poverty



STORY OF THE DAY • Apr 18, 2023 • 6 min read

Education The Philippines falls behind in children’s learning

By Molly Dunlap • Apr 18, 2023
The country's bleak education outlook has not been helped by pandemic restrictions that kept most children out of the classroom for more than two years. But even as President Marcos Jr. unrolls a new campaign to support schools, longstanding issues remain

May 07, 2021 • 7 min read
Poverty

The groups plugging holes in Singapore’s social safety net

In a state where the government has a heavy hand, people are pushing beyond traditional notions of welfare, with community-organised groups emerging in the name of mutual aid to reach out to the people left behind by the city-state’s rapid growth
By Charmaine Sew • May 07, 2021

Sep 01, 2020 • 7 min read
Covid-19

Virus woes forces girls across Asia, from India to Vietnam, into child marriage

Child marriage has long been common in communities from Indonesia to India and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads in access to education and women's health. Now the practice is once again on the rise as families attempt to alleviate poverty during the pandemic
By Aishwarya Kumar, Haeril Halim and Tran Thi Minh Ha • Sep 01, 2020

Apr 15, 2020 • 2 min read
Thai economy

Gold glitters as cash-strapped Thais sell jewellery

Hundreds of Bangkok residents rushed to goldsmith shops in Chinatown in order to sell their jewellery, as gold reached its highest levels since 2012 this week due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic pushes prices skywards
By Agence France-Presse • Apr 15, 2020

Apr 08, 2020 • 10 min read
Covid-19

Singapore’s working poor hit hardest by economic shutdown

As Covid-19 brings global markets to their knees, Singapore is experiencing its worst economic contraction since 2008. In the wealthy city-state, it's the low-paid urban poor who are being hit hardest
By Toh Ee Ming • Apr 08, 2020

Nov 05, 2019 • 9 min read
Ageing in Asia

Singing sad songs

From our print archive. Ten years ago, we looked at a number of initiatives in the northern Thai town of Chiang Mai that were helping people cope with the poverty and loneliness of age
By Tiep Seiha • Nov 05, 2019

Oct 18, 2019 • 15 min read
Meth addiction

Pipe dreams

A Chinese-funded property boom in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville is casting the city’s meth addicts to the margins
By Andrew Haffner • Oct 18, 2019

Jul 18, 2019 • 10 min read
Poverty

Living on the edge

Scraping through the refuse of Yangon’s slums for scraps to sell, children and adults alike find themselves caught between economic crisis in the countryside and a rapidly developing city that threatens to swallow their makeshift homes
By Lorcan Lovett • Jul 18, 2019