End Hunger and Poverty!

[naiwen]

Hi there fellow bubhubians,:wave:
I just revisited the free rice site www.freerice.com.au (http://www.freerice.com.au) and saw on there that out of all the countries that had pledged to donate just 0.7% of their countrys national income to end world hunger and poverty forever Australia was one of the six that had not. It is achievable it is so little for us too give but if all the country's that signed up gave then the resulting $195 Billion would be enough to end poverty and hunger. Just think how wonderfull that would be. No more pictures of starving children to break your heart. No more easlily preventable deaths from starvation.
All you need to do is go to this link http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html and go to the Australia letter and print it. It would then cost $1.00 to post which is not much when you think now much difference it could make. You can write your own of course if you have the time. The UK only set a target after the voting public put pressure on the goverment so it does work.
Here's to a world free of hunger and poverty. :smiliedance::flowerz::smiliedance:

[jenkinsdakota]

It's www.freerice.com (http://www.freerice.com/index.php) not .com.au

I read somewhere about parents who use this site to punish children (http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylc=X3oDMTE1MmI4N2IyBF9TAzIxMTU1MDAxMTgEc2VjA2Fu c19ub3QEc2xrA3N1YmplY3Q-;_ylv=3?qid=20080128173622AAhYcs0). It's like a form of penance.

[canberramomma]

People could think about petitioning their local member to put the eradication of world poverty firmly on the parliamentary agenda.

Also, support organisations which promote fair trade and development in poorer countries through micro loans, education and sustainable practices.

[neostudded]

Ive never heard of this before....:detective:

So do they just want the poor to live of an all rice diet? or do they feed them other stuff?

Still better than dying of hunger, iam just curious.

(they say if you do certain stuff on the website they donate 20 grains of rice...Do they really count rice?)

[neostudded]

I played the game and donated 700 grains of rice.

[naiwen]

Ok firstly sorry about the .com.au thing,
secondly although the game is cool my main idea from the site is too petition the Aus goverment to set a target. I have no idea why parents would punissh children with this site but I guess it's not too bad a punishment!
Neostudded, the way it works is the sponsors donnate the money and the the UN type people distribute it. I imagine they would notify them every hundred grains or something.
Any the reason I posted was because I think it's sad that australia is lagging behind other developed countrys in setting a target.

[naiwen]

People could think about petitioning their local member to put the eradication of world poverty firmly on the parliamentary agenda.

Also, support organisations which promote fair trade and development in poorer countries through micro loans, education and sustainable practices.

Excellent post canberramomma :iagree:

[Bessie]

People could think about petitioning their local member to put the eradication of world poverty firmly on the parliamentary agenda.

Also, support organisations which promote fair trade and development in poorer countries through micro loans, education and sustainable practices.

I've done this on behalf of a church group (Baptist) and it was amazing as doors opened - at the time our MP was the chair of the group for overseas aid and development and he set up a meeting during "Voices for Justice" with Tear fund and Micah Challenge, 2 huge Christian anti-poverty groups. As a result this put aid higher on the political agenda, and then labour committed to increase too.
So it's amazing what can happen when normal people see mps. Just be really clear that you know what you want from them, be prepared for some beating around the bush... but keep pushing. Remember too that politicians have a rule of thumb that every person visiting them represents many more voter. Then if you can, follow through thus keeping your request high on their agenda.
Personal letters are good too but unfortunately emails or computer petitions aren't rated as highly.
Good luck and go for it!
Just an hour or so out of your day, think of all the people who could be helped.
The first time I went I was so scared and nervous, but now I feel so much more confident about speaking to people and organising things and this has positively impacted our areas of my life.

[Bessie]

Aus lags far behind other countries with the international aid budget (labour has agreed to increase during the last election, but not really enough). We need to keep this issue high on the agenda otherwise the pollies will just neglect it. Hopefully they will sort out their policies when parliament goes back but we need to keep onto them.
I had a letter from Bob MacMullen who seemed quite up beat about the issue but we'll have to see.