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Education, Education, Education
 

In 2005, Tony Blair delivered a speech which showed in his view the importance of education in Britain, delivering the famous “Education, Education, Education” slogan. My guess is he had a vision of British children continuing to lead the world with their invention, entrepreneurship and social values.

Many times I hear educated children in Uganda talking about “being left behind the rest of the world” and how they see this as being unfair, when they have the same abilities as children elsewhere in the world. Bill Gates recently stated the importance of nutrition in developing strong cognitive abilities in children, particularly in the first 1000 days of life, closely advising how agricultural development is intertwined with family productivity and energy levels. Logic suggests, then, that a good education is central to the needs of a developing country, as creativity, problem-solving, initiative and empathy for others can help solve the issues in these countries. Right now, Africa is threatened. The presence of internet is making business there much more attractive, but with this comes exploitation and we also know how our own use of technology is giving a market that presses children to mine for components in our mobile phones.

So, this is where education can come in – it can protect Africa’s rural areas from land acquisition; it can protect mine workers from inhumane working conditions and communities from the acquisition of children into slave labour. Most of all it empowers people to take charge of their own lives. But is it working?

The Millennium Development Goals have done wonders for children in education. In the field in Uganda you can find far more children who can speak English than adults showing that the Universal Primary Education (UPE) plan has worked, at least to some extent. However, the standard of education in Primary is still extremely poor in Uganda, and surely this is down to the low level of investment in education– well below 1% of what is spent in the UK.

Let me introduce you now to Charles Obuk, who is a member of a unique project, known as the Butterfly Project in Uganda, which builds up the capabilities of young people, encouraging them to become social entrepreneurs. Charles lives in one of the most remote villages in Uganda, near the border with Sudan in the mountains. He is 15 now and he has a greater understanding of education in Uganda than you or I. His recent video on Youtube shows us the risks of investing simply in Primary education and his vision for establishing secondary schools in rural areas. Also, he elaborates on some of the other unsavoury practices in villages, which we hear too little about and he experiences firsthand. Charles believes in the power of drama to raise the awareness of these key issues in Uganda and he has run very many sessions with children, explaining their rights, but also encouraging them to become changemakers themselves.

In January 2013 Charles started a new club on his own initiative, called the Young Achievers Club, which is designed to train up other children in how to use the internet to enhance their education and how to blog to raise issues that are important to them. You can read his own latest blog here.

Charles can Skype, use Office Packages and email, present, manage a project and account for it – all at age 15 and after just two years on the Butterfly Project. He also knows about farming, how to research to reduce risk and solve problems and how important it is to be selfless in one’s life. Every member of the project can do these things and thousands more are ready and waiting to learn these same skills, now available through technology that can transform the future of Africa.

The Butterfly Project demonstrates that with just 10% of the budget allocated to educated British children, these Butterflies can learn the skills to transform their communities. For £800 per year, you can plant the seed of change in a whole community and provide a link to the rest of the world for that most remote place. Francis Ssuuna, at 17 one of the older members who is already implementing local development programmes, explains how this works here.

Children in slums and rural areas have grown up in hardship and many understand that a future without poverty and hardship for their own children and their communities is possible. Until we invest in their futures effectively, though, they will never know how to create this change.

It’s amazing what education can do!
Posted by Guest Blogger - Ben Parkinson in Education for column Action Stories on Mar 1st, 01:29
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Bloomberg Announces $100m for Polio Eradication
 

The end is near. 

Community leaders, politicians and activists around the world have rallied to eradicate polio. Over 40,000 supporters have signed our petition asking world leaders to increase funding for polio eradication. Their voices have been heard.

This morning Mike Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York, made a $100 million commitment toward polio eradication. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ commitment will be used to help fund the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategic plan for polio eradication.  

In a statement this morning Mayor Bloomberg explained that, “It’s unthinkable that polio still exists in the world when we have the tools and technology to protect children from this preventable, debilitating disease. Now is the time to invest in making polio history.” 

Mayor Bloomberg said that he was, “thrilled to join the Gates Foundation and other partners in the effort to end this disease once and for all.” The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a major donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment is a key development in helping to ensure that all children are protected from this and other vaccine-preventable diseases.  I look forward to continuing to work with him on this and other critical global health initiatives,” said Gates.  

Polio has been eradicated by 99.9%. Thanks to global collaboration between public and private organizations, governments and local communities, polio cases have been reduced from more than 350,000 in 1988 to 223 in 2012. There have been only 5 polio cases thus far in 2013. 

The end of polio is in sight. In April world leaders will meet in Abu Dhabi for the Vaccine Summit. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategic plan established a framework through which polio can be eradicated by 2018. New commitments, such as this morning’s announcement from Mike Bloomberg, will be key to meeting the strategic plan. 

 
Posted by Judith Rowland in Polio for column GPP - United States on Feb 28th, 04:38
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No Dessert Until You Eat Your Vegetables
 

The image below delivers a pretty standard message from the social justice / international development community, and it makes me so furious that I choke on food that I successfully swallowed hours ago. It doesn’t even make sense that I could choke on such items, but such a rage defies physics.

Why does my food besiege me for a second time? Because pictures like this assume that the proverbial short guy is always disadvantaged through no fault of his own. That if someone or something is undersized, that we should pull out our wallets and buy them as many wooden boxes as they need to be just tall as lanky over on the left. Worse, the big fella has actually even lost his own box in the pursuit of this... this... “justice”.

There’s a tougher question to ask. “Is something behind the eight ball as a result of its own bad behaviour, and to what extent should we help it if it refuses to change?”

An example is a small, developing, island nation which spends 80% of its tax revenue on salaries for government workers. Thousands of these government workers are relatives of village elders and other government officials, parachuted into jobs because of who they know. It is not rare in numerous ministries to see workers asleep at their desks, if indeed they decided to go to work that day. These horrible inefficiencies are a key reason why the government can’t balance its budget, and is receiving “Budget Support” from numerous foreign government donors. This involves the foreign governments writing multimillion dollar cheques to the island nation, and the money being used as overpriced, corrupt welfare for the friends and family of powerful people. So is the budget support actually helping the recipient country? Yes and no... the cheques allow the salary scam to survive for another year.

So, tell me again. How many free wooden boxes should we give the short guy?

It’s often politically awkward for donor governments to impose reform requirements on recipient governments in return for aid money. The donor governments are variously accused of neo-colonialism, exporting political ideologies via blackmail, ulterior motives, or a lack of cultural sensitivity. But, where there’s a good argument for it, I want them to do it. A culture of laziness and nepotism isn’t a culture, it’s a bunch of people making excuses, and trying to hide behind an emotional concept that donors are reluctant to closely examine. Yet the recipients still want stuff for free. Not only do they want their dessert before their vegetables, they want to have their free cake and eat it. Cake contains as many as five of the six food groups, but in ratios that make it an irresponsible breakfast option.

If we’re serious about aid effectiveness, the blank cheques have to stop, and the tough conversations about governance have to increase. Why should a nation that became tall as a result of discipline and efficiency indefinitely subsidise a nation that refuses to make similar sacrifices (Germany says hi, Greece)? Is this seriously our best attempt at defining justice?

This is a guest blog by economist Michael Jayfox. All views expressed are his own.
Posted by Michael Jayfox - Guest Blogger in Aid, Poverty for column Perspectives on Poverty on Feb 22nd, 01:55
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Humanitarian Reporting Competition! VOTE NOW
 

Global Citizen has partnered with the Development and Aid World News Service (DAWNS) to provide two (2) $1,000 humanitarian reporting and storytelling grants. 

Now, we need your help to select our grantees.

Global Citizen and DAWNS are community-powered organizations committed to telling stories about issues related to global poverty. The 12 finalists you see below each have a compelling humanitarian story to tell.

Click on their names to read, learn about and support their independent projects. Log onto Global Citizen and you can vote for your favorite to win by clicking on the petition button at the bottom of the page. 

Voting ends March 7th.  

Seema Mathur

My project encompasses combating present violence against women as well as reconciling and healing from the wounds of conflict primarily focused in Liberia. Women were systematically raped during Liberia's 14 years of civil war. Today, rape is among the highest crimes in the country. I have a fantastic opportunity to shoot and interview four female Nobel Peace Prize winners who are traveling to Liberia this January to work to empower people on the ground seeking solutions to violence against women.

Jainaiba Nyang-Njie

Poverty in Gambia is said to have a gendered face, with women forming the majority of the poor in both rural and urban households. Data obtained from government sources (SPA II 1998), indicate that 64 percent of those in agriculture are either extremely poor (47 percent), or poor (17 percent).

Regina Zoneziwoh

‘know herStory’ is a 3 to 6 months project to narrate 15 personal and unique stories of grassroots women leaders involved in community mobilization, HIV/AIDs, peace building, social justice, and human rights advocacy.

Nosarieme Garrick

My Africa Is - an interactive documentary series that identifies innovations on the African continent from the youth. The series will follow unexpected developments in the humanitarian, music, fashion, film, arts, and business sectors of the continent, using each African city as a backdrop to showcase the diversity of each city and country.

Arthur Nazaryan

‘Through the Fire’ is a documentary film project that shows a side of Somalia beyond the all-too-familiar news reports of piracy, war, and famine. It gives an intimate portrait of the life and work of three exceptional Somali women, who, in the midst of two decades of bitter civil war, have risen up to rebuild their shattered nation.

Shanoor Servai

My project documents the lives of sex workers and their children in Falkland Road, one of the largest red light districts in Mumbai, India. The purpose of the project is to listen to and record the daily challenges these women and children face without sensationalizing or victimizing them. I intend to spend time with them in the brothels where they live and work, talking about the issues that matter most to them.

Dean Moull

Whilst volunteering in Kenya three years ago I encountered a group of IDPs, Kenyans displaced by the post election violence of 2007-08. After returning to the UK I wrote a book about the community I had been living with but remained haunted by the stories I heard from the IDPs who'd been forced from their houses, some of whom enduring unspeakable violence.

David Joseph Weddi

More than 5000 farmers in Doho Rice scheme, Uganda, have spent more than a year waiting to restart farming their paddys after they were stopped from cultivation due to a construction of a dam over the river that supplies their gardens with water. Uganda's largest community Rice scheme have started seeing thuggery, theft, robbery and murders as people struggle to survive amidst no harvest. The farmers and their families and relatives are now suffering and this is also being felt in local schools as parents fail to send their children back for studies for luck of money for school fees.

Sharron Ward

In Hindu culture, boys represent a status symbol. Many regard girls as a financial drain because parents face the pressure to provide a dowry to marry her off. The low status of women results not only in the abortion of female fetuses, but also the abandonment of baby girls, neglect of girl children, the abuse of women in “dowry deaths,” “honour killings” of women, and even burning widows to death in a ritual called sati.

Jessie Dendere

The project I intend to work on is based on water shortages and challenges being experienced by villagers. The story should be told because water is vital and a basic human right . It would be very important to find out how the people in these villages are getting by without water. Areas are remaining underdeveloped because teachers and nurses are refusing to be deployed to the area because of water problems. Schools and health institutions run without water.

Kate Lord

Eighteen-year-old Maheshwari comes from a family of quarry workers in rural India, none of whom completed schooling past the eighth grade. For the first four years of Maheshwari's life, it seemed she would follow a similar path: Waking at 5 a.m. to start the household chores, marrying young, bearing children, and bringing in money through odd jobs wherever she could. Instead, she was selected by the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project to attend their boarding school, a brush with fate that would change the trajectory of her entire life.

Paolo Patruno

"Birth is a dream" I named my photography project which aims to document and raise awareness about the maternity crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. I started documenting the maternal health crisis in Malawi in 2011, and in DRC, Uganda in 2012.
Posted by Philip Corden - GPP in What Can I Do? for column Global Poverty Project - International on Feb 15th, 02:53
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Tell Me a Story
 

It’s a snowy Saturday evening in Syracuse, and I am freezing. My day began many hours earlier when I packed my belongings in two bags, said good-bye to my family and piled into the van that would be my home for the next 14 weeks. Now, five hours and two gas station coffees later, I am here – quite cold, a bit tired, but ready to talk.

In particular, I am ready to talk about Bon, a seven-year-old Burmese refugee who I met while working with an arts therapy program in Thailand.

Bon is unique because he is tiny – really tiny. He dances Gangham-style like a pro and somehow manages to get the teachers to help him more then we ever should.

If you happen to be curious, you’ll ask Bon why he’s so small. He’ll tell you, “It’s because I drink Coke and not milk, because Coke is cheap.” Then, he’ll grin at you and add, “and more delicious.” Bon’s family cannot afford to feed him the things he needs, and because of it, he does not grow.

It was around the time that I came to know Bon that the Global Poverty Project offered me a position as presenter on the spring 1.4 Billion Reasons tour. And it was because of Bon and others like him that I accepted it.

Extreme poverty means a lack of choices. It’s why David, the young Zambian who was my best friend during my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer, probably won’t be able to access an education above a ninth grade level. It means no healthcare, no sanitation, and no shelter. It’s about not having options, or having only the heart-wrenching ones: which child to send to school, which mouth to feed, which basic necessity to sacrifice in order to pay for another.

 

Bon and David are just two of the 1.4 billion people who live on less $1.50 USD a day. But to me, they are important – because I know them. I drew on the floor with Bon. It was David who came to my hut’s doorstep every morning, asking to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and review his math homework. I can no longer reach these friends around the world. I cannot write a letter, or send an e-mail, or dial a number and know that they will be on the other end. Since they cannot share their stories with the world, it falls onto us to share them with you.

So, it’s Saturday in Syracuse and I’m excited. I’m excited because change is possible. I have read enough statistics to know that extreme poverty can be eliminated in our lifetimes. I have seen enough in my travels over five continents to know that such poverty is intolerable in any form.

 

If Bon and David were able to tell their own realities, they would do it in a way infinitely more eloquent and vivid than I will. But in the absence of that, you’ll have to settle for me. I encourage you to share your stories – with your friends, family and co-workers. I tell a story, and you tell a story, and more and more people tell a story, we won’t have 1.4 Billion Reasons. We’ll have 1.4 Billion Friends. And when that day comes, extreme poverty will be a part of history.

Suddenly, it isn’t so cold anymore. 
Posted by Brittany Aubin in Poverty for column 1.4 Billion Reasons on Feb 13th, 02:09
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