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Column: GPP - United States
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The end is near.
Community leaders, politicians and activists around the world have rallied to eradicate polio. Over 40,000 supporters have signed our petition asking world leaders to increase funding for polio eradication. Their voices have been heard.
This morning Mike Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York, made a $100 million commitment toward polio eradication. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ commitment will be used to help fund the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategic plan for polio eradication.
In a statement this morning Mayor Bloomberg explained that, “It’s unthinkable that polio still exists in the world when we have the tools and technology to protect children from this preventable, debilitating disease. Now is the time to invest in making polio history.”
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Mayor Bloomberg said that he was, “thrilled to join the Gates Foundation and other partners in the effort to end this disease once and for all.” The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a major donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment is a key development in helping to ensure that all children are protected from this and other vaccine-preventable diseases. I look forward to continuing to work with him on this and other critical global health initiatives,” said Gates.
Polio has been eradicated by 99.9%. Thanks to global collaboration between public and private organizations, governments and local communities, polio cases have been reduced from more than 350,000 in 1988 to 223 in 2012. There have been only 5 polio cases thus far in 2013.
The end of polio is in sight. In April world leaders will meet in Abu Dhabi for the Vaccine Summit. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategic plan established a framework through which polio can be eradicated by 2018. New commitments, such as this morning’s announcement from Mike Bloomberg, will be key to meeting the strategic plan.
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Posted by Judith Rowland in Polio for column GPP - United States on Feb 28th, 04:38 |
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I have always admired groupies.
Truly, I have never been able to suppress the envy I feel for their free-spirited lifestyles and dedication to musical greatness. I have also always wanted to know what it meant to live such a geographically ephemeral life. This fact may not come as a surprise to my beloved Global Poverty Project co-workers who’ve had the pleasure of sharing the office with my hair on the days I try, albeit usually unsuccessfully, to evoke a Penny Lane vibe.
If I had to choose one band to “follow,” I think it would be Band of Horses. Their crooning melodies wrench my heart. I drove four hours to see them live once, and one might say it was the proverbial “transformative experience." Suffice it to say; they are my favorite band. It seems only fitting that BOH could play such a blindly coincidental and yet crucial role in the series of events that led me to the GPP offices where I’m sitting now.
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I walked into the living room of my family home about four months ago to find my Dad discovering new television channels. He’d finally broken down and purchased the ever so essential HD television. Prior to that, he owned an old box set that worked “just fine,” but he begrudgingly sprung for the new one after some careful consideration. He stopped on an independent music channel called Palladia that was showing what looked like a benefit concert for a group with a focus on global poverty. He thought I’d be interested since I’d just returned from a service trip to Guatemala.
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No sooner had we set the remote down, than my beloved Band of Horses came out on the Global Citizen Festival stage to play a set for the show. What was this great and unlikely combination before my eyes? I was experiencing a musical heaven/social justice mash-up. Impossible! I couldn’t look away for a second. After the set, the show transitioned to a short documentary piece about a grassroots organization working to fight poverty in Guatemala.
If I had made that up, I would consider myself a far superior storyteller. Alas, that most coincidental of stories led me to apply for the then open position of Communications Road Scholar on the Global Poverty Project’s Spring Tour and I haven’t looked back.
Now, as we prepare to set out on this great adventure-which will take us across the entire country, I’m finally realizing my dreams in more ways than one. The ability to travel is great, but the privilege of having conversations with the people we’ll meet is far greater.
I may not have worked up quite enough gumption to take on the groupie lifestyle full time, but I can’t think of a better excuse to hit the road.. We’ll be blazing our own trail this Spring as we work together to build a movement. The end of extreme poverty truly is an idea whose time has come. We can end the suffering of many with the actions of few.
Sure am glad you stopped on that channel, Dad. |
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I learned how to change a tyre when I was nine years old. Under the supervision and breezy guidance of my father, I enthusiastically located the extra tire in the back of our Mark II van, pushing aside velveteen curtains and smoke-stained seat covers with abandon. I lugged the hulking mass of rubber – approximately half the size of my body – to its destination, fervently rotated the handle of the jack until the van was appropriately elevated (“You should probably stop there, baby doll.”), and loosened nuts with a single-mindedness unrivaled by most adolescents. This effort was all the result of one of my dad’s casual references to what anyone worthwhile should know:
“Anyone worth her salt knows how to change a tire!”
“If you don’t know how to sort laundry, you haven’t lived!”
“All my favorite people love to make fresh squeezed orange juice!”
It is perhaps the most brilliant parenting technique known to humankind. Convinced it was my own fine idea, I successfully furnished the Mark II with a new tire – all by myself! - and felt my entire existence immediately validated. I gave it a sturdy kick, the crowning gesture which seemed most appropriate for my newfound status as a fully-realized human. My dad employed this method repeatedly throughout my childhood, suavely convincing me that whatever he wanted me to learn was actually something I had dreamed up myself. How to check oil. How to make a fire. Lessons were varied and endlessly useful.
After years of his educational sleight-of-hand, I was convinced that I could take on almost anything. Most of all, I dreamed of a road trip – one with lots of auto failures and campouts, especially. I yearned to show my dad that even though I couldn’t emulate his hippie-haired Woodstock glory days, I could create my own Kerouacian adventures and survive with just as many good stories to tell. Here, the day has finally and fortuitously come! And with a mission that would make any parent proud: To build a movement towards the end of extreme poverty.
In February, I’ll be taking off on the road trip of my dreams with three other Global Poverty Project “Road Scholars,” and I’m ready for whatever the road has to throw at me. For three months and two weeks, I’ll be using the base of those concrete lessons to share some big ideas. We will be touring the nation – 100 stops – and talking to a lot of people – 20,000 of them. We’ll spend most of our time in a van, this one sorely lacking in velveteen curtains, but emblazoned with some pretty amazing GPP regalia.
At each stop, we’ll be sharing GPP’s 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation, which demonstrates that ending extreme poverty is a matter of justice, a most necessary gesture of humanity that our generation needs to make. The presentation gives viewers a solid understanding of why 1.4 billion people in the world are living in extreme poverty, what barriers prevent its eradication, and what we can all do to make things a little better for the world’s worst-off. I’m thrilled by the thought that I’ll have a chance to share this message with so many others; it’s telling these stories and discussing these ideas that makes change in the world, one person at a time.
Best of all, the 2013 Spring Tour will be live-mapped, blogged, youtubed, tweeted, and posted about on our Global Citizen platform, so our dads and everyone else can follow our progress. Check out our Spring Tour page to learn more about hosting and look at this map to see if we'll be coming to your area – and if we’re not, it’s not too late to book a presentation! Get in touch by emailing gpp_usa@globalpovertyproject.com. We would love to add your city to the road trip of a lifetime and share 1.4 Billion Reasons with your community.
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It is the most wonderful time of the year. We are running from event to event, rushing to get packages to the post office, and hoping that we didn’t leave anyone off our lists. At the very time that we are supposed to be feeling the love of family and friends, we are stomping over each other to get the last flat screen television on Black Friday. This season should be a time for spreading joy and love.
The holidays have become an industry valued at over $435 billion each year in the United States. To put this figure into perspective, Bill Gates recently explained that, since efforts to end polio have thus far reduced cases by 99.9%, only $5.5 billion more would be needed to eradicate polio forever by 2018. It sounds like a lot, but we could wipe polio off the face of the earth for less than 2% of the money we’re spending on the holidays.
The average household spends around $1,500 on holiday gifts. As we pass our shopping baskets across the cash register we are voting on the world in which we want to live. Fair trade or child labor? Eco-friendly or toxic? Labor laws or slavery? The choices that we make at the point of sale shape the way that businesses operate. For example, the Fair Trade Foundation has grown exponentially since its start in 1992 by providing customers with quality products and making social consciousness a key priority for many shoppers. Consumers have said that they want the things they purchase to make a huge difference in the lives of others and businesses are responding.
Many organizations offer products that allow you to give a gift while fighting extreme poverty. The Somaly Mam Foundation’s Empowerment Store offers jewellery, scarves, and cards that have been made by survivors of sex trafficking. Each purchase provides increased educational and vocational opportunities for young women. Made By Survivors sells jewellry and clothing that have been made by landmine victims. Global Goods Partners sells fair trade products made by artisan groups in 20 different countries.
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This best gift this holiday season is the gift of knowing that, in some small way, you helped bring an end to poverty. Heifer International allows you to purchase livestock such as goats or chickens for a family in need. Adopt a Minefield accepts donations to help clear minefields in countries like Cambodia. The options for socially conscious gifts abound.
In his story of how the holiday spirit transformed the life of one individual, Dr. Seuss explains, “He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought... doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps... means a little bit more!”
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It was one of those mornings when I was in a hurry, but the universe had other plans. I sat my groggy four-year old down with a buttered bagel so I could rush to get ready while she ate, but when I came running back to her, I saw that she had placed a favorite coffee-table book in front of her and was quietly, deliberately dropping crumbs on the page. Not only was Sophia oblivious to my urgency to get out the door, but there was a new mess to clean, right on top of a cherished book.
When I demanded, “What is going on?” She gently answered, “Mommy, I want to share my bagel with them.” I looked more carefully at the open page. She was looking at the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, specifically on the photo of the family from Mali, West Africa.
That’s when I forgot about the rush to get out the door. With my two older daughters, both in middle school at the time, we had been talking about compassion and the idea that humanity is like a single body – when one part is hurt, even if it’s seemingly insignificant, like a tiny splinter on their pinkie, we feel it all over and it can get in the way of our doing and feeling our best. Pain and suffering far away do affect us, even if we don’t personally know the country or the people. Sophia must have been listening.
After glancing at other photos of families from around the world, flush with diverse colors, shapes and types of abundant (mostly processed) food in the glossy book, she fixated on the Malian family, fifteen people in one home, all with beaming smiles and showcasing their simple food for a week. Her reaction: to share. No one was around to tell her it was the right thing to do, or to guilt her in to giving.
Photo Source: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2005)
The take-away for me was powerful. Children have an incredible capacity to care, to give, and to empathize, from a very young age. It has nothing to do with pity. An instinct for justice comes naturally to a young child, who is free from skepticism, prejudice and doubt.
When parents see that kernel of compassion in our children we want to cultivate it. And when world leaders come together to debate the big questions of our time, like they do each September in New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly, issues of poverty and peace make headlines that we can explore at age-appropriate levels with our children. Like the development of a muscle, this awareness often grows undetectably, but can be deliberately nurtured. Here are five steps I’ve found to help empower kids to care and want to make a difference.
5 Ways to Cultivate Caring in Kids:
- Talk about it. When you see qualities like compassion and generosity displayed, point them out, whether it’s at the dinner table, while grocery shopping, or in a movie. Without our realizing, Sophia was paying attention to the conversations on service, friendship and caring that we were having with our older daughters. Discussing complex ideas through these positive qualities, or virtues, helps them frame difficult situations, nearby or far-away.
- “Be a friend to the whole human race.” When you widen your circle of friends to include people from diverse backgrounds, your children can imagine that anyone who looks and lives differently from them could be their friends. We had friends from West Africa, with similar clothing as the family in the picture, so the family in the photo didn’t seem so foreign to our four-year old. Sharing comes naturally among friends.
- Learn about causes - together. Feel empowered to be part of the solution to global poverty by learning about the Millennium Development Goals . These eight practical, achievable objectives were adopted collectively by the world’s leaders to stamp out extreme poverty by 2015. In Growing Up Global, I include a framework for discussion and simple action steps on the Goals for kids of all ages.
- Embrace a cause. Of the Goals, is there a specific one that tugs at your heart or that has impacted your own family, like education or maternal health? Once you decide on an issue, you can look up action initiatives and causes in Growing Up Global, on globalcitizen.org, unicefusa.org, or on globalgiving.org. Lemonade stands, book drives, haircuts, movie nights, 10K races, babysitting, skipping a snack – when these efforts are dedicated toward helping others, they go from mundane to unforgettable.
- Nurture inspiration. From Nobel Peace Prize winners to so many great causes started by kids and TV events , learning real stories about real people making impact can inspire kids to follow their dreams for a better world. Watch the Global Citizen Festival Central Park concert livestreamed on September 29. Global Poverty Project founder Hugh Evans started his quest to end world poverty when he was just fourteen years old and his effort continues to gain momentum and supporters fifteen years later. Tuning in to the concert is a wonderful way to imagine how far dreams and ideals can go in touching hearts and helping lives.
How do you raise kids who want to make a difference? What will you do to end extreme poverty?
Homa Sabet Tavangar is the author of Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World (Ballantine Books, 2009) and www.growingupglobal.net. |
Posted by Homa Sabet Tavangar in Poverty for column GPP - United States on Sep 25th 2012, 23:48 |
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