Information and news on advocacy.

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Instagram to Fight World Hunger

Instagram to Fight World HungerOne of the most common types of pictures posted on Instagram is food.  We love to share what we cook, what we eat, and what we enjoy. One charity has decided to capitalize on the idea of sharing pictures of your food.  Food Share Filter, a new app, is the first supportive Instagram filter. The idea is to use Instagram to fight world hunger. The app was created by DDB Spain and all money raised goes to support a Salvadoran charity called Manos Unidas.

Manos Unidas is a non-profit organization working with the Association of the Catholic Church in Spain. The charity works to promote development in the third world. They focus on working to eradicate the structural causes of hunger, disease, and underdevelopment such as injustice, prejudice, and inequality.  Geographically, Manos Unidas works in Africa, Asia, American, and Oceania to assist in development causes there.

The filter can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play store. Once downloaded, anytime a user post a picture of food, they can add the filter #FoodShareFilter.  This immediately adds the message, “This picture helps millions of people not to suffer hunger.”  It is an easy way to raise awareness in posting photos that would normally be posted.

The #FoodShareFilter is available in both English and Spanish and costs$0.99 in the Apple Store and $1.16 in Google Play.  The app was launched late last week and all proceeds from the purchase of the app go directly to the charity.  Check it out and download the app to start raising awareness on world hunger!

– Amanda Kloeppel

Source: WkBW Eyewitness News
Photo: Goodnet

Fight World Hunger With Your Smartphone

Fight World Hunger With Your Smartphone
Listen up smartphone users! It’s never been easier to fight world hunger.

Taking food shots with your smartphone and sharing them on Instagram or Twitter has become a huge craze. This new app, the first supportive Instagram filter, lets you post those photos and help a good cause to fight world hunger.

The aim for FoodShareFilter, an app created by DDB Spain, is to raise money for an El Salvadoran charity called Manos Unidas. The charity promotes development and preventing hunger in third-world countries.

All you have to do is download the filter from the Apple Store or Google Play, take the picture, and post it using #FoodShareFilter. The income from each app download is donated to the charity.

In addition, every time a user takes a photo of their food and applies #FoodShareFilter, it immediately adds the message “This picture helps millions of people not to suffer hunger,” and shares it on your Instagram page. That way, you raise awareness while posting photos.

Although FoodShareFilter is in Spanish, an English version is also available.

FoodShareFilter was launched late last week. It is available in the Apple Store for $0.99 and in Google Play for $1.16.

– Katie Brockman

Source WKBW
Photo FoodShareFilter

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Kellogg Commits to Create Brighter Futures

Kellogg Commits to Create Brighter Futures

Breakfast giant Kellogg is committed to creating brighter futures for global citizens and outlines plans to accomplish that goal in its 5th Annual Global Corporate Responsibility Report.  W.K. Kellogg aspired to not only create breakfast cereal but to improve people’s lives through food and philanthropy.  Each year, Kellogg highlights their efforts at creating brighter futures through their Global Corporate Responsibility report. This report outlines Kellogg’s efforts aimed at the marketplace, workplace, environment, and community, as well as their global efforts to fight world hunger.

Breakfasts for Better Days is Kellogg’s global hunger initiative. According to the report, 1 in 8 people around the world face food insecurity each day.  Through Kellogg and Kellogg’s Corporate Citizenship Fund, the company has committed to donating 1 billion servings of cereal and snacks to children and families in need by 2016.  Breakfast is what they do best and by providing servings of breakfast to children around the world, Kellogg is playing a role in fighting global hunger worldwide.

In addition to the work being done to fight global hunger, Kellogg is also committed to reducing water use and waste to landfill in their plants. The UK plant was able to reduce its water use by 26% in 2012. They have launched new products with higher fiber, protein, and nutritional content and will continue to create food that is healthy to improve the health of all citizens.  Lastly, to further promote breakfast and hunger relief programs, Kellogg’ has donated $52+ million in cash and products to organizations worldwide.

Kellogg is committed to being socially and fiscally responsible in the world of business and it is striving to use its platform as a breakfast manufacturer to fight global hunger and improve the lives of global citizens. The full report is available here. Kellogg will make a one-time donation of up to $10,000 to the Global FoodBanking Network for every person who provides feedback on the report. Simply send an email by Nov 1, 2013, to corporateresponsibility@kellogg.com.

Check out the report and send an email. It’s an easy way to contribute to the cause through advocacy and involvement and encourage businesses to continue to fight global hunger.

– Amanda Kloeppel

Source: Wall Street Journal
Photo: Kellogg

Tina Knowles Advocates “Miss a Meal” Campaign

Tina Knowles Advocates "Miss a Meal" Campaign
With Beyonce on her way to “complete world domination” this year, her mother, Tina Knowles, is focusing her attention on more altruistic endeavors with a new anti-hunger campaign called “Miss A Meal.”

The project — a partnership with Houston, TX non-profit Bread of Life Inc. — aims to feed millions of Americans by encouraging people to skip a meal and donate the money they would have spent to feed those who are less fortunate.

Knowles, who tapped her daughters Beyonce and Solange to get the word out about the campaign, said missing one meal is a small sacrifice for many.

“When we say ‘we are starving,’ we have to remember that there are people who are literally starving,” Knowles said in a release. “If everyone fed one person, one meal, we could make a huge difference.”

The good deed is not new for the Knowles, despite what critics, including actor Harry Belafonte, have said.

“I was 13 and my sister Solange was 8 when we started donating and serving meals to the homeless after church,” said Beyonce on her family’s longstanding partnership with Bread of Life. “There were people from all walks of life, even children, who needed a meal. We learned that we are all three paychecks away from poverty. It was a lesson in humility for all of us.”

In a written response to actor Harry Belafonte, who accused Beyonce and husband, Jay-Z, of turning their backs on social responsibility, the singer’s camp released a list of her charitable acts, including co-founding a multi-purpose community outreach facility in downtown Houston where recovering heroin addicts from around the country can study cosmetology.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 85.1 percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2011, making hunger a popular cause among do-gooder celebs.

Last year, actor Taye Diggs teamed up with Kellog for the company’s annual “Share Breakfast” campaign, while rapper 50 Cent partnered with the United Nations to provide one meal for every bottle of his Street King energy drink that was sold.

– Katie Brockman

Source Huffington Post

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High School Students Fight World Hunger

High School Students Fight World Hunger
For the fourth year, more than 200 Ottawa Township High School students became part of the solution to world hunger.

Each year, students in the school’s Freshman Academy have been asked to come up with solutions to the problems of world hunger and limited access to clean drinking water, said teacher Pamela Cronkright.

“Students research local and international organizations and then choose which one they want to help,” she said. They sometimes raise funds for the organization; often they volunteer at a local organization or “create and present a public service announcement”encouraging others to get involved.

Preliminary totals show this year the students raised more than $12,000, volunteered more than 250 hours, and created public service announcements seen by thousands, Cronkright said.

Students can select from a list of organizations, or suggest one, to send the money they have raised.

Triplets Sam, Matt and Emily Poundstone, of Marseilles, with the help of their family, held a pancake breakfast that brought in $565 for the Marseilles Food Pantry.

Officially, it was Sam and Matt’s project. Emily and a friend saved their lunch money to raise $50 more in contributions.

Silver Young, Bethany Crum, Shelby Leonard and Sarah Lyons held a bake sale outside Handy Foods. Rachel Thrush and another student sold candy bars, which raised $150.

Cronkright said one non-auditory special needs student programmed a presentation into a speech machine and went homeroom to homeroom and gave his “talk” while his aide held his poster. He collected $83.

Students decided to send most of their funds to charity: Water, a global nonprofit organization, builds wells to provide drinking water in developing nations, and Heifer International, another global nonprofit, provides livestock, seeds, and trees to those in need.

Locally, in addition to the Marseilles Food Pantry, students volunteered or raised money for the Community Food Basket, Illinois Valley Public Action To Deliver Shelter, and the Ottawa YMCA.

Tom Hart, another Freshman Academy faculty member, also led this year’s World Hunger Awareness Project, but shifted the credit to Cronkright.

“She was the one who came up with this idea,” Hart said. “I’m just following along.”

– Katie Brockman

Source My Web Times
Photo The Wild

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LGBT Communities in Developing Countries


The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is partnering with the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and Olivia Companies to combat discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in third world countries.

Together, these groups will contribute $11 million to protect LGBT groups against violence and discrimination and allow them to expand to include more people. USAID will also become more involved in the political processes of developing countries and help pass anti-violence and anti-discrimination laws.

Currently, homosexuality is illegal in over 80 countries and territories, seven of which enforce the death penalty for people caught in same-sex relationships. USAID and its partner organizations hope to change this. As Hilary Clinton said in a 2001 speech, “gay rights are human rights.” Now that President Obama has spoken in support of the gay rights initiative, advocacy groups and USAID have the backing they need to push the agenda forward.

When training begins at the end of May, we will begin to see the LGBT community become more involved in the political process. USAID and its partners are starting their program in Colombia, where the local mayor and the head of the city’s welfare agency, a transgender woman, will attend the training event.

There are 19 countries where it is illegal to discriminate against homosexuals and about 12 countries that permit same-sex marriage. These countries include Argentina, Canada, Spain and South Africa. As more LGBT leaders are elected and gay people become involved in politics, it is likely that more countries will be added to this list.

– Mary Penn

Source: Washington Blade

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Foreign Aid and the Proposed Budget

foreignaid
President Obama revealed his proposed budget for 2014 and much to the surprise of many, there was a slight increase in foreign aid in the proposal. Requested funds for foreign aid equaled somewhere around $52 billion which is a slight bump over this year’s budget.  Increased funds for global health and development assistance were included as well as a decrease in military aid to foreign countries.  The proposed budget also called for a major overhaul of the US food-aid programme to save money and invest more wisely in food production and improvement rather than on shipping costs.

The International Affairs budget funds USAID and the State Department as well as the United States’ donations to the United Nations and other similar institutions.  It also provides funds for natural disaster emergencies and embassy support. The proposed budget will now be passed to the House and Senate where they will debate the proposed funds.  If an agreement cannot be reached again this year, major across-the-board spending cuts will go into effect again. One thing that did not change in the proposed budget was the proportion of the budget that goes towards foreign aid, which still amounts to only slightly more than 1% of overall spending. Compared to the defense budget, which is around $527 billion, there is still a large gap in appropriated government funds.

Advocates of foreign aid spending have long complained of the disconnect between aid and diplomacy, citing that without increased development, unstable countries will struggle to become stable. Leaders are working with Congress to call for the necessary funds to promote global development, innovation, and provide resources to those in poverty. The proposed budget caused non-profit and non-government leaders to breathe a slight sigh of relief as their funds were not initially proposed to be cut. While budget cuts must be made, foreign aid is an area where the funds are causing global change, reducing poverty, and increasing the safety of both US citizens and citizens of other countries.

The proposed budget is also the perfect time for advocacy.  As Senators and Representatives must make decisions about the final budget, calls advocating for foreign aid and funds focused towards reducing global poverty can make a real impact.

Find your senators and representative here and make a 30 second call to keep foreign aid fully funded.

– Amanda Kloeppel

Source: The International News Magazine
Photo: Council on Foreign Relations

Eva Longoria Impressed by World Food Program

Eva Longoria Impressed by World Food ProgramActress Eva Longoria, best known for her role in Desperate Housewives, visited rural Honduras this March with philanthropist Howard G. Buffett (the eldest son of Warren Buffet). The actress wanted to see first-hand the work of the World Food Program (WFP) and its Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative – to which the Howard G. Buffett Foundation is a major donor. Eva Longoria impressed by World Food Program, especially sighted the P4P ability to tailor development practices and policies for each community differently, as “there’s not a template for the world” for achieving success.

As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP is also a major food buyer. In 2012, WFP bought over $1 billion worth of food – more than 75 percent in developing countries. The P4P program is a logical agenda for the WFP – its mission is to increase the WFP procurement of food through local/small scale farmers, thereby increasing rural development with the WFP’s buying power.

Through the initial pilot program in 20 countries, P4P will provide greater incentive to small farmers to invest in their production, as they will have the stability of a reliable buyer and receive a fair price for their crops with WFP’s promise to buy their crops. It is envisioned that with the WFP stabilizing and developing small-businesses, then local governments and other private companies will also start to buy on a smaller level, further increasing demand and development. Farmers are learning how to increase crop quantities and quality, how to negotiate markets, pricing and contracts, and improve their businesses. P4P also invests in capacity building in areas such as post-harvest handling and storage, which in turn yields sustainability through boosting national food security reserves.

The five years pilot P4P, 2009 – 2013, rests on three pillars:

1. Demand: Through P4P, WFP tests innovative ways to buy staple food and promote marketing opportunities for smallholder farmers.

2. Supply: P4P links WFP’s demand with the expertise and resources of partners who support farmers to achieve better yields, reduce their losses after the harvest and improve the quality of their staple crops.

3. Learning and Sharing: P4P will gather and share lessons on effective approaches to connect smallholder farmers to markets in a sustainable way and share them widely with stakeholders.

A wide range of partners regionally, nationally, and globally supports the P4P program, with the US being a key donor.

 – Mary Purcell

Source: FLickr, WFP

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Matt Damon Toilet Strike

Matt Damon Toilet Strike

Dear Toilet,

It’s not you. It’s us.

Sincerely,

Matt Damon

Matt Damon broke up with his toilet…well at least until everyone has access to clean water and sanitation. The Oscar-winning actor and co-founder of Water.org announced his toilet strike in a comedic video.

The video is a staged press conference with prominent comedians. It highlights society’s ignorance of the world water crisis and the underappreciation of toilets. 780 million people lack access to clean water.

Damon mentions how the toilet has saved more lives than any other invention, yet 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets or basic sanitation.  More people own cell phones than toilets. The “Matt Damon Toilet Strike” is designed to be less about him and more about people who lack the luxury of clean sanitation.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson released a statement that the world water crisis is something people “don’t like to talk about.” The United Nations aims to double the number of people with toilets by 2015.

The organization’s long-term plan is to “eliminate the practice of open defecation” by 2025.  This practice makes unsanitary water the number one killer of people worldwide.  In fact, children under the age of five are most likely to die from diarrhea-related diseases.

Water.org traded the traditional public service announcement model in hopes of creating a viral frenzy.

“If Sarah Silverman and I can generate millions of views on YouTube for something ridiculous, then we should be able to do better for one of the most important and solvable issues of our time,” Damon said.

The nonprofit has “been toying with [the idea of comedic videos] for a couple of years.”  Damon and the rest of Water.org believe viral videos can “generate new levels of awareness and participation in the cause.”

The announcement video is the first of 12 videos. The strike campaign’s other videos include: Damon breaking up with his toilet, other celebrities joining the strike, and John Elerick fighting to outdo Damon.  The video was filmed for free at YouTube’s L.A. studios as YouTube works to educate nonprofits about best practices for video campaigns.

Jessica Mason, YouTube spokeswoman, understands that views should not be the main concern for non-profits. “We want to help nonprofits raise awareness and turn that awareness into action.”

Water.org will continue using social media to further awarness.  The website features extensive social media integration.  It asks visitors to “lend” their social media accounts and allow Water.org to publish automatically until World Toilet Day on November 9, 2013.

For more information, visit strikewithme.org or tweet questions with #strikewithme.

– Whitney M. Wyszynski

Source: Strike With Me

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Child Marriage: A Promise of Poverty

Child Marriage: A Promise of Poverty

The average teenager worries about hanging out with friends, getting good grades, and fitting in with a group of people—not marrying a stranger and creating a home.

However, child marriage is a reality in the world’s 51 least-developed countries.  Half of all girls living in these countries are married before the age of 18, according to the United Nations. Parents arrange the marriage, and the groom can be more than twice the bride’s age.  Girls are ripped from their communities and forced into social isolation. These abrupt marriages sever a girl from her support network—a group of people necessary for helping the girl face the physical and emotional challenges of marriage.

Many cultures view girls as economic burdens, subservient individuals, or family mistakes. Marrying girls off as soon as possible alleviates the household expenses and restores the family’s reputation.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) established that the minimum age of marriage is 18 years old. This is considered the upper limit of childhood, and the individual is fit to decide whether to be married.  Many countries continue to practice child marriage despite proven physical and psychological effects.

World Vision reported that child marriages are increasing due to the increase in global poverty crises. 14 million girls under the age of 18 are married each year.  Child marriages are most prevalent in rural, poor areas and are associated with areas of low education and healthcare.  Polygamy is common, and these marriages are bargaining chips between two parties.

South Asia (46%) and Central Africa (41%) are the top areas for child marriages.  These regions do not monitor the age of spouses carefully.  Girls who live in countries with humanitarian crises are most likely to be subjected to child marriages. Fear of rape, unwanted pre-marital pregnancies, family shame, and hunger are the main motivators for child marriage. Poverty, weak legislation, gender discrimination, and lack of alternative opportunities reinforce these motivations.

Anti-poverty organizations, such as CARE, are working in various countries to combat child marriage.  According to CARE, “As levels of education and economic opportunities increase, so does the average age of marriage.”  CARE mobilizes community organizers, parents, and tribal and religious leaders to lobby against the child marriage law in Ethiopia. Leaders are constructing savings and loans groups to empower families financially. Though child marriage still exists, this will eliminate one major cause of child marriage. Community forums now focus on the elimination of bride price, bride abduction, and child marriage.

– Whitney M. Wyszynski

Source: NBC News