Author: Lauren Stepp

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina — With ongoing political discord displacing nearly 9.5 million Syrians and violent protests forcing thousands to flee Burundi, the public eye has recently been directed toward refugee camps. Though wrongly viewed as temporary settlements, these makeshift towns often develop into thriving urban centers with intricate economic systems. On the mud-caked outskirts of Zaatari camp in Jordan, Manal Ahmad Ibrahim purchases mascara for $1.50. The vending tent, run by a former hotel manager from Daraa, offers Syrian refugees anything from second hand clothes to rentable wedding dresses. “I am buying make-up to look beautiful for my husband,”…

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina – Coined in 1959 by C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination is a term that describes the kind of radical insight the discipline of sociology can offer. Mills suggests that personal problems, from alcoholism to eating disorders, ultimately reflect kinks in the structure of society. While it is up to the individual to make the connection between micro and macro issues, perceiving global poverty in this light could foment social change. A Kurdish woman and her three young children stand at a Turkish military checkpoint near Kobani, a Syrian town ravished by political discord. Their only…

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania – Faith Rotich is a participant of Dartmouth’s King Scholar Leadership Program, an initiative that molds international students into poverty alleviating vanguards. Through internship opportunities, political conferences in Washington, D.C. and an intensive Ivy League course load, the program endows graduates with the skills needed to tackle issues in their home countries. A conversation with Rotich offers additional insight into both the scholarship and poverty itself. Where were you born and where did you grow up? I was born in the western part of Kenya, a place called Mount Elgon. I grew up there for 13 years and…

XI’AN, China — After nearly 30 years of coastal development, infrastructure is shifting with China’s “Go West” campaign. While the International Monetary Fund, best known as the IMF, warns against the unprecedented rate of investment, the Communist Party is confident that urbanization will ease poverty rates in Xi’an and neighboring Xianyang. An industrial smog hazes the crane-cluttered skyline in Xi’an. Business complexes and residential buildings steadily gain height, towering above a $1.4 billion airport extension, a $5.2 billion bullet train and Samsung’s planned $7 billion electronic plant. Once ancient emblems of the Western Zhou dynasty, Xi’an and Xianyang are now…

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina — With nearly 200 years of traditional instruction behind them, numerous institutions across the globe are taking a more holistic approach to education. Though unconventional, this unprecedented model could have international implications. At 574 Haywood Road in Asheville, N.C. sits what many are calling a national leader in contemplative and mindfulness education. Stationed out of a red brick church in the heart of Appalachia, Rainbow Community School is offering every child the opportunity to be a “changemaker.” The hand-designed curriculum centers around seven domains – mental, spiritual, emotional, moral/social, physical, natural and creative. From preschool to…

KENYA — Hunger, like so many other social problems, is discriminatory. Women, already disabled by sexual violences, limited health resources and economic barriers, make up a disproportionate 70 percent of the world’s poor. The Women Going Green Project, however, is changing that, one coffee bean at a time. Dressed in an eclectic mix of traditional garb and T-shirts from town, a village of women in sub-Saharan Africa labor over their crops in the afternoon’s heat. Children, muddied and tired, carry water buckets and bits of black plastic. This is the stomping ground of Rose Karimi – a doctoral student at…

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina – Underemployed, drowning in school debt and yet still vying for a better world via nonprofit work, the Millennial Generation has the potential to spur change on an international scale. Sporting the latest Macintosh product and vintage sneakers, this demographic of 90 million is revolutionizing the philanthropic fight against global poverty. She left for Eastern Iowa on August 12, 2014. Flying out of Asheville Regional Airport, the 18-year-old North Carolinian watched as a carpet of Appalachian mountains slowly turned into flat plains. It was here, after choosing to forgo college, that Katie Miller began her 10…

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina — Rubina Beg’s 144-square-foot tiny house has everything the typical home would have, not excluding the kitchen sink. Beg, a 2014 graduate of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, began building the mini abode seven months ago as a senior project for her self-designed “Art and Science of Sustainable Living” major. About $15,000 and some Craigslist posts later, she has a completely off-the-grid homestead on a two axle trailer. Many others are jumping on the tiny house movement bandwagon, as small as it may be, in pursuit of something more sustainable than the average 2,600-square-foot American…

HORSE SHOE, North Carolina — The many nuances of excessive male pride, also known as “machismo,” have dominated culture for centuries. This masculine dominance has consequently compromised female success, lowering the economic status of many women in Latin America. A middle-aged Bolivian, a deep orange shawl about her shoulders and a fisherman’s cap on her head, tossed potatoes into a crate in El Alto. Three others worked alongside her, making a routine of hoeing and chucking the spuds. Despite their tireless work, these women will make 17 percent less than their male counterparts – a reality indicative of most Spanish…

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — As the immediate fear of contracting Ebola wanes, families in Sub-Saharan Africa are directing their attention toward impending financial concerns. With 60 percent of Sierra Leone’s people living below the poverty line, the government is working desperately to mend an economy crippled by disease. Tables fraught with soaps, lotions and cosmetics line the congested streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. A woman dabs rouge on her cheek with a piece of cotton, oblivious of the Ebola warning posters carelessly hung on the mud wall behind her. “We need to get back to normal life,” Suleiman Sesay, a…