Search results for - ‘poverty’

This project focused on the Olep ethnic group who live on the western fringes of an important national park in the west central part of Bhutan. Originally a nomadic hunter gatherer community, the Olep were encouraged by the government to settle in Rukha in the early 1970s, so that they could benefit from the development initiatives that were taking place in the country. With no experience of settled living and their earlier means of living off the forest no longer available, the community fell into extreme poverty. This project, run by the Tarayana Foundation, has developed skills and encouraged a self-help ethos that has successfully helped the community recover and prosper. Originally focusing on the village of Rukha, the project has spread to 150 other villages across Bhutan.

Bhutan is a landlocked country high up in the eastern Himalayan mountains. Its population of 770,000 is scattered throughout the country’s steep mountainsides and deep valleys. People living in remote, often inaccessible, villages lack access to basic services and typically live in thatched huts. Poor living conditions and lack of sanitation often result in ill-health […]

This integrated project deals with a whole range of issues relating to poverty alleviation. Implemented by the local university and developed from a DFID strategy, it involves the provision of training, infrastructure improvement and maintenance, housing restoration and construction. Three of the projects have been identified as best practices, including the sanitation/community farm and the garbage amnesty projects. Implementation strategy is based on capacity building, micro-enterprise/job creation and safer communities. To date, many hygiene facilities hve been installed, such as showers and toilets, on top of the development of garbage collection and the regular street cleaning and maintenance.

The revitalisation of neglected and bankrupt former state farms and apartment blocks enables the Barka Foundation to offer homes to 650 socially excluded persons in communities, hostels, private flats and single family houses. Opportunities for income generation and training enable the residents to rejoin mainstream society. Social help is linked with environmental protection and rare pig and fruit tree farming provides income as well as protecting biodiversity.  

The Barka (meaning lifeboat) organisation was established in 1990 to help the many destitute and homeless people in Poland meet their housing and employment needs after the collapse of the communist system. Using its philosophy of encouraging mutual self-help, it now provides homes for 750 persons in a variety of community homes, hostels, private flats and one-family houses and through its various housing, education and vocational training programmes has assisted over 50,000 people in the last ten years. It has established 25 income-generating enterprises to date, as well as restoring two redundant large state farms and pioneering organic agriculture. Partnership working with local municipalities and businesses has created sustainable employment opportunities and the various activities undertaken by Barka over the last 20 years have had a major influence in facilitating the emergence of civil society and social enterprise in post communist Poland. Barka is increasing being asked to work in large European cities, helping destitute East European migrant workers, either to return home or settle into their new society.

When Guatemala’s 36-year civil war ended in 1996, the country was left fragmented and its people subject to extreme inequalities. Today, just over 1% of the population owns over half (60%) of the land and almost three in every five of Guatemala’s 17.5 million people live in poverty, surviving on less than $4 USD per […]

Newcastle upon Tyne, in the north-east of England, has long-standing issues of poverty and deprivation. Almost one in four (24%) of Newcastle’s population lives in areas that are among the most deprived in the UK, while one-in-five (20%) of households have no adult in employment. Child poverty is also significantly higher than the national average […]

Project Description The Residential Energy in Low Income Households (REELIH) project is about the transfer of a successful approach to improving lives through improving buildings, which Habitat for Humanity began in 2009 in Macedonia. The project objective is to tackle poverty and improve the health and quality of life of low income homeowners. It is […]

Homelessness is a major problem in Hungary. Poverty is a pressing social issue, with an estimated two in every five (40%) people affected. Millions live in poor conditions and experience fuel poverty, while around 15,000 live on the streets or in shelters, and almost one-in-seven (15%) live with severe housing deprivation. There is no active […]

Un Techo para Chile (UTPCH) is an NGO founded in 1997 in Chile by a group of university students and a Jesuit priest, Felipe Berríos S.J., who were appalled by the country’s deplorable slum conditions and felt compelled to take an active role in addressing them. The initial work involved students helping slum dwellers build small wooden transitional houses to meet their immediate shelter needs. Having scaled up this activity nationally, social inclusion programmes were established as a second stage of activity, with the volunteers helping the slum dwellers improve their economic position. A third phase is currently underway with the provision of permanent accommodation. The main beneficiaries are 10,000 families (about 45,000 people) who will obtain permanent housing, along with the thousands of young volunteers whose understanding of poverty and inequality has been increased.

Since 2007, Portugal has faced an economic crisis to which the government at the time responded by introducing a programme of austerity measures. This has had a major negative impact on the economic, social and cultural rights of people who were already living in vulnerable situations. The downsizing of the public sector resulted in high […]

Recognising the need to proactively address poverty and social issues in Saudi Arabia, this project has provided over 300 houses and support for vulnerable, low-income families. Communal facilities including mosques, community centres, children’s play areas and health centres ensure greater opportunities for community integration and reduced anti-social behaviour. Long term employment opportunities are increased through training programmes and affordable loans for business start-ups.

Being a single parent is tough wherever you might live, but single mothers in Japan live in a culture that makes them particularly vulnerable to poverty and social isolation. Japanese society is very conservative and it is considered taboo to be a single parent. A culture of shame means single mothers are looked down upon […]

Indigenous communities in the Sierra Norte de Puebla region in Mexico live in extreme poverty in houses that are inadequate to protect people from strong rains. The project focused on the right to adequate housing for these communities. It provided social and technical assistance, and access to finance based on social financing combined with public subsidy to purchase materials; enabling people to build their own homes using traditional building practices and locally available materials.

Construction with earthen materials is one of the oldest traditional building techniques in the world and has been used for several thousand years in China, where at least 100 million people still live in earth dwellings. China’s recent economic growth and rapid urbanisation has led to a shift away from traditional rammed-earth building practices in […]

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), in the southernmost tip of Texas, is one of the poorest areas in the United States. Many people living in the area are trapped in a cycle of chronic financial instability, suffering from the effects of extreme poverty and a lack of good-quality, affordable housing. In May 2019, a financial […]

Sint Antoniuspleintje is an environmentally sustainable housing project developed by Zonnige Kempen (ZK), a pioneering social housing provider in Belgium. The project is located in the village of Zoerle Parwijs where 13 highly energy efficient social rented homes have been constructed, increasing the supply of locally available affordable housing in the rural area and helping to reduce the fuel poverty experienced by those on low incomes. One of the pioneering approaches used in this project is a solar asphalt collector, which harnesses the heat of the road surface in summer and stores it for use in the colder parts of the year.

TECHO is an NGO working with residents and young volunteers to overcome the poverty in which thousands of people live in informal settlements across Latin America and the Caribbean. TECHO’s ‘Development of Habitat’ projects aim to implement permanent solutions in the settlements in the different countries in which it operates. ‘Development of Habitat’ projects are currently in place in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia.

Project Description In 1998, a group of 110 women started ACAMS (Asociación Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Mujeres Solidarias, The Women’s Solidarity Savings and Loans Cooperative). Run by and for women, the cooperative began in the rural town of Tejutepeque in El Salvador. Set up to respond to a succession of problems affecting the community […]

The city of Springfield is one of the poorest and most ethnically diverse communities in the state of Massachusetts, USA. Almost one-in-three (29.7%) people lives below the poverty line and nearly half (48%) of the population is non-Caucasian. The city’s housing stock is old, with two in every five (40%) homes built before 1940 and […]

Cambodia has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, driven largely by the garment industry and tourism. Its capital city, Phnom Penh, has experienced rapid population growth over the last 20 years – from 560,000 in 1998 to more than two million in 2019 – thanks largely to mass rural-urban migration. Nevertheless, the country […]

Nepal is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Asia. A quarter of the population live below the national poverty line, while the 2011 census estimated that half (49%) live in substandard housing. These issues were exacerbated by a series of disasters that affected the country between 2015 and 2019. Nepal is subject […]

Initiated in 1989, the KsK programme of Partners in Development shows how a tri-partite approach of pooling resources and capabilities of private landowners, city and central government and the poor can be used to improve urban living conditions. Strong political will and an enlightened perception of the poor has enabled a city government to reduce poverty, manage urbanisation and improve quality of life in urban areas. 81 per cent of the 7,400 low-income households have been improved to date. Strong community participation has been important in the legalisaion of land occupation and the upgrading of urban infrastructure and helping to achieve an improved quality of life for the urban poor.

Project Description In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan devastated large areas of the Philippines causing significant loss of life and destroying approximately one million homes. Through the Post-Haiyan Self-Recovery Housing Programme (2013-2016) CARE Philippines helped over 15,500 families made homeless by Haiyan to rebuild their homes. CARE Philippines is one of CARE International’s country offices. There are […]

In January 2010, a devastating earthquake shook the Caribbean nation of Haiti to its core. The disaster and subsequent aftershocks killed an estimated 250,000 people, injuring 300,000 and displacing 1.5 million people, whose homes collapsed. Much of the country’s infrastructure was also destroyed as the magnitude-7 tremor reduced schools, hospitals, government buildings and roads to rubble. […]