Author: Sarah Bernard

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Meridian Energy has recently joined with children’s charity KidsCan in an anti-poverty partnership in New Zealand. The company’s decision to become one of KidCan’s major sponsors allowed 62 schools to benefit from the charity. At this year’s Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards, this energy project will be up for an award. Back in 2013, when Meridian originally signed up to become a KidsCan sponsor, the prolonged process left many families waiting to see results. After an 18-month wait, one school in particular was finally able to reap the benefits of the newly formed partnership. Otahuhu Intermediate School…

SEATTLE — Randomized control trials are emerging as a unique poverty-fighting tool. By providing useful evidence about interventions in health, education, and international development, this unique strategy helps to shed light on the most important areas of focus in the worldwide poverty battle. Over the past decade, the use of randomized controlled experiments has gained significant popularity in the testing of public policies. By bringing hard data into the governmental sphere, randomized trials help to ensure that governments are investing their resources into the most efficient, effectual programs. By approaching the poverty problem from a scientific standpoint, problem-solvers are able…

PACHUCA, Mexico — In the hillside down of Las Palmitas, a community project is bringing art to people’s homes. A group of artists known as the Germ Collective have spent 14 months painting the city’s houses with bright, beautiful colors in what they call the Pachuca Paints Itself Project. Now, facing the edge of the hillside, city’s houses proudly form one giant, vibrantly colored mural. The Germ Collective worked tirelessly to paint a total of 209 houses in just a little more than a year. Beautifully bright pastel colors were strategically chosen and swirled together across each house’s façade. What…

LIMA, Peru — A new initiative in Peru is working to increase access to water. Peruvians Without Water, a local grassroots organization, is running the up and coming movement. While the organization’s noble goal is nothing we haven’t seen before, their unique means of water attainment relies on a somewhat unusual strategy — fog catching. Frequently described as an ‘ocean in the sky’, coastal Peru experiences six to eight months of daily fog. Through the strategic placement of giant mesh sheets in particular areas, up to 400,000 liters of fresh water per day could potentially be collected. This is finally…

BEIJING – The United Nations World Tourism Organization has made a point of praising China for its poverty-combating strategy. By promoting rural tourism in the world’s most populated country, the Chinese government brought significant benefits to over 10 percent of the poverty-stricken population over a short three-year time period. Recently, the China National Tourism Administration and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development of China made the joint decision to promote tourism in rural areas as a means of combating poverty. As explained by Taleb Rifai, the United Nations World Tourism Organization Secretary General, Chinese tourism…

ROME – In Pope Francis’ newly released encyclical, he calls on all of us to actively fight the injustice of inequality. The document discusses developed nations’ responsibility to aid those in need. It points to victims of poverty being denied basic human rights, like access to water, food and housing, and declares a pressing need for change. In his encyclical, the Pope draws a connection between environmental degradation and poverty. He warns that the continued exploitation of our environment will most severely affect the developing world. Poor communities are more commonly exposed to pollutants, and less able to afford insurance…

MUNICH – On June 6, 2015, anti-poverty activists mobilized at the G7 Summit in Munich. The crowd called on G7 leaders to end extreme poverty by 2030. The demonstration consisted of about 5,000 activists, including participants like Bono, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Campaign groups have continually advocated for an increased focus on poverty eradication at G7’s international development conferences. Although the goal of pledging .7% of GNI to development aid was set more than 40 years ago, only five countries have actually followed through with implementation. Speaking on behalf of ONE, an international advocacy organization, European…

SEATTLE — Teachers across the country are working with students who are victimized by poverty. Nationwide, top educators agree that the poor living conditions some students face on a day-to-day basis serve as the biggest obstacle to academic progress. They believe poverty should be a new focus of school reform efforts. This finding was recently revealed after Scholastic Inc. conducted a survey. Scholastic asked teachers to indicate which factors they felt most hindered successful learning. Teachers of the Year were specifically chosen as participants. These are the U.S.’s most highly skilled educators, selected annually in every state. When top teachers…

SEATTLE — How to tackle poverty? A UN report just revealed that seventy-two countries have successfully cut the proportion of chronically undernourished in half. This major achievement signifies the near-completion of one of the Millennium Development Goals. With such a feat finally tackled, the larger goal of world hunger eradication seems much more achievable. People are considered undernourished if they are unable to consume enough food required for a healthy lifestyle. The proportion of undernourished people was 23.3% just 25 years ago. A recent report published by the FAO, IFAD, and WFP shows that the percentage has been reduced to 12.9% since…