Poverty Defined
The most widely held and understood definition of extreme poverty, established by the World Bank, defines poverty in strictly economic terms — earning less than $1.90 a day.
Worldwide 600 million children live in extreme poverty. Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.The poor themselves describe poverty in terms of suffering relationships.
The most widely held and understood definition of extreme poverty, established by the World Bank, defines poverty in strictly economic terms — earning less than $1.90 a day.
Worldwide 600 million children live in extreme poverty. Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.The poor themselves describe poverty in terms of suffering relationships.
26.06.2025
(98) Doctor Deficit Straining Sierra Leone's Healthcare
Overwhelmed hospitals, overworked doctors and long wait times for patients. That’s the daily reality in Sierra Leone, which now has only 800 doctors left for eight million people, as health professionals leave the country for better opportunities abroad. Public healthcare systems are struggling too, with underfunded hospitals and demotivated staff. Coupled with rapid population growth, the gap between the number of doctors and the people who need care continues to widen.
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25.04.2025
(97) Myanmar: Thousands Remain In Crisis Weeks After Deadly Earthquakes
Thousands of families in Myanmar remain without shelter, water or medical care three weeks after deadly earthquakes struck the country, as frequent aftershocks compound the suffering of communities already battered by conflict and poverty. More than 4.3 million people urgently need clean water and sanitation, as the earthquakes severely damaged water systems, collapsed over 42,000 latrines and caused widespread power outages that have halted water pumping in many areas.
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10.03.2025
(96) Death Toll Rises To 30 In Uganda Garbage Dump Landslide
At least 30 people are feared dead, while nearly a hundred others remain missing after several villages in Uganda's eastern area were hit by landslides. Officials believe the death toll could rise further. Over a dozen have been injured and at least 40 households have been completely buried. The landslide occurred in Uganda's Bulambuli district about 300 Kilometres east of the capital Kampala.
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14.02.2025
(95) Education Crisis In Pakistan Leaves 26 Million Children Out Of School
Pakistan is facing a severe education crisis, with more than 26 million children out of school, according to official government figures - one of the highest rates in the world. Poverty is the biggest factor keeping children out of classrooms, but the problem is worsened by inadequate infrastructure and cultural barriers.
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16.01.2025
(94) 474 Homeless People Died Due To Winter Exposure In Delhi, Claims NGO
Between November 15 2024 to January 10, 2025, 474 homeless people died in Delhi due to the 'winter exposure' and unavailability of essential protective measures such as warm clothing, blankets, or adequate shelter. People living on the streets face numerous health challenges, including respiratory infections, skin ailments, arthritis flare-ups, and deteriorating mental health.
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22.11.2024
(93) Inside The Philippines’ Underground Surrogacy Industry
Driven by poverty, Filipino women are offering themselves as surrogates to agencies or prospective parents. The underground surrogacy industry is thriving although surrogacy is taboo in this highly religious nation. Meanwhile, reproductive health clinics are discreetly providing surrogacy services at great risk to their own business. There are no laws that specifically govern the practice in the country, but a woman who gives birth to a child is recognised as its legal mother.
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07.10.2024
(92) Record Number of Migrants Cross the English Channel In a Single Day
A record 973 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel in a single day this year, according to official figures. The record surge in Channel migrants crossed on Saturday, in 17 small boats. It takes the total number of migrants reaching UK waters so far this year to 27,612 in more than 500 dinghies. Saturday's record day of arrivals came on the same day that another four migrants, including a young child, died while trying to cross the Channel.
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05.09.2024
(91) Combatting Learning Poverty
Learning Poverty is a term refers to the inability of a child to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. What is surprising is that the World Bank considers learning poverty as one of the key indicators of a country’s economic growth. Children across the world face barriers preventing them from accessing quality education. This Learning Poverty affects almost 650 million children worldwide, stifling their life chances.
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03.08.2024
(90) Leftover Emeralds: The Dream Of Colombia's Poor Miners
One man's trash can very well become another man's treasure in the Colombian town of Muzo, the emerald capital of the world. In this small community in the foothills of the eastern Andes mountains, multinational mining company Esmeralda Mining Services (EMS) deposits tons of earth it has processed from its operations into a cage-like enclosure. A few times a month, EMS allows hundreds of miners -- known as "guaqueros" or treasure hunters -- to search through the detritus and take home any precious stones they find.
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19.07.2024
(89) Ugandan Entrepreneur's Solar Bags Help 12,000 Girls Stay In School
Jamila Mayanja, an entrepreneur from Uganda, has developed an innovative initiative to enhance education and the quality of life for African girls: the Solar Smart Bag. This waterproof, solar-powered bag is made from recycled materials and contains several useful tools to help girls stay in school. Each bag is equipped with a solar panel to charge a lamp, reusable sanitary pads, an informational booklet on menstrual hygiene, and a sewing kit. The initiative has already distributed thousands of bags, and Mayanja ambitiously aims to reach one million girls across East Africa.
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07.06.2024
(88) Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey
The Darién Gap is an imposing obstacle on one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes. Over the past few years, it has become a leading transit point for migrants in search of work and safety in the United States, as authorities have cracked down on other routes by air and sea. According to the Panamanian government, a record number of more than 520,000 migrants crossed the Darién Gap en route to the United States in 2023, over double the number reported the year before and up from just a couple hundred people annually a decade ago.
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08.05.2024
(87) 282 Million People Faced Acute Hunger in 2023 , UN report.
Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released Wednesday. Máximo Torero, chief economist for the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, said 705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5, the highest level, on a scale of hunger determined by international experts — the highest number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year.
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03.04.2024
(86) Boiling Weeds, Eating Animal Feed: People In Gaza Stave Off Hunger Any Way They Can
Israel’s siege of Gaza has created what aid officials are referring to as “man-made starvation”, with the territory facing the threat of mass deaths from famine in the coming weeks. Children are already dying from hunger. As part of its devastating war strategy against Hamas, Israel has restricted shipments of food and medicine to just a fraction of what Palestinian civilians need to survive. Israeli authorities turn back some aid deliveries at the border because of items they claim to be of dual use, meaning they can be used for civilian but also military purposes, such as for making explosives.
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10.03.2024
(85) Nigeria Facing the Worst Economic Crisis in Its 63-year History
Many poor Nigerians have had to skip meals and give up products such as meat, eggs and milk. With annual inflation nearing 30% and a currency in freefall, Nigeria is facing one of its worst economic crises in years, provoking nationwide outrage and protests. The Nigerian naira hit a new all-time low against the U.S. dollar on both the official and parallel foreign exchange markets on Monday, sliding to almost 1,600 against the greenback on the official market from around 900 at the start of the year.
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28.02.2024
(84) Ghana's Economic Crisis Deepens: Soaring Inflation and Poverty
Ghana's low-income households and working class are feeling the effects of the country's worst economic crisis in decades. Ghana is currently grappling with severe economic challenges that have pushed its population into deeper poverty and worsened the cost of living. General inflation has hit 40.7%, with food inflation reaching an unprecedented 122%. Fuel prices have seen a staggering 600% increase within just two months, severely impacting daily life and business operations.
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18.01.2024
(83) Hong Kong’s Wealth Gap Reaches Record High of 57 times: Over 1.36 Million People Struggling In Poverty
Oxfam Hong Kong released its ‘Hong Kong Poverty Report 2023: A Polarised Recovery in the Post-Pandemic Era,’ on the state of poverty in Hong Kong today, revealing that the wealth gap has surged from 34.3 times in 2019 to a staggering 57.7 times in the first quarter of this year, reflecting the severity of poverty in the city. The organisation recommends annual adjustments to the minimum wage and the promotion of a living wage to ensure income security and attract potential labour force.
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20.12.2023
(82) Pakistan Chulahs: The Smokeless Stoves Empowering Women And Changing Lives
Low-cost smokeless stoves is helping to improve women’s health and alleviate poverty in rural Pakistan, where four in every five households lack access to a clean, safe cooking resource. Smoke from traditional open-flame wood-burning stoves can cause serious respiratory infections and eye problems, while food cooked on these floor-mounted stoves is easily contaminated leading to diarrhoea, especially in children. The Chulah programme teaches marginalised women to build a hygienic, sustainable, smokeless earthen stove, which not only improves their health but also empowers them to earn a living by marketing and building stoves in other villages.
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14.11.2023
(81) 1.7 Million Afghan Refugees Forced To Leave Pakistan Say They Have Nothing
Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban in 2021 scrambled to leave Pakistan on Tuesday, November 2023 , hours before the end of a deadline after which Islamabad plans to arrest or deport undocumented immigrants, a move that has drawn international criticism and fears of a humanitarian crisis.
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14.10.2023
(80) Ininnawa: Indonesia’s Remote Island Nurses
A retired nurse volunteers to return to remote Indonesian islands to help her patients during a healthcare crisis. The world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia, relies on dedicated nurses and volunteers to deliver care to patients living on remote islands. Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands. Nurse Rabiah works for long periods away from her family on the islands of the Flores Sea, 30 hours away by sea. But it is time for her to take a step back from her duties.
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15.09.2023
(79) Argentina Inflation Hits 124% As Cost-Of-Living Crisis Sharpens
Argentina's annual inflation rate shot up to 124.4% in August and hit its highest level since 1991, stoking a painful cost-of-living crisis in the South American country. It is pushing poverty levels past 40% and stoking anger at the traditional political elite ahead of October elections. A central bank analyst poll, released after the data, forecast inflation would end the year above 169%, a sharp hike from its estimate a month earlier of 141%. It predicted monthly inflation of 12% in September and 9.1% in October.
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09.08.2023
(78) 122 Million More People Were Hungry in 2022 And 813 Million In Total.
The number of people facing hunger around the world has increased by more than 122 million from 2019, according to the newly released annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, This translates into roughly 9.2 percent of the global population experiencing hunger (measured as prevalence of undernourishment) in 2022, up from 7.9 percent prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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22.06.2023
(77) World's Slum Populations Set To Surge As Housing Crisis Bites
The UN says 3 billion people will live in slums by 2050 unless the world tackles poverty and inequality. More than one billion people globally reside in overcrowded urban slums such as Kibera, where they live a precarious existence, struggling to access basic amenities such as adequate housing, water, sanitation, power and waste collection, said the United Nations’ agency for urban development, UN-Habitat. This figure is projected to reach three billion people by 2050 - as populations grow and more people migrate to cities in search of better opportunities - presenting a major challenge for many governments across the world.
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13.05.2023
(76) Title 42 Ends With 90,000 Migrants Waiting Near U.S.-Mexico Border
In the lead-up to the end of Title 42, which was triggered by the expiration of the national COVID-19 public health emergency, border officials have already seen a spike in migration, recording around 10,000 daily apprehensions on some days this week. Title 42 was created to address public health and social welfare and grants the government the ability to take emergency action in numerous ways, including to “stop the introduction of communicable diseases.” While the code has been in place for decades, it was used widely beginning in March 2020 by the administration of then-President Donald Trump in order to regulate border crossings under the premise of increased COVID-19 precautions.
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17.04.2023
(75) Millions Are Trapped In Modern-Day Slavery At Brick Kilns In Pakistan
Families in Pakistan work dangerous jobs at brick kilns to pay off loans they take out from kiln owners. Many never escape the cycle of debt. Millions of people in Pakistan are trapped making bricks to pay off loans borrowed from kiln owners. But working at kilns is dangerous. Workers, including young children, inhale dust and toxic fumes. Workers often don't know the terms of their contracts and say their debts keep growing.
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26.02.2023
(74) Plastics For Change Foundation India Donates House To Plastic Recyclers
The Plastics For Change India Foundation has been working to develop and improve the quality of life of informal waste-collectors across India. the waste -pickers/ waste-collectors- are the backbone of the solid waste management system in India, providing a valuable service to society and contributing to environmental sustainability. Millions of people in India make a living collecting, sorting, recycling and selling materials that someone else has thrown away. In India, waste-pickers provide the only form of solid waste collection, providing widespread public benefits and to environment sustainability.
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02.01.2023
(73) 8.1 Million People In Thailand Poor, 4.4 Million Below Poverty Line
In the education sector, it was also found that more children have dropped out of school, especially those who are not living with their parents. Citing its Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) which identifies four dimensions of poverty, namely education, health, quality of living and financial stability, it said 8.1 million Thais are suffering from poverty. “As many as 36.9% of them are the elderly, while 51.5% are those who do not contribute to the economy, like children, the mentally ill, the ill or the unemployed,” NESDC said.
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09.12.2022
(72) One Third Of The World’s School-Age Children Have No Internet Access At Home
Globally, among school-age children from richest households, 58 per cent have internet connection at home, compared with only 16 per cent from the poorest households. The same disparity exists across country income level as well. Less than 1 in 20 school-age children from low-income countries have internet connection at home, compared with nearly 9 in 10 from high-income countries. The gap in the mobile broadband adoption and internet use between developed and developing countries is especially large, putting the almost 1.3 billion school-age children mostly from low-income countries and rural regions at risk of missing out on their education because they lack access to the internet at home.
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05.11.2022
(71) Mobile School On Train Tracks Helps Underprivileged Philippine Children Get An Education
Among the nearly 27 million children that call the Philippines their home, there's a large number that still don't have adequate access to education. Often times, where they live contributes to those difficulties, especially when far from urban centers. According to a 2019 situational analysis by UNICEF, an estimated 2.85 million children in the Philippines aged five to 15 are out of school. A group of volunteers is seeking to change that in the form of a 'traveling' school – a wooden trolley fitted with a whiteboard and other learning materials – that can be manually pushed down a train track, being able to pass through various villages.
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22.09.2022
(70) One Person Dying Of Hunger Every 4 Seconds
In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, 238 organisations from 75 countries, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Plan International expressed outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels. Pointing out that as many as 19,700 people are estimated to be dying of hunger every day, the NGOs said.
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15.09.2022
(69) Poorest Pakistanis Face Heavy Cost Of Floods
Floods have ruined crops and homes across Pakistan, leaving many of the country's poor struggling to restart their lives. Floodwater covered a third of the land, affecting 33 million people and creating an estimated $10 billion in damage. But funds for recovery are tight as villagers struggle to meet basic needs. Across Pakistan, millions of families had lost their homes and belongings, crops, animals and even relatives, with many struggling just to find dry patches of land to erect tarpaulin shelters.
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05.08.2022
(68) Somalia’s Drought Leaves Nearly 7 Million Desperate With Hunger
The UN says nearly 7.1 million Somalis, almost half of the country’s population, face acute levels of food insecurity. Most Somalis are pastoralists, relying on their livestock for food. But according to the UN, about three million livestock animals have perished due to the continuing drought and more than 805,000 people have been displaced. Nearly 7.1 million Somalis, almost half of the country’s population, face acute levels of food insecurity.
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30.07.2022
(67) How Urban Gardening Can Help Kampala's Poor
Although over two-thirds of Uganda’s population live in rural areas, populations are exploding in urban areas too. IN Kampala, Uganda's capital, there are over 12 million people, and land is scarce. To meet the growing population's need for food, some people are growing vegetables using a technique called "vertical farming". A global analysis found that urban agriculture could yield up to 10 percent of many food crops—good news for its future as a force for sustainability. This will reach the urban poor who make up almost half of the capital's population.
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22.06.2022
(66) World Refugee Day 2022 : Global Displacement Hits a Record 100m
While the Ukraine war significantly increased global displacement, the figures have more than doubled over the past two decades and have risen each of the past 10 years . The UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report 2021, published last Thursday, found that by the end of 2021, 89.3 million individuals worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, violent conflict, human rights violations, or events “seriously disturbing public order.” This figure, which has risen each of the past 10 years, is more than double the 42.7 million people displaced at the end of 2001 two decades earlier. In last year’s Global Trends report, UNHCR predicted that “the question is no longer if forced displacement will exceed 100 million people, but rather when.” Sure enough, as of May 23, 2022, forced displacement globally reached over 100 million people. This means one in every 70 people on earth has been forced to flee their homes.
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03.06.2022
(65) Taxing Extreme Wealth Could Lift 2.3 Billion People Out of Poverty
A new analysis published by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found a shocking rise in global wealth among the world's richest people despite deepening inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally: 3.6 million people have over $5 million in wealth, with a combined wealth of $75.3 trillion. There are 2,660 billionaires with a total combined wealth of $13.76 trillion. (Forbes, November 30, 2021). An annual tax on the world's richest would be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the whole world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all the citizens of low and lower middle-income countries (3.6 billion people).
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27.05.2022
(64) 50-foot 'Coffin Homes' Highlight The Scale of Inequality In Hong Kong
House prices in Hong Kong are among the highest in the world, but it's also one of the world's most unequal cities. Its poorest residents have been priced out of the property market: Hong Kong's poor residents have just 50 square feet of living space per person, according to a new study. That is the equivalent of half a car-parking space, and less space than prisoners in the city-state's maximum security jails enjoy. Perhaps the grimmest illustration of Hong Kong's housing shortage is its "coffin homes," the poorly-lit, minuscule, and often unhygienic apartments occupied by its very poorest citizens.
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26.04.2022
(63) Congo Nun Overcomes Blackouts With Homemade Hydroelectric Plant
Sister Alphonsine Ciza spends most of her day in gumboots, her white veil tucked under a builder’s hat, manning the micro-hydroelectric plant she built to overcome daily electricity cuts in her town of Miti in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.She works around the clock with a team of nuns and engineers, greasing machinery and checking the dials of a generator that is fed from a nearby reservoir and lights up a convent, a church, two schools and a clinic free of charge. Without the plant, residents would only have electricity for a few hours two or three days a week.
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02.04.2022
(62) Sri Lanka Crisis: 13-Hour Daily Power Cuts, Severe Food And Medicines Shortages, As Country Faces Worst Economic Collapse Since 1948
The Indian Ocean nation has been battling a severe foreign exchange crunch, the worst since its independence in 1948, leading to an acute shortage of foreign currency to pay for imports of food, medicine and fuel. The cash-strapped South Asian nation with a population of 22 million has been forced to ration electricity for its people, publications stopped newspaper printing and schools had to halt written exams, while soldiers had to be deployed at hundreds of state-run gas stations amid shortages.
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06.03.2022
(61) Lava Mae Provides Mobile Showers For Homeless People
Lava Mae was founded on the belief that all people deserve to be treated with dignity. For unhoused individuals, having access to a hot shower is the first step in reigniting a feeling of dignity and fighting the vicious cycle of homelessness. In 2013, there were only 7 public shower facilities for the 3,500 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. These traditional bathrooms are not the most effective, since one of the biggest challenges for the homeless is protecting their belongings while they go to appointments, shower, or find food.
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25.01.2022
(60) Entrepreneur Brings Clean, Affordable Energy for Sierra Leone's Rural Areas
Jeremiah Thoronka and Optim Energy, the 21-year old Sierra Leonean has harnessed piezoelectricity to create a sustainable source of electricity for rural communities. Simply put, this form of electricity makes use of kinetic or movement energy when pressure is applied to certain materials. Thoronka's design uses heat, movement and pressure. It absorbs the vibrations from pedestrians and traffic to generate an electric current and create clean and affordable power. This invention won Thoronka the Varkey Foundation's Chegg Global Student Prize 2021 in November.
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31.12.2021
(59) Turning Human Waste Into Organic Fertilizers
Imagine living right next to the world’s second biggest lake and still not have access to clean drinking water or decent sanitation. The central African country Uganda lies on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest lake. It does bring prosperity through fishing and water transport, but 24 million people lack drinking water and 29 million people lack sanitation. A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human excreta by a biological process called composting. The ecofriendly toilet is used by some of the community members who do not have a sanitation facility.
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27.11.2021
(58) 2.4 Million Orphans In Uganda Due To The Extreme Poverty and Civil Conflict
There are more orphans in Uganda than anywhere else in the world — over 2.4 million children — due to the AIDS epidemic, extreme poverty, and decades of civil conflict. Masaka Kids Africana sponsored children have gone through some of the worst experiences a child could face — but through dance and song and sharing their love of Uganda, these children connect to each other and the world. They see their own potential — they have hope for their future. The Masaka Kids Africana is composed of African children, from the age of 2 and up. Many have lost one or both parents through the devastation of war, famine and disease. They represent all the children of a continent and they demonstrate the potential of African children to become strong leaders for a better future in their land.
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20.11.2021
(57) 300 Million Children Around The World Don't have Shoes: Kenton Lee Fights Soil-Transmitted Diseases With "Shoe That Grows"
Children outgrow their shoes quickly. That often leaves kids who live in abject poverty no option but to walk around barefoot. An estimated 300 million children around the world don’t have shoes and are prone to suffer from soil-transmitted diseases and parasites. Kenton Lee has a practical solution — a shoe that grows as the child does. The shoes can expand up to five sizes and last up to five years. They can be adjusted at three places: the front with a hook and holes like a waist belt, the sides with Velcro, and the back with a buckle. The bottom is made of compressed rubber-like tire rubber, and the top is high-quality leather.
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12.11.2021
(56) Plastic Surgeon Has Performed Over 37,000 Free Cleft Palate Surgeries
Plastic Surgeon Dr.Subodh Kumar Singh had conducted free cleft-palate surgeries of more than 37,000 children and adults as a part of his "Smile Train Project" , a global initiative focused on cleft surgery to perform free surgeries. His work served an enormous number of patients from all parts of India and especially eastern states. Cleft palate is a common birth condition. It can occur alone or as part of a genetic condition/syndrome. Symptoms arise from the opening in the mouth, causing difficulty in speaking and eating. Dr Singh’s service to the poor has earned him wide recognitions.
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29.10.2021
(55) 70% Of The World's Population Do Not Have Access To Electric Washing Machines
Handwashing clothes sounds like a simple task but for many women around the world, it poses a significant obstacle to their wellbeing and livelihood. 70% of the world’s population do not have access to an electric washing machine and resort to handwashing clothes. If there is access, infrequent electricity and water supplies ensure washing machines are not a sustainable option. The Washing Machine Project is a grassroots social enterprise dedicated to alleviating the burden of handwashing clothes and the often unconsidered consequences this unpaid labour has on people’s lives.
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08.09.2021
(54) "WaterLight" Converts Saltwater And Urine Into Electricity
The world needs a clean energy revolution because billions of people do not have access to electricity. Colombian renewable energy startup E-Dina had developed a wireless lantern called WaterLight, that produces electrical energy from a renewable natural resource such as saltwater or urine.The portable device needs to be filled with 500 milliliters of seawater – or urine in emergency situations – to generate light for 45 days. This, thanks to the ionization of an electrolyte composed of saltwater, which reacts with magnesium and copper plates on the interior of the lamp to produce electricity.
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04.07.2021
(53) Covid-19 Pandemic Fueling Child Labour : 1 in 10 Children Worldwide Were Engaged In Labour
The unprecedented economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing children into exploitative and dangerous child labour. Many children feel they have no choice but to work to help their families survive, but a rise in child labor is not an inevitable consequence of the pandemic. Governments and donors should prioritize cash allowances to enable families to maintain an adequate standard of living without resorting to child labor. Children described working long, grueling hours for little pay after their parents lost jobs or income due to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. Many described hazardous working conditions, and some reported violence, harassment, and pay theft.
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09.06.2021
(52) More Than 1 Million People Facing Starvation as Madagascar’s Amid Worst Drought in 40 years
People eating termites and clay as UN says acute malnutrition has almost doubled this year in Madagascar, the worst drought in 40 years has left more than a million people facing a year of desperate food shortages. The island will produce less than half its usual harvest in the coming months because of low rains, prolonging a hunger crisis already affecting half the Grand Sud area’s population, the UN estimates. According to the Famine Early Warning System Network, most poor families have to rely on foraging for wild foods and leaves that are difficult to eat and can be dangerous for children and pregnant women.
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01.05.2021
(51) India Slum Residents Fear COVID Explosion In Cramped Conditions
Densely packed slums like Kirti Nagar sprawl across the capital's suburbs and are home to tens of thousands of impoverished families for whom securing drinking water is a daily struggle and hygienic living conditions a pipedream. "We are all living at the mercy of God, and if something happens to us, no one is there to look after us," said Kirti Nagar resident Ram Niwas Chandrawanshi. In Kirti Nagar, a ramshackle settlement by a railway track where Kumar lives, social distancing is not an option for residents who share single rooms with large families, navigate narrow alleyways and use the same toilets as their neighbours.
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14.03.2021
(50) Wheels to Africa – Sending Bikes to Those Who Need them Most !
Wheels to Africa is a youth engagement project that collects bicycles for needy communities in Africa and provides leadership opportunities for American youth. For the past nine years, teens across the Washington, D.C., area have organized events to collect used bicycles and to raise the money to ship them to Africa. Once in Africa, the bikes are transforming lives: helping college students make their way to classes, aid workers deliver medical supplies and farmers reach markets faster.
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02.01.2021
(49) The Doctor Who Charges Only 3 Cents to Save Lives.
Dr.Ravindra Kolhe is a doctor and an Indian activist who has spent more than 37 years of his life improving the lives of people living in the tribal areas of Melghat, Maharashtra. Dr.Kolhe is famous across the country of India as an "Rs.1 doctor" as he charges Rs.1 or USD 3 cents for his medical assistance. Dr.Ravindra Kolhe is working with his wife, Dr.Smita Kolhe to look after the tribal people and help them in leading healthier lives. Dr. Ravindra Kolhe and Dr. Smita Kolhe have transformed the lives of the tribals of Melghat. They have improved health outcomes in the area and helped the villagers gain access to electricity, roads and primary health centres.
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16.12.2020
(48) Turning Trash Into Light , 1.1 Billion Are Living In The Dark.
The simple act of filling recycled plastic bottles with water and chlorine has allowed light to enter millions of previously unlit homes around the globe. What's more, this innovation has saved low-income families up to 40% on electricity bills. Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic, his invention was very easy to produce — it only required a half-liter plastic bottle filled with water and 10 milliliters of chlorine. And with the bottle fitted into a small hole made in the roof, sunlight could then be reflected into those places it did not normally reach. These types of sustainable “light bulbs” have a lifespan of 10 years and do not require servicing over that period.
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16.10.2020
(47) COVID-19 Pandemic Pushes Up to 150 Million More People Into Extreme Poverty
The World Bank has warned up to 150 million people are set to fall into extreme poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the new extreme poor will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic has halted years of progress against global extreme poverty and is expected to rise this year for the first time in over two decades. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.90 (£1.50) a day. Before the pandemic struck, the extreme poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9% in 2020. But now it is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world's population this year.
"1 in 10 people on earth with less than USD 1.90 a day" "1 in 10 people on earth with less than USD 3.20 a day" "2 in 10 people on earth with less than USD 5.50 a day" |
13.09.2020
(46) COVID-19: Ugandans' Children, Single Mothers Struggle for Survival
With Uganda's population increasing, demand for accommodation and infrastructure is also on the rise. Construction companies often take advantage of cheap materials, like the stone produced by these workers. But crushing stones by hand is causing serious health concerns among workers as accidents and injuries are very common here. Many has been working here since 2008. They say without any protective gear, many of their colleagues have been hospitalised.
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13.07.2020
(45) Yemen: Millions of Children Facing Deadly Hunger, Amidst Aid Shortages and COVID-19.
More than eight million people, nearly half of them children, depend directly on the agency for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), amid ongoing conflict, cholera outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the report, the agency alerts for almost 10 million children without proper access to water and sanitation, as well as for 7.8 million children without access to education, following school closures. Widespread absence from class and a worsening economy could put children at greater risk of child labour, recruitment into armed groups and child marriage, the report highlights.
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27.06.2020
(44)‘No Food, No Water, No Masks and No Gloves': Migrant Farm Workers in Spain at Crisis Point.
Migrant workers on Spanish farms that provide fruit and vegetables for UK supermarkets are trapped in dire conditions under lockdown, living in cardboard and plastic shelters without food or running water. Thousands of workers, many of them undocumented, live in settlements between huge greenhouses on farms in the southern Spanish provinces of Huelva and Almeria, key regions for European supply chains. Failure of employers provide basic rights has for years created dire circumstances for the inhabitants of the settlements. Now, the pandemic has pushed the situation to crisis point.
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14.06.2020
(43) Mobile Camel Library Keeps Ethiopian Children From Forced Labor.
In a remote part of Ethiopia, one charity has come up with a novel way of protecting children that are out of school because of the coronavirus pandemic from forced labor – camels bearing books. Ethiopia closed its schools in mid-March and sent more than 26 million children home, where experts say they are at greater risk for forced labor and child marriage. But in the country's eastern Somali region, more than 20 camels have been deployed to carry wooden boxes filled with storybooks to help thousands of children in remote villages to continue their education.
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31.05.2020
(42) Rohingya Refugee Camp Hit By Covid-19 Outbreak.
Some 15,000 Rohingya refugees are now under Covid-19 coronavirus quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, officials said on Monday, as the number of confirmed infections rose. Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement to the area in April 2020. It comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection. "Social distancing is almost impossible in the camps. There is very little awareness about Covid-19 disease among the refugees, despite efforts by aid agencies." The lack of information is exacerbated by local authorities having cut off access to the internet in September to combat, they said, drug traffickers and other criminals.
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04.04.2020
(41) In Poor Countries, The Lockdown Cure Could be Worse than Disease.
To state the obvious, it is harder to impose a lockdown in a poor country than in a rich one. In huge cities such as South Africa, Lagos, Mumbai or Manila, instructing people to stay at home is to confine millions to cramped housing. In the slums where up to half the population may live, people could be crammed six or eight to a room, with no easy access to water, or even soap. In South Africa, signs of social stress are everywhere. Police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to enforce social distancing in the crowded townships, where the black majority still lives a quarter of a century after the end of apartheid.
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01.04.2020
(40)‘We Will Starve Here’: India’s Poor Flee Cities in Mass Exodus.
Tired, hungry day-wage laborers march to villages on foot and the migration risks spreading virus across India during lockdown. In small groups and large crowds, through inner-city lanes and down interstate highways, hundreds of thousands of India’s poorest are slowly making a desperate journey on foot back to their villages in a mass exodus unseen since the days immediately after India’s independence in 1947. For many, it’s a matter of life and death. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s order last Tuesday to lock down the country for 21 days to prevent the spread of Covid-19 has dried up work in urban areas, leaving many rural migrants who keep the city moving while making less than $2 a day -- construction workers, handymen, food sellers, truck drivers and household help -- suddenly wondering how they’ll pay rent or buy food.
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17.02.2020
(39)This Man Feeds 1200 Orphans Every Month Through His Viral Food Channel.
Khwaja Moinuddin is a former journalist, who has worked with a prestigious Telugu channel and is now following his passion for making others happy with his culinary skills. From delicious curries to mouth-watering cakes, he makes everything in large quantities with a motive. Their motive behind large quantities is to feed as many kids as possible. And for that, they started approaching all sorts of orphanages in the city. Every month, they feed around 1200 kids of various orphanages.
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23.01.2020
(38)More Than 4 Million People in Canada Struggle to Get Enough to Eat.
Canadians who cannot afford regular meals are more likely to die early, according to a study released on Monday, showing that people are dying from hunger even in wealthy countries. The study of more than half a million Canadian adults found that hunger was linked to raised mortality from all causes of death except cancer. But infectious diseases, unintentional injuries and suicide were twice as likely to kill those who faced severe problems finding enough food as those who do not, said the paper, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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17.12.19
(37)Is Your Phone Tainted by the Misery of the 35,000 Children in Congo's Mines?
The field research shows that children as young as six are among those risking their lives amid toxic dust to mine cobalt for the world’s big electronics firms. This cobalt is found in every lithium-ion rechargeable battery on the planet – from smartphones to tablets to laptops to electric vehicles. It is also used to fashion superalloys to manufacture jet engines, gas turbines and magnetic steel. You cannot send an email, check social media, drive an electric car or fly home for the holidays without using this cobalt. this cobalt is not awash in cerulean hues. Instead, it is smeared in misery and blood.
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14.12.19
(36) 1.4 million Venezuelans had Crossed into Colombia on Foot to Escape Poverty
The Venezuela humanitarian crisis is projected to become the largest refugee crisis in the world by 2020. As Venezeula’s neighbor, Colombia has become home to more Venezuelan migrants than any other country in Latin America. The most vulnerable of these Venezuelan migrants are arriving in Colombia on foot; thousands cross the border into Colombia every day. Some plan to walk from the Colombian border to Ecuador, Peru, or Chile. These migrants are called the caminantes, or the walkers.
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25.10.19
(35)Demand for Cheap Labour Driving Human Trafficking Tragedy of 39 Deaths Driven by Debt.
The grim discovery of 39 Chinese nationals, who died as they were being smuggled in the back of a truck into the UK, has put the spotlight on human trafficking and slavery, and experts say the demand for cheap labour around the world means it's unlikely to dent this deadly trade. The victims suffocated when an air vent was shut to avoid being spotted at immigration checks, with the driver, Dutchman Perry Wacker, later jailed for 14 years for manslaughter.
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02.09.19
(34)An Estimated 2% of the World's Population (160 million) are Homeless .
Homelessness is a mark of failure for communities in providing basic security. Based on national reports, about 2 percent of the world’s population may be homeless and another 20 percent lacks adequate housing. Reasons for homelessness include “shortages of affordable housing, privatization of civic services, investment speculation in housing, unplanned and rapid urbanization, as well as poverty, unemployment and family breakdown. Also contributing is a lack of services and facilities for those suffering from mental illness, alcoholism or substance abuse and displacement caused by conflicts, natural disasters and government housing policies.” Even people with jobs can struggle to keep homes.
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23.08.19
(33)Poorer than We Think: Malaysia's Poverty Levels Far Higher than Reported, U.N. Expert Says
Malaysia’s claim to having the world’s lowest national poverty rate is inaccurate, as the official figure vastly undercounts poverty, says United Nations human rights expert, Philip Alston. The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights said Malaysia uses an unduly low poverty line that does not reflect the cost of living and excludes vulnerable populations from its official figures. He also said the official numbers relied on outdated measures, with the poverty line remaining at the same level for decades despite increasingly high costs of living.
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06.07.19
"Climate Apartheid",
(32)-where the rich pay to save themselves, "while the rest of the world is left to suffer".
A key warning was that the world's poor are likely to be hardest hit by rising temperatures - and the potential food shortages and conflict that could accompany such a change. Developing nations are expected to suffer at least 75% of the costs of climate change – despite the fact that the poorer half of the world's population generate just 10% of emissions. Those "who have contributed the least to emissions... will be the most harmed," , warning that the effects could undo 50 years of progress on poverty reduction.
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01.07.19
(31) 600 million people facing acute water shortage in India.
India is battling a brutal heatwave that has killed more than 130 people this summer. The heatwave is exacerbating an already alarming reality - with more than 600 million people facing an acute water shortage. The world's second-most populous country is running out of water. Huge number of people across India are on the front lines of a nationwide water crisis. A total of 21 major cities are poised to run out of groundwater next year, according to a 2018 report by government-run think tank NITI Aayog.
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18.06.19
(30)‘Solar Mama’ Edina Levitico on Bringing Solar Power to Malawi Village.
Just 11% of Malawi’s population is estimated to have access to electricity. In 2016 Levitico was one of eight women to take a six-month course in solar engineering at India’s Barefoot College. She took what she learned back to her home in Kainja Village and powered classrooms with three other women who went through the program and helped transforms at least 200 homes from candle to solar power. 50.7% of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line. Levitico says she earns a steady income installing and maintaining the panels.
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23.05.19
(29)World Day Against Child Labour 12 June.
Today, throughout the world, around 218 million children work, many full-time. They do not go to school and have little or no time to play. Many do not receive proper nutrition or care. They are denied the chance to be children. More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.
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28.03.19
(28)Six People Fall Into Extreme Poverty in Nigeria Every Minute.
Nigeria has more extremely poor people than any other nation and United Nations says Nigeria’s population will double by 2050. The estimated figure now is 87 million people, or almost half the population of Africa’s biggest oil producer, and unless something dramatic happens, it’s going to get much bigger.
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28.02.19
(27) 'Water from air' quenches threatened girls' thirst in arid Kenya .
Solar-powered panels that condense water vapour in the air could be a sustainable source of drinking water in dry areas. A centre run by the Samburu Girls Foundation - which rescues girls facing early marriage and female genital mutilation - has a new high-tech source of it. Since June, the centre, which has rescued more than 1,200 girls, has used panels that catch water vapour in the air and condense it to supply their drinking water. But now, officials at the school say, the girls no longer have to travel for water - including into communities they have left, which could put them at risk.
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16.02.19
(26)Living in Cages: The Stories Behind Hong Kong’s Housing Crisis.
In wealthy Hong Kong , the poor are living in wire cages. Hundreds of thousands of poor people are living in tiny, wire cage homes - and they are actually paying quite dearly for the privilege. An extended housing crisis has put the possibility of purchasing a home out of the reach of many — and has made the cage home a reality for Hong Kong’s poorest. Incredibly, the 16-square-foot cages rent for around $170-$190 USD, which if calculated by cost per square foot makes them more expensive than the most posh apartments in Hong Kong. Building after building, floor after floor – rooms with up to 30 cages each populate the poorest areas of the city. The United Nations calls the squalid conditions of cage homes “an insult to human dignity,”
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13.02.19
(25)Turning Fog Into Water Transforms Women's Lives in Morocco.
They are known as water guardians. Women in Southwest Morocco’s rural communities begin their trek as early as 4 a.m. and spend an average of 3.5 hours a day making multiple trips to collect water for their families. In the summer, it takes them more than four hours. Sometimes they return empty-handed because the wells are dry or their buckets broken. When available, they offer the water first to their children, elders and then the animals, often leaving the women thirsty at the end of arduous days. For girls it often means that they could not continue school, in order to help their mothers with the daily water gathering. Harvesting water from fog is an ancient and relatively straightforward technique that requires few materials and no electricity. The process consists of hanging specialized plastic nets between two tall poles to trap the tiny water droplets found in fog. When the wind pushes fog through the vertical mesh, the droplets are trapped, then drip into a gutter at the base of the unit. This pure water is collected and distributed via plastic pipes that run down the mountain into homes in nearby villages. The 870 square meters of nets installed by Dar Si Hmad collect an average of 22 liters of water per square meter every day. Credit: UN Climate Change
23.01.19
(24)The Latest Global Extreme Poverty Numbers from World Bank
Despite the progress made in reducing poverty, the number of people living in extreme poverty globally remains unacceptably high. And given global growth forecasts, poverty reduction may not be fast enough to reach the target of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
- More than half of the extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the number of poor in the region increased by 9 million, with 413 million people living on less than US$1.90 a day in 2015, more than all the other regions combined. If the trend continues, by 2030, nearly 9 out of 10 extreme poor will be in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- The work to end extreme poverty is far from over, and many challenges remain. The latest projections show that if we continue down a business-as-usual path, the world will not be able to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. That’s because it is becoming even more difficult to reach those remaining in extreme poverty, who often live in fragile countries and remote areas. Access to good schools, health care, electricity, safe water, and other critical services remains elusive for many people, often determined by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. Moreover, for those who have been able to move out of poverty, progress is often temporary: Economic shocks, food insecurity and climate change threaten to rob them of their hard-won gains and force them back into poverty. It will be critical to find ways to tackle these issues as we make progress toward 2030.
- Credit: WORLD BANK GROUP
23.01.19
(23)Fifth of UK population now in poverty amid worst decline for children and pensioners in decades.
The report, by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), shows that a total of 16 million people in the UK currently live in poverty – more than one in five of the population. More than a fifth of the population live on incomes below the poverty line after housing costs are taken into account, even though most of these households are in work. Nearly one in three children live in poverty and the use of food banks is rising. There is a sixfold difference between the income of the top 20% of households and those of the bottom 20%. Wealth inequality is much worse, with 44% of the UK’s wealth owned by just 10% of the population, five times the total wealth held by the poorest half. Credit: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
10.12.18
(22)Kenya: women and girls forced to engage in sex to survive near-famine
Women and girls in Turkana County, northern Kenya, are being exploited in exchange for money to buy food, the International Rescue Committee said today. The IRC is seeing an increase in gender-based violence, early and forced marriage, and women and girls engaging in transactional sex as a direct consequence of food insecurity caused by drought in the region. 2.6 million people are food insecure, and the area has seen a 5-fold increase in food prices, conflict around watering points, loss of livestock, and an increase in malnutrition and infectious diseases. As a result of the drought, girls as young as 12 years old are moving from rural to urban areas to engage in transactional sex. Mostly being solicited in nightclubs, they receive as little as 50 shillings (US$0.50) in exchange for sex. Many of these young girls report being the head of their household with younger siblings or even children of their own who depend on them for food. Credit: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
24.11.18
(21)Hunger, disease has killed 85,000 young children in Yemen War.
An estimated 85,000 children under age five may have died of hunger and disease since the outbreak of war in Yemen three years ago, an international aid group said Wednesday. Save the Children based its figures on mortality rates for untreated cases of severe malnutrition in young children. The United Nations says more than 1.3 million children have suffered from severe malnutrition since a Saudi-led coalition went to war with Yemen's Houthi rebels in March 2015. The war has given rise to what the UN deems the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of Yemen's people require life-saving assistance, and more than eight million are at risk of starvation. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the fighting. Credit: SBS NEWS
13.10.18
(20)Having a period is unaffordable in Kenya, yet no one wants to talk about it.
ZanaAfrica is fighting to get menstruation on the national curriculum as it’s revealed two thirds of Kenyan women and girls cannot afford sanitary pads. In Kenya, 65% of women and girls are unable to afford sanitary pads. “When people earn less than two bucks a day, is a family going to [get] bread, milk and food, or a girl’s sanitary pads?” says ZanaAfrica. Access to sanitary products is of limited help if schools don’t have the supporting infrastructure, such as separate bathrooms for girls with doors and locks for privacy. In rural areas of Kenya, only 32% of schools have a private place for girls to change their sanitary products. Many teachers are also uncomfortable talking about or teaching menstruation. ZanaAfrica will distribute a variety of sanitary products and will pilot Nia teen magazine , to teach girls about menstruation and reproductive health. Credit: ZanaAfrica
22.9.18
(19)KNOW YOUR WORLD: FACTS ABOUT WORLD HUNGER
Today there are 821 million people who do not have enough to eat. This is more than the 795 million in 2016, although still down from about 900 million in 2010. Nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to under-nutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year. Globally, 155 million children under 5 still suffer from stunting. In 2016, about two out of every four stunted children lived in South Asia and one in three in sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: Unifeed
18.9.18
(18)U.S. CEOs now earn 312 times the average worker's wage, figures show
The chief executives of America’s top 350 companies earned 312 times more than their workers on average last year, according to a new report published Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute. The rise came after the bosses of America’s largest companies got an average pay rise of 17.6% in 2017, taking home an average of $18.9m in compensation while their employees’ wages stalled, rising just 0.3% over the year. Credit: Economic Policy Institute
28.8.18
(17)Half the world's schools lack clean water, toilets and handwashing.
Nearly half the world's schools lack clean drinking water, toilets and handwashing facilities, putting millions of children at risk of disease, experts warned. Almost 900 million children have to contend with a lack of basic hygiene facilities during their education, putting their health at risk and meaning some have to miss school. A lack of safe water and sanitation facilities can cause dehydration, illness, and even death. But many children are forced to risk their health to take part in classes, according to the report produced jointly by the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF and the WHO, the first to look specifically at provision in schools. It found nearly a third of primary and secondary schools lacked a safe and reliable drinking water supply, affecting nearly 570 million children. Nearly 20 percent of schools had no safe drinking water at all. Just over a third of schools lacked adequate toilet facilities, affecting more than 620 million children. Almost one in five primary schools and one in eight secondary schools were considered to have no sanitation. Nearly half lacked proper handwashing facilities, essential for helping prevent the spread of infections and disease. Nearly 900 million children were affected, the report found. Sub-Saharan Africa, East and Southeast Asia had some of the worst facilities.
Credit: United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF https://data.unicef.org/resources/wash-in-schools/
Credit: United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF https://data.unicef.org/resources/wash-in-schools/
28.8.18
(16)Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money.
The World Bank Organisation describes poverty in this way:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”
Facts about World Poverty
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”
Facts about World Poverty
- 80% of humanity live on less that $10 a day
- The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income
- According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.
- Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2014. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide
- There are 2.2 billion children in the world and 1 billion live in poverty that is every second child
- More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.
- In 2014, 165 million children under the age 5 were stunted (reduced rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition.
- Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment.
- 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.8 billion people.
- Oxfam estimates that it would take $90 billion annually to end extreme global poverty--that's less than 1/4 the income of the top 100 richest billionaires.
- The World Food Programme says, “The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.” Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
25.8.18
(15)Shocking Aerial Photos Highlight Wealth Inequality in Cities Worldwide.
Johnny Miller's Unequal Scenes, the photographer was using aerial photography to highlight wealth disparity in South Africa. Now, he's branched out to countries around the globe, using a drone to call attention to the income differential that often sees new tennis courts adjacent to abandoned lots. “The images that I find the most powerful are when the camera is looking straight down—what’s known as ‘nadir view,' looking at the actual borders between rich and poor,” Miller tells My Modern Met. “Sometimes this is a fence, sometimes a road, or wetlands—with small shacks or poor houses on one side, and larger houses or mansions on the other. Whatever it is about the composition of those photographs, they are extremely powerful to people. I think the images make inequality relevant—people can see themselves reflected in the images, and it’s deeply unsettling.” Credit: Unequal Scenes
25.8.18
(14)Inspiring photo of Afghan woman taking university exam while nursing child.
A woman sits on the floor of a classroom, nursing her baby while simultaneously taking a high-stakes exam, as dozens of other students around her do the same. The extraordinary scene, set in a private university in Afghanistan's Daykundi province, was captured in a compelling photo that went viral on social media. Jahan Taab, 25, was taking an entrance exam -- called the Kankor exam -- for the social science course at Nasirkhosraw Higher Education Institute in Nilli city when her two-month baby started crying, according to Yahya Erfan, a lecturer at the university who was monitoring the test. So, she left her desk, sat cross-legged on the floor and kept writing up the answers, while taking care of her baby.
Credit: Yahya Erfan & Nasirkhosraw Higher Education Institute
Credit: Yahya Erfan & Nasirkhosraw Higher Education Institute
25.8.18
(13)Child poverty still rising in Germany, official report shows.
The best way to protect German children from poverty is for both parents to work, a new Family Ministry report has said. The number of children at risk from poverty has risen in the country, despite a booming economy. Some 3.4 million children and young people in Germany were living at risk of poverty in 2017, the German government's new "Family Report" has found. That translates to 19.7 percent of all under-18s - a 1.5 percentage-point rise on the 2010 figure, according to the report presented by Family Minister Katarina Barley in Berlin on Friday. The report also found that Germany was seeing a number of different trends in the attitude to the family: more unmarried couples, fewer divorces, more births, fewer childless academics and a more liberal attitude to different types of family. Credit: dw.com
20.7.18
(12)In Japan, single mothers struggle with poverty and a ‘culture of shame’.
The number of families living on an income lower than the public welfare assistance level more than doubled in the 20 years after the asset price bubble popped in 1992, according to a study by Kensaku Tomuro of Yamagata University. Now 16 percent of Japanese children live below the poverty line, according to Health Ministry statistics, but among single-parent families, the rate hits 55 percent. Poverty rates in Osaka are among the worst. Indeed, for women trying to operate support groups, even finding single mothers to help can be a challenge — because the sense of shame runs so deep. Credit: @tictoc by Bloomberg
20.7.18
(11)Global Partnership for Education.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is an international organization focused on getting all children into school for a quality education in the world’s poorest countries. GPE works with donors, developing countries, international organizations, foundations, the private sector, teacher organizations, and civil society organizations. Since 2002, there are 72 million more children in school in GPE partner countries. There are 61 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 years are out of school. 250 million children are unable to read and write by the time they reach grade 4. In June 2014, the Global Partnership for Education hosted a fundraiser in Brussels where partners made financial and policy commitments to ensure boys and girls in the poorest countries have access to school and learning. Credit: https://www.globalpartnership.org/
20.7.18
(10)'Poverty tourism': Travellers offered night's stay in Mumbai slum.
Tourists have been offered the chance to spend the night in a Mumbai slum, in order to experience a taste of extreme poverty. This scheme has been created to allow visitors to experience the "reality" of living under financial hardship in India's financial capital, with the "attraction" including the use of a public toilet shared with more than 50 other families. Credit: Al Jazeerd
7.7.18
(9)‘Jakarta’s Princess of the Dump’, who returned to the landfill she once called home to educate & inspire the next generation.
Resa Boenard grew up in Bantar Gebang, a landfill in the satellite city of Bekasi that is final destination for the majority of waste produced by Jakartans. The 108 hectare site receives some 6,000 tons of rubbish per day. Around 3,000 families live at Bantar Gebang, with most parents working as scavengers and most of their children destined to dropout of school and join them. If you’d like to learn more about the incredible work that Resa and her team are doing at The Kingdom of BGBJ, as well as how you can support them through volunteering and donations, please check out www.bgbj.org. Credit: Al Jazeerd
7.7.18
(8)Poverty in Hong Kong hits record high, with 1 in 5 children live under the poverty line.
According to the Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report, there were some 180,000 children (aged below 18) living in poverty in 2015. The child poverty rate was 18 per cent, which meant that nearly every one in five children were living in poverty. Compared with other developed economies, the child poverty rate in Hong Kong is relatively high. It stands at 3.7 per cent in Denmark, 9.8 per cent in Britain, 15.1 per cent in Australia and 21.2 per cent in the US.
Credit: China Daily
Credit: China Daily
7.7.18
(7)China’s path out of poverty can never be repeated at scale by a country again.
China is sometimes looked to for lessons on how to reduce poverty—and there are definitely many to be had. However, the story of how China lifted its hundreds of millions is a particular story of implementing the right policies at the right time in the right place, as the country took advantage of the rise of globalization in a way that wouldn’t be possible today. Even for China. Credit: CGTN
15.6.18
(6)Student Grows Vegetables On Top Of Landfill To Feed Communities In Need.
Joy Youwakim, an economics student at the University of Texas in Austin, is growing produce on top of a landfill to feed her town. The innovate idea aims to address problems of food security in areas classified as food deserts, which are defined as being void of supermarkets that stock fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy staples within a reasonable distance. Credit: General Mills
19.5.18
(5)Little Sun is a project by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesenand with a mission to bring the sustainable energy to everyone.
Credit: OLAFUR ELIASSON
8.5.18
(4)100,000 kids in Kenya work as child prostitutes.
Many of the children being exploited are not from the coast region but are imported from rural areas from around the country. You don’t have to spend a lot of time at the Kenyan coast to know that child prostitution and sex tourism are rampant there. In Mombasa and Malindi, it is common to see aging white men well into their 70s and 80s with girls young enough to be their granddaughters. Locals tolerate this type of sexual exploitation because, as one put it to me recently, “nothing gets a family out of poverty faster than a daughter who has a white boyfriend.” In many cases, girls are encouraged by none other than their parents and relatives to look for older white men who will not only pay the girl for her services, but her family as well. Credit: IN THE NOW
21.4.18
(3)82% of money last year went to the world's richest 1% .
Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest 1% of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today. Billionaire wealth has risen by an annual average of 13% since 2010 – six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2%. The number of billionaires rose at a rate of one every two days between March 2016 and March 2017. This huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over. Credit: Oxfam.org
21.4.18
(2)The population of sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to reach 2b by 2050 and a large percentage of those people are likely to be extremely poor .
Credit: The Economist
21.4.18
(1)Only 45% of the world's population have any kind of social protection system.
A new ILO report shows that massive efforts are still needed to ensure that the right to social security becomes a reality for all. The report highlights that universal social protection contributes to eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, promoting economic growth and social justice, as well as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ILO flagship report gives a global overview on the recent trends and following a life-cycle approach analyses the current state of social protection for children, women, men of working age, persons with disabilities and for old-age pensions and care. Credit: United Nations
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
