Study Shows Benefits of Child-Soldier Reintegration
A recent study published in Pediatrics points to the long-lasting payoffs to treating depression and anxiety in former child soldiers and other youth impacted by the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Lead author and director of the Research Program of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Health, Theresa Betancourt, commented on the highlights of the study's findings:
[quote]We were surprised to see the large role that targeting symptoms of hopelessness and depression played across many years of observing war-affected youth. When offering health and other services for war-affected youth, we cannot leave mental health out of the equation."[/quote]
The Goldin Institute continues to stay engaged in this issue, and we are pleased to see that this study demonstrates the long-term benefits of providing reintegration programs for former child combatants, like our work through the National Partnership for Child Soldier Reintegration in Uganda and Colombia.
Please see our Child Soldier Map to find out more.
More on the Red Cross and Funding Practices
Last week, the 'hometown' newspaper to the Goldin Institute (Chicago Tribune) shared yet another critical editorial on the recent outcry to what happened to the nearly half a billion dollars raised by the Red Cross in the aftermath of the 2010 Earthquake.
Excerpted in part from the full reports already made public by the ProPublica/NPR story, is this:
[quote]According to the reports, the Red Cross was unable to deliver on many of its projects in Haiti. Red Cross leaders were reluctant to rely on the Haitian people or native speakers for help navigating the cultures and politics of a complex, poverty-stricken nation. So the Red Cross gave millions to outside groups, didn't properly track the money, and spent too much on overhead and bureaucracy.[/quote]
The approach to our work at the Institute is especially in tune to the widely-held criticism that Red Cross leaders shunned those Haitian voices and people impacted by the disaster, especially when they could have helped maximize and make best use of the planning and aid targeted to them by a large international organization like the Red Cross.
In our own project work in Haiti, with our partners on the ground in KOFAVIV and our Global Associate Malya Villard, we had success for never varying from our principles of ensuring that those we work with are driving the initiatives and solutions to the issue in their communities. Ending gender-based violence in the Place Petion Camp could not have happened without making sure that those with the most to gain or lose in the project - the women who were being victimized by the violence - had the loudest voices and roles in how the project could be best run.
This appears to be something that the Red Cross still hasn't learned in their own initiatives. As the Tribune editorial stated, Red Cross frontline workers over the years, decades, have done tremendous work, often under extremely difficult conditions, but ... it's essential that not-for-profit fundraising organizations be utterly transparent to donors, to recipients, to the broad public. They deal with disaster. But first they have to earn trust.
Please visit our overview page on the project in Haiti to find out how effective smaller, grassroots partnerships can be in achieving the goals of the communities we work with and how we 'earn trust' before helping develop solutions.
Above, courtesy of Chicago Tribune: Haiti was devastated by an earthquake in 2010 and the Red Cross relief effort is the subject of a ProPublica/NPR investigation. (Thony Belizare / AFP/Getty Images)
Update from Haitian Global Associate
KOFAVIV - Malya Villard-Appolon Partnership Update
Although still trying to gain political asylum during her extended stay in Philadelphia, PA, our Global Associate Malya Villard remains active with the day-to-day operations of the organization (KOFAVIV) she co-founded to combat gender-based violence in Haiti.
Providing her leadership and advice via a remote office out her temporary home in Pennsylvania, Malya has adapted to the challenges of keeping in touch with her colleagues by using Skype conversations and other technology. It is through those means that Malya was able to update us recently on how she and her colleague Earamithe continue the mission of KOFAVIV.
Training is the Key
In her report to us, Malya made it clear that the ongoing identification and training of those men within the community who can be most trusted and depended on to provide a safe environment to the women in the camps, is one of the most important steps to their program being successful. Malya and her team on the ground in Haiti seek out the male agents who can be best trained to share the information and workings of the project with both men and women living in their neighborhoods and communities. They in effect are relied upon to become members of a 'teaching tree' and the most recent numbers indicated by Malya show that over 2,000 persons have been reached and have a first-hand familiarity with the practices of the project – in short, they know how to prevent violence against women and support victims through their recovery.
[quote]The reduction of the violence in whatever forms must be effective to have a society that may benefit of all its rights and dignity. More and more, the KOFAVIV mission is being enacted by both men and women who are the best tools to reeducate the society."[/quote]
- KOFAVIV co-founder Malya Villard-Apollon
Much can be done with little resources – but much more needs to be done ...
Throughout their report, Malya and Earamithe could not understate the importance of having the support and awareness of our own network at the Goldin Institute, in continuing to provide the security of the KOFAVIV offices and the security of women made most vulnerable to all forms of violence. There has been great progress made in reducing the violence and sexual assaults to women and young girls thanks to the project that these two women began in the aftermath of the 2010 Earthquake. However, a recent visit of a local camp (Delmas 33, or the Siló Camp, which is located north of Gerald Bataille Street) demonstrates the need for more work to be done and more support needed.
During their visit, it was discovered tható Camp was not drawing electricity from available sources. The local coordinator of the camp, appointed by the state, decided that it was best to remove the camp from the electrical grid to avoid potential electrical fires. While this in itself may be a needed preventative measure that could save lives by eliminating fires, the most immediate impact is that the camp is blanketed in complete darkness after sunset. As we have learned from Malya and KOFAVIV, the highest number of attacks happen in areas that are underlit. It makes sense, the less light, the more emboldened an attacker will be to commit a crime (it's this simple reality that made the flashlight provided at the camps, one of the first and most effective tools against sexual attackers). Malya and her team have purposed a street-light installation that could be done safely and at minimal cost, but providing the safety against violence that far surpasses the return on the investment.
[quote]We also visited a village called Grace Village, where there are 4 areas and each zone has a name; Peace, Love, Hope, Union ... it is a village well organized but also does not have any lighting."[/quote]
- From Malya's report
Malya's latest update also provided specific numbers showing the effectiveness of the KOFAVIV call center providing immediate help to victims. She also shared the agent scheduling that will continue to ensure there will be adequete coverage for those agents on-the-ground doing the very real work of protecting women against violence.
Find out how you can keep the mission of KOFAVIV going and click here to become more involved.
Clean water key to health and economic development in the Philippines
8.4 Million Filipinos still without access to clean drinking water
A joint report released this month from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef shows sobering numbers for safe drinking water access in the Philippines. According to the numbers released, 7.5 million Filipinos are without access to sanitary toilets, while 8.4 million do not have a supply of clean drinking water.
These numbers reflect our own sampling size in the large numbers of people impacted in the southern Philippines (Maguindanao) by lack of access to safe drinking water. Fortunately, our Global Associate's commitment to bringing water wells back online to serve student and citizen populations in this area, continues to provide a successful model for restoring clean water to rural areas of the country.
Key to the WHO/Unicef report are the findings indicating the need for the "Department of Interior and Local Government to administer grassroots-identified water projects" under programs that have already proven to be successful. The very type of program referenced in their findings, is the ongoing clean water restoration project that Dr. Anayatin and her team have implemented and continue to expand upon to ensure that as many Mindanao school-age students as possible, have safe drinking water during the course of their day. You can view how we are accomplishing this together, by viewing our issues page here. And to see the actual schools and populations receiving new water pumps and clean water to their communities, view our interactive map here.
Above: students try out their new water pump at their school in Mindanao, Philippines. Photo Credit: Goldin Institute
Arigatou Fights Child Poverty
GI Partner organization Arigatou International offers real-life solutions to fighting child poverty
We are proud of our history working on behalf of children with the organization Arigatou International. Our longtime partner and director of Arigatou, Dr. Mustafa Y. Ali, is excited to share the latest yearbook chronicling their work in bringing communities together to eradicate childhood poverty in regions of the world where it often doesn't get the attention it deserves. For Mustafa, this work continues his mission to build better futures for children as an internationally recognized peace activist.
Arigatou's model for addressing the issue, lies in combating child poverty through interfaith-advocacy and lobbying efforts. In 2012, they began the campaign End Child Poverty, which focuses on a multi-faith, child-centered initiative mobilizing faith-inspired resources to end child poverty. Since that time, religious leaders, international organizations and grassroots child rights workers have adopted the framework developed by Arigatou.
This 2014-15 year book, details the principles, initiatives, success stories and campaign activities in places like Colombia, the DRCongo, Kenya and India. Download the full report, which includes photos and highlights of the past year and the goals for the future, as Arigatou and its partners expand to reach more children in need.
[quote]It is unlikely that governments alone, even while acting through bilateral and multilateral arrangements, can match the mission of the broad-based effort that is required to eradicate poverty. Any effort to stamp out poverty must re- sult in a broad coalition between governments, multilateral organizations, civil society and faith-inspired organizations."[/quote]
- Prof. Abdulghafur El-Busaidy, the Chairperson of Arigatou International Nairobi
-Above banner image: Children directly impacted by the work of Arigatou International and the ongoing End Child Poverty campaign.
Photo Credit: Arigatou International
Microfinance and Global Development
Researcher calls Microfinance "a delusion" undermining those it would claim to serve
Two closely related pieces that caught our attention recently: This short article by a London School of Economics professor, offering a very critical view of why and how microfinance gained favor amongst the banking industry, why it hasn't worked as promised and how 'direct cash transfers, with no strings attached, appear to be the single most impactful anti-poverty intervention available.'
Also, in this piece, two co-authors break down the microfinance market 'servicing' Cambodia and outline how that overheated market has led to recipients juggling as many as six separate loans at a time.
Both articles reflect our own work and experiences in this sector and reinforce the need to ensure that those caught-up in the cycle of 'bottom-of the-pyramid' strategies (as its been called) are contributing in a meaningful way to the dialogue about how microfinance loaning impacts their lives. For more, please see our issue page here.
Red Cross and Haiti
Pressure Remains on the American Red Cross to Explain Fund Expenditures in Haiti
We remain skeptical, along with others, on how funds were used in Haiti by the Red Cross since the Earthquake in 2010. Two up-to-the-moment stories that capture the growing controversy:
This one at the New York Times, which calls for the Red Cross to go beyond the locally-held press conferences that the charity has held to date in Haiti, and conduct a neutrally-held news conference in Washington, where they would be more inclined to provide specifics and answer questions directly about what happened to the nearly half-billion dollars raised.
And this related piece from NPR, which originally broke the story about the Red Cross and potential misuse of funds. In it, you can hear the audio stream of Senator Grassley addressing the need for the CEO of the Red Cross to answer 17 detailed questions and the steps that are being taken if they do not answer in the week being given for them to respond.
Above: Survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake wait in line for supplies distributed by the American Red Cross.Credit Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross
Colombia Update
New Developments Unfolding in Colombia - Peace Process Impacted
The international reports coming out of Colombia in recent days, reflect the most current on-the-ground information from our Global Associate in Bogota, Lissette Mateus Roa.
Although the situation is volatile and things are changing almost daily, Lissette remains committed to finding solutions to the violence in her country through peace initiatives like the ESPERE methodology. She also remains cautiously optimistic about the peace process, despite the recent set-backs.
The set-backs that are most noteworthy, include the FARC staging numerous attacks around the country once the negotiated ceasefires were abandoned. These included almost daily attacks on oil pipelines and others to the electrical grid. Lissette commented directly on this:
[quote]After the (abandoned ceasefire) we have had different FARC attacks around Colombia. Most of them against police and the oil industry–they have caused the biggest environmental disaster in the last 10 years, because they blew up a pipeline causing the spilling of more than 400,000 gallons of crude oil into nearby rivers, streams and mangroves. It's very sad ... last week there were 2 bombings in Bogota where one person died, but those bombs were set by the ELN."[/quote]
- Lissette Matueus Roa
More on the recent roadblocks to the overall peace negotiations and the agreements already in place can be found in this excellent editorial at the Economist. From the piece:
[quote]It was never going to be easy. Three times since the 1980s Colombian governments have tried but failed to broker peace with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Even so, the latest talks seemed set to succeed in ending a conflict that has dogged Latin America's third-most-populous country."[/quote]
As we said, Lissette remains cautiously optimistic and each new day in Colombia brings updates to the situation. Just yesterday, a new announcement was made by FARC which could lead to a new ceasefire beginning later this month. Lissette points to the many people in her country working everyday towards peace. She sent along this video featuring a project that her husband's organization sponsored. Not unlike our partnership with Lissette in finding ways to bridge the differences in communities trying to overcome the scars of the civil conflict in Colombia, this video shows how ex-guerrillas are on the path to forging a new peace by taking part in a unique reintegration course.
Conflict Minerals: Impact and Hope
This week we turn our attention to stories that our project work has us personally vested in: the human rights toll of 'conflict minerals' in the DRCongo and how best to reintegrate child soldiers into civil society after they have paid the price in the name of these minerals.
Here in Chicago, not far from our offices, we were able to take in this exhibit featuring the work of photographer Marcus Bleasdale. In this show, Bleasdale has used his powerful skills behind the camera to document the human costs of protecting mines for the corporate-interests of their owners, in the provinces of eastern Congo.
As we learned at the exhibit, this part of the Congo is especially rich in gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten essential to manufacturing cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and other electronics in high demand by world markets. In the early 2000s, militias took advantage of the soaring mineral prices and staked out profits from their extraction - often by violent means. Bleasdale's work tells the story in photos and if you are in the Chicago area, we highly recommend seeing it for yourself. Short of that, this link will take you to the photographs featured in the exhibit.
Related, and offering hope to the many caught up in the violence fueled by the minerals, are plans like this being implemented in the DRC. The kind of real training to former child soldiers outlined in the report, goes beyond just putting the issue in the news - the government's pledge and partnerships with international stakeholders takes a long view towards both ending the use of child soldiers and making sure that former combatants have skills and societal acceptance once they retire their firearms once and for all.
Viewing Bleasdale's exhibit and hearing the news of forward-thinking programs addressing the issue of child soldiers in this part of the world, reminds us that change is possible from the kind of long-term partnerships between local and international organizations. We are proud that our own work in Uganda and Kenya in helping establish National protocols and platforms, has proven to be mirrored by others working towards the same end.
Revisiting Microfinance
Marking an important anniversary date on microfinance policy
Today we revisit our appearance on Worldview exploring the policies and ongoing scrutiny put on the effectiveness of microfinance programs in places like India and Bangladesh.
Informed by our project work in Bangladesh, where we set out to improve the way that microcredit was implemented from the perspective of borrowers, Executive Director Travis Rejman was interviewed to discuss the current practices in place by large banks and how they could improve their lending methods by taking into account what we learned in our research and project developments.
If you didn't get a chance to hear the interview when it originally ran, it is archived and available for stream here. Joining Travis on the show, was our partner from Grantmakers Without Borders Susan Beaudry. We collaborated with Susan to help donors sort through the facts and spin associated with microcredit lending practices in the downloadable guide: Microfinance: A Guide for Grantmakers.