InvisiblePeople.tv Puts a Face on Homelessness

Elvin from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

The video above is about Elvin, a healthcare professional who has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years and also holds a degree in political science. He has been married for 25 years and has three children.

As InvisiblePeople.tv writes: "Elvin sounds like someone you'd meet at a baseball game or a coffee shop, but I met Elvin in a parking lot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been homeless and living under a bridge for over a year. He's working to renew his nursing license so he can go back to work. He says it's hard to keep your dignity when you're living on the streets without a home of your own. He is hopeful that his children will learn from his experience."

These stories and more are featured almost every other day on the vlog InvisiblePeople.tv. They are captured by Mark Horvath, who was at one point homeless himself. He writes:

"For years I've used the lens of a television camera to tell the stories of homelessness and the organizations trying to help. That was part of my job. The reports were produced well and told a story, but the stories you see on this site are much different. These are the real people, telling their own, very real stories… unedited, uncensored and raw.

The purpose of this vlog is to make the invisible visible. I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go. I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends."

Visit his vlog today.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi

"The door remains open for the regime to respect the wishes of the Burmese people and international community, and to step toward the path of engagement after so many years of isolation."
-United States Department of State-

Aung San Suu Kyi, the visionary Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was sentenced Tuesday to three years of hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest, but her sentence was quickly commuted to a new term of house arrest of up to 18 months (as reported by the New York Times). She was first sentenced to house arrest in 1989

To learn more about her and the Burmese struggle for freedom, I suggest two excellent books -- Letters From Burma (her memoir) and Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, a novel about Burma and India.

To learn how to take action, please visit these organizations online: US Campaign for Burma, The Freedom Campaign, and Burma Campaign UK. If you have another way or idea to raise awareness, please share it in our comments section.

Girls Start to Speak Out About Violence Against Women

"Studies have shown that up to 46 percent of women in developing countries have experienced at least one episode of sexual abuse in childhood. Most girls in developing countries live in a world completely devoid of safety. In a previous blog I talked about a World Bank study that found that as far as poor girls are concerned, the police are actually a source of insecurity rather than security. Instead of the authorities protecting girls from violence, the authorities were the source of the violence, just as Assiya experienced."
-Maria Eitel-

Read more of "In the Face of Extraordinary Risk, Three Girls Demand Justice" here.