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Where Families Thrive—and Struggle: Best and Worst States to Raise a Family in 2026
Some states provide better living conditions than others. WalletHub analyzed 50 key factors, including median income, education, childcare, family fun, and affordability, to determine the best and worst states for families to live. Where does your state rank?
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Nonprofit Works to Eradicate Poverty Through Business, Not Charity
I have had the pleasure of reporting from low-income countries in east Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean many times and have seen a multitude of poverty eradication efforts from organizations that are created by social entrepreneurs to those that are funded by foundations, corporations and countries’ developmental aid. No matter the organizations’ efforts, there are…
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Book Review: Reframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling About Humanity’s Greatest Challenge
Reframing Poverty by Eric Meade My rating: 4 of 5 stars Poverty in all its multitudinous forms is not an easy subject to broach. An age-old problem, poverty, its root causes, as well as poverty reduction have all been studied and theorized, it seems, ad infinitum. It is not often that someone presents poverty in…
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IKEA Foundation Grants $53 Million to Support Children’s Right to Play
War and conflict. Poverty. Gender discrimination. Growing up too fast. These are just some of the reasons children in some of the poorest countries around the world are not allowed to play. Play makes children healthier and more resilient. It heals some of their greatest wounds and helps them remain kids without growing up too…
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Finnish Fashion Designer Creates Maternity Wear for 12-Year-Olds to Highlight Worldwide Child Pregnancy
Child pregnancy is a worldwide blight. Seven million girls in developing countries under the age of 18 become pregnant every year meaning that they have to grow up too soon, put an end to their education, look for adequate healthcare that they can afford, earn money somehow, possibly marry a much older suitor, and figure out…
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Ensuring Safer Pregnancies for Kenyan Women in Urban Slums
Antenatal care is important during pregnancy. Reuters Blessing Mberu, African Population and Health Research Center; Kanyiva Muindi, African Population and Health Research Center, and Patricia Elungata, McGill University Globally, there’s a general decline in the number of women who die from pregnancy or childbirth complications. However in Kenya, it remains high at 488 deaths per…
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WATCH: Ed Sheeran Visits Liberia for Red Nose Day
The Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty returns in the U.S. on Thursday, May 25, in conjunction with a night of special programming and the third annual “Red Nose Day Special” on NBC. One of the best ways to help vulnerable children in low-and-middle-income countries is by telling their authentic stories to those…
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How You Can Help Mothers and Babies in Syria’s Idlib Camps
War is suffocating every corner of Syria and has been for the past several years. In areas that are close to neighboring countries like Idlib province that borders Turkey, Syrians from all over the country are fleeing there for safety believing that those border regions won’t fall under severe air attack. Unfortunately, as we learned…
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Midwives and The Right of Women to Give Birth the Way They Want
Lydia Mwanzia, Moi University Giving birth is a significant life event that should aim for a healthy baby and mother. There are growing calls for women to give birth in their preferred birth positions. But this requires midwives to be trained in a way that enables them to respect the choices that women make. The…
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Why The Global Gag Rule Will Increase Maternal Mortality
Throughout my visits to clinics in Africa I have seen the work of Marie Stopes International in South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia as well as Zambia. They provide a full range of quality reproductive health services for women. I have always been impressed by the comprehensive care they provide. Now, their work will be hampered because…
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The Troubling Truth About Maternal Mortality in the United States
When everyday Americans think about women dying during childbirth it is probable that their initial thoughts travel directly to Africa where it is quite well known that maternal mortality is rife. Chances are their thoughts never focus on the deaths and near deaths during childbirth that women experience right here in the United States. After all, the…
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NYC Report Tackles Maternal Morbidity Rates
For years researchers who study maternal morbidity and mortality have been stumped as to why rates continue to rise and why women of color are adversely affected despite education, health care, and socio-economic factors. A new report and the first of its kind released in May, New York City 2008 – 2012: Severe Maternal Morbidity, shows…
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What’s Driving sub-Saharan Africa’s Malnutrition Problem?
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest level of food insecurity in the world. An estimated 220 million people lack adequate nutrition. The nature of the problem is shifting rapidly, with overweight status and obesity emerging as new forms of food insecurity while malnutrition persists. But continental policy responses do not address this changing reality.
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How We Can Help American Children in Poverty Learn
It may sound cliché, but a child’s future deeply rests on their ability to learn and to be educated. It starts early and it doesn’t matter where a child lives whether it’s in Kenya or the Philippines or right here in the United States. Oftentimes we see children who live in impoverished countries who desperately…
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What Are the UN Global Goals?
Asghar Zaidi, University of Southampton At the end of one of the largest summits at the United Nations headquarters in New York, government representatives from all over the world will sign a commitment to new global development goals. These will replace the millennium development goals, setting objectives for bringing peace and prosperity, and reducing the…
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An Update on the Sustainable Development Goals + Key Dates
Today the United Nations released their final assessment (PDF) on the eight Millennium Development Goals that were adopted fifteen years ago. Some of the goals have achieved greater global impact than others. However, the fact remains that more people are not living in poverty, less mothers and infants are losing their lives during childbirth, more people…
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Save the Children Sounds Alarm on Plight of the World’s Urban Poor
When you think about very low- and middle-income countries you might assume that the poor in deep rural pockets in these countries have the highest chance for maternal and infant mortality. That isn’t the case according to Save the Children’s latest State of the World’s Mothers report released today. The report says that it is…
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International Women’s Day Puts Spotlight on Global Poverty, Gender Inequalities
International Women’s Day Twitter Chat We will join Global Impact to discuss these aforementioned women’s and girls’ issues on Friday, March 13 at 1 PM EST. Join us using #HerDay2015. In Ormoc, Philippines women tend to take on village leadership roles to ensure children under five get their scheduled vaccinations and routine check-ups. These women also…
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9 Last-Minute Virtual Valentine’s Day Gifts for Good
If you’re like many of us you may have waited until the very last-minute to buy your loved ones Valentine’s Day gifts. While you can still run out and buy a wealth of flowers, cards, and chocolates, here are nine virtual Valentines’s Day gifts you can give that also give back. Oxfam Unwrapped: Oxfam recommends giving…
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5 of Our Partners Who Continue to Work in Haiti #Haiti5Years
In an earlier piece today, How is Haiti Faring Five Years After the Earthquake, development and recovery effort data and details were rather pessimistic. The numbers bear out that while some overall development achievements have been met, there is still a long way to go to help Haiti fully recover. And, yet, there continues to…