Friday, February 02, 2007

ONE by ONE: Campaign strives to publicize global poverty

from The North dakota State University Spectrum

* By Danielle Troske
* Editor in Chief

When Mike Batell visited Tanzania a few summers ago, he was confronted with a variety of images he had never yet encountered.

“I saw a 3-year-old boy literally dying before my eyes because his parents didn’t have four bucks to buy the medicine to save their boy’s life,” Batell said during a presentation Tuesday.

Batell is the ONE Campaign coordinator with the Upper Midwest Region Office with Bread for the World, Inc. Batell travels to Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota discussing how people can make a difference in the battle against global poverty.

“The ONE Campaign is a coalition of over 75 international charities, humanitarian and non-profit organizations, international (non-governmental organizations) that have united in building a new grass roots effort to get American citizens to raise their voices against extreme poverty, HIV/AIDs, hunger … a grass roots effort really to give voice to the voiceless people around the world who are literally struggling to stay alive on less than $1 a day,” Batell said. A deadly disease

The boy Batell witnessed dying suffered from malaria, a disease that has been completely wiped out in the United States but is currently wiping out thousands of children each day in Africa.

“I saw with my own eyes the devastation this disease is causing throughout Africa,” Batell said. “In Africa, today, over 3,000 kids will die from malaria, and it’s not something you’re going to read about in the newspapers tomorrow, it’s not something you’re going to hear about on CNN or FoxNews.”

Malaria is currently treatable and can be prevented by using bed nets that have been shown to reduce severe malaria cases by more than 50 percent, Batell said.

The bed nets cost $2, but many people couldn’t afford the apparatus because “they have next to nothing,” he said.

A medicine is also available for people who have already by infected with malaria, and once taken, the disease will be gone in three days, Batell said.

Cost of the medication is $4 for a full dose of the medicine.

“If you can imagine that we are living in a world where we have the cure for malaria sitting on the shelves right now, and it’s the price of a DVD rental and over a million kids will die this year … we are letting this happen,” Batell said.

As of this year, 1.2 billion people are living in extreme poverty and trying to survive on $1 a day.

More help is needed

“Our generation, for the first time in history, we have developed all the tools, technology, medicines, vaccines necessary to change this picture, and to change so much of it through simple investments in education, agricultural development, clean water and the most basic, basic health care,” Batell said. “Our world now knows how to empower people with the tools necessary to lift themselves up out of extreme poverty through their own work, through their own efforts.”

Batell explained how small amounts of funding could profoundly affect millions of children living in extreme poverty, but only .4 percent of the federal budget is set aside for development assistance in impoverished nations.

United States is one of 22 members in the group OECD of rich world countries. The U.S. contribution among this group toward development assistance is .16 percent of GDP of the national income.

Batell likened the GDP to having $100 and donating 16 cents to charity.

“That is essentially what we are allotting for the health and education of the poorest people in the world,” Batell said. “And we wonder why there’s still poverty?”

Out of the 22 countries considered rich world nations, the United States ranks 21.

How to help

The One Campaign is an opportunity for people to make a difference in the fight against global poverty.

“For the first time in history, American citizens are beginning to raise their voices to convince the United States to begin to show some leadership on this issue,” Batell said.

Since the campaign started in 2004, more than 2 million Americans have signed the One declaration that puts positive pressure on leaders in Washington, Batell said.

In addition to adopting policies of fair trade and trade reform, debt cancellation, fighting corruption in developing countries, Batell said the campaign hopes to put enough pressure on leaders that they will commit an additional one percent of the federal budget toward health, education and clean water systems.

Other efforts have been successful such as the 2000 Drop the Dept Campaign that allowed debts in developed countries to be forgiven and the money invested in health and education.

Because of this effort, Uganda’s primary school enrollment doubled and half a million children were immunized in Mozambique.

The 2000 U.S. Global AIDs program provided 800,000 HIV-infected persons with life-saving antiretrovirals.

Toward the end of the presentation, Batell had attendees write letters to both Sen. Kent Conrad and Sen. Byron Dorgan encouraging the leaders to increase awareness of global poverty.

Batell pointed out that Conrad is the chairman of the budget committee in the Senate, which makes him the lead player in determining the federal budget for next year.

Batell said an influx of letters about global poverty will catch the senators’ attention and increase likelihood of increased funding for development assistance.

The One Campaign is not a fund-driven effort; it is an advocacy program meant to increase awareness of global poverty, Batell said.

Batell encouraged attendees to get involved in the campaign by creating online groups, posting fliers around campus, or going door-to-door to acquire signatures on the One declaration.

Making his stops

Batell spoke to several classes at NDSU before traveling to UND with the same message.

He contacted Kara Stack, associate director of the Memorial Union, before coming to Fargo. Stack had never heard of him before, although Batell has been a full-time employee with the campaign since August.

The message

Eleven million people will die this year because they were born in a poor country, even though the United States has the necessary life-saving medicines available.

“It really does make a joke out of our notion of equality,” Batell said. “Why is a Tanzania life or an Indian life worth so much less to us than an American life? As Americans, we believe with everything we have that all are created equal. If we truly believe in that principle as our founders did… than there’s no way we can allow where we live to determine whether we live.”

Batell quoted Bill Gates and U2 frontman Bono as saying “It is up to us to decide how we want our generation to be remembered.” The pair, along with Gates’ wife Melinda, were named in a December 2005 Time Magazine article as Persons of the Year for their efforts to relieve global poverty.

“That is what history demands of us,” Batell said. “This is really about who we are and what reasons we have to get out of bed every morning. … People in your generation are saying they want that reason to be something much bigger than just being able to afford a bice car and a nice house and all those things, as important as they might be. There are people in your generation who are saying they want life to mean something more than that.”

For those who would like to get involved in the One campaign, please visit

www.bread.org or contact Mike Batell at mike@bread.org.

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