Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

An Evening of Charity

October 19th, 2011

In his previous blogpost, Sean Donegan introduced the charity dinner he and his peers are putting on to fundraise for Share Our Strength. In the blogpost below, Sean goes into detail about the logistics of organizing such an event so that other like-minded college students who wish to do the same will have an idea of where to begin:

By: Sean Donegan

It’s the night of the event so I will be discreetly ducking out of class early to set my Fraternity House up for the Share Our Strength Charity Dinner. We expect to have over three hundred students at the event along with our corporate sponsors setting up their booths. Our chefs are all busy cooking a huge buffet of chicken and salmon with various side orders that meet the dietary needs of all the individuals who generously donate their time and money to support Share Our Strength. The House’s sound system is also being adjusted for the event’s DJ, Greg Monte.

Each Greek House has taken over the responsibility of one seventh of the ticket sales. This entails allowing their Brothers and Sisters to sign up for the event and then billing them at the end of the semester when they are paying for their room and board. With a group of experienced and dedicated Philanthropy Chairs working with me, I am proud to announce we were able to sell out in only two weeks. I was surprised to learn that many people had bought tickets to support their Fraternity/Sorority and the cause even though they may not be able to attend. Currently we have sold 345 tickets with an estimated 303 attending the actual event which has seating for only 300. If we go over, extra chairs are on reserve to be set up. » Read more: An Evening of Charity

Clear your calendar — you’ve got a date with Facebook on Monday!

October 18th, 2010

Reprinted with permission from ONE.org.

By: Malaka Gharib

It’s easy to think that nothing is changing in the poorest parts of the world — that no progress is being made.

But the truth is, there has been real and dramatic change, especially over the past decade. Millions of lives have been saved, and millions of people have been given the tools — both physically and mentally — to build a better future. Unfortunately, this message doesn’t always get out.

That’s why Bill and Melinda Gates are determined to tell the world that yes, things are changing for the better — and by focusing on successes in the fight against global poverty, we can galvanize support, energize activists and most importantly, inspire action. In fact, they’re so passionate about it that they started Living Proof, a campaign to prove that aid is working.

On Monday, Bill and Melinda Gates will be celebrating the official launch of this campaign at ONE’s Living Proof event in London.

The best part? Everyone all over the world – not just people from the UK – can join and participate in the discussion. We’ll be hosting a live webcast of their presentation, on our Facebook page, and viewers will be able to chat with each other on the issue, too.

The event takes place on October 18, 2:30 EST, and be sure to RSVP for the event on Facebook. It’s about an hour or so long — so feel free to watch the whole thing, drop by or leave a comment or two.

I’ll be live-blogging from the event, so don’t forget to check the blog for real-time analysis and commentary.

Small Victims – Children and Poverty

June 18th, 2010

Children are one of the most vulnerable groups affected by poverty and infectious diseases – 1 in 3 children live in poverty, many of whom suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Children, women and those living in remote areas with limited access to effective health care are most susceptible to NTDs and their consequences, such as malnutrition, anemia, serious or permanent disability (including blindness), illness, and death. Often, individuals are infected with multiple NTDs simultaneously.

Read on to learn more about the effects of poverty and poor health on children in today’s repost from Global Issues, a website documenting a wide variety of global health issues from poverty and globalization to geopolitics.

Also, impoverished children need a voice to advocate for them, and to get them access to adequate public health treatment. For more information on what you can do to combat poverty by controlling NTDs, please visit the Global Network website.

Reprinted with permission from Global Issues.

By: Anup Shah

Over 24,000 children die every day around the world.

That is equivalent to:

  • 1 child dying every 3.6 seconds
  • 16-17 children dying every minute
  • A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring almost every 9-10 days
  • A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 10 days
  • An Iraq-scale death toll every 16–40 days
  • Just under 9 million children dying every yea
  • Some 79 million children dying between 2000 and 2007

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage. Read more…

Anup Shah manages the Global Issues website in his spare time. Based in England, Anup launched Global Issues in 1998 in an effort to raise awareness and provide links to more information for people wanting to look deeper into issues in global health.

Dr. Peter Hotez’ interview with EarthSky

June 7th, 2010

Dr. Peter Hotez, President of Sabin Vaccine Institute and Distinguished Researche Professor at The George Washington University, was recently interviewed by EarthSky, a science news outlet that receives 15 million hits a day via radio and online. In the interview, Dr. Hotez discusses the presence of NTDs in the United States, and how similarly in developing countries, the poorest populations are most affected by these debilitating diseases. Check out audio and accompanying synopsis from the intriguing interview, posted on EarthSky’s website.