Brighter Tanzania Foundation

Global Handwashing Day Honored in Tanzania

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetvLFlOSrY An action as simple as handwashing, when done correctly, has the potential to prevent disease at par with some of our best interventions. Global Handwashing Day (GHD) aims to do just that; a campaign to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their handwashing habits by washing their hands with soap at critical times moments throughout…

According to a World Bank report, about 80% of the world’s poorest people live in just 10 countries. Several smaller countries, however, actually have a greater proportion of people living in extreme poverty.

Does getting pregnant cause girls to drop out of school?

Does pregnancy really cause girls to drop out of school? Globally, “schoolgirl pregnancy” is cited as one of the primary barriers to girls’ education. But the story may not be as simple as it seems.

Yes, an adolescent girl’s formal education is usually over the moment she becomes a mother. Laws and culture often discourage girls from returning to school after giving birth. Unmarried girls may be pressured to marry the father of the child. Married or not, having a child can put an adolescent girl under intense financial strain. Finding work might be the only way to provide for her young family. Going back to school may feel impossible.

So how do we intervene? What can be done to support adolescent girls — to help those who want to prevent pregnancy and stay in school, and to help girls who give birth to continue their education?

via Vox

But overall, the decline over the centuries is remarkable. “World poverty has fallen from an estimate of well above 80 percent in the beginning of the 19th century,” the World Bank report finds, “to under 20 percent today.”