Decreasing the Poverty Rate in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, 1.34 million residents live in poverty. With a poverty rate of 19.7 percent, the region’s people are in need of an economic reform. Fortunately, more entities are discovering the necessity for decreasing the poverty rate in Hong Kong and making plans to alleviate the problem.

In 2014, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, proposed the Low-Income Working Family Allowance program. If a family’s income is at or below 50 percent of Hong Kong’s median income, and the family has at least one employed person, the family can receive up to $130 monthly or more, depending on the number of hours worked. The program is intended to reach 710,000 impoverished residents.

Since 2015, Hong Kong’s government implemented a second poverty alleviation plan. The plan provides Hong Kong’s government with a better understanding of the region’s impoverished areas and their specific situations. Hong Kong’s most impoverished groups and key strategies that could alleviate the poverty rate in Hong Kong are also being studied.

Hong Kong’s government also plans to enhance education and training opportunities, specifically jobs that facilitate mobility for the region’s youth. More financial, and other, assistance will be provided to Hong Kong’s poor families. The educational expenses for children within those families will also be considered.

The Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) is another program intended to alleviate poverty–specifically among Hong Kong’s elderly and impoverished communities. The OALA alleviated more than 43 million elderly Hong Kong residents in poverty in August 2016. Seeing this result has given Hong Kong’s government the goal to make similar programs that could help reduce the poverty rate in Hong Kong.

Groups and individuals outside of the government have also been doing their part to reduce the poverty rate in Hong Kong. Ho Hei-wah is a social activist who spent decades helping Hong Kong’s poor and continues to do so. Presently the director of the nonprofit Society for Community Organization (SCO), Hei-wah provides services to Hong Kong’s poor and other neglected communities. To Hong Kong’s people, Hei-wah is considered a champion and he plans to tackle future challenges facing the region’s poor.

In 2016, Habitat for Humanity found that many impoverished Hong Kong residents are forced to live in hazardous industrial homes, typically called “urban slums.” The organization is urging the government, charities and the public to work together in tackling Hong Kong’s housing problems. Habitat for Humanity plans for 15 million Hong Kong residents to have safe housing by 2020.

Decreasing the poverty rate in Hong Kong has become a main goal for many people. While some plans are still in progress, the mission to better the lives of Hong Kong’s impoverished communities remains an important priority. For now, Hong Kong’s poor are given hope that a better quality of life is soon to come.

– Rhondjé Singh Tanwar

Volunteer Secures Co-Sponsorship for Two Critical Bills

Nora Hanson is a senior at Colby College, double-majoring in History and Spanish, with absolutely no previous lobbying experience. Yet in her first month of lobbying as an intern with The Borgen Project, she got co-sponsorship for two acts that could make a huge difference in the lives of the world’s poor. Her early success is a clear example of how passion can overcome the notion that government is inaccessible.

Within her first batch of lobbying emails, she reached out to Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY-7) by following the automated form on her website, and a legislative correspondent in D.C. got back to her within 24 hours. “Their efficiency and their work was a huge part of this, of my success,” Hanson said.

Communicating back and forth with the D.C. correspondent, Hanson had confirmation within one week that Rep. Velázquez would be co-sponsoring two global poverty reducing pieces of legislation: the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act and the Global Health Innovation of 2017 Act. Yet the bulk of Hanson’s work wasn’t the many follow-ups with the DC office, it was the careful research she did before ever reaching out to them.

After watching The Borgen Project director Clint Borgen give a “Lobbying 101” course, Hanson was motivated to do more research on her leaders.

“The idea that I should get to know my leaders as people really changed my process,” she said. She began to focus on “who these people were as people, and what they might be interested in, and what they might be passionate about.”

After researching Rep. Velázquez, the previous legislation she’d supported, and the current legislation in the Senate, Hanson chose the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act and the Global Health Innovation of 2017 Act. She believed that they appealed to Rep. Velázquez, who had a history of working toward emphasizing equality, education and a focus on community.

The Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act aims to help the one in four displaced children who no longer have access to education, especially the women and girls whose risk for social and economic inequality skyrockets without school. The Global Health Innovation Act hopes to bring affordable and safe health technologies to the developing world.

It didn’t take long for her research to pay off, and now the co-sponsorship is “just a matter of her staffer officially putting her name on it,” Hanson said proudly.

After completing an internship with child legal services in San Francisco the previous summer, she had witnessed the struggles faced by children from across the globe being detained after crossing the Mexican border in the U.S. Her passion for helping under-served, underrepresented people was growing, and her experience that summer only left her wanting to do more. “Sitting there updating files just didn’t feel like enough,” she said.

Part of that drive seemed to result from her education. “My coursework tends to make me very solution-driven,” Hanson said, and The Borgen Project gave her the opportunity to “be on the front lines interacting with people, taking a really active role in helping.”

When she got the internship, she said she was “counting down the days before I could get to work and start trying to make a difference.”

And the difference that lobbying can have was immediately apparent in her communication with her correspondent in D.C., Jacob Hochberg.

“It’s nice to know that the leader’s offices are reading everything,” she said. “They were so willing to listen to me.”

Hanson is meeting next month with Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1), already pushing forward to make a greater difference and meet with more leaders. As for the future, she said, “I’m excited to continue following what The Borgen Project does even after I finish my internship…watch them make an impact, and grow, and affect politics.”

Making an impact, growing, and affecting politics aren’t simply elements of The Borgen Project, but of every individual intern, volunteer, and constituent who works with it. Nora Hanson is one shining example of how effective outreach can be.

Learn more about volunteering opportunities with The Borgen Project here.

– Brooke Clayton 

Peace Corps Partners with Universities on Student Engagement

The Peace Corps, since its inception under President John F. Kennedy, has engaged young people in efforts to make the world a better place through international assistance. Now, a new wave of university Peace Corp partner programs is promoting academic access and opening the door for more young people to participate in poverty relief efforts.

Through the Peace Corps, college-aged volunteers are given the opportunity to live abroad in developing countries for two-year rotations. While deployed, they develop their skills with local languages and provide assistance to their host communities. While the aid they provide may take different forms, from education to health support, their goal is always to improve the living conditions of poverty-stricken people.

The history of cooperation between the Peace Corps and universities already spans decades. For 30 years, the Master’s International Program, an initiative of the Corps, offered students a chance to take part in 96 graduate programs across the country and finish their degrees while serving in the Peace Corps abroad. Though the program officially ended in 2016, the Peace Corps has created more university outreach programs.

Replacing the venerable Master’s International Program is another academic access opportunity, the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program. Like its predecessor, the Coverdell Fellows Program will focus on graduate students, offering financial assistance to returning Peace Corps volunteers as they pursue degrees focused on providing assistance to struggling communities.

Graduate students in the program are required to embark on internships focused on using their Corps experience to help underserved American communities. To date, the program has already given over 5,000 returning Corps volunteers financial assistance while they serve their communities.

More exciting developments in the Peace Corps’ battery of university partner programs are initiatives focused on undergraduate students. Started in 2007, the Peace Corps Prep Program provides university students with the skills they need to obtain Peace Corps positions and make the most of their volunteer opportunities if they are able to serve overseas.

Training is focused on four areas in a certificate program: sector-specific skills, foreign language proficiency, intercultural competence and professional savvy and leadership. Students enrolled in Peace Corps Prep also receive assistance applying for Peace Corps roles.

Finally, the Campus Ambassador Program allows students to help Corps recruiters raise awareness about poverty around the world and efforts to provide relief. Students working as campus ambassadors gain valuable community engagement experience while helping the Corps educate others about volunteer opportunities around the world.

These partnerships between the Peace Corps and universities are examples of smart, forward-thinking policy. Globally-focused academic access programs in the U.S. are essential to tackling the problem of poverty abroad. Investing in education now can help produce the next generation of leaders focused on world poverty reduction.

– Will Sweger

Photo: Flickr

Millennium Villages Project: Empowerment for Africans

Bollywood printed silks garnished with sequins are exchanged at a West African shop in the Potou market. Shop owner Thiama Diaw is the president of Bokk Jamm, one of 25 women’s business associations in Potou.

The village associations collectively pool their profits, so group members can obtain loans. Participants have used the money to cultivate hibiscus, invest in sustainable cookstoves, relinquish owed school fees or make home improvements. These women associations provide training sessions in farming techniques, nutrition and money management.

Throughout the Tibias Canal, members in Mali grow melons for their fund contribution. While Rwandan basket weavers used their loan share for roof replacement and school supplies for their children, a woman in Malawi ran a cassava bakery to pay for her loan cooperative share.

From 1990 to 2001, Sub-Saharan Africans who lived on less than $1 a day, increased by 86 million. The poverty rate jumped from 45 percent to 46 percent. One-third of the region’s population is below the minimum nourishment level, making it the most undernourished area. Inhabitants are disease stricken, living in a drought-prone climate that lacks proper irrigation and a safe infrastructure.

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) launched in 2004 as a holistic, science-based approach to global poverty and empowerment for Sub-Saharan Africans. The program has benefited more than 500,000 people. Their development efforts have received generous donations from actress Angelina Jolie and the U.N.’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Safe drinking water and firewood require people to travel every day for several miles. The MVP aims to reinvent empowerment for Sub-Saharan Africans through sustainable development of healthcare, education and employment. The project operates with limited aid support and integrates science and technology.

For example, their services have decreased malaria in villages by 72 percent, access to clean water has tripled and maize productivity has doubled. The budget allots $60 per person for services, according to MVP. “The project’s approach has potential, but little can be said for sure yet about its true impact,” Nature stated.

Researchers of MVP started measuring the villages success rate, who had access to full intervention services. They compared the results to villages who didn’t receive aid, but data collection challenges prevented statistically sound results.

While children are dying of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa every 30 seconds and one in 16 women die during childbirth, the MVP teaches valuable skills to members. They stimulate empowerment for Sub-Saharan Africans, who learn alongside each other in improving their community’s infrastructure, health and economy.

– Rachel Williams

Photo: Flickr

World Humanitarian Day: An Overview of the Global Situation

According to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Humanitarian Day is an annual reminder to take action to alleviate the suffering of those in need of humanitarian aid around the world. The event is also an occasion to honor the humanitarian workers and volunteers toiling on the front lines of crises.

This year on August 19, “One Humanity” served as the theme of World Humanitarian Day. This World Humanitarian Day, the U.N. and its partners called for global solidarity with the 130 million people in need of humanitarian assistance around the world.

Under the banner of One Humanity, the event highlighted the coming together in Istanbul for the World Humanitarian Summit earlier this year.

At the summit, member states made commitments to support people affected by crises and ensure that aid workers can deliver assistance in a safe and effective manner.

Events were held around the globe to celebrate the occasion, raising awareness for the cause and pledging support to end the problem. However, all of this attention being drawn to those in need of aid raises a few questions.

Who are the people in need of humanitarian aid?

In 2015, UNICEF reported that one in 10 children are growing up in areas affected by armed conflict. That’s 230 million children. If grouped together, those children would make up the fourth largest population on the planet, and that does not even account for their families.

Some of these kids are fortunate enough to escape the violence, but others have seen their homes destroyed and families separated and displaced from their communities.

In the decade between 2004 and 2013, some 6,525 natural disasters took place around the world, ranging from drought and famine to tornadoes to tsunamis and earthquakes. In 2013, close to 100 million individuals were affected by disasters.

Where is humanitarian aid needed?

According to OCHA’s 2016 Global Humanitarian Overview, some 130 million people in 40 countries are affected by some sort of humanitarian crisis and are in need of aid. Aid is needed in African nations like Ethiopia and Nigeria, Middle Eastern countries like Syria, South American nations such as Guatemala, Asian countries like Myanmar and island nations such as Haiti.

Aid is needed all over. The U.N.’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has raised some $5.5 billion this year and has provided or will be able to provide assistance to 95 million people.

There is reason for the global community to be proud, as 73 percent of those in need have received or will receive some kind of humanitarian assistance this year; however, there is still work to be done. That $5.5 billion is just one quarter of the funds that CERF needs to properly serve those who need help.

Learn how to take action by visiting the World Humanitarian Day website. We can help the world’s hungry and hurting, but we need to do it together.

– Aaron Parr

Photo: Flickr