Today, there are more than 45 million people around the world who have fled their homes due to war or persecution.  Behind this sobering statistic lie the stories of real people – mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandparents and infants whose political and social safety nets have suddenly disappeared and who have been forced to leave their homes. Here are their words: It’s a really bad experience to leave your homeland. Where you were […]

Last year, a person had to flee his or her home due to conflict or persecution every four seconds on average.  Worldwide, more than 45 million people have been forced from their homes – the highest number in nearly two decades. Today is World Refugee Day, and you can help the United Nations Refugee Agency protect and provide for the people around the world whose lives have been uprooted. Help raise awareness and funds by

While the World Health Organization (WHO) just released a report on violence against women, it may not fully capture the adverse effects of violence on a woman’s reproductive health (RH). For example, in a culture in which it is normatively permissible to inflict violence on a partner, it is often normatively alright to extend this violence to non-partners as well, because women in general are seen as somehow deserving of violence. And the other way

A recent polio outbreak in Somalia and Kenya serves as a reminder that this crippling disease still exists and is actively threatening children.  While there is no cure for polio, vaccines protect children from the disease for life.    In 1988, national governments, UN agencies, and civil society groups came together to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, an international effort to immunize children and end polio for good. Here are five numbers you should

When the world mobilizes, incredible progress is possible.  The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty goals set by governments and the United Nations in 2000, have improved the lives of millions of people.  On Monday, the UN released a new report detailing the progress made to date on the MDGs and the work that remains ahead.  For example: Extreme poverty rates have been cut in half since 1990, but one in eight people in the

The goal of this new program, announced on Sunday, is to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than two-thirds of the people now have none, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas. Gayle Smith, Obama’s senior director for development and democracy, explained the need in more personal terms: “If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don’t have