Will You Help Fight Extreme Poverty?

Photo Credit: Lauren Ebright | The Broken Telegraph

My friend Eugene Cho and his wife have just launched a nonprofit to fight extreme global poverty. I know that almost sounds cliche these days, when global advocacy and charity at times seem to be more of a PR stunt, but this is  different. One Days Wages is a grassroots organization that uses social networking sites and community to address the problem of extreme global poverty in specific ways, by asking that everyone give one day’s wages on their birthday to an existing charity that the org is partnered with.

The money doesn’t get lost in a bureaucratic haze; instead it goes towards clearly defined goals (wells for clean water, business starter kits, border rescue for sex trafficked women for example) so that there is a budget, a clear expectation, and accountability that the money achieves what was promised. Once the set amount is raised and the project completed, new projects and partnerships with other charities will become available.  Donors are able to choose from a growing menu of charitable projects. It’s a series of vital tasks all aimed at fighting extreme global poverty, instead of gobs of money given to the power structures in other countries that often use that money to oppress their people even further. I am in no way connected to, or financially benefitting from this organization, it’s just that I believe the cause to be a good and urgent one.

The statistics on extreme poverty are mind-blowing:

• More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day and more than 2 billion live on less than $2 a day.
• Approximately 9.2 million children under the age of 5 die each year, mostly from preventable diseases. That’s approximately 25,000 children each day.
• 2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and about 885 million people do not have access to clean water.
• Every day, 4100 children die each day from severe diarrhea – as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene.
• Approximately 600 million children live in extreme poverty.
• Nearly 11,500 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Nearly two-thirds of these people are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 75 million children are out of school around the world, a figure equivalent to the entire primary school-aged population in Europe and North America.

But this is not intended to be a guilt issue. As Eugene has explained- it’s a hopeful one, about what those of us with even limited financial resources can do to help others wanting to help themselves. It’s pretty amazing to see what’s been accomplished.

Visit One Day’s Wages.org.

Closer to home, I have a couple of other newer friends that are working to help the homeless here in Seattle (and beyond), and their work is changing lives every day. Part of the temptation when focusing on global crises is that they are shocking and heart-wrenching to see evidence of (as they should be). By comparison, we can get so used to our own growing problem of severe poverty in this country and can become numb or something worse. When we get too far away from these people who lack even the basic necessities- shelter, food and dry clothing, then they often will be seen as an annoyance, like a roadblock keeping us from getting to that weekend shopping spree.  Wouldn’t it be good if we learned to compare our neighborhoods not by how many poor people are out on the street corners “getting into trouble” or “scaring business away” as it’s often addressed, but rather by how effectively the rest of us neighbors cared for them. Please visit Dustin and Jeff at One4One and Rick at Operation: Nightwatch, because these men and their organizations are in the business of caring for and loving those in need.