Today is the second annual Blog Action Day, and the topic for the day is…poverty.
I admit that when I saw the topic, I was a bit overwhelmed.
I wanted to contribute, to add my voice to the thousands of others who are speaking out to make a difference in the world. But poverty? That’s huge. What can I say in a single post? Especially in the short amount of time that I have each day for typing.
But I realized that is the sort of attitude that makes it so easy to avoid doing anything at all. It’s too much to do? Better do nothing, then.
Well, I’ll fight that urge and do something. Not enough, certainly, but something. My 2 cents worth, as it were.
5 Things you can do to help fight poverty
- Write about an issue of poverty.
- If you are voting in the U.S. election, read up on the candidates’ plans for addressing poverty in the United States. (Obama and Biden have a detailed plan on their official campaign website. McCain has a paragraph.)
- Send a letter. According to Poverty.com, 22 nations pledged in 2002 to make efforts to give 0.7% of their national income in aid to poor countries, in the interests of ending hunger and severe poverty. 5 countries have already reached that goal. Other countries have established a schedule to reach that goal. 6 countries have yet to either reach the goal, or set a schedule. (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Switzerland.) Ask governments to honor their commitment. The website provides letters that are all ready for you to print up, stuff in an envelope, and mail. (But you should probably use a stamp, too.)
- Make a micro-loan through Kiva. Kiva helps people rise out of poverty by connecting them with funding for their entrepreneurial goals.
- Pledge to make at least part of your holiday gifts work towards helping others out of poverty. Consider gift donations, such as to Heifer International.
Okay, I guess that’s sort of 2 cents worth. What’s more, I’ll put in more than 2 cents. I’ll put in my 2 dollars. I’ll follow Magpie’s lead. For every commenter that leaves a comment on this post in the next 24 hours, I’ll donate $2.00 to Unicef. (So up to 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, October 16th.)
collecting tokens 
Joe the Plumber
sez poverty’s a bummer
ooh, can i make a plug for OLPC? that’s what my family has started doing in lieu of giving each other gifts for xmas.
I get it about feeling overwhelmed.
Glad you filched my idea. Now I’m going to send a letter.
i’m here babe, thank you for doing this.
I can’t believe I’m just seeing this now! Better late than never. At risk of monkey-see, monkey-do (ugh, really?) I am so eagerly drawn to follow your lead…!
Count me!
missed the deadline. although I commented three times over at Magpies place, so she’ll make up for it.
;)
Hope it’s not too facetious but I often think of a Mad magazine cartoon in which there’s a guy carrying a placard that reads MONEY IS THE ROOT OF EVIL and another guy who appends a placard reading THE LACK OF next to it so that it all reads as THE LACK OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF EVIL.
Poverty is such a terrible thing. On a related note, I wish there weren’t so much economic inequality in this world. :(