How do we solve the problem of global poverty? In the past and still today, the answer has been to drop food to hungry people world-wide at great cost to the donor countries. While that may be a good emergency solution, the number of people living in poverty continues to grow and the practice is quickly becoming unsustainable. Only The Brave, a non-profit organization, aims to eventually end food drops by providing the poor with sustainable solutions they can operate themselves. Check out their beautifully animated piece below, then head to otbfoundation.org where you can explore new solutions and even take a virtual stroll around a village they are revitalizing. [Read more...]
Slumdog Photographer of the Decade
Jonas Bendiksen, photographer for Magnum and creator of The Places We Live.
There are all kinds of places we as humans live. We live in three bedroom homes, apartments and studios, closets in New York, caves in Turkey, sailboats and even teepees. At times, we also live on streets, cardboard mats and in scrapmetal sheds. The list can go on.
As we continue to grow as a community, more and more individuals are moving into cities for work opportunities. This makes these urban dwellings absolutely massive and many find themselves living in slums, high rise cement apartments or another form of alternative housing. Worldwide there are one billion people who live in urban slums, and that number will double in twenty five years according to the United Nations.
Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photographer who shoots for the co-operative, Magnum Photo in New York City. In partnership with the Nobel Peace Center, Jonas shot photos of some of the largest urban and slum dwellings in our world today and made it interactive. Here are a few snapshots of what Jonas saw while he was traveling around the world.
The Giving Movement
A hefty yet graceful movement is transforming the world as you read, and it’s propelled by a wave of philanthropists on an unwavering quest to abolish global poverty. We’re calling it the Giving Movement, and it’s backed by bighearted philanthropists that range from billionaires giving away their fortunes, to people with much more modest bank accounts whose pledges are proportionately generous, if not more so.
Making the news recently was Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement to give away half of his fortune as part of The Giving Pledge. The sum promises to be mighty as Facebook has been valuated at over $50 billion. The Giving Pledge, which was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, “is an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy,” according to GivingPledge.org. [Read more...]







