Marissa Glauberman is a rising senior at the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She is majoring in International Politics with a concentration in Middle Eastern affairs. This past semester, Marissa studied human rights, NATO security, and international development at the American University of Paris. She has worked at the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations, the Save Darfur Coalition, and Planet Forward. This past summer, she traveled to Accra, Ghana where she volunteered at a police hospital and an orphanage.
Profiling the lives of farmers from Mexico, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, “Challenging Hunger,” a new documentary by Bread for the World and ViewChange, gives some much-needed attention to the 1 billion people across the globe who are affected by food insecurity.
By now, you’ve probably heard the alarming statistics that hunger is the world’s No. 1 health risk, and that approximately one in seven people go to bed hungry each night. But, understanding what these numbers really mean for the individuals affected by food insecurity can be difficult to conceptualize.
That’s why “Challenging Hunger” is important to watch. It exposes the challenges of real-life farmers on the ground who have dealt with infertile land, unsteady incomes and drought. But it also highlights the innovative solutions that are helping make a “world that can feed itself.” From aid groups to entrepreneurs, there are sustainable solutions that can help end food insecurity.
Watch the full length documentary in the player above. And let us know what you think in the comments below.
Bill and Melinda Gates have always approached the fight against hunger, poverty and disease a little differently — instead of focusing on the problem, they focus on the solution and narrow in on what’s working to get things done. This positive spirit is embodied in their foundation’s new and aptly named blog, Impatient Optimists.
The goal is to get readers engaged in a dialogue about solutions to worldwide and domestic problems, reflect the values of inspiration and urgency, and create an entire community of impatient optimists around the world.
Last week, we asked you to write about what inspires you for our One Act a Week series. We asked this question because we are all frustrated and outraged by the famine in East Africa, but want to remind you that no matter is happening in the world, your voice is critical in helping the world’s poorest people.
More than 60 of our ONE members participated in this action with moving and poetic responses about why they feel inspired to take action.
Here are some our favorite messages from our members:
A lot of things inspire me. Small (and not so small) things: my nices and nephews, a blue sky, a beautiful landscape, the kindness in some people’s eyes and smiles, a song from U2, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and the strong belief that humankind is genuinely good, but just going through a very bad moment. That’s why we all must raise our voices, so that peolple believe they can make the difference. I have to raise my own voice more often…-Catarina, Portugal
The single mother in Somali who puts a water in the pot and boils all night and tells her children dinner is coming until they fall asleep, because she can’t tell them there’s no food to eat. -Fozia, Texas
The idea that I can make a difference in the life of a child living in poverty has inspired me to take action. -Lynn, Michigan
Being the change that I want to see, so that my kids will in turn learn to be the change they want to see. -Kate, Alabama
People inspire me! I am very fortunate to work with volunteers at the American Academy of Pediatrics who dedicate most every free minute to saving newborn lives. I am also inspired by the many people I’ve met in African countries who dedicate their lives to helping others. I am humbled by such intelligent minds and big hearts! -Heather, North Carolina
The quote “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other” inspires me. It is a reminder that we’re not working to help a group of people across the world that we have no connection to. We’re lending a hand to our neighbors who happen to be in a trying time. -Mary, Michigan
I’m inspired by children — their constant belief that the world is good and things will always turn out sunny. Adults need more of that outlook! -Kristi, Georgia
As an activist, it can be difficult to stay inspired and motivated in the face of such tragedy and disaster, but it is so encouraging that our ONE members still have the will and inspiration to continue use their voice to change the world.
Falko Starr is kind of like the Banksy of South Africa — he creates colorful, imaginative and politically inspired street art that adorns sidewalks and buildings — not museum walls.
What’s so interesting about Falko’s work is that it echoes South Africa’s politics and history. He believes that graffiti in Cape Town started as a social cause and emerged out of the sprawling Cape flats, where non-whites were relocated during the apartheid. Falko explains, “a lot of graffiti then had a little political connotation in it. We kind of all just made it up. We were just doing it out of social cause, trying to make a change in our society because it was still apartheid then.”
Imagine using trash to fight poverty. Well, that’s exactly what Vik Muniz, a Brazilian artist based in Brooklyn, accomplished when he traveled to Jardim Gramacho, one of the largest garbage dumps in Brazil, and made art using the waste he found. His creations tell the remarkable story of turning nothing into something and, in this case, that “something” helped a huge group of people. Muniz ended up selling his creations for a whopping $50,000 and donated the proceeds back to the amazing people he met at the garbage dump.
Do you believe that the wave of Internet innovation is unstoppable? Jason Njoku, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, certainly does. In an interview for CNN’s African Voices, a talk show about politics, business, literature and the arts, Njoku said that the power of online companies can reap huge profits in Africa. He explains that there is a huge return on investments in African markets, particularly in Internet entrepreneurship.
It’s not a secret that there are skeptics about aid effectiveness or critics of the US budget for international assistance. That’s why I was pleased to learn about the recent work of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) which proves that aid can not only be effective, but can also benefit the American economy.
An MCC energy project in Tanzania. Photo credit: Morgana Wingard/ONE.
Last week, I attended a conference hosted by the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) titled, “On the Cutting Edge of Aid Effectiveness: Best Practices and Lessons Learned from the Millennium Challenge Corporation.” The panel ofspeakers included Gayle Smith, the special assistant to the president and senior director of the National Security Council (you may have seen her tweets from our recent ONE-White House Twitter event), and Sheila Herrling, vice president for policy and evaluation at the MCC. This discussion was led by Jim Kolbe, who is now the co-chair of MFAN.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
