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RESULTS is Making a Global Impact on Capitol Hill

REACH is Making a Global Impact on Capital Hill
Capitol Hill has no shortage of bills to review that relate to foreign aid. There are a variety of bills that are sitting and waiting for review for everything from stabilization efforts to global health and education around the world. These bills need attention, representation and consistent efforts to keep them in front of local politicians. RESULTS is making a global impact on Capitol Hill by steadily supporting bills so that politicians push them forward.

How RESULTS is Making a Global Impact

RESULTS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to “[influencing] political decisions that will bring an end to poverty.” Its battles span across the globe with more than 800 “grassroots” volunteers who receive training and opportunities to support a variety of efforts all centering around eliminating global poverty. Its volunteers spend their time urging their elected officials to make global poverty a high priority within national and international policy.

RESULTS in 2020

In 2020 alone, RESULTS volunteers took part in more than 500 congressional meetings. Additionally, RESULTS has provided Gavi vaccine efforts and raised more than $4 billion to aid health, education and nutrition across the globe. In addition, it has focused on highlighting those with firsthand experience battling poverty to help leaders on Capital Hill fully understand the impact of their efforts.

The Global Child Thrive Act

The Global Child Thrive Act, which became law in December 2020, offers a path of recovery and support for children across the globe to provide support of policies and plans surrounding basic child health, education and child protection plans. RESULTS was a strong advocate for the passing of this law which will benefit millions. UNICEF is just one of the many organizations that will benefit from the passing of this act, as it will provide it the ability to target and support “the most vulnerable children across the globe.”

The Actions of Leaders

To make a change regarding eradicating global poverty, it is essential to act. In a RESULTS’ 100-day campaign event, Congresswoman Barbara Lee spoke openly about the importance of acting to eliminate the issue of poverty. Congresswoman Lee takes ending poverty personally, as she herself struggled as a single mother putting herself through college receiving public assistance to help get her through. Lee explained that “RESULTS was probably the first organization to help me get my agenda together.” This will be the first of many steps for Lee as she continues to advocate to end poverty.

Looking Ahead

RESULTS is making a global impact by mobilizing a small army of volunteers to help keep attention on this topic. RESULTS volunteers are corresponding with politicians in almost every state across the United States in order to raise awareness about global poverty and ultimately end poverty around the globe.

– Janell Besa
Photo: Flickr

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4 Amazing People Showing How to End World Hunger

4 Amazing People Showing How to End World Hunger from the GroundWhenever people debate how to end world hunger or global poverty, individuals often resign themselves to the fact that the problem is too big for a single person to actually affect much change. While global food insecurity is a daunting task, people still are fighting to address it. Below are three people (and one group) who started with only a plan and determination and are now making the world a better place.

Elijah Amoo Addo (Food For All Africa)

In 2011, Elijah Amoo Addo, a Ghanian chef, saw a homeless man rummaging through his restaurant’s trash. When asked, the man told Elijah he was collecting leftovers for his friends. From that point forward, Elijah swore no food from the restaurant he worked at would go to waste.

Around 30 percent of children growing up in Ghana are malnourished, a statistic with a strong correlation to being impoverished, according to the Ghanian government. The high number of starving children in Ghana surprised Elijah and caused him to quit his job to start Ghana’s first food bank and the organization Food For All Africa.

Now, Food For All Africa recovers $5,700 in wasted food every month with the hopes of scaling up to other parts of Africa and feeding one million impoverished Africans by 2020.

Cindy Levin (Charity Miles & RESULTS)

Cindy Levin, a mother of two in her 40s, defeats the myth that there is not enough time in a day to help the less fortunate. In fact, the anti-poverty advocate dedicates her time to dispelling that very idea with her position at RESULTS. There, Cindy coaches people on how to organize fundraising activities themselves, with a focus on getting stay-at-home mothers and children involved and educating them on how to end world hunger.

But Cindy keeps going. In 2013, Cindy ran a 5K with her 9-year-old daughter; two days later, she ran a half marathon. In the process, she raised enough money to vaccinate 100 children against polio, measles, rotavirus and pneumococcal virus through [email protected], a cause she felt passionate about after traveling to Uganda and meeting with impoverished mothers.

Bill Ayres (Why Hunger)

In 1975, musician Harry Chapin and radio DJ Bill Ayres wondered why, in a world with so much, so many people were still lacking. These two friends believed that access to nutritious food was a human right and that the problem of how to end world hunger was solvable. As a result, they committed themselves to changing the policies and institutions that perpetuate world hunger.

Their organization, Why Hunger, leads by funding grassroots organizations. In 2016, the organization funded and provided resources for over 100 grassroots organizations to the tune of $485,000, with a focus on community solutions. These solutions range from agroecological training to leadership development for women and youths.

Bill Ayres and his organization believe that social justice is an integral part of how to end world hunger. A major step taken in the past year was the establishment of a national alliance of emergency food providers that hopes to shift the conversation about how to end world hunger from a charitable cause to a push for social justice.

Istanbul&I

In February 2016, 11 international students got together in Istanbul, where they envisioned creating a storytelling program to bring different cultures together and help displaced people from Syria and Iraq talk through some of their trauma.

When Ramadan came around that year, the group gathered donations to provide iftar (the traditional sunset meal) to people in Istanbul’s vulnerable Tarlabasi neighborhood. Now, 11 friends have become over 300 from 50 different countries. While cultural exchanges and soup kitchens are still an integral part of Istanbul&I, the group does so much more now. They provide digital literacy programs to refugees, give Turkish and English language lessons, landscaped a neighborhood retirement center, run comedy fundraisers and raise money to support an orphanage for boy refugees so they can continue their education.

You: How to End World Hunger

All these people began with a desire, a wish. They did not start out with money, but they believed in themselves and now others do too. So, next time someone says poverty is here to stay and nothing can be done about it, remember these four groups who asked, “how can I alleviate global poverty? How to end world hunger?” and took their brains and their hands and started working.

– David Jaques

Photo: Flickr

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Congress’s Newest International Basic Education Caucus

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Last week, Representative Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) officially launched the newest caucus in Congress: the bipartisan International Basic Education Caucus.

These two members came together across party lines to encourage a commitment from both Republicans and Democrats in support of basic-quality education around the world. The caucus, officially launched on June 24, 2015, is encouraged and supported by several partner organizations, including the Global Campaign for Education (GCE-US), RESULTS and the Basic Education Coalition. It aims to promote understanding in the 114th Congress of the many global issues associated with inadequate primary education in developing countries — including increasing economic and security issues in the United States. The caucus is intended to encourage its members — and Congress at large — to think of universal education not just as an altruistic good, but as a critical strategic advantage for the United States.

With over 121 million children and adolescents out of school around the world, U.S. funding for international education in developing nations has become increasingly important. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty in these nations. The caucus will not only promote understanding of the types of challenges that arise from a lack of quality, universal education, but will also encourage bipartisan legislation to address these challenges.

One such piece of legislation is the Education For All Act, which has been introduced in previous sessions of Congress, most recently in 2013 by Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Congressman Reichert (R-WA). The bill, which had 76 cosponsors in the House and the Senate, was intended to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, to include further assistance for developing nations in order to promote universal primary education around the world. It simultaneously strengthened the U.S.’s commitment to global education and supported the means by which developing societies could become sustainable and independent. Though the bill did not pass when introduced, it is possible that the new caucus will bring about increased support for similar pieces of legislation in coming sessions.

While there are numerous congressional caucuses that do very little, there appears to be a reason to be optimistic when considering the future of the International Basic Education Caucus. The caucus will take part in numerous activities, including sponsored briefs on basic education issues, congressional receptions in coordination with partner organizations and letters to the presidential administration and to various world leaders. Such activities are intended to help increase support in Congress for basic international education programs, improve understanding of the seriousness of global education issues among world leaders and establish the means with which to respond to attacks on education, such as recent attacks on schools by Boko Haram in Nigeria or by the Taliban in Pakistan.

Representative Reichert commented upon the caucus’s launch, saying, “If we are going to spread freedom, promote economic growth, enhance stability and security and alleviate poverty around the world, the best way to do that is by first ensuring every young child […] has access to basic education.”

An innovative and historic effort, the bipartisan International Basic Education Caucus has the potential to make a real impact in developing nations and the world at large.

– Melissa Pavlik

Sources: Basic Education Coalition, Congressman Mike Quigley, National Education Association
Photo: Flickr

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RESULTS: Advocates for the World’s Poor

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RESULTS is a U.S.-based charity that advocates for the world’s poor. RESULTS uses advocacy to bring the world’s wealthiest governments together to do more to help end extreme poverty.

It relies heavily on volunteers and has partner organizations in four other countries—Canada, Australia, Japan and the U.K.

Thirty years ago, a teacher named Sam Daley-Harris, was inspired by a report from the National Academy of Sciences which stated that ending poverty was possible through strong political will. This led to the creation of RESULTS.

Each national organization has its own campaigns. Canada’s campaigns are nutrition, education, water and sanitation and microfinance. In the U.K., RESULTS is working on campaigns for basic education, child health and tuberculosis.

In the U.S., RESULTS has four main campaigns. The first is appropriation, which works to ensure that Congress continues to fund foreign assistance programs, specifically the ones that are the most effective.

The next campaign works to expand economic opportunities like increasing micro finance and “changing the policies of international financial institutions that hinder development.”

The final two campaigns are ensuring that all children have access to basic education and basic healthcare.

These campaigns are meant to educate communities and individuals as well as congress and the media on global poverty and hunger.

RESULTS U.S. has worked within Congress in support of important legislation like the Education for All Act as well as convincing congressmen to support crucial organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

A clear definitive example of how RESULTS operates and achieves results is their written letter to the president in 2010. The letter was co-written with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and asked the president to pledge $6 billion from 2012-2014 to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

An additional 101 members of congress signed the letter and the result was a $4 billion pledge which was a “38 percent increase over the preceding three-year period.”

There are many more examples of successes like this on their website—examples of how advocacy really made a difference.

Charity Navigator has only reviewed the U.S. based RESULTS organization. According to their website RESULTS has complete transparency and accountability with a 4 star rating and a score of 99 out of a 100.

It shows that 90 percent of their budget goes towards the programs they support. This is legitimate charity that anyone could feel confident donating too.

On the U.S. website they use a fitting quote that expresses how advocacy and education about poverty is the best way to end it.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said during his acceptance speech, “I firmly believe that we can create a poverty-free world if we collectively believe in it. In a poverty-free world, the only place you would be able to see poverty is in the poverty museums.”

– Eleni Marino

Sources: RESULTS UK, RESULTS Canada, RESULTS USA, Charity Navigator
Photo: Newsday