Speeches Shim
Every day, all over the world, USAID brings peace to those who endure violence, health to those who struggle with sickness, and prosperity to those who live in poverty. It is these individuals — these uncounted thousands of lives — that are the true measure of USAID’s successes and the true face of USAID's programs.
Households in the Central African Republic (CAR) would normally be tending and harvesting their crops from July to September, during the peak rainy season. This year, however, surging conflict has forced thousands of farmers to abandon their fields. As a result, weeds are overtaking land that once provided income and food for Central African families.
Following decades of conflict and insecurity, Somalia knows too well the costs of corruption on economic, political and social development. From 2010 to 2016, Somalia was perceived to be one of the world’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Arlit used to be a prosperous town, attracting European tourists as well as many local youth with the opportunity to work in the uranium mines. After terrorist attacks in 2013 destroyed the tourism industry, the region was dealt another blow in 2014 when mining operations slowed significantly due to plummeting worldwide uranium prices, labor disputes, and renegotiations of mining contracts with the government. Foreign mining companies in Niger laid off thousands of young workers.
Boko Haram insurgency reached its peak in Nigeria’s Adamawa state in 2015. Two local government areas were under control of the extremist group while the insurgents continued to terrorize parts of the northeastern state, displacing thousands.
In Ethiopia, the 2015-2016 El Niño-induced drought and consecutive poor rainy seasons triggered the worst water shortage the highlands had seen in more than 50 years.
Imagine living in an economically vibrant city of nearly 50,000 people. Now imagine that you don’t know where basic public services like police stations, schools and hospitals are located or even where the official city boundaries are.
The situation in Bistrica was pretty bad, but it is slowly improving, and communication and cooperation among youth now is impressive,” said Sulejman Abazović, a young resident of that community, with a smile.
Over the past few years, a small, independent media outlet has been—bit-by-bit and story-by-story—pulling back the curtain that has hidden corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) since the war in the 1990s.
“Running is a great activity, which is why many girls are interested in doing it. Unfortunately, due to socially constructed gender norms imposed on Afghan females, there are not many opportunities to explore different sports,” says Nargis Sharifi, the team facilitator of the Peace Runners.
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