Dear Julia,
In the last couple of years, we have seen significant progress in the fight against poverty: more than 2 million people are receiving lifesaving AIDS medications and 29 million African children, once denied a basic education, are now in school.
Despite proven successes, the G8—8 of the world's most powerful countries – are largely failing to deliver on their promises to increase funds dedicated to fighting extreme poverty. The United States is one of the few G8 countries making progress on its commitments, but there is more we can do, and US leadership is essential to encouraging G8 progress.
Our moment to press the US and other G8 nations into action is quickly approaching as leaders of the G8 will gather in Japan on July 7.
Click this link to add your name to the petition and ask G8 leaders to do their part and work to continue our success in the fight against poverty.
Petition text:
We call upon you to build on recent success in fighting extreme poverty by delivering your commitments on healthcare, agriculture and education and by helping citizens in developing countries in their efforts to improve governance and fight corruption.
This petition builds upon our hunger crisis action in May, when 140,000 ONE members successfully urged President Bush into action in response to soaring food prices.
But the impact of the food crisis – millions teetering on the brink of poverty, riots in dozens of developing countries, and families forced to choose between meals and medicine – stems from a range of causes that demand the G8’s attention. Only by delivering on all of their commitments to the developing world can G8 leaders truly continue on previous successes and prevent future problems like the food crisis.
Please remind G8 leaders that fighting poverty works, but we have a long way to go.
It is essential that G8 nations take this opportunity, while the world’s eyes are upon their summit, to show true leadership by addressing these problems and the underlying issues that cause them.
Thank you for your voice,
Josh Peck, ONE.org
P.S. PEPFAR, America’s response to the global emergency of AIDS, TB and malaria, is at a critical point in negotiations and we hope to have an update for you soon on the results of our campaign to pass it in the Senate.
5 comments:
Food prices have doubled in three years, according to the World Bank,
sparking riots in Egypt and Haiti and in many African nations. Brazil,
Vietnam, India and Egypt have all imposed food export restrictions.
In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty"
Every year 15 million children die of hunger
For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years
Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!
The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.
One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture
The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy
Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. UNICEF
3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.
In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.
In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.
The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.
One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.
Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.
In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by vitamin A supplementation programmes in developing countries.
Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death
About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age
To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.
The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet.
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger
It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.
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