Archive for category: Activism

Information and stories on social activism.

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Bankers Without Borders

Bankers without Borders started with 100 volunteers but, in the past five years, has grown to include 16,000 business professionals, academics and students coming from over 170 countries, working to increase the impact and sustainability of poverty reduction projects. So far, BwB has used its consulting and coaching to help more than 1,000 projects in 38 countries.

BwB was founded in 2008 by the Grameen Foundation, the original banking organization working through microfinance. Its motive for creating BwB was to expand its services to gain coverage in areas not originally reached by Grameen Bank.

The company reaches out by partnering with other organizations, including nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies or poverty-focused social enterprises. The experts work for free, and the Grameen Foundation likes to refer to them as “Skillanthropists;” rather than donating money, the workers are donating their skills, time and knowledge.

The volunteers’ involvement ranges from sparing a few hours a week at the comfort of their desks at work or home, to living and working in the field for weeks or months at a time. The wide range of skills and commitment BwB requires makes it possible for many people of different skill sets to make an impact through the company.

BwB’s volunteers are involved in a wide variety of fields. These include financial consultants, legal professionals, translators, researchers, a marketing staff and even a Human Resource Reserve Corps to address human capital related issues for nonprofit partners abroad.

From an economic standpoint, BwB continues to prove useful. For every dollar spent creating a BwB project, an average of $10 in skill and time has been donated by its pro bono staff, adding up to over $10 million worth of skilled work.

The volunteers work not to create temporary relief for recipients, but rather to implement a sustainable solution for clients to have successful, profit-making businesses.

BwB has formed many useful partnerships over its five years of operation, notably with J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Google, Bloomberg, John Hopkins University and the Washington Center. As of August 5, BwB has added Wells Fargo to its arsenal of partnership companies, as well.

From the quickly-expanding volunteer base to the quantitative economic data to the qualitative success stories shared on BwB’s website, it is clear that the Grameen Foundation’s extended project has proven successful.

– Courtney Prentice

Sources: Triple Pundit, Bankers Without Borders, Grameen Foundation, Grameen-Jameel
Photo: HW Production

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Remembering the Words of Simin Behbahani

“My poems and the wild mint
bear messages and perfumes.
Don’t let them create a riot with their wild singing.
My heart is greener than green,
flowers sprout from the mud and water of my being.
Don’t let me stand, if you are the enemies of Spring.”

These lines are from the poem “It’s Time to Mow the Flowers” written by the late Simin Behbahani, who was considered by many to be Iran’s most influential poet. Born on July 20, 1927, Behbahani lived and wrote through much of 20th century Iranian history.

She worked from within Iran for six decades and wrote over 600 poems.

Her words became a part of social resistance against a strict and oppressed Iranian culture. Behbahani wrote openly against the repression following the 1979 revolution, as well as about many other issues ranging from egalitarianism to women’s rights to sexism, prostitution, peace, violence and even poverty.

Her poems were well known as some even made their way into popular Iranian love songs. For this she was given the nickname, the “Lioness of Iran.”

Despite censorship and even restricted travel from a government that feared her, Behbahani continued to write and share her ideas with her fellow Iranians. She remained part of Iran’s Writers Association despite the murders of several of its members during the 1990s.

She addressed the social issue of poverty in her book “From the Street”, which is a series of poems she wrote between 1983 and 1985. The poems discuss concerns of homelessness and hunger. One covers the sadness of a hungry boy, while in another a pregnant woman gives birth while she waits for rationed food.

In 2009 she won the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom. This was for her tireless efforts in fighting for women’s rights, as many of her poems delve into women’s freedom.

For example, her poem “The Ballad Of The Brothel” talks about the issue of prostitution in Iran, an issue that continues to be prominently ignored by Iranian society.

Behbahani also spoke out against the controversial elections of 2009, in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to the presidency and protests occurred in Tehran. She wrote a poem titled “Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind.”

The poem points out Ahmadinejad’s dishonesty, pride and his recklessness. At the end she writes—“You may wish to have me burned, or decide to stone me. But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.”

It was Behbahani’s life’s work to spread the word of justice and freedom—to fight from within the country she loved to help promote social change. She believed that “We [writers] will be truly honored the day when no writer is in jail, no student is under arrest, when journalists are free and their pens are free.”

– Eleni Marino 

Sources: BBC News, NPR, The Guardian, Simin Behbahani Poems, PBS,
Photo: 1000 Kitap

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IMA World Health

IMA World Health is a faith-based organization that is dedicated to providing health services in order to create sustainable and long-lasting healthy communities around the world.

The organization operates with four major goals at the forefront of all of its projects: to build new health systems and strengthen existing health systems in order to provide people vulnerable to disease with the care they deserve; to partner with other faith-based and international organizations in order to best spread the mission of universal care; to exercise technical excellence in all aspects of its practice; and finally to set up a organized health systems in order to best distribute quality care to mass amounts of people.

IMA World Health is also a big proponent of empowering women across the globe and currently has many projects set up in order to help give women the chance at a better life. Some of these projects include literary circles, in which women are taught basic reading and writing skills to help them gain a higher position within their communities. USHINDI is a program that provides legal and psychological counseling to women who have faced traumatic experiences. WeWillSpeakOut.US is a program dedicated to breaking the silence surrounding sexual violence against women, and the Women’s Leadership project is an effort to promote women’s leadership both in and outside of the home.

IMA World Health additionally prides itself on its ability to deliver medical supplies to communities that are unable to provide for themselves. Projects currently being implemented include the IMA Medicine Box, which when distributed, can treat up to 1,000 people in remote villages for around two months. The box includes antibiotics, first aid items and pain medication. The IMA Safe Motherhood Kit includes sterile birthing materials in order to reduce mothers’ chance of infection upon delivery. Lastly, the Gifts in Kind program has allowed supplies to be donated to 72 countries with over $100 million worth of medical supplies.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: IMA World Health, GlobalGiving, Forbes
Photo: IMA World Health

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Human Trafficking in Bangkok

Human Trafficking in Bangkok
According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Thailand is a “top destination for victims of human trafficking.” The majority of Thailand’s trafficking victims are voluntary economic migrants from countries like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and China. They come only for the promise of a good job.

Without documentation, knowledge of Thailand or understanding of its language, they are vulnerable to traffickers. For the same reasons, it is nearly impossible for them to escape. Many are trapped in Thailand’s bustling capital of Bangkok, famous for its rich history, stunning architecture and thriving sex tourism industry.

Operation Graceland began with a tip-off by an Uzbek woman trafficked into prostitution at Bangkok’s Grace Hotel and desperate to return home. What followed was a police raid, the holding of 19 women and an investigation of all involved. In the end, only two of the detainees admitted to being trafficked. They identified their abusive ‘manager’ amongst the group, but after receiving word that their families had been threatened, they spoke favorably of her in court. She was released.

In 2002, there were an estimated 200,000 sex workers in Bangkok and the trade has grown. It is a lucrative job: women and men from poor families earn money to support their relatives, finance future aspirations or live a life of previously unknown affluence.

Though many are forced by circumstance, involvement in the sex industry is considered voluntary. Because there are so many willing sex workers in Bangkok, it is difficult to identify victims of trafficking. Officers are being trained to recognize trafficked workers. Do they work excessive hours? Do they have documentation? Are they of age?

But even if they manage a rescue, it is difficult to convict the perpetrators. Gangs threaten those rescued and their families, warning them against speaking out. Some victims hope that, by cooperating with their captors, they will be released with a small share of their earnings, all of which typically go to their slavers. Still others are undocumented migrants, who fear legal retribution for involving themselves in any legal affair.

In any case, testifying is risky, since many prosecutors base their arguments entirely on hearsay and the victim’s statements. Slavers are often released and the case against them deemed unsubstantial.

The prevalence of trafficking in Thailand and the legal support for victims have not improved enough for international recognition. In June, the United States dropped Thailand from tier two to tier three on the 2014
Trafficking in Persons report.

But the Thai government is making headway. In 2013, the number of trafficking cases investigated was double that of 2012. Nearly 750 victims received some form of assistance from the Thai government: most were referred to one of nine shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Thousands of public officers were trained on new anti-trafficking laws; ideally, they will offer victims the legal support they need and give them hope of a life once again in freedom.

-Olivia Kostreva

Sources: Bangkok Post, Time, UNIAP
Photo: Laura Leigh Parker

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INMED Partnerships for Children

Institute for International Medicine Partnerships for Children is an organization dedicated to preventing and combating the harm that comes to children through violence, disease, hunger and neglect.

INMED Partnerships for Children values taking a holistic approach to improve children’s health worldwide through addressing the causes of disease and hunger and attempting to remedy them from the source. INMED is dedicated in implementing long-term solutions to enhance both the quality and longevity of children’s lives.

Founded 27 years ago, INMED has stuck by its original goal of helping to improve the health and safety of children all over the globe.  Led by President and CEO Linda Pfeiffer, INMED has been targeting programs and delivering care to help children in both urban and rural areas of the world.  INMED also has offices worldwide, in places such as Virginia, Peru, Brazil, South Africa and the Caribbean.

INMED has partnered with a diverse group of companies in order to make sure they best spread their mission. They have partnered with companies such as Macy’s, the Ronald McDonald House Charities, the International Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, Kids in Distressed Situations, Johnson and Johnson and many more.

INMED maps out large areas they want to improve and then tailors specific projects to fall into those categories. These broader categories include health and nutrition, youth development, education and skill building, and adaptive agriculture and aquaponics.

One of INMEDs upcoming events will be the 2015 Harvest the Future International Conference, which is set to take place June 14-17, 2015 in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Experts from across the globe will gather at this conference in order to discuss possible solutions to problems such as water scarcity, income generation sustainable livelihoods, nutrition and health, food security and climate change adaptation.

Conference speakers include Christopher Somerville, an Urban Agriculture Consultant at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States, Denise A. Herbol, Mission Director at US Agency for International Development, and Thad M. Jackson, Executive Vice President of INMED Partnership.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: INMED, INMED 2, INMED 3, Middleburg Women
Photo: Zimbio

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5 Reasons To Give to Charity

In every place around the world regardless of religious tradition, culture and language, giving to others has always been an idea encouraged for thousands of years. From Lao Tzu to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Prophet Mohammed to St. Thomas Aquinas, the importance of giving to others has been written and spoken about extensively.

Yet, despite the long history of giving, many people today do not donate to any cause for various reasons. It may be that they are unsure how to navigate the vast array of organizations and causes, or that they are hesitant about how their money will be used, or simply they don’t realize what benefit it has on others.

As Aristotle said:

“To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it, and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter.”

Giving is easy, but why and where to give are difficult questions to answer. Listed below are five great reasons why people should give to charity. Deciding where and how much is a personal decision, but there is not much to argue with when it comes to why. In fact, with Americans donating $335.17 billion in 2013 there seems to be some very good reasons for donating.

1. Sense of Purpose

Giving to charity helps you participate in a cause you feel strongly about. Even if you don’t have the time to volunteer, charitable gifts go a long way in helping organizations operate and impact those they help.

In addition, studies show that people who give to charity are happier people. So when faced with the decision of whether to buy an unneeded new pair of shoes or donate that money to a cause, choose the cause. You may not get new shoes, but you’ll be much happier in the long run.

2. You can make a difference

While it may seem that a small donation won’t make a big difference, however even small gifts can have a big impact.

For instance, through programs like Kiva, a nonprofit micro-lender, individuals can loan as little as $25 to help impoverished, would-be entrepreneurs in the developing world start a small business. Many of these people do not have access to a strong banking sector so these loans provide are a great method of empowerment.

To date Kiva has had 860,000 individual lenders participate and has a 99 percent loan payback rate.

3. Donations are often tax-deductible

Giving to money to most charitable organizations has the added benefit of being tax deductible. There are approximately 1, 536,084 charitable organizations in the U.S. according to 2013 data, which means that are plenty of places for people to give.

What does this mean in concrete terms? If someone were to give $100 to a tax-exempt organization of their choice, the donation may actually only turn out to be $65 or less due to tax refunds. The donation not only benefits the organization, but also the individual giving.

4. Matching Gifts can have a big impact

A great way to give to charity is to find an organization or corporation that will do a matching gift. Matching gifts are when a company will match dollar-for-dollar what their employee gives; maximizing the impact of the gift as well as creating a positive image for the company.

Corporations like General Electric, Gap Inc., Boeing, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft all offer some of the best employee matching gift programs.

5. Create a budget, plan ahead

Whether its $25 or $2500, donations are possible from every budget. Plan a charity budget that allows for a donation each year. Even two percent of your yearly income can make a big difference. For someone making $30,000, that could be around $500 – all of which can be deductible!

Before giving to charity, be sure to do research. Numerous websites exist to help potential donors find out what organizations are most legitimate and what cause they think could benefit most. Like all things in life, research will not only make potential donors better informed, but will also maximize the impact for each donation.

– Andrea Blinkhorn

Sources: Sweating the Big Stuff, Dime Spring, Giving What We Can, Gaiam, The Guardian,Bank Rate, NP Trust, Live Science
Photo: Business2Community

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Building Financial Security in Malawi

Banks and similar “formal financial services” are common means of protecting and investing money in the developed world, but they are scarce in developing nations. Financial security in Malawi, however, is becoming a more prevalent phenomenon.

Having access to formal financial services is important, especially in impoverished communities; it gives people a reliable means of saving that protects them from economic fluctuation. The ability to amass funds over time is crucial to establishing a stable financial future, and gives farmers and entrepreneurs alike a source of funding for new ventures.

Interventions orchestrated by the American nonprofit, Innovations for Poverty Action, show that when farmers in Malawi were given access to savings services, not only did their yields increase in the fields, but also their families had the capital to spend on necessary healthcare and adequate food provisions. Savings accounts accessible to even just one person managed to positively affect entire families.

Farmers are especially in need of formal financial services, as they often earn large sums of money in semiannual increments based on the harvest season, and have no place to store money during the lean periods between harvests. Formally storing money allows farmers to prioritize long-term investments rather than short-term spending and family borrowing, which are common in poor communities.

Banking is highly correlated with education in countries worldwide, suggesting that, like education, it could be a means to escaping poverty. It makes sense, considering that banks provide an easy way to manage income. Humanitarian organizations in the poverty-elimination business would be wise to turn to banking as a means of sustainable development. Savings accounts have already been successful in Malawi, and are sure to be as successful elsewhere in the developing world.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: Innovations for Poverty Action, The Gates Foundation, The Economist
Photo: World Agroforestry

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Five Current Global Issues

current global issues
In the 21 century, the world has made great strides in reducing poverty, eliminating diseases and improving the quality of life for all. However, this progress rests on shaky foundations. Current global issues threaten to undermine humanity’s attempts to better the world and damage all of society.

According to the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, global issues are those that potentially affect everyone on earth, not just large groups of people. Similarly, solutions to global issues require all people to cooperate in order to meaningfully change the status quo. Since they pose a fundamental risk to society as a whole, global issues require much attention.

Here are just five examples of current global issues. Many of them are interconnected, but any one of them could have serious consequences for everyone if left unchecked.

1. Terrorism

International terrorist organizations can cause conflict anywhere, thus terrorism is a global issue. The expansion of attacks by terrorists hurts many people in developing countries; according to the U.S. State Department, terrorist attacks killed over 11,000 and wounded 21,000 in 2012.

Terrorism also had wide-ranging economic impacts. Former U.S. Ambassador Francis Taylor found that global airline industries lost             $15 billion and global insurance industries lost $50 billion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. World governments will need to strengthen their relations and promote democratic principles to reduce terrorist threats.

2. Lack of International Labor Laws

Weak international labor laws are a global issue because they hurt workers in the developing world and the economies of developed nations. Laws must exist to protect workers’ rights while allowing multinational firms to do business. The World Bank urges countries to cooperate and strengthen labor laws to prevent abuses and ensure fair wages; at the same time, the laws must facilitate wealth creation. Without optimal rules, the world economy weakens and workers face terrible conditions.

3. Climate Change

Climate change affects all of earth’s environments and is thus a global issue. A report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that droughts and extreme weather would intensify globally, leading to poor crop yield, water shortages and even desertification. The worst-affected areas, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, will have trouble adapting because per capita GDP is low; millions will be unable to grow or afford food and will starve.

As entire regions face food crises, global economic production becomes much lower, and nations have to care for hungry refugees that flee inhospitable conditions. To prevent the situation from becoming worse, the world must adopt more sustainable energy policies and waste management practices.

4. Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is another global issue that threatens the health of millions and the progress of modern medicine. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the discovery of drug-resistant E. coli, staph and pneumonia-causing viruses all over the world; it also found that 20 percent of previously treated tuberculosis cases were drug-resistant.

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant disease is extremely dangerous. Antibiotics that people use to treat serious infections will stop working and disease fatalities will increase. The global community will need to implement stronger restrictions on antibiotic use to curb drug resistance in deadly diseases.

5. Poverty

While many of the above problems exacerbate poverty in many world regions, poverty itself is a global issue because it leads to social problems that affect even the richest people. According to the research site Poverties.org, poverty leads to higher crime rates, more instances of substance abuse and greater susceptibility to infectious disease. This hurts economic productivity and can lead to instability. Poverty also is linked to terrorism. Consequently, the world must fight poverty to address other global issues.

The world’s current global issues are complex, interconnected problems that require concentrated action for systemic change. Any single global issue could become a crisis with huge economic and human costs. Only with strong international cooperation can the world solve global issues.

-Ted Rappleye

Sources: U.S. State Department 1, U.S. State Department 2, World Bank, OECD, WHO, Poverties, Nautilus Institute
Photo: Flickr

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Universities Fighting World Hunger

By 2050, nine billion people in this world will be living in hunger. Universities Fighting World Hunger is dedicated to ending the current poverty situation and preventing it from recurring in the future.

The organization was first established in 2004, when Auburn University was invited to participate in a campaign to mobilize students to fight against hunger, along with the U.N.’s World Food Program , the world’s largest humanity agency. In its first ten years, UFWH has been established as an organization that integrates multi-disciplinary academic with grassroots activities, spread out over 300 campuses.

The following are some of the major activities UFWH is involved in:

· Raising hunger awareness and consciousness.
· Advocating for and teaching students how to get more involved into the campaign.
· Providing a Hunger Studies Minor and other research opportunities in the university
· Partnering with major humanity organizations such as WFP and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Universities provide breeding grounds for innovations. One of the ideas of the organization is bringing people from all disciplines together to solve the hunger problem. UFWH holds an annual summit, inviting people from all areas to discuss cutting-edging research and solutions.

In addition to its convocations, UFWH has launched an international campaign, called “Why Care.” A group of students are called to ask themselves and the peers around them why they should care about global hunger. The question pushes the responders to develop personal and ingenuous answers. The purpose of this campaign is to make people realize that poverty is not far away from us, and the first step in solving it is saying “we actually care.”

– Jing Xu

Sources: Auburn University 1, Auburn University: War on Hunger 1, Auburn University: War on Hunger 2, Auburn University: War on Hunger 3, Universities Fighting World Hunger
Photo: Auburn

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Education in Eritrea

Eritrea came into independence in 1993 after a long period of war and military conflict. After gaining its independence, Eritrea continued to struggle with neighboring countries Yemen and Ethiopia, and the consequences were devastating to its people. Today, the country continues to work on rebuilding its infrastructure and developing its economy. Despite the many structures the country has implemented, education still remains a top concern. Below is an exploration of education in Eritrea.

 

Top 6 Facts about Education in Eritrea

 

1. Enrollment remains one of Eritrea’s biggest issues. In 2012, data put forth by the World Bank determined that only 42 percent of elementary school-aged children were enrolled in school.

2. Eritrea’s location in the Horn of Africa is a major contributor to the country’s low enrollment rates. Eritrea is extremely susceptible to droughts, as well as floods caused by heavy and sudden rainfall, which makes attending school—and maintaining school grounds—increasingly difficult.

3. Vast disparities in development in Eritrea’s zobas, or regions, is also a significant factor that plays into the low school enrollment rates. Remote regions such as Gash Barka and the Southern Red Sea simply lack schools altogether, so children then lack any access to education opportunities in those regions.

4. Remote regions in Eritrea are also inhabited by nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists, for whom attending formal schools that are located at far distances is not impossible, but is in fact undesirable. Families in nomadic communities simply cannot—or don’t—send their children to school.

5. The country is working hard to address the issue of education for nomadic communities. With support from donors and the Netherlands government, 65 nomadic schools have been set up in Eritrea, a vast increase from the seven pilot nomadic schools that existed in 2007.

6. Gender disparity in education remains a top concern within the country’s education system. Though the government claims to be committed to achieving education equality, more than half of school-aged girls are not receiving an education.

Eritrea, ranked 177th out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index, struggles with severe poverty and countless other obstacles that make improving education conditions for children extremely difficult. The country’s unique climate and nomadic communities, coupled with its new independence and lofty regrowth plans, require tailored education initiatives and ample help from foreign aid programs. These programs will help the country improve its education opportunities, and therefore its economy and quality of life as well.

– Elizabeth Nutt

Sources: BBC, UNICEF
Photo: Asmera