A sad sign o' the times; food banks hiring security

In a sad sign of the times, violent incidents have increased at US food banks. With the big increase in need brought on by the global recession, people waiting in line for food will sometimes cut in line forcibly when they think the food will run out. This has forced food banks to hire security to keep the peace.

From the newspaper for Seattle homeless called the Real Change News, writer Cydney Gillis profiles a security guard and the food bank he works for.

Sgt. Dwaine Coverson stands outside the back door of a Wallingford office building, cracking sunflower seeds as he talks about a new part-time job that’s a sign of bad times in Seattle.

Coverson is retired. He spent 29 years with the Seattle police force and says he’d rather be golfing. But three days a week, he shows up at the FamilyWorks Food Bank and Resource Center to keep things orderly in the line — and break up fights.

Thursday before last, Coverson says, he had to break up a fistfight that erupted in the building’s lobby, then separate another set of combatants who were pepper-spraying each other outside the back door. The same day, he says, Seattle police were called after a man threatened one of the workers at the Seattle Public Library branch that shares the building at 45th Street and Woodlawn Avenue.

Over the winter months, says FamilyWorks Director Jake Weber, incidents like these shot up, leading staff to feel unsafe and the food bank and its upstairs landlord —anti-poverty agency Solid Ground (the former Fremont Public Association) — to hire Coverson in January. Though he’s retired, he maintains his certification to wear the uniform, which comes with full police powers and a 9mm Beretta handgun that make him a curiosity to three small children staring through the glass in the lobby.

At least a few food bank clients say they find the officer unnecessary and intimidating. But FamilyWorks isn’t alone. As the recession and layoffs have driven more people to food banks citywide — the individuals served by FamilyWorks skyrocketed 80 percent last year, from 1,937 in 2007 to 3,405 in 2008 — lines, wait times and angst about getting the day’s best pick of food have increased. This has led to jostling and altercations at some facilities, particularly those where clients spend hours waiting outside or in cramped quarters.

To quell incidents, Northwest Harvest’s Cherry Street Food Bank on First Hill hired three security guards in early April. And after negotiating a “good neighbor agreement” with nearby residents, the Ballard Food Bank hired a security guard two years ago and, in March, chose to shut down its meal program at Calvary Lutheran Church over behavioral issues.

The Cherry Street Food Bank set an all-time record in April, serving 2,651 people in a single day, says Claire Acey, a spokesperson for Northwest Harvest. That compares to an average of 1,800 clients a day last year. On the busiest days, and toward the end of the month as disability and Social Security checks run out, Acey says, people will start lining up around 6 a.m. for the food bank’s opening at 9 a.m.

Congress begins to work on providing health care for all

This is kind of off topic, but this could dramatically effect the poor in the US. So we thought a look at what Congress is working into the new health insurance scheme would be worth it.

The bills for health care would require all Americans to have health insurance, but the government would help those making less than $88,000 a year to pay for it.

From this Associated Press article that we found at the Memphis Daily News, reporter Erica Werner obtained documents that give more details on what could be included in the bill.

A document obtained by The Associated Press provides an early look at where Democratic leaders in the House are heading as they try to meet an ambitious July 31 deadline for passing their version of the legislation. The Senate is working on a similar plan, with some key differences.

The plan by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would build on the current system in which employers, government and individuals share responsibility for health insurance.

But it would make major changes: Individuals and employers would face new obligations to help pay for coverage. Insurers would operate under stricter consumer protections. And the government would take added responsibilities for setting insurance rules and providing financial help to low- and middle-income families.

Momentum for a health care overhaul built this week after Obama obtained a pledge from medical providers to help find $2 trillion in savings over 10 years to help pay for his plan.

Even before any legislation has been officially introduced, lawmakers are grappling with dozens of thorny issues. On Thursday, senators debated behind closed doors whether their bill should include the choice of a government insurance plan for middle-income families. Insurers, hospitals and employers are trying to head off such a plan. The issue won't be resolved any time soon.

The House document also calls for a new government insurance plan to compete with private companies. It would be financed by premium payments, not taxpayer dollars.

Insurers are strongly opposed to a government-sponsored plan, saying it would drive them out of business. Democrats say a public plan would help everybody by injecting competition into a health care market that in many areas is dominated by a handful of major insurers.

Heavy fighting returns to Mogadishu, Somalia

Heavy fighting has returned to the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu. It's resulted in a trying back and forth for the city's residents, many return when fighting subsides, the flee when it picks up again.

The return of violence has caused Médecins Sans Frontières to close their medical clinic to protect it's personnel. MSF is the main provider of free health care in the area, and treated over 1200 victims of the violence last year.

From the Médecins Sans Frontières website, we read more about the closing of the clinic, and MSF's call for an end to the fighting.

MSF medical teams have treated 112 people for blast and gunshots wounds in Daynile Hospital, in the outskirts of the capital, in just a week since Friday 8 May. 47 of them were women and children under the age of 14.

“With so few medical facilities available in Somalia, it is crucial that people are able to access those that are still functioning,” says Alfonso Laguna, MSF Head of Mission in Somalia.

Recently people had started returning to Mogadishu, but thousands of families have now left the city again looking for a safer environment. They have settled in camps in Daynile and along the road to Afgooye, a town 30km south west of the capital. MSF has been working in these settlements since 2007, providing fifteen millions litres of water per year and relief items. The organisation will need to rapidly scale up distributions to meet the needs of the new arrivals in Daynile and Hawa Abdi areas.

It is currently the rainy season, and many displaced people have no belongings with them at this critical period. Poor living conditions in the overcrowded settlements could become a significant health risk leading to respiratory infections and epidemics.

MSF would like to remind all parties to the conflict in Somalia to respect all medical facilities, their personnel and sick and wounded patients.

How the government-less state on Nepal effects aid to those in poverty

Ever since Nepal's Prime Minister quit his office earlier this month, the country has been without a government, as a coalition leadership keeps failing to form. Aid workers and NGOs in the country says this has severely effected aid to people of Nepal..

The lack of government has effected aid in at least two ways. First, money that the government had previously pledged for flood victims has yet to be released to the people. Secondly, development projects that need government permits or cooperation have been stalled.

From IRIN, we learn more about how the country without a government is effecting anti-povertyy efforts on the ground.

"There is rising concern about the impact on the most vulnerable communities, especially the victims of the Koshi flood," Vincent Omuga, humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.

For the past nine months, thousands of people displaced by the Koshi flood have been living in the camps of Sunsari and Saptari of eastern Nepal, nearly 300km south of the capital, Kathmandu.

Before the political crisis, the government had passed a compensation package of thousands of dollars to help resettle the displaced families in their homes.

"But now the relief aid for the displaced will not be delivered because the release of funds is done only through the government," said an international aid worker, who requested anonymity.

Early recovery activities are supported by the UN and other donor agencies through the government.

"All this will be delayed now because the district level decisions by local government offices and institutions depends on the decision of the central level government, which is still lagging behind," the aid worker said.

Meanwhile, local NGO workers are also worried about the impact on their development work as most of their activities depend on their partnership with local government bodies such as the Village Development Committees and District Development Committees, none of which can make any decisions to implement aid projects without permission from central government.

"It is quite unlikely that aid services will be delivered soon until this political deadlock is over," Netra Timilsina, an aid worker and senior official of NGO Federation of Nepal, told IRIN.
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Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 30 percent of its 28 million inhabitants living below the poverty line of less than US$1 a day.

A conference on Nigerian development in Winnipeg

People of Winnipeg, Manitoba will talk about how to help development in Nigeria during a two day conference. The group "Nigerians in Diaspora Organization" includes Nigerian immigrants who invited government and business leaders to discuss how to help their homeland. But, some Nigerian immigrants are critical of the idea of the conference the conference.

From the Winnipeg Free Press, writer Carol Sanders tells us what the conference will focus on and the views of it's critics.

Government officials, professors, and expatriates from Nigeria are gathering in Winnipeg with members of the diaspora to try and solve some of the African country's problems.

Nigerians in Diaspora Organization have organized a two-day conference starting today called Vision 2020: Investing in Energy, Food & Health.

"For a country like Nigeria -- one of the largest economies in west Africa -- we don't have a reliable and affordable supply of electricity," said conference spokesman Ed Onyebuchi.

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, but its people still suffer from intense poverty, corruption and tribal conflict, according to Canada's Foreign Affairs department.

The conference will discuss solutions to problems standing in the way of development, including electricity.
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Nigerian Florence Okwudili questioned how a conference in Winnipeg can help her former homeland.

"Why talk about 2020 when people are starving in 2009? You can't even get a doctor in a Nigerian hospital," said Okwudili, who visited Nigeria last summer. "It's sad." The diaspora organization member planned to attend the conference but said the time and money involved might have been better spent in the country with the problems.

"Hold a realistic conference in Nigeria and invite the poor people to talk about their problems," said Okwudili, a Canadian citizen.

Habitat for Humanity recieves a huge donation of 100 million

A member of Habitat for Humanity's board of directors has made a huge gift the the charity of 100 million dollars.

Large charitable contributions usually go to a University or for scientific research, so it is rare that gift like this goes to a social charity, especially remarkable in this economy.

From this Associated Press article that we found at Public Opinion Online, we learn more about the giver and what the money will be used for.

The donation comes from J. Ronald Terwilliger of Atlanta, a former chief executive of housing developer Trammell Crow Residential Co. and a longtime member of Habitat's board of directors.

Terwilliger said through his work with Habitat and in the private sector he's witnessed the depths of poverty, seeing people living in cardboard shacks and unspeakable filth, as well as the struggle for middle-class families to find affordable housing.

"People need a decent, safe, clean residence where they can get a good night's sleep and families can be together," he said. "If they have that as an anchor, they have a way to send their kids off to school regularly and a better chance those children will be healthy."

The donation comes at a difficult time for the Americus, Ga.-based organization, which like other nonprofit groups has struggled with increasing demand and slowing donations amid the economic downturn.

"This is a chance to have a really deep impact," said Jonathan Reckford, Habitat's chief executive. "It's an unprecedented commitment that sets a new bar for what's possible, and it encourages other people to give."

Habitat will use $30 million to fund an endowment that will make yearly grants to help build more houses.

The remaining $70 million will set up a micro-finance fund to help low-income families around the world repair and improve their housing.

Star of "Slumdog Millionaire" home demolished

Mumbai city workers have demolished the home of one of the stars of "Slumdog Millionaire". The city claims Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail's family had their home on the land illegally. Despite being a "red carpet" star, Azaruddin still lives in the slums of Mumbai.

From Contact Music, we read more details on the demolition.

The Mumbai slum was the home of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, who played the youngest Salim in the blockbuster film, appearing on the red carpet in LA in February.

Officials say the boy's family were living on the land illegally, creating a makeshift shelter in a slum near Mumbai. The authorities have said they will provide alternative accommodation for the family, who say they had no warning there home would be demolished.

Slumdog Millionaire has made more than £140 million in box office takings worldwide, yet the two youngest members of the cast are still living in poverty in slums. However, the film's director and producers have said the children's education has been paid for, as well as a trust fund set up that they will receive when they are older.

Speaking to the BBC, Azharuddin's mother, Shamim Ismail said: "Our house has been broken down by officials. We have not been given any alternate accommodation. Earlier the authorities had said they would give us a house. But I don't think that will happen any more."

Georgia children on the brink of hunger

Video from WSAV.

Brazil's "family grant" program receives charges of corruption

The Bolsa Famila program or, "family grant" is a powerful poverty fighting tool used by Brazil's government. But Bolsa Famila has received charges of corruption after an audit found that 1.23 million people receiving the grants were not in poverty.

Bolsa Family gives money to families in poverty as long as they keep their children in school with good attendance. But the program has been unable to keep track of the children, and doesn't know if as many as 1 million children are still attending school.

From Bloomburg, columnist Alexandre Marinis writes about the problems with the Bolsa Famila.

Brazil’s lauded Bolsa Familia anti- poverty program is suffering as charges of bureaucratic corruption and political abuse multiply.

That’s jeopardizing recent gains in lowering the poverty rate in Latin America’s most-populous nation.

In 2009 the global economic crisis will push 2.7 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean back into extreme poverty, which the World Bank defines as living for less than $1.25 daily.

This reverses more than a third of the region’s poverty reduction gains since 2005, according to the World Bank. The proportional increase of poor people there will be seven times greater than that expected for sub-Saharan Africa.

Bolsa Familia, which loosely translates as “family grant,” is a government-run cash transfer benefit and Brazil’s main tool to combat poverty. The state doles out about 12 billion reais ($5.7 billion) to 46 million people, a quarter of the country’s population.

The World Bank hails it as “a silent revolution” that’s “among the world’s best targeted programs.” The International Labour Organization says the initiative is “the largest income distribution program in the world.” It’s been copied throughout Latin America and some developed nations.

Its goals are unassailable. How it’s being managed is another story.

Consider the case of Billy da Silva Rosa. Billy received 20 reais from the government every month and each of his two brothers got 62 reais. The payments stopped after seven months, when a health inspector discovered Billy was a cat owned by the government employee responsible for running Bolsa Familia in the remote town of Antonio Joao, in Mato Grosso do Sul state.

9 Haitians die in Florida waters trying to flee country

More Haitians trying to escape the country's poverty did not make it to their destination. Nine people died as an overloaded boat hit an object then sank into the water off of Florida's coast.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it's situation has only been made worse by four tropical storms and hurricanes that destroyed last years harvest. The Coast Guard says they have stopped 1377 Haitians from entering the US since the harvest.

From this Associated Press video, we learn more about the rescue efforts.

Muhammad Yunus and collateral

Muhammad Yunus makes another point about the failure of big banks in the global recession. He points to the differences in the use of collateral between the big banks and microcredit banks.

Yunus spoke at the launch of a new study to gather statistics on microcredit. Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star collected Yunus' comments.

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus said yesterday microcredit could safeguard many retrenched employees from the effects of deepening recession through self-employment.

“It's (microcredit) an important tool to create self-employment. It bears more significance in times of recession, as it shows laid-off employees a way to stand up again on their own,” said Yunus at the launch of Bangladesh Microfinance Statistics for 2007 at the LGED auditorium.

Regarded as the banker to the poor, Yunus said microfinance has so far been immune to the global economic crisis at a time when big banks sought bailout packages to survive, although they had extended loans to borrowers against collateral.

“The banks are failing to retrieve loans although there are collateral, documents and lawyers to get the money back. Now the documents have proved fake,” he said.

The microcredit system is a driver of employment, savings and women's empowerment, he said.

“Microcredit is not free from criticism though. But microcredit is a big achievement for Bangladesh and the list of achievements is long,” said the Nobel laureate.
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He observed traditional banks are mobilising deposits from the rural economy and investing the money in urban areas, which means a loss of liquidity in the rural economy.

“But microcredit doesn't take the money away from the rural economy. Rather it puts the money in circulation there. We are giving money to those who did not avail themselves of credit earlier,” Yunus. He called for transparency in the activities of microfinance organisations.

Jeffrey Sachs lays into Canada

In his latest commentary, Jeffrey Sachs says Canada has run out of excuses for contributing 0.7 percent of their gross national product to international aid to the world's poor. Dr. Sachs says that a small increase in funding aid could save billions of African Lives.

From Canada.com comes our snippet of Sachs commentary

I've been observing the recent slanging match between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and development activists, including Bono and Bob Geldof, over Canada's commitment to the world's poor. Without getting into the fine points of aid accounting, there is no doubt that Canada's aid commitments these days are rather thin.

In 2002 at a summit in Monterrey, Mexico, Canada joined the rest of the rich world in pledging to make concrete efforts to reach 0.7 per cent of GNP in official development aid. In fact, Canada's effort has stalled at around 0.3 per cent of GNP. But Canada can conveniently hide behind the United States, which weighs in at an even more miserable 0.17 per cent of GNP.

There are few places on the planet as splendid as Canada, so it's truly hard to understand how a prosperous and free people enjoying a life expectancy of more than 80 years have to work overtime to justify spending only 30 cents on each $100 of national income to help people with a life expectancy of only 40 years. Of course, everything one can say about Canada in this regard, one can say with added emphasis about the United States, which not only spends a meagre 17 cents per $100 of income on aid, but does so in the shadow of tax cuts for the rich that amount to roughly $2.50 per $100 of national income.

What is perhaps most puzzling about Canada is that there are so few political voices, from any party, championing practical approaches to tackling extreme poverty around the world. Many Canadians might fret that there is no reliable place to spend extra money, no places where the aid won't simply be ripped off by the allegedly ubiquitous "corrupt African governments." But Canadians need to understand that they could easily allocate funds to places such as Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania, all with multi-party democracies, responsible and highly praised governments, and populations suffering from a lack of doctors, nurses, and safe drinking water. They could also make contributions in kind -- medicines, vaccines, seeds, fertilizers, equipment -- making the aid easier to track and harder to steal.

I've had the chance to review the development plans of these countries in considerable detail. They each have highly meritorious programs in education, malaria control, food production and much more, all programs in which Canada's money -- certainly up to 0.7 per cent of GNP -- could be very well used indeed, and easily monitored. It would be straightforward to get one or more major private-sector accounting firms to do audits on such aid, to further ensure Canada's taxpayers that the aid is indeed invested as planned. If the aid goes awry, it could be halted.

Here's another possibility. Canada could direct its increased aid to the International Red Cross and UNICEF to support their campaigns to distribute anti-malaria bed nets to Africa's children and pregnant mothers.

I've seen many children in death throes because their families (and governments) could not afford bed nets for them. I'd be ready at any moment to accompany any Canadian leaders to a rural African clinic so that they too can see children in comas, or in respiratory distress as they die of largely preventable and wholly treatable diseases. It would cost each Canadian merely $100 to fund the $3 billion required to provide comprehensive malaria control across all of Africa. Canada, on its own, could save more than one million African lives per year.

Microcredit conference held at Seattle Pacific University

Seattle Pacific University held a Microcredit conference last weekend. The event featured speakers from Kiva and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Microcredit lenders had booths to display some of the projects they funded, and there were small group sessions to discuss big topics concerning microcredit.

From the Student newspaper at SPU The Falcon, writer Melissa Stefan will tell us more.

"Microcredit is a way to make loans and repayments, so it's more sustainable (than traditional charity)," said Kenman Wong, professor of business and economics, who helped plan the event. "I would even argue that it's more dignified, because people are actually participating, hopefully creating small businesses to help them earn their way out of poverty."

Though the concept is relatively new, interest in microfinance is growing. The conference, which began as an offhand suggestion, attracted participants from as far away as New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma and North Carolina. The event sold out and nearly 100 people were on the waiting list, Wong said.

"The massive attendance is a testament to the interest in microfinance and those living in poverty. Microfinance itself is a testament to the power of people recognizing the importance of community in a connected world," said SPU alumnus Jeff Keenan, who served on the conference leadership committee and opened the conference on Friday evening.

"We thought maybe people would drive over from Ballard -- maybe -- and that was our optimistic guess," Wong said. "So we really feel blessed, because there was a lot of hard work, but we never had to push."

Wong partnered with senior Kristin McGunnigle and Brad Stave, who works with VisionFund, to plan the event four months ago. Originally, the event was geared toward businesses and entrepreneurs, though the spectrum was ultimately broadened to focus on the community at hand.

"We thought, 'There's so much interest in Seattle in poverty and global issues ... .' We wanted to educate them and mobilize them to act," Wong said.

The mess of the American safety net

The New York Times has done an exhaustive study of American benefits to the poor. They find that those applying for food assistance, government health insurance, and unemployment insurance can have a difficult time receiving those benefits. Some may find they qualify for one benefit but not another.

Differences in state laws help to complicate the problem, as requirements for food stamps may be different in one state from another. So geography really becomes the determining factor on if a poor person receives help or not.

From The New York Times, reporter Jason DeParle explains some of the differences.

As a measure of the safety net, The New York Times examined state-by-state enrollment in six federal programs and found large variations in the share of needy helped.

Just 50 percent of people eligible for food stamps receive them in California, compared with 98 percent in Missouri. Nineteen percent of the unemployed get jobless benefits in South Dakota, compared with 67 percent in Idaho.

Fifteen states rank among the top 10 in providing one form of aid and the bottom 10 in another. California ranks second in distributing cash welfare but last in food stamps. South Dakota, last in jobless benefits, is first in subsidized housing.

Aid in states most hit by recession is also scattershot. Michigan’s programs reach a comparatively high share of the needy, while South Carolina’s rank in the middle and Nevada’s reach relatively few. All have double-digit unemployment rates.

“The system for helping Americans in need is very fragmented, and it confuses everyone,” said Theda Skocpol, a political scientist at Harvard. “Some people are covered and some people are not, even though they look like they’re in very similar circumstances.”

This complexity is a challenge for President Obama as he reacts to the economic crisis. The February stimulus act contains more than $100 billion in safety net provisions, but much of the aid consists of financial incentives the states are free to reject. Several governors quickly spurned grants to expand unemployment insurance, for example, saying the move would raise business taxes and kill jobs.

Aid programs spend hundreds of billions of dollars and reach tens of millions of people; the food stamp program alone covers more than one in 10 Americans. Yet the safety net leaves few camps satisfied. Liberals say programs are weak compared with other rich countries and are overly deferential to states. Conservatives fault costs and complexity and warn that aid can do harm.

With generous programs “you could be discouraging people from seeking better jobs,” said Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation.

Both sides, those who want more spending and those who want less, would unite under Mr. Butler’s description of the status quo. “You’ve got this kind of jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t really fit together, ” he said.

Obama administration proposes to expand the Hope IV program

The Obama administration has a proposal to expand the Hope IV project in it's latest budget. During the Clinton administration, Hope IV brought about the funding to demolish then reconstruct public housing in metro centers. The program is credited with improving public housing. Now, the latest proposal from Obama wants to take the plan a step further by adding schools and transportation to the hosing units.

From the Washington Post, writer By Christina Bellantoni tells us more.

The initiative, if approved by Congress, will operate in the same way by redeveloping public and assisted housing, but it will include community development, and applicants will have to prove the transformation would be catalytic, said Bruce Katz, a senior adviser to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

It also has a "much tighter link" to school reform, he said of HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.

Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, Missouri Republican, said he would advocate for the new program because it expands on the successful Hope VI initiative he has championed since its creation in 1992.

He said in an interview that the idea is "to see if we can do something in a coordinated effective effort to end the cycle of poverty and distress … and empower the local residents to have more control over their life."

Mr. Bond cited projects in St. Louis and also on Capitol Hill that are now model communities.

Mr. Katz said Hope VI dramatically lowered crime rates and increased property values in the worst neighborhoods. It merited about $500 million per year in funding during the Clinton administration but was on "life support" during the Bush presidency, Mr. Katz said.

HUD estimates 10 cities would be granted the funding after a competitive process, and to qualify, at least 40 percent of a neighborhood's residents must live below the federal poverty line of about $22,000 for a family of four.

Atlanta, Kansas City, Mo., Philadelphia and San Francisco were cited often during interviews for this story as examples of places with similar programs or where residents could benefit from the "choice" initiative.

Planes used for arms are often also used for aid

The same planes that smuggle weapons are often hired to transport humanitarian aid, according to a new report released today.

The authors of the report suggest enforcing the EU's air safety rules to combat the problem. They say this will help because the planes often carrying the weapons have poor safety standards.

From AFP via Google, we read more of what was contained in the report.

Air cargo carriers used to smuggle weapons to war-torn parts of Africa have also been hired to deliver humanitarian aid and support peacekeeping operations, a leading peace think tank said Tuesday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report that 90 percent of air cargo companies identified in arms trafficking-related reports had been used by UN agencies, European Union and NATO members as well as leading non-governmental organisations to deliver aid.

"For example, UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan have continued to use aircraft operated by (Sudan's) Badr Airlines even after the UN Security Council recommended an aviation ban be imposed on the carrier in response to arms embargo violations," the SIPRI report said.

The report also singled out other African carriers such as Astral Aviation, African International Airlines and the Sudanese-registered Trans Attico as being named in arms trafficking reports.

It also said several US private security firms hired air cargo carriers and aircraft which have been "involved in the trafficking of arms to militias which the US government have designated 'global terrorists'."

The report cited Dyncorp, a company that provides security services for the US government, as having contracted Aerolift, a firm accused by the UN Security Council in 2006 of being involved in arms trading, to supply weapons to an Islamist militia that controls much of southern Somalia.

The militant group, Al-Shabab, was added by the US government to its list of terrorist organisations in March 2008 over alleged links to Al-Qaeda.

Envision: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries

This weekend in New York, a unique film festival will screen documentaries about global issues. The event called Envision teams the Independent Filmmaker Project with the United Nation’s Department of Public Information. The focus of movies at this year's event are on the plight of women in the under developed world. All the movies will be screened at the Director's Guild Theater in New York City.

A couple of the movies that will be shown include: “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” about the grassroots peace movement of Liberian women, and “Rough Aunties,” a look at five South African women who use teddy bears to help children explain sexual abuse. Discussion about the films will follow.

Trailers for each of the films can be found at Envision's website.

Fewer US families able to afford health insurance

A new study shows that fewer US families are able to afford health insurance than ever before. This leaves people without employer provided insurance without the ability to obtain health insurance according to HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, who conducted the study.

From Med Lexicon News, we find out more about the new study's findings.

Some experts have suggested that because 23.8 million uninsured Americans under age 65 who do not have access to employer-based health insurance have incomes above the federal poverty line, they can afford to purchase policies if they so choose. But new data show otherwise.

"Wealth, Income, and The Affordability of Health Insurance," published in the May/June 2009 issue of Health Affairs, shows that measuring families' median net worth - the value of their savings plus other assets minus debt rather than just income - provides more precise estimates of the percentage who could purchase policies if they chose to do so. Until now, most studies have used income alone to estimate how many more Americans could be covered by health insurance.

"This study has important implications for defining who can afford to pay for health insurance in the next wave of health care reform," AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., said. "We need accurate, evidence-based findings to ensure that we are providing policymakers with reliable information."

Using national survey data, the researchers found that the median net worth of families who purchased health insurance was $105,819 - nearly 35 times greater than the median net worth of only $3,057 for families who were uninsured. Median net worth means that half the families had net worth above or below that amount.

In contrast, the median income of families who purchased health insurance was $41,086 - only 2.3 times greater than the median income of $17,690 for families who were uninsured.

Laos to begin recognizing NGO's

Communist country Laos will begin to recognize Non-Governmental organizations who are doing work within the country. The aid groups can begin to apply for recognition in November, and these may free them to be able to do more good.

From AFP News via Yahoo, we see reaction to the news from NGO's in other parts of the world.

More than 100 local organisations of various types already exist in the country but are not centrally registered, said Luke Stephens, country director of the Irish-based NGO Concern Worldwide.

The decree provides a clear legal framework for membership-based groups, in contrast to the existing situation under which registration is done on a more ad hoc basis, said Stephens, whose group backed the drafting of the decree.

"Now it's a much more transparent process," he said. "With the former system you could only register if you had connections."

Stephens added that "it's hard to understate the significance" of the decree signed on April 29 by Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh.

"It means anyone can register and then they have a secure and legal way to work and not be hindered by someone that doesn't like them."

Groups would, for example, be able to join together to work on poverty, development, health and other issues facing the country, he said.

"At least we have a decree to set up local NGOs, and that's a big step in Laos," said Isabelle Decout, of the INGO Network, a coordinating body of 65 international aid groups in the country.

Students Helping Honduras

CNN helped to introduce us to a charity that helps to fight poverty in Honduras. Students Helping Honduras has chapters at several college campuses to raise money for development projects in the country.

Co-Founder Shin Fujiyama was profiled for CNN's story. Our snippet of the printed story begins with a trip to Honduras that served as inspiration to Fujiyama. The video of CNN's story follows our snippet.

Today, his organization, Students Helping Honduras, brings education and community projects to children and families in need through student service trips and fundraisers.

"Seeing the country and being able to make a difference really opened my eyes to a lot of things," he says. "I saw such a great need. I wanted to keep helping."

He started by telling his friends about his experience and collecting spare change at his two campus jobs, but Fujiyama found that organizing other students didn't happen so easily.

"When I had my very first meeting, I got all dressed up. And only two people showed up," he says. "I knew I had to keep fighting."
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Students Helping Honduras is working with community members of Siete de Abril to build a new village. Many of the families lost their belongings to Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

"A lot of them are single mothers. They don't own the land. They all live in cardboard houses. They don't have access to clean water [or] health care, and they didn't have a school," Shin Fujiyama says.

Fujiyama's group helped villagers purchase a new plot of land to rebuild. Its members have helped build 44 homes in the village that has been newly named Villa Soleada ("Sunshine Village"). The organization also is raising funds to build a water tower, an eco-friendly sanitation system and a library and to help provide electricity.

For Fujiyama, who deferred medical school to dedicate himself to his mission in Honduras, the lifestyle is a far cry from private practice, but he says he loves what he is doing.

"I feel like we're making a huge impact. Some people might think that you have to be somebody famous or a millionaire or a doctor to do something," he says. "But we're just everyday students -- people in their 20s. We can do so much. We've got so many things going for us. ... It's just about leveraging what we have. And we have done a great job at that."