Uruguay

Most recent reports endorse the fact that Uruguay has long forged ahead in the provision of social welfare benefits in Latin America and has maintained a relatively stable macroeconomic state of affairs. In addition to this, the country has a relatively high income per capita that is roughly around US $3300 and thus poverty is generally not extensive and the country is able to maintain an equitable income distribution pattern. In Montevideo specifically, which is home to almost half of the Uruguayan population, a mere 10 percent fall below the poverty line. Greater poverty however, is generally situated in more rural areas made up of migrant communities on the outskirts of the city.

The poverty line for Montevideo is estimated to be US$58 monthly per capita and in other urban areas to be around US$45. The demographic characteristics of the lowest income groups reveals that a large proportion of poverty in Uruguay is concentrated among families who are at the reproductive stage of their life-cycle, whose children, therefore, have little access to education, potable water, and sewerage systems. Other vulnerable groups include inactive youths, teenage mothers, and female head of households, and widows.

Uruguayan trends in poverty are closely linked to growth, macroeconomic performance, and its effect on demand for labor.

The Uruguayan government generally respects the human rights of its citizens, and the law and judiciary system usually provides an effective means of dealing with individual instances of abuse. However, there are problems in some areas, specifically instances of police abuse and mistreatment of detainees, poor prison conditions, and delays in the justice system. Court cases sometimes last many years, resulting in lengthy pre-verdict detention. Other problems include violence against women and societal discrimination against women and the black minority.

Conditions in prisons and juvenile detention facilities for the roughly 3,700 prisoners in Uruguay remains poor, but not life threatening. In 1997 a legislative human rights commission presented a report that criticized the "excessive use of force and abuse of authority" by prison guards and officials, and stated that sanitation and health standards in the prison system were "unacceptable."

Violence against women continues to be a serious problem in Uruguay and it is predicted that this form of human rights violation will soon constitute the second most prevalent threat to public health, after traffic accidents in the country.

Uruguay has endured its most notable case of human rights violations during the military dictatorship endured by the country form 1973-1985. During this time evidence of the torture and extrajudicial executions of dozens of Uruguayan and Argentine nationals has been reported and documented. Most recently, criminal charges were filed against the former Uruguayan de facto president Juan María Bordaberry and his foreign minister, Juan Carlos Blanco for killings committed under military rule. These criminal charges in essence, represent an important step for Uruguay toward establishing responsibility for gross human rights abuses it has historically incurred.

Recently, Uruguay signed the war crimes treaty named, the Rome Treaty for the International Criminal Court. With this signature, 121 states have signed the treaty, including almost all of Latin America and all signatories such as Uruguay are seen as having taken a historic step towards global human rights justice.

The number of people living with AIDS in Uruguay is 9 600 out of a population of about 3.5 million and the HIV infection rate is less than half a percent among the general population. The epidemic is concentrated among men who have sex with men, female and male sex workers, drug users and prisoners. Drugs and drug users play an important role in the spread of the epidemic with a rate of about 9.5 percent among injecting drug users as a result of sharing of intravenous needles.

Disease in Uruguay is relavtivly minimal due to the fact that the government has done much to improve its health conditions over the past decade and under the national constitution, the State is responsible for all medical functions providing free medical particularly for the aged and those who cannot afford medical costs. As a result, Uruguay has changed from having one of the highest mortality rates in Latin America to one of the lowest. The infant mortality rate was 19.6 per 1,000 in 1995 and has been reduced dramatically to 11.61 per 1000 in 2006.

The Ministry of Sanitation in Uruguay has gone to great lengths to provide the nation's 3.4 million people with healthy drinking water which in turn has alleviated much suseptability to the outbreak or contaction of many waterbourne disease. To date is estimated that only 1.2% of the population has difficulty accessing clean drinking water.

Uruguay to a large extent has controlled Chagas disease, which affects the nervous system, digestive system and heart, and successive international evaluations have certified the country 's accomplishment. It is the first endemic country to interrupt the transmission of this tropical parasitic disease.

One potential problem for the country, however, is the reintroduction of the Aedes aegypti mosquito with possible cases of dengue fever, a vector borne diseases found in the tropics, with a geographical spread which is in fact similar to malaria.

The extent and spread of settlements and the increasing diversity of development activities affect an entire range of natural resources in Uruguay.

Soil degradation through erosion is commonplace in cultivated areas, despite relatively low-intensity land use, especially on farmed areas along the Uruguay River. Soil degradation has a direct affect on the principle feeding areas of migratory birds in the low-lying marshes and lagoons. Habitat loss due to farming activities, along with the hunting of native fauna, has in fact eliminated some indigenous species entirely and contributed to lowering numbers of others.

Growing chemical pollution of rural ecosystems cause by careless and excessive us of agrochemicals with unknown effects on the environment is proving to be a growing problem in Uruguay. In addition to this, because of the country’s abundant water supply, awareness regarding the water resources has been relatively low until fairly recently.

Contamination of Montevideo’s urban watersheds is caused by a lack of infrastructural sanitation services, which in turn has led to the contamination of the groundwater and areas such as Montevideo Bay. Due to the widespread urban land use, especially in the case of Montevideo, the development of shantytowns on the banks of previously protected waterways results in a loss of wetland areas that used to contribute to the cleaning of contaminant from the urban runoff.

The natural forests of Uruguay exist along the rivers and small mountain chains and have been generally regarded as self-sustaining. There is however, pressure on the forests from agriculture and livestock interests to alter the remaining areas of the natural forests but will most likely be preserved because such areas represent one of the country’s ecosystems and have been recognized for their scenic and other nature based values.

The Uruguayan educational system is secular, compulsory and free. This has been the case since 1877 for primary school education, and has now been extended towards secondary schooling and University education as well. The country has had widespread coverage of primary education for decades that has resulted in the extremely high literacy rate of around 90 per cent. This can be primarily attributed the 7.9 per cent of government spending on education of which most is spend on primary and secondary educational institutions.

The challenge for the Uruguayan educational system lies in secondary educational schooling systems, wherein repetition and dropout levels are high. The overall dropout rate among youths aged 15 to 19 years from households in the poorest income areas is around 48 per cent, while in the richer, it is only 9 per cent. Dropout rates among adolescents and youths can be generally associated with paid work and the subsequent school desertion. At the end of 1999 approximately 50,000 children worked and approximately 77 per cent were between 14 and 17 years of age.

The percentage of women with secondary and tertiary levels of education is higher than that of men but the jobs women perform pay less that those done by men.

Ashoka, Arab Region - Ashoka's mission is to develop the profession of social entrepreneurship around the world. Ashoka invests in people. It is a global organization that searches the world for social entrepreneurs—extraordinary individuals with unprecedented ideas for change in their communities. Ashoka identifies and invests in these social entrepreneurs when no one else will.

Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation - Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation’s mission is to promote conservation of the marine environment through public education, distribution of information, and research in New England.

Centro Latino Americano de Ecologia Social (CLAES) - Latin American Center for Social Ecology is a NGO devoted to research, promotion and action on sustainable development issues after the social ecology perspective. Based in Montevideo, Uruguay, the center main areas of activities include natural resources management, wildlife conservation and protected areas, environmental impacts of trade agreements, sustainable development, the links between poverty, unemployment and environment, environmental education, etc. Current work includes programs in south cone countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia) and hemispheric issues. CLAES operates the list servers on Social Ecology in Latin America, and Trade and Ecology in Latin America; web resources include pages on Trade and Integration; Civil Society; and Environmental Conflicts. CLAES maintains an intensive publication program.

Choike: A Portal on Southern Civil Societies - Choike contributes to enhance the visibility and impact of what civil society organizations in developing countries produce and publish. Its website and database helps to find NGO information, provides links to NGO sites and publicizes NGO campaigns. It also indexes hundreds of NGO web pages and allows searching them. Choike is a project of the Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute), a non-profit organization based in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Cooperativas Agrarias Federadas de Uruguay (Phone: 00598 2 9000012 Montevideo, Uruguay) mission: “the strengthening and development of the Agrarian Cooperatives and their partners through the guild representation before both the public and private sector, and collaborate on the solutions for their management problems that allow them to be viable in the new stage economic.” We have a Youth Program functioning since 15 years ago. And we work too with rural women.

Endeavor Global, Inc. - Endeavor is a non-profit organization pioneering a new model for international development by promoting entrepreneurship, job creation, and management training in emerging markets. Endeavor aims to build a community of values-driven entrepreneurs as the most catalytic means of achieving broad economic, social and cultural impact in developing nations. Endeavor’s approach focuses on removing barriers to new venture creation and social impact, by fostering local entrepreneurial leaders willing and able to take risks, create jobs, spread wealth, expand opportunities, and inspire others with their passion, determination, and integrity.

Fundacion Manantiales - Manantiales Foundation is an entity for international public welfare with the main houses in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay dedicated to the investigation, prevention and assistance in addictions.

Instituto de Comunicacion y Desarrollo (ICD) - Contribute to the strengthening of the different forms of organization of civil society and promote citizen participation in democracy and development processes.

Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute) - ITeM carries out information, communication and educational activities at national and international levels on issues related to environment and development. ITeM fosters civic participation in global decision-making processes.

Mental Disability Rights International - Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) is an advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the international recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities (including children and adults with developmental disabilities and people with psychiatric disabilities). MDRI documents human rights abuses, supports the development of mental disability advocacy abroad, assists advocates seeking legal and service system reforms, and promotes international oversight of the rights of people with mental disabilities. Drawing on the skills and experience of attorneys, mental health professionals, people with disabilities and their families, MDRI is forging a new alliance to challenge the discrimination and abuse faced by people with mental disabilities worldwide. MDRI has published reports on Kosovo, Mexico, Russia, Hungary, and Uruguay. The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, ABC News 20/20, CNN, and National Public Radio have profiled our work.

Translator - towerofbabel.com - is a non-profit organization; the translators are voluntary and work on the site because they enjoy it (kind of like Linux). Simply read the content on the site, choose which pieces you’d like to translate and in exchange get your resume featured on the site. There are monthly reminders to find out who is translating which article so the translators don’t tread on each other's toes.

Volunteer Host Family (Tampa and Surrounding Communities) - Welcome a young person from Brazil, Japan, Germany, Ghana, Uruguay, Sweden, Russia, Korea, China, or one of over 35 countries into your home for an academic school year. Our students are between the ages of 15-18 years old and will arrive in August. YFU exchange students have English language proficiency and have received good grades from their schools back home. Many students are awarded scholarships sponsored by governments, foundations and private corporations.

Volunteer Uruguay - Student World Assembly is looking for volunteers with a strong interest in Global Democracy and Human Rights to research schools in their area and recruit members for the organization. This will only apply to interested persons who wish to carry out volunteer work in their immediate area.

Volunteer in Uruguay this Summer! - In collaboration with a team of doctors in Montevideo, volunteers are building life skills and leadership of young people through educational workshops and group-led community improvement projects. Volunteers will co-facilitate workshops for children and young people that focus on team-building, creative expression (arts & crafts, drama, etc.), environmental health (environmental awareness, gardens, tree planting) and/or healthy habits (physical activity, health education, nutrition). Utilizing a program activity guide, volunteers will plan and coordinate experiential learning activities with children in a school, community center or other community venue. In addition to the workshops, a key component of the Liderazgo y Comunidad program will be the implementation of community improvement projects with youth and adult community members that may range from the construction of parks and sports fields to the formation of service clubs and arts groups.