Get Involved

Message from Bono

Editor's Note: For many years, Bono has been a tireless and prophetic advocate for poor people around the world, especially in Africa. He has also been a leading proponent of the ONE Campaign from its inception. For his efforts, Time magazine named him, Bill and Melinda Gates its “Persons of the Year” in December 2005. Following is the letter Bono wrote endorsing Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters, One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty.  

I was a 9-year-old boy in Dublin when a man first walked on the moon. It wasn't just any man—it was an American. Being an American meant something new. It meant having a sense of infinite possibility, doing the things everyone says can't be done. 

More than ever, Americans have reason to believe we can do what's seemed impossible before now—beating hunger, AIDS and poverty. 

I met people from Bread for the World during the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt cancellation. What an amazing accomplishment that was. Twice as many children are now attending school in Uganda. Mozambique's debt relief has enabled the government to immunize a half million children.  We saw that together, we can be voices for the voiceless. If you're looking for God, look for the poorest, the most vulnerable people. That's where God hangs out. 

This year millions of Americans joined ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, asking leaders to invest more in fighting poverty and disease.  In July they listened: G8 leaders pledged an additional $50 billion annually to poor countries, half of it for Africa, and agreed to write off $56 billion in old multilateral debt for 38 of the world's poorest countries. And they promised to get AIDS drugs not just to everyone who can afford them but to everyone who needs them—a great promise, if they keep it.

We must keep the pressure on our leaders if we want them to follow through. In America, that means getting Congress involved, and spending the promised money. As voters and taxpayers, Americans must give Congress permission to invest just a fraction more of the budget in what we know works, from $5 mosquito nets to drug treatments that cost pennies apiece.

That's where you come in. Together with Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters campaign, One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty., we can ask Congress to make real progress on fighting AIDS and extreme poverty by working towards devoting an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to international assistance by 2010. Think of the lives that could be saved by that.

Beating AIDS and extreme, stupid poverty, this is our moon shot. This is our civil rights struggle, our anti-apartheid movement. This is what the history books will remember our generation for—or blame us for, if we fail. We can't afford to fail. Let's get started.

Thanks,

Bono

Lead singer, U2, and co-founder of DATA
debt AIDS trade Africa)

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Justice: A Global Imperative

By Dr. Daniel Vestal

Global poverty is not only a social, economic or political problem, it is a moral issue. How can we continue to enjoy luxury when so many are perishing? How can we justify our standard and style of life when multitudes struggle with survival? How can people of faith say they love God and not respond to the world's suffering? As a Christian, I am convicted by the words of St. James: "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:15-17)

There are hopeful signs. President Bush recently announced the release of $750 million in additional aid for Africa. Emerging coalitions like "The One Campaign," "Call to Renewal" and "The Micah Challenge" are urging Americans to engage with the poor. Voices from diverse religious communities are joining together calling both for compassion and justice. Television ads can be seen featuring prominent faith leaders and ordinary people engaging with poor people.

Yet the awesome challenge remains. The global imperative of our time is justice. "Can we find the moral vision, the urgent passion, the political will and the collaborative spirit to bring an end to global poverty?"

Last year, I was in Nairobi. While sitting around a table with several adolescent boys, I asked them the question, "What is the best thing in your life?" They each answered quickly with similar responses: "Jesus" or "My relationship with God" or "Being a Christian."

Then I asked them, "What is the hardest thing in your life?" I was overwhelmed by their answers. The first one said, "My next meal." The next one said, "What I will eat." The next one said, "Where I will sleep tonight."

Later in reflecting on this conversation, I realized how different the answers would be if I were asking those questions of adolescents (or adults) in the U.S.

Many years ago, the prophet Micah said, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

Dr. Daniel Vestal is coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. This excerpt is from a longer piece that originally appeared in the September/October fellowship! CBF newsletter.

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Recent Victories for Hungry and Poor People

In January, Congress finalized a spending cut package that did not cut food stamps – far from what appeared likely last spring.          

In April 2005, Congress voted to require $3 billion in cuts to agriculture programs over five years. Momentum was building on Capitol Hill to make significant cuts to the Food Stamp Program as part of these reductions. The plan that was widely expected to pass would have pushed about 250,000 people off food stamps, mainly working poor mothers and their children.

Bread for the World, along with our partners in the religious community, was the major voice for zero cuts to the Food Stamp Program. For months, members faithfully reminded their senators and representatives: As long as food insecurity and hunger exist in the United States, it is unacceptable to reduce funding for the country's basic safety net against hunger. The House originally approved deep cuts to the program. That the cuts were removed from the final budget was an important victory for hungry people.  

In another effort, Bread for the World and the ONE Campaign advocated increased poverty-focused development assistance overseas. We reminded Congress of the U.S. pledge to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and we asked both President Bush and Congress to make additional financial commitments. At the G-8 summit in July, the United States promised to double development assistance to Africa and to the developing world by 2010.

Congress agreed to increase poverty-focused development assistance by $1 billion over last year's levels. This is more than a 10 percent increase in aid for poverty reduction. The increase continues a trend of yearly increases in poverty-focused development assistance – particularly encouraging in a tight budget climate. And, of course, the money will provide nutrition, clean water and health care to many more of the world's poorest people. In our 2006 Offering of Letters, One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty., we will urge Congress to step up efforts to make additional poverty-focused development assistance available.

During the year, Bread for the World members persuaded 158 representatives and 41 senators to cosponsor the Hunger-Free Communities Act of 2005, which commits the United States to ending food insecurity in this country by 2015 and establishes a program to help local groups fight hunger.  We are hopeful that the legislation will pass early in 2006.

Congratulations and thank you for your hard work. In 2005, you made a real difference for hungry and poor people!

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Trade Justice in Texas

"Fair trade touches people because it makes so much sense," says Bread for the World and ONE Campaign campus activist Kate Dillon. "People get it if you just say, 'The farmers who grew your coffee got paid fairly. They earned enough from their work to feed their children and send them to school.'"

A student at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic university in Houston, TX, Dillon is dedicated to winning support for fair trade. She said that overall, the issue is rather new in the United States. There are a few pockets where people are very much aware, but fair trade is not yet a mainstream cause as it is in the United Kingdom, for example.

But when Dillon organized a Trade Justice Day on her campus in November, she was surprised at the level of interest. "We brought in local vendors who supply fair trade coffee and sugar. We had about 1,000 little packets of fair trade sugar, plus five of us used the sugar to make fair trade baked goods. We also offered chocolate. And people weren't really responsive to the free food samples as much as to the issue itself. I really found that they were intellectually engaged."

In addition to signing the ONE Campaign Declaration, students persuaded the campus library to order a large supply of fair trade coffee for finals week. Plus, there is growing support for switching to fair trade vendors university-wide.

Dillon traveled to the G-8 summit in Scotland last July as a member of Bread for the World's delegation. In December, she volunteered at a fair trade event at the high-level Hong Kong meeting of the World Trade Organization.

"It was a wonderful experience to meet some of the vendors – from Bangladesh, Indonesia, all over. They really are committed to using fair trade to provide development opportunities for their people."

Dillon said that these opportunities to see things firsthand have strengthened her activism at home. Fair trade can unite people across religious and political lines.

"I know people who are really dedicated to fair trade from a free market point of view as well as from faith and social justice perspectives," Dillon says. "I think trade has great potential to really make a difference for hungry and poor people – which, of course, is what we're all working for at Bread for the World."

For more on making trade fair, read the Background Paper from this issue of Bread.

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