Technology doesn’t always come from experts with expensive equipment. William Kamkwamba’s junkyard windmill proves it.

Forced to quit school due to Malawi’s famine in 2001, William, then 14 years old, was determined to continue learning and sought out the library. Everything changed when he came across a book with a picture of a windmill.

“I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water,” said William. “I thought: ‘That could be a defense against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself.'”

William’s materials came from junkyard scraps— a tractor fan, shock absorber, bicycle frame, PVC pipe, melted PVC blades, and a generator originally designed for a bicycle.

With limited English reading ability, William created his windmill through pictures and diagrams.

The finished product was a 12-watt, 16-ft tall wood windmill, the first of three he’d build from scraps. As a result, William was able to generate power into his family’s home, pump water, and provide a source for locals to charge their mobile phones.

William’s self-sufficient, proactive approach to improving the life of his family and community is living proof that anything is possible.

In Palestine, new technology is helping new graduates find job opportunities. Souktel, an organization providing mobile phone services for developing countries, understands that swift texting could spell out gainful employment for many young adults.

Souktel’s JobMatch services exhibits social innovation at its finest. In four easy steps, job-seekers can create a resume and get connections to dozens of job opportunities on their mobile device.

Step One: Register.

Step Two: Answer survey questions via SMS texting to create a mini-resume of education and job history.

Step Three: At any time, text “match me” to Souktel, which sends a list of jobs that match the personalized resume profile.

Step Four: Call the contacts provided by Souktel to set up an interview with the potential employer.

And that’s how four steps plus two thumbs could equal financial success.

RELATED CONTENT: "Geeks in Gaza"

Reporting in collaboration with Yadira Gutierrez.

More than 800 staff members in 47 countries cast a vote for their favorite innovation. Which is your favorite?

1. WINNER - People's Choice and Grand Jury: Smarter storage
Traditionally, Ethiopian farmers bury grain to keep it safe. Unfortunately, this also leads to rotten or pest-infested harvests. Mercy Corps staff partnered with the local community to design, manufacture and distribute underground grain storage bags which dramatically decreased the amount of lost grain. Farmers took to the idea and local tailors found work sewing the bags to custom sizes. Read more about this simple solution on Mercy Corps' website.

2. RUNNER UP: Make way for light
Companies selling solar products in urban Uganda don’t feel comfortable investing in rural, marginalized districts like Pader, where they suspect sales will be low. To demonstrate to the companies that local residents could and would pay for solar light, which would be a cleaner, safer and more cost-effective alternative to burning kerosene, Mercy Corps quantified the potential market and shared its findings. The team worked with solar companies to find local distribution partners and helped advertise the health benefits of the technology to pump up demand. After four months, 750 units were sold, and companies are now making additional investments on their own.

3. FINALIST: There’s a map for that
In response to landslides and flooding, Mercy Corps’ team in Colombia developed a new technique for accurately identifying households affected by disaster. The team gathered satellite images of communities from Google Map, and asked community members to pinpoint on the map their own houses and neighborhoods that experienced the damage most severely. Equitably-allocated resources reduces the potential for conflict and speeds recovery - two for one!

4. FINALIST: Bridging the gaps
Mercy Corps staff work in more than 40 countries, so how do you bring together the knowledge of so many far-flung people? Live online learning events. The organization’s “Design, Monitoring and Evaluation” group bridged the gaps created by geography, time zones and cultures by convening a virtual Mercy Corps community dedicated to sharing expertise and measuring the impact of our global work. Sustaining a “many-to-many” web of relationships between satellite offices fosters more shared learning and peer support than a typical “one-to-many” relationship stemming from headquarters.

5. FINALIST: Microinsurance for all
Much of Haiti’s economic potential rests on small entrepreneurs, usually poor people who are knocked down time and time again by disasters, illness or any unexpected shock. But small insurance policies are expensive to manage, so most companies won’t go for it. Mercy Corps’ Haiti team partnered with other groups and came up with MiCRO, which now covers 57,000 Haitians in the informal economy with a financial safety net.

ENTRANTS
6. Fruit farmers branch out
Mercy Corps’ team in Afghanistan recognized that fruit farmers could increase their yields by pruning trees, but that the country lacked a market for these services. The team jump-started a sustainable market for pruning services by training pruners and giving vouchers to farmers to pay for initial pruning services.

7. Planning for peace
How do you reduce tensions when local communities are fighting one another over resource scarcity? If you’re the Mercy Corps staff in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, you gather input from all sides of the conflict, agree on a plan for the communal use of natural resources, supplement it with income-increasing programs and work on using scarce water most effectively. And if it’s all a success, you might even turn the process into a mini-documentary for Ethiopian television, which is exactly what the team is doing.

8. Turning on the tap
In the frantic atmosphere directly following the earthquake in Haiti, many nonprofits trucked in water to give to survivors in camps. But as the dramatic effects of the disaster became clearer, Mercy Corps understood that “emergency relief” would become the norm if long-term solutions weren’t created. So Mercy Corps staff circumvented the logistical challenges of trucking in water and instead gave out vouchers so survivors could buy water from local vendors, thereby supporting the local market to continue providing water long after aid organizations have left.

9. Mobile money in Haiti
Instead of distributing paper vouchers to Haitians to buy food after the earthquake, Mercy Corps staff gave out cell phones loaded with USD$50. Haitians used the phones to buy what they needed at the store of their choice with the push of a button.

10. Bringing down the sludge hammer
If you’re fortunate enough to have a latrine in crowded urban slums, you’re probably not fortunate enough to also have the septic tank regularly emptied. City waste removal trucks can’t maneuver through the crowded streets and residents can’t pay the extra fees charged for specialized equipment used by private companies. The Mercy Corps team put their heads together and came up with two new ways to deal with waste: a motorcycle sludge removal cart and a sludge pushcart, both of which can maneuver the crowded streets of Jakarta, moving sludge to a temporary holding spot for waste removal trucks to pick up.

11. Emergency credit
Due to violent conflict, thousands of households in southern Kyrgyzstan lost family members, homes, possessions and businesses. Mercy Corps’ local microcredit institution, “Kompanion,” created an Emergency Credit Committee and a Fund for Rebuilding Communities through micro-Enterprises to assist entrepreneurs in rebuilding their businesses, damaged from the conflict.

12. AltCity
Not enough jobs exist in Lebanon, and at current population growth rates, jobs will be even more coveted in the near future. Add to that a regional deficit in social innovation and social entrepreneurship and you’ve got a tough problem. To address it, Mercy Corps supported the creation of AltCity, or “alternative city,” a hyper-resourced, collaborative, media-friendly physical space that supports a broad range of activities for civil society organizations and social innovators. A citizen journalism group, for example, could learn marketing planning, relationship modeling, graphic design and financial management skills from other groups they may never have met otherwise.

13. A warm welcome
A harsh winter wiped out 20 percent of poor herders' livestock, sending many to seek a new life in provincial centers. As they searched for jobs, they found it difficult to adjust to the urban environment. The Mercy Corps’ Mongolia team partnered with a local psychotherapy association to provide support and vocational skills training for 1,600 participants. Not only did most trainees find full-time work, but some even started their own businesses and employers began to specifically seek out candidates who had gone through the training.

14. Use the stove, save the trees
In Myanmar, a cyclone seriously damaged mangrove forests, which was the main source of fuel for cooking. To avoid further deforestation of an already fragile ecosystem, the Mercy Corps devised a two-step strategy: market fuel efficient stoves and plant new saplings. The stoves are affordable, easy to maintain and reduce the amount of wood people need to cook by about 30 percent.

15. Show me the data
Rather than trying to compare apples to oranges, the Mercy Corps Pakistan team developed a sophisticated online system to manage tons of data from very different projects across the country, while fulfilling multiple donor requests for customized reporting. Not only does this system outdo the traditional notebook and pen by keeping things organized in real-time, viewed from anywhere in the world, it also lets staff upload photos of work-in-progress with GPS locations. Now that’s a cool way to monitor project impact.

16. Goodbye baby blues
It’s one thing to know a problem exists and quite another to have data to back up your claim. It’s known that many women in Tajikistan suffer from post-partum depression, but data is needed to convince health agencies and governments to fund appropriate care. Rather than come at the problem by funding a solution that might not be widely accepted, Mercy Corps took another route. The team developed a survey to get solid numbers of depression rates and shared it with local and national leaders, who are now addressing the issue with greater understanding and more effective treatment.

17. The littlest entrepreneurs
In Tajikistan, Mercy corps partnered with a Dutch organization to create a financial literacy program for youth and these kids are going way beyond just a piggy bank. Not only are youth learning to manage savings through individual and group accounts with local co-op banks and microfinance institutions, they’re also setting up their own social enterprises! They’ve got the passion to improve their communities and invest profits into school outings and school materials, and now they’ve got the skills, too.

18. Just swipe it
The turmoil created by the international financial crises has made cash in Zimbabwe sparse and coveted. The Mercy Corps team in Zimbabwe decided that cash vouchers would be the best way to provide families with the immediate assistance they needed while supporting local stores, but safety risks made the team turn to a swipe card as the distribution method. Beneficiaries received an ATM card to buy what they need securely, saving them time formerly spent waiting in line for vouchers and saving staff time, too.

19. Back on their feet
Farmers don’t begin their day at nine o’clock and end at five, and their business cycle isn’t a neat three-month period, like a microlender would prefer. In Zimbabwe, the Mercy Corps team figured out tweaks to the norm to produce a win-win: Loan periods based on the cycle of a farmer’s crop, rapid cash flow analyses based on typical farming incomes, lending models based on trust instead of physical collateral, and market linkages with commercial buyers. Each piece of the puzzle helps farmers repay loans and banks receive payment.

And the winner of Mercy Corps’ internal innovations competition is...(drumroll, please)... Ethiopia! Despite—or very well perhaps because—of the massive drought that's hit the Horn of Africa, community members and Mercy Corps staff have hit on a solution that's both simple and cheap.

The word “innovation” doesn’t always refer to a flashy, new, life-changing product (but it’s exciting when it does!). Finding creative ways to connect the dots between needs and resources is often less sexy but packs more punch.

That’s part of the reason Mercy Corps (our parent organization) sponsors an internal innovations competition every two years. The competition recognizes that our staff around the world work closely with the populations they serve—employees are often locals themselves—so they’re highly tuned in to the nuances of the needs around them.

Global Envision often covers design competitions with social impact: the Dyson Award, the Social Good Summit, and Core77. The winning products are exciting and thought-provoking, but may never be implemented or successful in the developing world. This competition is different: the staff who come up with the ideas can work with local populations and see in real time how their innovation is working (or not working). This allows for a long, useful refinement process. It’s also the result of that close interaction with the local population. External designs usually aren’t tested at this level until long after they’ve received the ‘cool’ award.

Much of what makes Fortune 500 companies and tech giants successful is their internal support for the so-called ‘creative process.’ Making innovation a part of a company’s culture means a better end product. For nonprofits, the value of internal competitions lies in discovering ways to be more efficient with limited resources and encourages programs from all four corners of the globe to learn from one another. It's quite simple: Organizations that support innovation and collaboration are better at helping people.

So how does the competition work? Mercy Corps teams describe the challenge they tried to solve or the barrier that had to be overcome. They submit a description of their pilot program, new approach, experiment, new practice. Innovations don’t have to be 100 percent successful—the contest asks entrants to include challenges they continue to face. Sometimes learning what doesn’t work is just as powerful as success. But if these solutions can be scaled up or expanded to other countries, Mercy Corps can help even more people lead more productive lives. We'll vote for that.

Enough talk—onto the entries! Read on for the winner, top five finalists and all 19 applause-worthy, creative solutions.

Egypt today sounds a lot like Egypt before the revolution: high unemployment, corruption, poverty. And a whopping 35 percent unemployment rate for people under the age of 30.

National Public Radio's Marketplace correspondent Stephen Beard reports from Cairo.

Developing countries face overcrowded classrooms and empty libraries. Students have started addressing this issue by filling shelves with their own stories.

Many children in developing countries do not have books to take home or read in class. If they do, they’re usually not translated into local dialects. This means limited use by parents at home, many of whom are also illiterate. UNESCO reported in 2010 that one in five adults is illiterate. Not only learning to read but having easy access to books and other printed material is imperative to improve this staggering statistic.

While some rural communities have access to e-readers, they're few and far between. This is where innovation and imagination come in. A primary school in Chingoe, Mozambique, is filling its library with homemade books, shaping young readers by allowing them to share their own stories. The Literacy Boost program by Save the Children applies this hands-on method and has seen results. Teachers write their own short stories, children draw illustrations that serve as writing exercises, or parents tell stories to their children for transcription. Add a little string for binding and you’re set. It's an innovative way to promote and combine oral traditions with basic education.

Writing can also help children cope after disasters or hardships. Drawing or writing out their experiences is a constructive way to process emotions. Sharing these stories with their peers helps in the recovery effort while simultaneously improving important written and verbal communication skills.

While some may not ascribe a homemade library the same prestige of traditional textbooks or literature, it provides an important foundation where needed most. Children are able to read at home, engage their family and community, and boost their learning skills. No matter who wrote it, taking a book home to read is the first step in realizing the magic of education.

In the developing world, many children’s lives end before they have a chance to begin. The developers of Embrace—a portable and cost-effective incubator—believe they have hatched a solution to infant mortality.

With a design similar to a doll-sized sleeping bag, Embrace uses a removable wax insert that requires only hot water for heating. When the warm wax is inserted, the sleeping bag can maintain a consistent temperature of 98 degrees for 4 to 6 hours, allowing low-weight infants to maintain a warm body temperature as they would in an electronic incubator. However, unlike a traditional incubator, which on average costs a hefty $20,000, the Embrace weighs in a much lighter $100. Extensive research was done in both India and in U.S. hospitals on over 170 babies to verify Embrace’s efficacy and safety.

Today, nearly 450 infants die every hour and more than 20 million children are born premature or with a low birth weight each year . If this new product is embraced by the developing world, more will have a chance of living a meaningful life.

A Dutch company looks to combine international aid with corporate profit, according to allAfrica.com.

The supermarket chain Albert Heijn is funding and conducting development projects in Africa, including constructing water systems in Ghana, farmer training programs in South Africa, and expanded schooling in Kenya. But the company doesn’t claim that its efforts are based in charity. "It's very much business-driven. It bears almost no resemblance to charity or good causes," says Henri Zondag, chair of the Albert Heijn foundation.

Albert Heijn supermarkets rely heavily on quality produce from Africa, and the idea is that healthier, happier and better-educated suppliers make trade relationships more productive. The Dutch government is a player in this arrangement too, encouraging business-sector participation in cooperative development relationships and economic benefits for the Netherlands. The government hopes that “making a profit can be a great incentive for [development] projects.” The company envisions projects that forge partnerships that lead to greater profit. If both are correct, in the long term all parties involved could win.

Erik Mandell is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in public administration and global leadership at Portland State. Read his other contributions to Global Envision.

Sitting in cafes all over Tunisia are unemployed youth with college degrees and nothing better to do.

Tunisia's recent revolution left it with skyrocketing unemployment and an economic collapse. Libya, Tunisia’s neighbor, finds itself in a similarly precarious situation. Their crucial difference is that while Tunisia is relatively developed, Libya has no working infrastructure. And ironically, it is this lack of infrastructure that provides the solution to both countries' problems.

Following the wake of Tunisia’s President Ben Ali stepping down and the death of Libya’s Qaddafi, the nations’ new governments are hoping to set up more open ways of conducting business. Previously full of government corruption and theft, transparent business practices will allow both countries to allow the creation of companies that address the people’s interests rather than the government’s. Tunisia and Libya’s citizens are taking advantage of this change, and are already creating businesses aimed at building the desperately needed infrastructure in Libya that Qaddafi never developed. This will, in turn, relieve the strain on Tunisia’s hospitals and other infrastructure, which are currently working at double capacity. According to Tunisian economist Moncef Cheikhrouhou, the rebuilding of Libya could provide jobs for 250,000 Tunisians, all while developing lasting economic ties between the nations and creating the building blocks for Libya’s economy to sustain itself.

The new opportunities for growth and economic connection also have a broader appeal. In the post-Arab Spring Middle East, the example these two struggling countries provide sets the pace for a region full of economic growth potential.

Prior to the Arab Spring, the Middle East economy neglected to build privatized business connections within the region. Ben Ali aligned Tunisia with Europe and Qaddafi kept Libya isolated. When regional investment did occur, it was often corrupt. Libya and Tunisia are both poised to set the example for regional cooperation in an area where business connections are rare, and their timing couldn’t be better. Recent Citibank rankings have placed two other Middle Eastern countries—Egypt and Iraq—as nations with the greatest potential for growth in the next 40 years. Investment in these growing economies would benefit all involved. This closer connection with up-and-coming neighbor economies is particularly important as Tunisia’s long-standing ties to faltering economies like those of Italy and Greece seem to be deteriorating.

With a lot of work cut out for them in the months and years ahead, it looks like as many as a quarter of a million Tunisians could finally leave the cafes and get back to work. Jobs, opportunities, and examples for their Middle Eastern neighbors may follow.

On Monday, the world welcomed its 7 billionth person. The implications of population growth are similarly staggering in number, but here are five of the more important things to know about the growing world community.

There might not be 7 billion of us. Yet.

The October 31st date was chosen by the United Nations Population Fund, and it’s somewhat symbolic. "There is a window of uncertainty of at least six months before and six months after the 31 October date for the world population to reach seven billion," UN population estimates chief Gerhard Heilig told the BBC. However, the crux of the matter—the ever-increasing world population and the problems that come with it—stands.

Human being No. 7,000,000,000 is probably poor—and it's likely the parents didn't plan the pregnancy.

The developing world acted as the engine for most of the last decade's population growth. It’s home to the world’s seven fastest-growing cities, according to Foreign Policy. As such, it’s attracting the attention of policymakers and crystal-ball-gazers alike. Many, like the Worldwatch Institute’s Robert Engelman, propose extending access to contraceptives and encouraging smaller family size to curb population-related problems, though a recent Economist article says that this would only have a modest effect in the face of scarce world resources.

Sure, resource scarcity is a problem, but maybe it doesn’t have to be.

Not all commentators are equally pessimistic about continuing population growth. Some of the most basic problems, like access to food and water, might really be problems of efficiency rather than scarcity. Global Envision contributor Ben Osborn recently wrote about a study by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research that showed that given proper integration and storage of water resources, no one would have to go thirsty. On the food front, a scientific study published in Nature showed that proper agricultural reforms “could increase global food availability by 100–180%,” more than enough to meet the needs of our growing population.

The antidote to population could be migration.

Ensuring good quality of life for the earth’s inhabitants goes beyond just food and water. The UN’s State of the World Population 2011 report identifies migration as a trend that can be used to help aid in economic development. Wealthy countries with declining fertility rates could provide job opportunities for workers disenfranchised in their overpopulated home countries. At the same time, migration is a hot-button issue for developed nations that may not be so keen to open their borders. The report also cites increased access to education as a key factor in reducing population growth and providing better opportunities for youth in developing nations.

Maybe we should all just learn to stop worrying and love the population bomb.

Many fear rapid population growth in a world with limited resources, but given the proper policies it might not have to be so scary. Since there’s no “undo” button for world population, perhaps the best question to ask in light of the 7 billion marker is “How can we make the best of it?”

Want to know where you fit into the 7 billion? Check out The BBC’s “What’s Your Number” tool.

Margo Conner is a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in international affairs. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.

The world’s seven billionth person is more likely than ever to see her fifth birthday, according to Save the Children. But some people might view that as a bad thing.

According the UN, the world population is now past seven billion. That’s got some people worrying about overcrowding and resource scarcity. In the worst case, it may even make them less likely to give aid to those in need.

But Save the Children, a disaster relief and long-term development charity that focuses on children, has a different take: The more children we save, they argue, the smaller the world’s population growth.

In places where child mortality is high, families have more children. “In the poorest countries, where parents are often petrified that their children will die and leave them to fend for themselves, it’s understandable that they would choose to have larger families," according to Brendan Cox of Save the Children. More children can help their parents farm the land, work in the family's small business, and otherwise improve the lot of the poorest of the poor.

But when that fear is mitigated by better income or greater access to aid, family sizes stay small. According to the Save the Children report, the child mortality rate and the global fertility rate have both fallen by more than half since 1970.

And when you have fewer children, you can invest more of your resources into each child, ensuring not only survival, but also success.

So, one way to curb population growth is to keep children alive and thriving.

Ben Osborn is a 2011 graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Read his other contributions to Global Envision.

Sometimes, people who claim to speak for "the other 99 percent" aren't actually among them.

As the leaderless, left-leaning "Occupy" movement gathered this week for demonstrations across the United States, claiming inspiration from and solidarity with the Arab Spring, some self-described "99-percenters" faced a hard truth: They were, in fact, among the richest 1 percent of humans.

In 2003, the World Bank estimated that anyone who earned at least $47,500 annually was in the world's richest percentile. According to 2004 Census figures, that was a bit higher than the median income for an American over 25 with earnings and a bachelor's degree.

In other words: on a global scale, much of the American middle class are 1-percenters.

As about 5,000 demonstrators, as estimated by the Portland Mercury, gathered Thursday just down the block from Global Envision's headquarters, we headed into the crowds to ask a few participants whether the world's richest can safely speak for its poorest.

The answer we heard: Why not?

"The 1 percent still exists," said Steve Wessing, 50, an unemployed music professional selling souvenir buttons to demonstrators for $1 apiece. "I can't identify with the 1 percent while the 99 percent are still suffering."

Both Wessig and Lauren Ho, a naturopathic medical student holding a sign that read "People Before Profit," hesitated to identify with this year's successful demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

"I don't feel educated enough," said Ho, 27. But Ho said she had come to support "a right to health care, housing" and an end to the destruction of the environment. "You have to start somewhere to make a change," she said.

Heather Perry, 30, attended with her boyfriend and their respective children. She said Thursday's rally was the "coming together" of communes predicted by Karl Marx in the 19th century.

Neither Perry, Ho or Wessig seemed to question that globalization has driven huge increases in wealth around the world, even as it may have eroded the American middle class. Perry, in fact, said this might be for the best.

"If people have money, that should be redistributed to people that don't," she said.

To Charles Newlin, a semi-retired landscaper from Corvallis, Ore., protesting inequality within the United States made perfect sense.

"Our income disparity is third-world," said Newlin, 66, who showed up in a Pacific Green Party T-shirt that matched his 18-year-old grandson's. "It's larger than a lot of third-world countries'."

As a result, even prosperous American cities are suffering, he said.

"The paint is peeling off the overpasses on I-5," Newlin said. "It's starting to look like Mexico."

As the crowd began to chant, Newlin said he was excited to see so many Americans taking action for greater equality. The key, he said, was widespread underemployment among young people.

"I think they've made a tremendous mistake," Newlin said, referring to the richest 1 percent. "They gave young people skin in the game."

The world is facing a "global human rights emergency in mental health," says the World Health Organization (WHO) via the Guardian. It's a quiet crisis keeping millions out of the global marketplace.

Mental health problems (including autism, substance abuse, schizophrenia, depression, dementia) account for an estimated 14 percent of all global health conditions, yet receive less than 1 percent of most countries' health-care budget, according to the Guardian. Overall, the WHO estimates a 75 percent coverage gap in many countries with low and lower-middle incomes. One-third of all countries lack a mental health program, and only one of 10,000 UK charities listed on GuideStar is dedicated to international mental health.

Saudi Ali Mufreh exemplifies the problem, having lived in chains for 35 years since developing mental problems at age 15. Ali spends his days alone, hearing little more than the sound of “his clanking iron restraints,” says Al-Riyadh. Ali's brother Omar explained:

I was forced to chain my brother in this small room to protect him and protect others from him. I am searching for a cure to his condition, but I have had no luck yet. If I let my brother go, then he will place the whole family in danger. On two occasions, he tried to burn down the house. Both times we escaped, but the whole house was severely damaged.

Ali is not alone. Dr. Irmansyah, Indonesia's director of mental health services, estimates that 30,000 mentally ill people are restrained in cages, stocks or chains. Some suffering from mental illness are deposited at camps like Indonesia's Yayasan Galuh, where patients live on a hard tile surface surrounded by open sewers, according to PBS NewsHour.

In addition to violating basic human rights, the isolation of those with mental illness also creates an economic burden on developing countries, says the Guardian.

Mental illness adversely affects people's ability to work, creates a potential career burden on their families and generally leads to greater poverty.

But, there's hope.

In 2008, the WHO launched the Mental Health Gap Action Program to improve conditions for the mentally ill, primarily in developing countries. The WHO asserts that “with proper care, psychosocial assistance and medication, tens of millions could be treated for depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, prevented from suicide and begin to lead normal lives&emdash;even where resources are scarce.”

Four critical areas for emphasis going forward include:

• Reaching people in the countryside: Many of the developing world's mentally ill live in the countryside, and what few treatment services that exist are likely far away in the capital cities. Large numbers of non-specialist field health workers could be trained in basic mental health care and drug distribution, serving as a first line for treatment and as a conduit for passing more serious cases onto city hospitals.
• Changing Public Awareness and Perceptions: The mentally ill are often hidden from society due to the social stigma and marginalized, so it is little surprise they receive minimal help. The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals make no mention of mental disabilities, and discussion of mental health is often considered "something of a luxury" among policymakers and the media. Making the topic visible and less stigmatized encourages donations, research and advocacy.
• Preventing illness before it develops: Aiding malnourished or overworked mothers and their newborns is a critical step to preventing mental illness in the first place. According to one WHO report,“improving nutrition and development in disadvantaged children can lead to healthy cognitive development, improved educational outcomes, and reduced risk for mental ill health."
• Seeing the mentally ill as potential workers: In one study from India, the onset of mental illness reduced working hours by 64 percent (from 28 to 10) — not including increased family care — suggesting major economic benefits accruing to countries who get the mentally ill treated and back to work. In other words, there may be only one aid program a family like Ali’s needs: treatment for Ali himself.

Developing countries and NGO's will eventually realize the advantages of treating the mentally ill. However, changing the way the general population perceives the mentally ill may be just as difficult as treating the mentally ill themselves.

Helping alleviate poverty while having an adventure in a developing country? Often, life-changing and highly educational experiences like these are usually luxuries for the wealthy. But they don’t have to be.

In the United States and Europe, it’s increasingly common for students and even families to spend a semester or a summer vacation volunteering in the villages, orphanages, or clinics of a developing country.

However, the associated expenses drastically narrow the volunteer pool. At a cost of about $3,000 plus airfare for a single month, volunteerism is usually regarded as a luxury for people in developed countries.

Voluntary Services Overseas, a UK-based charity, is working in the Philippines to change this.

According to an article from inquirer.net, VSO has sent more than 600 Filipino volunteers to other developing countries such as Nepal and Thailand.

"When it first started, people were saying, 'Why are we sending Filipinos out of the country? This is brain drain,'" VSO chief executive Marg Mayne told the Makati City-based newspaper. "But what happens is because they come back, they are making a difference in the Philippines because they become committed to the whole idea of fighting poverty."

The United Nations recognizes volunteerism as a powerful tool for turning people into global citizens. Programs like VSO make volunteerism attainable for ambitious citizens — no matter what their income may be.

Many of us dream of bending it like Beckham. But star-quality soccer — football, to most of its 250 million players worldwide — is almost impossible without a healthy childhood.

That's why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an assist from the 2011 UEFA Champions League victors FC Barcelona, is teaming up to draw attention to the importance that vaccines hold for the world's future football stars. They're taking aim at polio in particular, seeing the potential to eradicate the disease completely.

With millions of fans worldwide, FC Barcelona has the ability to reach global masses. There is benefit for FC Barcelona as well. In partnering with the Gates Foundation, FC Barcelona is capturing the hearts of a whole new market and adding a social edge to their organization.

Polio is an infectious viral disease, spread from human to human. The disease attacks the central nervous system, resulting in severe paralysis and disability or death. But the vaccine, which costs about 13 cents a dose, protects children from this devastating disease and keeps them in school and in the workforce.

The effects of polio are not only damaging for the individual, but for poor families and countries as well. Caring for polio-stricken family members taps already limited resources, and polio victims struggle to work and effectively contribute monetarily. As children have had access to the vaccine “cases of this devastating disease have fallen by 99 percent in the past 20 years,” according to the Gates Foundation.

If the vaccination of at-risk children can continue, the potential for complete elimination is in sight. But to reach this goal, so that every child has the chance to score, the fight must continue. And as the Gates Foundation says, “polio anywhere is a threat everywhere."