poverty
New Hungarian law cracks down on homeless for… being homeless
Censored! There are no poor people in Saudi Arabia
France's Roma face dilemma: Endure the cold or lose their homes
Six months after France stepped up measures to expel Roma gypsies from the country, new makeshift shacks have emerged on the sites of their dismantled camps. Despite the cold, most families living in these slums refuse to go to emergency accommodation centres. They fear their homes will once again be razed while they are away. Read more...
Escaping poverty by suicide is prevalent in Saudi Arabia
A video has emerged on the Internet that points the finger at a taboo subject in Saudi Arabia: citizens of this rich oil nation killing themselves to escape their miserable existence. Read more and watch the video...
The shantytown where fridges are recycled into kitchenware
The shantytown of Agbogbloshie, in the suburb of Accra, is used as an international dump for all kinds of electrical equipment. Our Observer followed a group of immigrants from Togo who make their living by recycling old refrigerators. Read more...
“How I happened to celebrate the end of Ramadan in Cape Town”
Muslims worldwide celebrated the end of the Ramadan period of fasting last Thursday. The Muslim community of Cape Town, South Africa, marked this special evening by distributing hundreds of hot meals to the homeless. Our Observer, a Buddhist, joined them for a memorable night. Read her account...
Begging or contortion – a sad choice for Congolese children
In the bustling capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, poor children resort to performing freak shows in order to make money. Read more...
The world's poorest toymaker
Home to half a million people, the hundreds of thousands of shacks that skirt Nairobi make up the Kenyan capital's second largest shantytown. It’s amongst the rife poverty and scant landscape of Mathare that one man is devoting his time to making toys for children. Read more...
Jakarta’s poorest living off rubbish heaps
While the Indonesian authorities collect most of the islands' rubbish from the streets, they fail to actually dispose of it. By dawn, the growing mountains of rubbish on the outskirts of cities become the workplace for over 500,000 illegal workers. Known as trash pickers, they dig through the waste for any scrap that will fetch a price. Read more...
Don’t just label Yemen 'al Qaeda's new playground'
Yemen found itself in the international headlines this week after a number of Western embassies in the capital closed due to terrorist threats. On Tuesday morning, the US embassy in Sanaa reopened, but as one of our Observers there explains, terrorism is not the only problem facing Yemenis. Read more...
