While these are certainly admirable values, pushing them too hard may clash with students’ ability to express themselves.

The religion, historically known as Mormonism, was founded as a branch of Christianity. However, it is notably different from other Christian religions because of its reliance on the Prophet Joseph Smith, regarded as the official founder of the religion. The LDS Church is very controversial, with many public stories of those who have left the church criticizing it for extremist beliefs. Some of the common critiques of the LDS Church include questions about Joseph Smith’s character, the church’s harsh stance against LGBTQ+ people and inconsistencies throughout scripture. Nevertheless, within the Church there exists an extremely wide range of beliefs, from fundamentalist polygamist practices to the much more modern “liberal” sects of the church, such as those who do not abide as strictly to church doctrine and are not as unbending about social issues. Due to these variations, members of the LDS Church cannot be painted with a broad brush, as followers interpret church doctrine in various ways. 

There are approximately 16 million members of the LDS church worldwide. The United States holds the largest population, housing about 6.5 million members. Although this is a rather small percentage considering the entire  U.S. population, the religious group is densely populated, with about 70% of Utah’s population belonging to the LDS Church. Despite its relatively small representation compared to other mainstream religions within the United States, the LDS Church is very well known – largely because of BYU’s reputation.

What sets BYU apart from other religiously affiliated schools in the U.S., such as the University of Notre Dame and Villanova University, is that religion plays a considerably larger part in BYU’s educational curriculum and experience. The university has a large requirement of religious education classes, specifically ones that regard the LDS Church and instruct on church doctrine. Some of these classes include Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon and The Eternal Family. 

Religious education can have many benefits, both within the moral values that many religions uphold as well as the understanding of other viewpoints that it provides. However, the main issue that can pervade religious education is its overly-singular tendencies. 

One of the most important parts of education is that it allows people to gain exposure and a better understanding of the world around them. Being taught about different religions and their beliefs can certainly help improve empathy. However, BYU is considered a controversial institution because its teachings present that there is only one path to salvation: the LDS church. While Mormonism does teach important values, such as kindness, honesty and love for one’s family, it also claims that one must have faith in Jesus Christ to live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. The idea that only one path leads to salvation is certainly not an uncommon one and is a belief of many religions across the globe. However, what differentiates BYU is that it is rare throughout colleges and universities within the United States, including religious universities, to only teach this singular idea of salvation. 

Additionally, BYU’s infamous honor code extends this religious educational approach. The standards that students are upheld to are quite strict, with the prohibition of same-sex relationships, profane language and even many forms of facial hair. The honor code also requires regular church service attendance, making it so that all attendees of BYU must be involved in the LDS Church to some extent.

Although all students are required to attend services for the LDS Church, there is a tuition difference between those who are official members of the church and those who are not. The base tuition for LDS members is $6,496, while non-members are charged $12,992.

Between course requirements, honor code regulations and tuition costs, it seems that the main purpose of BYU is to keep people within the church and convert outsiders to LDS members. Not only is there financial motivation to be a church member, but BYU’s regulations are tied so closely to the LDS Church that it becomes difficult to separate BYU students from church members.

Religious education is not a negative thing and, in fact, often produces an environment that promotes good values and allows students to thrive. However, problems can arise when religion is used as a means to stifle self-expression and individual thought. Much of the reason that BYU often appears in the spotlight is because of this suppression, even having an Instagram account dedicated to anonymous stories about the BYU honor code. There are both positive and negative stories on this account, but a common denominator is the expression that students often do not feel as if they have freedom. Some students have shared extreme consequences for false allegations of academic misconduct, as well as expressing their fear of being kicked out of the University for identifying as a member of the LGBTQ community. 

BYU is a private institution and has the right to enforce policies as it sees fit. However, it is important to question whether its strict adherence to religious policy is positive, and if BYU students can thrive and be themselves under such guidelines.

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Though Taiwan only has a population of 23.5 million, its 2022 gross domestic product amounted to about $761.69 billion USD — ranking it #21 in the world — and is projected to reach $990.75 billion by 2028. Taiwan is crowned as one of the “Four Asian Tigers” alongside Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea — the Southeast Asian countries that experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. Taiwan earned the title initially through its export-oriented economic strategies of exporting semiconductors, electronic components and computer hardware. 

Currently, Taiwan plays a vital role in the global supply chain, specifically in the technology sector. They are still a major producer and exporter of high-tech products. Taiwan’s tech companies dominate about “two-thirds of the semiconductor foundry market share with Taiwan Semiconductor Market Company (TSMC) controlling 84% of the production for the most advanced and efficient chips.” As a result, an increased number of “multinational corporations have invested in Taiwan in recent years, and demand for local talent with bilingual proficiency has also increased.” 

Further, the United States’ goal of trying to ‘decouple’ from China, meaning, trying to significantly decrease or sever economic dependence on Chinese supply chains, technology and trade in order to avoid national security risks and intellectual property theft has the potential to strengthen trading ties between Taiwan and the United States. From Taiwan’s perspective, this is another reason for their Bilingual 2030 pursuit — to increase its competitive advantages and international mobility to gain trading partners going forward, especially against competitor suppliers like Brazil, India and South Korea. 

Taiwan’s economic come up story and current success appear phenomenal at first glance. However, a closer look reveals that for both exports and imports, Taiwan’s “relative importance within global trade has fallen steadily since 2000.” In 2000, Taiwan ranked 14th in the world via exports, accounting for 2.3% of total world exports; in 2019, Taiwan ranked 17th in world exports, reducing its share of total exports to about 1.7%. Similarly, the bilateral trade relationship between the United States and Taiwan has greatly diminished. The United States has fallen to the fourth — from the first — largest trading partner for Taiwan since 2000. 

China and ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members such as Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Maynamar have had a competitive advantage over Taiwan through cheap labor and large domestic markets — attracting more foreign investment and trading partners — a key explanation for Taiwan’s diminishing trading relationships. 

In addition, Taiwan’s domestic workforce is predicted to steadily decline over the next decade. 2022 was a year with a historically low number of births and the most deaths ever, indicative of Taiwan going into a negative growth by 2031. Consequently, Taiwan’s economic structure is no longer “labor-intensive, it is technology-intensive,” and now needs to fill shifting industry and talent shortage demands in “biomedicine, green energy, defense, modern agricultural and the circular economy.”

To counter the low fertility rates and push to create a ‘Silicon Valley for Taiwan,’ Taiwan also seeks to gain 400,000 white-collar foreign workers by 2030 with at least 20,000 being Silicon Valley-adjacent innovators and 200,000 overseas students. Despite this goal, Taiwan suffered a 5% decline in total foreigners from 2020-2021 — with some critics arguing Taiwan can make itself more expat-friendly, such as boosting English-speaking rates. 

Coupled together — a decrease in global trade, diminishing trading relationships, negative population growth, shifting industry demands amidst talent shortages and a decline in needed expats explain why Taiwan is desperate to recruit foreign technical workers and boost its labor force. More so, it explains why Taiwan sees becoming a bilingual English-Mandarin nation as a key facilitator to these goals and overall productivity growth. Taiwan can’t supply a cheap, domestic labor force like China and ASEAN members did to increase exports and certain trading relationships. But, Taiwan can boost its English proficiency as a means of reducing barriers to foreign investment and facilitating itself as a a hub for multinational firms looking to enter the Asian market.” Likewise, Taiwan can hope to outcompete Hong Kong. Singapore, India and the Philippines where English is widely used in business, governmental and professional sectors. 

The Bilingual 2030 policy realizes Taiwan’s shifting demands and meets them with a twofold policy. Its first aim is to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect with the world,” and secondly, to “attract international enterprises to Taiwan and enable Taiwanese industries to connect to global markets and create high-quality jobs.” For these aims to be achieved, Taiwan’s workers must not only align their professional expertise with international standards, but also collaborate with counterparts from other countries and work in global markets targeted by Taiwan’s industries. 

Bilingual 2030 will stress college and senior high school education, supplemented by integrating English proficiency at all stages of education. In 2021, 21% of grade 12 and 6.5% of grade 9 students reached the B2 level (high-intermediate level) or higher on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages, statistics that make 2030 bilingualism achievable. However, their high performance in receptive skills, reading and listening, were incongruent with their mediocre performance in writing and speaking — which is precisely what Taiwan wants to improve. The Ministry of Education has formulated six goals to bridge writing and speaking gaps and achieve bilingual proficiency. 

First, accelerate the development of bilingual higher education. The Ministry of Education plans to select universities that are able to speed up the implementation of bilingual teaching and make them a beacon for other Taiwanese universities. The ministry will collaborate with the British Council to provide consulting to universities in hopes of achieving the 50-50-50 target by 2030 — at least 50% of all university sophomores should have achieved B2 in listening, speaking, reading and writing, at least 50% of all sophomore and master students should have done at least 50% of their credits in full English for that academic year. 

Second, balance and optimize bilingual conditions for schools at the senior high school level and below. At a glance, this means enhancing students’ ability to use English in daily life, having STEM schools integrate more English, and adopting all-English teaching in English classes. Further, Taiwan seeks to form partnerships with the U.S., U.K. and Australia and have Taiwanese schools establish sister-school partnerships with these target countries — specifically to conduct online bilingual classes. By 2030, Taiwan hopes to have “one in every six schools nationwide to establish a partnership with a foreign sister school.”

Third, develop digital learning. The Ministry of Education aims to distribute technology to remote areas to bridge proficiency gaps between urban and rural areas. Likewise, Taiwanese university students with higher proficiency will online-tutor remote and disadvantaged students. 

Fourth, expand the provision of affordable English proficiency tests to gauge the progress of Bilingual 2030. With the support of the Ministry of Education, Taiwan developed their own English proficiency test — about a half to one-third the price of foreign English tests — to increase access for more rural, economically-disadvantaged demographics. 

Fifth, raise civil servants’ English proficiency. Bilingual 2030 will initially focus on the civil service whose work is integrated with international affairs and where English is pertinent to their job. In the future, English will be taught to all civil servants and the portion of English testing on civil service exams will be increased. 

Sixth, establish an administrative body dedicated to policy promotion and implementation. Bilingual 2030 is still a novel and nebulous long-term initiative and requires various stakeholders to collaborate and reach a consensus. The Bilingual Policy Development Center will “assist with the horizontal integration of measures relating to education, examinations, and training across 31 related government agencies. It will provide these agencies with vertical specialized services ranging from policy research to policy execution and consolidate international cooperation efforts under the policy.” 

In addition to the six initiatives, Taiwan has plans for multiple other ancillary initiatives. For example, there are plans to have “government regulations, policies, and websites in legally binding English” eliminating translation barriers to foreign businesses. The government will also “promote the establishment of an exclusively English-language television station, and both TV and radio broadcasters will be encouraged to produce English-language programming.” While Bilingual 2030 is still ongoing trial and error with each municipality and school having to acclimate the policies to its students, it’s a significant step for the island’s future.  

Taiwan faces various economic challenges which will only be exacerbated in the face of rapid globalization, the rise of AI, its volatile relationship with China and competition from neighboring countries. However, Taiwan can control its future by endowing its workers and future generations with bilingualism, global perspectives and international mobility. 

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For most of my life, I have relied on government welfare assistance to make rent and buy groceries, and I have leaned on my community for food banks. When considering my opportunities for higher education, I was severely limited in my options. Many public universities wouldn’t be able to offer me a full-ride scholarship to attend, which was the only way I would be able to attend a university. My estimated financial contribution determined by FAFSA was, of course, zero dollars, but as my university acceptances rolled in, my financial aid packages did not reflect what the government thought I should pay for my schooling. Each school left me with a massive sum of money to pay out-of-pocket and through loans. As I learned about my mother’s struggle to pay back her loans, I knew I did not want to have to take out student loans unless necessary.

When I received my financial aid package from the University of Southern California (USC), an elite private university dubbed “University of Snobby Children” because of its largely white, wealthy and upper-class student body, I was told I would need to pay over $5,000 out-of-pocket for my freshman semester (I was a spring admit and only attended USC the second semester of my freshman year). 

I was discouraged because USC was a university that, at the time, had a claim on its financial aid website that said that USC meets 100% of students’ demonstrated need. My demonstrated need was certainly high. I required a full ride to attend, but $5,000 was a tremendous amount for me and my mother. I still committed to USC, despite receiving a full-ride scholarship at the University of Minnesota, because I believed that USC was my path to leaving generational poverty and providing for my mother in the future.

After a lengthy appeal process with financial aid, I received an updated financial aid package from USC and ended up paying around $1,000 that semester, which was only possible through a payment plan and an educational savings plan that my mother made after selling her only asset, an apartment in Hungary. My sophomore year, I received better aid, although it didn’t come in until the day I moved into my dorm, so I was panicking until the last moment. A few of my friends were forced to transfer out of USC due to poor financial aid packages. However, through outside scholarships and USC grants, I have remained student-loan-free and able to afford my education at an elite private school.

Being low-income in a school that brings out A-list celebrities to perform at our semester festivals, that has a speculated $110 million contract for USC football coach Lincoln Riley, and that has events where they give out free Lululemon gift bags, I certainly experienced culture shock coming here. I am surrounded by people who fly first-class or private, who go to Coachella and have a car, who walk around wearing designer clothes, and who show me distaste or even disgust when I say I grew up taking public transit everywhere. I am surrounded by people who have had the complete opposite economic upbringing from me, and I feel worlds away from them in many aspects. 

I am defined and restricted by my economic background, and I am limited in my ability to climb the economic ladder and achieve that notorious “American Dream.” 

On a national level, student debt increases each year as education gets more expensive and minimum wages increase at a shamefully slow pace. 

And, of course, who is being most affected by the rising cost of college? Marginalized, Black and Brown communities are most disadvantaged by our economic system. Black college students, on average, take out more student loans than white students, and BIPOC students are more likely to default on their student loan payments. International students studying in the United States are ineligible for federal student aid, which prevents many from attending college in the United States. 

Moreover, student loan debt is not a uniquely American problem: higher education is becoming more inaccessible to students in developing nations, and British college graduates, for example, face some of the highest average student debt in the world at $55,000. 

Beyond rising education costs and rising student debt, a micro-level analysis of low-income students is valuable. American culture thrives on flashing wealth and posting Instagram photos from your spring break in Cabo, which is even more prevalent at a school like USC. 

While some USC students are homeless (over 2,000 as of 2020), every student-athlete is given an electric scooter to get to class. The university offers free tuition for households making less than $80,000 per year, but that doesn’t mean the school will cover other expenses like housing and meal plans, which bring your bill total to around $20,000. This is coupled with an average five percent increase in tuition at USC each year. 

Although my mother’s income almost doubled from 2021 to 2022, we are still considered low-income in my city and are well under the tuition-free threshold. USC may look at this and decide to charge me more for next year, which is worrying, considering USC does not guarantee housing after sophomore year and I have to pay my rent. 

Los Angeles is facing a severe housing cost crisis, with 60% of Angelenos renting and the median rent for a one-bedroom in LA costing $2,265 per month. The median household income in 2021 in LA County was $76,367. Students at universities across the country and the globe are facing increasing housing costs, which affects the poorest students the most. USC financial aid, meanwhile, badgers you to submit tax documents from three years ago to try to find ways to lower the university grant it gives you. When you are awarded an outside scholarship, USC will lower your university grant, making the outside scholarship worthless.

Ultimately, as student debt increases, the cost of education becomes higher, and post-graduate jobs struggle to keep you above the poverty line, those in poverty are left most vulnerable.

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The notion of hensachi is closely related to the culture of shame within Japan. Shame occupies an important place in the moral system of East Asian civilization. In Confucian texts, shame links personal value and social perception. The assessment of others has become the primary motivation for forming a “Japanese personality.” 

The knowledge of shame is the foundation of Japanese virtue. Under the influence of shame culture, Japanese people have a strong sense of group consciousness and conformity to collective standards, ideals which support the formation of Japanese society’s cultural and political identities. 

On the one hand, the culture of shame promotes the importance of hard work and attaining a state of “perfection” through self-cultivation, as such a virtue would contribute to society’s development. But on the other hand, it emphasizes the importance of “knowing shame” as the basis of virtue and that individuals should not act outside the existing rules.

In some aspects, the development of the modern-day shame culture is closely related to the prevalence of hensachi. Beyond academics, more factors, such as appearance, personality, and job employment, are analyzed for deviance. After research, I found three parts that intertwined with the uniqueness of such culture in three components of Japanese society —1) Political Factions, 2) Corporate Culture, and 3) Family Values. 

1. Political Factions

The formation of factional politics in Japan is inextricably linked to the traditional

social and cultural relationship of dominance and subordination. Political factions, in other perspectives, are more like conventional social structures and organizational forms. The faction still follows the traditional family principle of familial kinship. After the Meiji Restoration, the high level of economic modernization remained the core of society and culture.

For example, in the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, there are many factions with a dominant leader at the core of politics within each faction. The most dominant faction, in turn, influences the party’s policies and emphasizes the leader rather than the party’s ideology. Under such a system, many follow the leader, thus tying back to the idea of hensachi, a signifier of unification without space for deviance from mass belief. 

2. Corporate Culture

In the 19th century, the power of corporations was concentrated in a single person, and most companies employed relatives as their foremost directors. Thus, most enterprises started as family businesses. The business operates in many areas, employs many people, and accounts for a significant portion of the gross national product. An example of such an enterprise is Mitsubishi, which expanded from a small group of people to a huge corporation. 

Japanese businesses believe that the traditional culture of morality and order provides the ideological basis for all activities. In addition, companies are often viewed as an extension of the family and emphasize the need to create a family atmosphere of harmony within the company, transforming the employment relationship into a form of “kinship.”

This type of kinship has led many people in Japan to believe that employees are a part of the company and should be loyal and willing to devote themselves to it. Managers should not only guide their employees but also pay attention to their lives and give them a sense of belonging and security. Employees tend to have a simple collective mindset and subordinate individual interests to the collective will. 

As a result, Japanese entrepreneurs see business not only as an economic entity to gain profits but also as a place to satisfy a wide range of employee needs to connect them within one unit. Japanese companies’ continuous and rapid development is closely related to employees’ loyalty to the company. In addition, Japanese companies also regard public welfare and national benefit as their responsibility and consider the pursuit of social responsibility a priority. In this sense, Japanese corporate culture has also played a positive role in promoting the construction of the rule of law and morality in Japanese society.

3. Family Values

Last but not least, the family values in society build the foundation of the idea of hensachi and subsequent political and cultural values. Families are considered well-disciplined and promote internal collaboration, suggesting that everyone has a role in the family. Moreover, traditional family values are the first stage to start the cycle of finding the “right” position in society, contributing to the culture of shame when failing to achieve one’s pre-proposed role.

For instance, the Japanese culture has introduced a family culture into the businesses, viewing them as homes where the proprietor must consider keeping and expanding the “family” business.

The modern state of the nation itself shapes the Japanese family system. The formation of the family involves two overarching influences. First, with the capital/industrial system as the main body, the state worked to establish a set of family systems that could supply sufficient labor for the industry to meet the needs of national industrialization. Second, with the state as apparatus, Japan established a “family-mediated” management system that exercised direct domination over individuals, eliminating individual differences from the fundamental units in society.

“Hensachi,” a unique word that only exists in the Japanese language, speaks to the volume of collectivism and the concerns of social harmony within Japan. The three parts of society that were being analyzed: 1) Political Factions, 2) Corporate Culture, and 3) Family Values all tie in with the idea of avoiding being deviant, revealing a bottom-up social value system that promotes harmony and prosperity within Japan. It is interesting to note how cultural identities define a nation’s political, economic, and individual characteristics. 
However, as globalization grows, we are witnessing a new trend within Japanese society: groups of individuals seek ways to express themselves differently. These expressions are considered bold and against strict societal norms and unspoken rules. Moreover, as the declining birth rate and high suicide rate raise consciousness, people are seeking ways to interpret their lives in new ways.

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In the United States, COVID-19 took over a million lives and destroyed millions more through the loss of loved ones. Yet, despite the pandemic’s enormous impact in the United States, as of July 31, 2022, the overall mortality rate was approximately 312.60 per 100,000 people; meanwhile, in Peru, the mortality rate was a staggering 649.63 for every 100,000. The devastating impacts of the pandemic were felt by all countries, but they were not felt equally, as many countries, particularly those with developing economies, bore the brunt of the casualties and consequences.

Domestically, in both developed and developing countries, it was not the affluent suburbs that suffered most of the pandemic’s fatalities, but rather low-income communities and communities of color. The drastic disparity between COVID-19’s impact on different communities can be attributed to several factors, including access to health care, geographical remoteness, and the inability of citizens to follow a quarantine policy due to their work in informal sectors. However, the impact of COVID-19 cannot be solely measured by lost lives. Without including the loved ones impacted, the now parentless children, the children forced to leave education, the newly disabled, among other factors, one cannot truly grasp the impacts of the pandemic.

UNICEF determined that although “children are not the face of this pandemic… they risk being among its biggest victims.” This is due to the now increased risk to children’s health, intensified hardships on children of low economic status, augmented rates of child malnutrition, decreased access to vaccinations, regression in progress in combating HIV, mounted rates of child abuse and exploitation and exacerbated learning crises. Similar to the access to quality health care services amidst the pandemic, access to quality education between different communities varied astronomically. While only 35% of the population in developing countries had access to the Internet, in countries with advanced economies, this number was nearly 80%. 

As established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26, “[e]veryone has the right to education.” Yet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, children worldwide were deprived of this fundamental right. 

In the United States, the shift to an online format for classes brought the domestic digital divide to the center stage like never before. Of the 15% of American students who live in rural areas, most struggled to maintain consistent wireless connectivity, as did many low-income households, because “35% of lower-income households with school-age children did not have a broadband internet connection at home.”

The unequal access to the Internet forced thousands of students and teachers without consistent internet access to do their classes outside “county libraries, McDonald’s, and Starbucks.” In Owensboro, Kentucky, amongst other rural locations throughout the country, school buses were outfitted with WiFi and made several stops throughout the town so students would be able to stand outside the bus, download their assignments and then return home to complete their work. This offers a stark contrast to many upper-income households where students were typically able to learn from the comfort of their private bedroom or office without any connectivity issues. 

In addition to low-income and rural households, indigenous communities were also disproportionately affected by COVID-19. In the United States, the pandemic amplified health inequalities leading to indigenous communities being “3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for the virus.” This disproportionate suffering also occurred in their education systems; the Board of Indian Education determined this was due to underfunding and the fact that indigenous communities suffered from “geographical isolation” and “connectivity challenges.” In the Navajo Nation, “60 percent of its residents [are]without internet access.” This is a stark contrast to the 79% of US suburban households which have access to a broadband internet connection. 

The digital divide worked in tandem with the lack of financing in many districts to create the perfect storm to enhance pre-pandemic disparities. One of the greatest pre-pandemic disparities is the contrast in school funding as “school districts with the greatest concentrations of [B]lack, Latino, or Native American students receive around $1,800 less per student than districts educating [prodiminately white students]. Between low-income and high-income areas, the funding difference is $1,000 per student.” Unequal access to quality education within the American education system has been a problem from the country’s foundation, and as a result of the issues exacerbated by the pandemic, there is no telling how the digital divide has reversed the progress made toward a more equitable education system for all Americans.

Similar to the United States, in Peru, the quality of education and access to the Internet also falls on the intersections of economic classes, ethnic identity and geographical location (urban versus rural). It is estimated that 27.7% of the Peruvians reside in rural areas and another 20.9% live in small towns. Partly due the low density of the Peruvian population, less than 40% of Peruvians can count on their internet connection; however, in the country’s capital, Lima, more than 90% of households have internet access.

To address the need for remote learning and the lack of stable wireless connection throughout the country, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peruvian Ministry of Education launched the initiative “Aprendo en Casa” (“I learn at home”). This initiative aimed to reach all students throughout the country through a standardized form of teaching via the mediums of the Internet, television and radio. Despite this effort to accommodate students who had limited internet connection, these mediums of teaching were still inaccessible for many, and the differences in the quality of education between each medium were also significant. As a result of this inequitable and lower-quality education, more than 32% of students received unsatisfactory results in their end-of-year assessments.

In the rural Quechua-speaking community of Ttio, before the pandemic, it was typical for students to walk an hour and a half one way to school via a steep mountainous terrain that has an altitude change of over 1000 feet, and once the pandemic forced the education to switch to remote learning, none of the students had access to technology with an internet connection. To obtain a signal, students subsequently had to walk 90 to 120 minutes through even more rigorous terrain than their traditional route to school. Once the students arrived at a point with a signal, they would stop for their classes to learn via radio. In addition to these classes being taught in their non-native tongue, they took place outdoors on a mountain at over 13,000 feet, at the whims of the elements. Unfortunately, this experience is not unique to Ttio as many students throughout Peru, particularly in other rural indigenous communities, shared similar challenges in completing their remote classes.

In Cañicuto, students walked over 10 kilometers just to find a radio signal for class, and as a consequence of their subpar learning conditions, upon returning to in-person learning, the teachers in Cañicuto echoed the sentiments felt by many other teachers across the country, that their students were performing at levels far below their pre-pandemic peers. There is also now a generation of students that will not be literate nor educated because of the inequities aggravated by the pandemic. In 2021, 124,533 Peruvian students dropped out of school due to the inaccessibility of connecting to classes and/or to provide an additional income for their families. This “lost generation” is a living example of how the impacts of COVID-19 extend far beyond the mortality rates, as the futures of so many have been robbed by circumstances directly caused by the virus.

COVID-19 touched every corner of the globe, but as highlighted by the asymmetrical impacts on education in the United States and Peru, the pandemic impacted lower-income and communities of color much more harshly than their middle and upper-income counterparts.

U.S. college students may have lost the “best years of their lives,” but at the same time, they must acknowledge the immense privilege they had to still receive an education, via Zoom, from world-class professors. Students must also begin to recognize and address the significant inequities within our own country and the world at large — education is a fundamental right that no one should be deprived of, even in a pandemic.

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The situation in Yemen has been at the center of discussion for many government officials and humanitarian aid organizations. Often overlooked within these discussions is the direct relationship between Yemen’s political state and welfare and children’s access to education. According to a report published by UNICEF, “Yemeni children’s education has become one of the greatest casualties of Yemen’s devastating and ongoing conflict.” Approximately 2 million children no longer attend school due to the overly disruptive nature of the conflict. 

The country has become a volatile playground for regional and international powers. In accordance with government statements, the United States remains in Yemen for anti-extremism and counterterrorism operations. Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with other Gulf states, continues its massive intervention in Yemen in hopes of restoring the previous government administration and freeing the country from Iran’s influence. Yet, these two nations alone have conducted between 20,624 and 56,000 airstrikes since March 2015, many of which hit numerous civilians and non-affiliated properties. Residential homes, educational facilities, hospitals, weddings, farms, grocery stores, mosques, school buses and water wells being a few of the casualties. The presence of foreign powers has undeniably worsened the conditions in which citizens are living, with reports of various human rights and international humanitarian law violations being committed by both parties to the conflict. 

Due to this, the work of humanitarian organizations is more important than ever. Without the necessary humanitarian intervention, the number of children obstructed from receiving an education could easily increase to 6 million, severely stunting the development of generations of children.

One of the leading causes of education disruption in Yemen is the lack of staff and educational infrastructure available to children. Over two-thirds of the country’s education workforce, approximately 170,000 teachers, have gone without compensation for over four years. Many have had to rely on secondary sources of income and/or have left the education sector entirely out of financial necessity. In 2017, a massive union strike over the suspension of teachers’ salaries forced thousands of schools to shut their doors. Educators were forced to pursue employment that could better help financially support their families, which left thousands of children out of school. The lack of consistent access to education and sufficient salaries for teachers leads to significant teacher absenteeism, worsens students’ educational development, and reduces the quality of schooling. 

More than 3,600 schools are also out of commission, with over two-thirds having been damaged by violent attacks or occupied by armed forces. According to UNICEF estimates, approximately 184 schools were used as shelter for individuals displaced by violence, and at least one out of five schools in Yemen are unusable due to the Houthi insurgency. The schools that remain open have extensive infrastructural damages, are often half-demolished with walls penetrated by artillery, and are generally unsafe for use. Makeshift schools with rudimentary infrastructure have served as replacements but don’t serve the same educational value. 

Yemen’s development plans emphasize the importance of education for post-conflict peace sustainability, reconstructing the economy and rebuilding the state of Yemen to what it once was, making this even more devastating. Newer generations of Yemeni youth being deprived of public education also makes them more susceptible to indoctrination and recruitment as child soldiers — a prevalent issue in Yemen’s war. A total collapse of literacy, for instance, would force a greater dependence on the morally gray government for information and would inevitably contribute to the radicalization of the community as children out of school face increased risks of exploitation, unemployment and poverty. The war, and the continuous airstrikes carried on by the United States and Saudi Arabia, are reported to also contribute to the radicalization of the local population and a rise in anti-western sentiment. While these acts of violence cannot be stopped by the work of NGOs and humanitarian aid organizations, education can be utilized as a preventative tool for radicalization, saving numerous vulnerable children and individuals who turn to extremist groups out of anger, fear, and desperation. 

 A general increase in violence and reported attacks on educational facilities by parties of the conflict also fuels parents’ fear and hesitancy to send their children to school. A Saudi-led coalition warplane, sold to Riyadh by the United States, was used to bomb a school bus of children in 2018. Over 40 were killed, 79 injured, and many who survived still suffer from daily psychological and physical struggles. 60% of children who attend a school that faces a security risk do not return to the classroom. Events like these occur often, with attacks on over 460 schools in the past five years. Fears of rebel recruitment and repeated attacks paralyze parents with fear and doubts about their children’s safety and subsequently contribute to the drop-out rate of primary and lower secondary-aged youth. 

Children who do not complete their schooling are often trapped in self-perpetuating cycles of poverty. Education, like many other factors, is heavily linked to economic growth. A 2021 study published by Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University and Stanford University reported that, between 1960 and 2000, increased math and science skills were linked to over 75% of the growth in gross domestic product around the world. Many of the systematic barriers individuals face can be mitigated with education tailored to the community’s needs and would subsequently help promote socio-economic mobility. In a country where over 84.5% of children live in poverty, the importance of education is even clearer. 

However, factors like the related educational costs of institutions in Yemen, especially in Houthi-controlled areas, make education unattainable to many families that do not have regular sources of income. The Houthis, the rebel movement that controls the vast majority of Yemen’s northern region, have made significant efforts to privatize public schools to increase revenue. School fees have grown to over 5,000 rials for every student enrolled, a substantial percentage of most Yemeni salaries. Because of the unaffordability of education in these areas, around 23% of children aged 5 to 14 are forced to participate in child labor to help support their families. The Houthis’ privatization of state-owned schools has irrevocably impacted the future of education in Yemen as it has also allowed these armed factions to implement  “politico-religious agendas of warring parties” in schools as a way of finding ideologically committed recruits. The Houthis have made significant strides to strengthen faith identity in Yemen by implementing arbitrary restrictions that work to disproportionately affect women, their abilities to have access to education, and socio-economic mobility.

The combined effects of the pandemic, the latest assault on education and the ongoing war have and will continue to have irreparable effects on the mental health and developmental well-being of youth and adolescents in Yemen. The untold victims of this war are the children who have undeniably faced the brunt of the conflict. In collaboration with other non-governmental entities, the UN must take the initiative to mandate non-politicized education as a right for the sake of the thousands in Yemen. 

The post The Education Crisis in Yemen appeared first on Glimpse from the Globe.

Afghanistan Conflict

Prompted by the events of 9/11, the United States invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban government refused to hand over the orchestrator of the deadly attacks, Osama bin Laden.. Once the United States intervened, the Taliban quickly lost power and relocated to southern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. A Western-backed government was set in place in the capital of Kabul, and the country witnessed its first democratic election.

In February of 2020, the United States. and the Taliban signed a peace agreement stating that the United States would conduct a full removal of troops from Afghanistan if the Taliban prevented the occupation of their land by terrorist groups and began negotiations with the Afghan government. However, the Taliban shortly began to execute attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians, all while gaining more territory and increasing conflict within the state. Violence ensued as the United States increased its airstrikes against the Taliban, who later regained control of the Afghan government in August of 2021. 

It was during this increase in political control that the Taliban managed to disrupt millions of girl’s education across the country. Since the Taliban have been in power, secondary schools have only been opened to boys, excluding girls from receiving an education past the seventh grade. The Taliban’s acting higher education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, recently released a statement saying that modern studies are “less valuable” than the religious studies taught at Islamic religious schools. This goes in hand with the aspect of Sharia law that the Taliban follows, a religious law of Islam.

In addition to the Taliban, Afghanistan is also threatened by another terrorist organization, the Islamic State in Khorasan, which has gained control of Eastern provinces and attacked civilians through tactics such as suicide bombings.

Afghanistan Culture

Many Afghan civilians belong to religious tribes and communities that believe the only role of women is taking care of the home and children. Included with this belief is a long tradition of child marriage. According to recent research, “More than half of the girls in Afghanistan are getting married before reaching the age of 19.” This causes a large disruption in education as these girls are no longer expected tor receive an education, and instead are trained to care for a home, their new husband, and start to create  a family. Additionally, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has reported that reasons for the high rate of child marriages include poverty, unfair socialization and culture. However, the primary reason they reported was illiteracy. 

In 2018, the illiteracy rate in Afghanistan was 57%. Although this was an 11% decrease from the year prior, it is important to note that this statistic was taken at a time when the Taliban was not in full control of the nation. Since then, there have not been any new reports regarding the illiteracy rate of the country, which leads one to believe that since the Taliban has come into power, that percentage has dramatically increased.

The remaining girls who are able to receive an education face a shortage of female instructors – an issue that is also caused by a lack of education amongst womenMany traditional families in Afghanistan disapprove of a male presence in schools that instruct girls, and a majority of girls that receive an education do so at all-girls schools. However, the shortage of female instructors caused the government to allow instruction to be taught by men. Many families disapproved of this and removed their daughters from schools altogether.

Beyond cultural barriers, many girls are unable to receive an education today due to the increased conflict within the nation. According to the UN, students in Afghanistan are three times more likely to be affected by an attack at school. These attacks are mainly conducted by terrorist groups that disrupt girls learning through school shootings and bombings. UNICEF has reported that since December of 2018, over 1,000 schools have been closed due to these dangers, affecting over half a million children. The increased conflict in the region, either from international wars or national attacks, has dramatically decreased the number of girls that can receive an education, as they tend to be the targets for the majority of the terrorist attacks in the nation.

Solutions

In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Afghanistan previously ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESC), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It is necessary that international organizations, such as the UN, and international nations, such as the United States, hold Afghanistan accountable for the treaties they have ratified and give women the rights they once stood for.

Equal access to education is a human right and is something every child, regardless of gender and birthplace, should receive. For this reason, it is necessary to support organizations (either through donations or volunteering), such as UNICEF, who work to support children in nations like Afghanistan and provide them with the resources to receive a proper education. Other organizations include the Malala Fund and Sahar Education, which focus primarily on getting girls back into classrooms safely from the surrounding conflict. Their efforts have made an impact on hundred’s of girl’s lives, but have been more and more mitigated due to the Taliban’s increased control and implementation of their Sharia law. To take a more hands-on approach, one can also write to their national government asking to include women’s rights in any treaties and agreements constituted with Afghanistan and the Taliban government. Regardless of how one chooses to help, it is evident that millions of girls in Afghanistan are being deprived of their birth-given rights, and any help they could receive from people around the world can make all the difference.

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In the Philippines, for example, a lack of access to vaccines — coupled with insufficient technology — has left many students with fragmented access to education. President Rodrigo Duterte emphasized his distress about the tedious vaccine rollout, comparing it to a “drought.”

“Rich countries hoard life saving vaccines while poor nations wait for trickles,” Duterte said. “They now talk of booster shots, while developing countries consider half-doses just to get by.”

Duterte decided to keep schools closed to protect students and teachers from contracting COVID-19. The country currently has 45% of the population fully vaccinated, but its rates of vaccination are significantly slower than its regional counterparts. According to Stacy Kratz, an assistant professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, this is a global problem. Kratz said the choice to keep schools online comes with many obstacles in terms of technology.

“There’s the promise of decreasing the digital divide that we’ve been hearing about for 25 to 30 years — this promise that it’s going to be the great equalizer,” Kratz said. “But in the pandemic that equalizer has been disrupted and it’s really made evident who has privilege and who doesn’t from a global standpoint.” 

According to research from the World Bank, about 60% of Filipino households do not have access to technology, making online education extremely challenging for students, parents, and teachers alike. While technology inequity has been a longstanding global problem, the situation is only exacerbated by COVID-19. Kratz said that even if students have access to devices to attend virtual class, although many don’t, there is still the inconsistency of internet access. 

“You can have all the devices in the world if you don’t have the infrastructure for broadband it’s no good,” Kratz said. 

She pointed out that in South Africa and India, for example, there are scheduled “brownouts,” times during which students and faculty don’t have any access to electricity. For students in South Africa, research found that in 2020, there was a learning loss of between 62% and 81% for students in the fourth grade. 

While some schools in India remain fully closed, others have begun partial reopenings; however, access to technology has made online learning impossible for some students. When schools are operating on an online platform, nearly half of elementary and middle school students in India do not participate. In Nepal, for example, 70% of children do not have access to devices. Their quality of education cannot improve without the necessary infrastructure to ensure all students have the same education opportunities.  

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control suggests that online learning is detrimental not only to students’ learning progress, but also to their socio-emotional development. This impact is exacerbated in communities where internet access is inconsistent. Kratz pointed out the effects that isolation can have on students.

“Isolation is rampant, of course, and that the impact across adolescence and into early adulthood is devastating for so many,” Kratz said. “And with that we see increased rates of depression and increased rates of anxiety.”

In light of increases in mental health issues, the stigma surrounding mental health as well as the lack of mental health service availability are barriers for many struggling students in the Philippines. Research finds that just 5% of the healthcare expenditure in the Philippines is given to mental health services. To put this into perspective, for every 100,000 Filipinos, there are approximately 0.4 psychiatrists. 

Similarly, in India, mental health services are not easily accessible to everyone in need. Moreover, stigma surrounding seeking help runs rampant among teens and young adults. A survey conducted by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) found that only 41% of this age group in India approve of seeking help for mental health struggles. This number was extremely low compared to the results of various other countries that were surveyed. Dr. Yasmin Haque, India’s representative for UNICEF, emphasized the need for students to become more educated about the importance of mental health care.

“We need to break the stigma of talking about mental health and seeking support so that children can have better life outcomes,” Haque said. “For children who are isolated and traumatized, we must make sure there is better understanding [of mental health].”

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The Taliban have promised change from their previous rule, vowing that they will allow women to learn. The Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani stated on September 12 that women would be allowed to study through high school and at a university level so long as the students remain segregated by gender. 

Yet, as the academic year commenced under the Taliban and students trickled back into classrooms, girls grades 7 and up were notably missing. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid blamed the delay on logistical issues, claiming that the Taliban is still attempting to create a “secure transportation system” for girls. Yet in recent days, the Chancellor for Kabul University, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, has made conflicting comments, saying that women will not be allowed to study in the institution “until we create an Islamic environment.” What that “Islamic environment” entails, and what the timeline for its completion might potentially be, remains unclear.

Women in Afghanistan hold deep angst that the Taliban’s assurances concerning their education are empty promises; they fear that the “delays” in allowing them to continue schooling will never be resolved. This uncertainty has sparked protests across the country. In late September, a social media campaign featuring young Afghan boys and girls holding signs with messages of support for female education culminated in more than a dozen women gathering outside the Kabul mayoral ministry as a sign of dissent. The teacher’s union of Afghanistan has also sent a petition to the Taliban demanding Ghairat’s resignation. 

However, for all protestors’ efforts, the Taliban has never held a reputation for upholding democratic values. Should the hardliners choose to restrict female education, which seems more probable with each passing day, Afghan women will have no choice but to stay home from school.

Nonetheless, should this regulation be an ultimatum for if women will be able to learn? Afghanistan is becoming more and more tech-savvy, and most people in urban areas now have a smartphone which the Taliban has been using to its advantage to spread propaganda across social media. As the COVID-19 pandemic has proven, staying home from school does not necessitate an end to education. Virtual learning has reached unprecedented heights and potential in the advent of multiple lockdowns. Could that potential be applied to Afghanistan and allow its women to circumvent the restrictions of their government?  

A surface-level analysis provides a cynical outlook. Multiple obstacles construe the viability of such a solution. First and foremost is the issue of resources. While there are the few privileged in urban areas with access to technology, the overwhelming majority do not have the means to make online learning feasible. 

According to the World Bank, only 14% of Afghans use the internet. Expanding upon that worrisome data, across six Afghan provinces only 0.2% of children have access to internet-based learning programs, as per Save the Children. Even for that 0.2%, the electricity in Kabul only runs for a couple of hours per day, and moving into the countryside, state-provided power is incredibly limited. 

During the 2020-2021 academic year, while the U.S.-backed government was still in power and encouraging education, the vast majority of Afghan students still found their education totally halted. That leaves the possibility of finding the means to learn now, minimal. 

On top of insufficient means is the overarching difficulty of evading the Taliban’s watchful eye. In a largely totalitarian regime, under the unlikely assumption she has access to online school, a woman would still be putting as much as her life at risk by deciding to defy the Taliban’s wishes. Moreover, she would have to elude much more than neighborhood watches or overly-curious neighbors: the Taliban now has access to the ultimate tool for repression, a US-built online database. 

The Afghanistan Automated Biometric Identification Database, constructed over decades and with millions of dollars in investment, contains a mine of information for the Taliban to exploit. It includes biometrics, such as fingerprint, iris and face scans, for identification, as well as the phone numbers, locations and several more personal details for 8.5 million people. With this incredibly powerful database at their disposal, the government could very well transition into a surveillance state, making it next-to-impossible for the average Afghan female to pursue virtual learning. 

Where does this leave the women of Afghanistan, then? 

Largely at the discretion of the Taliban, it would seem. There is some promising news on the horizon. At a recent United Nations-led panel discussion, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed announced that the education of Afghan girls is a “zero-condition” before the Taliban can expect international recognition of their authority, even claiming that aid sent to the country could be conditional depending on if schools are opened up to girls. 

This pressure from the international community may be the best instrument to pressure the Taliban on women’s rights, especially considering the group has made clear they seek formal international recognition.

At present, though, the Taliban’s next steps are not certain. For the thousands of Afghan women trapped at home and seeking education, foreign recognition, awareness and advocacy have never been more crucial.

The post Can Women Learn to Teach Themselves in Taliban-led Afghanistan? appeared first on Glimpse from the Globe.

For example, in Eritrea, a country in East Africa, over 80% of the population lacks access to drinking water. Other countries with similarly staggering numbers include Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia. Essentially, the world is suffering from a global water crisis. 

People around the world are not able to access both the quantity and quality of water necessary to carry out basic human needs, such as cleaning, bathing, drinking and growing food. This crisis has been recognized by the United Nations and was made a Sustainable Development Goal in 2015. The SDGs serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” As SDG 6, the UN hopes to provide clean water and sanitation to all by 2030. Off track to hit this goal, the UN introduced the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework last year to speed up action.

According to USAID, women and children in developing countries walk an average of 3.5 miles a day to fetch potable water. This accessibility challenge exacerbates water vulnerability for millions of people, especially considering that most of the water gathered in developing countries comes from a polluted source, contaminated with raw sewage, surface run-off, industrial effluents, and feces. The surface water contains disease-causing pathogens, such as cholera, typhoid fever and diarrhoea, as well as dangerous toxins like arsenic and lead. Children are particularly vulnerable, considering that 5,000 children die daily from waterborne illness and issues of sanitation. Many of these children already suffer from malnutrition and other diseases. 

The situation is expected to worsen as the global population rises and the water supply falls. According to the World Health Organization, by 2025, half of the world’s population is expected to be in regions labeled “water-stressed.” This is detrimental, due to the impact of water scarcity and water stress on basic sanitation and public health. As demonstrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, access to safe and clean water is critical because “handwashing with soap is one of the most effective ways to limit the spread” according to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Additionally, water stress impacts different vulnerable groups to varying extents. This crisis will undoubtedly heighten issues of gender inequality, as many risks fall disproportionately on women. Due to cultural expectations, women and girls are responsible for fetching water in  80% of households with off water premises. As a result, women and girls walk an average of four miles with a 44 pound jerry can to their nearest water source. For parts of the world that suffer from water scarcity, particularly in urban areas, common water sources include surface water along riverbeds, hand-pump boreholes that extract water from the ground, and kiosks at the water source where water is bought from informal vendors. This necessary, yet brutal, walk to retrieve water occurs daily, despite health or weather conditions. 

This daily task is time consuming, limiting the ability of women and girls to do other work or tend to their families. The journey also poses a physical challenge; girls as young as 10-years-old and pregnant women often complete this arduous task. Around the world, women walk a combined 200 million hours daily. 

Women are subject to safety hazards when they collect water. According to a study led by Northwestern University, at least 13% of women reported physical injuries while collecting water, due to falls, traffic accidents, animal attacks and violence. While hauling water, women were twice as likely to get hurt than men. They are also at risk of sexual and physical assault during their trips. 

In Science Daily, journalist Vanessa Offiong reported on the story of Hasiya, a 16-year-old girl from Nasarawa, Nigeria, who left one evening on her 40-minute route to retrieve water. On her return, she noticed a group of boys shouting at her, and because speeding up was nearly impossible given the weight of her filled bucket, The boys circled and kicked Hasiya to the ground, with no one around to help.

Offiong shares another woman’s story of rape while fetching water from the Uke River. The shame surrounding the rape forced to leave the community because she was married. She says the community has stopped reporting rapes to the police, and women walk in groups during the morning. In other cases of assault in areas with sources of groundwater and informal vendors, it has been reported that men operating the pumps have demanded more than payment, abusing their powers to force women into sex to access water.

As UNICEF notes, women and children are paying with lost time and lost opportunities, such as an education. The Council on Foreign Relations reports that, “a one hour reduction in the time spent to walk to the water source increases girls’ school enrollment rates by about 10 percentage points in Yemen, and by about 12 percentage points in Pakistan.” Schooling is critical for development and future economic and social mobility; for each additional year in primary school can increase girls’ future wages by 20%. Girls’ schooling can also help the global economy, for it is predicted that if India increased its enrollment for girls in primary school by one percent, gross domestic product would rise by around $5 billion.

Women are also disproportionately affected by sanitation issues. Over two billion people lack access to improved sanitation, such as proper toilets and handwashing, due to a deficiency of clean water. Globally, two out of five people lack handwashing facilities. Many are forced to practice open defecation, use unimproved facilities or forced to share sanitation facilities. Womens’ increased hygienic needs due to menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth are not met. One out of 10 girls in Africa drops out of school by 8th grade due to menstruation challenges, resulting from a lack of bathrooms and proper sanitation. A study conducted in Bangladesh, where only around 35% of the population has access to safe, uncontaminated drinking water, showed a separate toilet could increase girl enrolment in school by 15%. This is a global issue; a survey done by the government of India found that only 53% of government schools had a separate and functioning toilet for girls. 

A lack of water to properly sanitize also spreads disease, which disproportionately affects women, who have higher exposure to waterborne illnesses through domestic work, such as collecting water, washing clothes and cooking. Women who are pregnant are at increased risk, for over 44 million pregnant women have sanitation-related hookworm, which causes maternal anemia and leads to preterm births. This contributes to the yearly death toll of around one million women yearly due to unclean childbirth. 

As the global water crisis disproportionately affects women, they are still responsible for the collection and resource management of water within the household, in addition to the removal of wastewater. However, on a larger scale, men typically make decisions over water management and lead communities. Male leadership prevents women from making more educated decisions, as they are frontline water managers who have a unique understanding of current systems, approaches and the effect on the community. 

Clean water has the power to transform communities, reduce rates of disease, help equalize genders and create a more efficient economy. The development of proper infrastructure to collect clean water can be used to benefit communities, allowing for more jobs and less time lost fetching surface water.  

Working toward its goal to provide clean water and sanitation, the UN aims to protect ground water resources such as rivers, eliminate water pollution and increase international cooperation around the issue. Non-profit organizations have focused on building community wells, whether shallow wells that are hand dug or deep wells that are drilled. These wells provide clean groundwater that is closer to home. A World Research Institute study proposed that it would only take 1% of global GDP to give global access to water and reach a state of sustainable water management, which would lead to net benefit, as one dollar invested yields a 6.8 dollar return. 

UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozir emphasized the importance of this goal and the imperative all countries and organizations have to act quickly. 

“It is a moral failure that we live in a world with such high levels of technical innovation and success, but we continue to allow billions of people to exist without clean drinking water or the basic tools to wash their hands,” Bokzir said. 

Without equitable access to clean water, entire regions risk further development. And for the women and girls who are most vulnerable, clean water is imperative to securing basic rights.

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