Who is My Neighbor?
You care about people in your neighborhood.
How many people in your neighborhood is hunger?
An estimated 852 million people are hunger.
I had the best neighbor in world when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany. My German neighbor and friend shared his family, his friends, and his culture with me. He looked after me like I was his blood brother. Gottfried made sure I had and knew the things needed to be comfort in his world.
If your neighbor needs help or assistance, you will respond. But who is in your neighborhood? Is it just the people on your street, in your town, in your state or region, or your country? Today, your neighborhood extends to all the people that you know either personally, by word-of-mouth or by the media.
Your neighborhood includes a lot of people who needs your help. There is a billion people who live in “extreme poverty”. Those people live on the equivalent of less than dollar per day. Living on less than a dollar is living a life of Russian roulette. Every day you make a decision that brings you closer to death. Do you buy food for the family or visit the hospital? Do you buy food for the family or send the children to school? Severe malnutrition, caused by poverty, is the world’s leading killer.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest need for your help and assistance. Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals was to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”. The rate of eradication is not sufficient to reduce the absolute numbers. By 2015, the first target was to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty. The number of people living in extreme poverty is increasing. The proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day declined from 46.8 percent to 41.1 percent. The second target was to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Again, the number of malnourished children is increasing. The proportion of children under age five who are underweight declined from 33 percent to 29 percent. As a result, thousands of children continue to die each year from severe malnutrition. Worldwide, every day, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes, that’s about one child every five seconds.
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:36-37
In parable of the “Good Samaritan”, the unfortunate man was a part of the neighborhood of those three who had seen him. But only one chose to act and to show mercy and compassion. You can choose to help your neighbor, too.
If you have questions, please contact me.
Blessings to you,
Woody M. Collins
President
Congo Helping Hands
"Strengthening the Heart of Africa"
(317) 698-7643
email: WMCollins@CongoHelpingHands.org
website: http://www.CongoHelpingHands.org
blog: http://woodycollins.typepad.com/ending_extreme_poverty_in
Comments