World Hunger and Poverty

I found out about a neat website today. FreeRice.com lets you improve your vocabulary and fight world hunger at the same time. The service is both fun and free.

On the website, you try to choose the correct definition for a word. For each word you get correctly, they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN’s World Food Program. It supposedly works by using advertising revenue to fund the donations, but I did not see any ads on the site.

I do not know how well FreeRice.com will work out, but I commend them for their originality. We need this type of originality. The old ways of fighting world hunger and poverty have not worked. World hunger and poverty still plague our world. We need to think of new ideas. Help think up new ideas at the Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Students from the Sociology Club at IUP dressed in ragged clothes and handed out informational flyers about poverty. The flyers included statistics from UNICEF research, such as the fact that 30,000 children die every day from hunger (more than the UN’s 18,000 estimate) and that half the world lives on less than $2 a day.

I like to see this. Universities are great places to raise awareness about poverty and organize anti-poverty efforts. Hopefully, even more students follow suit.

Even when not at a college, any one person or small group can look up some facts, print out some flyers, and hand them out.

A user by the name of Firefly suggested a great idea on the Hunger and Poverty Forums. He suggests the organizing local groups of poor people into what he calls wayside communities. These local groups would help empower poor people and fight poverty in the way that Alcoholics Anonymous helps empower alcoholics and fight alcohol addiction.

I think this idea has a lot of potential.

For one, locality of the groups would let the poor people address local issues and find specific solutions for their specific problems in their area. Poverty in one locality may have different dynamics than poverty in another.

The groups also would help empower poor people, which would enable them to help themselves get out of poverty. The groups would provide motivation and emotional support for the members. Additionally, by organizing and meeting with each other, the poor people would gain social and political power, as well as personal connections and friendships to use to overcome personal options.

You can discuss the idea of wayside communities in the original thread made by Firefly at the following URL:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=234

If you have not already, you can join the forums for free. Please do, and discuss these ideas. We want your input! Thanks!

Any sane person would prefer to live in a world without poverty than a world with poverty. We prefer to live by each other’s happiness, not each other’s pain. Of course, this makes it odd that poverty continues. What can you do to fight poverty? Most importantly, talk about it!

We cannot solve a problem without talking about it. We need to get on the same page, so we can work together to put an end to these problems affecting our world. We can share ideas, and have enlightening discussions about these serious issues. You can discuss hunger, poverty, and other serious social issues at the Hunger & Poverty Forums. It’s completely free! I don’t want your money; I want your mind.

You can find the forums at the following URL:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/

We not only talk about hunger and poverty, we also address other related topics, such as education, healthcare, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, humanitarianism, and politics.

I’m really not trying to sell you anything. I just want this as a personal favor. Join the Hunger and Poverty Forums and share your thoughts with the other members and with me. We’re all in this together!

I look forward to discussing these important topics with you.

Thanks,
Scott

Larry Esposito recently pointed me towards LIFT on his Morning Prayer thread in the Hunger & Poverty Forums.

‘Lift’ stands for ‘Leading India’s Future Today.’ The program  provides “leadership excellence training” to poor but extremely talented children in India.

By creating relationships with over 100 villages, LIFT can find the most capable leaders within the groups of children they help nurture.

I appreciate their efforts, because, most of all, they focus on finding and developing leadership potential. This gives these poor children the chance to help not only themselves, but also their communities. LIFT can make a difference in the lives of talented children, and those children will make a difference in many more lives for years to come.

Somebody recently informed me about a great program run by Campbell Soup Company and The United States Postal Service, which facilitates the donation of food by American families to American family.

35,000,000 Americans are at risk of hunger.

Get involved on May 12th!

www.HelpStampOutHunger.com

On May 12th, Campbell Soup Company and The United States Postal Service are partnering once again to sponsor Stamp Out Hunger™, the “nation’s largest single-day food drive.” Your participation in this cause is instrumental in its success

How can you help?

• Place bags filled with nonperishable food items next to your mailbox.*
• Your letter carrier will pick them up and deliver them to local food banks!**

It’s that easy to make a big difference. For more information, visit www.HelpStampOutHunger.com .

*Donate items like canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice. Please do not include items that have expired or those in glass containers.
**If you live in an urban area check with your letter carrier or bring food to your local post office and they’ll deliver it to local food banks.

I like that idea & program, because it helps average families and households to help without inconvienence. The average American family has work to do, bills to pay, and so on. Programs like this let those families help give what they can. Remember, when we all do what we can to help out, we make this world a better place for all of us.

The Facts:

• 852 million people across the world are hungry.
• Every day, more than 18,000 children die from hunger-related causes–one child every five seconds.
• One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.
• Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
• For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.

What Does Millions Of Mouths Do?

Millions Of Mouths sells pixel advertisements on the homepage of our website (millionsofmouths.com). This means that anyone can purchase a block on a click-able pixel grid; whenever anyone clicks on any of those pixels they are sent to the pixels owner’s website.

How Much Goes To The Hungry?

Every pixel purchased helps fund 1lb of food to the hungry.

How Much Will Millions Of Mouths Raise?

If we reach our goal of 1 million pixels in a year, we will have raised over $100,000 to fund one million pounds of food to feed the millions of hungry people.

How can I help?

You can help by doing any or all of the following:

• Buy pixels at millionsofmouths.com (Click on “Get Pixels” on the homepage.)
• Go to millionsofmouths.com and click on the pixel grid
• Tell your friends, family, co-workers, etc. about millionsofmouths.com

What If I Don’t Have A Website?

You can advertise any site you wish with the pixels you purchase. If you do not have a website, you can advertise any third-party site. We recommend a hunger-related site such as www.thehungersite.com.

Approximately 500,000 teens across the country intend to participate in the 2007 World Vision 30-Hour Famine.

For 30 hours, starting at noon Feb. 23, the participants plan to go without food, consuming only liquids, learn about world hunger and poverty and perform service projects in their communities.

The money raised by each participant contributes to the national goal of $12 million.

What do you think?

I usually oppose government spending. Nonetheless, the way to lower spending is to stop hiring workers, rather than decrease the benefits and pay of workers. I speak here of our brave veterans. I find it highly disturbing how poorly we and our government treat our veterans. While cutting veterans benefits, congress continually decides to raise their own salaries!

The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. And more than half a million experience homelessness over the course of a year. (Information from National Coalition for Homeless Veterans)

On this veterans’ day, let us promise to no longer let our veterans suffer! Let us no longer let our veterans remain homeless, poor, or hungry! Since the government that sent these brave men and women to war fails to fully provide for them, let us help these brave men and women ourselves. Through private charities and other private means we can help the veterans.

Unfortunately, many veterans charities are inefficient or corrupt, with only pennies on the dollar going to help the veterans. Many times, the donated money is wasted on fundraising costs and by paying the hefty salaries of paying the CEOs of these so-called “non-profits.” For example, of the 22 veterans charities evaluated by Charity Navigator more than 1/3 have fundraising expenses over 20%, with 3 charities spending more than 50% on fundraising and 2 charities spending more than 95% of your donations on fundraising!

When we go to give to the veterans through charities, let us make sure we perform due diligence, and verify the efficiency and helpfulness of the charity.

A great way to ensure the effectiveness of one’s funds is by giving locally. In this way, we may even be able to work directly with veterans. Also, if you know a veteran, whether poor or not, why not do something to help them this veterans day, such as making them a dinner or just giving them a call and saying thanks.

Here’s a list of 4 of the most efficient and effective veterans charities:
• Fisher House Foundation
• Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust
• Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society
• Coast Guard Foundation

Charlotte, North Carolina has been home to the nation’s largest Crop Walk for more than 20 years. This year’s walk will be Oct. 15.

The Charlotte Crop Walk raises money to help Loaves & Fishes, Crisis Assistance Ministry and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina fight hunger in our area while supporting Church World Services in the global war against poverty. The 2005 Charlotte Crop Walk raised more than $261,000.

New this year is an interactive Web site. Sign up to walk, sponsor a walker or make a donation by visiting www.cropwalk.com or calling 704-333-2955.

Registration the day of the walk begins at 1 p.m. The walk starts at 2:30 p.m. This event begins and ends at Memorial Stadium at Kings Drive and Seventh Street.