As the UN marked its annual Day for the Eradication of Poverty, more people than ever before are going hungry, due in large part to extreme poverty – currently measured as living on less than US$1.90 a day. Famine, conflict, forced migration and climate change are blocking progress in poverty alleviation.
Nearly 19 million babies born globally every year are at risk of permanent yet preventable brain damage and reduced cognitive function due to a lack of iodine in the earliest years of life, according to a new joint report by UNICEF and GAIN.
As tens of thousands of people coped with the aftermath of flooding in South Asia and the USA, the World Council of Churches General Secretary, the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, said the WCC fellowship is praying for flood survivors and those helping them.
While the global news agenda has moved on, UK-based development agency Christian Aid is asking people not to forget the ongoing victims of the tragic South Asia earthquake two years ago - and has pledged to continue its material support.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the North American development and peace agency, is working with local partners to provide a 10-day supply of food for 5,050 families caught up in the post-flood crisis in Bangladesh.
The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid is launching an appeal to help more than 20 million people in India and Bangladesh who have been affected by the worst flooding there in living memory.
The poorest people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh are the chief victims of major monsoon-driven floods across South Asia. And the situation is being made worse by lack of effective international action, local development planners are saying.
More than 150 people have died and 20 million have been displaced from heavy floods in south Asia. Reports estimate more than 12 million people in India, 5.5 million in Bangladesh and 750,000 in Nepal are affected.