Preparing for Christmas with America's 6th Child

Advent has begun and I - like many Christians - started a spiritual journey to prepare for Christmas. As part of my reflection, I am re-reading this powerful piece I've included below. It's "America's Sixth Child" by Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund...who is also a board member of my favorite advocacy organization, RESULTS. 

Whatever holiday you celebrate or don't, remember that this is a hard time of year to be a child in poverty in America. Reach out in whatever way seems best to you. Here are my favorites, which can involve your own children, too.

• Urge Congress to support SNAP benefits, Early Head Start, and child care for low-income families
• Volunteer or give to your local food pantry
• Organize a food drive or a book drive
• Participate in a food re-pack session at the Greater Chicago Food Depository (not for young children)
• Join an organization that advocates for the needs of young children. I suggest Bread for the World or RESULTS.
• Give to Toys for Tots
• Donate new or gently used baby items to a women's shelter or organization for teen mothers

AMERICA'S 6th CHILD

by Marian Wright Edelman

On the day he died, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called his mother to give her his next Sunday's sermon title: "Why America May Go to Hell." In his 1968 call for a Poor People's Campaign, he warned that "America is going to hell if we don't use her vast resources to end poverty and make it possible for all of God's children to have the basic necessities of life."

As Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of the most famous poor baby in history, imagine God seeing our very wealthy family blessed with six children. Five of them have enough to eat and comfortable warm rooms in which to sleep. One does not. She is often hungry and cold. On some nights, she has to sleep on the streets or in a shelter and even be taken away from her neglectful family and placed in foster care or a group home with strangers.

Imagine this rich family giving five of its children nourishing meals three times a day, snacks to fuel boundless energy, but sending the sixth child from the table to school hungry, with only one or two meals and never the dessert the other children enjoy.

Imagine this very wealthy family making sure five of its children get all of their shots, regular health checkups before they get sick, and immediate access to health care when illness strikes but ignoring the sixth child, who is plagued by chronic respiratory infections and painful toothaches, which sometimes abscess and kill for lack of a doctor or a dentist.

Imagine this family sending five of their children to good stimulating preschools and making sure they have music and swimming lessons after school but sending the sixth child to unsafe daycare with untrained caregivers responsible for too many children or leaving her occasionally with an accommodating relative or neighbor or older sibling or alone.

Imagine five of the children living with books in family that is able to read to most of its children every night, but leaving the other child unread to, untalked and unsung to, unhugged, or propped before a television screen or video game that feeds him violence and sex and racially-and gender-charged messages, intellectual pabulum, interrupted only by ceaseless ads for material things beyond the child's grasp.

Imagine this family sending some of their children to high-quality schools in safe neighborhoods with enough books and computers and laboratories and science equipment and well-prepared teachers but sending the sixth child to a crumbling school building with peeling ceilings and leaks and lead in the paint and asbestos and old, old books--and not enough of them--and teachers untrained in the subjects they teach and with low expectations that all children can learn, especially the sixth child.

Imagine most of the family's children being excited about learning, and looking forward to finishing high school, going to college, and getting a job, but the sixth child falling further and further behind grade level, not being able to read, wanting to drop out of school, and being suspended and expelled at younger and younger ages, because no one has taught him to read and compute. And no one has diagnosed his attention deficit disorder or treated his health and mental health problems or helped him keep up with his peers.

Imagine five of the children engaged in sports and music and arts, in after-school activities and summer camps, and in enrichment programs, but the sixth child hanging out with dubious peers or going home alone because Mom and Dad are working, in prison, or have run away from their parenting responsibilities and escaped by using drugs and alcohol, leaving him alone or on the streets during idle nonschool hours and weeks and months, at risk of being sucked into illegal activities and the prison pipeline or killed in our gun-saturated nation.

This is our American family today, where one in six 13 million of our children lives in poverty in the richest nation on earth, more than 40 percent in extreme poverty. It is not a stable, healthy, economically sensible, or just family. Our failure to invest in all our children before they get sick, or drop out of school, get pregnant, or get into trouble is extremely costly. Every year that we let 13 million children live in poverty costs $500 billion in lost productivity, crime, and health costs.

As our political leaders ponder our nation's choices over the next 60 days, let them remember the millions of children living in poverty and extreme poverty and without health coverage and put their needs first and not last. Our economic futures depend on it and so does our nation's soul.

- Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman, author of The Sea Is So Wide And My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation, is president of the Children's Defense Fund. For more information about the Children's Defense Fund, go to http://www.childrensdefense.org/

Child Nutrition bill passes...remind Congress to restore SNAP benefits

From the Greater Chicago Food Depository...
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After more than a year of your letters, calls and e-mails to Congress, I am thrilled to report that the House passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act last week. The bill, which we expect will be signed into law by President Obama, will reauthorize child nutrition programs for five years and includes an additional $4.5 billion in funding for school meal programs over 10 years. In addition to improving the quality of school meals, the bill will help hundreds of thousands of children receive nutritious food after school, on evenings, during summer and during weekends. The Greater Chicago Food Depository operates nearly 100 children’s programs and serves more than 250,000 children every year in Cook County.
While we applaud the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, we’re concerned that the bill is partly paid for by cutting future Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) benefits. Please join us in thanking the House for passing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act while reminding Congress that the restoration of SNAP cuts is essential in ensuring families can continue to put food on the table.
Thank you for helping the hungry.

Kate Maehr
Executive Director and CEO
Greater Chicago Food Depository

Food Depository CEO, Kate Maeher, on WBEZ

From WBEZ, which carried a segment about hunger in Chicago on the show Eight Forty-Eight.
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According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 50 million Americans, including about 17 million children, lack consistent access to food. There are efforts to improve this situation. Back in August, the U.S. Senate passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The bill still requires congressional approval.

To discuss hunger in America and how it plays out in Chicago, Eight Forty-Eight spoke to the CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Kate Maehr.

http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/americas-hunger-problem-moves-beyond-starvation

President of Bread for the World on Worldview today

I want to invite you all to tune in to the program Worldview TODAY at noon on Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ 91.5). Jerome McDonnell will be talking to David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, about the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Summit. You can also listen online by going to http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV_About.aspx and clicking “Listen Now” at the top of the page. Please forward this to anyone you think will be interested!

Sam Daley-Harris talks Purpose, Poverty, Pitfalls and Redemption

Sam Daley-Harris is founder of RESULTS, a citizen lobby on ending global poverty, and founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign. In May 2010 Sam gave a talk at TEDx NJ Libraries titled: “Purpose, Poverty, Pitfalls, and Redemption”. Please listen to Sam’s remarks and pass it on to friends if you enjoyed it as much as I did! Here’s the link:

Click here to see the video


FYI...Here is the link to all of the TEDx NJ Libraries talks: http://www.tedxnjlibraries.com

Steps to Advance the World's Women (by Nicholas Kristof)

A few insightful suggestions from Nicholas Kristof for International Women's Day! Here are excerpts. The entire article can be read in the New York Times here.

March 8, 2010, 10:30 AM
Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women, on International Women’s Day
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

"First, I think girls’ education may be the single most cost-effective kind of aid work. It’s cheap, it opens minds, it gives girls new career opportunities and ways to generate cash, it leads them to have fewer children and invest more in those children, and it tends to bring women from the shadows into the formal economy and society...."

"Second, I’d argue for deworming and micronutrients. These may not sound like they’re “women’s issues,” but in a sense they are. For example, iodine deficiency particularly affects female fetuses, for reasons that we don’t fully understand. Insufficient iodine in the first trimester of pregnancy costs that child 10 to 15 I.Q. points for the rest of his or her life, and yet iodized salt programs that prevent the problem cost less than 5 cents per person reached...."

"Third, we need more support for women starting businesses. These can be microsavings and microlending programs, or training in entrepreneurship. BRAC and Grameen have done great work in this area, as has Injaz in the Middle East. Such programs lead women to bring in incomes, and that gives them more weight in the home and society. Moreover, they tend to invest the income in their children, so there’s a broader effect in fighting poverty."

Help get ONE on the Colbert Report

A new website campaign has been launched to try to get the "Colbert Bump" for a ONE activist who is running for Congress in New Hampshire. Michael Castaldo is a highly respected activist for the ONE campaign who lobbies in many ways from writing letters-to-the-editor and op-eds to bird dogging candidates in town hall meetings to raise awareness and get action on global poverty issues. He is also now running as a republican candidate for U.S. Representative.

Castaldo is the famous ONE activist who travelled all over his state to personally give ONE bracelets to every presidential primary candidate in the last presidential election. He got his picture with every one of them and spoke to them on behalf of people living in extreme poverty.

And now he's got his own viral campaign going to get him on the Colbert Report. His friends who are grassroots anti-poverty activists and fans of Stephen Colbert's show think that he's got an interesting story to tell and want to see him wearing the ONE band, talking about global poverty on to the Colbert Nation. Colbert's character is known for liking to give the "Colbert Bump" by endorsing candidates that fit his interests. Given that Castaldo is a republican, ex-marine, and a chef, he certainly does seem to embody some of Colbert's favorite things. Now if only he were a speedskater, too...

Here is the website that gives information on how to tell Colbert that Castaldo should be on the show:
Colbert Bump for Castaldo site

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From the "Get the Colbert Bump for Castaldo" site.....

WHY SHOULD MIKE CASTALDO GET THE BUMP?

Michael Castaldo is one of the most interesting congressional candidates running for U.S. Representative this year. He would be a perfect interview for the Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert's on-air persona loves the armed services, food, the Republican party, and kingmaking. Mike is an ex-marine, a chef and a Republican candidate who would appreciate receiving the Colbert Bump.


Mike is also a strong advocate for people living in poverty. As a key activist for the ONE campaign, he presented the white ONE bracelet to many presidential candidates on the trail through New Hampshire. An appearance on The Colbert Report would give him the chance to flash that poverty-awareness accessory himself and bring issues like foreign aid reform, debt relief, and global health to a national audience.

Roger Thurow, author of "Enough", in Chicago

The World Beyond the Headlines is a public lecture series is a collaborative project with the University of Chicago Center for International Studies, the Seminary Coop Bookstores, and the International Global Voices Program with support from the McCormick Foundation. The program brings scholars and journalists together to consider major international news stories and how these stories are covered.

This is a FREE public lecture series at the International House (1414 East 59th Street) on the University of Chicago Campus. Roger Thurow will be appearing there. He is one of the author's of "Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty" which is a must-read for anti-poverty advocates!

Wed, March 3
Roger Thurow, Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty
For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the “Green Revolution” succeeded in South America and Asia, it never reached Africa. More than nine million people every year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases every year—most of them in Africa and most of them children. More die of hunger in Africa than from AIDS and malaria combined. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse. In the West we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman show exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European self-interest and neglect have left Africa unable to feed itself. As a new generation of activists work to stop famine from spreading, Enough is essential reading on a humanitarian issue of utmost urgency. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the Program on the Global Environment and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
This event is free and open to the public.
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Home Room

Senator Burris on Child Nutrition

Hey, Illinois! Want to know how Senator Burris feels about nutrition for women, children and Infants? This is what he wrote back to me when I asked him to strengthen programs like WIC, Summer Food Service Program, and others in light of the Child Nutrition Act (S. 934) which was extended for 12 months without changes to move us forward in the fight to end childhood hunger.

Want to encourage him to live up to his statement that proper nutrition for our nation’s children is an important priority ? Visit the Greater Chicago Food Depository's site at this link.
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Thank you for writing me to share your concerns regarding the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act (S. 934). I appreciate the benefit of your views.

I agree that proper nutrition for our nation’s children is an important priority. The reauthorization of Federal child nutrition programs should remove barriers and improve access to reduce childhood hunger and enhance the nutritional quality and health of the school environment.

The Child Nutrition and Women, Infants and Children Reauthorization Act of 2004, which has been extended temporarily while Congress crafts a new child nutrition package, includes funding for all federal child nutrition programs. Among these programs are the School Breakfast and the National School Lunch Programs, the Summer Food Service Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

I support a full reauthorization of the Act that includes new science-based nutrition standards and also reviews food served in vending machines, school stores, and snack shops. I believe this is a good first step to help all American children stay healthy.

I will continue to listen closely to what you and other Illinoisans have to say about matters before Congress, the concerns of our communities, and the issues facing Illinois and the nation. My job is not about merely supporting or opposing legislation; it is also about bridging the divide that has paralyzed our nation's politics.

Sincerely,

Roland W. Burris
United States Senator

Chicago Food Depository reaches new record of demand

Some new data from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, courtesy of the Chicago Trib religion blog at http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2009/11/faith-hunger.html
(The entry also mentions Bread for the World as a way to help feed the hungry)


"Evidence of the problem locally can be found in recent data released by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The food bank established a new record for demand in September, with 427,660 visits to our member pantries in Cook County. The first three months of the fiscal year are 26 percent ahead of last year’s pace in pantry visits, and 70 percent ahead of the pace of two years ago.

Furthermore, poverty rates for Illinois (12.2 percent), Cook County (14.8 percent) and Chicago (20.6 percent) continue to rise. In Cook County, the unemployment rate of 10.6 percent was four percentage points higher than the same time last year and higher than the national average of 9.8 percent.

The depository has distributed 1.7 million more pounds year to date than last year during a similar period. Distribution of produce also exceeds last year at this time."

Bill and Melinda Gates and ONE Webcast

From Melinda Gates...


When I visited Ethiopia earlier this year, I met Tsion, a hard-working young woman in the government’s Health Extension Program. She is trained to tend to pregnant mothers, who otherwise would rely on traditional attendants unable to stop internal bleeding or resuscitate newborns. Tsion has helped take the terror and fear of death out of childbirth for hundreds of women.

As a ONE member, you've worked hard to protect U.S. investments in the world's poorest countries. Now Bill and I need your help to tell Tsion's story, and others—so more Americans realize our tremendous progress improving health around the world and are moved to support America’s continued leadership in global health.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 27, at 7 PM (EST) for a live online presentation titled “Living Proof: Why we are Impatient Optimists.” RSVP to watch:

http://www.one.org/us/gatesspeech/rsvp.html?id=1275-3720093-ES1vU6x&t=2

Through our foundation and visits to the field, Bill and I have been deeply touched by personal stories of lives changed for the better. Thanks to 30,000 trained health extension workers like Tsion, access to health care in rural areas is rapidly expanding. And the health of Ethiopian children and women is improving.

That’s why, when it comes to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we’re impatient optimists. We need to build on this success now, by expanding it to even more women in Ethiopia and helping families in other countries benefit from what Ethiopia has learned.

Sharing success stories is one of the most important things we can do to motivate and inspire others in the fight against global poverty and disease. Please RSVP to join us for the webcast, learn for yourself how U.S. investments in global health are changing the world, and share the proof with your network:

http://www.one.org/us/gatesspeech/rsvp.html?id=1275-3720093-ES1vU6x&t=3

Thank you,

Melinda French Gates
ONE member


PS. I wrote more about my experiences with Tsion in Ethiopia for the ONE Blog. Read my entry here: http://www.one.org/r?r=236&id=1275-3720093-ES1vU6x&t=4

173,045,325 people Stood Up against poverty

From the United Nations Millennium Campaign....
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Dear Fellow Campaigners,
Your passion, commitment and determination have once again inspired a global movement which continues to grow beyond all expectations. You stood up in your cities, towns and villages, in your churches, mosques and temples; you stood in your colleges, schools and homes, on town squares and street sidewalks, you stood together as a global community, not only to shatter the Guinness World record but also to send a powerful message to leaders at the local, national and global level which cannot now be ignored:

"We are more determined than ever to see the Millennium Development Goals become a reality and to end poverty now!"


We know from experience that a significant proportion of activities and events do not get registered in time as many of them take place in remote rural locations with limited internet connectivity. Despite these constraints, over 3000 events spread across 121 countries were registered and more information on the scale of this mobilisation continues to flood in through phone calls, text messages and faxes! More details are at the bottom of this email and on the website www.standagainstpoverty.org.


On behalf of the United Nations Millennium Campaign (www.endpoverty2015.org) I want to thank every one of the thousands of organisers across the world at the local and national levels - social movements, faith groups, NGOs, youth organisations, women's groups, trade unions, civil society coalitions campaigning for the MDGs, local and national governments and the even larger number of volunteers, local groups and individual citizens who made this year's Stand Up and Take Action a resounding success.


We also want to thank the UN system at all levels as well as many of our global partners including the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Art of Living Foundation, Micah Challenge, Skype, UStream, the ONE Campaign, major media partners at the global and national levels and so many others who played a pivotal role in this unprecedented mobilisation.

Together we have the power to make a difference ...

Now in its fourth year, we have seen the impact that Stand Up is making in people's lives and improving the MDG policies and practises of governments. Providing the space and platforms for ordinary citizens to have their voices heard on issues that matter to them at the national and local level. In both rich and poor countries, citizens have come together, to put the priorities of the poor and excluded groups, firmly on the political agenda and get their own governments to address them. Once again an overwhelming majority of the people who stood up were from poor countries. And as their voices grow louder, they can no longer be ignored. The sharp focus on women's rights, hunger and maternal health (in poor countries) and the elimination of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies (in rich countries) and the specific targeting of Parliamentarians made the Stand Up 2009 messaging more impactful. An outstanding example was the leadership of the Speaker of the All-Party Parliamentary Group in Bangladesh which mobilised citizens in large numbers and joined the Prime Minister in taking an oath to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

We will continue to Stand Up every day until promises to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Goals are delivered ...

Next year in September, world leaders will gather at the UN to review progress on the MDGs. With the strength of over 173 million people telling their leaders that their commitments are being closely monitored, we will take this commitment to those decision makers with renewed energy to convert the strength of these numbers into concrete policy and practice changes in our own local and national contexts. We challenge Heads of State to come to the 2010 MDG Review Summit not just with generalised statements of intent but concrete national action plans for MDG implementation that are focussed on the rights of the poor and excluded, particularly women, to meet the 2015 deadline.

To us, Stand Up once again showed the power of the MDGs in really unifying the different parts of the UN for one common cause and the extent to which the MDGs and the UN system enjoy the confidence of the public at large.

Warmest wishes and once again congratulations on this massive show of people power against poverty and inequality. I hope you will closely follow up with all the partners, organisations and individuals that you helped to mobilise and inspire them further to join our on-going campaign for the MDGs from now to 2015.

Warmest wishes


Salil Shetty

Director

Millennium Campaign

United Nations

salil.shetty@undp.org

2009 Millennium Development Goals report

From the United Nations Millennium Campaign:

The 2009 MDG Report, leading into the 2010 MDG review conference that represents the last major recommitment before 2015, is both promising and disturbing. Actual progress has been made, but the economic crisis is cutting severely into those gains, and, at this pace, the world will fall far short of achieving the Goals.

Overall, the number of people living in poverty (under $1.25 a day) had dropped by 400 million from 1990 to 2005 (1.4 billion) despite the growth in world population, an astounding number that, on its own, is proof that the Goals are achievable. However, the economic crisis chiseled away at that progress, and 90 million more people are expected to be added back to those rolls this year. Success in reducing hunger worldwide is likewise being reversed.

That news was delivered to the Hill last week at a well-attended briefing helmed by Anita Sharma, North American Coordinator of the Millennium Campaign, Francesca Perucci from UN Stats, and Dan Carucci, Vice President for Global Health at UNF.

Carucci delivered good news on Goal 4. Deaths of children under the age of five dropped from 12.6 million a year in 1990 to 9 million a year in 2007. He specifically pointed out the dramatic surge in the delivery of bed-nets to combat malaria in Africa and the success of measles vaccination programs. The world is also nearing the goal of universal enrollment in primary education , particulary in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where enrollment increased by 11 and 15 percent respectively between 2000 and 2007.

On every other mark though, we're far behind pace. The most stark reminder came from Carucci: "in 2000 500,000 women died while giving birht, 500,000 died in 2005, and 500,000 will die this year." That is to say, there has been zero progress on Goal 5, reducing the maternal mortality rate by 75 percent.

The report overall is fascinating. It's rare that you get an engaging accessment of how the entire world is working toward achieving collective goals. I highly recommend at least skimming the whole thing (pdf). Here is a link to the report in pdf form: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202009%20ENG.pdf

The Girl Effect

"Imagine a girl in poverty. Go ahead, imagine her..."

This short text driven movie helps illustrate how girls in poverty, when given an opportunity, can change the world. Take a look...

The Girl Effect

...and consider these important facts:

- When a girl in the developing world receives 7 or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children
-Educated girls grow into educated women who have healthier babies and are more likely to educate their own kids
-When women earnn income, they reinvest 90% of it into their famillies as compared to only 30 to 40% for a man
-An extra year of primary school boosts girls' future wages by 10-20%
-An extra year of secondary schoo; boosts girls' future wages by 15-25%

Please visit this website for more important facts and actions to help you improve the health, education and the very lives of girls around the world!

“Let's Talk Bread” Group—Evanston, IL July 28

"Let’s Talk Bread" is a group of Chicago-area people, who are interested in exploring the connections between faith and public policy. Through lively, monthly conversations—whether discussing a book, article or current event— we hope to better understand the problems of poverty and hunger and shed light on possible solutions.

This month we will be meeting in Evanston and discussing a book by Peter Singer that examines poverty, foreign aid, social justice and giving: The Life You Can Save. All are welcome, even if you haven’t read the book. If you are unable to read the book, check out a helpful review at this New York Times link. From that page, you can also read part of the first chapter. Along with the discussion, we will briefly share some of our recent lobby experiences in Washington, D.C., and hear an update on Bread’s current campaign to reform U.S. foreign aid.

Please join the conversation at 7:30 p.m. on Tues., July 28, at First United Methodist Church, 516 Church St., Evanston, IL (at Church and Hinman). Use the Church St. entrance.

If you have any questions, please contact the Chicago regional Bread office at 1-800-447-0239 or breadchicago@bread.org.

Education is Basic Right for All Children

Printed in the Morton Grove Champion, June 11 2009
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Education is Basic Right for All Children

School’s out for summer vacation and some of us parents are wondering what to do with kids at home all day. For many families, lack of school means squabbling siblings and child-care hassles until camp starts. But what would it mean if there were no school – ever? That’s the reality for the families of over 75 million children around the world without access to basic primary education.

As the economic crisis continues, children in extreme poverty continue to be its biggest victims as they are forced to leave school to work, care for siblings, join armies, or even be sold into slavery. Yet education is the single, most effective intervention to help them lead productive, healthy, and safe lives. Without decisive leadership to achieve Education for All, these kids will remain trapped in poverty without education. Progress made since 2000 to increase school enrollment could be reversed.

While campaigning, President Obama pledged $2 billion toward a Global Fund for Education. By eliminating school fees, improving teacher quality, and providing textbooks and other incentives to keep kids in school, the U.S. can literally change the future of an entire generation at risk. For that, $2 billion is a bargain. Plus, we would get the added value of international goodwill and make children less easy prey for extremist regimes.

Increasing the U.S. global education contribution to our fair share can greatly accelerate progress toward universal primary education for all children by 2015. Despite the dismal economy, there are countries ready and waiting for American leadership in creating a multilateral Global Fund for Education. A Global Fund would harmonize donor contributions to ensure quick and effective disbursement of educational aid. Work is being done to reform and expand existing mechanisms, but for efforts to be ambitious, the U.S. must boost the capacity of the international community. The world is waiting for us.

Our country isn’t so self-absorbed that we disregard the need for education in the world’s poorest communities. Americans care. President Obama cares. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, long-time champion of basic education rights, cares. A minivan mom like me cares. We need congressional appropriators like Representative Mark Kirk (R-10th) and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to care enough to appropriate the $2 billion and support a new Global Fund. Because no child should be on a permanent vacation from school.

-ccyl

Being Truthful with Ourselves: global poverty and education

My fellow RESULTS partner shows us how to show constructively show our outrage about global poverty in an op-ed. Nice one, Ken!
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Being Truthful with Ourselves
By Ken Patterson

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. When I talk to people about the US helping the 1.4 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day, inevitably there are those who say, “We shouldn’t be sending aid to foreign countries because we need to take care of our own here at home first.” I reject this rationale because it represents a false choice—like somehow helping the world’s poorest people in addition to taking care of our citizens isn’t possible. The truth is, even if we kept all foreign aid dollars at home, and then discovered a mountain of gold somewhere that helped us wipe out all of our national debt, the needy in the US would be no better off. The reason? It’s plain and simple--because we haven’t chosen to resolve the problems of poverty. We have chosen to do many other things with our resources, but eradicating poverty isn’t one of them.

In the late 70s the National Academy of Sciences reported that the world was producing enough food so that nobody would ever have to die of hunger. The report concluded, though, that the barrier to achieving a hunger-free world was a lack of political will. We produce even more food per person today than we did 30 years ago, yet people still go hungry, so we clearly have not found the political will to end hunger. We also have not found the political will to stop nearly 10 million children from dying of preventable causes each year, or the political will to put 75 million primary school-age children in school around the globe. In the meantime, though, we have found the political will in the US to spend more on defense than all other nations combined. We have found the will to create a wealth-shifting tax code that has allowed the ratio of CEO to worker salaries to jump from 42 to 1 in 1982, to over 301 to 1 in 2005. We have had the political will to create a health care system that allows some to get liver transplants and Viagra while 46 million others can’t even get basic health care. So let’s be clear, “taking care of our own” is something we have chosen not to do, and reducing foreign assistance won’t change that.

So when will we as a people and a nation seriously decide to eradicate hunger and poverty? When will we wake up and instruct our decision makers to make different choices? It’s not rocket science—we just need to prioritize the needs of the people and stay focused on achieving our vision. For example, we know that, at any given moment, a certain percentage of our nation’s people will be out of work, down on their luck, affected by domestic violence, or struggling with mental illness. Shouldn’t we design our system to accommodate this? And right now, around the globe, there are 75 million primary school-aged children who don’t even have access to school. Yet we know that girls in poor nations will earn a 20% higher wage, and their children will be 10% less likely to die of preventable causes for each year of education they have past 3rd or 4th grade. That’s poverty reduction. And the missing funding to put these 75 million children in school is about $11 billion per year—less than the recent Wall Street bonuses we were all up in arms about. Can’t we figure out as a world community, how to come up with $11 billion per year to invest in education when we know it will help reduce poverty and build nations?

We have chosen not to solve one of the major problems of our time—abject poverty. By failing to address basic human needs of health care, education, and dignified work we have created other problems—poverty, instability, and extremism. By choosing not to educate children around the globe we have allowed poor nations to continue to be poor, and left others with no choice but to search for a path out of desperation through lives of extremism. But this can change if we have the will to change it.

During his campaign President Obama pledged to invest $2 billion to initiate a multi-lateral Global Fund for Education. Let’s encourage him to act now. His leadership on global education would catalyze the political will of the world to do one of the most important things we can do to end poverty—educate the world’s children. Now is the time.

"You have to be rich to be poor..." Wash Post article

The Washington Post ran a great article on May 18, 2009 called "Poor? Pay up" shedding light on an unjust paradox. The poorer a person is, the more things cost. This whole thing just makes me ill.

A lot of is has to do with the food and convenience issues (milk at a Safeway...$2.29 for 2 gallons. milk at a corner store where you're forced to shop if you have no car? $4.99), but there is even more that really burns me up. The poorest people in our economy don't have decent access to financial services. Those who provide services to this sector are often little more than predators piling service fees onto people who can't afford it. The image of a villainous landlord twirling a mustache comes to mind, but it's much more systemized than any individual baddie. Here is an excerpt, but click here for the full article.

Hopefully, Bread for the World's Offering of Letters campaign next year may take on this very issue!!!

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"The rich have direct deposit for their paychecks. The poor have check-cashing and payday loan joints, which cost time and money. Payday advance companies say they are providing an essential service to people who most need them. Their critics say they are preying on people who are the most "economically vulnerable."

"As you've seen with the financial services industry, if people can cut a profit, they do it," Blumenauer says. "The poor pay more for financial services. A lot of people who are 'unbanked' pay $3 for a money order to pay their electric bill. They pay a 2 percent check-cashing fee because they don't have bank services. The reasons? Part of it is lack of education. But part of it is because people target them. There is evidence that credit-card mills have recently started trolling for the poor. They are targeting the recently bankrupt."

Jeffery Sachs at Chicago Field Museum 5/13/09

Water: Sustaining Our Blue Planet
Presented by the Gary C. Comer Family

This roundtable discussion, moderated by WGN radio host John Williams and featuring Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Peter Annin, author of The Great Lakes Water Wars, will cover topics ranging from water as it relates to poverty and health, water as a commodity, and how climate change is affecting water resources. Potential solutions to these problems will be addressed and local as well as global water issues will be highlighted.
Please call 312.665.7400 to register.

Lecture
Adult
May 13, 2009
7 p.m.
FREE
Pre-Registration Required

Poverty: A Time for Sharing on CBS, 4/26

Coming to your TV this weekend is an interfaith religion special entitled Poverty: A Time for Sharing, which CBS will air on April 26th. In a recent press release, the NCC said, "Half of humanity lives on less than $2 a day, and a billion people worldwide cannot read or write. Global poverty is on the rise despite ongoing efforts by governments, the United Nations, and Non-Governmental Organizations, including religious groups." This program will include snapshots of campaigns such as the "Nothing But Nets" supported by The United Methodists, and Lutheran World Relief, in addition to the Catholic Relief Services work in response to the tsunami in Indonesia, ongoing rebuilding efforts in Ethiopia, as well as the fight against HIV in Zambia. To view the full article about this special go to the NCC website at www.ncccusa.org. Check your local station for broadcast times in your area.