WASHINGTON – The Prioritizing Education in Conflict Zones Act will amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Its goal is to provide U.S. foreign aid to improve and expand education for children in areas of conflict. It will support primary and secondary school for displaced children and will ensure that women and girls are included in the instituted educational programs. Education in Conflict Zones: Current Conditions and Statistics International and intra-national conflicts force young children out of their homes at an alarming rate. UNICEF reports that more than 27 million children of primary and secondary school age are out of…
Author: Theresa Marino
Theresa Marino
Theresa writes for The Borgen Project from Commack, NY. Her academic interests include English, Journalism and political science. Theresa has been a freelance writer for a New York City newspaper for the past few months and a freelance artist since she was thirteen years old!
SEATTLE — Approximately 830 women all over the world die every day from pregnancy and childbirth-related injuries, complications and conditions. Obstetric fistula is the most common pregnancy and childbirth-related injury. This condition is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where mothers and their unborn children do not have access to the medical care they need. What Is Obstetric Fistula? Obstetric fistula occurs when a woman undergoes an especially long labor period. More than 75 percent of cases see labor that lasts at least three days, with some cases seeing six to seven-day labors. Due to this extended labor,…
SIERRA LEONE – On June 26, 2018, the Women Shadow Parliament was launched at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Women Shadow Parliament is a new pressure group that is supported by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality. The Women Shadow Parliament of Sierra Leone hopes to advance women’s rights, empowerment and societal involvement in Sierra Leone. Its theme is to “harness and develop the capacity to strengthen women’s participation in national politics and public service.” This group is a new measure being taken by Sierra Leone to increase the influence of women on its politics,…
RAKHINE, MYANMAR – The BURMA Act of 2018 was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 15th, 2018. This bill seeks to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the people of Rakhine, Myanmar (Burma) to work toward ending human rights violations and promoting democracy. The Rohingya are an ethnic minority in Myanmar that are oppressed and violently attacked by others of their nation. The violence from the Burmese military offensive against the Rohingya people has escalated to such a degree that United Nations reports have classified it as ethnic cleansing and genocide. The BURMA Act calls for U.S. aid to help…
SEATTLE — The U.S. has partnered with Vietnam to implement multiple programs in order to improve Vietnam’s education system at the university level. The three main programs are the Fulbright University Program, the IMPACT MED Alliance and the BUILD-IT Alliance. These initiatives will help alleviate poverty by allowing impoverished Vietnamese citizens to gain access to education and career opportunities in government, industry, medicine, STEM and more. A press release on this development from the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam states that “The United States is committed to supporting Vietnam’s efforts to develop a 21st-century high education system to produce…
WASHINGTON D.C. – The two major committees within Congress that focus on ending global poverty and hunger are the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Due to the fact that these committees come from different chambers of Congress, they differ in their practices, goals and methods of passing bills through. Each committee also has different roles in the fight against global poverty. Congress’ committees on foreign affairs divide up the organizations and duties that each must create legislation for, and together, form the foreign relations system of the United States. The Committees on Foreign Affairs in…
WASHINGTON – On June 21, 2018, the Senate cleared the FY2019 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, which allocates funding for different initiatives nationally as well as overseas. The Foreign Operations bill has new implications for efforts to reduce global poverty and increase the quality of life overseas, especially for developing countries. These are 10 major ways the Foreign Operations bill works to improve lives worldwide. Impact of the Senate Foreign Operations Bill Aid to Jordan The Foreign Operations bill allocates $1.5 billion for economic and military assistance to Jordan. This will work to improve the quality of…
SEATTLE — The fastest growing economy on the African continent is that of Ethiopia, with large improvements likely to be seen in the near future. The Ethiopian economy has grown at a rate of about 10 percent over the past decade, and has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies since 2000. Ethiopia’s economy is predicted to grow by 8.5 percent in 2018 alone. This prediction shows remarkable progress; for comparison, the U.S. economy is predicted to grow by 2.9 percent in 2018, a difference of 5.6 percent. Despite this great success, there is always room for improvement. The…
WASHINGTON D.C. — In February 2018, Congressman Ted S. Yoho (R-FL-3) introduced the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act. Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA-9), Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) were also involved in the creation and introduction of the bill. Thus, the BUILD Act is a bipartisan effort to reform the United States’ foreign aid methods. The BUILD Act is different from most foreign aid initiatives that the U.S. has proposed in the past, largely due to its focus on investment and its positive impacts on the U.S. economy. What Is the BUILD Act?…