Author: Mary Waller

SEATTLE — Actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra traveled to Zimbabwe to visit victims of sexual violence, young girls whom government officials claim are “asking for it.” Zimbabwe’s sexual violence has taken a toll on thousands of young girls who feel too powerless to defend themselves. Chopra called it an “eye-opening experience” to meet girls shunned by their families and society. Young girls, some as young as three, were raped by their fathers, uncles or other relatives. Chopra used social media to call attention to the serious crimes and issues these children face daily, posting photos on Instagram to…

DUBLIN — Food poverty in Ireland is slowly becoming a major issue with 600,000 people being affected. Food poverty is defined as the inability to afford or access healthy food, usually impacting those with low-incomes. Currently, one in five Irish children go to bed and to school hungry. Nearly one in seven people in Ireland are in poverty, 211,000 of whom are children. Recently, children and single parent families are the ones who have been affected most by hunger. The number of Irish children living in poverty has risen from 10 percent in 2012 to 12 percent in 2015. “It should…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former “Punk’d” host Ashton Kutcher was playing no prank on February 15, when he emotionally testified to the Senate about modern slavery and human trafficking. Kutcher, chairman and co-founder of THORN, passionately testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to bring modern slavery and human trafficking to the attention of the American public. “I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man that was a sex tourist in Cambodia. And this child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play,” Kutcher…

DAMASCUS — For six years now, Syria has been at war with itself, and Syrian education has been one of the biggest casualties. Schools are damaged and destroyed, leaving behind a generation of Syrian students. In 2014, at least 3,465 schools were severely damaged or destroyed, some even overrun for military purposes. Schools are constantly forced to close because of the conflict, forcing 2.8 million children out of schools. Before the conflict, Syria was near a 100 percent enrollment rate. At this point, Syria now has the world’s second worst school attendance rate. “The situation is terrible but we must…

HO CHI MINH — Decades after the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh City, a now great and prosperous city, exemplifies how far Vietnam has come, especially in education. Over the past 20 years, Vietnamese education has taken great steps in the right direction for its students. In 2012, Vietnam participated in the Program for International Student Assessment for the first time and surprised the world, scoring higher than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average and beating many developed economies, including the United States. How has Vietnamese education surpassed many developed nations in such a short time? Established in 1993,…

SEATTLE — Orlando Bloom visited Boko Haram victims in February in an attempt to shine a light on the massive population displacement issue and lack of human necessities these people are currently facing. Bloom, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, exposed the desperation and suffering these people face every day. Across Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, 2.3 million people are displaced, making this one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in Africa. The Diffa region is currently hosting refugees, returnees and children who have nowhere else to go. During his trip to Garin Wazam camp, Bloom visited Boko Haram victims including Amada Goni,…

SEATTLE — George Clooney is known as one of Hollywood’s top A-listers, but he’s seldom acknowledged for his global contributions. Clooney and John Prendergast, co-founders of The Sentry, urged leaders to address the “government-made” famine in the Southern Sudan in an op-ed in the Washington Post. “Official, U.N.- declared famines are a rare phenomenon,” wrote Clooney. He expressed his concern by explaining how natural famines are rare and usually “man-made,” but in this case, this famine is classified as “government-made.” The U.N. declared the famine in Mayendit and Leer counties of the southern Unity state. According to a survey conducted…