A Billion People

OK, I'm dragging out the soapbox again (scraaaaaa-tch), but this time, for something that is much much bigger than any of us, and sure as hell bigger than our current election cycle, or even this endless war.

I was listening to Bob Edwards Weekend on NPR yesterday, and one of his guests was Jan Egeland, the man in charge of coordinating humanitarian relief for the United Nations during the Indian Ocean tsunami, the crisis in Darfur, and the aftermath of the Iraq war. Among other things, Egelend was discussing his new book entitled A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity. If you want to hear the entire interview, you can click on the link and download a podcast; but what stuck with me was his answer when asked about the title of the book.

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"A billion lives are at stake still...
A billion people will go hungry to bed tonight...
A billion people will not have access to safe drinking water...
A billion people will have to survive tomorrow on less than $1.00 per day...

This generation has the money, the technology, the resources, the tools and the organizations to lift that billion lives out of their misery, because we are now two billion people who can really afford to invest in changing mass misery on our watch."
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Amazingly, after all Egeland has seen in his career, he is an optimist. But the task at hand does fall to each of us.

That's US folks—YOU and ME.

I have added some links to some familiar global charities in the sidebar (always do your homework before giving to an unfamiliar charity). I hope you will consider taking some kind of action, no matter how small; through one of these, or perhaps a favorite of your own.

For example, malaria kills a child every 30 seconds, but a very modest donation of $20 to the Episcopal Relief and Development Nets for Life project can help save lives by providing insecticide treated mosquito nets. Easy, right? And you feel good doing it.

In the words of the Jewish scholar, Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

Peace.