Author: Lauren Lewis

SEATTLE — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have joined forces to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia, in communities in the northern region that are suffering from severe drought conditions. Deteriorating food security and malnutrition have been rising in the affected areas. Approximately 385,000 citizens of the African country are in need of immediate assistance. Another 1.3 million are threatened by a similar crisis if the current drought conditions persist, according to the United Nations. “The communities have lived through four successive poor rainy seasons and their ability to cope with the drought has…

SEATTLE — The cost of the new Minnesota Vikings stadium is currently estimated to exceed $1 billion, with taxpayer covering just under $500 million of the cost. This is a staggering amount considering the extent of global poverty worldwide. In the last two decades, U.S. taxpayers have spent nearly $7 billion on stadiums, while the NFL brought in over $10 billion in revenue last season alone, according to the Huffington Post. “Unfortunately, beneath all of the glitz and glamour, these venues are nothing more than monuments to corporate welfare and taxpayer handouts,” David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance,…

SEATTLE — Water plays a vital role in each person’s life across the globe. People use water every day for a variety of uses, making the availability of safe water and sanitation crucial to improving the health, longevity and prosperity of people living in developing countries throughout the world. One in three people worldwide, or over two billion people, lack access to sanitation facilities, threatening the availability of safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Many live in rural or isolated areas, and often spend hours each day walking to collect water for themselves and family members.…

SEATTLE — In early March, Google’s charitable branch donated $1 million to help stop the spread of the Zika virus and assigned developers to help determine where it may spread to next. The virus has spread rapidly throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in recent months, sparking international concern. The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency on Feb. 1, 2016, due to Zika’s suspected link to a range of health concerns, included birth defects in babies born to mothers who are infected with the virus, and the development of neurological disorders in adults. “Our $1 million grant will…

SEATTLE — Emma Watson is taking a year hiatus from acting to focus on women’s activism and promote gender equality across the globe. Watson spoke with feminist writer Bell Hooks, author of ‘Feminism is for Everybody’ in a recent interview for Paper magazine. During the conversation she revealed she plans to spend the upcoming year focusing on her work as the U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador and her own personal development. “I want to listen to as many different women in the world as I can,” Watson said in the interview. “That’s something that I’ve been doing on my own, through…

SEATTLE — Female refugees often face particular risks and challenges as they flee conflict in their home countries. Human rights organizations, including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), have estimated that the current response to female refugee needs by governmental and humanitarian institutions has been insufficient. Since the start of 2016, just over 55 percent of refugees reaching Greece to seek asylum have been women and children, up from 27 percent in June 2015, according to the UNHCR. Many of these women are fleeing from war-torn areas of unrest in search of stability. After they leave these countries, they often…

ABUJA, Nigeria — More than half a billion dollars are needed to help the mass number of people forced to flee conflicts within the Central African Republic and northeastern Nigeria, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. The organization and its partners have called on donor nations to pledge the funds this year, in order to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region, as well as individuals in the neighboring communities that have been providing them with shelter and basic services. “We need funding to prevent malnutrition among children, to run schools, build up proper sanitation systems…

The Rwandan genocide occurred after years of ethnically motivated conflict between two groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The majority, or 85 percent, of Rwanda’s population consists of Hutus, who historically have been farmers, while the ethnic minority, Tutsis were traditionally herdsmen and landowners. For over 600 years, the two groups worked together agriculturally. They now share the same language and culture and have often intermarried. “People used to be Tutsi or Hutu, depending on the proximity to the king. If you were close to the king, you owned wealth, you owned a lot of cattle, you are a Tutsi.…

SEATTLE — The Turkish government announced they would begin to grant work permits for Syrian refugees, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. This is a large step, as the 2.4 million Syrians who have taken refuge in the country since 2011 have largely been shut out from legal work opportunities. The government will allow registered Syrians who have been in the country for a minimum of six months to apply for work permits in the area where they first applied for asylum. The change will give refugees in the country the opportunity to build more prosperous and stable lives,…

SEATTLE — The Zika virus, a predominantly mosquito-borne disease, arrived in Brazil last spring, sparking global health concerns as it traveled quickly throughout the region. Since then, more than 26 countries and territories in the Americas have reported cases of the virus, and as many as four million people could be infected by the end of the year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO declared the Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern on Feb. 1, 2016, due to its suspected link to a range of health concerns, specifically birth defects in babies born to mothers…