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The Impact of the War in Ukraine on Poverty

War in Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine continues, many begin to think about the consequences that are going to result from it. One can already see some of the consequences of the damage done in Ukraine. From a humanitarian perspective, this war will have severe consequences on poverty around the world. The impact war has on poverty does not always get the most attention. However, it is just as important as the other consequences that come from war.

War and Poverty

People often overlook those living in poverty during war as well as how greatly it affects the demographic. For example, damage to infrastructure and the economy can set a country back in the progress previously made in minimizing poverty. It also makes the living conditions of those living in poverty worse. War affects poverty and poverty has impacts on war as well. Countries with lower GDPs have a higher possibility of conflict. Poverty can reduce a government’s ability to prevent conflict as well.

Poverty in Ukraine Before the War

Poverty in Ukraine has always fluctuated. According to a UNICEF article, absolute poverty reached peak values in 2001 and 2015 in Ukraine. Poverty in Ukraine was declining from 2015 to 2019. In 2020, poverty began to rise again in part due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Impacts on Poverty from the War in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has already caused damage to infrastructure, economy, unemployment and inflation. According to the New York Times, the damage Russia has caused to Ukraine’s infrastructure is more than $119 billion as of March 14, 2022. The damage caused is detrimental to Ukraine’s infrastructure and poverty rate. The loss of life and displacement of Ukrainian people will cause a rise in poverty. UNDP tweeted that “According to our early projections, almost one-third of Ukrainians could fall into poverty within a year and an additional 62% are at risk of falling into poverty.” Ukraine is not the only country that is going to feel the impacts of this war. Countries all over the world are facing an increase in prices of products and goods such as gas and food. The Center for Global Development stated, “Our analysis suggests the scale of the price spike will push over 40 million into extreme poverty.” The entire world is going to feel the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Solutions

In an effort to help those in Ukraine, the United Nations Foundation has created a link on its webpage so anyone can donate. The U.N. is providing humanitarian assistance by using money from the Central Emergency Response Fund as well as providing assistance on the ground. According to the United Nations Foundation, “The UN is on the ground delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance and support to the people of Ukraine.” Local governments are also creating programs to provide aid. In Northern Virginia, the collection of necessities such as blankets and coats for Ukrainian refugees began on March 23, 2022. The World Food Programme (WFP) has also been providing food assistance. An article from WFP stated that its operation will be working towards providing assistance to people inside of Ukraine and neighboring countries. 

A Look Ahead

The effects of poverty will be more detrimental the longer the war in Ukraine continues. Ukraine was making progress in eliminating poverty before COVID-19 and is now going to see a significant increase in the number of people facing economic hardships. The entire world will be affected by this increase as well.

– Anna Deutsch
Photo: Flickr

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7 Facts About the [email protected] Campaign

Shot@Life CampaignThrough the use of public education, grassroots advocacy and fundraising, [email protected] strives to decrease vaccine-preventable childhood deaths to zero by the year 2030. The [email protected] campaign has an overall goal for every child to have a shot at life no matter where they live.

7 Facts About the [email protected] Campaign

  1. The initiative began as a grassroots advocacy campaign. [email protected] was founded in 2011 as part of the United Nations Foundation that aims to ensure that children around the world have access to lifesaving vaccines. Its programs help raise awareness and funds that contribute to child immunization programs hosted by world health organizations like UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The campaign has amassed thousands of supporters over the years, ranging from members of Congress to local and national businesses.
  2. [email protected] recognizes the importance of vaccines for saving children’s lives. Projections indicate that 17.7 million deaths may be averted in children under age five years as a result of vaccinations administered from 2011 to 2020.  With medicine continuing to evolve, diseases that have been around for hundreds of years are finally able to be addressed.
  3. The campaign focuses on four main vaccines. The four vaccine-preventable diseases it centers its attention on are polio, measles, pneumonia and rotavirus. To this day, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan are still polio-endemic countries. Additionally, the majority of people who contract measles were unvaccinated. Diarrhea, a common consequence of rotavirus, and pneumonia are two of the leading causes of child mortality. Combined, they account for approximately 1.4 million deaths around the world every year.
  4. Sh[email protected] achieved a lot during its first five years of operation. Through the program’s support and its advocates, the campaign was able to secure over $2 billion in U.S. funding for global immunization programs between fiscal years 2012 to 2017. From its support of the United Nations’ partner programs between 2012 and 2016, the campaign was also able to provide more than 42 million children around the world with life-saving vaccines. In collaboration with its global partners, [email protected] was also able to contribute to the 84% drop in global measles deaths from 2000 to 2016, which saved more than 20 million children’s lives. Another accomplishment is the fact that 16 million people who otherwise would have been paralyzed by polio are still walking thanks to the partnership between [email protected] and the U.N. Foundation’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
  5. It has hosted multiple campaigns with the pharmacy, Walgreens. Walgreens has been one of the key partners of [email protected] since the beginning of the campaign’s advocacy efforts. [email protected] partnered with the drugstore chain on the “get a shot, give a shot” campaign, which aims to supply 100 million vaccines by 2024 to children in need around the world. This campaign, which began in 2013, is still in operation to this day. Its most recent campaign with Walgreens began on September 1, 2020, with Walgreens pledging to donate $0.23 per immunization shot a patient receives from a Walgreens pharmacy. The fundraiser runs until December 31, 2020, and is set to raise a maximum of $2.6 million
    for [email protected].
  6. The campaign runs a blog dedicated to [email protected] and vaccine-related issues. Part of its educational efforts includes hosting and contributing to the [email protected] blog. With its first post dating back to 2011, the posts cover a variety of topics about vaccines and success stories related to the campaign. One of its most recent articles broke down COVID-19’s negative impact on refugees and providing them with adequate healthcare, including vaccines.
  7. Sh[email protected] outlines a variety of ways to advocate for the campaign. Through its “take action now” page on its website, [email protected] highlights numerous ways U.S. constituents can put their support behind the campaign and efforts to provide vaccines for children globally. It encourages reaching out to U.S. Senators and Representative’s offices by calling, emailing and writing letters to get [email protected] on their radar to support. One of its programs, “[email protected] Champions,” is a way for members of the public to increase their support of the organization. These advocates attend training webinars and events to learn how to further the efforts of the campaign as well as encourage other members in the community to join the cause.

Since its beginning in 2011, [email protected] has amassed more than 350,000 supporters and 2,000 grassroots advocates in all 50 U.S. states who call on their communities to support the campaign for global vaccines. Through education and advocacy, [email protected] acknowledges the vital role that providing vaccines for children plays in preventing their deaths, especially in developing nations.

– Sara Holm
Photo: Flickr

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How the Stigmatization of Disease Affects Care

Stigmatization of DiseasePeople often understand diseases as solely biological: an infectious pathogen harms the body and requires medical aid to defeat. However, disease also has social implications. Various social factors can impact not only someone’s likelihood of contracting a disease but also their likelihood of receiving quality medical care. One significant social implication affecting these factors is the stigmatization of disease.

Stigma, as defined by sociologist Erving Goffman, is an “attribute that is deeply discrediting.” Though we normally think of attributes like race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality and gender identity, stigma can also involve disease. The stigmatization of disease refers to the notion that a particular type of person, country or community are the carriers or source of a disease. Like all stigmatization, this involves the process of “othering,” or creating a “them” and an “us.” People attempt to keep the “us” safe by ostracizing the “them.” In the case of the stigmatization of disease, the stigmatized group becomes “them.” Here are four examples of the stigmatization of disease throughout history.

The Stigmatization of Disease: Four Examples

  1. Cholera is a bacterial disease that causes extreme dehydration and diarrhea. It is fatal without immediate treatment. The end of the 1800s saw a global cholera pandemic, with a high prevalence in Europe. This led to the United States quarantining immigrants when they arrived in the U.S., creating a dangerous association between immigrants and cholera. At the time, President Harrison declared that immigrants were “a direct menace to the public health.” This association between immigrants and disease lasted long after the threat of cholera was gone.
  2. Yellow fever is a viral infection carried by a specific species of mosquito. It causes fever, headache, nausea and, in severe cases, fatal heart and liver conditions. By 1850, yellow fever was rampant in southern American states. Cities like Charleston, Mobile and New Orleans faced the brunt of the disease. Because of tensions leading up to the Civil War, the North used the disease to attack the South. Northerners “denounced the South for its unhealthy conditions and people.” This stigmatization helped fuel the separation between “us” and “them” in the North and South. As such, it had lasting impacts on regional divides in the U.S.
  3. HIV/AIDS appeared in the United States in the 1980s. HIV is an aggressive virus that attacks people’s autoimmune system and can eventually lead AIDS. Because early cases affected gay men, doctors named the disease Gay-Related Immune Deficiency or GRID. This initial naming demonized gay men and made them appear to be the source of HIV. Later, the disease was renamed AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) when doctors realized that anyone can contract HIV. Despite this renaming, the association of gay men with HIV remains strong. Accordingly, fear and stigma continue to be a barrier to getting treatment in the U.S.
  4. COVID-19 first appeared in China in late 2019. Due to its origin, many people have engaged in racist and xenophobic attacks and discrimination against those of Asian heritage. The use of language such as the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus” in the media and from political leaders has encouraged hate speech and physical attacks. In the U.K., citizens have punched and beaten Asian people. In Australia, two women beat Chinese students while yelling, “Go back to China.” In Texas, a Burmese family was attacked with a knife. This illustrates how the stigmatization of COVID-19 has resulted in extreme discrimination and violence against Asian people around the world.

How Stigma Impacts Care

As indicated above,  stigma creates barriers for stigmatized people to access quality care. Dana McLaughlin, a global health associate at the United Nations Foundation and graduate student at Johns Hopkins, elaborates on how stigma creates barriers to health. She understands stigma as having three components that can dissuade someone from seeking care and reduce the quality of care they receive:

  1. Internalized or Self-Stigma: This occurs when an individual with a disease internalizes the stigma. They may feel shameful about themselves and their condition. They might also fear telling family, friends and their communities about their condition because of possible ostracization. Either way, this internalized fear may prevent someone from seeking medical care.
  2. Public Stigma: This stigma refers to the general population’s opinions  about behaviors associated with people who have a certain disease. In other words, this is a negative cultural context that surrounds a disease. This can vary greatly between countries and cultures, so it’s important to recognize that the public stigma may not be universal.
  3. Structural Stigma: This refers to the social institutions that reflect and reinforce the stigmatization of diseases. For example, structural stigma may manifest as a lack of resources for care, like a limited number of doctors in marginalized communities. One of the most prominent manifestations of structural stigma is the criminalization of certain behaviors associated with specific diseases. With HIV, many countries criminalize sex work and intravenous drug use and stigmatize people who engage in these behaviors. This stigmatization may prevent individuals from receiving care for fear of arrest or punishment. On the other hand, stigmatized individuals may “go underground” and engage in even riskier behaviors, like sharing needles, to avoid police discovery.

Combating Stigma and Providing Care

McLaughlin explains that in the context of global health, it is important to understand the syndemic (occurring simultaneously) nature of stigma and disease. These two aspects are “correlating challenges that the global health community has to be able to respond to.”

For McLaughlin, responding to stigma requires prioritizing the needs and experiences of stigmatized people. This might mean allowing them to speak openly about the daily struggles they face due to stigma. It’s also essential that “the people who are most impacted and know the day-to-day challenges of stigma are at the root of planning.” This ensures that interventions and projects actually meet the needs of stigmatized communities. If people do need to change their behaviors, this message should come from respected community leaders. This will ensure that people trust public health advice, making them more likely to follow it.

Though the stigmatization of disease is a powerful force, viruses don’t pick and choose whom they infect. Association between certain types of people or places, behaviors and disease develop from fear and misinformation. Ultimately, it’s essential to question these associations and dismantle stigma by listening to stigmatized groups.

– Paige Wallace
Photo: Flickr

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Malala Fund Created to Support Girls’ Education

malala-fund-created-to-support-girls-education
In October 2012, the Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old girl, for speaking up about women’s rights and education. She survived the brutal attempt on her life and in response, became determined to help every child in the world receive an education. To help make this dream a reality, she started the Malala Fund.

The Malala Fund was created with the help of an already established non-profit, Vital Voices, which encourages women’s empowerment and leadership. The Malala Fund’s aim is to support education for children across the globe.

Since the attempt on her life, much of the world has stood up in support of Malala. She even had a song titled Ricochet (Malala’s Song) written about her by a girl named Samantha Anne Martin; all of the profit created from the song on iTunes will go towards the Malala Fund. On February 4th, Malala released a video stating that she was still alive and doing well after various surgeries, and that now she will dedicate her life to serving girls across the world who need her and need help attaining an education.

Malala’s father has told ABC that he believes his daughter should serve as an inspiration to the children of the world. Perhaps he is right, because despite the fact she almost died for supporting the right woman to receive an education, she has become even more committed to the cause following her recovery.

Two important organizations, The United Nations Foundation and Girl Up, have given their support to the Malala Fund and her cause. Some militants still wish to harm Malala but nonetheless, Malala has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and remains optimistic.

To donate to the Malala Fund, see the Democracy in Action webpage.

– Corina Balsamo

Sources: ABC News, Vital Voices, New York Times
Photo: The Daily Beast