| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| September 23, 2009 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 13 Number 6 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Women Reach Across Divides to Help Start Businesses |
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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL Varda Shner, a 60-year-old multidisciplinary artist from the Israeli city of Holon, waited years for the honor of being given a spot in Tel Aviv's upscale arts and crafts market to sell her ornate paper-mache dolls. A single mother who had worked for 10 years as an art therapist for Israelis with special needs, she soon realized that her ability to make a profit selling her dolls was limited at best, because each doll had many hours of labor behind it and therefore had to be sold at a premium price.
Feeling worthless and as if no one wanted her work, in early 2008 Varda came across Supportive Community (SC), a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Israeli women from all walks of life to develop small businesses. "I already had the skills in art. They helped me to expand my business skills and market myself better. It helped me get over my fear. They would tell me, 'You're not selling yourself, you're selling your product.' That gave me courage to approach museums and higher-end clients." SC, dubbed the Women's Business Development Center, was founded in 2003 by a small group of Israeli women recently arrived from the former Soviet Union and looking to work together to improve their lot. "Women face all sorts of problems," says CEO and co-founder Lena Gurary. "First they lack a social network and business knowledge: 'What is income tax?' 'What is VAT?' Second, many women have neither money nor any significant personal financial history, yet it is only people with money who are given credit. Finally, once women open a business they are paid less money for their work. "So women are scared. They think 'No one will buy from me, I won't get credit, I'll be alone' ... We looked at all this and decided to start something." Named by the Israel Small and Medium Enterprises Authority as one of Israel's most important women's organizations, SC provides business training and micro-loans for Israeli women to establish or expand small businesses. The organization has grown exponentially and, with only seven full-time staff members, served over 3,000 women in just six years of operation. Modeled on the founding group, SC moves around the country teaching women to help and support each other in developing personal and joint small businesses. "We don't open branches," Lena says. "We arrive in a place, build cooperative circles of women, and move on." Lena says that in addition to expanding business opportunities, bringing women together has the added advantage of helping traditionally marginalized groups integrate into Israeli society. "We realized you can't help women to get out of the ghetto while they're still in a cultural ghetto." SC serves an exceptionally diverse group of women, from new Ethiopian and Russian immigrants to native born Israelis, including both secular and religious Jews and Arabs. The group's gatherings have provided a rare haven for multicultural interaction between Israeli women. "I just love these women," says Jullet Kahwaji, an Arab Israeli, as she kisses and hugs Rivka Rav-Chen, an ultra-orthodox Jew. Source: The Media Line |
| Farmland Preservation Links Up with People in Need |
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MOORESTOWN, NJ Behind the hustle and bustle of fruit and vegetable sales each Saturday at the Burlington County Farmers Market another initiative has been quietly at work: Participating farmers generously work with the county to provide fresh produce to residents in need.
As of Aug 15, more than 700 pounds of unsold produce had been collected from vendors by Farmland Preservation and Parks Division staff at the conclusion of each market. With the cooperation of New Jersey Farmers Against Hunger, produce is made available to people receiving social services. This summer a community agriculture intern from Rutgers University, Derek Hardy of Willingboro, worked with the county's Farmland Preservation Program to implement this program. American Farmland Trust, a national nonprofit farmland protection group, provided this intern to Burlington County with financial support from the Dodge Foundation. With few food distribution sites accepting donations on Saturdays, the produce must be refrigerated until Farmers Against Hunger is able to retrieve and distribute it. The county-operated Buttonwood Hospital in Pemberton serves as the intermediary location, with staff there accepting a small portion of the donation to be used in the kitchen. Farmers Against Hunger staff pick up the rest on Monday mornings en route to Family Services of Burlington County in Westampton. "The cooperation of the Farmland Preservation and Parks Division staff has played an integral role in the program's success in making sure the perishable food is safely and effectively transported," said Freeholder Director Joe Donnelly. "A donation of an estimated 1,000 pounds should be a solid benchmark to set for next season, when staff hopes to have at least 1,500 pounds of produce donated by farmers at the market," said Freeholder Bill Haines. "The food donations improve nutrition of local residents in need and are one of many added benefits resulting from the preservation of this farm and other farmland." Farmers Against Hunger coordinator Judy Grignon said, "Thanks to the farmers at the Burlington County Farmers Market, we have been able to provide fresh produce to Family Services, which had asked for our assistance in distributing healthy food to their clients." Community gardeners at the Agricultural Center also donate produce to the program. So does Growing Home Co-op, a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm operator. Source: Burlington County Times |
| Civil Servant's Campaign Plants Trees, Creates Jobs |
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BIHAR STATE, INDIA An Indian civil servant, SM Raju, has come up with a novel way to provide employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of Bihar. Encouraging people to plant trees, his campaign effectively addresses two burning issues: global warming and shrinking job opportunities.
Evidence of Raju's success could clearly be seen on Aug 30, when he organized 300,000 villagers from over 7,500 villages in northern Bihar to engage in a mass tree planting. The event set a world record of just under one billion saplings planted. The agriculture graduate from Bangalore has provided "sustainable employment" to people living below the poverty line in Bihar. Raju has linked his "social forestry" program to the central government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which is also designed to provide employment to poor people. Under NREGA -- initiated in February 2006 as the government's most ambitious employment generation scheme for poor people -- the authorities are bound by law to provide a minimum of 100 days of employment a year to members of families living below the poverty line. About 44% of Bihar's population fall into this category. "The scheme has brought benefits to thousands of families since its implementation," said a recent International Labor Organization report. But Raju says that Bihar, the poorest and most lawless state in India, has not been able to spend the allocated NREGA funds. "This is because of a lack of awareness among officials about the scheme." The poor monsoon this year has led to lower agricultural outputs, while flash floods in some northern districts have made the situation even worse, he said. "So the idea struck to my mind, why not involve families below the poverty line in social forestry and give them employment under this scheme for 100 days? "Under the scheme, each family can earn a minimum of 10,200 rupees" ($210). The civil servant immediately made a blueprint of his idea and got the support of senior state officials. In June, Raju released a comprehensive booklet of "dos and don'ts" and distributed it to village heads and district officials. His initiative brought about a full utilization of NREGA funds. "I told the villagers that they would get 100 days employment in a year simply by planting trees and protecting them. The old, handicapped, and widows would be given preference." Every village council has now been given a target of planting 50,000 saplings. A group of four families has to plant 200 seedlings, and it must protect them for three years till the plants grow sturdier. Significantly, the scheme has even stopped the migration of poor laborers from the area in search of employment elsewhere during monsoon season. Source: BBC |
| School Dress Code a Hardship for Cheyenne River Sioux |
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EAGLE BUTTE, SD Carol Moran spent all she could spare on new school clothes for her 15-year-old daughter. Then she found out a new dress code had been imposed at the junior high school that serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Moran, who walks with a cane and survives on welfare in one of the most impoverished regions in the US, said buying a whole new set of clothes is out of the question. Her daughter, Kyann, has already been sent home twice for violating the dress code since school started. Moran said, "It was just like a slap in the face." Unexpected school expenses can stress any parent. But for many with students in the Cheyenne-Eagle Butte School District, finding gas money or a ride to an affordable store can prove all but impossible, much less paying for the clothes if they get there. The Cheyenne River Sioux reservation covers Dewey and Ziebach counties, which encompass 4,265 square miles. About 8,000 residents live amid the rolling, grass-covered South Dakota prairie. That's a density of 1.88 persons per square mile. More than half of Ziebach County and 38% of Dewey County lived in poverty in 2005, according to the latest Census Bureau figures. The nearest discount store is about 90 miles away in the state capital of Pierre. Moran and other parents have joined the tribe in a federal lawsuit seeking to block the school district from enforcing the dress code, which requires students to wear black, white or tan shirts, pants, skirts, or shorts. Administrators say it is intended to avoid gang violence. The school is run by a public board organized under state laws and one organized under the US Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The lawsuit argues the dress code violates federal regulations requiring that such schools consult with tribes and parents of American Indian children in developing programs and policies. Tom Van Norman, the tribe's attorney, said the dress code is not only a hardship for struggling parents but also an impediment to the education of kids who are taken out of class and sent home or placed in a time-out room. "The purpose of the Uniform Dress Code is primarily to alleviate much of the gang-related violence in the school," wrote BIE supervisor Nadine Eastman in a letter published Aug 6 in the West River Eagle. "Many of our Junior High students wear gang-affiliated colors to school daily. Secondarily, we hope that an increase in safety will increase our academics for all students." Winona Charger, whose grandson Justin Little Star has been suspended for violating the dress code, said she has seen little evidence of a gang problem. Annual report cards issued by the state under No Child Left Behind have failed the school district repeatedly. Source: Associated Press |
| Australian State Apologizes for Child Abuse |
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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Australian authorities delivered a formal apology Saturday to the many thousands of people who were abused in state-run orphanages and children's homes in decades past. New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees unveiled a memorial in Sydney to children who suffered in care from the 1930s to the 1970s at an official ceremony attended by more than 500 former state wards.
"To many sufferers and especially those who have joined us today I say on behalf of the government I am sorry for any hurt and distress you suffered in the care of the state," Rees said. "This should never have happened." Thousands of poor children from Britain were shipped to Australian farms and institutions in a bid to populate the colony. They faced a lifetime of loneliness, hardship, and sometimes abuse. Some children were as young as four when they left home, and many never saw their families again, said former child migrant David Hill. He told state radio, "For a lot of these children it was a terrible experience. Little kids of six years of age, boys and girls who had their heads held down toilets as punishment for bed wetting, girls who remember being first sexually abused at five years of age, little children who are being whipped with riding crops, little kids whose entire childhoods were spent living in fear." Hill said, contrary to popular belief, most of the children weren't orphans but from dysfunctional and destitute families who believed sending them to Australia would offer them a better life. "Most of these kids were short-changed on a decent education, emotionally deprived, socially isolated, and sent out into the world. There was nobody out there for them." Source: Agence France-Presse |
| Event Aims to Pull Kids Off the Dropout Track |
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PHILADELPHIA, PA Studies have shown that most high school dropouts stop showing up in the ninth grade and are disproportionately minority boys, said Anthony Martin, who runs a science-based school in North Philadelphia. So, only two weeks into the school year, Martin believes it's the opportune time to "get them right now and to motivate them".
The second annual What It Takes symposium, held at school district headquarters on N Broad St on Sept 15 aimed to encourage teen boys to not only attend class, but also stay out of trouble. A group of 250 of them received practical advice from athletes and businessmen, including the Sixers' Andre Iguodala, former boxer Joe Frazier, and race car driver Ted Irwin. Martin has encouraged Philly students to take offbeat paths to learning for 11 years at the Urban Youth Racing School, at Front and Spring Garden Sts. The school's purpose is to introduce students to the sciences through racing, he said. It educates boys and girls ages 8 to 18 years old. Nearly 100% graduate, he said. About 95% go on to college. In a school district where girls graduate in greater numbers than boys, Martin said the school and today's event are necessary. "Our goal is to try to combat the dropout rate," he said. "Let's get behind these kids in their time of need and keep them motivated." Martin believes that tickets to the Pro Bowl may help. The school, through a corporate sponsor, will give tickets to the Pro Bowl in Florida to the student with the highest grade-point average and best attendance at the end of the first marking period. Source: Philadelphia Daily News |
| Yemeni's Death Shows Danger of Child Marriages |
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UNITED NATIONS The head of the UN children's agency said on Sept 14 that the tragic death of a 12-year-old Yemeni after three days in labor underscores the urgent need to better protect the rights of girls and prevent child marriages.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Sept 11 while giving birth to a stillborn child in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 140 miles west of San'a, the capital. Youssef was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, said Ahmed al-Quraishi, chairman of the Siyaj human rights organization, on Sept 12. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman expressed sadness at Fawziya's untimely death. "Child marriage denies girls of their childhood, deprives them of an education, and robs them of their innocence." Child marriages are widespread in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, where tribal customs dominate society. More than a quarter of the country's females marry before age 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry. In February, Yemen's parliament passed a law setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But some lawmakers are trying to kill the measure, calling it un-Islamic. Before it could be ratified by Yemen's president, they forced it to be sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review. Veneman said, "The younger the girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks for her and her baby." She said that girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. "Child marriages are often a result of poverty and ignorance," she said. "More must be done to address the underlying causes in order to prevent tragic deaths like those of 12-year-old Fawziya and her baby." Source: Gulf News |
| Schools Look Abroad to Hire Teachers |
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USA Some American school districts have turned increasingly to overseas recruiting to find teachers willing to work in their hard-to-staff schools, according to a new report by a national teachers union. The report used government data to estimate that 19,000 foreign teachers were working in the US on temporary visas in 2007, and that the number was rising steadily. There are more than three million teachers in American public schools.
"Overseas-trained teachers are being recruited from nearly all corners of the globe and are being placed primarily in hard-to-staff inner-city or very rural schools teaching the hard-to-fill disciplines of math, science, and special education," said the report, by the American Federation of Teachers. The report cited the Baltimore Public Schools as a case study. Baltimore hired 108 teachers from the Philippines in 2005. Four years later, more than 600 Filipino teachers work in city classrooms, where they make up more than 10% of the teaching force. Michael Sarbanes, a spokesman for the district, confirmed those numbers but said the report exaggerated the district's overall reliance on foreign teachers. "For Baltimore, the question is how do we get highly qualified teachers into our classrooms. International teacher recruitment has produced some exceptional results for us." But, he said, the number of foreign teachers the city recruits each year is now dropping: It is finding enough teachers for most hard-to-staff subjects from other sources, including Teach for America. The union published the report in the hope it would lead to heightened regulation, it said. The report cited the prosecution of several recruiting companies and three Texas school administrators on charges related to smuggling immigrants and visa fraud and other cases as examples of the dangers that can accompany the foreign recruiting of teachers. The report asserted that Baltimore school officials were leaning so heavily on foreign recruiting that they were recruiting less aggressively in the US. "Rather than attending job fairs throughout the Mid-Atlantic, trying to persuade reluctant American teachers to accept positions in troubled inner-city schools, HR officials can meet all their hiring needs in one trip. At a single career fair in Manila, they can interview hundreds of prescreened applicants, each of whom is eager to pay for the opportunity to work in Baltimore city schools." Sarbanes countered, "Our human resources people are everywhere, all the way out to Michigan and Ohio. We're aggressively recruiting every which way we can." Source: New York Times |
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| Long Branch Win Part of Trend Favorable to Owners |
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LONG BRANCH, NJ After winning a lengthy battle to stop her city from seizing her home for an upscale condominium project, Lori Vendetti is pretty sure of one thing: The fight isn't over.
Vendetti is part of a small group of homeowners in the seaside town of Long Branch who prevailed last week in the state's most celebrated case involving eminent domain, the law that allows a government to take land needed for a public use or redevelopment after paying a fair price for it. As she enjoys her victory in a dispute that dates to the late 1990s, Vendetti is part of a statewide group that advises other New Jersey homeowners who may be vulnerable to similar actions. It's a product, she and other property rights advocates say, of the state's legislative inaction. "They think because the Long Branch case went away that we're going to go away," Vendetti said last week after a judge awarded more than $400,000 in legal fees to the Long Branch residents. "But the same law that threatened our homes is still on the books." In broad terms, eminent domain cases can be classified by whether they were filed before or after a landmark 2005 case in which the Supreme Court upheld the seizure of private homes for a downtown redevelopment project by the city of New London CT. Since that ruling, 43 states have modified their eminent domain laws and increased protections for individual homeowners, according to the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, a national advocacy group. NJ is one of the seven that haven't. As a result, NJ residents have had to rely more heavily on the courts to achieve their ends. That has worked in some cases, said attorney Anthony Della Pelle. "The courts have been increasingly conscious of protecting property rights. It has become more commonplace for people in redevelopment areas to defeat redevelopment projects because courts have scrutinized local government power more carefully than they used to." A pending bill in the state Senate would revise existing law to "remove the possibility of property owners losing their homes simply because a 'better' use could be envisioned by a local government." Bill co-sponsor John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) said the legislation also would require developers to reapply after five years if they have not acquired land by eminent domain, to prevent homeowners from living for extended periods under the specter of having their homes taken if projects are delayed. Meanwhile, Vendetti has a message for homeowners who may be hesitant to fight City Hall. "We just learned as we went along. We divided up the jobs and did the researching. Some things fell in our laps, and we had a lot of public support. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it." Source: Associated Press |
| Tory-Led Think Tank Publishes Benefits Reform Ideas |
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LONDON, ENGLAND
Proposals to allow low-paid people to keep benefits longer and to streamline the system have been published by a think tank set up by Iain Duncan Smith. The ex-Tory leader proposes merging 51 benefits into two and subsidizing the low paid.
Tory leader David Cameron said it was a "very interesting" report and said the party would "study it carefully". Duncan Smith's report suggests its proposals would get 600,000 households into work. He says the current numbers of benefits need to be cut because the system is too confusing and no one knows what they are meant to be receiving. The two categories should be one dealing with work and one with "life requirements", which would make it easy for people to see what they were receiving in total benefits. The report says claimants taking a job paying less than £15,000 a year are currently worse off than if they remained out of work. People are being put off from going for jobs, it argues, and benefits should be removed gradually by lifting the income threshold at which they are phased out. Duncan Smith told the BBC the key thing was getting people to make the decision to go into work in the first place by making sure "work pays" and helping people develop a "work habit". He said, "The benefits system right now is so complicated and out of control that every prediction that every politician has ever made about money that they put in is wrong. "We believe that if you want to end child poverty, if you want to help people then you need to be able to help the worst off best, and you need to be able to help them do the most important thing in their lives -- which is that we believe every household should have work." The report says the proposals would cost £2.7 billion a year. £74 billion is already being spent on benefits. But Duncan Smith said the potential savings in terms of administration, as less staff would be needed to run the system, and the social cost of worklessness -- including health and crime, were "dramatic". The report estimates it could be £3.4 billion a year. The report says its proposals would benefit low-income households by £5 billion and lift 200,000 children out of poverty. It says that middle-income families would see "modest" falls in certain tax credits. It was important to reduce Britain's "residual unemployed" -- people who do not work even in better economic times, he said. Working couples should get more financial help, especially those on low wages, the report says, but families on incomes of £30,000 will see entitlements cut. It also proposes changes to ensure that people who put money into savings or who own their homes are not penalized by the benefits system. Source: BBC |
| NJ Cafe to Grant Universal Access to Whole Foods |
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HIGHLAND PARK, NJ Taking their cue from an innovative cafe model that began in Salt Lake City, next month two local nonprofits, Elijah's Promise (EP), which runs a culinary school and soup kitchen in New Brunswick, and Who Is My Neighbor (WIMN), based in Highland Park, will open A Better World Cafe (ABWC) in the Reformed Church of Highland Park. The cafe, slated to begin serving lunches from 11am to 3pm on Friday, Oct 2, will have a multicultural menu based on seasonal, local foods and offer soups, breads, salads, entrees, and desserts.
An interesting feature of the joint venture is that customers will choose their portion sizes and also decide what they feel is a fair price for the food, based on their own ability to pay. Those who cannot pay with money may exchange an hour of volunteer time for their meal. ABWC gave the community a preview on Sept 15 as part of EP's "Farm to Table" series of events. Chef Abby Hoffman called it "a grand partnership between two sister towns, New Brunswick and Highland Park." Chef Pearl Thompson introduced Rachel Weston, the recent EP Culinary School graduate, who will manage the cafe, and Annmarie Cooke, another recent graduate who devised the evening's menu along with Weston. About 45 guests sampled Tomato Provencal with mixed greens, butternut squash soup with horseradish cream, roasted beet and goat cheese sandwiches in mini whole wheat pitas, and pear strudel with caramel sauce. The menu was typical of the simple, healthy fare served at One World Everybody Eats, which was started in Salt Lake City in 2003 by Denise Cerreta, according to Irene Chan Marx, a WIMN board member who visited Utah to learn about Cerreta's mission to eliminate world hunger through "food democracy." Chan Marx and board member Tina Weishaus presented a slide show detailing Cerreta's concept of serving organic, unprocessed food to people whether they can afford it or not. "It's a sustainable model," said Chan Marx, "and they use composting and other practices that eliminate waste and make sense for the environment." Jean Stockdale, executive director of WIMN, arranged the partnership with the Highland Park Reform Church. She also organized the "sprucing up" of the church's quilt room to house the cafe. "The church provides free space for community programs, so joining with Elijah's Promise's expertise in food, we're blending this program in with the other groups who use the church building." Hoffman reminded the guests that during the growing season, most of the food at ABWC will be coming from "a great farmers' market right outside this church door" on Friday afternoons through November. Source: My Central Jersey |
| Program Stresses Importance of Educating Girls |
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Adapted from a piece reflecting the views of the US government:
Education promotes international development and expands opportunities and life choices for both boys and girls. But gender inequality in education continues around the world. In fact, worldwide, 60 million girls remain out of school. Girls' education is one of the most powerful tools for development that exists. Equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to lift their families and communities out of poverty and drive economic growth for their countries. Education is the route to this power. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is working to close the educational gap between boys and girls with a new program known as the Power to Lead Alliance. It is a public-private partnership between the USAID and CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization, that promotes leadership in girls aged 10 to 14 in vulnerable communities in Egypt, Honduras, India, Malawi, Tanzania, and Yemen. The program was inaugurated in September 2008 and will continue through September 2011. CARE's goal is to help 10 million vulnerable girls complete primary school and to practice their leadership skills. As part of the Power to Lead Alliance, girls will participate in sports, public speaking, computer lessons, planning and management, and financial and legal literacy. "When women are accorded their rights and afforded equal opportunities in education, health care and gainful employment," said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "they drive social and economic progress. When they are marginalized and mistreated ... prosperity is impossible." The US remains committed to the full empowerment of women everywhere, said Clinton. "And when we think about poverty that grinds the spirit and the life out of so many women, we have to resolve to do our part, to make it easier for women to have the chance to live up to their God-given potential." Educating girls is the first step in that direction. Source: VOA News |
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