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.

How Not to Volunteer Abroad: An Interview with Author Pippa Biddle

In her new book, “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and the Paradox of Voluntourism,” Pippa Biddle asks travelers and volunteers to look at the ways their actions affect the global community.

Philippa (Pippa) Biddle is the author of “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and The Paradox of Voluntourism.” Her freelance work has been published by Guernica, The Atlantic, Wired, BBC Travel, AMC Outdoors, Maine magazine and more. You can preorder “Ours to Explore” here. 

Biddle sat down with CATALYST Sarah Leidich to discuss her latest book and offer her take on voluntourism.

Q: What inspired you to write this book? 

A: For me, so much of working on the book was trying to call people into a conversation and call out the industry and not the individual. With voluntourism, so much of the critique has been focused on specific people. 

It actually wasn’t my idea. I wrote a piece called “The Problems of the White Girls” that went viral and a literary agent reached out who suggested that there was a book in it. I spent about a year working with them on a proposal before I realized the book they wanted me to write was not the book I was interested in writing. They really wanted me to write a how-to-do-it-better, and I didn’t want anyone to do it. So why would I take an entire book to do that? But the process of working with them really showed me that there was a book in this—that there was enough material, enough research, enough interest to have a book. 

Q: Before we talk about avoiding it or preventing it, can you define contemporary colonialism? How does it function today?

A: To me, contemporary colonialism is the continuation of colonial ideologies and empires into today. The reason that I use the phrase “contemporary colonialism” as opposed to neocolonialism is because oftentimes, the way we think about colonialism today is informed by and yet somehow held separate from the colonialism of the past and empire-building of the past, specifically empire-building done by Western European and North American powers. In North America, primarily the United States. To me, that differentiation between past and present is completely false. 

It actually allows us to de-implicate ourselves, and by ourselves I mean people who are residents of powerful nations, beneficiaries of power dynamics, and travelers and voluntourists. Contemporary colonialism is simply a different phrase that refers to colonialism that I hope better amplifies the fact that there is that unbroken thread between past colonialism and present colonialism—it’s just modified itself for the present-day environment. 

Q: Is it possible for volunteers to travel abroad without engaging in contemporary colonialism? 

A: I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to travel anywhere without engaging in contemporary colonialism, but engaging with something isn’t in and of itself necessarily problematic. However, you have to recognize it to begin to address the problems with it when it is problematic. Just the fact that some people can travel for leisure and some cannot is an engagement with contemporary colonialism. The fact that I can, pre-pandemic and probably still right now, go to Tanzania and arrive and get a tourist visa for probably $100 and be in the door, but someone from Tanzania cannot reciprocate that action in the United States, is an example of contemporary colonialism, regardless of whether I’m going there to be a volunteer or go on a safari. 

Q: What steps can travelers, especially privileged travelers, take to avoid acts that perpetuate the harmful side effects of travel? 

A: I think that one of the biggest things we need to ask ourselves before booking a trip somewhere is “why are we going there?” I think a lot of travelers don’t take that moment to ask themselves “why do I need to go to this place?” And once they answer that question, to make decisions that fulfill their “why” in the most respectful way possible, which sometimes means not going. For example, if I were to say I really want to go to Ecuador because I’m really fascinated by Ecuadorian cuisine, then if I were to go to Ecuador, I should be focused on eating at restaurants that are owned and run and staffed by Ecuadorians. This sounds like an obvious thing, but most tourists don’t do that extra step. They go somewhere and eat at the places that are easy, that have the menu in English, that the resort has on their short list. The resort is probably foreign-owned, so the restaurants are probably owned by people associated with the resort. 

The whole idea that travel should be something leisurely is really off-base. Travel is not a leisure activity. Travel is an activity that demands conscious engagement and thoughtful consideration, and as long as we treat it as something that is in the same realm as a relaxing day on the beach in your hometown—if you happen to live by the beach—we’re going to be doing it in ways that are disrespectful. 

Q: You write about the tension between communities sometimes believing that voluntourists and missionaries are actually doing good work and then the harmful reality of this kind of travel, volunteering and missionary work. Is there a way to reconcile the relationship between intention, perception and outcome?

A: In the book I use the term “pathological altruism.” Pathological altruism really speaks to this tension, because it is the inability to see that something you are doing with the intention of the impact being positive is having a negative impact, and through that inability to see it, insisting on continuing to do it regardless. I think that the intention to do good is a very good core intention and stripping back to that core intention is a really positive thing, but the idea that intention should be immediately followed by action is misguided. 

I used to work for the Jane Goodall Institute doing educational programming, and one of the things that we brought into classrooms a lot was a thing we called the “Knowledge-Compassion-Action Cycle.” The Knowledge-Compassion-Action Cycle is basically the idea that when we learn about something, we begin to care about it, and once we care about it, we are able to act in the best possible way, and through action you will learn more knowledge. I think a lot of people are skipping that middle part of true, deep knowledge and care. For example, with children in orphanages, if people who chose to volunteer in an orphanage cared about child welfare, and they’re jumping to the idea of volunteering at orphanage, that shows me that they haven’t gone through the knowledge procession and they haven’t gone through the compassion process, because there is no way you go from child welfare to orphanage if you’ve actually gone through that process. It’s trying to integrate more time and education and slowness into what we care about so that we have that time for knowledge and compassion to develop before we choose to take action. 

Q: So if knowledge is developed and compassion is developed, and travelers are moving through the communities with intent, are there changes to the voluntourism industry you would like to see? 

A: Something that makes me nervous about suggesting changes to the voluntourism industry is that it could be misconstrued as me saying that if the industry were to make those changes, it would be OK. That is not what I’m saying. However, there are things that can be done to mitigate the harm as we slowly dismantle voluntourism. The first thing, hands down, is to stop working with kids. Unfortunately, a lot of the trip providers that have stopped working with orphanages have simply pivoted and now take volunteers to work with youth groups, so the only thing that’s changed is that it’s not a residential environment, but so many of the same issues still exist. Honestly, if voluntourism stops working with kids, a fair amount of the market for voluntourism will dry up because the number one thing people want to do on these trips is work with kids. If that is not an option, the industry will shrink. 

Parallel to that, I am adamant that prospective voluntourists deeply engage in the education around what they’re taking part in. One of the things I write about in the book is the “EdGE” platform by Omprakash, which is a nonprofit. EdGE is their learning platform, and EdGE is not perfect and Omprakash is not perfect, and Willy Oppenheim, the founder, is the first to admit that. But it provides trip providers and educational institutions that are facilitating voluntourism, as well as individual travelers that are going on their own, with a curriculum that attempts to educate them on some issues like White privilege and the White savior complex prior to them getting on the ground, so they go through the learning curve that I had years after going before they even go. Does that mean they will not be part of the White savior complex and White privilege? No, but it is a really important step. 

Q: How would you encourage people who are looking to be philanthropic or looking to help? What would you say to them? 

A: Think global, act local. Learn about global issues, engage in global conversations, learn about places, travel as a tourist who is respectful and thoughtful, but you have to remember that even the opportunity to travel is a privilege. If we have this idea that the only way to help is by going somewhere else, we are discounting billions of people on this planet who simply don’t have access to that opportunity. So think global, and then when you choose to act, look locally. 

Sarah Leidich

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Sarah is currently an English and Film major at Barnard College of Columbia University. Sarah is inspired by global art in every form, and hopes to explore the intersection of activism, art, and storytelling through her writing. 

Chernobyl Becomes a Symbol of Resilience, 35 Years After Disaster

Time and time again, humans have been ravaged by disaster, only to successfully prove their resilience. Thirty-five years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Ukrainians appear eager to rewrite their story. 

The abandoned streets of Chernobyl, Ukraine. Pedro Moura Pinheiro. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 marked chaos for the Soviet Union and still influences modern-day Ukraine. The accident was caused by a series of technical faults, resulting in a nuclear explosion that spewed radioactive substances into the air. Chernobyl stands as the most devastating nuclear incident to have ever occurred, with 31 deaths as a direct result of the meltdown, 4,000 cancer deaths from exposure to radiation and millions affected in various other ways. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Chernobyl will now function as a nuclear waste site.

Now, at the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Ukrainians are determined to move forward. Life has slowly begun to return to the area; the “exclusion zone” stands as a prime example of the resilience of nature. What was once a deadly zone, marked as a no man’s land, now abounds with life. Radiation levels in the area have decreased over the years, creating a nature preserve of sorts—elk, deer and other wildlife graze throughout the empty space. 

As frightening as Chernobyl may seem, locals have moved back. Elderly residents have returned to the surrounding area despite being advised against it; for them, the comfort of home outweighs the peril of living in the region. These residents stand as a reminder of the power—and the risks—that follow one’s determination. 

Officials in Ukraine hope that Chernobyl will be added as a World Heritage Site, as many residents believe that the outsize influence of the site merits its inclusion. 

Once wholly abandoned, Chernobyl and the nearby town of Pripyat allow visitors today. Travelers come to the site and find an unconventional experience; the disaster has created a reflective tone, as Chernobyl’s tragic history sheds light on the lows of human struggle and the highs of human triumph. 

On April 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Chernobyl will now function as a nuclear waste site. It is projected that the nuclear waste site will save Ukraine about $200 million per year. 

Zelenskyy also promised to “transform the exclusion zone, as Chernobyl is referred to, into a revival zone.” While it won’t be easy, Ukraine intends to move on from the past and head toward a stronger future.

As time passes, many tragic incidents of history dissolve from the spotlight. With revival on the horizon, Ukraine hopes for a triumph at Chernobyl.

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.

COVID-19 Slows Africa’s Progress Against Poaching

Poaching is a last resort for villagers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Conservationists now struggle to preserve endangered species. 

A valuable commodity. valentinastorti. CC BY-NC 2.0.

They march through the field with chainsaws, the rhinos sedated. What follows is no gruesome act of poaching. It’s the exact opposite. Workers at the Spioenkop Nature Reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province rev their chainsaws and go to work sawing off the rhino horns. “It has a face mask put on it to cover its vision, it has earplugs put into its ears [...] so that reduces trauma to the animal,” says Mark Gerrard of Wildlife ACT, a nonprofit that protects African wildlife. “We’ve got to remind ourselves that this [a rhino’s horn] is just keratin—this is really just fingernails.” 

These rhinos’ horns will grow back in 18 to 24 months, but in the meantime, poachers won’t hunt them for the priceless commodity. Armed with only chainsaws and sedatives, the conservationists at the reserve are combating Africa’s interminable poaching problem. If a rhino has no horns, poachers have no reason to kill it. This fact doesn’t make the job any easier. “It is a traumatic experience for us,” Gerrard says, “not for the rhino.”

Spioenkop Nature Reserve has fared unusually well in its fight against poaching. Out of 15,600 rhinos in South Africa, 1,175 were killed by poachers in 2014. In 2015, the country began dehorning rhinos to considerable success. By 2019, the number of dead rhinos had fallen to 594. By 2020, it was 394. Nevertheless, Gerrard defines a truly successful dehorning effort as “zero animals poached.”

Two big cats, two big trophies. DappleRose. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

It will be a hard goal to reach. After COVID-19 effectively shut down international travel, tourism revenue in Africa plummeted, leaving conservationists cash-strapped in their anti-poaching campaigns. Spioenkop Nature Reserve has struggled to patrol its vast territory, but the issue goes beyond just South Africa. Wildlife tourism generates $29 billion each year and employs 3.6 million workers across Africa. The lack of sufficient funds for anti-poaching efforts is a continent-wide problem.

In Zambia’s Kafue National Park, poaching takes place at the edges of the park, where patrols have been cut back. In 2020, the park reported a 170% increase in snares, which snag wild cats. That same year, two lions were killed while none had been slain the year before. More disconcerting, patrollers increasingly find poached animals gored for “buck meat.” Poor local villagers, desperate from COVID-19 lockdowns, have joined poachers in the hunt to earn a living and put food on the table.

By and large, however, poaching is the work of international crime syndicates working in the black market. Some conservationists advocate legalizing the sale of poached items such as rhino horns and ivory to lower the market value, reducing profits for poachers. In Kenya, courts have buffed up their prosecution efforts, leading to a precipitous drop in poaching. Dedicated legal teams actively pursue convictions for poaching, and those caught red-handed face long prison sentences and fines of up to $200,000. Still, the black market provides lucrative opportunities for locals willing to break the law in hopes of amassing a fortune. A 35-pound black rhino horn can be worth up to $2 million. For poor Africans, the opportunity is often irresistible. 

Confiscated rhino horns. USFWS Headquarters. CC BY 2.0.

At Mpala, a research center in central Kenya, patrols have adopted a digital approach to combat rampant poaching. They use the SMART app (spatial monitoring and reporting tool) to track every animal a patrol encounters—alive or dead. It also allows them to track people seen infiltrating the parks. Conservationists are attempting to make up in brainpower what they lack in manpower; less tourism revenue led to slashed budgets, which meant fewer patrols. However, park managers agree that addressing the root cause of poaching, poverty, is the best solution to the problem. In this regard, nobody seems to have an answer.

So the traumatic work of sawing off rhino horns in Spioenkop continues. “We cannot let our guard down,” says Elise Serfontein of the organization Stop Rhino Poaching. “The kingpins and illicit markets are still out there, and even losing one rhino a day means that they are chipping away at what’s left of our national herd.” With one rhino’s horn sheared to a nub, the team moves on to the next. The rhino sleeps in the field as they approach. One member revs the chainsaw and begins cutting. White flakes flutter through the air like dust. 

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.

LGBTQ+ Intolerance in Ghana Reaches Boiling Point 

Tensions within the West African country have risen following the recent restriction of LGBTQ+ rights, resurfacing the decades long discussion regarding the criminalization of same-sex conduct.   

Pride flag waving in the sky. Tim Bieler. Unsplash. 

The newly established office of nonprofit organization LGBT+ Rights Ghana was raided and searched by police last month, endangering one of the only safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people in the country. This raid came mere days after Ghanaian journalist Ignatius Annor came out as gay on live television, and many have speculated that the raid was in retaliation of that moment. 

Given Ghana’s criminalization of same-sex conduct, it is not a stretch to say that homophobia runs rampant and unchecked, especially when considering the widespread opposition from both government officials and religious figures regarding the construction of the center for LGBT+ Rights Ghana.   

The building has been under scrutiny since it first opened back in January. Only three weeks after opening its doors to the public, the organization had to temporarily close in order to protect its staff and visitors from angry protesters. The director of the organization, Alex Kofi Donkor, explained how the community “expected some homophobic organizations would use the opportunity to exploit the situation and stoke tensions against the community, but the anti-gay hateful reaction has been unprecedented.”   

This unprovoked suppression of basic freedoms indicates that LGBTQ+ intolerance in Ghana has reached a boiling point and is about to bubble over. 

Aerial shot of Accra, Ghana. Virgyl Sowah. Unsplash. 

News of the situation reached a handful of high-profile celebrities such as Idris Elba and Naomi Campbell, who joined 64 other public figures in publishing an open letter of solidarity with the Ghanaian LGBTQ+ community using #GhanaSupportsEquality. While prejudice has only recently garnered public attention due to the letter, blatant and widespread homophobia in Ghana has run rampant for years. 

According to a study conducted by the Human Rights Watch in 2017, hate crimes and assault due to one's sexual identity are regular occurrences in Ghana. Dozens of people have been attacked by mobs and even family members out of mere speculation that they were gay. Furthermore, the study found that for women, much of this aggressive homophobia was happening behind closed doors through the pressures of coerced marriage. 

Consider 24-year-old Khadija, who identifies as lesbian and will soon begin pursuing relationships with men due to the societal pressure for women to marry. Or 21-year-old Aisha, who was exiled by her family and sent to a “deliverance” church camp after she was outed as lesbian. 

Marriage pressures and intolerances are certainly prevalent in other countries as well, even in those often deemed progressive. The big difference is that in many countries, homophobic beliefs are slowly becoming less and less common. In Ghana, it seems as though these sentiments are normalized and held by the majority of people. 

The precedent for discrimination based on sexual orientation was set as early as 2011, when former Western Region minister Paul Evans Aidoo called for the immediate arrest of LGBTQ+ people in the area. The stigma that actions like this produced in Ghana have only been amplified over time when coupled with religious and cultural tensions. 

A rainbow forms above a home in Kumasi, Ghana. Ritchie. Unsplash. 

Many victims of hate crimes or abuse in Ghana reported that because of the codified homophobia in the country, they are unable to report their experiences to local authorities without putting themselves in danger. As a result, LGBTQ+ Ghanaians find themselves stuck in a perpetual cycle of making slight progress just for higher authorities to snatch it away. 

There have been countless opportunities for legalized discrimination to be addressed, and ever since current Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo assumed office in 2017, he has been under immense pressure to announce his official position on homosexuality. Four years later, he has still not done so.

Instead of embracing the shift toward more inclusive policies supported by LGBT+ Rights Ghana, the Ghanaian government appears to be succumbing to public pressures in an attempt to keep peace. What it fails to realize is that sweeping inequalities under the carpet doesn’t make them go away. It actually does quite the opposite. It heightens inequalities until they become absolutely impossible to avoid. Celebrity involvement in dismantling Ghana’s current system has caused quite the public reaction. It may end up being the spark that causes the Ghanaian government to reconsider its policies and begin to offer LGBTQ+ people the respect and protection they deserve. 

Zara Irshad

Zara is a third year Communication student at the University of California, San Diego. Her passion for journalism comes from her love of storytelling and desire to learn about others. In addition to writing at CATALYST, she is an Opinion Writer for the UCSD Guardian, which allows her to incorporate various perspectives into her work.

In 2020, Femicide Rates Rose Around the Globe

Last year, the U.N. reported a significant increase in domestic violence against women and girls worldwide. Rates of femicide, the murder of women because they are women, have increased greatly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Last year, countries around the world saw protests decrying the increase of violence against women. A number of these protests were sparked by femicides that made headlines, like the murders of Vanessa Guillen in the United States, Pinar Gultekin in Turkey and Tshegofatso Pule in South Africa. Guillen, an Army private, is believed to have been killed by another service member who likely also sexually assaulted her, and Gultekin and Pule both died at the hands of a current or former boyfriend. These women were only three of a reported 50,000 women who die as a result of domestic violence each year. 

In 2020, that number increased further. The U.N. reported that reports of domestic violence as a whole dramatically increased, with 243 million women around the world being subjected to sexual and/or physical violence within the year. That figure only includes women and girls aged 15 to 49, so the real total worldwide is even higher, since women outside that age range experience violence as well. 64-year-old Justina Galo Urtecho, who was raped and strangled to death in her home in Costa Rica, stands as a prominent example. The rise in violence against women, especially domestic violence, is directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns over security, health and money, as well as the series of lockdowns in many countries, have all contributed to an increase in cases of domestic violence. Due to the pandemic, women and girls worldwide found themselves stuck at home in abusive situations. 

Since France’s March 17, 2020, lockdown, cases of domestic violence have increased 30%. Emergency calls to domestic violence helplines in Argentina, Cyprus and Singapore increased 25%, 30% and 33%, respectively, after the countries instituted lockdowns. 

Many women who were victims of domestic violence ended up dead. During the first two months of its lockdown, Brazil saw a 22% increase in femicides from the same time last year. In Mexico, at least 987 women and girls were murdered in the first four months of 2020 alone. 

At the same time that the pandemic led to an increase in violence against women, it also compromised the care that women facing domestic violence had access to. With health care providers and governments overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, the U.N. report suggests that support for women who experienced violence slipped through the cracks. 

The United Nations has dubbed the increase of domestic violence and femicide that followed the COVID-19 pandemic “the Shadow Pandemic,” and urges that national responses to COVID-19 include services to address violence against women and girls. The U.N. Shadow Pandemic Campaign recommends that countries follow five steps to combat the increase of violence against women: 

  1. Allocate resources in COVID-19 response plans to addressing violence against women.

  2. Strengthen support services for women who experience violence by treating them as essential services.

  3. Increase the capacity of key support services.

  4. Put women at the center of policy reform. 

  5. Collect data on the phenomenon to inform governments’ responses.

Violence against women is an ongoing issue around the world. It did not start when the pandemic did; it simply increased. Similarly, violence against women will not end when the pandemic does. Reports suggest that the most effective way to prevent femicide is to end intimate partner violence, which necessitates addressing global gender inequality and power imbalances as a whole. 

To Get Involved: 

A list of ways to take action with the U.N.’s Shadow Pandemic Campaign can be found 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.

Altered Photos of Cambodian Genocide Victims Spark Outrage

Too often history is viewed as an element of the past—chains of unchangeable events that can be analyzed and nothing more. However, it is important that victims of past atrocities are honored, a lesson in which modern media has fallen short. 

Unaltered photos of Khmer Rouge genocide victims at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Christian Haugen. CC BY 2.0.

With the advancements of the digital age, the culture of media has grown ever more rapid, often leading to negative consequences. In a recent incident, history itself took center stage as one photographer’s actions sparked massive outrage among victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide, which led to the deaths of more than 2 million Cambodians in the late 1970s. 

Vice published the work of photographer Matt Loughrey, who edited photos of victims from the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh taken minutes before their executions. Loughrey has been accused of editing the photos so that they show smiling faces, creating waves of backlash for the photographer. 

Torture room. Timoluege. CC BY-NC 2.0. 

Upset relatives of the photographed victims stated that Loughrey’s work was of horrible judgment, citing his acts as degrading the dignity of the victims. Cambodian officials too were outraged upon seeing the photos; the country’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts threatened legal action. In addition to insensitive alterations of the photos, the Vice article misidentified one of the victims, publishing incorrect personal details. 

Victims’ skulls. istolethetv. CC BY 2.0.

Others have declared the actions of Loughrey to be crimes against history itself, stating the alterations to be offensive to truth. 

VICE has since removed the photos, citing errors in the company’s editorial process. 

The Bigger Picture 

Beyond the first waves of anger resulting from this incident, larger lessons have been learned by all involved. Primarily, the incident has brought to light a flaw in the way people view history; although history is an analysis of past events, it must be equally weighted against potential consequences for the victims themselves. Second, it highlights that history is not always entirely of the past—there are still over 5 million Khmer Rouge victims living, along with millions of other descendants and close community members. Third, it brings up the question of what should be considered acceptable when it comes to altering representations of history. Is there wiggle room for subjectivity, or should all journalistic representations be as objective as possible? 

Amid the turmoil and animosity between the opposing sides of this conflict, some light still remains. The incident stands as a crucial reminder for everyone that the analysis of history can be as much a weapon as a tool. It remains up to the media, and their audiences, to use the past appropriately.

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.

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.

Plastic Surgery Thrives in War-Torn Afghanistan

For the middle class in Afghanistan, the popularity of plastic surgery is growing. Botox injections, breast implants and liposuction are options for mostly women, and even families trying to beautify their daughters to marry them off more easily.

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Ten Years After Nuclear Disaster, Recovery Remains Distant in Fukushima

The tsunami and ensuing meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant forced thousands to flee their homes. A decade later, some locals have returned home, but full recovery remains remote.

A tsunami’s wreckage. UCLAnewsroom. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Upon returning home after 10 years away, Masumi Kowata found a monkey in her living room. It wasn’t a joyful homecoming. In 2011, she evacuated her home along with 160,000 locals across Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. A cloud of radiation, spewing from three simultaneous meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, rendered swaths of land uninhabitable. Only in 2021 did the government allow she and her husband to return. Even then, it was only safe for them to visit for the day. Clad head to toe in plastic protective gear, she tread cautiously through the wreckage of an earthquake, a tsunami and neglect: a house shaken by earthquake, food left to rot for a decade, overgrown plants vining up the walls. The monkey had helped itself to Kowata’s belongings. It pranced around the room “wearing our clothes like the king of the house.”

A house under nature’s dominion. colincookman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Wild animals have overtaken “difficult-to-return” zones, as the government termed them. Such areas encompass 2.4% of Fukushima prefecture and experience 50 times more radiation than what is considered safe. Boars, raccoon dogs and macaques roam the dangerously radioactive neighborhoods oblivious to the damage but unfettered by human life. They can cross streets without fear of speeding cars and feed on the produce of untended gardens, long overgrown. Human beings have returned much more slowly. Currently, the zones remain stuck in time at the moment of disaster. 

The tsunami crashing through Minamisoma, Fukushima. Warren Antiola. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Agriculture struggles to recover as a result. Boars descended from the nearby mountains and invaded farms and rice paddies to feast on the crops. Hunters struggle to control the wild boar population. That is to say, they shoot as many as possible. “When I got married and was about to have my first child,” said one elderly boar hunter, “my mother said to me, ‘You’re going to be a father. Stop killing. Is that really the right thing to do?’ I stopped hunting then.” Now, he ventures out each day to beat back nature’s 10-year-long advance on Fukushima’s villages. “My town is abandoned and overrun with radiated boars,” he says. “It is my duty to help.”

The tasks of hunting down boars, tending to radioactive cattle and repopulating deserted towns fall to the few who have returned. Of the 160,000 who were evacuated after the meltdowns, only one-fourth plan to return. Most of them are elderly. The majority of evacuees found it easier to settle down elsewhere than endure a yearslong wait to return home. Young people especially favored big cities filled with jobs over their provincial hometowns, a trend that predated the disaster. In the nine years before the meltdowns, Fukushima’s population declined by 100,000. In the nine years after, it fell by another 180,000.

An elderly man with a picture of his late wife. Al-Jazeera English. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Local communities feel the absence of locals. As residents begin to plan for the future, they struggle to build a new community amid the ruins of an old one. Ancestral homes sit empty. Classrooms are frozen in time at the moment of the tsunami. Farmers spent generations breeding prized lines of livestock which are now useless. Radiated cattle, horses and pigs—as well as hunted boar—cannot be consumed because of radiated meat. Once famous for its produce, the prefecture’s fruits and vegetables now sell for below the national average. Though radiation tests ensure that the food is safe to eat, the stigma of nuclear disaster keeps customers away. 

Hope Tourism seeks to make these ruins the foundation of the future. The group offers tours through areas that reflect both the devastation wrought by the nuclear disaster and the communal efforts toward reconstruction. Tourists see the abandoned elementary school in Ukedo, roads bent out of line by the tsunami’s rip current and black bags filled with radioactive soil. They can also tour villages trying to revive their local industries and meet community leaders who spread awareness about the dangers of nuclear fallout. 

Where to put radioactive waste? UCLAnewsroom. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

In the face of hardship, locals still express pride in their roots. Iitate village joined the exclusive club of “most beautiful villages of Japan” in 2010, only to be wrecked by the tsunami and ensuing meltdowns. Ten years later, locals gathered to celebrate the opening of a new community center. It was built from parts of abandoned buildings: windows from old businesses, doors from run-down houses, a chalkboard from a school with no children to attend. An elderly woman in a green kimono sang folk tunes while the crowd enjoyed chestnut-filled rice balls. The Hope Tourism website states the village’s motto is a single word: madei. It means “thoughtfully” or “wholeheartedly” in the local dialect. It refers to the steady, persistent progress toward a revived community. 

An abandoned building. Patrick Vierthaler. CC BY-NC 2.0.

The fight against nature’s invasion of Fukushima’s villages still preoccupies recently decontaminated zones. The national government branded the upcoming Olympics as the “Recovery Olympics” to highlight the region’s progress since the disaster. The Olympic torch relay will begin at Fukushima’s J-Village sports complex, which workers used as a base during the crisis in 2011. Japan will need to escape the shadow of the Fukushima disaster if the government is to accomplish key items on its agenda. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged a carbon neutral Japan by 2050, an unthinkable prospect without nuclear power. 

A radioactive bouquet. Abode of Chaos. CC BY 2.0.

National priorities rarely concern those repopulating Fukushima, though. They focus on the day-to-day resurrections of ghost towns. Some still search for ghosts. “I often tell people that my daughter would be a very independent and successful adult out in the world,” says one man. He lost his entire family in the tsunami, including his young daughter. “She was the type of girl other people could rely on.” With a shovel, a trowel and his gardening gloves, he digs through the soil for his daughter’s remains. “I’ve found about 20% of her, but 80% is still missing,” he says. “That means she’s definitely still here.”

Radiated livestock are marked with a white symbol that tells farmers the animal was affected by the 2011 meltdowns. There is no such symbol for the psychic wounds that Fukushima’s disaster continues to exact on its people. 

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.

UK Considers Bill Outlawing Protests that Cause ‘Annoyance’

British lawmakers are debating a bill that would give police greater authority to curb protests. The legislation comes amid a series of ongoing protests regarding violence toward women and the abuse of police power. 

The U.K. Parliament is currently debating a bill that would outlaw any protest that causes “serious annoyance,” brought forward by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill could see protesters facing prison sentences of up to 10 years and would limit the right to protest outside of Parliament. 

The second reading of the bill took place on March 16, just days after police physically restrained people attending a peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard. Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared from a busy London street on March 3 and her remains were later found in Kent. On March 12, police officer Wayne Couzens was arrested and charged with Everard’s kidnapping and murder. 

Everard’s murder sparked a number of protests calling for action to prevent violence against women. Many women shared their own stories of harassment. Vigils were also organized in Everard’s honor, including one on Clapham Common, a park near where Everard was last seen. Police warned against holding a vigil at this location due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, but the vigil proceeded. Hundreds came to peacefully pay tribute to Everard and stand in solidarity against violence toward women. In the evening, police arrived at the vigil and began handcuffing attendees. Four women were arrested. Footage and photos of the police physically restraining women, forcing them to the ground and leading them into police vans began circulating on social media, leading to a new round of protests, this time focused on the police. 

Protesters gathered outside London police headquarters on March 14 before proceeding to another rally outside of Parliament, where they called for the resignations of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and British Home Secretary Priti Patel. Protests continued the next day and are ongoing. 

On March 16, as protests continued outside Parliament, lawmakers inside the building allowed the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to proceed to the next stage of debate. A Downing Street spokesperson insisted that the bill will not infringe upon people’s right to protest peacefully, but the vague language of the bill has many worried about how loosely it will be interpreted. If passed, the bill would give police much greater authority to curb protests that cause “serious disruption” or “serious annoyance” to passersby, terms which could be applied to nearly any protest. 

The bill has faced widespread criticism and is regarded by many as an attack on civil liberties. Over 150 organizations sent an open letter to Patel, who oversees U.K. law enforcement, expressing their opposition to the legislation. 

Parliament member Gavin Robinson voiced the concerns held by many protesters regarding the bill, saying that, “Protests will be noisy, protests will disrupt and no matter how offensive we may find the issue at their heart, the right to protest should be protected.”

Rather than listening to protesters’ concerns about violence against women and the abuse of police power, the government instead has focused its resources on limiting citizens’ voices.

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.

Just How Successful Is China's War on Poverty?

China announced in February that it has eradicated extreme poverty. Yet, how should extreme poverty be defined, and is the Chinese government really doing enough in the fight?

A dilapidated building in a rural area of Guangxi autonomous region in southeastern China. President Xi’s poverty eradication program targeted China’s rural poor. Edwin Wisse. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On Feb. 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has successfully eliminated extreme poverty. The declaration comes after a lengthy campaign initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that claims to have lifted an estimated 100 million people out of poverty in just eight years. President Xi's announcement is a major victory for the CCP, which is celebrating its centennial later this year. 

If true, China’s poverty alleviation campaign could become a model of success for developing nations on how to eradicate extreme poverty in rural areas. However, just how comprehensive the program was in fully eliminating extreme poverty is debated, with critics questioning China’s measure of poverty itself. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.90 a day; China’s threshold is slightly lower at about $1.52 per day. Regardless, China has made immense progress in the past 30 years in reducing the number of people living in poverty, even by World Bank standards. In 2016, the percentage of Chinese people living below $1.90 a day was only 0.5% of the population, compared to 66% in 1990. 

While impressive, China’s declaration has garnered criticism for using a metric of poverty that does not adequately reflect the level of deprivation that remains. China has experienced rapid growth since the country introduced market reforms back in the late 1970s. Since 1978, China has averaged 9% real growth per year, higher than other rapidly developing Asian economies, according to the International Monetary Fund. Due to this rapid growth, China is now considered an upper-middle-income country by the World Bank. Under this classification, extreme poverty would be measured as living on under $5.50 a day, which accounts for 14% of the population, or roughly 200 million people. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in 2014. World Bank Photo Collection. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

With continued economic growth, a relatively successful battle against the coronavirus, and now at minimum a vast reduction in extreme poverty, Chinese officials hope to argue that their system of governance is more successful for international development than the West. China exports more than just commodities. As its rise to global superpower status becomes imminent, its influence outside of Asia continues to grow. In 2018, China announced the Global Poverty Reduction & Inclusive Growth Platform, providing a basis for developing countries to fight their own wars against poverty.

Whether or not President Xi was actually successful in eradicating extreme poverty in China remains to be seen. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing global poverty to rise for the first time in 20 years, the CCP hopes that its model inspires other countries to follow its path. In the meantime, China may bring the world one step closer to finally solving the puzzle of poverty. 

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.

The World’s Newest Type of Migrants: Climate Refugees

With climate change rendering entire countries uninhabitable, people are forced to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. 

Flooding in Kiribati. AusAID. CC BY 2.0. 

In recent years, there have been growing concerns and conversations about climate change’s effects on the Earth. With warmer summers, retreating coastlines and record-breaking natural disasters, it is clear that the Earth is changing, and quickly. However, one aspect of the issue that is often overlooked is the displacement it causes among residents in climate change hot spots. As climate crises happen all over the world, more and more people—often called climate refugees—are forced to leave their homes to find a safe living environment elsewhere. 

In 2019, around 8.5 million people fled their homes for another part of their country because of violence and conflict. That same year, almost 25 million were internally displaced due to extreme weather and natural disasters caused by climate change. People are not only being internally displaced, however. In some cases, it is necessary for them to cross borders. 

One country facing drastic climate change problems is Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific. Since the islands are extremely low-lying, rising sea levels are a major concern. So far, the elevated sea levels have caused coastal erosion, flooding and freshwater contamination. Because of this, one native, Ioane Teitiota, gathered his family and moved to New Zealand for a better life. 

Once climate refugees are forced to leave their countries, they face one main obstacle: legally, they are not “refugees” at all. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is a person who has fled their country due to persecution. Under international law, those migrating due to weather and climate change do not meet this criteria. Therefore, when people leave their country for climate reasons, they find themselves legally vulnerable and unable to claim the rights and protections provided to refugees. In most cases, their only option is to apply for some sort of temporary protection. 

In Teitiota’s case, he and his wife only received work visas, which expired in four years. Facing deportation, Teitiota applied for protection in New Zealand, arguing that his family was at risk back home in Kiribati due to the destruction climate change had caused to the islands. New Zealand rejected his plea and, in January 2020, the United Nations backed the decision.

The number of climate refugees is increasing, and there are projected to be 200 million displaced due to climate change by 2050. With this urgency, human rights activists are fighting for some sort of policy on the rights and protections of climate refugees, especially because countries that contribute the least to global climate change are often the ones hit hardest by its effects. 

Climate change sign in South Tarawa, Kiribati. DFAT. CC BY 2.0.

Teitiota was eventually deported to Kiribati. Still, experts still see a silver lining in his case. When reviewing New Zealand’s decision to reject Teitiota’s appeal, the U.N. reasoned that although the rising sea levels will “render Kiribati uninhabitable … the time frame of 10 to 15 years could allow for intervening acts by Kiribati, with the assistance of the international community, to take affirmative measures to protect and relocate its population.” 

The reason the U.N. committee provided for the rejection is that climate change’s threat to Teitiota’s life is not imminent enough—there is still time to help Kiribati. For the first time, the U.N. also declared that in life-threatening situations, countries should not send climate refugees back home. Although the ruling denied Teitiota’s claim to protection in New Zealand, it paves the way for other climate refugees to receive it. The ruling is not internationally binding, but is a step toward bettering the situations of climate refugees.

While governments and international organizations are making strides to put adequate structures in place, many think much more work needs to be done. There are people like Teitiota fleeing their climate change-ravaged countries every single day.

Mahlia Neely

Mahlia was born and raised on the island of New Providence in The Bahamas. She attends Vassar College, where she is studying English with a minor in Hispanic Studies. She enjoys reading books of all genres and learning about new places. When she isn’t doing either of those things, she is working on articles for her school newspaper or eyeing the chocolate desserts in the dining hall.