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What About The Poor Right Here?
It's a common question about the Millennium Development Goals: Don't we have poor people right here in America? Kate Bishop of Maine gives her answer:
It brings to mind, "Who is my neighbor?" in the gospels. The answer seems to be the stranger. Jesus took it up a notch when the person who responded to the stranger in need was also a member of one of the most despised groups in that culture, the Samaritans. Ironically, those we would expect to exercise charity and compassion, the 'priests' and the wealthy faithful, passed by and ignored the victim on the road.
We are called to minister to those in need, often the stranger. We are all neighbors, whether next door or
down the road. In the case of MDG's, down the road is quite a distance. In this modern age, we are given the ability to know of and about others all over the globe. There is no corner on the planet that is unheard of. No
road that we cannot travel by electronics or other means. We are truly all part of one another and interdependent.
In a more practical way, none of us can answer all the needs of all the people. I believe we are each called to respond to our neighbor. For some of us, that call is to MDG's internationally. For others, it may be to persons and situations closer to home. We can all learn from each other and every successful outreach can be a source of energy and inspiration to all our efforts whether at home or abroad.
This is not a call of "either or" but "both and". If that focus is retained, every act of kindness and social justice will multiply its affect many times over.
Read the whole article here.
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| More ways to act as ONE |
The ONE Campaign (and our partnership, ONE Episcopalian) is a great way to use the power of your voice to make God's mission of global reconciliation happen. What can you do with ONE?
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| MDG Multimedia |
 Online resources for streaming or downloading
*Flashmovie Stations of the Cross for Global Poverty
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| Quote of the Week |
"We are here talking about the MDGs because we affirm that we are involved with the lives of others, whether they live next door or across the world, whether they are Christian or Anglican or not, and even whether they are currently living or not. When we say we believe in the communion of the saints, it certainly includes those who have come before us, but it also at some level must include those yet to breathe this air of earth. We are caretakers and caregivers of all of God's creation, both present and yet to come, and that is an important Christian recognition of the eschatological implications of the MDGs.''."
-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, speaking at the closing of the TEAM Conference in South Africa | |
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What One Organization Can Do |
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Meg Styles of GAIA (the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) writes of the work they do bringing people of faith together to fight AIDS in Malawi
GAIA's work encompasses every one of the Millennium Development Goals as it works to prevent and mitigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic and to address the underlying social causes such as poverty, gender inequality, and the lack of access to education. GAIA's work can be a focus for Episcopal congregations seeking to respond to the denominational mandate to make the MDGs a priority.
The Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance ("GAIA") partners with faith and community-based organizations in resource-poor countries for community-based HIV prevention and AIDS care. GAIA's work is currently focused in theCentral African country of Malawi, one of the world's poorest nations. Malawi ranks #1 in the world in the category of greatest number of people per physician, at 88,321. The country is third in the world in maternal mortality rates with 1800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. It ranks 5th in the world in lowest GDP per head at $180. It is 8th in the world in HIV prevalence in the 15 - 49 age range, with 14.2 % of the population living with HIV. Only two percent of the population is connected to the country's power grid.
GAIA works through Christian and Muslim groups to reach rural villages, hospitals, clinics, and community-based organizations to establish sustainable HIV prevention and AIDS care strategies. We help communities to develop locally initiated, planned and led HIV projects specific to local needs. We support 21 local projects serving an estimated 15,000 people, and our Women's Empowerment Project, funded from 2003 through May 2006 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has reached 25,600 additional people in 37 more villages. A replication of that project in 20 additional villages serves another 11,100 people.
GAIA aggressively supports the following programmatic work:
Read the whole story here.
For additional information on how your congregation can get involved and partner with GAIA to provide life-saving interventions, please feel free to contact GAIA's Community Relations Director, Meg Styles at 925-360-1868. Please feel free to visit our website www.thegaia.org.
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