World Hunger and Poverty Blog

Caycompass.com reports about a Latin American summit:

Latin American leaders have called for greater attention to poverty and social problems at the 20–nation Rio Group summit, in a largely symbolic declaration that was light on specific remedies.

An agenda devoted to alleviating hunger, poverty and other social ills was considered more likely to establish common ground than divisive issues such as trade that have dominated previous gatherings.

Read entire caycompass.com article.

Indeed, we can all agree that we want to eliminate poverty, hunger, and homelessness. We need to embrace the empowerment of such agreement and extend it. We can do that by ensuring to find agreeable and mutually beneficial methods to build a better world, free from preventable social ills such as poverty, hunger, and homelessness.

We all want to end hunger and build a better world. We can end hunger and build a better world. Let’s do it!

Capital News 9 recently reported on a conference held in Albany, NY to address urban poverty and hunger issues:

This weekend, the Times Union reported that urban poverty in the Capital Region is growing exponentially. Local community members met Sunday to address this and other hunger issues at the annual Faith and Hunger Network Conference. The meeting focused on how to campaign to help Albany’s inner-city neighborhoods out of poverty.

We spoke with one organizer who said that poverty in the region is misunderstood and that while soup kitchens and food drives are helpful, they do not provide long-term solutions.

“What we really need to do, and what we are doing, is advocating with our state legislator and advocating with our Governor and, of course, Congress to provide sufficient resources so that people don’t go hungry and have adequate affordable housing and have all the things they need to provide for themselves,” conference organizer Barbara Zaron said.

The organizers hope to develop a Capital Region advocacy campaign that will combine local actions and educational events throughout the region.

I agree with their philosophy of coming up with long-term solutions based on helping poor and hungry people achieve self-sufficiency. However, I disagree with their attempts at appealing to governments, which I see as futile. Instead of futilely appealing to governments, we need to organize non-governmentally and solve social problems ourselves with voluntary cooperation and solidarity.

Carl B. Visser writes that the working poor need help to beat poverty:

People work hard to get out of poverty. To stay out, some families need the kinds of strategies and supports that will make a long-term impact on their ability to get to the next level and continuously closer to true self-sufficiency. Individuals and families come into poverty at various stages of life. A one-time trauma like a job loss, death of a spouse, medical emergency or divorce often requires an emergency response and a high level of intervention.

Last year, 5.4 million more Americans slipped below the poverty line. Yet, they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Seventy percent of people who apply for Low-Income Energy Assistance Program are employed.

Read entire Carl B. Visser.

How can I contain my anger? What kind of world do we live in, where hard-working people live in poverty and non-working tyrants live in luxury?

While the working poor suffer the worst, the entire working class needs to realize that the non-meritocratic and unfair status quo victimizes the entire working class, which does not get the full fruits of their labor. Then, we can all work together for social change, and put an end hunger, poverty, & homeless.

In a recent article, Yuba Nath Lamsal describes Nepal’s commitment to meet the UN’s MDGs. In it, she makes a very valuable point about global poverty which I now quote:

“Faster economic growth is a key to reducing poverty. However, economic growth alone does not reduce or alleviate poverty which has been the case in several Asian and African countries. The fair and judicious distribution of wealth and guarantee of equal access to resources for all along with people-focused policies are necessary for sustainable development and poverty reduction.”

Read entire article by Yuba Nath Lamsal.

We need to realize the truth of the above statement, and act accordingly. More than not, poverty, hunger, and homelessness results from unfair distribution of resources, not a lack of resources. Indeed, as a global community, we have more than enough food for everyone in the world, and we have the resources and technology to deliver the food to everyone. Similarly, we have more than enough resources for everyone to have clothes, shelter, healthcare, and education.

We need to change the social, economic, and political structures, in such a way that everyone has access to food, clothes, shelter, education, and healthcare. We can do this by eliminating the non-meritocratic constraints of the status quo, in which social class determines a person’s success, rather than the person’s character.