A year after the cyclone, Myanmar still needs a lot

A year after the cyclone that tore Myanmar apart, hundreds of thousands of it's people are still without jobs and stuck in poverty. Humanitarian groups released the status of Myanmar's people on the anniversary of the cyclone.

The storm destroyed 450,000 homes and damaged just about as many. Some of those homes are yet to be rebuilt leaving the people exposed to the upcoming monsoon season.

From Salon.com we find this Associated Press story on the condition of Myanmar. Writer Micheal Casey begins by giving some history.

Foreign governments and charities provided $315 million for food aid and emergency assistance in the months after the tropical storm hit the country May 2-3, 2008, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing and another 800,000 homeless.

But international charities and U.N. agencies like the World Food Program say hundreds of millions of dollars are still needed over the next several years to rebuild the delta's decimated infrastructure and provide farmers and fishermen with the cash they need to regain their livelihoods.

Many noted the funds raised so far are about 40 times less than $12 billion raised for the 2004 tsunami, even though Nargis was the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's modern history and the world's fifth deadliest in the past 40 years.

"We can provide a farmer and his family with food in a weekly ration, but that same farmer will need cash to purchase seeds, to restore fields and replace the plows and livestock they lost," WFP spokesman Paul Risley told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok.
A year after the cyclone, Myanmar still needs a lot
Risley said his agency expects to provide food rations through the year for 350,000 people while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said 100,000 people are still living in tents and in need of permanent shelter.

"Tens of thousands more live in temporary, substandard shelters, which will not be able to withstand another storm," said Bernd Schell, the head of the IFRC's country office in Yangon.

Buffalo's mayor launches poverty reduction plan

The third poorest city in the nation is beginning a poverty reduction plan. Buffalo's Mayor Byron W. Brown unveiled a document that will guide the cities attempt to reduce poverty.

The report calls on four new task forces and expanding already existing services. But the guidelines are already receiving criticism for having no new strategies.

From the Buffalo News, reporters Brian Meyer and Mark Sommer tell us about what the plan contains and some of the reaction.

The centerpiece of the “Buffalo Poverty Reduction Blueprint” unveiled Wednesday in City Hall by Brown and Deputy Mayor Donna M. Brown is the establishment of a task force with four work groups, each charged with developing a five-year strategy for reducing poverty in the areas of jobs, education, neighborhoods and social environment.

Rather than laying out a policy agenda, the 77-page plan largely focuses on expanding or improving many of the 129 programs the city runs to help low-income residents, with “collaboration” and “partnerships” the buzzwords to improve coordination between groups.
...

The mayor has drawn heat for not having a poverty plan more than three years into his administration, 1z years since the city was named by the Census Bureau the second poorest (it’s now No. 3) and 15 months since Donna Brown was appointed deputy mayor and charged with making an antipoverty plan a top priority.

But on Tuesday, Mayor Brown stressed poverty has been a sustained problem in the city before he was mayor, and that neither of his two predecessors, Anthony Masiello or Jimmy Griffin, had put into action a plan to combat poverty as he was now doing.

Brown also stressed that poverty is a countywide problem, pointing out Erie County’s poverty rate –not including city residents — has also been on the rise. He said there are currently more than 123,800 Erie County residents living outside Buffalo below the poverty limit.

Two of the four task force recommendations call for county participation, but notably no county government representatives participated in the plan’s unveiling.

L. Nathan Hare, executive director of the Community Action Organization of Erie County, said any anti-poverty plan hatched by the city must take into consideration the broader challenges facing the region. Hare is co-chairman of the new task force with Sister Denise A. Roche, president of D’Youville College.

Asian Development Bank to boost lending

Another one of the big banks has made an announcement to boost lending to fight off the global recession. The Asian Development Bank says they will boost lending by $165 billion dollars, that triples their normal efforts.

From this Associated Press article that we found in Newsday, we find more details on the decision from the banks board of directors.

The Manila-based bank's board of governors said an overwhelming majority of the ADB's 67 member countries voted to endorse the 200 percent increase to ADB's current $55 billion of capital.

"This substantial increase is a resounding vote of confidence from our shareholders for what we can achieve as a premier development partner in the region," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said. "We must do all we can to prevent the reversal of hard-won gains for our region in social and economic development, and in poverty reduction."

The decision comes just before the ADB's annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on May 2-5.

The capital boost allows the ADB to substantially increase its support to countries affected by the global downturn and to provide an additional $10 billion over the next few years for crisis-related assistance.

ADB estimates the financial crisis will add 60 million people this year in developing Asia to those already trapped in extreme poverty and another 100 million in 2010. Those are in addition to 903 million Asians already living on $1.25 or less a day.

Numbers of poor spreading in Illinois

A new report that gauges poverty in Illinois shows big increases in the unemployed and those seeing assistance from food banks. The increases are such that more counties in the state are joining a "poverty watch list" to indicate troubled economic areas.

From the Suburban Chicago News reporters Dave Gathman and Christine Moyer give us the report's details.

Unemployment and poverty rates are so high in Kane County, the county has been placed on a "poverty watch list" by the Heartland Alliance MidAmerica Institute on Poverty.

The alliance, which released its annual report today, offers a snapshot of poverty in Illinois.

Relying largely on 2007 data, the report revealed unemployment rates more than double those reported last year, a significant rise in local food pantry visits and a precipitous drop in median household incomes since 2000.

And, Senior Research Analyst Amy Terpstra said, a lot has changed since 2007 -- for the worse.

Before the recession even started, about 1.5 million people in Illinois were poor, according to Terpstra.

Since then, she said, Heartland Alliance estimates that up to 400,000 more Illinoisans have become poor. The research analyst spoke with service agencies in suburban communities about the growing need for assistance and she said that "they're just floored, not only by the amount of people coming in their doors, but by the type of people..."

"People," Terpstra said, "who have never before needed assistance."

Kane County had the Chicago-area counties' highest unemployment rate in March, at 10.3 percent. The report also found Kane to have the Chicago area's second-greatest number of severely rent-burdened households -- 24.6 percent -- in 2007, behind Chicago.

"We go week to week not knowing whether we'll have enough food on our shelves," Major Ken Nicolai at the Elgin Salvation Army corps said. "The need is tremendous. We're out of rental assistance and out of electric-bill assistance. We had 1,900 grocery orders in March, and so far in April, we've had 2,600."

Women feed themselves last, if ever

60 percent of thew world's malnourished are women. When food is hard to find or afford, most mothers give what they can to their children first, then eat whatever is left over, if there is any at all. But doing this could have dire consequences for their children in the long run. The lack of food could make their mother's ill and unable to provide for their families.

From The Monterey Herald we find this Associated Press story that profiles one such woman, writer Donna Bryson introduces us.

Phetsile Ndwandwe, short, skinny and 23 years old, accepts an apple from a development worker and nibbles at it, stripping the peel with her teeth before handing the fruit to Siphokazi, her baby daughter.

Siphokazi manages a bite of the apple, the first fruit she has had in months, then thanks her mother with a kiss.

Ndwandwe allows herself only the peel.

The mother's sacrifice, say health authorities, is typical, and creates a problem across the developing world. In hard times, these women tend to think of themselves last. This puts their families at risk, experts say, because malnourished mothers become malfunctioning mothers.

Ndandwe lost her sugar cane plot after falling behind in payments to a village cooperative. So she supports 15-month-old Siphokazi and her 4-year-old daughter, Setsebile, by working in a neighbor's garden in this village in southern Swaziland, taking her payments in vegetables.

Ancient traditions and modern circumstances often combine to place the burden on women to feed their poor families. Researchers say women do as much as 80 percent of the farm work in poor countries. And, with food and fertilizer prices rising, and AIDS and the global financial meltdown taking their toll, women like Ndwandwe are straining under growing responsibilities.

"We eat whatever we can get," said Ndwandwe, after describing a breakfast of corn meal porridge. She said her husband had gotten sick and died but wouldn't say what illness he had. When asked what the family would have for lunch, she said she had no idea.

She has seen the price of an apple rise 50 percent in recent months to the equivalent of about 15 cents. She used to take the bus to town to buy a bag of apples to sell to her neighbors, the small profits supplementing her garden work.

Now, she can't afford the bus fare — and few of her neighbors can afford fruit.
...
But in the face of adversity, solemn-faced Ndwandwe shows resilience.

A development group recently offered her a small plot of land, and she plans to grow vegetables that she hopes to sell to a hotel being built for visitors at a nearby game reserve.

"The vegetables will bring money," said Ndwandwe, who learned simple farming techniques during her elementary school education. "I am a good farmer."

Calling for price controls in Kenya

Charities in the UK are calling the public's attention to the food price crisis in Kenya. The charities say that food shortages are especially great in urban areas of the country.

From Ekklesia, reporter Julia Collings presents the charities warning.

Oxfam, Care International and Concern Worldwide reported on Tuesday 28 April 2009 that rising food prices in the country had created a major food crisis for the urban poor.

Whereas in some more rural areas of Kenya there are food shortages, in the slums, people are starving because they cannot afford to buy food.

A joint study by the charities in Nairobi’s shantytown, Kibera – the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa - showed that 4,000 children under the age of five were malnourished.

“The urban poor rely on the markets for 90 per cent of their food and other products,” said Bud Carnall, director of Care International. “This has made them the hardest hit by the recent commodity price increases.”

The news came a day after the Catholic Church urged the Kenyan government to enforce price controls on basic commodities.

Cardinal Njue issued a statement on behalf of the 25 bishops at the Kenya Episcopal Conference, urging that price controls should stay in place for at least 12 months.
Whereas in some more rural areas of Kenya there are food shortages, in the slums, people are starving because they cannot afford to buy food.

A joint study by the charities in Nairobi’s shantytown, Kibera – the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa - showed that 4,000 children under the age of five were malnourished.

“The urban poor rely on the markets for 90 per cent of their food and other products,” said Bud Carnall, director of Care International. “This has made them the hardest hit by the recent commodity price increases.”

The news came a day after the Catholic Church urged the Kenyan government to enforce price controls on basic commodities.

Cardinal Njue issued a statement on behalf of the 25 bishops at the Kenya Episcopal Conference, urging that price controls should stay in place for at least 12 months.

Lobbying for the poor

The Mobilization to End Poverty event is going on now in Washington D.C. The coalition of 60 faith based anti-poverty groups are storming our government with prayer vigils and demonstrations. In addition, they are sending lobbyists to meet with members of Congress to tell them to keep the needs of the poor in mind with budget issues.

From World Magazine, writer Edward Lee Pitts tells us what the lobbyists are asking Congress for.

The group is calling for all hands on deck to address poverty and to them that includes a larger role for government. Organizers, led by Sojourners, marked the day by sending the activists to meetings in the offices of 82 senators and 215 House members.

Noting that with the nation’s poverty rolls growing by as many as 10 million this year in the face of the ongoing global economic crisis, those lobbying Congress Tuesday stressed the urgency of action: “This is a new experience for a lot of us,” said Jonathan Bettle, 24, of Akron, Ohio, soon after emerging from a meeting with the staff of Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. “We are not lobbyists. But the Gospel calls us to look out for the least of these.”

For Bettle that translates into calling on government to improve education, access to health care, and the quality of life of its citizens. He said those in the nation who are better off have a moral obligation to welcome tax increases if it means greater support for the nation’s poor.

Beyond this call for increased federal funding and the general rallying cry for cutting the nation’s poverty numbers in half, activists had trouble articulating specific legislative steps that could be taken.

The effort’s printed call to action includes a broad declaration to “protect and defend budget priorities that will reduce poverty” and to “support passage of health care reform protecting the most vulnerable.”

Specifically rally organizers hope to: Expand child tax credits as well as spend at least $4.2 billion to expand access to early childhood education such as Head Start. The Mobilization to End Poverty also wants lawmakers to protect budget priorities that increase federal spending in low-income housing, education, job training, and veterans services.

Comment on making African governments more transparent

With the effects of the global recession hitting the commodity prices of goods from Africa. A Vice President of the World Bank is calling for increased transparency from African governments, to make sure that money from commodities get to the people. Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili commentary comes from the Ugandan paper The Independent.

In times of high commodity prices, good management of oil and mining revenues had the potential to be a springboard for development. With a far less hospitable global environment, it becomes even more urgent for governments to make judicious use of their available resources, and to take the structural and institutional measures that will ensure that future booms – which will undoubtedly occur again – are harnessed to fight poverty and improve the lives of citizens.

How can governments make sure that resource revenues are well used?

Some 28 African governments have adopted the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), with the aim of improving governance through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining. In addition, 37 oil, gas and mining companies have agreed to support the initiative, as have institutional investors managing assets amounting, before the financial crisis, to more than $14 trillion.

Joining the EITI is a first step, and one that sends a strong signal of government’s commitment to transparency. Going further, if citizens are to reap the benefits from mining revenues, transparency is needed throughout the entire resource stream, from how contracts are awarded and monitored, to how taxes and royalties are collected, to how investment choices are made and executed. This is referred to as the “EITI ++” approach, which focuses on the better management of the entire resource chain that links commodity revenues to results for citizens. The international community, including the World Bank, can support countries in improving management of the commodity resource stream, and civil society will have a key role in this endeavor.

Several countries are now focusing on that resource chain. Niger and Liberia have approached their partners for technical legal assistance on awarding contracts. In Mozambique and Tanzania, analytical work is helping to foster a dialogue on public expenditure management and financial accountability in the context of rising revenues from mineral extraction. Some countries request support in such areas as auctioning of licenses and contract negotiations with major investors, management of volatile commodity-related revenues, or in improving the composition and quality of public investments.

As the crisis illustrates, commodity rich countries also need to prepare for a time when oil and mining resources might be depleted, by diversifying their sources of growth. Diversification is not a simple task; it requires major policy shifts and significant investments of resources in institutions, human capacities, health, education and infrastructure. For example, many countries with mining resources have untapped agriculture potential. The agriculture sector has accounted for one-third of Africa’s GDP growth over the last 15 years, and with the right kinds of support, including improved water and land management, rural roads and a better policy environment, productivity and value added could increase significantly, making the sector a much stronger contributor to economic growth and poverty reduction, mitigating risk of over-dependency on mineral resources.

The Gold Mines of the Amazon

Brazil's Amazon basin contains a cycle of poverty that promises riches of gold. But many who work in the gold mines of the Amazon basin never reach the dream of getting rich from finding gold. Instead, they find a life of poverty, malaria and crime.

From the Khaleej Times, we find this AFP story on the "garimpo" or gold mines.

“The garimpo, socially, is one of the great open wounds of this region,” said Minister for Strategic Affairs Roberto Mangabeira Unger who is in charge of drafting a government plan for developing the impoverished Amazon.

In the 1980s, tens of thousands of miners, or “garimpeiros”, worked the pits, which became an economic motor of the area for a decade until most were considered depleted.

Rising gold prices helped trigger a new mini-rush in 2008, when local authorities say the rudimentary mines produced 3.5 tonnes of gold. Hundreds, including de Brito, have flocked to Garimpo Bom Jesus since late last year after news spread of a new motherlode there.

De Brito’s words rose over the incessant chugging of the machine used to sift rocks that—if chance smiles on him—could yield shiny particles of gold.

The mine sits at a muddy clearing framed by jungle, in the west of the state of Para in Brazil’s north.

As a “garimpo”—one of the thousands makeshift excavation areas created by informal gold hunters across Brazil’s vast territory—there is nothing industrial about it.

It resembles more an ant farm with holes everywhere leading to subterranean galleries. On the surface, the gold miners fix hammocks to wooden structures to sleep.

The scene owes more to the early images of the gold rush in the US Wild West than to modern mineral extraction: the process here is basic and done by hand. The chemicals used, like mercury, pollute the environment.

Like the Wild West, too, Bom Jesus is a lawless land, built half on myth and half on misery.

Drugs, prostitution, malaria and undrinkable water make the place a hell on earth. Prospectors shoulder their dream alongside guns for hire and shopkeepers.

“I’ve been working the garimpos since I was 20. And now I’m old and washed-up. I’ve got malaria and I can’t get any more medicine. But without the mine, there’d be no money coming into the region,” said Mario Borges, a 43-year-old miner. Like many, he sees his family only when he finds enough gold to pay the overpriced passage by boat or small plane, every four or five months.

Agriculture dying in Iraq

Iraq is suffering a triple threat to it's farming. Too much salt in the soil, water shortages and drought, and land turning into desert are all putting great pains on the countries efforts to provide it's own food. Those three factors have caused many winter crops in Iraq to fail.

From the IRIN, we read a further explanation on the effects of Iraqi farming.

“We are suffering from a real and serious water crisis,” Mahdi al-Qaisi, undersecretary in the Agriculture Ministry, told IRIN in Baghdad. “We are not expecting winter season crops to meet local demand, and summer crops will probably be affected as well,” al-Qaisi said.

Precipitation levels this past winter were only half the normal average, he said, adding that the situation was made worse by a reduction in the amount of water flowing into the Tigris and Euphrates from Turkey and Iran.

“We are counting on the Ministry of Trade to fill the gaps… by importing wheat and barley and distributing them through its food programme [state-run food rations scheme],” he added.

The winter harvest data are not yet available.

“Very scary”

Decades of war, UN sanctions, underinvestment, military operations, and the cutting down of trees for firewood have paralysed Iraq’s agricultural sector and increased salinity and desertification to “very scary levels”, al-Qaisi said.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, salinity is affecting at least 40 percent of agricultural land, mainly in central and southern Iraq, while 40-50 percent of what was agricultural land in the 1970s has been affected by desertification.

According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations. Desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one third of the world‘s land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land.

The problems with getting AIDS treatment drugs

African's with AIDS have many problems when trying to get drugs to treat their disease. Many drugs are available only in town, so the travel for the poor may be more than they can afford.

If the drugs are available in their village, there are social stigmas still associated with AIDS. The people with the disease may not want to get the drugs near their neighbors, preferring the secrecy of going elsewhere.

As a part of the newspaper's Katine series of stories, Joseph Malinga of the Guardian profiles one villager who faces these obstacles.

James Akadi knows the dangers associated with failing to follow his treatment schedule. A single day without taking his drugs would make his situation complex and, worse still, could endanger his life.

Akadi, a resident of Abia village, in Ojama parish, Katine, is one of more than 200 people living with HIV/Aids in the sub-county who have openly declared their status, but are struggling to cope with life amid abject poverty.

Lack of food, unsafe drinking water, difficulty in accessing drugs, a lack of income generating activities and the stigma of having the virus are some of the problems Akadi faces as he strives to prolong his life.

But of all these challenges, problems accessing drugs is proving the biggest challenge. Twice a month, Akadi has to travel to Uganda Care, an NGO supporting the HIV/Aids patients, in Soroti town, 28km from Katine, to receive antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs. At times, he lacks transport to travel, meaning he will not be able to get his drugs and adhere to his treatment schedule.

"I'm facing a serious challenge of transport. Every month I travel to Uganda Care offices in Soroti to access drugs but most times I find it hard because I'm a very poor man with a family that I have to take care of. So saving money for travelling twice every month to Soroti town is a challenge," he said.

Although The Aids Support Organisation (TASO) has introduced community drug distribution centres in Katine, the stigma still attached to having the virus means some people still prefer to get their drugs in town.

A comment on Kiva

Columnist Chris Noseworthy of the Western Star from Newfoundland, Canada used his latest column to talk about Kiva.org. For his wife's birthday this year, he chose to give gift certificates to the microcredit website.

This year I actually had a good idea. I got her gift certificates, among a couple of other lame things I won't mention. The gift certificates are ones she needs to spend on somebody else. How is that better than a breadbox?

Well, the gift certificates are from Kiva.org and translates into micro-loans to someone in the developing world. You may have seen Kiva featured on Oprah a couple of years ago. It's a charitable organization that has field partners in various countries who work with entrepreneurs in order to get loans.

The money comes from generous people around the world who fund these projects in $25 increments. Each entrepreneur's loan will be supplied by a variety of different people.

It is still a novel approach to sharing the riches of the Western world. To my mind it cuts through partisan boundaries as well.

Anything that helps the poor, works with lefties and the loan has to seem better than a "handout" to the right-wing contingent.

According to their site, the mandate is "Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe."

You might wonder how these people can afford to repay the loans but they do. Kiva is upfront about the fact that there is no guaranteed return on your investments.

According to Kiva, "Of the $31,143,760 of loans with completed loan terms, the default rate is 1.8%. However, past repayment performance does not guarantee future results. When you lend money, you may lose all or some of your principal. You should be aware of the different types of risk and find the right loan option for you, with respect to repayment risk and social return."

Less than two per cent is pretty good. You can visit the site to find out more of the details on the risk associated with lending through Kiva.

The Roll Back Malaria Campaign

It takes more than just passing out mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Education is also needed to tell people why using the nets is important, and it is very important, as malaria kills one million people a year.

From the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Llibo, we find this Voice of America story about The Roll Back Malaria Campaign.

Sackie Williams is a local health worker in Liberia. As part of the Ministry of Health's Door-to-Door Campaign, he goes to people's homes to teach them about malaria and how to protect themselves from the disease. "Actually what we noticed is that more people are not using the mosquito nets. Some people say the mosquito nets have heat, and we are actually explaining to them the importance of the mosquito net," he said.

As part of the "Hang it up and Keep it Up" campaign, the volunteers not only hang up the nets in the homes but also do follow-up visits to make sure they are being used correctly. "The only way we can get rid of it is to tell the people how to prevent themselves and how to get rid of the disease," he said. The Roll-Back Malaria Campaign is a global initiative aimed at providing preventative methods to everyone in at-risk countries by 2010. They estimate that 700 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets are needed worldwide, half of those in Africa.

Though high rates of infection are still plaguing countries like Nigeria, other countries including Senegal, Gambia and Rwanda have seen significant progress thanks to awareness campaigns and improved treatment.

Dr. Claude-Emile Rwagacondo is West Africa coordinator for the Roll-Back Malaria Campaign. He says speedy access to effective treatment is crucial. Yet, health clinics can be difficult to get to in rural areas and people are more likely to go to a traditional healer first. By the time they go to a clinic for malaria treatment, Dr. Rwagacondo says it is often too late. He says insuring the quality and affordability of the medicines can be difficult. Sometimes, when people get sick, they go to a small pharmacy, boutique or street corner, where vendors sell medicines that aren't effective. He says many don't even have the active ingredients in them.

There is a tendency to treat all fevers as malaria in West Africa, and resistance to otherwise effective treatments, like cloroquine, has become a problem. But there are rays of hope, and thanks to the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests and combination treatments, Senegal has seen large drops in both reported cases and mortality rates. Still, malaria impedes economic development and is one of the major contributors to poverty in Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria costs Africa an estimated US$12 billion a year in health expenditures and lost productivity.

Dr. Rwagacondo says if children get sick, they don't go to school and fall behind scholastically. That affects the economy. In rural communities, if the population is always sick, they can't work in the fields and production suffers. Sampson Kollie has malaria. He's being treated at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Liberia's capital. "Malaria is so bad. I'm a victim of malaria. Malaria is a kind of sickness that makes you very weak. You vomit, and it drains you down. I hope the government of Liberia can do a lot for this sickness because malaria's getting a lot of us in this country," he said.

US Treasury Secretary on increasing lending to the poor nations

The US Treasury Secretary was asked his opinions on what the World Bank and IMF must do during the global recession. Timothy Geithner's comments were recorded by Associated Press reporter Harry Dunphy.

The global economic crisis threatens to reverse gains in fighting poverty, so banks that provide aid to poor nations must embrace changes in their operations, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Those development banks are at the forefront of efforts to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable growth, he said the World Bank's policy-setting board.

"We cannot afford to lose time or lose ground," Geithner said.

At the same time, he said it was important for the banks to conduct their aid business in the open.

They must face reviews to ensure they have enough money and are promoting fundamental changes, Geithner said. He added that their resources must be used to "achieve the maximum impact on long-term development objectives, including addressing the needs of the poorest."

As the weekend meetings of the bank and the International Monetary Fund wrapped up, finance ministers said they are seeing signs the economy is stabilizing. But they said it will take until the middle of next year for the world to emerge from the worst recession in decades.

Video: The challenges of the mega-city Lagos

With over 15 million people the Nigerian city of Lagos has mega-problems dealing with the numbers of residents. The infrastructure has gone without upkeep due to corrupt governments, or simply due to lack of money. Even if it did have maintenance, the current infrastructure would not be enough for all of the people.

From the website Global Post comes this unique look at the struggle of getting by in Lagos. Writer Sarah Simpson provides the narration on this video.

G7 finance ministers promise more loans to poor nations

The finance ministers of the 7 wealthiest nations promised more money available for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The finance ministers meet with the leaders of the two banks twice a year to revise policies going forward. The representatives are vowing to keep the global recession from spreading further to the world's more vulnerable economies.

From Canada's Globe and Mail, reporter Kevin Carmichael files this summary of the meetings.

While hardly oblivious to the plight of the poor, economic leaders from the United States, Britain, Japan and other industrial nations have devoted most of their energy over the past year to cleaning up their financial messes at home.

But the risks facing emerging economies in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have become so severe that they were impossible to ignore at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The economies of emerging and developing countries will expand a mere 1.6 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF. Already, 50 million people have been thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, according to the World Bank.

"The financial and economic turmoil that began in advanced economies is now truly a global crisis that is spilling over into developing countries, and with serious repercussions," Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a written submission to a meeting yesterday of the officials who guide the World Bank.

These biannual gatherings of G7 finance chiefs have become slightly uncomfortable for Mr. Flaherty and his counterparts. For decades, they and their predecessors cajoled and coerced developing nations into following an economic path of free markets, light regulation and private ownership.

The crisis, rooted in the rampant trading of exotic financial assets by American and European banks, exposed the weaknesses of unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty.

"The crisis didn't come from us," said Charles Koffi Diby, Ivory Coast's Finance Minister. "We are the victims here."

Robert Zoellick calls on rich nations to "accelerate aid"

To end the World Bank's spring meeting Robert Zoellick used his speech to demand more from the rich nations to help the poor during the global recession. The head of the World Bank warned of a "human catastrophe" unless the rich nations do more. Zoellick also admitted that the Millennium Development Goals are likely will not be met because of the recession.

From the BBC, are some quotes from the Zoellick's speech.

"There is a widespread recognition that the world faces an unprecedented economic crisis, poor people could suffer the most and that we must continue to act in real time to prevent a human catastrophe," said Mr Zoellick.

He added that no-one yet knew how long the global recession would last.

In a joint statement, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) said they had urged "all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for us all to consider going beyond existing commitments".

World Bank managing director, and former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said there was now a real crisis in Africa as a result of the worldwide recession.

She said that as a result of falling demand for commodities and other exports, government budgets were falling short across the continent.

"This means that [governments] cannot pay teachers or health workers, and we are hearing of people who can't eat three square meals a day," she said.

Related Video

Saturday Missions: Ag Against Hunger

A great charity in California grabs unharvested food from area farming fields to feed the hungry. Ag Against Hunger from California gather volunteers to grab the food that was missed by harvesters before it gets turned over into the soil.

From the Californian, Rusten Hogness gets dirty with the volunteers.

This Saturday will mark the start of Ag Against Hunger's new gleaning season, in a field near San Juan Bautista. No word on what the crop will be, but volunteers can be sure of harvesting satisfaction, knowing they are helping to feed hungry families.

Gleaners salvage lettuce, broccoli, onions, celery - whatever is left in the field after the harvest before the tractors roll in to till it all back into the soil.

Whatever is gathered will go back to the Ag Against Hunger coolers in Salinas. Within a couple of days, it will be on trucks going to food banks as far away as Sacramento, though most of it will stay here in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.

Last year, according to Ananda Jimenez, who coordinates the

gleaning for Ag Against Hunger, gleaners picked and gathered more than 120,000 pounds of fresh produce that went to food banks instead of getting tilled into the soil.

"We really need to give more to the food community that supplies food for the needy because I know there's an increasing need," said Schapper, who will soon be a supervising nurse at Salinas Valley State Prison after working at Natividad Medical Center for 27 years as a nurse manager.

"Lots of employees I see are really hurting. They have to hit the food banks to make ends meet."

It would be hard not to see the need, she said. "It's in the media, it's in my workplace, it's in the neighborhood, it's everywhere."

World Malaria Day

Today marks the second World Malaria Day. A summit on malaria is going on to mark the occasion and the US is making a pledge to end the 1 million deaths a year from malaria. The US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is saying today that the US wants to completely stop malaria by 2015.

From the Associated Press via Google, reporter Edith Lederer recieved a transcript of Rice's speech.

"Malaria, simply put, is something we can end. And today I am here to say that malaria is a scourge we can end," she said.

Rice is the keynote speaker at the summit on the eve of the second World Malaria Day that will bring together global leaders in the fight against malaria and African and American faith leaders. They will launch a campaign to mobilize resources to help interfaith institutions in Africa fight malaria more effectively through increased mosquito net distribution and local community education.

On the first World Malaria Day a year ago, the U.N. secretary-general announced a new global initiative to provide mosquito nets and insecticide spraying for everyone at risk of malaria, diagnosis and treatment for those with the disease, and training for community health workers to deal with malaria. He said the initiative would also encourage research into the control, elimination and eradication of malaria.

Ban said the aim of his "bold but achievable vision ... is to put a stop to malaria deaths by ensuring universal coverage by the end of 2010."

The timetable that Rice gives is five years longer.

"President Obama is committed to making the United States a global leader in ending deaths from malaria by 2015," she said. "If we continue to work in the spirit of unity and shared purpose that has already led to substantial progress, this is a target we can hit."

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 250 million people get malaria every year, and it kills almost 1 million, the vast majority young children. Many drugs have lost their effectiveness against the parasite, and there is no vaccine, although advanced testing of an experimental candidate that promises partial protection is under way.

School children raise money for water

Children in San Mateo, California are raising money for Water Partners International, a charity that develops safe drinking water and sanitation for the underdeveloped world. Not only are the children raising money for safe water, but they are also learning about the importance of water especially for other parts of the world.

From the San Mateo Daily Journal, Heather Murtagh details the fund raising effort.

Looking for a class project, eighth grade students at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School found clean water to be an interesting topic — and, as it turns out, an enlightening one.

A person can get clean water for life for $25, according to WaterPartners International, a U.S. nonprofit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. The St. Matthew’s community set a goal of raising $10,000 — enough to provide clean water for a village in India. Efforts kicked off in March on World Water Day and ended yesterday, Earth Day. Through a change drive, an Indian dinner feast and other activities students raised cash for the cause. Money raised will be tallied today.

Students needed a class project and learned about the need in other countries for clean water, explained 13-year-old Nate Mooi.

A St. Matthew’s parent, Tony Stayner, is on the board for WaterPartners and had taken his two eighth-grade children to India to see the work in November. The trip provided a firsthand experience with poverty and effects of not having clean water.

“I didn’t think about how much we have and other’s don’t,” said seventh grade student Nicole Crisci.

Thirteen-year-old Nicki Williams agreed, adding how often water is used daily without a thought. Brushing your teeth or taking a shower are routine here.

“It’s a luxury if you put yourselves in their shoes,” she said.

Fifth grade student Polly Finch takes a shower in the morning and evening. She thought the idea of a shower must be amazing to those in impoverished countries.

Through the project, students began to learn about the effects of water. For example, a five-gallon water jug weighs about 40 pounds. In areas without clean water, children often must carry these jugs three to four miles. As a result, the children end up missing opportunities for education.

World Bank issues latest World Monitoring Report

Reports on the state of the world's economy are being released ahead of a World Bank - International Monetary Fund meeting coming to Washington next week. The World Bank released its "Global Monitoring Report" for 2009, the title for it is sobering "A Development Emergency".

The report says that the recession had drastically hurt efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The bank calls on the world's governments to increase funding on programs for the poor, especially for health concerns.

From the Associated Press via Google, writer Deb Riechmann gives us more details from the new report. The World Bank has set up a full website with the Global Development Report available to download.

A report released in conjunction with this week's meeting of the bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington said the financial meltdown is impeding efforts to achieve most of the eight U.N. millennium development goals. Although it still may be possible to reach the first goal — halving extreme poverty by 2015 from its 1990 level — it will be an uphill battle, according to "The Global Monitoring Report 2009: A Development Emergency."

"With simultaneous recessions striking all major regions, the likelihood of painfully slow recoveries in many countries is very real, making the fight against poverty more challenging and more urgent," said John Lipsky, deputy managing director of the IMF.

New estimates show that more than half of all developing countries could experience a rise in the number of extremely poor people this year. The report said it's estimated that 55 million to 90 million more people will be trapped in extreme poverty this year due to the worldwide recession. The number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb to more than 1 billion this year, reversing gains made in fighting malnutrition and making it even more urgent to invest in agriculture.

"Worldwide, we have an enormous loss of wealth and financial stability," said Justin Yifu Lin, an economist at the World Bank. "Millions more people will lose their jobs in 2009, and urgent funding must be provided for social safety nets, infrastructure and small businesses in poor countries, for a sustainable recovery."

Somalia receives new pledges of aid

Somalia has received pledges of 250 million dollars in aid from International donors. A conference on Somalian aid has just completed in Brussels where the new Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed made a plea for money.

The leaders making the pledges hope that the money will be used to control the lawlessness and poverty in the country, which has led to the infamous Somali pirates.

This snippet from AFP includes more background on the country.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who took office in January, made a personal plea for funds at the conference, also attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

Somalia has had no effective central authority since former president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, setting off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions.

Islamist fighters including the hardline Shebab militia have waged battles against the transitional government, its predecessor cabinet and their allies, vowing to fight until all foreign forces withdraw and sharia law is imposed.

More than one million people have fled their homes. Fewer than one in three Somalis, whose life expectancy is 46 years, have access to clean water.

While the conference was not focused on piracy, the high media profile of the growing number of cases of daring raids on freighters on the seas of the Gulf of Aden has become synonymous with Somalia's woes.

"Piracy is not a water-borne disease. It is a symptom of anarchy and insecurity on the ground," Ban said. "Dealing with it requires an integrated strategy that addresses the fundamental issue of lawlessness in Somalia."

Despite international naval missions -- including from NATO and the European Union -- piracy has spiralled over the last year, as ransom-hunting Somalis tackle ever-bigger and more distant prizes.

More than 130 merchant ships were attacked in the region last year, an increase of more than 200 percent on 2007, the International Maritime Bureau said. A tenfold increase was noted in the first three months of 2009.

"If we only treat the symptoms, piracy at sea, but not its root causes -- the decay of the state and poverty -- we will fail," Barroso said.

Non-governmental organisation Oxfam said the conference was being held at a critical moment for 3.2 million Somalis desperately in need of aid, more than a million of whom have fled their homes to avoid fighting in the last two years.

Video: Nuru's BH2O campaign

380,000 Colombians forced to flee due to armed conflict

380,000 Colombians have had to flee their homes due to the continuing armed conflict in the country. Since, 1997 the numbers have reached 2.9 million people. These numbers are disputed by the government of Colombia, but aid workers and reporters say that the displacement continues in Colombia's rural areas.

From the BBC, reporter we learn more of a survey of the displacement from a human rights organization.

The Centre for Human Rights and the Displaced, Codhes, says this is a 25% rise on 2008 and brings the total displaced since 1985 to 4.6 million.

Government officials say the number registered as displaced has risen.

But they say the Codhes total includes figures from previous years and those falsely claiming compensation.

In its annual report, Codhes says 2008 saw the rate of displacement rising to levels last seen in 2002, the worst year on record when 410,000 people were forced to flee.

According to its study, 380,863 people had to leave their homes or places of work as a result of the armed conflict between guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the security forces.

Codhes says that between 1985 and 2008, 4.6 million Colombians have been uprooted.

"The great majority live in severe conditions of poverty," the Codhes report said, while their own land and property had fallen into the hands of others in a "de facto expropriation".

UK improves a little in child well being

Instead of being right at the bottom, the UK is now near the bottom in child well being for European countries. The University of York conducts the survey to gauge how well European countries are doing in helping poor children.

The report says that the UK is taking many good steps to improve children's well being, but need to give those programs more funding and resources.

From The Press, writer Jennifer Bell tells us where the UK ranks.

In a report commission by The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), university researchers found that high numbers of youngsters in workless families, poor local environments and the low numbers in education or training left the UK trailing 24th out of 29 countries listed.

That was well below the performance of countries such as Germany, which came eighth, and France ranked 15th, and a long way behind the continent’s best-off children, in Holland and Scandinavia.

Only Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta fared worse, according to the research, which was based on data from 2006.

Among other factors which resulted in a low score for the UK were poor immunisation rates, children more likely to report poor or fair health and a relatively poor ability to communicate with parents.

The Child Poverty Action Group said the Government was using the right kinds of policy but had failed to back them with sufficient resources.

The group is one of 150 organisations which have joined forces to call on Chancellor Alistair Darling to announce a £3 billion-plus boost to benefits and tax credits for low income families in today’s Budget.

A good primer on Tuberculosis

Today's Guardian has a good article that answers some basic questions about Tuberculosis. Our snippet contains the first few questions, but we encourage you to follow the link to the full article for more. Reporter Ruth McNerney compiled the Q and A.

What is TB?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a small bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The most common form of the disease is when it damages the lungs, but it can affect many parts of the body, when it is called extra-pulmonary disease. TB is highly infectious and is usually caught by breathing in bacteria from the air. People with untreated disease in their lungs or throat expel the bacteria as small droplets when they cough, sneeze or even during talking. These tiny droplets can remain suspended in the air for long enough to be inhaled by other people in the vicinity. The bacteria have tough waxy coats and can survive this process. Once inside the lung the bacteria can transfer to other parts of the body. Most people are able to control the infection and do not develop the tuberculosis disease, but between one and two in every 10 infected people will get sick and require treatment. Sometimes it takes years for symptoms to emerge, a condition known as latent TB. It is not understood why some people stay well while others become ill. People with damaged immune systems have a much higher risk of developing tuberculosis disease.
What are the symptoms?

The classic symptom of TB is a cough that gets worse over a period of weeks or months. Other symptoms include fever and weight loss. Coughing blood is a strong indicator of lung damage caused by TB. Tuberculosis can affect many parts of the body and symptoms are non-specific. When it affects the central nervous system, a form of the disease that is often fatal in children, the symptoms include fevers and headaches.
How many people are affected worldwide?

It has been suggested that one third of the world's population has at some time been infected by the TB bacteria. During 2007 there were an estimated 13.7 million people with tuberculosis disease and 1.75 million deaths worldwide. It is a disease of poverty, with less than 10% of cases occurring in the wealthy industrialised countries. The countries hardest hit by the epidemic are those of sub-Saharan Africa, where high rates of co-infection with HIV and weak public health systems have contributed to a dramatic rise in the number of cases.
How big is the problem in Uganda?

It is estimated that during 2007 there were 132,000 people in Uganda with active TB and 29,000 deaths from the disease. The amount of drug-resistant disease is not known. In a recent study undertaken at Mulago hospital in Kampala, of 409 "re-treatment" patients who had not been cured by previous attempts at treatment, 52 were found to have multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).

Asian and European leaders confirm sticking with MDG's

A two day conference between Asian and European leaders resulted in a declaration that the continents will still strive to meet the Millenium Development Goals, despite the global recession. Many countries are far behind on meeting the goals, and the recession has only made them fall further.

From ABS-CBN News, reporter Michelle Orosa attended the conference.

Thirteen Asian countries, 16 European countries, the European Comission, eight international organizations and 10 civil society organizations attended the two-day conference.

Of these 13 countries, Richelle said 5 to 7 were having more difficulty than the rest in following through with the MDG goals.

"Thanks to efforts from India and China, development has progressed significantly in the region. But this has not spread to the whole of Asia," he noted.

Richelle declined to name the countries, but according to a background study submitted for the 2009 ASEM entitled, "Development Challenges and Opportunities," cited as lagging behind other countries in fulfilling several aspects of the MDGs are Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Myanmar Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Philippines, in particular, was cited for lagging in the goals of halving the number of people living under $1 a day, improving quality of teaching and learning conditions, and improving access to health services.

Rolando Tungpalan, Deputy Director General for the National Economic Development Authority admitted that there was much to improve in the areas cited, but he maintains the government is committed to keeping the country on track to meet its MDG goals by 2015.

Richelle added there are currently 3 factors the ASEM is watching out for in achieving the MDG goals: Volatility in the prices of commodities, slowdown in remittance volumes as the crisis affect job prospects of migrant labor, and the amount of money available for official development assistance.

A shortfall in food aid in Uganda

Last Year, the UN's World Food Programme announced that because of lack of funding, they had to make some cutbacks on food aid in Uganda. One of the cuts the WFP made was providing food aid to HIV-positive people.

From IRIN, we see the effects of the cuts in food aid, especially among those who have been displaced by the countries civil war that is currently in cease fire.

"We shall only be providing food support to those HIV-positive IDPs who are extremely sick or those whose health condition has relapsed, based on advice from health workers," Bai Mankay Sankoh, head of WFP's Gulu office, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Aceng's family eats one meal a day, usually boiled sorghum with salt, or cassava and beans. "You feel like eating but the food we have can't make you feel satisfied; we have to persevere, knowing that there is nothing or little for tomorrow," she said. "With this kind of life, anytime you can die because the drugs I am taking [antiretrovirals] require good feeding."

Pamela Ayaa, 21, Aceng's oldest child, makes less than US$1 a day at a local construction site. "The needs are too much, my mother is weak and our relatives can't provide much because they are also starting a new life home after 20 years living in an IDP camp," she said.

Primary and secondary school education are free in Uganda, but none of her siblings are in school because they do not have the money to pay for uniforms, exercise books or transport to and from school.

A protracted conflict between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the government kept over one million people in often dangerously congested camps, sometimes for more than 20 years, but after a two-year lapse in hostilities and an ongoing peace process, IDPs are being encouraged to leave. According to local officials, about 40 percent have moved to resettlement camps closer to their original villages.

Many returnees have been able to resettle on their farms and resume productive agriculture, and WFP is phasing out general food distribution in the north, but government officials have urged the agency to maintain food aid to the most vulnerable.

G-8 recommends stockpiling food to prevent price shocks

When food prices went through the roof last year, many people in the under developed world began to riot, because they could no longer afford food. Since then, world leaders have been looking for ways to prevent such unrest from happening again. They have a lot of work to do, as many countries are far behind meeting the Millennium Development Goal of of halving poverty by 2015.

The agricultural leaders of the eight wealthiest nations have concluded meetings to improve food security. They recommend that countries stockpile food. But Oxfam has called on the G-8 to do a lot more.

From the AFP via Google, we see what was announced at the G8 meetings recently concluded in Italy.

The G8 agriculture ministers called for a study into setting up a global system to stockpile essential foodstuffs after three days of talks in northeastern Italy joined by key emerging and developing countries.

"We call upon the relevant international institutions to examine whether a system of stockholding could be effective in dealing with humanitarian emergencies or as a means to limit price volatility," the ministers said in a final declaration.

"It's an important first step," said the head of the UN food agency, Jacques Diouf. "Now we hope that ... we can broach structural problems and come (to negotiations) with concrete solutions," notably at the G8 summit in Sardinia in July, he told a news conference.

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said he was "pleased by the fact that so many top agriculture officials of the world had met ... to draw international attention to the fact that we have not resolved the food crisis."

While recession has cooled soaring prices, officials say it offers only a temporary respite, while activists complain that only a fraction of the 22 billion dollars (17 billion euros) in aid announced at a UN food agency summit in Rome last June has been disbursed.

The British-based charity Oxfam immediately slammed Monday's declaration, which also lamented that the world is "very far" from attaining the UN goal on malnutrition.

"The G8 has failed the world's one billion hungry people," it said in a statement.

The ministers "have made an extraordinary admission of collective failure."

More fall into poverty in South Korea

Joblessness in Seoul, South Korea is up by 18 percent compared to last year. This is sending thousands more below the poverty line in the city. The local government says over 1000 people have filed for assistance.

From the Korea Tribune, we see more of the stats and figures.

The number of people signing up for basic living subsidies rose by about 1,000 each month this year to 117,933 so far, according to the officials.

Those earning less than the minimum monthly living cost of 1.32 million won ($985) for a family of four are eligible to apply for basic living subsidies.

"An increasing number of households tumbled into poverty under worsening economic conditions," a city official said.

"The city government will support families in crisis through its special relief programs."

The city recently discovered that some 76,000 families are getting along with less than the minimum cost of living but do not meet certain requirements to receive state subsidies.

These low-income families will be covered by the city's special assistance programs, the metropolitan government said.

The city plans to provide up to 5 million won in cash, for example, to households whose main income earners lost jobs or went out of business.

Educating villagers about malaria

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in fighting malaria is lack of education. Many people who are affected by the disease don't know how it is spread and how to treat it.

From All Africa we find this story about malaria education. Students from Makerere University in Uganda encountered a lot of misconceptions when they worked to a small village.

In June and July 2007, medical students spent six weeks in Mifumi village in Tororo, eastern Uganda, listening to what villagers knew about malaria after which they designed an educational programme to fill gaps in the people's knowledge.

The students, who presented their findings in a video conference with the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM) and Fogarty International Centre, learned that the villagers' ideas about malaria are neither correct nor incorrect.

Responses like; "Mangoes cause malaria in this village, "When I eat mangoes I get sick," were very common.

This was an indication that people had not received correct information on how malaria spreads. However, the researchers learnt that the villagers were not far from the

truth, because during the rainy season when mangoes are in plenty, malaria cases increase because mosquitoes breed around the bushes, in broken bottles, containers and swamps.

"When people in these places get bitten by mosquitoes, they attribute the attack of malaria to mangoes," said William Lubega, one of the researchers.

Lack of medical advice

Researchers were stunned to learn that locals think malaria is caused by witchcraft or bad spirits. Similarly, most villagers do not seek medical advice due to ignorance.

"When one is suffering from malaria in that village, the pain may subside for some time even when they have not visited a health centre.

But the malaria germ (plasmodium) remains in the body, causing the victim to succumb to the disease again," Lubega said.

They also discovered that there was a link between malaria and diarrhoea in Mifumi village due to absence of a protected water source in the area.

The people share wells with animals and lack basic knowledge about personal hygiene. Another problem encountered was misuse of anti-malaria drugs.

According to Brian Sseruyombya, a pharmacy student, the people had tried various drugs and had given up visiting health centres because it made no difference.

"The majority of the people had not completed their doses while others used over-the-counter drugs and practiced self medication, especially taking Panadol, a pain killer," he said.

A new search engine that helps to fight hunger

Using a certain search engine can now help provide meals to the hungry. "Hoongle" is similar to FreeRice.com, in that each time you use it, a few grains of rice goes to the United Nations Food Programme.

We found out about "Hoongle" though a write up in the New York Times Blogs, writer Jenna Wortham tells us all about the new search engine.

A search engine can pull up results, but can it also dish out three meals a day?

That’s what Vladimir Hruda, David Whitehead and Salmaan Ayaz, undergraduate students at the University of Richmond, are hoping. The trio of students built Hoongle.org, a custom Google search engine that promises to donate 20 grains of rice per search to schools in the developing world.

Since the search engine rolled out in September, the site has generated more than 8.5 million grains of rice, or the equivalent of 4,000 meals, Mr. Hruda said. “We’re adding tremendous value to everyday searches,” Mr. Whitehead said.

To finance their food fund, the creators donate the revenue generated by each search, which is enough to pay for the equivalent of 20 grains of rice. A small portion of the proceeds toward server maintenance charges, said Mr. Hruda. The search engine works through Fill the Cup, a campaign of the United National World Food Program that delivers food to schools around the world.

“Typically charity requires donation,” said Mr. Ayaz. “But we’re creating the value that we’re donating. There’s no cost to us, or anyone for doing this.”

Saturday Missions: starting a new food pantry

Inspired by a trip to South Africa, Carole Romine decided to start a food pantry at her church. It couldn't have come at a better time, with demand for food assistance greater than it has even been due to the global recession.

From this Associated Press story that we found at the Daily Southerner, we learn of how the food pantry got it's start.

“This couple that I saw just came in (the church) and were looking for food,” Romine said. “My first inclination was to try to find some money.”

But before she could find some cash, the couple disappeared.

“This is something that stuck with me,” Romine said. “It really stirred something inside, that we should never let them leave empty handed because we are a church.”

Another churchgoer, Lois Pryor, had also seen people come to the church asking for help.

And since the start of the year, the two women have been helping working to do something about what they saw.

They have worked to open a food pantry at the church to serve north Henderson and south Buncombe counties.

“We had several people come in asking for help, and I had mentioned that I felt it was something we should do,” Pryor said. “We’re starting out small, and we’re going to see how it grows.”

The new food pantry, which is set up inside a small room at the church, will open April 25 and will be open 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

Already, 35 people have volunteered to help. And the church has been collecting food donations with the help of some area businesses.

New 'open access' journal on poverty and public policy

A new journal that examines poverty and public policy hopes to go the 'open access' route to get the information to as many people as possible. The Poverty and Public Policy Journal has several articles up now for anyone to read. You just need to fill out a short form with your name and where you are from.

One article that caught our eye was an examination of an anti-poverty program in Chile. Writer Silvia Borzutzky introduces us to the Chile Solidario program.

Chile Solidario, designed in 2002, is Chile’s most important anti-poverty program and it is coordinated by the Minister of Planning.8 The program’s aim is to incorporate indigent families into the State’s Social Protection Network which, in turn, will facilitate access to benefits and services that for the most part are already provided by the state, but that the very poor do not know how to access.

Thus, its objective is to coordinate monetary benefits, subsidies, services and
programs that are already available, and to facilitate access to those programs. In
the words of one analyst, “The innovative approach involves a two-pronged
strategy, working on both the demand and the supply side of public services.”9 On
the demand side, the program allows the indigent to become aware of the
existence of benefits and services. On the supply side, the program requires
coordination of services at the municipal level since it guarantees preferential
access to the services provided by the municipality. Here it is important to note
that the program is grounded in each municipality through a Family Intervention
Unit, headed by a municipal employee who acts as a case worker.

Chile Solidario works with the family, and specifically with
women/mothers, providing psychosocial support, subsidies, and mechanisms to
access existing services. The program is operating in 332 municipalities, and by
the end of 2005 it incorporated 225,000 families.10 It is important to note that the
program largely ignores husbands and fathers. Chile Solidario is considered to
have fulfilled its mission when the family is able to overcome its indigence and
can sustain a set of minimum pre-established conditions. The right to participate
in the Chile Solidario program is determined through a poverty score, which in
turn is a summary index of unsatisfied basic needs. The score is posted in a card
(CAS ficha) that serves as a means to identify program recipients. Households are
invited to participate on the basis of their score, starting with the poorest
families.

The families incorporated into the program receive a set of small subsidies,
some training, and the provision of identity cards to families that had never had
one. It facilitates registration in the local clinics so families can obtain primary
care in their respective neighborhood. The program also makes sure that children
are sent to school, facilitates access to education for illiterate adults, and it
attempts to reduce intra-family violence which appears to be a chronic problem
among indigent families in Chile. The program also aims at facilitating
employment opportunities, the right to get a welfare pension, and to improved
housing conditions.

Entrance into the program is facilitated through the so called Puente or
“bridge program” that actually opens the door into the benefits provided by Chile
Solidario, or “builds a bridge between them [the indigents] and their rights in
order to defeat the condition of extreme poverty.”12 It is interesting to note that
the Puente Program places emphasis on the provision of psychological support to
the families. In practice, the program is implemented by “the case worker” who is
in charge of visiting the family on a regular basis, providing support, and dealing
with both the emotional and the economic problems of the family. This person,who often is a recent college graduate with some background either in health,
education, or the social sciences, is expected to develop a personal relationship
with the mother and to work with her during the life of the program. Thus, the
mother is both the central economic, social, and psychological actor in the project
since she sustains the relationship with the case worker, and receives the family
protection subsidy. She should attempt to improve intra-family relations, and is in
charge of taking the children to school and to the local health clinic.

It is important to note that Chile Solidario provides an array of very small
cash benefits, including a Solidario benefit (which ranges from about US$ 19.5
the first semester to US$ 6 the fourth semester),13 a family subsidy to children
under 18 years of age, an old age assistance and/or invalidity pension, and a
subsidy that pays the family’s water bill. Moreover, the cash benefits provided by
Chile Solidario are just part of a larger set of small cash transfers provided by the
government which also include a family subsidy given to pregnant women, to
parents of children between 6-18 years of age, and to parents of persons with
physical disabilities. To be eligible the parents must take the children for regular
medical check-ups, and must send children to school. The benefit amounts to
about US$8 per month. There is also an unemployment benefit that fluctuates
between approximately $20-30, and is conditioned upon having been employed
for at least 52 weeks during the previous two years. Assistance pensions are given
to those over 65 and to physically and mentally-disabled adults regardless of age.
The pension amounts to about $95 per month and it also includes free medical
care. Households also receive a Water and Sewage subsidy which fluctuates
between $4-$7 monthly, and the solidarity subsidy which is received by 1.1
percent of all households.14 In brief, if all the subsidies are added a poor family in Chile receives on average about $40 monthly in cash transfers,15 and up to about
$275 through the life of the program, which equals 2 percent of the median
income of the participating households.

Taking up fighting in a war to escape poverty

For some desperate for a way out, going to war could seem like a good option instead of suffering from poverty. Similar to in the states where a homeless person will commit a crime in order to get into jail, for a warm bed and three meals a day.

In Columbia, children a preyed upon to enter a rebel fighting force. The child soldiers join to escape poverty, parental abuse or for revenge.

In this Bloomberg story, we read of a former child soldier named Juan, who surrendered to the Colombian army after fearing for his life. Writer Helen Murphy also gathers statistics from Human Rights Watch for her story.

“I couldn’t take the fear and hunger any more,” recalls Juan, a physically and emotionally scarred former child soldier who turned himself in to Colombia’s military in 2008 after escaping from two years with the drug-funded rebels. “The army bombed us every night and I was afraid.”

As the world seeks to prevent the use of minors in armed conflict, thousands -- some as young as 11 -- bear arms in Colombia’s illegal forces, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The global financial crisis may increase the pool of willing recruits: With more rural Colombians facing poverty, it may be easier for the rebels to replace members killed or captured in President Alvaro Uribe’s attacks against them.

Young prospects “come from poor and brutal backgrounds, where even armed combat seems a better option, and the FARC is happy to take them in,” says Philippe Houdard, whose Developing Minds Foundation in Miami Beach, Florida, helps fund a home in Colombia for former child combatants, some of whom were forced into service.

‘Appalling’ Abuses

While the scope of the problem worldwide is impossible to gauge, Lucia Withers, acting director of the London-based Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, says youngsters are always involved in wars in some way. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 12 said the use of child soldiers is “one of the most appalling human-rights abuses in the world today.”

Once the killing starts, “they are thrown into extreme stress,” says Maggie Mauer, a Coral Gables, Florida, psychologist who has studied Colombia’s former young fighters. “Some told me they lost control of their bowels in combat. But they are not allowed to be afraid; they would be ridiculed by those they depend on for survival.”

Juan, who bears a deep gouge down his left cheek, joined the FARC, Colombia’s largest illegal armed group, when he was 14. Like most young recruits, he came voluntarily with the promise of adventure and a better life away from destitution. He also wanted revenge on the army for killing his older brother, another child soldier.

A childhood spent surviving genocide

Eric Karita gives us an outstanding first person account of the Rwandan genocide from the 1990's. Karita spent a good portion of his childhood on the run and hiding from Hutus who would kill him just because he was Tutsi. Karita is now getting an education in the US.

The student newspaper at the University Karita attends asked for the story of his experience. From the Undercurrent from Buena Vista UIniversity in Iowa, is an excerpt from Karita's story.

It all started on April 6, 1994. Over the next hundred days that followed, many people lost their lives. It was a war in which two ethnic groups began fighting for ultimate power. Rwanda's genocide was a situation of two tribes: Tutsi and Hutu, where the Hutu began killing the Tutsi. Rwanda has experienced what other countries have never experienced. Rwanda's genocide has come to define the country.

Living through a transition massacre to a free market society, I have personally experienced poverty and national wars that most Americans could never dream about in their worst nightmares. Living through war and poverty has made me find my true existence; they have integrated my life and personality. In 1994 after the crash of the plane of former president of Rwanda, Habyarimana, the Hutus started slaughtering the Tutsis using machetes, axes, guns, and clubs. I was in the village with my grandma. Many Tutsis started packing their stuff so that they could find a safe place and became survivors. Friends, relatives, and families were turning against each other because they were from different ethnic groups. Those who were the Hutus had no mercy on the Tutsis. It did not matter whether you were friends or relatives or family you were still going to be killed. My eyes were full of terrors. I would hear people screaming and gunshots. Many of the Tutsis were begging for forgiveness from the Hutus not to kill them, but the Hutus had no forgiveness. The Hutus would just shoot them or chop them like they were chopping meat not human beings. I have seen so many dead bodies. I had spent many days running away from the Hutus and without having shelter to rest my head nor even food and water to drink. I would eat whatever I would get and drink whatever I could find to drink. I owned many goats and I depended on them. Unfortunately, one day I had to leave them behind.

Eventually, my grandma and I managed to cross the border of Rwanda into Tanzania. We became refugees in Tanzania and life was a struggle there. The Office of the United Nations Commission for Refugees could not afford to feed all of the people. However, I still felt relief because I could not hear gunshots anymore.

Video CBS News story on MicroPlace

MicroPlace is a microcredit website started by ebay that gives loaners a little of the interest back. CBS News recently did a story about the website. But please, don't forget about Kiva.

Book Review: Daniel Jaffee’s Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival

A book on fair trade coffee is very critical of the practice and questions the claims that it improves life for coffee growers. Writer Daniel Jaffee is very critical of the corporations that purchase the coffee and stick a fair trade label on it, saying it's just a way to make a profit that may make a few people feel good.

From the Mother Nature Network, reviewer Nathalie Jordi explains the book's views in this article that was originally published in the magazine Plenty.

If you find your morning java fix at Starbucks expensive but justifiable because, you trust, at least your money will be ethically spent, think again. Sociologist Daniel Jaffee’s Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival explores the benefits, limits, advances, and contradictions of fair trade—and finds it wanting. Hopscotching among alternative coffee shops, rural Oaxaca, nonprofit offices, and corporate headquarters, Jaffee’s work of ‘multi-sited ethnography’ is impassioned, systematic, and profoundly researched.

Is fair trade a challenge to the capitalist system, or just a lucrative niche market with good image-enhancement potential? Is it a market breaker, reformer, or simply a market access mechanism?

And, in a question similar to the Big Organic vs. Beyond Organic discussion led by Michael Pollan, who will determine the future of fair trade? The idealistic founders of the once-alternative movement, the pragmatists willing to sacrifice certain standards for what they believe is a greater good, or powerful corporations for which, Jaffee notes sarcastically, “fairness is merely one flavor” in a carefully considered lineup of niche products?

So far, the corporations seem to be fiercely maintaining their hold on the upper hand, even though the ‘Big Five’ coffee corporations that control 69 percent of the world’s coffee buy less than 1 percent through fair trade channels. This figure mirrors the proportion of fair trade to regular coffee in the world market, and is shockingly low when one considers that coffee is the world’s most successful fair trade product.

Consider that farmers reached rock bottom during the coffee crisis of 2001, while Starbucks posted a 41-percent jump in first-quarter profits and Nestlé’s profits increased by 20 percent. Consider that between 1975 and 1993, despite the 18 percent drop in wholesale coffee prices, the retail price of coffee increased by 240 percent. Consider that according to Oxfam Canada, when one takes inflation into account, families are earning less for their beans than their ancestors did a hundred years ago.

Over two years of interviews, observation, surveys, and statistical analysis in rural Oaxaca—Jaffee is nothing if not thorough—he
finds that fair trade has made a tangible difference in producer livelihoods. Fair trade coffee farmers spent more on education and showed a greater proportion of beds per family member and cooking stoves, for example.

But their overall economic bottom line was only marginally better. Although production costs have increased, the price for fair trade coffee hasn’t changed in 10 years, and most farmers’ profits are redistributed in the form of wages they have to pay the laborers they hire to cope with the additional work involved in growing organic beans, or even certification expenses (incredibly, farmers have to pay for their own organic certification; one of Jaffee’s recommendations is to provide subsidies).

Fair trade farmers made about 10 percent more than conventional producers, but had to work so much harder for the privilege that Jaffee concludes, “[fair trade] does not currently provide a sufficiently compelling alternative for many households, let alone constitute a solution to rural poverty, economic crisis, or ecological degradation.” In other words, fair trade does deliver many social, economic, and environmental benefits to participants, but nonetheless still falls far short of pulling the majority out of poverty, its avowed goal.

This book would be painfully long and technical were its reflections not as carefully considered. It’s worth glossing over the more evidential chapters in order to arrive at Jaffee’s distillations and recommendations: Adjust the base price of fair trade coffee; revisit the allocation of benefits; reduce entry barriers to trade; subsidize organic certification for deserving producers; address the balance of power within the fair trade supply chain; and protect fair trade against the threat of dilution and co-optation with which it is constantly barraged.

'Slumdog Millionaire' producers make another donation to Mumbai

'Slumdog Millionaire' director Danny Boyle has announced another donation to benefit Mumbai. 500,000 pounds will go to the charity Plan, to help the children of India's slums.

From the BBC, we find a statement from Boyle as well as more details on the donation.

Child actors Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, who played young versions of two main characters, were moved to new homes by the Indian authorities.

"Having benefited so much from the hospitality of the people of Mumbai it is only right that some of the success of the movie be ploughed back into the city in areas where it is needed most and where it can make a real difference to some lives," Boyle said of the charitable donation.

"Despite intimidating odds, extraordinary work is going on to help people break the cycle of poverty through education. We're delighted that this initiative will add to that ongoing work," he added.

The cash will fund a five-year project to help poor children in the city, which will be run by the organisation Plan.

It is thought the charity, which works in nearly 50 countries, will train people in good hygiene and set up education schemes.

Plan's Marie Staunton said: "Around one billion of the world's population live in slums and there are 100,000 new slum dwellers every day.

Number of heroin addicts in Afghanistan doubles

A survey conducted to gauge drug abuse in Afghanistan is showing that heroin and opium abuse has doubled in the country. The United Nations conducted the surveys, with the last one taking place four years ago.

From NPR, reporter Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson tells us some of the factors that have contributed to the increase. The link also includes the audio story that aired on NPR, as well as some graphic actualities from addicts and their children.

Experts say that the alarming trend is not being addressed by the Afghan government and its international partners, even though most officials acknowledge that the drug scourge threatens lasting stability in Afghanistan.
...

The soaring rates of drug abuse are driven in part by Afghanistan's widespread unemployment and social upheaval under the Taliban and the U.S.-led war, begun in 2001. Another factor is the flood of returning Afghan refugees from Iran, many of whom became heroin addicts there.

And fueling it all is an overabundance of opium and heroin in Afghanistan, the world's largest cultivator of poppies in the world.

The addicts say that heroin is a cheap way to forget their miserable existence.
...

The U.N.'s Jean-Luc Lemahieu calls it the "Coca-Cola effect." The widespread abundance and affordability of the drugs have made them as ubiquitous and available as soft drinks.

"What people always forget is that not only demand creates supply, but supply creates demand," said Lemahieu, the representative in Kabul for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Reel Poverty Film Festival at the University of Marquette

A short film festival taks place tonight at the University of Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Students at the film school record stories about poverty and homelessness in the Milwaukee area. A web video of one of the films can be found at this page, from the University.

From the Marquette Tribune, writer Tori Dykes describes the event.

The films are centered on homelessness and poverty in Milwaukee, but student filmmakers chose how to address the subject matter. So the films will not necessarily all be shot in the style of a straight documentary, said John Ross, one of the festival organizers and a sophomore in the College of Engineering.

"We're trying to make a connection with people through the videos," Ross said. "Once you see these stories, these problems become a lot more apparent."

There will be additional presentations between the films, including a performance by a choir from Repairers of the Breach, a shelter and homelessness outreach center, as well as poetry readings from a man who used to be homeless, Davis said.

The combination of student films and performances from members of Milwaukee's homeless community "gives people more of a complete view" of homelessness and poverty, Davis said.

The festival will also feature a display of photographs submitted as part of a contest sponsored by Hunger Clean-Up, said Megan Heinen, co-chair of the Hunger Clean-Up fundraising committee and sophomore in the College of Nursing.

The photographs will focus on issues of hunger, homelessness and other aspects of social justice.

Building walls to hide poverty

The country of Trinidad is about to host the Summit of the Americas. In preparation for the event some clean up of the city has taken place. Some of the efforts to clean up include taking homeless to shelters, but it also includes building walls to hide sections of the city with high poverty.

From the Miami Tribune again, writer Jacqueline Charles describes how building a wall has sparked a debate about poverty.

The government has erected a wall along the neighborhood's frayed edges, blocking the view into a long troubled community that shares space with the murky waters of industrial waste, overgrown weeds and the constant stench of the nearby landfill.

The 5-foot-tall wall is simply a beautifying touch, say government officials, who have spent months prepping for the arrival this week of 33 leaders including President Barack Obama at the largest and most important gathering of hemispheric leaders.

But to those who live behind the wall, the structure means something else: It's a symbol of years of broken promises, government neglect and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.

''They can talk prosperity. They can talk about development. But there can be no development in a country if you continue to leave behind any community or any of your people,'' said Sherma Wilson, 42, a mother of four and community activist who has taken on the plight of this long-suffering east Port of Spain community. ``The peace we seek? We can only do that if we develop community by community.''

As Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare to engage regional leaders at the three-day summit that begins Friday, the question of deep-rooted social and income inequalities in the region will be a priority for the new administration.

''We know that there has been progress . . . in this hemisphere on gross domestic product increase and reduction of poverty, particularly abject poverty,'' said Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador in Latin America and now a White House special advisor for the summit.

Related Video

Haiti receives renewed pledges of aid

The US renewed it's pledge of aid to Haiti today. The Haitian government got government leaders and other organizations together to help them dig out of huge deficit caused by tropical storms and the collapse of it's government. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged 57 million dollars to Haiti.

From the Miami Herald, writer Jacqueline Charles has the follow up story on the conference.

Clinton told the opening session of the meeting of 20 nations and international organizations that the United States' commitment was designed to generate jobs, build roads and help fight drug traffickers.

''What happens in Haiti affects far beyond the Caribbean and even the region,'' she said. ``Haiti is in danger of stalling. This conference gives us all an opportunity to reignite its path to progress by working as a team with Haiti at the helm.''

At one point, Clinton reduced her philanthropic pitch to the bare essentials, noting that $150 can send a single Haitian child to school for a year -- or vaccinate 15 youngsters.

The daylong meeting is being held at the Inter-American Development Bank. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and representatives of France and Canada were in attendance.

The cash-starved, impoverished nation of nine million is still digging out from last year's four tropical storms and hurricanes that left nearly 800 dead and $1 billion in damage in the aftermath of a series of food riots.

Haiti is seeking $125 million to close a gap in its budget and about $2 billion toward a three-year program aimed at reducing poverty.

In her appeal, Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis stressed that her country was ready to embark on a new partnership with the international community.

''Timing is of extreme importance,'' she said.

Haiti looks for more from donors

Haiti is holding a one day conference today with other governments and non-governmental organizations that provide aid to the country. The country suffers from very low food aid and a medical system that is inoperable. A five month government crisis and tropical storms made the medical and food systems suffer.

From the Miami Herald, reporter Jacqueline Charles explains the purpose of the meeting in Haiti.

Millions of dollars in the hole, the Caribbean nation is seeking $125 million to plug a budget shortfall and $2 billion toward a three-year poverty-reduction plan.

''The plan,'' Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis told Haitians last week in a national radio address, ``doesn't cover all of the country's needs. But it opens the door for the country to move forward.''

The plan includes new roads and schools, renovations of existing hospitals and revitalization of the country's agriculture, which suffered millions of dollars in losses following last summer's back-to-back hurricanes and tropical storms. The storms came in the midst of a nearly five-month political crisis, triggered by the firing of the former prime minister after rising fuel and food prices on the world market sparked deadly food riots.

In hopes of having donors give, despite the global economic slump and Haiti donor fatigue, the country has promised a new paradigm of cooperation.

''Success at donors conferences is typically measured by how much money is raised. We expect that more aid will be forthcoming, and we're even helping the Haitian government reach out to potential new donors, such as countries in the Gulf region and private foundations,'' said Dora Currea, manager of the Inter-American Development Bank's Caribbean Department. ``But this meeting is more about agreeing on a common vision, shared development priorities, coordination and partnership.''

The conference, which is a year overdue, was initially supposed to tackle improving international coordination between the Haitian government and the hundreds of private, nongovernmental organizations working on the ground in the poverty-stricken nation.

But with Haiti's relative stability at stake following last year's deadly food riots, a political impasse and back-to-back storms that left nearly $1 billion in damage, the gathering quickly became a fundraising effort by a government desperately seeking money for roads, hospitals and 150,000 jobs through investments in manufacturing and other areas.

Poverty on the rise in Stuben County, New York

The local Catholic Charities for Stuben County, New York was profiled in a story today. The word from the workers for the Catholic Charities are that more people are asking for help these days.

From the Evening Tribune, writer Justin Head surveys the amount of need in the area.

“What we are talking about here is the hidden face of poverty. I call it the hidden face of poverty because if you are not looking for it you won’t even know it’s there, but the reality is a lot of people need help and are in troublesome situations,” said Andy Mazzella, assistant director of Steuben County Catholic Charities.

Mazzella said there has been a 26- to 28-percent increase in services being sought after in the Hornell, Bath and Corning Catholic Charities’ offices.

“We are seeing a new group of people coming here, the newly poor. These are people that are poor for the very first time,” said Donna Mehlenbacher, program manager for the Hornell Turning Point. She said her staff is seeing a large rise in the number of people needing help who have jobs but are getting their hours cut because of the bad economy.

She said many people that are assisted at Turning Point are living in their cars or alternating between several different places of their kin and sleeping on the floors of friends’ places.
“Some of these people are well put together,” said Mehlenbacher.

She also reported that since the Internal Revenue Service stopped sending out tax forms, there has been a rise in the number of people requesting help with their income taxes.

Mehlenbacher said since Turning Point opened up in June the location has seen a steadily increasing volume of those who are in need.

Mehlenbacher compiled a write up of some of her cases that include a homeless couple from Hornell that walked the streets for four days, a cancer patient who can’t afford living expenses because of his medical costs and a single mother of four who can’t afford living arrangements even though she works full time at medical facility.

Grameen-Jameel celebrates milestone

One of the Grameen Bank family of companies, Grameen Jameel celebrates a lending miolestone. Grameen Jameel is an arm of Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank that gives microcredit loans through the Arab world.

From Al Bawaba, comes this profile of the company.

Two years after being launched as the first poverty-focused social business in the Arab world, Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Limited (Grameen-Jameel) is celebrating significant milestones that are helping to transform microfinance’s impact across the Arab World.

Through its Guarantee Fund, Grameen-Jameel has brokered more than US$ 44 million in financing for microfinance institutions, including several landmark transactions that are opening new opportunities for microfinance institutions in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia. It was the first company to obtain financial leverage on a guarantee in Egypt for its partner, Dakahlya Businessmen’s Association for Community Development, and the first to facilitate a commercial debt facility in Syria for First Microfinance Institution. It has also awarded 312 scholarships for microfinance practitioners to participate in major regional and international training events, which has enabled them to build a peer network to share their expertise and learn from leading institutions in the field.

Fadi Jameel, Grameen-Jameel board member and president of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services International, says: “The potential microfinance industry in the Arab world is estimated at US$ 5.5 billion and we are already over one third of the way toward our 2011 target of actively helping one million poor people throughout the Arab world exit poverty.”

In 2008 alone, Grameen-Jameel’s partners added more than 110,000 new clients, an increase of 46 per cent over new clients Grameen-Jameel had impacted through its partner relationships as of 2007.

Jameel explained: “This program is about empowering the poor. In most cases, microfinance loans are used by individuals to build a business for themselves. Whether a Jordanian woman uses her skills to produce embroidered gifts, or a group in Morocco sells farm produce, they are making every effort to ensure their micro-business is a success. Escaping from the chains of poverty is an extremely powerful motivation to make these investments succeed.”

Founded in 2007, Grameen-Jameel established its head office in Dubai’s International Humanitarian City in February 2008. Inspired by the work of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus, in Bangladesh, Grameen-Jameel was created as a social business by US-based Grameen Foundation and Saudi Arabia's Bab Rizq Jameel Limited, a subsidiary of Abdul Latif Jameel Group. The organisation has established strong relationships with twelve microfinance institutions in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and most recently in Palestine. The organisation’s partners have benefited from its commitment to improving industry standards throughout the region.

A commentary by the President of Liberia

The President of Liberia has released a commentary on global recession's effects on Africa. In her commentary, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf begins by stating the great progress that Africa has made in recent years. Johnson-Sirleaf says all that progress can be undone by the recession that was not caused by Africa.

Our snippet of the commentary comes from the Guelph Mercury. Johnson-Sirleaf proposes 5 things that can help Africa keep growing through the global recession.

The economic crisis threatens the progress in my country and elsewhere on our continent. An estimated $50 billion in income could be lost in Africa during the next two years. Declining remittances, trade flows and investment could undermine new businesses, throw millions out of work, and increase tensions and instability.

The crisis, which Africa did nothing to cause, demands a strong response. African nations must do their part by continuing to address corruption, eliminate red tape and reduce obstacles to private-sector growth. But just as industrialized countries need a stimulus, African economies need a boost to keep their progress on track. The Group of 20 meeting last week produced a helpful first step. Now, five additional steps are critical.

First, the G-20 pledge to provide the International Monetary Fund with new resources must be fulfilled, and the IMF needs to get those resources to countries quickly and without onerous conditions.

Second, the World Bank and the African Development Bank must better leverage their resources; aggressively front-load support; and better target growth, jobs and safety-net programs. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private-sector affiliate, must be especially creative in keeping private investment on track.

Third, bilateral partners must build on their promises to increase aid and make it more effective by reducing bureaucratic delays, speeding disbursements and better aligning programs with African priorities.

Fourth, export credit agencies must use their resources to attack risk and other barriers to trade finance, such as liquidity issues.

Fifth, all countries must resist protectionist pressures so that trade can be the critical engine for restoring global growth.

The citizens and leaders of donor nations should recognize how important their assistance has been to the new leadership in Africa and how appreciative most Africans are for this partnership. Critics say that African economies are shrinking, that poverty is rising and that failing aid is the culprit.

But this argument is at least a decade out of date. Africa's turnaround is real, the evidence indisputable. Africans themselves have been the key to this reversal, but more effective aid has played an important role. Reducing aid would slow private-sector growth, stall poverty reduction, and undermine peace and stability in countries that are struggling to become part of the global economy.

Changing his own life to improve the lives of others

Daniel Germain began using and dealing drugs as a child. A trip to jail and then later a trip to Mexico turned his life around. Seeing the poverty amongst children in Mexico convicted him to do something about it. So in addition to all the aid work he has done in recent years, Germain has started Millennium Summits to bring experts into Montreal to discuss how to fight poverty.

From the Montreal Gazette, reporter Rene Bruemmer introduces us to Germain and his work.

Germain joined a Canadian International Development Agency trip to Mexico, saw 50,000 children living in garbage dumps, and resolved to spend his life helping kids.

He made 60 trips to Mexico and Haiti over the next five years, organizing aid groups of up to 100 people.

Congratulations, an influential activist told him, but what about the less visible poverty in his back yard?

He started the Breakfast Club of Quebec at one Longueuil elementary school in 1994. Today, the program serves breakfast to 15,000 kids a day at 230 schools. The United Nations recognized it as one of the top three school-feeding programs in the world, and it has spread across Canada.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Germain is hosting the third annual Montreal Millennium Summit that he founded, gathering experts, celebrities, United Nations officials and ordinary citizens to the Palais des congrès to discuss ways to tackle the world's humanitarian ills.

It's based on the UN's Millennium Development Goals, put forth in 2000, which include halving world poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

Why did you start the Montreal Millennium Summit?

Germain: We wanted to create a platform of like minds - foundations, experts, celebrities, NGOs - to come together once a year and harness best practices. And we also want the general public (3,000 tickets have been sold) because I believe ordinary people have extraordinary dreams and strategies, but they don't have the ability to share it.

What do you hope to achieve?

I'm betting on the next great idea that will find a way to provoke the engagement of the world population.

Look at Al Gore with his documentary (on global warming) An Inconvenient Truth. People have talked about this for 60 years, but he achieved more in six months. Now everybody is talking green. It's about coming up with the right thing at the right time in the right way.

Saturday Missions: Tumani Ambassadors from Maryland

A group of Maryland high schoolers have been traveling overseas to help educate. Greencastle Antrim High School has a group called Tumani Ambassodors who travel to Ghana to teach children.

From the Public Opinion, writer Rob Luff describes the teenagers travels.

Seniors TJ Bard and Danel Berman left home last summer and saw how the money raised from their student group, the Tumani Ambassadors, is being put to use in rural China and western Africa.

The group, endorsed by Oprah Winfrey's O Ambassadors program, works with the international charity Free the Children to build schools and improve education in Third World nations.

O Ambassadors accepted the school's application last year, designating western Africa as its area of focus. Any money the group raises is split between the local community and western African countries, particularly Sierra Leone and Ghana.

Greencastle's student ambassadors chose the name Tumani, the Swahili word for hope, to reflect their goal. They raised more than $5,000 last school year through a handful of fundraisers both in and outside of school.

Tumani gave about one-fourth of that money to local residents and a national charity, while the remaining amount went to help develop education in western Africa.

Berman saw the money's work last summer, when she taught for several weeks at Heritage Academy Esiam in Ghana. Her trip was organized through a similar organization, but she said she was able to see what happens to American dollars.

While there, her group presented the school with a new bus, which turned the students' 10-mile walking commute into a daily ride to school.

In addition to raising money to build schools and fund educational programs, O Ambassadors visit the Third World to teach eager students.

Berman took on a formal teaching role, planning and teaching daily lessons for a full school day, while dealing with the cultural differences.

"I never got used to the constant marriage proposals," she said, then listed three marriage requests she got from locals.

Donations asked for Zimbabwe prisoners

The blog This Is Zimbabwe released details on raising funds for political prisoners in Zimbabwe. The money raised will go to supplying food for the prisoners.

From the This Is Zimbabwe blog, are the accounts to send donations to, you can also find more information on political prisoners in Zimbabwe and how they are being treated.

Donations to the following accounts will help raise funds to go specifically towards food for prisoners in Zimbabwe.

All deposits must be referenced Zim Prisons/Zim Food

AOG Worldwide Missions
South Africa
Name:AOG Worldwide Missions
Reg No: NPO 019904
Bank Details: AOG Worldwide Missions
Bank Name: Standard Bank
Account No: 272270148
Branch Code: 050410
Online donations: Click here to visit the AOG Ministeries website and select WWM Zimbabwe Project : Food Aid

Waymaker Ministries
South Africa UK
Name: Missions Outreach (T/A Waymakers)
Reg No: Sec 21 Company 98/23321/08
Registered Public Benefit Organization Reg No: 930002198 Name: Relief Aid Logistics (NB: The UK government donates 28p for every £1 donated)
Charity Number: 1042912
Bank Details: Waymakers
Bank Name: Standard Bank
Account No: 27 21 88 55 7
Branch Code: 02 22 09 00
SWIFT Address: SBZAZAJJ Bank Details: Relief Aid Logistics
Bank Name: HSBC
Address: 1/5 Week Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1QW
Sort code: 40-31-06
Account no: 51 83 33 32

Saturday Missions: Health trip to Nigeria

A group of doctors from Oklahoma and some professional football players were a part of a mission trip to Nigeria. The nine day trip helped Nigerian doctors to improve health care.

From the Oklahoman, Susan Simpson details the trip.

The medical professionals were recruited for the Changing Africa Through Education mission by the players, who have family ties to Africa. The athletes were former University of Oklahoma standout Tommie Harris of the Chicago Bears; his teammates Israel Idonije and Adewale Ogunleye; Amobi Okoye of the Houston Texans; and Osi Umenyiora of the New York Giants.

Medical participants worked with Nigerian doctors to conduct medical screenings, treat patients and offer educational programs to community leaders and health workers.

Integris pediatrician Dr. Okey Nwokolo said he was glad to return to his native country to help the many in need of healthcare.

"Many of them have medical conditions that required them to be seen in hospitals, but they don’t have access,” Nwokolo said. "There are a lot of sick kids. It is a big job, and they were very happy that we came.”

He said the football players are to be commended for their commitment. "They have big hearts, and they did a lot.”

The clinics in rural areas often operate without running water or electricity, said Dr. Johnny Griggs, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Integris.

"The poverty and disease was mind boggling” Griggs said. "Those people need so much.”

Unsafe water contributes to illnesses such as malaria and parasitic diseases, and many adults have high blood pressure or diabetes from poor, carbohydrate-rich diets.

An EU grant to help Zambia improve health services

A grant of 35 million euros will go to Zambia to improve health services in the country. The grant money from the EU, will be dispersed through the years of 2009 to 2011. Zambia will use the money to expand health services to help the country meet the health services part of the Millennium Development Goals.

From this All Africa story Zambian Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao made a statement at the grant signing ceremony.

Speaking during the signing ceremony of the financing agreement for supporting public health service delivery amounting to 35 million Euros (approximately K261.1 billion) between the Government and the European Union (EU), M r Simbao said that the finances would contribute to the expansion of health services.

He said that the Government was cognisant of the fact that to effectively deliver quality health care services, there was need for motivated, committed and skilled professional workforce.

The objective of expanding health services, Mr Simbao said would drive the nation to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as enshrined in the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP).

"This support is a grant under the 10th European Development Fund and the assistance is a further demonstration of our cordial relationship with the European Commission which emanates from as far back as the 1970's," Mr Simbao said.

He said that the health sector was faced with numerous challenges, which were worsened by the high disease burden compounded by the high prevalence of HIV, shortage of health personnel and inadequate and inappropriate infrastructure.

In order to accelerate the attainment of MDGs, he said that the Government has embarked on the national health strategy plan covering 2006 to 2011.

Even Passover meals are being slashed in this recession

In recent years, the government of Israel has moved welfare responsibility to the charitable sector, slashing assistance programs. Now with contributions drying up due to the global recession, food and aid to the poor of Israel is disappearing. Many aid workers says the poverty problem in the country could soon become unmanageable.

From the Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner explains how charitable Passover Seder meals have even been drastically slashed.

Last Pessah, Meir Panim, the country's largest network of "soup kitchens," distributed boxes of Seder meals to 24,000 people. It also gave out NIS 250 grocery coupons to 6,700 people. This Pessah, only a few hundred people will get those coupons. And the number of those who will receive Seder meals-in-a-box? Zero.

"Our Pessah campaign has been all but canceled," says Dudi Zilberschlag, founder of Meir Panim and the leading fund-raiser and power-broker in Israel's haredi world, while multitasking with aides in his office at Jerusalem's Bikur Holim Hospital. In late 2007, his donors, who include the wealthiest Jews here and abroad, began reducing their contributions, but since Lehman Brothers went bankrupt last September and it became clear that the world was in the grip of something much worse than an ordinary, cyclical recession, these contributions have simply dried up.

"The big Israeli corporations are out of the game," says Zilberschlag, in his 50s, a gentle-spoken man who takes hard times philosophically. He mentions a couple of super-rich Israelis, saying that they used to give him about $100,000 each before Pessah. "This time - nothing," he says.

In the last year, Meir Panim has closed five of its 17 soup kitchens, while Koah Latet, its affiliated charity for clothing and household goods, has closed down two of 14 branches. The organization's NIS 50 million budget has been cut by 30 percent; 41 of its 134 employees have been let go.

"We used to give hot meals to 700 kids in our after-school programs, now we're feeding maybe 200. We used to deliver 900 meals to the homes of old, sick, handicapped people who couldn't come in - we've stopped those deliveries completely," says Zilbershlag. "We're basically down to the core of what we do - the restaurants [i.e. soup kitchens]. We're still feeding 6,000 people, we don't turn anyone away, but we can't give them meat every day anymore, so we give them more carbohydrates."

Meir Panim was founded eight years ago, shortly after the second intifada began, the economy nosedived and the government, strapped for cash, began slashing away at financial assistance to poor people. As the welfare state dwindled, private charity picked up the slack, until now there are more than 120 soup kitchens around the country.

Improving technology for small farmers in Uganda

Many farmers in Africa use their instincts and experience on which crops to plant and where. If they also had technology on their side, yields could increase dramatically, and would make the farmers less prone to having their crops wiped out by disease or weather.

From this story in the IPS, reporter Joyce Mulama explains how mobile phone technology is being introduced to help small farmers in Uganda. The phones are being used to determine which locations on farming land are susceptible to disease.

An initiative in two districts of Uganda, has community knowledge workers (CKWs) sending text messages to farmers in a given locality. The information may include how to arrest the diseases, and where to buy uncontaminated seeds, as well tips on how to improve soil quality to increase yields.

Aided by these mobile phone messages, farmers in a pilot scheme in the districts of Mbale and Mbusheni, in the east and west of the country respectively, have arrested the spread of banana wilt, a fast-spreading bacterial disease, and banana bunchy top virus through early diagnosis and treatment.

"We have trained the CKWs on how to use mobile phones to get information to the farmers. They offer agricultural tips and advise through the phones on what to do and not to do to control the diseases. Farmers even ask questions on wilt and BBTV and they receive automated answers on their phones," Whitney Gantt of Grameen Foundation, a global anti-poverty organisation told IPS.

"[The initiative] has increased productivity because farmers have gotten to know where the diseases pose the biggest threat. They have then moved to take necessary control measures in good time before being affected, including getting information on where to get clean planting material," she said.

Banana is the staple food in the east African country, and more than 10 million people depend on it for food as well as cash incomes, according to government figures. Since 2002, banana wilt, whose symptoms include yellow wilting and premature ripening in young plants, has been terrorising farmers and steadily spreading to other parts of the country. In March, authorities launched a national campaign to control the disease which has spread to 21 districts from only 11 last year.

Austrian children in poverty

A new study warns that poverty amongst children is a growing threat in Austria. The study authors says that more jobs can help the children of the country as well as free schooling.

From the Austrian Times, this snippet gives us the study's numbers.

A new study by the Institute for Sociology claims some 250,000 children in Austria are either living in poverty or close to doing so with children of unemployed and migrants most at risk.

Study co-author Irina Vana said today (Thurs) 100,000 children aged seven to 14 lived in homes without PCs and 90,000 lived in excessively small apartments.

Co-author Ursula Till-Tentschert added that in such apartments, noise and a lack of space often meant children unable to do their homework.

Martin Schenk from the Poverty Conference called for more child-care, an integrative school system and a society in which children received the respect due to them.

Social Democrat (SPÖ) Social Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer said child poverty was something that needed to be acted upon.

The minister said: "The proper combination of tax, labour-market, social and educational measures will enable us to deal with the problem and give new chances to our children."

Jeffrey Sachs on the US attempts to support agriculture

In his latest commentary, super poverty fighter Jeffery Sachs examines US efforts to increase food production in the under-developed world. President Obama has called on Congress to double funding for food production. But Sachs proposes the best way to sepnd the money. This snippet of his commentary comes from the New York Times.

PRESIDENT OBAMA has embarked on a promising new course to fight hunger and promote economic growth and political stability in countries like Cambodia, Honduras and Malawi. These countries, and many more, have large populations of impoverished farm families. Tough climates, environmental degradation and a lack of modern farm technology often limit food production to one-third or less of its potential. President Obama recently called upon Congress to double financial support for agricultural growth in developing countries to more than $1 billion in 2010. His program aims to help smallholder farmers get things like better seeds, fertilizer, small-scale irrigation and access to markets so they can overcome hunger and break out of extreme poverty. This new program could have amazing results — if it is properly carried out.

A crucial factor in determining the program’s success will be how Washington delivers aid to the farmers. The traditional approach, and the wrong one in this case, would be for Washington to try to decide what’s best for each country, and then spend considerable time and money on report-writing, site visits and professional advice. When aid programs are operated this way, they can end up spending half or more of their funds on United States-based travel, personnel and administration, and take years to get off the ground. The benefits for poor countries are then much too little and too late.

Rather than have Washington decide the kind of aid each country will receive, the recipient countries should be invited to prepare plans and budgets that would be reviewed by independent experts. These plans would describe the inputs needed by the farmers, the expected increase in production, how the strategy would be put into place and how much money would be required. Such plans, if described with care, could then be closely monitored by the United States and other donors to gauge results and avoid corruption.

Two international programs during the last decade, championed jointly by the United States, other governments and the Gates Foundation, have demonstrated the benefits of such a scientific, results-based aid approach: the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. These programs have saved millions of lives and protected hundreds of millions more from disease and infection. Here’s how they work: Low-income countries submit national action plans to the two programs, which then scrutinize the plans on their scientific, financial and management merits. If the plans are properly put into effect, recipients get more financing.

Somali pirates attack American ship

This time, the Somali pirates tried to seize an American ship that was full of food for the African people. Poverty and civil war have forced some Somali's to resort to becoming pirates, for it's the only "employment" that can be found there.



Writers Edmund Sanders and Julian E. Barnes give us more on the attempted seizure.

With a U.S. warship steaming to the scene, Somali pirates and American seamen engaged in a standoff on the high seas early today after the crew of a freighter loaded with food for Africa fought off the hijackers -- who fled in a lifeboat with the captain as a hostage.

The first such attack against a U.S.-flagged vessel off Africa since the days of the Barbary pirates more than 200 years ago began with an attack against the U.S.-registered Maersk Alabama cargo ship far off Somalia's coast.

The 20-member crew, unarmed according to the ship's owner, managed to overpower at least four pirates and regain control, according to U.S. officials. But the captain -- Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vt. -- was being held by the pirates, according to a U.S. defense official.

His wife, Andrea Phillips, told The Associated Press that her husband has sailed in those waters ''for quite some time'' and that a hijacking was perhaps ''inevitable.'' Attempted seizure of the Danish-owned vessel marks the latest chapter in the piracy saga off Somalia. Poverty, civil war and the lack of a functioning government since 1991 have turned the waters around the Horn of Africa nation into the most crime-infested on Earth.

The attack on the cargo ship was the second in two days, U.S. officials said. After rebuffing the first attempt, the ship's crew radioed Wednesday that two skiffs were closing in. Thirty minutes later, the ship told maritime officials that pirates had attached a grappling hook and were climbing aboard.

It remained unclear how the U.S. crew retook control. A crew member told CNN that one of the pirates had been detained, but then was released in an unsuccessful bid to exchange him for the captain.

Study on poverty for African Americans in Omaha

A new study says that Omaha, Nebraska has one of the highest rates of poverty amongst African American. To make matters worse, those in poverty find it impossible to escape.

From Action 3 News this Associated Press article gives us the details.

The study entitled "Celebrating the Past, Charting the Future: Omaha's African American Community" by done by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. According to the report, while Omaha rates high on factors that determine quality of life, 30% of African American families live in poverty, compared to 10% of white families. 40% of black children live in poverty, which the study's author, Suzanne Morse, writes, "Poverty among African American children in Omaha was evident in school performance from the early grades to disproportionate high school dropout rates. Broadly put, African American children are too often behind before they start school and never catch up. "

According to the report, a myriad of significant factors hamper Omaha's black population:

* Median income of blacks in Omaha is 14 percent less than blacks nationally.
* Only 4 percent of Omaha businesses are African American owned.
* Two-thirds of African Americans in Omaha lack potential income to support their families at the basic level.
* Median household income for Omaha's African American families is $31,969, versus $50,673 for white families.
* African American unemployment in Omaha is 10.5%, compared to 3.1% for white families.

China's wealth gap continues to grow

Despite the economic slowdown, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen in China. The numbers of rich people in the country grows but the number of poor increases as well. A wide gap between rich and poor makes it difficult for those in poverty to move up the scale.

From the Asia times online, writer Wu Zhong gives us the statistics of the survey.

At the other end of the wealth scale, more than 40 million farmers survived on 1,196 yuan or less last year, government figures show. Officials now admit that if the internationally used poverty threshold of US$1, or 6.83 yuan, per person per day is adopted, the size of China's poor population could exceed 100 million - that is, at least one out of 13 Chinese still live in poverty.

The wealth survey, which polled 700 respondents through face-to-face interviews or questionnaires from late December, found that the country's estimated 300,000 multi-millionaires at the end of last year possessed a total wealth of 8.8 trillion yuan, equal to 29% of China's gross domestic product of about 30 trillion yuan in 2008. The sum was also equivalent to 39.7% of the country's total household bank savings of 22.15 trillion yuan.

By contrast, the 40 million officially acknowledged poor people had only some 48 billion yuan to live on for the year.

Considering that just three decades ago all Chinese were practically equal in regard to personal wealth (or equally poor), the change is remarkable evidence of the tremendous success of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's policy of "allowing some people to become rich first".

However, many Chinese who lived through Mao Zedong's egalitarian rule are increasingly unhappy with the fast expanding wealth gap and particularly with the social injustice behind the wealth disparity. Since the Chinese Communist Party still stubbornly upholds the banner of "socialism" albeit with "Chinese characteristics", it has to make efforts to narrow the gap to calm public discontent.

China plans major investment in medical care

China is about to make a major investment in government supplied medical care. Over the past 30 years medical services in the outlying countryside have deteriorated. China will invest 850 billion yuan to supply 700,000 villages with medical clinics.

From the Guardian, writer Jonathan Watts fills us in on the Communist countries plans.

In a major overhaul, the government will also extend basic medical coverage and insurance to 90% of China's 1.3 billion people, almost a third of whom currently have to meet treatment costs entirely out of their own pockets.

Sickness is the major cause of poverty in China and frustration at expensive medical treatment has sparked protests and violence against hospital staff.

To address this dissatisfaction, the health ministry will train 1.4 million doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners to staff village clinics, in addition to the half a million healthcare workers in towns and cities.

"By 2011, we will remarkably improve the accessibility of basic medical care and healthcare services and alleviate the burden on the general public for medical costs," the vice-health minister, Zhang Mao, said.

Under plans unveiled this week, the government will also build 2,000 county hospitals and build or renovate 3,700 community clinics and 11,000 health service centres in urban areas within three years.

The central government will pay 40% of the costs, leaving the remainder to be covered by local authorities. Prices of essential medicines will be capped and the medical insurance scheme will be extended to nine in 10 people by 2011.

The stress of being poor

A new study shows a link between brain development and being poor. The new research finds that the stress of growing up poor can effect brain development. The stress of not having enough money for the next meal, the heat bill, or moving all the time because you can't afford rent can all effect brain development.

The study says that the more stress a child has the more it effects the short term memory, which is needed for classroom studies. The research was led by Professor Gary Evens of Cornell University.

From the Washington Post, reporter Rob Stien explains how the research was carried out.

"We know low-socioeconomic-status families are under a lot of stress -- all kinds of stress. When you are poor, when it rains it pours. You may have housing problems. You may have more conflict in the family. There's a lot more pressure in paying the bills. You'll probably end up moving more often. There's a lot more demands on low-income families. We know that produces stress in families, including on the children," Evans said.

For the new study, Evans and a colleague rated the level of stress each child experienced using a scale known as "allostatic load." The score was based on the results of tests the children were given when they were ages 9 and 13 to measure their levels of the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, as well as their blood pressure and body mass index.

"These are all physiological indicators of stress," said Evans, whose findings were published online last week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The basic idea is this allows you to look at dysregulation resulting from stress across multiple physiological systems."

The subjects also underwent tests at age 17 to measure their working memory, which is the ability to remember information in the short term. Working memory is crucial for everyday activities as well as for forming long-term memories.

"It's critical for learning," Evans said. "If you don't have good working memory, you can't do things like hold a phone number in your head or develop a vocabulary."

When the researchers analyzed the relationships among how long the children lived in poverty, their allostatic load and their later working memory, they found a clear relationship: The longer they lived in poverty, the higher their allostatic load and the lower they tended to score on working-memory tests. Those who spent their entire childhood in poverty scored about 20 percent lower on working memory than those who were never poor, Evans said.

"The greater proportion of your childhood that your family spent in poverty, the poorer your working memory, and that link is largely explained by this chronic physiologic stress," Evans said. "We put these things together and can say the reason we get this link between poverty and deficits in working memory is this chronic elevated stress."

McEwen said the findings are consistent with earlier research in animals and brain imaging studies in people indicating that the body's response to stress, such as chronically elevated levels of cortisol, can adversely affect the brain, including the regions involved in working memory.

Examining microcredit in Iraq

The US is actively promoting microcredit concerns in Iraq. The US government will at times give some money to the microcredit banks to help them make more loans to the Iraqi people.

The Al-Baydaa Centre profiled in the following article makes the loans at 12 percent interest. The Centre enjoys a high repay percentage, and has only had to take one loan recipient to court. Meanwhile, another bank supported by the US closed down due to poor record keeping of the money going out.

From the Financial Times, reporter Anna Fifield tells us how microcredit operates in Iraq.

Although Iraq has huge oil reserves and large public corporations, small businesses – particularly “mom and pop” stores – comprise 90 per cent of all businesses in the country, US officials say.

Encouraging them is crucial for economic development, says David Shearer, the United Nations’ resident co-ordinator for Iraq.

“Iraq needs to develop the private sector to generate jobs,” Mr Shearer told the Financial Times.

“Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the workforce every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability.”

The business sector has been held back by an absence of strategic planning, low productivity and efficiency, and rampant ­corruption.

Credit has also been difficult to come by, especially for owners of small businesses.

As security across most parts of Iraq improves, the US is increasingly using econ­omic aid as a counter-terrorism tool.

It is funding micro-finance schemes, typically loans of a few thousand dollars given to people with between one and three employees. By the end of January, the US had made 41,728 loans totalling $59.7m.

“There is a lot of money to be made in Iraq but there is not a lot of entrepreneurial spirit,” says Jesse Levinson, of the US’s provincial reconstruction team in Salahaddin, which includes Balad.

Indonesian budget watchdog says country far from meeting MDG's

An Indonesian non-governmental group is being critical of it's government's spending to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The NGO called the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency says there has been no decrease of the poverty rate despite a tripling of the budget.

From the Jakarta Globe, reporter Anita Rachman attended the NGO's press conference.

Nine years after Indonesia took up the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, the country still had a long way to go in proving its commitment to achieving the targets, especially in the areas of health, poverty eradication and the environment, a representative of a nongovernmental group said on Tuesday.

Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, or Fitra, said that the country’s annual budget increases had not seen more funds allocated for those three areas.

“The government has shown little attention to the MDGs, especially on health, poverty and environmental issues,” he said at a press briefing with representatives of several NGOs, including the Association for Community Empowerment and the Indonesian Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy.

The MDGs were included in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which was signed by 189 heads of state and affirmed at a summit in 2005.

Indonesia has only six years left to achieve the eight targets of the program: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; ensuring environmental sustainability; and establishing a global partnership for development.

The group of NGOs evaluated the government’s work over the past five years and only found improvements in the education sector and in child mortality.

More Somali migrants drown off Yemen coast

More Somalis are feared drowned in the waters of the Gulf of Arden. The war in Somalia are driving many people out of the country, many try to make it to Europe or Asia, but rough seas sometimes stop them. 17,000 Somalis have arrived in Yemen since the start of this year.

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram we receive the United Nations report in this Associated Press story.

Dozens of Somali migrants sailing across the Gulf of Aden are missing and feared dead after one boat capsized and another ran into trouble in rough seas, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

A smuggling boat carrying 40 Somalis capsized late Saturday as passengers were disembarking off the coast of Yemen about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Mayfa'a, where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees operates a reception center, a spokesman said.

Twenty people made it to shore, the rest are missing, William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

Eight Somalis are known to have died on Sunday afternoon when another smuggling boat carrying 23 passengers hit rough seas some 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Mayfa'a, he said. Thirteen made it to shore and two are missing.

"Witnesses said some of the deaths were due to suffocation after the smugglers covered the passenger area with a tarpaulin to prevent water from getting in," Spindler said.

Cambodia to see the worst increase in poverty: World Bank

A new study from the World Bank says that Cambodia will see the biggest increase in poverty in the Asia Pacific region.The study examines the effects of the global recession on that part of the world.

The World Bank blames a narrow economic base and over dependency on imports as the reasons for why Cambodia will be the hardest hit.

From the Phnom Penh Post, reporter Steve Finch breaks down the World Bank study.

Cambodia is set to be the country hardest hit this year by the global economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region, the World Bank said today, placing the Kingdom among only four countries projected "to experience absolute increases in poverty".

In a report released today, the bank said that Cambodia - along with Malaysia, Thailand and East Timor - would see contractions in per capita income and therefore increased poverty, noting that the Kingdom's weaker GDP growth, which the bank again revised downwards to -1 percent for 2009, would slow poverty reduction across the region.

"Cambodia is the country with the largest projected increase in the number of poor people," the World Bank said.

It projected 200,000 additional people in the Kingdom this year would be pushed below the poverty line - defined by the bank as US$1.25 a day - compared to East Timor, where a further 25,000 were forecast to sink into poverty.

The World Bank in February said that Cambodia had reduced poverty from 45 percent to 50 percent in 1993-1994 - a figure that improved to around 30 percent by 2007.

The report also said that Cambodia would see the greatest GDP growth reversal in the region.

"An expansion of 10.2 percent in 2007 stands in stark contrast to a contraction of 1 percent projected for 2009," it said.

"The difference (11.7 percent) over two years is the largest in the region, and arises from a sudden drop in garment exports and tourist arrivals."

London's mayor begins a poverty fighting charity

London's mayor is asking for donations from rich individuals and corporations to provide money to start a new charity. Boris Johnson made starting a poverty fighting charity one of his campaign promises.

Statistics say that there are 600,000 children living in poverty in London.

From the BBC, we learn more of what the charity hopes to do for London's children.

The fund will spend £1.5m next year and aims to have an annual turnover of up to £20m by 2013.

"Over 600,000 children live below the poverty line and London is home to some of the most deprived boroughs in the country," said Mr Johnson.

"Like Robin Hood we want to draw riches from wealth creators to give life-changing support to the poorest Londoners."

The charity aims to invest in projects with "proven results" in tackling child poverty.

The charity's chief executive Chris Robinson said: "We have worked hard to identify what is really needed and the evidence suggests it is to back proven delivery, and to coordinate and connect services rather than suggest there is some miracle cure."

Among them are three schemes in Shoreditch, east London, which will benefit from an £8m cash injection in 2010 before being expanded in 2013.

Big Farms the next step in development for Africa?

As you might tell, we are running way behind today. Our house was without electricity this morning, and I've been invited out tonight, so we apologize for the lack of posts today.

A great article in the Guardian examines if big farms are a possibly for African development. As a part of the Guardian's 'Katine Project" series, writer Anne Perkins weighs the options.

An economist like Paul Collier is convinced that radical steps have to be taken. "African peasant agriculture has fallen further and further behind the advancing commercial productivity frontier," he wrote at the end of last year in the journal Foreign Affairs. "Based on present trends, the region's food imports are projected to double over the next quarter century." Only large scale farms, he argues, are capable of providing the investment and market access that is essential to produce the surge in food production necessary to keep up with demand.

Rubbish, says development expert Steve Wiggins. "Yes, he is correct to emphasise the need for commercial farming. But no, he is wrong to imagine that this requires doing so on a large scale. His solution is unnecessary, flies in the face of history and carries important dangers."

The Guardian's partner in the Katine project, FarmAfrica, would agree. They lined up with the International Food Production Research Institute (IFPRI) at an international conference organised by the ODI three years ago. Its findings were reviewed recently in a discussion paper where the IFPRI called for African governments to prioritise support for small farms while developing exit routes for those whose land is swallowed up by more successful neighbours.

Unlike the Collier cry for rapid commercial development, their emphasis is on organic growth. They point to the unhappy experience of attempts to impose commercial farming, with its history of poor labour standards and clumsy machinery maintenance, and a disregard for the good of the land itself.

...

An experiment in Malawi is attracting world attention. A 10-year programme backed by Cru Investment's Africa Invest has acquired the leasehold of land to form two large (more than 100 ha) farms and two smaller ones. They employ local people, offering training and experience in working with new techniques and machinery, and teach skills like lorry driving and management.

At the same time, the operation supports local smallholders by buying in and marketing their surpluses at fair trade rates (it boasts of "the discipline of investment" over "aid hand-outs"). Jon Maguire, the chairman of the project, promises the villages will meet all the Millennium Development Goals within two years of start up. He claims that already he employs 2,000 people and pays well above poverty rates.

The idea behind it is that commercial investment can overcome some of the sustainability problems that dog aid projects. If the investment is economically viable, over the 10-year period of commitment – the theory goes – people involved in it will build up the expertise and knowledge to be able to take it on themselves. Alternatively, Africa Invest might renew its interest.

On paper, it has overcome all the obvious hurdles: it has security of tenure, but pays its landlords a share of the profits. It is spreading resources and knowhow throughout the community as well as contributing directly to poverty eradication. It can bring capital investment and marketing clout and it is seeking relationships with supermarkets to improve the share of the eventual sale price received by the grower. Too good to be true? Or a future for African agriculture?

Bare shelves at US food pantries

In addition, another food pantry in Nebraska is having the same problem. These stories really show how many people are having trouble feeding themselves in this recession. Those who work for food banks and related aid groups say they have never seen it this bad.

From KPTM, we learn of the situation in Omaha from this Associated Press story.

Officials with the Grand Island Salvation Army say the shelves of their food pantry are nearly bare.

Salvation Army Social Worker Mark Merritt says her organization helped a record 450 families last month. Many of those people have been laid off or seen their income drop.

A local organization called Project Hunger recently helped buy cereal and other basics to restock the pantry's shelves. But Project Hunger is having problems of its own.

The group sponsors an annual Easter Basket Extravaganza, in which it auctions off baskets of donated food. The group had hoped to auction 400 this weekend, but have only received enough donations for 100 baskets.

Jeffrey Sachs praises the results of the G-20 meeting

In his latest commentary, Jeffery Sachs praises the accomplishments of the G-20. He says that the results exceeded his expectations. Sachs attended the G-20 as a part of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's delegation.

We found Dr. Sachs commentary in the Huffington Post

The results were beyond what most, including myself, expected. IMF resources were raised significantly, to provide a liquidity cushion for global trade and production. The World Bank and regional development banks (such as the African Development Bank) were encouraged to boost lending, backed by commitments of the G-20 to raise the capital base of these multilateral banks. Taken together, the combination of new credit lines of all sorts - in effect, new liquidity - is on the order of $1.1 trillion. While this is much less than direct spending in its effect on aggregate demand, the contribution to increased global liquidity will certainly be helpful for many economies, especially emerging-market economies suffering from an intense credit squeeze since the Lehman bankruptcy last fall.

Serious progress was also made on a framework of tighter global financial regulations, including controls on executive compensation, crackdowns on tax havens, controls over hedge funds, and much-needed regulation of the "shadow banking" system (broadly meaning investment funds that depend on very short-term borrowing in forms that compete with bank deposits). There were also commitments to new forms of global cooperation in financial regulation, including procedures for removing toxic assets from bank balance sheets. The G-20 also agreed to do better in the fight against creeping protectionism.

The poorest countries, by and large, were not in the room. As usual, their plight came far behind the immediate concerns of the high-income and middle-income countries. Still, through the assiduous efforts of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and several other leaders, there was a clear re-commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, a strong reiteration of commitments on development assistance (implying an increase in development assistance from around $120 billion in 2008 to at least $160 billion by 2010), and an intention to launch new global efforts on stronger social safety nets for the poor (led by the World Bank). There was also and innovative support for smallholder farmers to raise the food production and food security of the poor, championed strongly by the Secretary General, President Obama, and Prime Minister Zapatero.

Two crucial issues remained almost wholly off the table, and will need to be brought in sooner rather than later into future G-20 deliberations. Exchange rates were hardly mentioned, despite the fact that exchange rate adjustments are surely needed to smooth the elimination of large and unsustainable global trade imbalances. Also, the increasingly fragile position of the dollar as the world's reserve currency was discreetly ignored. Monetary policy and exchange rates played a large role in the onset of the crisis, and we will need deep reforms of international monetary arrangements in order to secure a sustainable recovery.

Here is what the G-20 agreed upon

Well, they are done. The G-20 meeting is over. Perhaps the run-up and the protest were more exciting that the meeting itself. But the leaders did make a pledge, it may help struggling economies if they act upon it.

From this Associated Press article that we found at the Daily Herald, reporter Jane Wardell tells us what came from the meetings.

World leaders pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling countries and agreed Thursday to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds -- but failed to reach sweeping accord on more stimulus spending to attack the global economic decline.

The biggest headline figure was the new money for the International Monetary Fund, which helps out governments that run into financial trouble from the crisis, and other development organizations to send credit to countries that have seen it dry up.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who earlier had threatened earlier to walk out if unsatisfied with the outcome, also praised Obama for helping to create consensus and persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens.

"There were moments of tension," Sarkozy said. "Never would we have thought to get as big an agreement."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the measures "a very, very good, almost historic compromise" that will give the world "a clear financial markets architecture."
...

The G-20 leaders also said that developing nations -- hard-hit and long complaining of marginalization -- would get a greater say in world economic affairs. They said they would renounce protectionism and pledged $250 billion in trade finance over the next two years -- a key measure to help struggling developing countries.

Baseball player Dave Valle and his microcredit operation

Former Major League Baseball player and current Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Valle spent some time in the Dominican Republic playing winter developmental ball. While there, he noticed little children rushing to him, but they didn't arrive to get his autograph, they wanted Valle's attention because they were hungry.

After his career was over Valle returned to the Dominican Republic to begin a microcredit operation. It gives small loans to people who the banks declare unworthy of credit, to help them with their own small businesses. Valle's organization also does a lot more for the people of the Dominican, providing schools and career centers.

From the Readers Digest, writer Todd Pitock visits Valle in the Dominican Republic.

Last November, I met with Valle in the Dominican Republic to see the results of that promise, a nonprofit he and Vicky established in 1995 with $30,000 of their own savings. Esperanza, which means "hope" in Spanish, is a microcredit agency, offering short-term, low-interest loans starting at about $150 to help extremely poor people get started in business.

Although microcredit banking has been around since the 1970s, Esperanza added other elements, creating a school, a dozen computer training centers, a member-funded health care plan, a water treatment system, and a home improvement initiative. It has also spearheaded the construction of five baseball fields that would be the envy of many affluent communities in America, fitting the sport into its broader goal of community development.

We started our tour in Santo Domingo--Valle, son Philip, now 23, and Esperanza's executive director, Carlos Pimentel-and drove north over a mountain range soaring 9,000 feet, dense with thick, lush jungle.

At a glance, a visitor could be lulled into thinking that all is well in the Dominican Republic. In addition to having enchanting scenery, the country has recently experienced between 7 and 10 percent in annual growth. Modern highways sport an astonishing number of SUVs. New real estate and tourism districts, such as Cap Cana on the east coast, are positively opulent, and indeed, even the pastel colors on many shanties balanced on hillsides suggest more cheer than perhaps they should.

But they can't paint over the reality for many Dominicans. Of 9.3 million people, 2 million live on less than $2 a day. Twenty percent of girls become pregnant before they're 19, and illiteracy and crime are pervasive. Despite promising economic progress early in the decade, the nation's gross domestic product plunged 15 percent several years ago. Haiti, which shares the island that Christopher Columbus called Hispaniola when he landed there in 1492, is even worse off.

The desperately poor are, of course, Esperanza's focus--people for whom it is not a credit crunch but a crush, whose only access to capital would be through loan sharks charging usurious interest rates.

Here is how microcredit works: People with ideas for businesses get together and apply as a group for a loan, or what Esperanza calls a bank of hope. Typical ventures include sundries shops, hair salons, and roadside eateries. Members are almost always neighbors, and they pledge responsibility for one another. At twice-monthly repayment meetings, they cover for anyone who may be short, all of which fosters mutual support and obligation. Repayment rates are 98 percent in the Dominican Republic as well as in Haiti, where Esperanza launched in early 2006. Once debts are settled, borrowers negotiate new loans.

As word of Esperanza spread, the pace of lending accelerated. With 20 borrowers when it began lending in 1995, Esperanza has since dispersed almost $15 million through 75,000 loans, including nearly 21,500 active accounts in 2008. It has 2,800 borrowers in Haiti. The organization estimates that at least five people benefit from each loan in the Dominican Republic, and six in Haiti.

Canadian study on drug and alcohol abuse with aboriginals

A new study claims poverty is the cause of drug abuse amongst most Canadian aboriginals. In fact, the study says that once poverty is removed aboriginals are less likely to abuse drugs or alchohol.

From the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, writer Janet French gives us the results.

The study, to be published Thursday in the journal Paedeatric Child Health, found that after statistically eliminating risk factors, such as poverty, aboriginal kids were 20 per cent less likely to abuse alcohol than Caucasian kids.

The study's lead author, Mark Lemstra, is the director of research and evaluation for the Saskatoon Tribal Council, which represents seven First Nations in the Saskatoon area. Public health researchers at the Saskatoon Health Region were also involved in the study.

Before statistical adjustments, 16.7 per cent of aboriginal children reported abusing alcohol compared to 5.4 per cent of Caucasian kids.

About seven times more aboriginal kids than white kids said they'd used marijuana in the past year.

But when researchers compared poor kids to poor kids, and rich kids to rich kids, racial differences began to fade away. Slightly more than 30 per cent of poor aboriginal youth had abused alcohol, compared to slightly less than 30 per cent of poor white kids.

Two-and-a-half times as many poor aboriginal kids had tried pot compared to white kids.

The data comes from surveys distributed to all Saskatoon public and Catholic school students in grades 5 through 8 in 2007.

Anti-poverty group banned from attending G-20

The World Development Movement has been banned from attending the G-20 meetings. The anti-poverty group blames the British government for revoking it's ability to attend.

The World Development Movement reacts to the decision in this article from the Telegraph.

The group, which was part of last weekend's huge Put People First Alliance which held a rally in London, said the Foreign Office received a note from 10 Downing Street telling it to revoke the accreditation.

Benedict Southworth, the group's director, said: "I am outraged that we have apparently been banned at the last minute from attending the summit.

"We hope it is not what it appears to be – an attempt to stage-manage events and prevent voices of dissent and disagreement being heard.

"The only other government in the world that has banned the World Development Movement from attending a global summit is the Singapore government which has a track record of stifling voices of opposition."

Libya calls off search for migrants lost at sea

Libya says that they have stopped searching for the over 300 migrants who tried to head for Europe but didn't make it. The Africans left for Europe to try to search of jobs, after giving money to smugglers who promised to ferry them to Europe. The migrants were crammed onto tiny boats that were likely without safety equipment.

From this story in the New Zealand Herald, we hear from some of the survivors.

Laurence Hart, an official with the International Organisation for Migration in Libya, said that authorities stopped the rescue operation since chances were slim of finding more survivors from the weekend incident.

Only 20 survived when the wooden vessel with 257 people on board, mostly African migrants and including 70 women and two children - both of whom died - sunk only three hours off Libya.

Hart said aid workers heard survivors' accounts at the Twesha refugee centre outside of Tripoli on Wednesday. "Many had kidney problems from swallowing sea water because they spent eight hours in the sea," he said.

About 21 bodies were found by Tuesday morning, and several more bodies washed ashore Tuesday night, near the ancient port city of Sebrata, some 80 kilometres west of Tripoli, Hart said.

Survivors of the capsized boat said that the smuggler, an Egyptian national, died, the IOM reported. The survivors said their boat left the Libyan coast early Sunday morning, said Michele Bombassei of the IOM's Tripoli office. Three hours later the boat capsized. There have been conflicting reports on when the boat went down reflecting the difficulty of obtaining information on the furtive crossings from often-traumatised survivors.

The Egyptian consulate in Tripoli said at least 10 Egyptians travelling on the capsized boat died, according to a report in the Egyptian state news agency, MENA.

TB could "spiral out of control"

Officials from the World Health Organization are warning that tuberculosis cases could become drug resistant and "spiral out of control" They say that drugs will be of little help for the most recent version of medicines used to fight TB is 50 years old.

From this McClatchy Newspapers article that we found in the News and Observer, reporter Tim Johnson reports on the warnings issued at a health forum taking place in Beijing.

"The situation is already alarming, and poised to grow much worse very quickly," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.

With Bill Gates at her side, Chan urged health officials from 27 countries at a three-day forum on drug-resistant TB to recognize the warning signs of what looms ahead, saying that traditional drugs are useless against some strains of tuberculosis and health care costs for treating those strains can be 100 to 200 times more than for regular tuberculosis.

"This is a situation set to spiral out of control. Call it what you may: a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation," Chan warned.

Gates, the software magnate turned philanthropist, said scientific overconfidence has led to a lack of innovation and urgency in fighting tuberculosis, which affects nine million people each year, killing nearly two million of them.

"The most commonly used diagnostic test is today more than 125 years old," Gates said. "The vaccine was developed more than 80 years ago, and drugs have not changed in 50 years.'

Later in the day, Gates offered a grant of $33 million to China's ministry of health to finance what he called an innovative pilot program for TB prevention that could be used in other nations. The program uses new systems to reduce pill intake, offers incentives for doctors to monitor TB, and funds development of new diagnostic tests.

China has about 1.5 million cases of TB each year. Under the pilot program, TB patients will get medicine kits with built-in reminder alarms as well as receive cell phone text messages reminding them to take their medicines.

An analysis of G-20

The IPS has a good analysis of the G-20 meetings beginning in London. The analysis largely deals with how the rich countries try to force what had worked for them on the poor countries. But this seems to go against the fact that poor countries simply have different economies, so they may require different solutions to develop their nations.

How this commentary gets around to addressing poverty if the latest statement from OXFAM. The world anti-poverty fighting group is calling on the G-20 to establish a bailout package for the poorest countries to prevent many more from slipping into poverty during this recession.

Writer Sanjay Suri says that meetings such as this are only measured by how many dollars they put into helping the rest of the world.

The G20 as a grouping of rich and emerging economies seems to represent wealth and new influence. It is expected now that countries like China and India must pay towards a reformed International Monetary Fund, in which they would then have greater say. The countries are spoken of as the new emerging entities, with little substantive thought for the hundreds of millions of the poor within them. The countries seem not to occupy the nowhere space of rich or at least now richer countries with poor people.

There is of course an acknowledgement of poverty around the world and that the G20 must do something about it – such a gathering could hardly be complete without statements of that kind. But the G20 meeting can expect to be measured by the number of dollars that are attached to those words, amid fears that the G20 meeting will be rich only in statements of the right sort.

Putting numbers to words, the international charity Oxfam has asked G20 leaders to produce a 580 billion dollars a year rescue package for poor countries made up of an immediate fiscal stimulus for the poorest countries of at least 24 billion dollars, debt relief, and fulfilment of existing pledges to increase development aid.

That sounds like a lot of money, but is a fraction of 8.42 trillion dollars promised by rich country governments to bail out banks, Oxfam says. This kind of bailout package, it says, would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years and a massive step towards ending it forever.

"When you look at the amount of money that has been found for banks it seems inconceivable that G20 leaders will stand aside and allow the economic crisis to destroy poor peoples lives," Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said in a statement. "Developing countries are reeling from dramatic declines in trade, remittances and foreign investment. Rich governments whose policies contributed to the crisis have a responsibility to help those who cannot afford their own bailouts."

Without urgent action, she said, "hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will fall further into poverty. Losing your job is devastating wherever it happens but for millions people in poor countries, without benefits and health services to fall back on, unemployment will push them into destitution."

And yet, nobody is expecting anything like that kind of money coming from the G20, or even a small fraction of it. Or even much acknowledgement that different policies are needed for different countries.

Fighting poverty fights kidnapping as well

An al-Qaeda linked group in the Philippines terrorizes the country by conducting kidnappings for money. When the question is asked how best to stop the kidnappings, one professor says by giving the people a way out of poverty.

From GMA News of the Philippines, we learn of the views of Clarita Carlos who has researched the connection between rebellion and poverty.

“Kidnapping won’t stop unless the government provides a lasting solution, which is to address poverty in the area," Clarita Carlos, political science professor at the University of the Philippines, told GMANews.TV on Wednesday.

According to Carlos, if people’s economic needs are adequately met, they would have a higher self-esteem and would not resort to desperate acts to validate themselves, like what the Abu Sayyaf is doing now with its hostages.

“We cannot totally fault the Abu Sayyaf bandits if they are acting irrationally. Why are they getting their validation from cutting heads of people, while others validate themselves by earning graduate degrees? We should have a shared meaning of self-worth and the government must direct society toward that goal," Carlos, president of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies, said.

In her research studies, Carlos said she was able to prove that poverty breeds rebellion and banditry.

“For instance, I did a research in Quezon (province), a rebel-infested area. Sobrang hirap dun, ang putik-putik, walang kuryente, ang mga bata ang lalaki ng tiyan kasi puro bulate. [Life there was so hard, it was muddy, there was no electricity, and the stomachs of children became bloated with worms]. So how can you stop them from rebelling if they face these hardships everyday?" she said.

The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf abducted three aid workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sulu province last January 15 after the victims visited a water project for a jail in Jolo town.

Oxfam calls for bailout of the poor from G-20

Oxfam goes on record this morning criticizing all of the economic stimulus packages that the developed world have been issuing lately. The trillions of dollars could have ended extreme poverty for 50 years.

From the UK's Sky News, we learn of poverty fighting groups statement.

The £5.88 trillion promised by governments to bail-out banks would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years, charity Oxfam has claimed.

G20 leaders meeting in London could make a "massive difference" to the world's poorest people by diverting a "tiny fraction" of this money to help the poor.

It would provide an economic stimulus, social safety nets and health services for those affected by the financial crisis in deprived areas, the charity said.

Oxfam was calling for a $580bn-a-year rescue package - around £405bn - for poor countries.

That would be made up of an immediate fiscal stimulus for the poorest countries of at least $24bn, around £17bn.

It would also mean debt relief and fulfilment of existing pledges to increase development aid.

Oxfam's Barbara Stocking said: "When you look at the amount of money that has been found for banks, it seems inconceivable that G20 leaders will stand aside and allow the economic crisis to destroy poor people's lives.