COVID-19 Has Fueled Child Labor in Nepal

With the closing of schools due to COVID-19 and insufficient government aid, children in Nepal are being pushed into dangerous labor.

Stop Child Labor Graffiti in Kothari. The Advocacy Project. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life in Nepal, including education, government assistance, employment and domestic life. Due to adults losing their jobs and income, the rising illness and death rates among caregivers, and even more lockdowns, children are being forced into exploitative labor so they can provide for their families.

The second wave of COVID-19 cases in Nepal continues to put children at risk of child labor. Many children feel that they have no choice in the matter—they work long, grueling hours to help their families survive and provide food.

In Nepal, children work at places like brick kilns, carpet factories and in construction, or as carpenters or vendors selling various items. Some children carry heavy bags at mining sites or crush ore with hammers, all while breathing in dust and fumes from machines and acquiring injuries from sharp objects or particles.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 25 Nepali children between ages 8 and 16, and nearly all of them said that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on their family income. According to this report, one-third of the children interviewed worked at least 12 hours per day, and some even worked seven days per week. Among the reported side-effects of working long hours, children listed fatigue, dizziness and muscle pain. In addition, many children described hazardous working conditions; many have experienced violence, harassment and pay theft.

A majority of children interviewed also reported that they made less than Nepali minimum wage for their work, which is 517 rupees per day ($4.44 in U.S. dollars). Some children said their employers paid their parents based on a piece rate instead of paying them directly.

Nutrition education seminar in Bandarkharka, Nepal. Bread for the World. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

One of the biggest factors contributing to the rise in child labor is the lack of access to education due to COVID-19. In Nepal, school closures began on March 18, 2020, which affected more than 8 million students. A majority of Nepali students were unable to learn online as well, leaving them without education for over a year. In that education gap, children were often forced to work for their families.

Although most schools reopened in Nepal in January and February of 2021, some children continued to work because their families still needed their child’s income to prevent  going into debt. However, in April 2021, schools closed again due to a second wave of COVID-19, and children were put back to work.

Several of Nepal’s neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, have expanded cash allowances in order to cover more families. However, Nepal has not yet taken this step. Nepal needs to expand cash allowances so children can be taken out of dangerous labor and put back into school, as well as to enable families to maintain adequate standards of living without relying on child labor.

TO GET INVOLVED

To aid in the global fight against child labor, volunteer with Global March Against Child Labor, a wide network of organizations that work together to eliminate and prevent all forms of child labor through volunteering, fundraising and donating. Love 146, an international human rights NGO working to end child trafficking and exploitation, also provides many ways for people to help. Among many opportunities to help, Love 146 encourages people to get active and start a workout or host a 5k to help raise funds for their work.


To learn more about child labor and find more ways to take action, visit UNICEF’s page on global child labor.

Isabelle Durso

Isabelle is an undergraduate student at Boston University currently on campus in Boston. She is double majoring in Journalism and Film & Television, and she is interested in being a travel writer and writing human-interest stories around the world. Isabelle loves to explore and experience new cultures, and she hopes to share other people's stories through her writing. In the future, she intends to keep writing journalistic articles as well as creative screenplays.

Africa Faces Higher Food Insecurity Due to COVID-19

Africa experiences food insecurity due to poverty, conflict, climate change and a lack of access to food. When COVID-19 hit, it made all of these matters much worse.

A man inspects failed corn crops in Mauritania. Oxfam International. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Although made significantly more severe by COVID-19, food insecurity has been a serious concern worldwide for decades, mostly caused by economic shocks, climate change and conflict. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, 239 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were undernourished as of 2018.

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened food insecurity across the world by reducing incomes and disrupting food supply chains. The United Nations warns that about three dozen countries—Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Sudan included—could experience major famines this year, pushing 130 million more people to starvation. East Africa’s biggest locust invasion in 70 years combined with the impact of COVID-19 threatens to drive 25 million people into hunger. Research from a series of high-frequency phone surveys shows that over 105 million adults have been affected by some degree of food insecurity across Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso following the onset of the pandemic. Devastated food sources and billions of dollars in crop damage may push residents over the edge.

In addition, preventive measures like border closures, lockdowns and curfews intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 are disrupting supply chains that struggled to keep markets well-stocked even before the pandemic. At least 60% of the African population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods and access to food, and disruptions to this system caused by COVID-19 are threatening this group’s food security.

A man tending to his crops in Uganda. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. CC BY 2.0.

Most African countries rely heavily on food imports; between 2016 and 2018, Africa imported about 85% of its food from outside the continent. Heavy reliance on world markets is extremely detrimental to food security, and export bans imposed by major food exporters due to COVID-19 made the region even more vulnerable. If trade blockages persist, agricultural production in Africa could decrease by between 2.6% and 7%.

African countries are also reporting shortages and price spikes for some domestic food crops, such as millet, sorghum and maize. In addition, the disruption of marketing and trade activities, combined with panic-buying during the pandemic, intensified food price increases and caused both rural and urban consumers to lose purchasing power.

As a direct result of rising food prices, the availability and affordability of nutritious food has plummeted. Nutrient-rich foods like eggs, fruit and vegetables are 10 times more expensive than staple foods like rice or wheat in sub-Saharan Africa, so vulnerable families were forced to buy cheaper and less nutritious food to survive, adding to a rise in malnutrition and obesity.

In addition, school closures in South Africa have stopped a national feeding program that provides nutritious meals to 9 million poorer children.

Restrictions imposed by governments—lockdowns, travel bans and social distancing measures included—have increased the risk of food insecurity, and many low-income households have lost their livelihoods and ability to access markets.

A fruit and vegetable stand in Kampala, Uganda. World Bank Photo Collection. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

COVID-19 has clearly had a detrimental effect on food security in Africa, with 43% of households that were not severely food insecure in 2018 estimated to be severely food insecure as of June 2020.

However, there are ways to help, and many government programs have already started to alleviate some of the hunger in Africa. In Chad, a government project is providing food kits, establishing cereal banks and distributing seeds for future harvests so that households can survive the rest of the pandemic. In East Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program is supporting measures to keep food and agricultural inputs moving across borders and from ports to inland countries.

Although many efforts to help Africa are already in place, it is imperative that African countries take the necessary steps to build resilient, climate-friendly and competitive food systems so that they can survive COVID-19 and any future challenges.

To Get Involved:

Donating to Oxfam South Africa or Action Against Hunger will help to provide essential care to hungry families in Africa. Additionally, the U.N. World Food Program uses donations to deliver lifesaving food to those in need, wherever they may be located.

Another great way to help is by giving to The Hunger Project, which uses donations to implement programs that mobilize rural communities to achieve sustainable progress against hunger. These are just a few of the many ways to get involved to help end the crisis. To learn more, visit the United Nations’ website on hunger in Africa.

Isabelle Durso

Isabelle is an undergraduate student at Boston University currently on campus in Boston. She is double majoring in Journalism and Film & Television, and she is interested in being a travel writer and writing human-interest stories around the world. Isabelle loves to explore and experience new cultures, and she hopes to share other people's stories through her writing. In the future, she intends to keep writing journalistic articles as well as creative screenplays.

Senegal’s Artisanal Fishing Sector Faces a Rising Tide of Troubles

As vaccine rollouts speed up and restrictions loosen, some countries are beginning to piece back together life from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries, like Senegal, have seen just the opposite. 

Fish market in Senegal. Evgeni Zotov. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 

For many, a job is just a job—a way to keep food on the table and to pay the bills. For others, the wealth brought from working is deeply cultural, offering up a steady stream of personal meaning supplemented by financial gain. In the West African nation of Senegal, artisanal fishermen and women take great pride in their heritage, with the women standing center stage. 

Senegal is a relatively poor nation, with 30% of households grappling with food insecurity. The fishing industry plays a substantial role in Senegalese society: over 600,000 people are employed by the fishing industry and half of the protein consumed by the country’s residents comes from fish.

The women of Senegal’s coastal fishing villages sustain a matriarchy built on the fishing industry. The women process by hand loads of fish brought in by fishermen. They sun-dry and smoke the fish before selling them in local markets and to foreign fishing companies. Their work done by these women upholds their families, with one income from a fish processor able to feed up to eight family members. 

The Senegalese fishing women possess profound resilience; the COVID-19 pandemic has diminished their income to nearly nothing, which only increased their determination and creativity. By pooling money and taking hold of other resources, the Senegalese women have discovered a way to push through the pandemic.

However, Senegal’s artisanal fishing industry faces other major hurdles besides the COVID-19 pandemic. The rising sea levels brought on by climate change have ravaged many families’ coastal homes, with many unable to build new houses on their income. Additionally, rising sea levels have forced the men to venture much farther off the coast to haul in the same catch. This proved particularly difficult with Senegal’s COVID-19 curfew, which limited how far the men could travel out to sea. The women who process the fish have experienced decreased production as well, with many processing sites closed or greatly limited in capacity.

Lastly, larger industries have threatened the livelihood of this comparatively small field. Nearby construction threatens Senegal’s waters with pollution, while major fishing companies easily outproduce the women selling their catch. In addition, the government permits other countries to fish in local waters within regulation, but failure to effectively enforce these rules has greatly hurt the artisanal fishing industry.

Although there seems to be one hurdle after the next, the fishermen and women of Senegal have proven again their resilience. The country’s fishing women, in particular, stand not just as hopeful examples for their neighbors, but as a sign of strength for the entire world. 

Ella Nguyen

Ella is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

The Pandemic’s Impact On Homelessness in America

In 2020, 580,466 people in the United States experienced homelessness on any given night, 2.2% more than in 2019. COVID-19 is likely a major factor in this increase. 

In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, over half a million people in the United States were experiencing homelessness each night. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that in 2020, this number increased by 2.2%. Though 2.2% may seem like a small figure, it amounts to an additional 12,751 people experiencing homelessness on any single night. 

Numerous people lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and struggled to find new ones in the midst of a global crisis. In April 2020, the U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 14.8%, the highest percentage since unemployment data began being recorded in 1948. By December, the unemployment rate had dropped to a still-elevated 6.7%. These record unemployment rates almost certainly contributed to the rise in homelessness. Data collected by the Congressional Research Service shows that in April 2020, unemployment rates in every state and the District of Columbia had reached levels greater than their highest rates during the Great Recession. 

In addition to increasing the overall number of people experiencing homelessness, the pandemic contributed to worsening living conditions for unhoused people. There is more than one type of homelessness; the four main categories are chronic, episodic, transitional and hidden. These four categories are separated by how long a person has been experiencing homelessness and by what types of resources are available to them.

People experiencing chronic homelessness are defined as having been continually homeless for a year or more or having had four or more episodes of homelessness in the last three years. Rates of people experiencing chronic homelessness increased 15% from 2019, with 2020 being the first year since 2011 that the number passed 100,000 people. 

There are also two other subcategories of homelessness: sheltered and unsheltered. Sheltered refers to those who are residing in a publicly or privately owned shelter that provides temporary housing, like an emergency shelter, transitional housing or even a motel. Unsheltered refers to those residing in a place not designed for human habitation, like on the street or in cars, abandoned buildings or other makeshift shelters. 

People experiencing chronic homelessness are statistically more likely to fall into the unsheltered category. Rates of unsheltered homelessness also increased from 2019, by 7%. This rise in unsheltered homelessness is likely a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led shelters around the country to limit their capacity in order to allow for social distancing in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus. The measure, though reasonable in the context of the pandemic, left many unsheltered. 

Other support systems for people experiencing homelessness were limited by the pandemic as well, especially in the early months. Amid national lockdown orders, charities that offered food and warmth to the homeless shut down, and many volunteers at places like soup kitchens were afraid to work due to the risk of contracting COVID-19. Time magazine reports on this phenomenon of a social safety net shutdown in West Virginia, but similar things happened nationwide. Most indoor spaces were shut down, and unsheltered people living under a shelter-in-place order had nowhere to go. 

Cities around the country reported increasing death rates among their homeless populations. Some of the deaths resulted from COVID-19 itself, as many people experiencing homelessness have preexisting conditions that make them fall into the high-risk category for the disease. The lack of social support systems also contributed to the high death rates, as people had nowhere consistent to turn in times of freezing cold, or even when looking for basic resources like food. 

The pandemic has drawn attention to the severity of the homelessness crisis in the United States and to the necessity of social support systems, as well as programs designed to get people into housing. Some such programs, like California’s Project Roomkey and Project Homekey, were developed during the pandemic. However, government funding for these programs is often limited. There is hope that in 2021, governments will finally invest the money necessary to work toward ending homelessness. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order directing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should fully reimburse what states spend to house people in non-congregate shelters through September 2021. 

To Get Involved: 

To learn more about America’s homelessness crisis and how to solve it, visit the website of the National Alliance to End Homelessness here.

To find resources to support a homeless shelter in your area, visit the Homeless Shelter Directory here.

Rachel Lynch

Rachel is a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY currently taking a semester off. She plans to study Writing and Child Development. Rachel loves to travel and is inspired by the places she’s been and everywhere she wants to go. She hopes to educate people on social justice issues and the history and culture of travel destinations through her writing.

High Schools in Rome Increase Support for Transgender Students

In the Roman Catholic stronghold of Italy, Rome’s high school students have sped up the city’s journey toward acceptance of transgender individuals. 

Transgender flag. User:torbakhopper. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the high school community of Rome has been making strides toward the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights. Recently, a handful of high schools in the city have decided to allow transgender students the right to go by their chosen name. This is a stark change from the previous method of using a transgender person’s name given at birth, known as their “dead” name. The high schools that have made this change lag behind the city’s universities, with some colleges already having given transgender students the right. 

Although the act itself seems small, it is a substantial gesture within the context of the transgender community. Upon hearing the news, students have expressed great relief; many see this step as a beacon of hope toward full transgender visibility in Italy. The country’s LGBTQ+ community currently deals with hate crimes, some of which have been so violent that victims have required reconstructive surgery. For Italy, the flaw is in the law; there is a law prohibiting crimes based on religion and race, but none exists for acts based on gender or sexual orientation. The largest change benefiting the transgender community occurred in 1982, when the Sex Reassignment Act legalized that procedure. 

School officials in Rome believe that this change will help to protect students by creating a sense of security and peace in their learning environment. The first students to experience the change in rules hope that they will pave the way for an easier education for future transgender individuals, many of whom face large-scale bullying. 

In a study on LGBTQ+ tolerance conducted by the Williams Institute, Italy fell quite far behind some of its European counterparts. Italy sat at 30th place in the ranking while Iceland and the Netherlands snagged the first two slots. The prevalence of the Roman Catholic Church, which does not condone LGBTQ+ behavior, has much to do with the country’s lower score. 

This step has been a significant one for Italy, but much work remains to be done. With a smoother education now in store, these students hope that they are just the group to bring about further change. 

Ella Nguyen

Ella is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

Anti-Asian Hate Spreads Across the Western World

In the past year, hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen 149%. But attacks are also growing around the world, here CATALYST reports on incidents in Spain (where 2.9% of citizens of Asian descent have experienced hate crimes), Scotland, Canada and Australia.

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Oregon and Washington State Rethink the War on Drugs

A new law in Oregon decriminalized possession of small quantities of hard drugs. With Washington state possibly following its lead, the war on drugs might begin to be phased out.

Is the end in sight for the war on drugs? Thomas Martinsen. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Currently, an Oregon police officer cannot arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, meth, LSD or any other hard drug. Ballot Measure 110, voted into law last November, decriminalized the possession of small quantities of such substances. Instead of a felony conviction and jail time, a drug user caught red-handed will face either a $100 fine or a medical evaluation that could direct them to an Addiction Recovery Center (ARC). The new law fundamentally changes the state’s approach to epidemic rates of drug use and could revolutionize the role of Oregon’s police force. 

At its core, Ballot Measure 110 diverts drug users away from the criminal justice system and toward the health care system. The bill requires that a network of 15 ARCs be built to treat drug users and pair them with case workers who can help them reach sobriety. Funding for the ARCs will come, ironically, from tax revenue from legal marijuana sales. Oregon can expect a lot of money from such sales. In 2020, tax revenue from marijuana reached $133 million, a 30% increase from the previous year. Additionally, the state anticipates that more funds will appear as police stop pursuing arrests for drug possession.

The simple demotion of drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor will have lasting repercussions. Before, an Oregon police officer who saw a pipe in a car could justify searching the car for illegal substances, since the pipe was proof of a possible felony. Now that it would indicate only a misdemeanor, the officer cannot search the vehicle. Arrests will decrease sharply as a result. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission estimates that there will be 3,679 fewer arrests for possession per year, a 90.7% decrease. Distributors will still face criminal sentences since they possess drugs in large quantities, but users will receive health care, not jail time.

A disease, not a crime. Drugs Treatment Clinic Parus. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Building 15 ARCs by Oct. 1 will be a substantial challenge. Oregon will need to transition from addiction recovery programs focused on prisons to separate health care facilities that require supplies, staff and resources. Already, officers have made fewer arrests for possession to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons. Thousands of drug users who would have landed in jails will now be placed into ARCs. Many who argued against the ballot measure now question whether so many facilities can be built by October. 

They have other qualms, too. As crude as the criminal justice system can be, drug addicts who served time in prison often entered court-mandated treatment programs; this won’t happen now that drug possession is a misdemeanor. County sheriffs expressed concern at a potential surge in illegal drug use now that prison is not a deterrent. Since the ballot measure passed with 58.5% of the vote, it’s clear these arguments weren’t entirely persuasive. 

The least worst option? Michael Kappel. CC BY-NC 2.0.

For one, prison might be the worst place to overcome a drug dependency. An addict is thrust into an unfamiliar environment to undergo withdrawal, and they may cope with trauma by self-medicating when the opportunity arises. The risk for opioid overdose alone is 129 times higher than average in the first two weeks after being released from jail. As for a potential surge in drug use, multiple examples of decriminalization in other countries indicate that this will most likely not occur. After decriminalizing hard drugs in Portugal, rates of drug use remained steady, but drug deaths fell as the percentage of users treated for addiction rose 21% between 2001 and 2008. 

Criticisms of Ballot Measure 110 go beyond the issue of how to treat epidemic rates of drug addiction. They speak to a concern about the ability of Oregon’s health care infrastructure to manage the flow of drug users from prisons to ARCs. This transition plays into a more ambitious, long-term agenda that many advocates of Ballot Measure 110 advocate for: defunding the police. By turning criminals into patients, ARCs would take the issue of drug addiction and mental health crises away from police; Oregon is even considering an alternative to 911 that people can call for drug-related issues or mental health crises.          

A Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon. Matthew Roth. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Washington state is considering a similar transition with House Bill 1499, which if passed would decriminalize drugs much the same way as Oregon’s Ballot Measure 110. Revenue for Washington state’s ARCs would come not from marijuA Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon. Matthew Roth. CC BY-NC 2.0.ana sales but from taxes on pharmaceutical companies, which played a large role in starting the opioid epidemic. Washington state currently has a program designed to lead drug addicts away from the criminal justice system and into treatment centers, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. It differs from other diversion programs in that it provides care before, not after, an arrest and takes referrals from community members, not just law enforcement. Nationwide, the program has been held up as a model diversion program.

Both states will struggle to make a seamless transition from prisoners to patients. It requires reforming two systems that often become embroiled in partisan conflicts. When the Seattle City Council cut its police department’s budget by 11%, in part to fund diversion programs, 186 police officers quit in response. Oregon will labor to build 15 ARCs by October, even with abundant funding from marijuana sales. Despite the state’s efforts, success depends largely on ever-shifting political winds.

Michael McCarthy

Michael is an undergraduate student at Haverford College, dodging the pandemic by taking a gap year. He writes in a variety of genres, and his time in high school debate renders political writing an inevitable fascination. Writing at Catalyst and the Bi-Co News, a student-run newspaper, provides an outlet for this passion. In the future, he intends to keep writing in mediums both informative and creative.

When Travel Stopped, These Sustainable Travel Agencies Pivoted

COVID-19 has disrupted virtually all facets of what used to be considered “normal.” Over a year into the pandemic, millions cannot safely work in person, children face difficulties with online education and governments struggle to develop and administer vaccines.

An empty check-in area at Gatwick Airport near London. Mark Hodson Photos. CC BY 2.0.

One area significantly impacted by COVID-19 is the sustainable travel industry. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, air travel dropped by 60% in 2020 compared to 2019, with a $370 billion year-on-year loss worldwide.

But a broad array of sustainable and social action travel agencies, organizations which uplift the communities they bring groups of travelers to, have worked tirelessly to continue bolstering at-risk communities while weathering the many challenges of the pandemic.

Pivoting for a World Without Travel

As COVID-19 began to spread and governments imposed lockdown measures, travel agencies focused on sustainability and social action had to work quickly to pivot toward operating in an environment where travel was impossible.

“At first it was a ‘wait-and-see’ thing because it was uncertain how long it was going to last or how widespread it would be,” said Lindsay Booth, CEO of Off Season Adventures, an agency providing an immersive experience to empower travelers and destinations. “We were lucky we didn’t have anyone traveling when everything shut down … But obviously, everything got worse, so we touched base with our partners to make sure they were safe and see what their current situation was like. And then we talked to our travelers about postponing their trips.”

While some agencies initially canceled trips on a week-by-week basis, others, like G Adventures, a leading agency for small-group adventure travel, canceled or postponed all travel through the end of April 2020 without hesitation.

“We made the decision mid-March that we’re canceling until the end of April [because] there’s no reason to keep these tours if we don’t know,” said Casandra Rotunno, a consumer marketing specialist at G Adventures. “From there we kept it going on a monthly basis of canceling tours.”

Catarina Rivera, co-founder of ExplorEquity, an agency supporting local communities and connecting travelers to social justice issues, explained how shortly after the onset of the pandemic, her agency shifted its focus to creating virtual spaces for travelers to connect and talk about the recent loss of the ability to travel.

“We hosted [a series called] ‘Travel Lovers Happy Hour,’ where we invited people to come and share together,” Rivera said. “We invited a mental health expert to give tips at each one for how [travelers] could process what was going on and how they could approach planning for the future. [The expert] would respond directly to the sentiments people were sharing.”

Rivera also noted that ExplorEquity held a panel with the company’s partners in Brazil and Honduras, two countries where trips were canceled, to talk about how the countries were dealing with the uncertainty of the pandemic and how their travel partners’ communities were doing.

ExplorEquity was not the only agency to shift to completely virtual offerings. Beginning in April 2020, G Adventures launched virtual tours hosted by guides around the globe in countries like Italy, Costa Rica, Thailand and Japan.

“[The tours are] an hour on Zoom hosted by one of our [guides] and they remake a complete tour through Zoom and Google Earth and they include their own photos, they give you a welcome meeting and they hit all of the stops on the way—they condense this seven- to 10-day trip within an hour,” Rotunno explained. “And it's great because it allows our [guides] to work while they aren’t able to work within their country.”

Occasional Opportunities for Travel

Bus passengers in South Africa being screened before boarding. GovernmentZA. CC BY-ND 2.0.

As the pandemic continued into the summer, the spread of COVID-19 was uneven. While the United States maintained high case numbers, Europe saw significant declines, presenting opportunities for limited travel on the continent.

James Willcox, co-founder of Untamed Borders, a United Kingdom-based agency partnering with local communities in inaccessible parts of the world, explained how after the U.K. began permitting limited international travel without a mandatory quarantine, the agency was able to look into regions it had previously worked with to offer some in-person travel.

“There was a time where the U.K. had this list of countries where you didn’t have to quarantine upon return, and Turkey was one such country, and we [already] work in Syria, Iran and in Kurdish regions, so we [discussed] putting on a trip to Turkey in September,” Willcox said. “There’s a couple of areas which are stable where the [government] has some travel warnings against. Not that that’s what we look for, but [Turkey] looks like somewhere we could add value to and ensure people have a good experience where they can travel safely.”

Adventures also hosted several in-person experiences beginning in the summer when able to do so safely. The agency implemented new rebooking and cancellation policies to allow for greater flexibility given the pandemic’s uncertainty.

“We took our time in deciding to move forward with that,” Rotunno said, “and in the summer and fall Europe was able to travel within Europe. We had sailing trips for Europeans [with] everyone wearing masks, there’s extreme sanitation, the groups are smaller than usual, and it's all private transport as well. And then Costa Rica started to open up to travelers, then Tanzania and Egypt. So now it's dependent on if travelers are able to go.”

Focusing on Social Consciousness When It's Needed Most

Black Lives Matter demonstrators in London. Livvy Adjei. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

At the core of each of these agencies is a mission rooted in sustainability and social action. While COVID-19 has for the most part disrupted the in-person travel component of these agencies, they have continued to uplift and support the communities they work with.

“There’s something [Untamed Borders is] trying to push at the moment which is that travel has always been a privilege, and in these days you should kind of be appreciative and have some thought about it … consider where you’re going, consider what the impact is and the benefits are,” Willcox said.

Untamed Borders has followed suit through a number of projects it has been able to hold throughout the pandemic. In Afghanistan, the agency helped to organize the Marathon of Afghanistan, and started a tree-planting initiative to help combat deforestation.

ExplorEquity continues to engage with its travelers and the communities it supports through a shift in the online content produced. Rivera discussed how the agency’s social media platforms have been used to shed light on issues including racism in travel, climate change, equity issues for Indigenous communities and decolonization.

“Instead of talking on Instagram and Facebook about our upcoming trips, we’ve been talking about equity issues and highlighting different themes,” Rivera explained. “We’ve seen a lot of engagement and a lot of learning. People who are connected to us on social media have been commenting and sharing the content, and I think they’ve been enthusiastic about being exposed to new concepts or things they weren’t aware of. Even though we can’t travel the way we used to, I still think it's important to create better travelers.”

Promoting social consciousness within the travel community is not limited to sustainable travel agencies. Planeterra, a community tourism nonprofit seeking to reduce global poverty, has worked throughout the pandemic to support many of the same communities the sustainable travel industry works with.

“We looked at what our partners needed and what they’ve been requesting, what support they need that we would normally give in person,” said Rhea Simms, a program manager at Planeterra. “We built an online learning hub … for no budget. Our team compiled a hundred years of [combined] experience on what are the key opportunities, challenges and instructions we bring a community through when we launch and start a tour.”

Simms discussed how these virtual webinars and trainings have served as a way to work directly with partners around the globe, and noted how the pandemic has given the organization the opportunity to reevaluate its approach to volunteers.

“Planeterra’s never had the time or the right projects for volunteers to work with our partners, but having the time now, we’ve got volunteers working with us all around the world,” Simms said. “One just finished designing an e-cookbook for our partner in Jordan … We’re just completing a project with the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka, where we got funding from a partner we have there … It's a handicraft shop where over a hundred women from various backgrounds create beautiful handmade goods … and we’re finishing a project in Peru … doing some technical training with communities hoping to launch a tourism program in the coming years.”

Planeterra and G Adventures had been partners before the pandemic, a relationship made stronger as the two have collaborated on recent initiatives. Rotunno said G Adventures worked with Planeterra to raise over $100,000 at the beginning of the pandemic to fund some projects which were impacted by the inability to travel abroad.

“This time has allowed us to reflect on what works best, what has created the most impact … and begin to create the strategy of how we scale this and do it bigger, with the right people, with different organizations,” Simms explained. “This is a huge opportunity for us to facilitate this space for socially minded community enterprises that are trying to empower women or break down barriers for at-risk youth or celebrate Indigenous culture.”

Looking Toward a Post-Pandemic World

The sun setting in Samara, Costa Rica. John. CC BY-SA 2.0.

While there is no concrete timeline for the formal end of the pandemic and the beginning of a “new normal,” the distribution of 10 different vaccines worldwide as of March 17 signals the pandemic’s end will eventually become a reality. As countries receive and distribute COVID-19 vaccines to their citizens, international travel is expected to return.

But just because travel will be possible does not mean it will look the same as it did in the pre-COVID era. ExplorEquity ceased all group travel throughout the pandemic, a change made permanent going forward.

“We are shifting entirely away from group travel, so we’re not going to be offering those kinds of trips anymore,” Rivera said, noting the agency would be pivoting to an online store in March 2021. “What we’re going to be offering is [locally made] products as well as virtual experiences … The two experiences we’re starting with are both live, so you can still have the magic of a travel moment, creating a memory in a community with other people, through these experiences in a different way. And the benefit is that local communities can still earn income from this type of experience without receiving travelers in person.”

Other agencies are working to schedule prospective trips in 2021 and beyond, anticipating possible delays in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. Off Season Adventures has begun planning new trips, taking into account the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s guidelines and safety measures from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have people planning to travel in June of this year, and we’re still keeping that open because we’re really still not sure what’s going to happen,” Booth said. “They’re planning to go to Tunisia. Tunisia has been closed to Americans for most of this, so we’ll just have to see.”

Given how far in advance most of its offerings need to be planned, Off Season Adventures is also working on coordinating with travelers who reach out to them to plan trips to Asia and Africa in 2022 and 2023.

Every agency interviewed expressed optimism for the future. While travel has been a temporary casualty of COVID-19, it has also brought folks together around the issues of sustainability, social consciousness and justice. The unique ways in which every agency pivoted to continue serving communities around the world show how versatile this industry is, and how vital the cause of uplifting marginalized communities remains today.

Jacob Sutherland

Jacob is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.

Vienna Rocks On at the World’s Largest Music Festival

Austria’s Danube Island Festival attracts around 3 million visitors annually. The festival spans three days, offers all kinds of music, and is completely free to attend. 

Each year at the end of June, millions of people flock to an island in Vienna for a three-day musical event. The Danube Island Festival, as the event is known, is the world’s biggest open-air music festival, attracting over 3.3 million visitors every year. The festival hosts more than 2,000 musicians across three days and 19 stages, contains numerous food and souvenir stalls, and essentially turns the island into a giant, booming party—and admission is free. 

The Danube Island Festival is held on Danube Island, a 13-mile man-made island located between the Danube River and a parallel, excavated channel known as the New Danube. When the island was created in 1972, its primary function was to serve as part of Vienna’s flood prevention system; the Danube crosses the city, so flooding is a major concern. Now Danube Island is a hub of recreation, complete with beaches, a trampoline center, a climbing park, a network of trails, and a few bars and restaurants. Danube Island is also full of wide green spaces, which easily become the venues for the Danube Island Festival. The island is located only a few minutes away from Vienna’s city center, making it a wonderful venue, as festivalgoers can stay in the city and sightsee while still having quick access to the festival grounds. 

What would grow into the world’s biggest music festival began as a promotional event for Danube Island. In 1983, Austrian politician Harry Kopietz introduced the idea of a one-day party on Danube Island to demonstrate its value as a recreational area. Event organizers expected around 15,000 people to show up and were stunned when the party had over 160,000 attendees. Since the event was wildly successful, it was held again the following year, and the number of visitors nearly doubled. The Danube Island Festival has been an annual event ever since, and has steadily grown in popularity to reach the millions of visitors it has today. The festival also increased in length from one day to three, to accommodate the number of visitors and to provide more performances. 

The festival offers music for everyone, from little-known local bands to world-famous headliners and everything in between, in a multitude of genres. In past years, there have even been performances from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Headliners have also included the Backstreet Boys and Simple Minds, as well as a number of artists famous among German speakers. 

Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t put a stop to the Danube Island Festival, which occurred in alternate form in 2020. Instead of one large three-day event, the 2020 festival took place over 80 days and throughout Vienna; a double-decker bus with an open-air stage on top toured the city, bringing over 200 live performances to the Viennese people. For 2021, the festival is scheduled to take place from Sept. 17-19 in a hybrid format. The double-decker performance bus will be back roaming the city from August to September, and festival organizers hope to hold a scaled-down version of the festival with mostly local acts if public health permits. 

Rachel Lynch

Rachel is a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY currently taking a semester off. She plans to study Writing and Child Development. Rachel loves to travel and is inspired by the places she’s been and everywhere she wants to go. She hopes to educate people on social justice issues and the history and culture of travel destinations through her writing.

The Immense Impact of COVID-19 on Global Poverty

A pair of boys carry water near a refugee camp in Jowhar, Somalia. The COVID-19 pandemic has made conditions for marginalized groups such as refugees more dire. World Humanitarian Summit. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For the past 30 years, the world has been able to make immense progress in international development, with the amount of people living in extreme poverty (making below $1.90 a day) declining from 36% in 1990 to just 10% in 2015. The COVID-19 pandemic is reversing that. For the first time in three decades global poverty is on the rise, and up to half a billion people are now at risk of falling into poverty due to the coronavirus. Even more concerning is the matter of where the economic impacts of the virus are being felt the hardest, with the “global south” countries facing the highest risk of increased poverty for what could be years to come. 

In 2015, the U.N. adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included 17 goals acting as guidelines for the sustainable and equitable development of all member states. Known as the “sustainable development goals” (SDGs), the international community hoped that they would act as a framework for reducing inequality and promoting economic development. Poverty reduction is at the forefront of this initiative, with SDG 1 calling for the end of global poverty. That goal will most likely not be achieved by 2030. 

Even before the spread of the coronavirus, countries were not on track to completely eliminate poverty, with the U.N. estimating that 6% of the world population will still live in extreme poverty in 2030. Furthermore, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made that goal even more difficult. In 2020 alone, more than 71 million people have fallen into extreme poverty, and millions more worldwide will likely fall into the same trap as the economic disruptions of the pandemic linger for years to come. 

(T)he number of school-age children facing food insecurity has increased by more than 320 million

The aggregate numbers do not portray the full extent of the impacts of COVID-19 on international development. Regions already susceptible to extreme poverty are being hit hardest by the economic impacts of the pandemic. According to the United Nations University, a 10% contraction in global per capita income would cause between 180 and 280 million people to fall into extreme poverty. However, the situation becomes more dire when one considers where people are expected to face increased rates of extreme poverty. Again assuming a 10% contraction, it is estimated that up to 85% of those newly living in poverty would be located in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia alone. These regions already face disproportionate levels of poverty relative to their populations. For example, the African continent accounts for only 13% of the world population yet makes up over half of those living in extreme poverty. 

Those who were already at an increased risk for poverty, such as refugees, informal workers and those living in underdeveloped rural communities, are especially vulnerable to economic disruptions caused by the virus. The International Labor Organization estimates that between 5 and 25 million people could lose their jobs, which would create severe impacts for marginalized workers such as women and migrants. Additionally, the number of school-age children facing food insecurity has increased by more than 320 million according to the World Food Program.

The data shows a worrying trend that the international community must contend with to eliminate global poverty. Since the 1990s, the world has worked together to lift billions of people out of poverty and increase the global standard of living. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has once again created a barrier to making a poverty-free future possible. The full extent of the virus’s impact has yet to be seen. However, what is already known is its effect on human livelihood, especially for those who are most at risk. The pandemic has created a new challenge for the international community if it wants to make extreme poverty a thing of the past. Yet, what can be achieved with global cooperation is immense, and the world’s vision for a sustainable future is still possible; it just might take a little bit longer than hoped for.

Aerex Narvasa

Aerex is a current student at Occidental College majoring in Diplomacy and World Affairs with a minor in East Asian Studies. He is passionate about sharing people’s stories through writing, and always strives to learn about new places and cultures. Aerex loves finding new music and exploring his hometown of Los Angeles in his free time.

Canada Suspends Flights to Vacation Destinations as COVID Continues to Spread

An Air Canada plane at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport. Caribb. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On Jan. 29, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the government had reached an agreement with major airlines to suspend all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30, and updated COVID-19 safety precautions for returning travelers. Canada reported 4,690 daily cases nationwide on the day of the announcement, the majority of which came from Ontario and Quebec, the country’s two most populous provinces.

The suspension of flights was agreed upon by Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing Airlines and Air Transat, representing four of the country’s largest carriers.

Trudeau likewise outlined new pandemic safety guidelines for travelers returning to the country. Starting the week of Feb. 1, all international passenger flights were restricted to arriving only in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal. Travelers also must take a PCR test upon arrival to Canada, and need to quarantine for up to three days in an approved hotel at their own expense while waiting for their test results.

The prime minister also alluded to further restrictions to be announced as soon as the end of the month.

“We will also, in the coming weeks, be requiring nonessential travelers to show a negative test before entry at the land border with the U.S., and we are working to stand up additional testing requirements for land travel,” Trudeau said.

Before the announcement, Canada already required that everyone arriving in the country present a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of travel and self-isolate for 14 days.

The new changes come as travel between Canada and popular vacation destinations has continued despite the ongoing pandemic. The trend has been even more apparent in the U.S., where a number of major carriers have expanded flights to the Caribbean and Mexico in response to increased demand to the region at a time when airlines have closed routes to other parts of the country.

“[T]he safety of flying during the pandemic remains largely unknown”

Throughout 2020, travelers continued to vacation in Mexico and the Caribbean, evading pandemic safety guidelines and in some cases, such as with American college student Skylar Mack, violating quarantine laws in the destination countries.

To the government’s credit, the U.S. did begin requiring negative COVID tests for entry into the country on Jan. 26. However, the government has yet to limit flights out of the country to popular vacation destinations as Canada has done.

According to Vox journalist Abraar Karan, the safety of flying during the pandemic remains largely unknown, as data on in-flight spread is not readily available a year into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“In Canada, infections and exposures on flights are far more readily documented, with a nearly daily list of flights that had infected passengers,” Karan writes. “The U.S. would benefit from doing the same, although this needs to be coupled with rapid contact tracing as well.”

It is unclear yet as to whether or not the U.S. will follow Canada’s lead and adopt stricter pandemic travel policies. The State Department recommended on Jan. 26 that Americans limit their travel abroad, but stopped short of a full suspension.

“The Department of State is committed to helping U.S. citizens overseas who find themselves in dire situations, but that assistance is likely to be limited,” Bureau of Consular Affairs Acting Assistant Secretary Ian Brownlee said on Jan 26. “Our goal is to help people avoid those dire straits in the first place.”

Travel is expected to pick up around the globe as more people receive vaccines, many of which have begun to be distributed in the global north. For now, however, travelers from any country are highly recommended to evaluate the safety and necessity of their travel before leaving.

Jacob Sutherland

Jacob is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.