By Eng. Christian Rhugwasanye and Mm. Anita Ahuja In very deprived urban areas around the Indian capital of Delhi, families in extreme poverty live in houses built on top of landfills. Since 1998, the non-profit Conserve India has been working to improve living conditions and clean up the environment. Soon after it started, Conserve India…
By Gligor Tashkovich About four years ago, I began supporting and advocating for a couple who were living on the sidewalk outside my office building. A year ago I wrote about the death of Joseph Digilio. Now it is with great sorrow that I must record the equally untimely death of his widow, Nikole Ann Terzakos,…
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Joseph Digilio, with “Nadine” By Gligor Tashkovich (United States) For two and a half years now, I have been helping a homeless couple in New York City. In several blog posts here, their names were given as “Nadine” and “Jeffrey” to protect their privacy. But I would now like to record the man’s true name as…
By Gligor Tashkovich (United States) Around October of 2014, Nadine approached me as I was walking towards my office in Manhattan. She and her husband Jeffrey had been living on the street corner of East 57th and Madison 24/7 in all weather conditions and without proper shelter. They would find clothes from time-to-time — even…
By Diana Skelton Since the U.S. presidential election, many questions have been raised about “fake news,” access to information, and opportunities for everyone to learn more about current events and freely discuss disagreements, instead of getting stuck in echo chambers that lack a diversity of viewpoints. We’ve also heard more questions about identity politics: as…
By Aye Aye Win In celebration of Human Rights Day, on 10 December, here is a little poem that my eldest daughter, Zina, did for her school, here in Strasbourg, France. The poem is her message to the world. It’s appropriate for the work we are all involved in. She illustrated her poem by writing…
Poverty Truth Commissioners at the launch of the “Names Not Numbers” report. By Caroline Kennedy The Poverty Truth Commission in Scotland brings together people living in poverty alongside key decision makers. This has included members of parliament, the head of education, the head of health and even celebrities. Everybody tells their own story and shares…
[Editor’s note: The original French version of this post was published in April 2016. On 25 October 2016, French authorities began dismantling the illegal migrant camp in Calais where an estimated 7,000 refugees had been hoping to cross the Channel to reach the United Kingdom.] According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child…
By Naomi Theinert – Deep down I believe that the life we live is strongly influenced by the choices we make — choices that each one of us is facing on a daily basis. Now, ideally once we are adults, these choices are made consciously and responsibly to ensure our own well-being and that of…
By Beatriz Monje Barón Last month, an article in the Spanish press discussed circumstances that forced a pre-adoptive family to return the child they were raising to his biological mother. According to the article, child protection services and judges stated that there is now sufficient evidence, four years after the birth and immediate separation of…
Beatriz Monje Barón, UK / Mexico City On twitter @beatriz_monje I got to know Rita and Graham Edwards in London in the year 2000, a short while after arriving to live and work in this extraordinary city that so often gave the impression of being able to house all our dreams. At that time, Rita…
By Maria Victoire It is not a secret! On any given night, half a million people will sleep in a jail cell in the United States because they cannot afford to pay their bail bonds. Many of these individuals are locked up for weeks, months, or even years for nonviolent offenses, such as traffic violations…
By Abby Grosslein “Gentrification, by itself, isn’t the enemy, but a compromised sense of community is.” – Evan Christopher, NolaVie: Life and Culture in New Orleans New York City – About every other week, I do laundry and grocery shop on Eastern Parkway where I live. The laundromat is not too far from the Ocean…
By Romain Fossey For several years, I was able to join an adventure: meeting people who lived and/or worked in the streets near the Guatemala City municipal landfill. Some of the people I met there were able to contribute to a new book (in Spanish only), edited by sociologist Carolina Escobar Sarti, and published by…
Together in Dignity 