I am finishing my dissertation this semester. And until it's done, I am LYING TO MYSELF if I think I'm going to give this blog the attention I'd like to. Far more honest to put it aside for now, focus on the big priority, and return without a guilty conscience.
Look for more this summer, and wish me luck in the meantime!
October 15th is Blog Action Day, when bloggers
get together (so to speak) and talk about a single issue – this year’s topic is
poverty, and what we can to do eradicate it.
I’d like to share a few links to my favorite
groups that are working to end poverty. Though I tend to gravitate to groups that focus on food, gender, and the politics thereof, there are many worthy orgs out there doing good work - please donate/share as you can!
Heifer International has the goal of supporting people in achieving
long-term economic development and independence.They do this by providing gifts of livestock
(of whatever animal is appropriate in the local context: everything from buffalo
to ducks to honeybees) and requiring the recipients to pass on the gift (in the
form of some of the offspring of their animals) to others in their communities,
as well as providing training in their care.I love the idea of an ever-spreading network of animal husbanders,
tending to their creatures and teaching others to do the same.Heifer publishes a magazine with fabulous,
priceless pictures of baby animals and their humans that reliably makes me cry.
Kiva is a microfinance organization that lets regular people
lend money to entrepreneurs all over the world.Because of the nature of microfinance (focusing on very small
businesses), a lot of these loans are made to women (and some of their lending
partners codify the ideal of gender parity by only disbursing the loan funds to
women, though the loan may be going to a family business).Businesses are of the mom-and-pop type –
small restaurants and food shops, fabric, tailoring.The default rate on loans is microscopically
low, and when the loan is repaid, you can get your money back or loan it to
someone else.
Finally, two NYC-based groups that target hunger:
Citymeals-on-Wheels delivers food to elderly, homebound New
Yorkers.And City Harvest rescues unused
food from restaurants, grocers, and farms and delivers it to community food
programs.
