a week. In light of the violence caused by the disputed and controversial election of five years ago, Kenyatta, Ruto, and other major politicians have urged voters to “keep the peace.”

In preparation for this recent election, people stocked up on supplies, food, and fuel, in case of riots did break out. Stores were closed and the roads were empty of cars. People strayed from ethnically-mixed urban areas fearing violence. There was a heavy security presence with trucks of police patrolling polling stations. Unfortunately, the day was not without some incidents of violence. In Kilifi, Mandera, and Changamwe, several people, civilians and police officers alike, were killed. A group of armed men attacked a police post in Mombasa killing at least ten people, including two police officers. The separatist Mombasa Republican Council has denied accusations that they were responsible for organizing some of these attacks. It is uncertain whether the violence that did break out is connected to voting. Police were critiqued as being “ill-prepared” for violence that occurred near polling stations.

The weather was hot and the voting process was slow with faulty biometric voting kits at some stations causing delays. In Nairobi and Kibera, lines stretched for more than a kilometer and people waited up to nine hours in sweltering heat complaining about the slow process to cast their vote. Despite these technical glitches and occurrences of violence, the underlying theme seemed to be the determination of the Kenyan population to cast their votes. People began lining up at five in the morning, an hour before polls opened, and many of the 30,000 polling stations remained open an hour after the official closing times with long lines of people refusing to leave until they vote. At two in the morning in Kisumu, people were blowing vuvuzelas, an alarm to call people to the polling stations early. Thousands were already in line at four in the morning, two hours before the poll opened. This election was commented as being the most complicated election that Kenya ever held, but also one of the most peaceful. It was a vast improvement from the process of the previous election that showed many discrepancies.

Last Monday truly was a “historic day” for Kenya. In Kibera, a man was seen painting “Peace Wanted Alive” on the walls and roads. “We have been waiting for this for the past five years,” said Anthony Wachira, a Kenyan who had been waiting in line for hours to vote. “Above everything we want to vote for peace.”

– Rafael Panlilio

Source: BBC, BBC, CNN, NY Times

10 Ways to Help Poor Farmers and Their Communities

10 Ways to Help Poor Farmers and Their CommunitiesFood is one of the most basic human rights and needs: without adequate, nutritious food, people are unable to work and, in some cases, live. Almost a billion people in the world today are chronically undernourished, and many more are food insecure, meaning that they do not know where their next meal will come from. About three-quarters of those in Africa that live off of $1 a day are subsistence farmers. Helping subsistence farmers grow more food is key to lifting rural communities out of poverty. The following are some of the methods the Millennium Villages Project uses to help poor farmers, in its pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. Here are 10 ways to help poor farmers.

10 Ways to Help Poor Farmers and Their Communities

1) Protect and preserve the natural environment: Without a healthy natural environment where native flora and fauna live productively, long-term sustainable agricultural practices will fail. Farms must be developed in conjunction and cooperation with local ecology, not at its expense.

2) Implement community – specific programs: Every region has unique characteristics and therefore unique needs. Individualized programs that meet the needs of specific regions are more likely to succeed. This is the approach used by the Millennium Villages Project.

3) Teach and implement sustainable farming techniques: Farming techniques such as agroforestry, organic agriculture, and permaculture are more sustainable and practical on a small, rural scale. Poor farmers need to learn about these techniques and have access to the resources they need in order to implement them.

4) Build and maintain soil productivity: Healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy farm and leads to increased crop yields. Rebuilding soil after intensive cultivation is necessary to maintain soil productivity. Essential soil nutrients can be replenished through techniques such as fertilization, composting, inter-planting, and crop and field rotation.

5) Sustainable water access: A consistent water source is necessary for growing crops and for human survival. Rainwater harvesting systems and wells can provide water to a community, while drip irrigation systems give farmers access to water for their crops.

6) Increase sustainable crop production: Increasing crop yields is important to improving food security and fighting undernourishment. Farmers need access to high-quality seeds of appropriate crops, as well as information about planting, growing, harvesting, and crop management.

7) Economic organization: Farmers need a way to connect with customers in nearby communities in order to sell their products. Additionally, small-scale farmers can benefit from farmer cooperatives, wherein all the farmers in a community combine their resources in order to receive a better price for their crops. Aid organizations need to invest in the infrastructure and education necessary to create viable economic systems for farmers.

8) Supplement programs for newborns and their mothers: Even with an adequate food supply, pregnant and nursing mothers and their young children have unique nutritional needs. They need more protein, folate, calcium, and iron, as well as more calories.

9) End subsidies to wealthy US farmers: One Oxfam study showed that ending subsidies to wealthy US cotton farmers would do more to help Africa’s poor than the amount of aid they receive now. Farm subsidies drive down the prices of US-grown crops, making it impossible for small-scale farmers abroad to compete.

10) Improve food security: This means making sure that everyone in the community, including farmers, consistently has adequate calories and nutrition. Food security can be improved in many ways, including building food storage facilities, providing access to fuel-efficient cookstoves, and sourcing food locally, just to name a few.

– Kat Henrichs

Sources: Borgen Project
Photo:

3 Ways Aquaponics Encourage Urban Food Sustainability

3 Ways Aquaponics Encourage Urban Food SustainabilityImagine staring out over the observation deck of the Empire State Building and seeing a greenhouse covered Manhattan skyline able to provide fresh fish and produce for all of their buildings’ tenants. Thanks to the technological breakthrough of Aquaponics, urban food sustainability might actually be a reality.

Aquaponics is best explained as a closed system in which fish and vegetables are able to thrive and mutually benefit one another, with the vegetables utilizing the wastewater of the fish and in turn, delivering water free of particulates back to the tank. Basically, by enabling the water supply of fish to flow from the tank through the gravel bed of the adjacent garden, the vegetables are both watered and fertilized, enabling the growth of produce ranging from lettuce to tomatoes and limes. Furthermore, the required water supply free of waste materials for the fish is delivered via the filtration effects of the vegetables which enable the full maturation and harvesting of delicious species such as Yellow Perch and Tilapia. This amazing Aquaponic technology is already being deployed in building rooftops across the US and Western Europe, encouraging urban food sustainability in the following 3 ways :

1. It’s self-contained – Unlike the traditional agricultural method of crop or fish production requiring thousands of acres of land or huge tanks and logistical support, the Aquaponic growth method requires little more than a storage container size of available rooftop space. Additionally, the growth system simply requires daily maintenance, a little electrical power, and labor, enabling an apartment building or home to produce their own organic food and fresh fish supply anywhere in the world. This method has the potential to eliminate the environmental damage of topsoil runoff and over-fishing and promote long term urban food sustainability.

2. It’s affordable –  As previously stated, the cost of purchasing the land, equipment, and labor resources necessary for commercial farms is extremely expensive and often prohibitive to nations establishing their own urban food sustainability programs. However, the start-up cost of an Aquaponic system starts at only 3,000 dollars for a beginner package to 7,000 dollars for a package able to significantly impact a family’s annual food costs. Furthermore, the construction of a simple rooftop greenhouse is extremely cheap, and necessary for both environmental protection and the maximum fish and production yield of the Aquaponic system.

3. It provides a source of income – As an added incentive, the market for organic produce and fresh fish is in high demand and given the relatively low start-up costs of the technology and accompanying greenhouse, the Aquaponic system can serve as a viable source of income. Even better, by forming a co-op among buildings tenets for the construction of several Aquaponic greenhouses on a rooftop, the fresh fish and produce can be sold at local farmer’s markets and to fishmongers, generating a passive source of income. Given the ability of the Aquaponic technology to be deployed anywhere in the world, building tenets from Manhattan to Moscow can enjoy the income generated from fresh, year-round fish and products which not only enriches the inhabitants’ wallets but also encourages urban food sustainability.

– Brian Turner
Source: Aquaponics.com
Photo: Aquaponicsfaq

Hilary Swank Spotted in Ethiopia

Hilary Swank Spotted in Ethiopia
Hilary Swank’s recent trip to Ethiopia was marked by revelation and promotion. UNICEF flew Swank to visit various schools and education centers that received donations directly from the organization. The funding for this project will come directly from a new campaign launched in partnership with UNICEF and legendary watch and jewelry maker Montblanc.

The campaign encompasses Montblanc’s ‘Signature for Good’ collection which premiered earlier this month. The collection includes leather products, jewelry, and pens ranging from $220 to $810. For every product sold from the collection between now and March 2014, Montblanc will donate part of the proceeds to UNICEF’s education programs, funding schools that Swank visited.

According to Hilary Swank, the chance to visit Ethiopia and see first hand the benefits of the money being donated renewed her appreciation for organizations such as UNICEF and their efforts. She commented that seeing the books and learning material that the schools were able to accumulate due to these donations was “pretty extraordinary.”

For celebrities, it seems almost too easy to make their way over to a developing country, whether its because they’re already there on set or making a charity trip. Since their every move is already accounted for by the paparazzi who wait for them at gas stations and fast-food restaurants, a trip of such a scale would most definitely create a bigger buzz in the media. For causes big and small, piggy-backing off of a celebrity’s Google search carries no shame. It gives an opportunity for the world to find out more about these corners of the world even if that wasn’t their initial intention when searching for “Hilary Swank’s teeth”.

– Deena Dulgerian
Source:Star Pulse