The global impact of sequestration, via InterAction.org.
Why Yemen needs a US reset, and not a retreat.
Photo by Hani Mohammed/AP/File
Our South Sudan Country Director Mathieu Rouquette met these two little girls in the market in Bentiu, Unity State, when they peeked their heads into a camera shop that recently received a Mercy Corps business grant.
“They were pretty amazed looking at the pictures coming out the printer,” he said. “I asked my colleague Matthew to see if they wanted their own photo. They were so sweet, they smiled timidly, looking down. I had not realized that one of them was hearing impaired.” But photos communicate beyond words. After a taking a few pictures and hooking the camera up to the printer, “Two copies of the picture came out. Their faces lit up, right before they stormed out of the little shop constructed of sheet metal.”
These simple moments of hope and happiness can be rare in South Sudan, where ongoing conflict with Sudan has made violence, hunger and displacement a daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people.
From years of house arrest to a position of power: Pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Myanmar’s parliament in a landmark vote over the weekend. (Photo: A man shows a phone with a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi as election results are revealed in Yangon on April 1, 2012. By DAMIR SAGOLJ/REUTERS)
It’s a historic moment for Myanmar, with democracy appearing to be advancing in leaps and bounds — and with relatively little violence. Do events in Myanmar offer a model for democratic transitions elsewhere? More.
Many children in the Arab Spring have been more than mere bystanders. They have been active participants in the uprisings.
Here’s a look at some powerful images of the youngest participants in the protests across the Arab world.
Photo 1: Getty Images
Photo 2: Corbis
While these cuts significantly reduce our ability to help the world’s poorest people, they do virtually nothing to put a dent in the nation’s deficit.
Andrea Koppel, vice president for global engagement and policy at Mercy Corps, on President Obama’s proposed cuts to global-health and humanitarian-assistance programs
If you want to learn about the Arab Awakening, hang out with some teenagers in Tunisia. Our Communications Director Joy Portella spent an afternoon in Gafsa with a group from the Global Citizen Corps, a Mercy Corps program that mobilizes young people, links them up with other youth networks around the world, and helps them take action on issues ranging from environmental degradation to access to education. Joy writes:
Today, young people in Gafsa are hopeful but not naïve. One 15-year old GCC member told me, “Life was complicated before the revolution. People wanted to make change but they couldn’t.” Her 21-year-old friend chimed in, “Now we need to change ourselves; we need to find out what we’re capable of.”
Why aid agencies fear that years of development work will be reversed as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan. Read more at NYTimes.com.
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With foreign aid on Congress’s chopping block this week, it seems like a good time to revisit this infographic from GOOD detailing how US foreign aid spending stacks up against the rest of the budget.
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