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An Article for Your Church's Newsletter
In the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, children bring salt from their homes to school, where they use simple kits to test its iodine content. UNICEF project officer Intong Keomoungkhoune noted, "Children enjoy testing the salt and understand the reason for this very quickly…"
The "reason" is the need to prevent iodine deficiency disorder, which damages the health of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Iodine deficiency is particularly harmful to infants and young children, who can suffer irreversible damage to their cognitive development. But thanks to concerted worldwide efforts to fortify household salt with iodine, its prevalence has been cut in half, from 30 percent to less than 15 percent.
Some of the world's poorest countries – including such populous nations as Bangladesh and Nigeria -- have succeeded in iodizing 70 percent or more of their salt, proving that it can be done with modest resources. By 2002, 67 percent of all households in sub-Saharan Africa, 80 percent of those in East Asia, and 91 percent of those in Latin America were consuming iodized salt.
Fortifying commonly-used foods is a practical and cost-effective way to make immediate improvements in people's health. From iodized salt to flour and cereals fortified with iron, health and nutrition experts are working to give low-income people around the world access to essential vitamins and minerals. The benefits -- in lives saved, health restored, increased productivity at school and work – are incalculable.
Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters, One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty., calls on Congress to allocate additional resources for poverty-focused development assistance, which pays for effective basic health initiatives such as food fortification. The United States has promised to double poverty-focused development assistance to the developing world by 2010. To get our nation on track to fulfill this commitment, Congress must make available an additional $5 billion in fiscal year 2007.
We can be sure that our efforts to win additional poverty-focused development assistance are worthwhile. Our government has enormous power to give low-income families around the world an opportunity to build a better future. Using our gift of citizenship to urge our elected representatives to do this is effective. In fact, each dollar that Bread for the World spends on advocacy returns up to $150 in increased resources for hungry and poor people. And as with iodized salt to fight iodine deficiency -- the world's leading cause of preventable mental retardation – every dollar can make a difference in a life.
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Let us pray for the 852 million people around the world who go to bed hungry and the two billion people suffering from nutritional deficiencies. Let us also pray that our nation’s decision makers will make available additional resources dedicated to reducing hunger in God’s world.
- More than 850 million people around the world, most in developing countries, do not get enough calories. Widespread hunger persists even though the world's farmers produce enough food for everyone.
- One-third of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is chronically undernourished. Nearly half live on less than $1 a day. In Central Africa, 55 percent of the population is hungry.
- Worldwide, more than half of all child deaths are due to malnutrition. Six million children under age five die of hunger-related causes each year.
- But progress is possible: International support for prenatal care, vaccinations, and health care and nutrition for young children have cut the world's child mortality rate in half over the past 40 years.
- Access to modest resources can make a big difference in the lives of the world's hungry and poor people. For example:
- 15 cents will vaccinate a child against polio to prevent paralysis and death;
- $3 will pay for a mosquito bed net to help prevent malaria;
- $25 will cover the cost of fees and materials for a child to attend a full year of elementary school; and
- $500 will fund training to improve agricultural yields for a farmers' cooperative.
- Unfortunately, these types of programs are under-funded. Currently the United States devotes less than half of one percent of our federal budget to poverty-focused development assistance overseas.
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How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's good and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
(1 John 3:17-18, NRSV)
How does God's love abide in us? God's love is so complete, so bold, so deep. What does it look like when our lives are in line with that love? The writer makes it clear that God's love cannot abide in those who possess material riches and do not help a brother or sister in need.
The Lenten season offered us a time to focus on Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and our own journeys toward living God's love. Now in the time of Easter, Christ is risen. The resurrected Christ is powerfully present in our world today.
John's letter was written to deepen the spiritual and social awareness of the Christian community. Throughout the Epistle, the references to the cross remind us that God's greatest proclamation of abiding love was not just in word or speech but through action—through Jesus' sacrifice. Likewise, when God's love abides in us we love one another, not just in words, but in action.
How do we imitate God's love in action? Jesus gave us many examples of how to love in this way. Countless times Jesus actually fed, healed and restored people. He acted in love because he cared deeply about the physical health and well-being of those around him.
Our world may seem entirely different from the world of Jesus' time or John's epistle. Yet their "brothers and sisters in need" suffered from the same needs for food, water and shelter that our brothers and sisters do today.
We are living in an unprecedented time to make a concrete difference in the lives of poor people. God has made it possible in our time to end hunger and extreme poverty. In 2000, 189 countries, including the United States, made a promise to do just that around the world with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
If we are to make good on this promise to fulfill the MDGs, Congress must increase poverty-focused development assistance. Keeping this promise is one way that we can practice God’s love for our brothers and sisters around the world.
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Urge your members of Congress to approve a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development assistance.
Ask your senators and representative to approve a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development assistance for hungry and poor people around the world.
An effective letter has three essential ingredients:
- Be Specific
The United States has adopted the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which include cutting hunger and extreme poverty in half by 2015 – less than 10 years from now. At last July's G-8 Summit, the United States took a step in the right direction by promising to double aid to Africa and the developing world by 2010.
- Name the Action
To get the nation on track to honor these commitments, Congress should approve a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development assistance for 2007.
- Give a Reason
The world has enough food for everyone, yet 852 million people are undernourished. The United States should do its share to give hungry and poor people better opportunities to support their families.
Sample Letter:
Dear Sen. _________ or Rep. ________,
I'm writing to express my concern for the world's 852 million undernourished people. Six million young children die each year from hunger-related causes, yet there is enough food grown for everyone.
For fiscal year 2007, I urge you and other members of Congress to approve an additional $5 billion in poverty-focused development assistance. At last July's G-8 summit, the United States promised to double assistance to developing countries by 2010. In order to get the country on track to honor this promise, Congress needs to approve a significant increase this year.
Good nutrition, clean water, health care and basic education help parents build a better future for their children. The United States should give more hungry and poor families these opportunities by increasing poverty-focused development assistance.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Address
Send your letter to:
Sen. _____________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
or Rep. ____________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
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Bread for the World Institute's newest Hunger Report, Hunger 2006: Frontline Issues in Nutrition Assistance, is available in both print and electronic versions. The report explains how nutrition assistance programs in the United States and the developing world can have a strong, immediate impact on the health and potential of hungry and poor people.
Although good nutrition can seem like a luxury in the midst of hunger emergencies, in the long run it is essential to human health. Many of the world's two billion people suffering from chronic vitamin and mineral deficiencies will die as a result of the devastating health consequences. Six million children under the age of five die each year as a result of malnutrition.
Vitamin and mineral supplementation, whether by dispensing tablets or fortifying foods, offers affordable ways to make rapid progress against malnutrition. "Probably no other technology available today offers as large an opportunity to improve lives and accelerate development at such low cost and in such a short time," noted the World Bank.
Frontline Issues in Nutrition Assistance makes recommendations to strengthen nutrition assistance. Here are a few:
- U.S. food stamp benefits must be adequate to ensure that low-income families have the means to purchase healthy foods, which are more expensive than heavily processed, less nutritious foods.
- Every low-income child in the United States should receive free school meals and have access to summer food services in their communities.
- A one-time push could enable countries all over the world to fortify widely used foods and dramatically improve health.
- Nutrition initiatives should figure more prominently in development programs.
- The international community should establish strategies, such as a humanitarian reserve fund, to respond to famines without waiting for CNN to broadcast photographs of starving children.
With improvements like those offered in the 2006 Hunger Report, we can achieve dramatic progress against hunger, poverty and disease, both in the United States and around the world. Please call 1-800-82-BREAD to order a copy of Frontline Issues in Nutrition Assistance, order from our online store, or download it from our Web site at http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-reports/hunger-report-2006-download.html.
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Bread for the World's staff can offer tips on letter writing, brief you on legislation, assist your church's hunger ministry, and put you in touch with others who are working on these issues.
Bread for the World National Office: 1-800-82-BREAD
Church Relations Staff
- Sarah Turner, National Church Outreach
Regional Organizers in National Office
- Elise Young, Central/Mid-Atlantic Organizer
- Erin Luchenbill, Campus Organizer
Bread for the World Regional Offices
- Mariah Priggen (1-800-447-0-BFW)
Illinois, Indiana and Missouri Organizer
- Zelinda Welch (1-800-315-3BFW)
Western Organizer
- David Gist (1-800-315-3BFW)
California Organizer
- Ricardo Moreno (1-800-315-3BFW)
Organizer for Latino Relations
- Tamela Walhof (1-800-363-7BFW)
Upper Midwest Organizer
- Lew Hille (1-888-257-0-BFW)
Texas/Oklahoma Organizer
- Elizabeth Coleman (1-888-BFW-0073)
Southeast Organizer
- Larry Hollar (1-800-619-9239)
North Central Organizer
- Derrick Boykin (1-866-238-0507)
Northeast Organizer
