Charity alone is not enough.

For a group such as ours, claiming to have compassion for the poor it may seem like a strange thing to knock charitable efforts. That’s most definitely not what this article intends to do. But it is the focus of this group to urge our members and others to go beyond charity or mercy and do justice. To do justice we must examine the systemic causes of poverty and examine how our own lives are linked to the systemic causes of poverty. We must then use whatever tools we have been blessed with to change the systemic causes of poverty, (such as poor health education and provision, poor hygiene, lack of education, lack of accessible clean water, gender inequality, unfair trade practices, lack of entrepreneurial opportunity, and unsustainable farming practices.)

Working for justice is far less rewarding than charity. There are no quick fixes,and the most common reason for quitting is discouragement. But we do not have a choice. God has clearly stated that He requires us to not only have mercy, but to do justice (Micah 6:8) Without working for justice the systemic causes of poverty will continue to exist, and the need for charity endless.

So, can charity be a bad thing? Only when it gets in the way of doing justice. When we become so focused on our charitable efforts that we have no time or energy left for advocating for change to the system that creates poverty. When charity becomes the only element in the equation then it is a problem. When a charitable act makes you feel like you’ve ‘done your part” and have no need to do anything further, then charity is a bad thing.

So we urge you to examine the way you use your time and energy. Is your equation balanced? Or is your commitment to charity an obstacle to your doing justice?

One way, and a very simple way, in which some people do justice, is to use their blessings (literacy, democracy,etc) to write letters of concern and encouragement to our elected representatives. We can express concern about issues that cause systemic poverty and encourage action on our behalf in support of poverty focused aid. This year, the advocacy group, Bread for the World is urging letters to representatives and senators in support of the Global Poverty Act. It takes about 5 minutes to write a letter and costs only 41c. for the stamp. This is not much more time than it takes to write a check for your favorite charity and certainly cheaper. Why not try doing justice in this way? Go to the Bread site for more information and sample letters.
If you think you are too busy or letter writing is not effective, watch this!

The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a “new face of hunger”.

“We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs.”

With voluntary contributions from the world’s wealthy nations, the WFP feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world’s undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn (£1.5bn). But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries.

The shortfall is all the more worrying as it comes at a time when populations, many in urban areas, who had thought themselves secure in their food supply are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. Afghanistan has recently added an extra 2.5 million people to the number it says are at risk of malnutrition

“This is the new face of hunger,” Sheeran said. “There is food on shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas we have not seen before. There are food riots in countries where we have not seen them before.”

Read the full report here

This is a 60 second video from Bread for the World and it’s really worthwhile and funny into the bargain. View it here

In an article in Christianity Today, it was noted that Ban Ki-Moon was urging Christians to put their power behing the Milennium Development Goals. That’s something we really want to encourage;

Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations and one of the world’s most influential leaders, did the unimaginable a few weeks ago: He met with a diverse group of evangelicals near Washington, D.C., and asked for help from the church.

Speaking on behalf of 192 nations that committed themselves to cutting global poverty in half by 2015, Ban told evangelicals, “We cannot do it alone. We need good allies such as you. We need … the faith community to help be a voice to the voiceless people. Your engagement can push governments to push through on their commitments. Do not underestimate your power. With faith and the will, we can make a difference.”

Read the full article

“Widespread use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and state-of-the-art drugs has succeeded in cutting malaria deaths in half in two countries most heavily affected by the disease, the World Health Organization is reporting today.” Nets and New Drug Make Inroads Against Malaria “The report was one of the most hopeful signs in the long battle against a disease that is estimated to kill a million children a year in poor tropical countries.”

One, Mississippi. Two, Mississippi. Three, Mississippi. Gone.
Counting off three seconds. It’s so simple.
One, alligator. Two, alligator. Three, alligator. Over.
Many of us don’t think about how significant three seconds can be. It’s a very short period of time, barely enough to make the last basket of a game, or making just enough difference to allow us to win first place instead of second in a race. However, over the past few years, I have learned that three seconds is much, much more than an easily measured, quickly passing moment.
Every three seconds, a child dies as a result of extreme poverty. Their lives are over, simply gone. That’s 16,000 children a day, accounting for more than half of the 30, 000 people who die each day because of extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than one dollar a day. In a world where everything has a cost, essentials such as clean water, nourishing food, housing, education, medicine, clothing, electricity and transportation are not a possibility for the over one billion people who live in extreme poverty. Because of these needs which they cannot meet, more than eight million people living in extreme poverty die each year of starvation and disease. The majority of these deaths are preventable.
Some people see extreme poverty as a problem that is impossible to solve, something that the less fortunate people of the world will just have to deal with. I have been asked why I care about this issue- Don’t I think that it’s just too big a problem to be solved? Do I really think that my efforts to change what’s happening will make a difference? Why would I bother wasting my time on something that’s not even affecting me?
The issue of extreme poverty is important to me because I care about the well-being of those around the world. Another reason that I am passionate about this problem is because it can be solved. Experts, like the noted Jeffery Sachs, have agreed that now, for the first time in the history of mankind, it is possible to eradicate extreme poverty- and that this could be achieved by the year 2025.
At the G-8 summit in 2000, 189 world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration. By doing so, these world leaders committed to “free all men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”. In order to achieve this goal, the Millennium Development Goals were drawn up. These eight goals aim to not only eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, but also to achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. These nations committed to pay 0.7% of their yearly Gross Domestic Product to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals. However, the majority of the committed nations, including the United States, have failed to pay this target amount.
I want to be a part of the generation which is remembered as having eliminated extreme poverty, not the generation which broke their promise. The time has come to end extreme poverty, and it can be done if we hold our leaders accountable and are responsible leaders ourselves. The issue of extreme poverty is important to me because I know that it can be ended, and I am willing to fight for the lives of those suffering from extreme poverty. Each day, 30,000 people die unnecessarily. One second, two seconds, three seconds, gone. Those three seconds do not have to signify the loss of lives. It’s time to get up and do something about poverty, because we can make a difference. Three, two, one… go.

submitted by Becca Kraus

Jim Beezhold, 72-year-old retired teacher is preparing to bicycle 3,750 miles across North America next summer hoping to raise more than $1.5 million to help the world’s poor.

Jim, a member of Christians Ending Poverty, is one of 177 riders ranging in age from 18 to 76, currently registered to participate in what is likely to be the largest group of cyclists to ever cross North America.The Sea to Sea 2008 Bike Tour begins June 28 in
Seattle, Wash., and ends nine weeks later in Jersey City, NJ on Aug. 30.
For his part Beezhold hopes to raise at least $10,000 The overall tour fund-raising target of $1.5 million will be used to fund initiatives that range from trying to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa to programs that help poor farmers improve their crop yields in Central
America. The tour will partner with non-governmental organizations already involved in offering assistance to the poor.
Contribute to Jim’s fundraising efforts

In addition to the fund-raising, a key goal of the tour is to increase awareness about poverty-related issues and encourage people to get involved in helping the poor, whether in their own community or half a world away.There will be at least 12 celebration rallies during the tour.

To pledge financial support in Beezhold’s name and help him reach his goal, call 1-888-272-2453 or visit www.SeatoSea.

The Millennium Development Goals aim to halve poverty by 2015. Eight specific and measurable goals set targets in specific areas. At ‘Halftime’, data is giving an indication of progress during the first third of this 15-year period. The latest UN progress report states that across all the regions no one goal is on track. However, there is progress being made on all the goals. The results are predictably uneven but there has been some visible and widespread gains. Encouragingly, the report suggests that some progress is being made even in those regions where the challenges are greatest demonstrating success is possible, but also indicating the MDGs will be attained only if concerted additional action is taken immediately and sustained until 2015.

• The proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell
from nearly a third to less than one fifth between 1990 and
2004. If the trend is sustained, the MDG poverty reduction
target will be met for the world as a whole and for most
regions.
• The number of extremely poor people in sub-Saharan
Africa has levelled off, and the poverty rate has declined by
nearly six percentage points since 2000. Nevertheless, the
region is not on track to reach the Goal of reducing poverty
by half by 2015.
• Progress has been made in getting more children into
school in the developing world. Enrolment in primary
education grew from 80 per cent in 1991 to 88 per cent in
2005. Most of this progress has taken place since 1999.
• Women’s political participation has been growing, albeit
slowly. Even in countries where previously only men were
allowed to stand for political election, women now have a
seat in parliament.
• Child mortality has declined globally, and it is becoming
clear that the right life-saving interventions are proving
effective in reducing the number of deaths due to the main
child killers – such as measles.
• Key interventions to control malaria have been expanded.
• The tuberculosis epidemic, finally, appears on the verge
of decline, although progress is not fast enough to halve
prevalence and death rates by 2015.
By pointing to what has been achieved, these results also
highlight how much remains to be done and how much more
could be accomplished if all concerned live up fully to the
commitments they have already made. Currently, only one
of the eight regional groups cited in this report is on track to
achieve all the Millennium Development Goals. In contrast,
the projected shortfalls are most severe in sub-Saharan
Africa. Even regions that have made substantial progress,
including parts of Asia, face challenges in areas such as
health and environmental sustainability. More generally,
the lack of employment opportunities for young people,
gender inequalities, rapid and unplanned urbanization,
deforestation, increasing water scarcity, and high HIV
prevalence are pervasive obstacles.
Moreover, insecurity and instability in conflict and postconflict
countries make long-term development efforts
extremely difficult. In turn, a failure to achieve the MDGs
can further heighten the risk of instability and conflict. Yet in
spite of a technical consensus that development and security
are mutually dependent, international efforts all too often
treat them as independent from one another.
The following are some of the key challenges that have to be
addressed:
• Over half a million women still die each year from treatable
and preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
The odds that a woman will die from these causes in sub-
Saharan Africa are 1 in 16 over the course of her lifetime,
compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world.
• If current trends continue, the target of halving the
proportion of underweight children will be missed by
30 million children, largely because of slow progress in
Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
• The number of people dying from AIDS worldwide
increased to 2.9 million in 2006, and prevention measures
are failing to keep pace with the growth of the epidemic. In
2005, more than 15 million children had lost one or both
parents to AIDS.
• Half the population of the developing world lack basic
sanitation. In order to meet the MDG target, an additional
1.6 billion people will need access to improved sanitation
over the period 2005-2015. If trends since 1990 continue,
the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million
people.
• To some extent, these situations reflect the fact that the
benefits of economic growth in the developing world have
been unequally shared. Widening income inequality is
of particular concern in Eastern Asia, where the share of
consumption of the poorest people declined dramatically
between 1990 and 2004.
• Most economies have failed to provide employment
opportunities to their youth, with young people more than
three times as likely as adults to be unemployed.
• Warming of the climate is now unequivocal. Emissions of
carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global climate
change, rose from 23 billion metric tons in 1990 to 29
billion metric tons in 2004. Climate change is projected
to have serious economic and social impacts, which will
impede progress towards the MDGs.
This report also points to disparities within countries,
where particular groups of the population – often those
living in rural areas, children of mothers with no formal
education and the poorest households – are not making
enough progress to meet the targets, even where the rest of
the population is. This is particularly evident in access to
health services and education. In order to achieve the MDGs,
countries will need to mobilize additional resources and
target public investments that benefit the poor.

Play the rice game and help feed chronically hungry people in low income countries. The game is simple, and for every correct answer, ten grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) – the world’s largest humanitarian relief organization. Since its launch over a month ago, FreeRice.com is experiencing rapid popularity, thanks to bloggers and social networking websites. So far, FreeRice.com has raised over one billion grains of rice, which are enough to feed more than 50,000 hungry people for one day.

In response to an organized campaign by groups like ONE, presidential candidates have gone on record with their views on global poverty issues. Here’s an exerpt from Josh Peck from the ONE campaign;

The On the Record site features each of the candidates’ personal video responses to ONE members and short summaries of their plans on:

Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
Eradicating malaria
Improving child and maternal health
Achieving universal primary education
Cutting in half the number of people without clean water or enough food

For the first time ever, the entire presidential field is debating these issues and coming up with plans that recognize the challenge and the opportunity we have to build a better future for the world’s most vulnerable people. The result is a huge victory for you, our members and for the millions of people around the world living in extreme poverty.

The candidates’ detailed responses to our questions show that they are tuned into these issues like never before.

Check out what the candidates are saying:

http://www.onevote08.org/ontherecord?id=164-2761034-a6cJ.t&t=3

Through On the Record, we have the chance to make a more informed choice than ever before. This year, we’ll go into the primary season with more knowledge and more confidence that extreme poverty and global disease will be central to the 2008 election.