By Lauren Ahn, ONE Digital Intern
August 19 is World Humanitarian Day! Established by the United Nations in 2008, World Humanitarian Day honors all those who devote themselves to helping others, no matter where they are or who they are. It’s a day to bring attention to humanitarian needs all over the world and the importance of international support and cooperation to meet those needs. It’s a day to celebrate people helping people! To that end, here are five amazing...
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Story and photos by Ayodeji Rotinwa.
As the children in Makoko, Nigeria, row canoes across the water, their heads are barely visible from a distance. But they’re not rowing for sport: They’re running errands and selling goods within their sprawling river-based community set in a lagoon in the heart of Lagos.
Slum2School founder Otto Orondaam and some of the Mokoko students.
Originally a small fishing village, Makoko is now estimated to be home to up to 300,000 people, with as many as...
By Rachel Glennerster, Executive Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
I’ve worked for more than 13 years in rural Sierra Leone. In this time, I have watched a quiet revolution take place: education has become the norm. Few of the adults in the communities in which I work ever saw the inside of a school, yet nearly all of their children are enrolled in school.
This is a remarkable transformation in the space of one generation, and Sierra Leone...
This post is a joint effort between The ONE Campaign and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Walking into a room and flipping a power switch is something I do multiple times a day with little to no thought about whether or not the lights will turn on. In the United States, most of us take for granted not just that the lights will turn on, but also that the refrigerator will keep our food cold, the oven and microwave will warm...
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of its 17 million people living on less than $1.25 USD a day. For the past five years, Mali has experienced a multi-dimensional political and humanitarian crisis, driven in part by internal conflict and terrorism. Mali’s food security has been rocked in recent years by recurring disasters, including erratic rainfall, drought, and a military coup that triggered a political and security crisis. Although peace negotiations were...
By Anne Smiley and Nurudeen Lawal, FHI 360
In Northern Nigeria, the vast majority of third-grade pupils cannot read a single word in any language. Teaching materials are few and far between, and most teachers receive little training or support. But in Katsina and Zamfara states, communities are excited to see kids starting to learn how to read in Hausa, a language that almost everyone can speak and understand. Learning to read is the first step to learning across all...
By Meg Brindle, Light Years IP
I was at a conference in Kenya when I first met a member of the Maasai, a group of people who live in East Africa. He had a question for me – and the answers could have the potential to dramatically impact poverty for millions of low-income farmers, producers and others.
You’d recognize the Maasai from photos. Many are tall, elegant and very distinctively dressed. Often, when a generic image is used of Africans in...
Story and photos by Ray Mwareya Nancy Chandala, 13, sits in a classroom at Joel Community School in rural Zambia, fixated on a small computer screen. “I wish all my textbooks were loaded on the tablet,” she says. “I would read even when out in the maize fields at home. No carrying of heavy books.” Students at Joel Community School in rural Zambia. Nancy is one of more than 2,000 children from rural areas who are benefiting...
More than 152 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance globally — and at least 64 million have been forced to flee their homes.
While humanitarian organizations race to provide lifesaving efforts, the funding levels are faltering. In fact, humanitarian appeals are on average barely 30% funded. Because of that, it’s more important than ever to be able to make the most effective and impactful use of resources. …But the data on humanitarian aid isn’t really fit for that...
With Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Capitol Hill this week for hearings on President Trump’s budget proposal, 16 top retired generals and flag officers submitted joint testimony today in defense of America’s foreign aid budget.
“It is clear to us that strategic development assistance is not charity,” the military leaders write. “It is an essential, modern tool of U.S. national security.”
“American security is undermined by frail and failing nations where hope is non-existent,...