Ohio puts together an anti-poverty plan

Ohio is conducting a series of meetings to formulate an anti-poverty plan. A state government task force is conducting brainstorming sessions in each of the states 22 counties.

The results of the meetings will then be combined into a report to be presented to the states governor to begin to implement. The task force hopes to have detailed ideas on how to reduce the numbers in poverty to Governor Ted Strickland by April 30th.

The latest in the series of meetings took place in Hamilton County. The Cincinnati Enquirer sent reporter Mark Curnutte to cover the meeting.

More than 60 social service providers - public and faith-based - private citizens and representatives of charitable foundations met for two hours Wednesday morning at the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency in Bond Hill. They formulated the county's response to Strickland's request from 22 communities across Ohio for his anti-poverty task force.

Participants exchanged information about job-training programs, earned-income tax credits for the poor and services to the elderly.

"A lot of dots connected, but the themes of jobs and education kept coming up," said John Young, president and CEO of the Freestore Foodbank.

More than 3.4 million Ohioans live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The federal poverty level for a family of six is $28,400. Ohio's task force will aim to provide practical and short- and long-term solutions to the state's poverty in the form of a five- to 10-year vision.

Poverty has deepened and spread across the state since the governor organized the task force in May by executive order. From the 22 discussions and sets of recommendations, the process will narrow to regional meetings. Then the anti-poverty task force will make recommendations to Strickland, said Amanda Wurst, his spokesperson.

This process through the state's community action agencies does not deal with federal economic stimulus money that might come into Ohio.
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All major economic indicators for children show more strain on the Hamilton County's youngest citizens, according to a survey of the latest data available from the Children's Defense Fund and the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Kids Count 2008" report for Ohio. The numbers and percentages of children under 18 living in poverty and receiving public health care, food stamps and free or reduced school lunches are up dramatically since 2001.

Angelina Jolie gets criticized by Thailand

As a part of her work as a United Nations ambassador, Angelina Jolie recently visited a Rohingyas refuge camp.

Recently a group of Rohingyas refugees were beaten and stranded at sea by Thai military. The minority group flees Myanmar looking for better treatment elsewhere. We detailed this incident further in this prior post.

In speaking to reporters from the refuge camp at the Myanmar Thailand border. Jolie pleaded to the Thai government to accept the Rohingyas into the country.

From India E-News we read some of Jolie's comments and the reaction from the Thai government.

Jolie asked the Thai government to be 'just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores'.

The Thai army has been accused of detaining and torturing hundreds of Rohingyas who in recent months have fled to Thailand to escape poverty in Myanmar, the website said.

Officials in Thailand have chastised Jolie for her comments, insisting that the UN refugee agency should not have allowed the star to visit the centre.

Said Virasakdi Futrakul, permanent secretary of the Thai foreign ministry: 'Angelina was not focused on the Rohingya, but was visiting Myanmar refugee camps. It was a coincidence that the Rohingya was a hot news issue at the time, therefore we must warn UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) that they should not comment on this issue because they have no mandate on this issue.

'The Thai government will issue a reprimand letter to UNHCR asking why it allowed Angelina Jolie to visit the refugee camps,' he added.

Anti-poverty activists urge Ontario to spend billions

Everywhere here in the states we are seeing anti-poverty experts encourage the the US government to go ahead with it's latest stimulus spending package. A lot of money in the huge spending package would go to schools, infrastructure and social programs.

We find a similar story from Canada, as anti poverty activists there are urging their government to spend more. They want billions more as well for social programs.

From the Canadian Press story that we found at Google News, we find out more on what the activists are asking their government to do.

The Canadian Press has obtained a draft copy of a report prepared for the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction that warns the poor will be hit harder than anyone by the recession.

The report, to be released Thursday, calls on the province to invest $2.4 billion this year and $2.6 billion next year on social programs, or roughly 2.7 per cent of Ontario's gross domestic product.

It recommends a $100 monthly healthy food supplement to help adults on welfare or disability support payments, plus increased social assistance payments in the Ontario Child Benefit.

The report also calls for a new housing benefit to help low-income renters meet the high cost of housing, and says the province needs to build 7,500 new affordable child-care spaces.

The global response to children with AIDS

In the global response to HIV/AIDS the needs of children have often been neglected, according to a new study on the subject.

The study on the needs of children with AIDS was conducted by a coalition called the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS. The group is made up of scientists, activists, policymakers and more.

Some of the findings from the report show that families often do not receive help with the costs of AIDS treatment. The study also explains the barriers that poverty puts up when trying to find treatment.

From the Voice of America, reporter Joe DeCapua unpacks the report for us. An audio file of his story is also available to listen to.

A co-chair of the alliance is Jim Yong Kim, director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

"So, what did we find when we looked at how children are faring in this epidemic? Statistics show that, one, over 90 percent of the more than two million children living with HIV are infected before or during birth. Yet, only one in three pregnant women with HIV in low and middle-income countries gets the treatment they need to help prevent infection of their babies. And still, only a very small proportion of children living with HIV receive the life-saving anti-retroviral treatments," he says.

What's more, fewer than 10 percent of children born to HIV-positive women are tested for the AIDS virus before they're two months old.

The report also finds that most children labeled AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa actually have a surviving parent or other family member willing to care for them. But those potential caregivers often lack the basic resources to give the children what they need.

Kim says, "Resources, though, are currently not reaching the families that need them. And in the most severely affected region families and communities pay 90 percent of the financial cost of caring for children affected by the epidemic with little or no assistance from government."

Extreme poverty is blamed for blocking their access to AIDS-related programs, with over 60 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa living in poverty.

Kim says, "In countries in which HIV is endemic, the disease impoverishes entire communities. When we make relief too narrowly AIDS specific, we miss a large portion of children impoverished by the epidemic. In fact, only providing benefits for people living with HIV or with family members, who are living with or die from HIV, is probably counterproductive. It can create stigmatization and abuse for those in need of help."

Only a couple of donors giving to only a couple of diseases

A new study reveals that when it comes to the diseases of poverty, there are too few donors giving for too few diseases.

The study wanted to determine how much money is spent and who is spending it to battle the diseases of poverty. The study was conducted by the George Institute for International Health, Australia.

The institute finds that 80% of all of the money donated goes to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. However, there are 27 different diseases total that effect those in poverty. A vast majority of the money comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health.

TropiKA has the full details on the survey from writer Paul Chinnock.

The failure to provide an equivalent level of support to research on the other 27 diseases also examined in the project is of great concern. The authors of the report say that: “...the concentration of funding on AIDS, TB, and malaria ... suggests that investment decisions are not only influenced by scientific or epidemiological considerations, but may also be influenced by factors such as the presence of PDPs [product development partnerships] or civil society groups with active advocacy, fundraising, and investment activities”.

The project, the ‘G-FINDER survey’ is being conducted by the George Institute for International Health, Australia. According to the report (which appears as a ‘Policy Forum’ article in PLoS Medicine) pneumonia and diarrhoeal illness, which are major causes of mortality in developing countries, received less than 6% of funding. Kinetoplastid diseases such as sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease, which affect more than 13 million people worldwide annually, receive less than 5% of global health funding, amounting to $125 million. Typhoid receives $9 million, 0.4% of total funds. The authors say that the funding provided “was not enough to create even one new product” to address many of these diseases.

Another worrying finding is that the number of donors was limited, with just two funders – the US National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – accounting for 60% of the funds provided. These two bodies mainly focus on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. With regard to more neglected diseases, other funders often dominate; for example nearly 90 per cent of funding for the blinding bacterial eye infection trachoma comes from the Wellcome Trust. Such almost total dependency on one donor has been described as an ‘eggs in one basket approach’.

Boosting food production in Africa

A meeting focused on food production in Africa just finished up Namibia. African ministers hoped to use the meetings to chart a way to improve future food security.

The conference attendees recommend that governments use 10 percent of their budgets for food production. Growing food is essential to poverty fighting efforts, as most of the population on Africa depends on the food they themselves grow, since most can't afford to buy it from elsewhere.

A statement was released at the end of the conference on what the leaders had agreed upon. This article from Pana Press tells us the details.

The ministers agreed at the end the two-day conference Tuesday to raise agricultural production levels and provide enough food for the bulk of the continent's population, which is wallowing in grinding poverty.

"We support the call for a uniquely African Green Revolution to help boost agricultural productivity, food production and national food security. We support the work of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) in spearheading efforts to achieve a sustainable green revolution, working with African governments, farmers, donors, private sector and civil society," the ministers said in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.

The communique said that African green revolution should be complemented by investment in rural areas, a preserve of the public sector.

The ministers also said that financial institutions in Africa and other funding agencies should be ready to fund food and agricultural input purchases.

"We are convinced that the challenges facing African agriculture need to be addressed with a sense of urgency...what is needed now is strong political will of governments to take the necessary actions and of the international community to support those actions," they said.

A target set under the Millennium Development Goals stipulates that African countries should attain food security and reduce by half the population of undernourished people by 2015.

Hungry despite bumper harvests

The government of Malawi claims the country grows enough food to feed their people. However, study's show that hunger is increasing in the country.

Malawi has had bumper crops of Maize over the last three years. Enough maize has been harvested to send surpluses of the crop to neighboring countries.

However, non-governmental organizations that work within the country say that the Malawian government is just looking at the numbers, while not doing enough to get the food to the people.

A story from Voice of America reporter Lameck Masina looks into the disconnect between what the Malawian government says and the reality on the ground. The VOA also has an audio file of the story available to listen to.

The bumper harvest has also benefited hunger-stricken neighboring countries like Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland. Recently president Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also Malawi’s minister of agriculture, has received international recognition for achieving food security. But a number of studies show that most Malawians are still affected by food shortages.

A recent nutritional survey says approximately 30 percent of Malawi’s rural population consume less than the 2,200 kilocalories per day, needed to stay healthy. The report says women of child-bearing age and children under five lack iron, vitamin A, and other nutrients.

As a result of malnutrition, half of the country’s children suffer from stunted growth, with over a third of these children considered dangerously underweight.

Related to this, a study by the NGO Action Aid International indicates almost half of the country’s population experience food shortages up to six months a year. It says most households lack the minimum food requirement of 200kg of maize per person per year.

Chandiwira Chisi is the man in charge of the anti-hunger effort for Action Aid, “When the government says that there is progress, it’s in the macro context, that’s to say if we look at national level, yes, there is food availability in the past three years [but] that is not enough. I am sure that the government would like to see the situation where everyone has got food in this country in the right amounts, right quantities and the right nutritional value.”

Alabama, Iran and Zimbabwe have something in common

This post is a bit off topic, but we found it to be a shocker.

A new Gallup poll shows that Alabama, Iran and Zimbabwe have similar percentages of religious people. The percentages were 82 percent for Alabama, 83 percent for Iran, and 81 percent for Zimbabwe.

How this relates to poverty is that the Gallup poll findings show a correlation between religion and income. This AFP article that we found in Google News allows Gallup to explain the link.

"Eight of the 11 countries in which almost all residents (at least 98 percent) say religion is important in their daily lives are poorer nations in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia," the report said.

The poverty rate in Alabama was 17 percent in 2007, according to the US Census Bureau, while World Bank statistics show around 20 percent of Iranians live in poverty.

In Zimbabwe, a country where the economy has been plummeting for a decade and inflation is running at several billion percent annually, at least 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Also giving weight to the analysts' theory is the fact that the most religious US state, Mississippi, is also the poorest.

Eighty-five percent of Mississippians say religion is a key part of daily life, according to the poll, for which 1,000 adults each were interviewed in 143 countries between 2006 and 2008.

One in five Mississippians live in poverty, US Census data shows.

"On the opposite end of the spectrum, the 10 least religious countries studied include several with the world's highest living standards, including Sweden... and Japan," the report said.

Religion was a key part of daily life for 17 percent of Swedes and 25 percent of Japanese.

A new study on urban poverty in India

Poorly planned urbanization is blamed for urban poverty in India according to a new study. A migration of poor from rural areas into the cities is generally blamed, but the study says differently.

The study on urban poverty is the first of it's kind in India and was sponsored by the United Nations Development Program in cooperation with the Indian government.

The study says that the percentage of those in poverty is smaller in the big cities than it is in rural villages.

The Indian newspaper The Hindu has more details on the urban poverty report.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored study said an estimated 23.7 per cent urban populace was living in slums amid squalor, crime, disease and tension, but not all slum dwellers exist below the poverty line. Poor city planning and poorer urban land management and laws are to be blamed for the rise in numbers of urban poor, revealed the India:Urban Poverty Report, 2009, released at a function here by the Union minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation, Ms Kumari Selja.

Urban poverty, the report said, was not about only nutritional deficiency but deficiencies in the basic needs of housing, water, sanitation, medical care, education, and opportunity for income generation. “It is not a report on the poor in urban areas but a report on the process of urbanisation in India keeping poverty at the centre of analysis,” said social scientist Prof. Amitabh Kundu, who has played a key role in bringing out the report.

The report revealed that urban workers were being increasingly pushed into the informal sector and the urban poor were a street vendor, a rickshaw puller, a rag picker, a cleaner, a washerman, a load carrier or a domestic servant.

The report that deals in detail with the problem of small and medium cities, said while these workers contributed to the growth of cities, there was a growing trend to push them to the urban periphery. A near absence of rights to land and livelihood, and the higher cost that the poor have to incur on transportation and travel to workplace are some of the highlights of the study.

A new study on the uninsured in the US

Most low income people who lose their jobs are also without health insurance, according to a new study on the uninsured in the US.

Families USA conducted the study, they found that 54 percent of unemployed people cannot afford health insurance and are not eligible for Medicaid.

The details of the report come from this Associated Press article that we found at the San Francisco Chronicle, writer Kevin Freaking gives us the details.

The report focuses on middle-class and lower-income workers with annual incomes of about $44,100 for a family of four, or about double the poverty level.

Only one in five unemployed workers within that income level has private insurance or military coverage. Meanwhile, only one in four unemployed workers at that level got coverage through Medicaid, the government sponsored insurance program for the poor.

In December 2008, there were an estimated 5.8 million people out of work with incomes below twice the poverty level, and about 3.1 million of them did not have insurance, Families USA estimated.

The report was compiled as lawmakers consider expanding access to Medicaid and subsidizing the cost of maintaining private coverage, also called COBRA, through an economic stimulus bill.

"Most laid-off workers can't afford COBRA coverage and do not qualify for public health safety-net programs," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "As a result, millions of middle-class and lower-income workers become uninsured."

Profile of a NGO working in Darfur

Women usually feel the brunt of poverty, war, and corruption. The charity Women for Women, helps these women rebuild their lives and overcome prejudices.

Sudan is one of the countries that Women for Women does a lot of work in, especially for the women of Darfur. The charity has begun a cooperative farm for women to grow produce and earn money.

The Voice of America profiled Women for Women, and sent reporter Joe DeCapua to get the story.

Karak Mayik, country director in Sudan for the group Women for Women, says women face many war-related and other obstacles.

"The war destroyed everything. There is lack of infrastructure. No development. No basic needs for human beings, especially women. And also, after the peace agreement, women are facing another war, which is the culture. They can't own land. They can't do some other major activities for themselves," she says.

She says that until the entire country is at peace, it will be difficult to help all those in need.

"If there is a wound in one of your body parts, you cannot feel peaceful and you cannot feel well. So, the war in Darfur is challenging us. The war in Abyei is challenging us. The peace agreement is a challenge to be implemented.

Abyei is a town in South Kurdufan, linking north and south Sudan. It's the site of much of the country's oil production and the cause of much tension. A 2011 referendum may determine whether Abyei belongs to the north or south.

To help deal with poverty and lack of development, Women for Women has obtained land for farming in the town of Rumbek.

"Last year, we got 90 hectares of land from the community leaders. They give it to use forever, 99 years, and we call it CIFI – Commercial Integrated farming Initiative. It is an agro-business for the women. Women are cultivating more than 21 types of vegetables," she says.

Many communities and businesses now depend on produce from the farm. And Mayik says that income from the farm has changed women's lives.

"They benefit from the farm in many ways. First, for themselves. They say we're looking smart now. We've changed our lifestyles. They are sending their kids to the schools, to the hospitals," Mayik says.

In the beginning, men were opposed to women starting their own business, saying it went against the culture. Now that they've seen the benefits, they support it, even to the extent they make sure their wives wake up in time to get to work.

The Poverty Olympics?

Anti-poverty activists in Vancouver staged a demonstration over the weekend. The protest was called the "Poverty Olympics" because of the 2010 Olympic Games coming to the city.

The march was held to shed light on the homeless problem in Vancouver. The event also called attention to the fact that the billions being spent on the Olympics could better be spent on the homeless and those in poverty.

Writer for the Globe and Mail, Mark Hume was present at the demonstration.

They have their own Olympic mascots - Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach and Chewy the Rat - their own torch, made from a toilet plunger, and a catchy marketing phrase: "End poverty. It's not a game."

But what the Poverty Olympics doesn't have is money - and that was the main point being underscored yesterday by a celebration/protest march through the Downtown Eastside.

About 200 people joined in the parade down East Hastings Street as the Poverty Olympics, an event that serves as a rallying point for low-income advocacy groups, marked the one-year countdown to the 2010 Olympic Games.

The event was organized by several non-profit groups to draw attention to the way governments are spending billions of dollars on the Olympic Games even while intense poverty can be found in the Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood that will be one of the main urban backdrops to the sporting spectacle.

"If the money that was spent on the Olympics was spent on ending poverty and homelessness, we could end poverty and homelessness. It would be that simple," said Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project, an advocacy agency for the poor.

The 2010 Olympics will open and close with ceremonies at BC Place Stadium, just a few blocks from the southern edge of the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

The government of British Columbia has estimated the cost of the Games at about $600-million, but a report by the provincial Auditor-General has put it at about $2.5-billion.

The Wales Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign

A news story in the UK's Evening Leader taught us about a group from Wales who organize fundraisers to help people in Nicaragua. The group is called the Wales Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. Led by David McKnight, the group is about to take another trip to Nicaragua to help families that were hurt by Hurricane Felix.

The group operates a blog on Word Press. The Evening Leader's story tells us what the group hopes to do on their latest trip.

It will be the 32-year-old's fourth trip to Central America's poorest country, which he has visited every two years since 2001 as a member of the Wales Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, which was founded 20 years ago to help struggling families, promote fair trade and create links between the two countries.

David, of Mynydd Isa, and six other campaign members from across Wales will leave on their latest trip on Valentine's Day and will visit Los Quinchos Centre, which works with children who live and work on the huge la Chureca rubbish dump in the capital city of Managua, and who have no choice but to scavenge in order to survive.

The group will also travel to Bilwi on the Caribbean coast, which suffered huge amounts of damage when Hurricane Felix struck the region a year ago. The hurricane killed hundreds of people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes, including entire villages.

David said: "One of the reasons why we are travelling to Bilwi is to see if there is any support we can provide, to help with the long term reconstruction of the area."

Before returning home to begin raising money for those in desperate need of help, the group will stay on a Fairtrade coffee farm in Matagalpa, in the mountains in Nicaragua.

David said: "The campaign has promoted Fairtrade coffee and sesame from Nicaragua for over a decade.

Video: the work of Nuru International

We were introduced to this charity during the week called Nuru International. When surfing their website we found these podcast videos that explain their work. We will feature their latest installment thru the weekend.

World Bank and German government pledges to infuse cash into microcredit

Both the World Bank and the German government have pledged to put some cash into microcredit banks. They plan on spending $500 million dollars and hope to withdraw the money when the credit crisis is over.

Some microcredit institutions have had trouble securing extra funds during the world's credit crisis.

The International Herald Tribune writer Carter Daugherty details the plan.

"You have some viable projects here where the financing has simply dried up," the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, said by telephone from Berlin, where he and the heads of other leading economic organizations met with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The microcredit investment fund is part of a broader effort by the bank and other development agencies to mobilize rich-country cash for poorer countries during the credit crisis, Zoellick said. Other funds are focused on infrastructure projects, bank recapitalization and trade finance.

Microcredit institutions, which generally make tiny loans of $100 or less to individuals or small businesses, gained attention in the 1990s as a way to foster private enterprise in poor countries. In 2006, Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, one of the first microbanks, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Though many banks were seeded with money from western aid agencies, a long process of drawing more investment from private sources was well under way - until the credit crisis began in August 2007.

"In general, there was a lot of momentum from the private sector," said Jack Lowe, president of BlueOrchard Finance, one of the firms that have been selected to manage the new fund. "But when you have the wind at your back and financial markets are heady, it is easier to raise money."

Under the plan, the World Bank would initially provide $150 million alongside another $130 million from the German government. Zoellick said the bank was soliciting contributions from other countries and agencies, and hopes to mobilize up to $600 million. That would be enough to help 150-200 microfinance banks based in 40 developing countries, he said.

The high price of water in Nigeria

A story from the BBC today reveals that many in Nigeria pay more than is necessary for water. The United Nations Development Programme says that people in the under developed world pay more for water than those in New York or Tokyo.

Many blame the government in Nigeria for not providing water and sanitation to it's public, despite earning millions on oil revenues. The public often have to rely on wealthy individuals that will sell water from their tap for a profit.

The story introduces us to a water peddler who carts huge buckets of water from house to house, and sells them to make a living. BBC writer Andrew Walker introduces us to Isa.

Isa earns a hard living pushing a heavy water cart around the rutted streets of the suburbs of Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

He is one of tens of thousands of water vendors who deliver jerry cans full of water to houses built without any kind of sanitation.

"Kai! it is hard work, pushing my cart," the 20-year-old says.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and according to analysts has made over $1.1 trillion in revenues from the oil industry over the last 30 years; but most Nigerians still rely on people like Isa for their water.

He and a dozen of his friends sleep in a makeshift shelter behind a small household goods shop.

They wake before dawn to queue up at a nearby borehole, where they fill 14 yellow 25-litre jerry cans on their handcarts before setting off around the streets looking for customers.

Heavy load

Fully loaded, the carts weigh at least 350kgs.

The roads they push them over are dirt tracks, rocky and pitted, with sewers running down the middle.

"In the future I want to get another job, but at least I make enough money to live doing this," Isa says.
Graph
The urban poor pay more for water than the urban rich

Prices for water from private boreholes vary in the suburbs.

Isa pays around 10 naira ($0.07, £0.05) per jerry can at the borehole and sells for double that.

He makes around 700 naira a day ($4.70, £3.20), to cover food and living costs.

A large Nigerian family may need around 10 of these jerry-cans every day, customers say.

Kenyans and Americans making the same art

We found a good news story this morning about a fair trade concern that not only helps Kenya, but American women too.

Women in a substance abuse program in the Chicago area are using beads imported from Kenya to make jewelry. The beads called Kazuri, are made by women in Kenya, most of whom are disabled. The American women them use the beads to make pieces of jewelry.

Judy Masterson, a writer for the Chicago Sun Times explains the connection.

About 80 women, who are or have been in drug-abuse treatment through Nicasa, are operating a fledgling jewelry-making business using ceramic Kazuri beads. The beads are imported from Nairobi, Kenya, where they are formed from clay, polished, fired, painted and fired again, by about 350 women, all single heads of household, some of them disabled.

The idea for the business jelled on several fronts after a suggestion two years ago by Nicasa counselor Candace Fuji, also a jewelry craftsman. Fuji was already using the beads -- Kazuri means small and beautiful in Swahili -- when the stones also came to the attention of both Nicasa CEO Bruce Johnson and a volunteer who both visited a fair-wage Kazuri factory on trips to Africa.

The beads seemed to insinuate themselves just as members of Women of Worth, a recovery maintenance group, expressed interest in starting their own businesses. Nicasa Executive Officer Judy Fried exercised her daughter's connection to Rising International, which helps women in developing countries sell their wares via house parties -- and Women of Worth Creations was born.

"It felt like a wonderful connection internationally and with women struggling worldwide," Fried said. "Women of Worth is determined to go from surviving to thriving. And we're all very committed to women's economic development."

Each piece of Kazuri jewelry -- earrings, necklaces, bracelets -- is handcrafted by women in treatment and recovery who are eager to learn the craft and express their creativity. The moderately-priced pieces, each tagged with a personal note of gratitude, are then marketed and sold by Women of Worth members, who are developing their business skills with the support of Nicasa's Women's Auxiliary. Proceeds go to help support Women of Worth activities.

Muhammad Yunus speaks at George Washington University

Muhammad Yunus filled an auditorium at George Washington University last night. A book series at the University brought Yunus in to talk about his book "Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Business Can Transform Lives"

Yunus spoke to the crowd about starting social businesses, similar to his own Grameen Bank. The bank has given thousands of small loans to mostly women to help pull themselves out of poverty.

From the University newspaper The GW Hatchet, writer Becky Reeves tells us that Yunus' wife introduced him to the crowd.

Betty Simms, wife of the chairman of the Grameen board - an organization aimed at aiding the world's poor based on Yunus' microfinance model - introduced the Nobel Laureate. She explained how as a young, impoverished boy Yunus overcame numerous obstacles, rising above poverty and helping millions to do the same.

During the event, which celebrated the paperback publication of the Yunus' most recent book, "Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Business Can Transform Lives," the author spoke about his social business model, outlining how self-sustaining businesses can yield major humanitarian benefits.

Since achieving a repay rate of nearly 99 percent in his Bangladesh-based project, Yunus has spread Grameen Bank to 183 other branches worldwide and has turned microcredit into an international phenomenon.

The success of Yunus' endeavors has led him into a number of other humanitarian projects. In addition to Grameen Bank, Yunus is working with distributors of food, water, shoes and even cars to give the poor access to these goods at a significantly reduced cost, allowing them to maintain a higher standard of living.

Yunus also touched on the current financial crisis, hinting that it offers a parallel to his own financial work. He said that although many have been skeptical of the "credit worthiness" of his borrowers, the bailout has put the American public in the borrowers' position.

"Now is the time to ask the question: Who is credit-worthy?" he said.

28 percent of Lebanese live in poverty

A new report compiled by the United Nations Development Program gives us a lot of statistics on poverty in Lebanon.

The study finds that 28 percent of Lebanese people live in poverty while 8 percent live in extreme poverty. That translates to 300,000 who are unable to meet their basic food needs.

The Daily Star of Lebanon had writer Marion Saab break down the numbers.

The reports revealed that the bulk of poverty is concentrated in four areas across Lebanon: Tripoli, Akkar, Minieh-Dennieh, Jezzine, Saida, and Hermel, Baalbek. These regions account for half of the entire poor population while only contributing to one third of the population.

Geographic distribution of poverty is also an issue of concern, as substantial disparities have been identified as existing between the peripheral and central regions of the country. Poverty rates are comparatively insignificant in the capital, with Beirut below 6 percent, while the North constitutes 53 percent of overall poverty, the Bekaa 29 percent, the South 22 percent and 20 percent poverty rates in Nabatieh and Mouth Lebanon.

According to the study, poverty impacts some vocations more than others. The poor are concentrated among the unemployed and skilled workers, in sectors such as agriculture and construction. Findings suggest that youth with a university degree are also struggling to break the poverty cycle, as the unemployment rate for non-poor university graduates holding a secondary degree is half of the rate for extremely poor university graduates.

The report highlights the inequal distribution of expenditure among the population, with the poorer 20 percent of the population accounting for only 7 percent of all consumption in Lebanon while the richest 20 percent accounting for 43 percent. Expenditure levels in the northern districts are alarmingly far below the poverty line. Studies showed that households in the north with a similar set of characteristics to households in Beirut are four times more likely to be poor. The northern regions have experienced the most significant decline in expenditure over the last 10 years, while Beirut, the South and Bekaa regions recorded improvements in their expenditure.

The report found that it would cost $12 per Lebanese person per annum to lift all poor individuals out of extreme poverty. Economist Hamadan stated that while the government does have the means to deliver, bad targets and misinformation prevent any such expenditure from effectively relieving suffering in problem areas.

A successful program in Portland, Oregon that could work elsewhere

The Northwest Area Foundation is an organization that combats poverty in the northern plains of the US. At a recent meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota an innovative program was spotlighted that the organization hopes to bring to other locations.

The Economic Opportunity Initiative uses a combination of workforce programs and micro enterprise to give people skills that will lift themselves out of poverty.

The Minnesota Spokesman Recorder noted the comments of the programs designer Howard Cutler.

Its main goal is to increase adult participants’ incomes by a minimum of 25 percent after three years, and also to train youth for jobs that will allow them to pursue higher education or a career path. The seven micro-enterprise projects help participants to start or expand small businesses.

Portland’s previous attempts to eliminate poverty only produced minimal results, especially among long-term residents. “There are multiple reasons why an individual is poor,” said Cutler. “Our goal was to use a people-centered strategy, [and] the projects are built around the strengths of the individual.” The essence of the “Portland model,” then, appears to be making a special effort to match individuals who are living in poverty with training and jobs matched to their individual interests and talents.

He announced that this past year the Initiative graduated its first class. Eighty percent of the participants were earning below the federal poverty level when they first enrolled in 2004-05; 51 percent are people of color, and 74 percent were unemployed at the time of enrollment.

According to Cutler, 25-30 percent of the participants “are [young] African Americans,” adding that the enrollees’ incomes have nearly doubled after completing the program.

“Every individual is tracked for three years to see if there is improvement,” he explained. “Our goal is to decrease poverty.”

Cutler said that there are now 2,000 Portland residents enrolled in the Initiative, adding that his program will be needed “as long as poverty exists” in Portland. For the past 18 months, Cutler has been a consultant for “Duluth at Work.”