It was 11:00 am on a Monday when I saw a nine-year-old boy, Bilal, lifting heavy rocks in a construction site. How many Bilals, children who toil long hours for a low wage, deprive themselves of education, and endure frequent violence and abuse just to financially support their families, do we meet daily?
Based on a study conducted by the Lebanese ministry of labor in 2013, there are almost 180,000 children working in Lebanon. Today, Lebanon is experiencing a huge decline in its gross domestic income (GDI). GDI is an economical metric that showcases the nation’s social welfare, and its deterioration results in more people living below 50% of the median income, and vice versa.
Thus, poverty is increasing in Lebanon, and more children as Bilal are being robbed of their childhood. The Lebanese government and supporting international organizations can take many initiatives to save Bilal and his friends; however, not all might have a fast and radical impact on the children labor phenomena. While observing international cases, through World Development Indicators dataset, I noticed that countries, which most of their population have access to electricity, have a lower percentage of poverty; thus, a lower number of employed children, and vice versa.
When power resources are available to the nation, people will have access to technologies, especially the internet. There are numerous internet usages that can create life opportunities for the individuals; for example, Bilal can access the internet to enroll in educational programs.
Considering the above, I appeal to the government and concerned institutions to utilize all their endeavors in providing a sustainable electrical solution for our children to live a “normal” life and have the chance to prosper.
“I am a failure, I won’t get any job!”
Have you ever heard someone saying this?
Have you maybe even been that person?
Losing employment is one of life’s most stressful experiences.
Aside from the obvious financial distress it can cause, losing a job can also take a heavy toll on one’s mood, relationships, and overall mental and emotional health.
Societal costs of high unemployment include poverty, homelessness, physical and mental illness, decline in life satisfaction, higher crime and a reduced rate of volunteerism.
Thus, fighting unemployment is one of the world biggest challenges. Some countries could achieve major improvements by producing more goods and services in a given time frame (i.e. one year). In other words, they could achieve lower unemployment rate by increasing the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nowadays, countries having low unemployment rate such as USA and China have the world’s highest GDP, whereas in South Africa where the unemployment rate is much higher, the GDP is relatively low as shown in the visualizations below:
Who is responsible?
Increasing the country’s GDP is an effective solution of the unemployment issue because of the job opportunities it creates. This can be achieved by promoting education, developing new technologies, improving infrastructure including roads, schools, hospitals, phone lines, transport, electricity, Internet, water supply…
It is also recommended to adopt more flexible working practices: people could choose to work fewer hours, giving the chance to raise employment in the economy and resulting in unemployed population getting a part time job.
Fighting unemployment is a difficult long journey and the contribution of both private and public sector is mandatory in order to make it happen.
What does life look like for a child in the 21st Century?
For someone like you and I, life is pretty normal, we have friends and family, we go to school, we’re healthy. But for someone like Czano, life is very different. At just 7 years old, he does not go to school. Instead, he works at a balloon factory in Bangladesh in order to provide for his family.
This is the sad reality of millions of children around the world who are forced to work in order to help their families due to severe poverty.
Not only are government at fault, but also businesses who employ these young children and even people like you and me who purchase products that were produced by children.
Take a look at these insights below in order to learn more about child labor and together, we can raise awareness about this issue and hopefully make a change.
Don’t forget to always educate yourself about where your products are coming from and purchase ethically!
Ahmad is a young and healthy adult who likes to engage in various sports. However, he suffers from severe cases of asthma and regularly takes prescribed medications along with his inhaler. Like many people his age, Ahmad is very ambitious about his future and hopes one day that he can become a world star athlete.
Unfortunately, Ahmad is living in Qatar which is known to have a very harsh environment that is filled with air pollution and CO2 emissions that can risk his healthcare and well being.
Let’s Examine what Ahmad is up against!
The following Visual is a Bar Chart displaying the average CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita) in Arab countries
Observations
Ahmad was simply shocked!!
Although Ahmad knew that Qatar had very high levels of air pollution, he was not excepting it to be the highest among all other Arab countries. Ahmad had to act fast and think about ways to convince his parents to finance his journey to a cleaner country with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the previous graph was not entirely convincing for his father since he wanted to have a more visual understanding of the countries.
A better Visual?
The following Visual is the same visual presented before but projected on the map of the Arab World
Before Deciding
Although it seemed Obvious for Ahmad to travel to any of the countries that had low levels of C02 emissions, Ahmad’s Father wanted his son to have a good future prospect. The father demanded to know which of these countries had low levels of unemployment. After a lot of hard work, Ahmad was able to come up with a great visual that explains exactly what his father wants.
Now That’s Clearer
The following Visual is a Stacked Bar chart displaying the average CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita) and % of unemployment in Arab countries
Problem Solution
Potential Solutions
Solution Validation
Recommendation
For Better Future: Convince Ahmad’s father to finance his travel to Saudi Arabia
it has less CO2 levels (12.62) with slightly higher unemployment rate (5.58%)
Try Exploring other Non-Arab Countries that meet Ahmad’s requirement
For Better Health: Convince Ahmad’s father to finance his travel to Lebanon
it has significantly less CO2 levels (2.96) but a higher unemployment rate (8.63%)
If to stay in Qatar for guaranteed employment, Ahmad should drastically change his lifestyle and become more health cautious
Conclusion
Ahmad has choices There is no “perfect” solution for Ahmad’s Situation but he has a few options to explore. The problem in our Arab World is that we are (in most cases) required to sacrifice important aspects of our lives to improve other aspects. This dilemma is affecting so many people across the Arab World, especially during these hard times.
Childbirth is considered to be a landmark and joyous moment in any woman’s life. And although health experts say that no two childbirth experiences are the same, it is quite astounding that this can, in many cases, reach the extreme of death. According to statistics released by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank Group, around 2.8 million pregnant women and newborns die every year of preventable causes [1]. This turns childbirth into an event to be feared as it poses a significant threat to the lives of many women across the globe. According to the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, quality education is defined as one the of the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs), so how can education help mitigate childbirth mortality?
“Pregnancy is not a disease. It should not lead to deaths. Every maternal death should be regarded as an abnormality.” – Vivianne Ihekweazu, Director of the Nigerian Health Watch [2]
How are Childbirth Deaths Related to Education?
The World Development Indicators data from the World Bank [3] allows us to look into the impact of education on childbirth by exploring the percentage of births that are handle by skilled health staff. In the figure below, we plot the average life expectancy at birth in years with respect to the average percentage of births attended by skilled staff for each country. There is a clear positive correlation between the two variables. We therefore conclude that children who are delivered by skilled health workers during labor are more likely to have a higher life expectancy.
However, the impact of having educated people overseeing child delivery does not stop here. Unfortunately, carrying out child delivery without proper understanding of the necessary health procedures has more alarming implications. In the dashboard below, we notice a sharp decrease in both maternal mortality (women dying during labor) and neonatal mortality (newborns dying at birth) in countries where more childbirths are handled by skilled health workers. This implies that many of the childbirth related deaths can be attributed to the lack of necessary health skills.
Where are these Childbirth Deaths Mostly Occurring?
Below we find the places that suffer the most from this by selecting the countries that have a below average percentage of births attended by skilled staff.
By looking at the geographical distribution of these countries we unsurprisingly find that the majority is located in Africa. Furthermore, we notice that the educational attainment in these countries is significantly lower than countries that have more professionally handled childbirths. This is an expected causality since to have more skilled people perform childbirth procedures we need more educated people.
So the Solution Is, Educate More People!
“The benefits of education permeate all walks of life right from the moment of birth.” – Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO [4]
In light of the above, we clearly need to have more educated people that are able to professionally handle childbirth procedures. This is especially needed in developing countries where childbirth mortality is more pronounced. A key approach strategy here is to educate the local birth attendants and community midwives that are already active in these communities. These local and community health workers are already more connected to the women and families in their towns making their newly found skills more accessible and allowing them to spread health awareness to pregnant women in their communities [5]. Finally some communities in rural Africa are located in remote locations faraway from any medical supply and service centers. Therefore, setting up portable medical outposts near these towns would greatly enhance the quality of services provided by birth attendants.
