An effective response to
hunger must combine private and public actions, neither can do the job
alone. Christians have worked well in the private arena, Bread for the
World provides a means where Christians can work equally well for
effective public policies in the fight against hunger...
Upcoming Events
Portland
area monthly meeting - 3rd Monday each month!
Next meeting:
Note:
The meeting is canceled for this month
Westminster
Presbyterian (fireside room) 1624 NE Hancock St,
Portland
To combat malaria, healthcare
workers demonstrate how to use an insectidice-treated bed
net. Malarial kills more than 1 million people each year,
most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
photo by Margaret W. Nea
Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters is pushing for
more and better poverty-focused development assistance—funding
for programs in the U.S. budget that give people in poor countries
the skills and opportunities to break the cycle of poverty
permanently. These include long-term investments in things like
education, agriculture, nutrition, health and clean water.
The United States should provide more of this kind of
assistance because we are not on track to meet the goals and
fulfill the promises our country has made in recent years. And we
must improve the way U.S. assistance is packaged and delivered so
that it reaches those in greatest need with the maximum impact.
More and better poverty-focused development assistance is a
critical component of the effort to meet the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are a set of eight achievable
objectives adopted by the nations of the world in 2000 to improve
the quality of life of hundreds of millions of poor people around
the world. All nations promised to fulfill these goals by 2015.
The United States agreed to do its part. In the past few
years, the U.S. Congress has increased federal funding for
poverty-focused assistance by about $1 billion a year, and other
countries have followed suit by increasing their aid as well. Now,
more kids are in school, and many fewer children are dying every
day from preventable, hunger-related diseases. For the first time,
villages in Africa and Latin America have new wells and access to
clean water. Now, there is hope for hundreds of thousands of
Africans and Asians living with AIDS because they have received
life-saving medication.
Bread for the World members played an important role in
convincing Congress to approve the increases for these effective,
hope-giving, poverty-reducing programs. We wrote letters to our
representatives and senators. We called. We emailed. We told our
nation's decision makers that helping our neighbors—whether they
live next door or on another continent—is the right thing to do.
We insisted that everyone deserves the opportunity to live
productive lives and provide for their children. In faith, we
lifted our voices. And Congress listened.
But our work is not over. The increases we've won in
poverty-focused assistance have made a difference, but we are not
yet on track to fulfill our promises. 2015 looms ever
closer. There are still too many people who live in extreme
poverty, too many people who go to bed hungry every night, too
many children not in school, too many children dying from
preventable causes. We can do better.
Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters is pushing for
more and better poverty-focused development assistance.
That means:
Congress should increase its funding for poverty-fighting
efforts by at least $5 billion a year, starting this coming
year.
Funding should be aimed at programs that most directly address
the root causes of poverty and hunger. The programs
should encourage the participation of citizens from the
targeted communities in crafting programs and setting
priorities.
Congress should improve U.S. assistance to ensure the
maximum benefit reaches those in greatest need.
A first step would be to pass the Global Poverty Act (S.
2433), now in Congress.
The Global Poverty Act would:
Make the first Millennium Development Goal (to cut in
half the number of people who are hungry and the number of
people living on less than $1 a day) an official part of
U.S. policy.
Require a coordinated strategy to achieve this goal
through U.S. aid, debt relief, and trade policies. The
strategy would emphasize cooperation with other countries,
international institutions, faith-based groups, and the
private sector.
2008 is a critical year. To achieve the Millennium Development
Goals we have to step up the pace. 2015 is just around the corner.
Watch this short video and you'll
understand exactly how your efforts, and the work of Bread for the
World, can make a difference in the lives of children like
Catherine.
The ONE Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans – one by one
– to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. http://www.one.org
The ONE Campaign derives its name from the belief that allocating an
additional one percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like
health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of
an entire generation in the world's poorest countries. We also call for debt
cancellation, trade reform and anti–corruption measures in a comprehensive
package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.
Petition the candidates
ONE members are stepping up our game by
launching a petition urging all the presidential candidates to go "On The
Record" by submitting, in writing and on video to ONE, their plans on the
following five issues:
* Eradicating malaria; * Improving child and
maternal health; * Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; *
Achieving universal primary education; and * Providing access to food and
clean water for all.
ONE will then build an online tool so that everyone
can compare the candidates' answers before heading out to vote in the primaries.
Please sign ONE's "On The Record" petition and encourage your friends
and family to sign on as well.
Founded in 1997, Jubilee USA Network is a network of 75 organizations – including religious
denominations and faith-based networks, labor and environmental groups, regionally focused
organizations, development agencies, and community groups. Jubilee USA Network’s mission is
to create the political will for cancellation of crushing poor country debts through public
education, mobilization, strategic communication, and research and policy advocacy. We envision
a world in which external debt no longer impoverishes nations and peoples by diverting resources
from health, education, and the natural. The Network is the US arm of a global Jubilee campaign
that has successfully altered public policy, winning commitments of debt relief from the US government
and other G-8 nations in 1999 and again in 2005. Current campaigns include holding world leaders
accountable for 2005 commitments; building the political will for cancellation of debt to meet
Millennium Development Goals; and cancellation of Odious and Illegitimate Debts.
"Medical Teams International
has put together a truly remarkable exhibit on the scope
of human suffering, the call to action, and what an effective response
means to the lives of all involved. The exhibit is powerful and is a
remarkable community resource which should be seen by all (church
groups, student groups, etc). It is a gift to our community from an
outstanding organization". - Mike Hiland, Oregon Bread for the World
This FREE exhibit includes 9 new rooms & 5 new
vignettes.
In walk-through
multi-sensory vignettes, you will step into:
A medical triage clinic at the New Orleans Convention Center after
Hurricane Katrina
A room with a 25-foot tsunami wave
A Ugandan camp for people displaced by a rebel group that abducts
children and forces them into their “army”
An Albanian refugee camp housing Kosovar refugees who fled from
ethnic cleansing
A Mozambican village where HIV/AIDS has taken too many lives
A Mexico garbage dump where garbage-pickers live and work
A Romanian placement center for orphans and abandoned children
A burn unit in a Moldovan children’s hospital
"I Can Make a Difference"
The exhibit also empowers each person to learn, “I Can Make
a Difference.” Like a pebble makes ripples in a pond, each of
us can make a difference that will touch people around the world.
Location: Medical Teams International
Headquarters
14150 SW Milton Ct.; Tigard, OR 97224 Map
& directions
An offering of letters,
is a letter writing event held at a church or campus urging our representatives
to support effective action against hunger. For churches interested in planning
an Offering of Letters, you can:
contact me for more information, or to arrange a speaker.
Bread is also active on many college
campus' (its where I first heard of Bread many moons ago).
Hunger Issues Speaker
I am also available to come and speak before your church or group. Some
ideas include: Adult Sunday School, Young Adults Group, Minute for
Mission, Guest Sermon, Letter writing table, etc. Contact
me (Mike Hiland) for more information.
Review the sample presentation.
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.
Speak out; judge righteously. Defend the rights of the poor and the needy.
(Proverbs 31:8-9)
You can signup for the National or Oregon Bread ENewsletters above, or
to receive the monthly advocacy alert focusing on Oregon state
government hunger issues send your name, address and email to: advocacy@oregonfoodbank.org
