CWS Film Library - Hunger and Development

ABOUT THE U.N. - AFRICA RECOVERY
(15 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1990)
A young reporter from the TV program Children's Express takes us on a visit to the Horn of Africa to see the effects of drought and war, and to Zambia, a country plagued by debt where attempts at grassroots solutions are cause for hope. Zambian officials show us various projects from tree-planting to brick-making, and talk about the debt crisis and the role of women in producing food. Fast paced and informative.

ABOUT THE U.N. - LITERACY
(18 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1990)
People around the globe are participating in U.N.-sponsored literacy programs and gaining skills that enable them to learn about issues vital to their lives, such as health care, employment opportunities, techniques for developing clean water systems, social problems, and how to vote. We see examples of successful literacy programs, including one in Zimbabwe, where literacy is a national priority. Zimbabwe's educational initiative is also bearing economic fruit.

ABOUT THE U.N. - RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
(16 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1991)
The world's children -- our children -- what are they entitled to? An estimated 200 million children around the world live on the streets -- some of them, in danger of "extermination" by death squads. Because of poor economic conditions, many children have to support themselves. At least 50 million children work illegally, and some are sold as bonded labor. Many children are affected by war in their native lands, with some being forced to serve as soldiers -- or as human mine sweepers. An examination of the plight of some of the world's children and some constructive responses.

ALTERNATIVES: UNCOVERED "MORINGA"
(13 Minutes - VHS Age Level: Middle School to Adult)
(produced by Birman Productions as part of the Discovery Health Channel series "Alternatives Uncovered") The Moringa tree is proving to be an excellent, affordable, and locally accessible cure for malnutrition in parts of Senegal and beyond. Experts share their findings, and mothers who are learning to incorporate moringa into their family diets share their results.

AN AFRICAN RECOVERY
(28 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1988)
Rural people and development workers are tailoring solutions to local needs. They aim to avoid repeating the tragedy that ravaged the Sahel in the early and mid-1980s, when overgrazing, deforestation, human overpopulation, and natural disasters forced many African nations to depend heavily on emergency aid.

AGRICULTURE'S VANISHING HERITAGE
(25 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1984)
Examines the causes of the extinction of crop and livestock genetic resources throughout the world, along with some possible solutions. Explores crop epidemics due to genetic uniformity; multinational corporate interests in the seed industry; and the seed/pesticide connection. Could lead the audience to conservation work.

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
(48 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1987)
Striking parallels link development trends in Britain with recent experiences of women workers in the Third World. Britain's declining industrial regions are attracting a kind of development only too familiar to the industrializing countries of the Third World. Will we heed the warnings of the Third World workers? Can we challenge this new cooncept of "development"?

THE BUSINESS OF HUNGER
(28 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1984)
Agribusiness and hunger in the Third World are often related. This piece shows how multinational corporations acquire land in the Third World and grow cash crops for export, while the local people go hungry. Small farmers lose their land and become migrant workers on plantations or slum dwellers in the cities. See how people in the Third World and the U.S. are trying to remedy the situation through land reclamation, education, and consumer cooperatives. Includes action suggestions.

CAMPAIGN TO END CHILDHOOD HUNGER
(16 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1991)
Millions of children in the U.S. are hungry. Yet, they are often invisible -- their needs unseen. This video is a result of a two-year study on childhood hunger by the Food Research and Action Center. It provides an overview of the study's findings, an examination of their implications, and a description of the programs with which childhood hunger can be fought.

THE CHALLENGE TO END HUNGER
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1987)
People from the Third World add their voices to those of Food First analysts in encouraging viewers to recgonize and confront the systemic causes of hunger, such as export-oriented agriculture and some foreign aid programs. An advanced hunger education piece.

CHILD SURVIVAL REVOLUTION
(12 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1984)
Low-cost, highly effective primary health care for children is now available as a result of improved technology and community-based efforts that employ four strategies; growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy, promotion of breat-feeding, and immunication.

CIRCLE OF PLENTY
(27 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1987)
Recognizing the failure of the Green Revolution for many of the world's hungry people, John Jeavons has developed bio-intensive agriculture -- producing the maximum food from the smallest plot with minimum inputs. It is making a difference in Tula, Mexico, and elsewhere.

COMMUNITY
(24 minutes - VHS - Age level: High School to Adult, 1996)
Looks at the dramatic story of villagers in Bangladesh who have transformed themselves from beggars to business people and simultaneously established positive new roles and relationships for men and women. One women's group now owns a rice mill, another makes roof tiles, and a men's group runs a fish farm. The money raised is held collectively to benefit the entire group. Presents a compelling story of positive long-term change that comes with women's participation in community affairs.

THE DEBT CRISIS: AN AFRICAN DILEMMA
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1988)
Africa's critical debt crisis is illustrated through the case of Zambia, which, with the fall of copper prices, suffered a 25 percent cut in the standard of living in the past decade. Concerned about the burden on its already suffering people, Zambia is attempting to resolve its problems with the international banking community and restructure its economy to take advantage of its abundant natural resources.

DON'T EAT TODAY OR TOMORROW
(43 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1985)
Huge external debts are crippling much of the Third World. With Argentina as an example, we see the causes of debt and how economic policies were linked to repression. Explores the role of governments, banks, corporations, and the International Monetary Fund. Excellent for study groups and senior high and college classes.

ELECT TO END CHILDHOOD HUNGER
(13 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1995)
More than one child in four in the United States -- some 13.6 million children under the age of 12 -- is hungry or at risk of hunger. This video compellingly presents the impact of hunger on children and the need for federal legislation to reduce childhood hunger in the United States. Learn how you can make a difference for hungry children.

EPIDEMIC AFRICA
(15 Minutes - VHS - Age Level: High School to Adult, 2000)
34 million people are living with HIV - two thirds of these in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of children have become AIDS orphans and/or are themselves infected with the virus. This piece examines the problems facing children and families affected by AIDS, and some programs that are helping. Includes an introduction and conclusion from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

FOOTHOLDS
(29 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1985)
The peasant farmers of Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru have much to offer their rural neighbors throughout Latin America and the world, in terms of farm implements, food, house construction, social organization, and communication. A Latin American research network facilitates the exchange of knowledge and ideas. A beautiful appropriate technology/lifestyle piece.

40,000 A DAY
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1989)
This "60 Minutes" report examines the preventable diseases which cause 40,000 childhood deaths each day. Reporter Mike Wallace visits Tanzania, where, as in many other countries, paying on the enormous debt and buying military hardware often takes precedence over providing inexpensive primary health care for children.

GENDER MATTERS
(24 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1992)
Until recently, accounts of the Third World ignored one of the most significant issues -- the reality of life for Third World women who number over half its population. In many countries, women earn the bulk of the cash income and make an essential contribution to economics -- in addition to doing all the domestic work. How do gender differences affect the life experience of individual women and what are the consequences for society as a whole? What should be done, not just by women, but by men, world governments, and key policy-making organizations, to address the inequalities that threaten women in Third World countries?

GLOBAL POVERTY: FROM DESPAIR TO SOLUTIONS
(18 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1989)
Because the hunger problem is really the poverty problem, food aid is seldom the solution to hunger. To make a difference, the people affected must be involved in planning. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is a grassroots solution that is making a difference. Narrated by Raul Julia.

HUNGER HOTLINE REVISITED
(18 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1984)
Using a talk show format, this piece explores world hunger--its causes, and what groups and individuals can do about it. A good springboard for discussion.

HUNGER NO MORE: FACES BEHIND THE FACTS
(58 minutes - VHS, DVD - Age level Middle School to Adult, 2004)
Meet the people behind the facts on hunger. Encounter people of faith across America who have taken up the challenge of eradicating hunger in the U.S. and globally. Learn that what you do will make a difference.

IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY
(25 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1990)
Small grants are enabling low income families in Third World countries to start businesses using their own ideas and initiative.

ISLE OF FLOWERS
(15 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1990)
At first this piece appears to be a joke, a comedy about the needs and wants of humans--the highest form of life on Earth, with well developed telencephalons and opposable thumbs. Photographs and graphic images are filmed in ridiculous juxtaposition and sequence, and we laugh at them. We laugh until we see photographs of dead Holocaust victims, also with well developed telencephalons and opposable thumbs. We laugh uneasily when those images have passed as more ridiculous images appear, until we see people waiting to get into a garbage dump on the Isle of Flowers in Brazil. They wait to pick what is left after the best of the garbage has been taken away to feed to pigs. Pigs do not have well developed telencephalons and opposable thumbs, but they are owned by a rich man. The people digging through the garbage on the Isle of Flowers are neither rich nor owned by a rich man. Be sure to preview.

LINKAGES: YOUR ROLE IN THE WORLD'S FOOD CONNECTION
(17 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
How are our lives linked with world food trade and Third World development needs? Participation in forming public policies may enhance rural viability in the U.S. and abroad, making food resources available to more people.

LOCAL HEROES, GLOBAL CHANGE PTS 1 & 2
(two 60-minute programs - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
People around the world are struggling to overcome poverty -- in villages, in national governments, and in the international aid agencies. The stories in these programs are told largely by those who are living them. In part 1, "With Our Own Eyes," the viewer will check their assumptions about what is "development." In part 2, "Against The Odds," the constraints of power that face promoters of economic change for developing nations are examined.

LOCAL HEROES, GLOBAL CHANGE PTS 3 & 4
(two 60-minute programs - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
People around the world are struggling to overcome poverty -- in villages, in national governments, and in the international aid agencies. The stories in these programs are told largely by those who are living them. In part 3, "Power To Change," explores the experience of people who one assumed that they would always be poor, but who have come to realize that they can take greater control over their own destinies. In part 4, "The Global Connection," explores connections between North and South in a world where countries have become linked in a single global economy.

LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
(5 segments of varying lengths from 9 to 22 minutes - VHS - Age level: High School to Adult, 1996)
Film makers in five countries portray their "local perspective" on a development or human rights problem. The segments include: "A Step Forward in the Education of Thai Children" focuses on the problem of keeping Thai girls in school and out of the sex trade; "The Challenge of Motherhood: Street Child Mothers (Kenya)" shows some educational alternatives for young mothers on the Nairobi streets; "Whose Children (Namibia)" looks at the problem of getting men to help support children they have fathered; "Street Girls (Nicaragua)" shows the desperate lives of girls who have been abandonned to the streets; and "Iodine Deficiency in Vietnam" shows what is being done to combat iodine deficiency. Can be viewed in segments. Previewing segments is recommended.

LOS NI�OS
(14 minutes - VHS - Age level: Middle School Age to Adult, 1996)
In this visually appealing video, we follow Victor and Samuel, brothers in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, through a typical day of study, work, and play. After breakfast with the family, they head off to school for the morning. At lunch they carry water and tend the fire, home chores done to prepare for the biggest meal of the day. In the afternoon, Samuel and Victor wash car windows in a busy downtown intersection to make money for the family. After working hard in the heat, they go to a library for help with their homework. Victor and Samuel could drop out of school and work all day but their parents see their education as a way toward a better future.

A MATTER OF INTEREST
(13 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1990)
Using simple animation, this video draws a parallel between life in debt-stricken countries and the plight of individuals. It explains how the debts of poor countries were incurred and what the consequences of the crisis have been. Raises ethical quenstions about lenders in rich countries demanding full repayment, and shows why ordinary people need to be involved. It explains why the crisis is too grace to be left to international financiers and politicians alone.

NEW INITIATIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
(15 Minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adults, 1999)
In the Central Plateau in Haiti, examine how economic globalization is affecting small scale farmers and rural people. Government policies which emphasize free trade, export production and development of the urban economy disadvantage rural communities and foster rural-urban migration. Also highlighted is the community organizing efforts of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) in Haiti, which works with rural communities to develop sustainable alternatives to respond to the negative impacts of economic globalization.

THE POLITICS OF FOOD: THE FOOD MACHINE
(20 minutes - VHS -- Age level Middle School to Adult, 1988)
An introduction to the global effects of agribusiness and the causes and effects of the farm crisis in the U.S. and Sudan.

THE POLITICS OF FOOD: THE HUNGER BUSINESS
(20 minutes - VHS Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
A close look at a large grain-trading multinational that reveals the ways in which trade of agricultural products affects wealthy nations and poor ones.

THE POLITICS OF FOOD: A QUESTION OF AID
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
Compares Bangladesh and the Indian state of Kerala to illustrate alternative approaches to the challenges of development -- food, health, and education.

THE POLITICS OF FOOD: THE AVOIDABLE FAMINE
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
Demonstrates that hunger in most parts of the world does not mean that there is a shortage of food, but rather that people have lost the means to buy it. Changes in farming methods have affected both the economy and the society.

THE POLITICS OF FOOD: SHARING THE LAND
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1989)
Rapid industrial expansion in Brazil has not trickled down to most Brazilians. Solutions to the problems of Third World debt and human poverty are essential.

THE POVERTY COMPLEX
(24 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1992)
Looks at the various aspects of poverty--focusing on underlying causes and potential solutions Also looks at the role that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund play in development, and the Human Development Index (HDI), the new yardstick for measuring human progress.

PROCLAIM JUBILEE: BREAK THE CHAINS OF DEBT
(9 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adults, 1999)
A call for debt relief for poor countries. A Tanzanian farm family shows us the difficulties of surviving in a country with a $7 billion debt which has been accumulated over 30 years and has left infrastructure, health care, and education sorely neglected.

REMEMBER ME
(15 minutes - VHS - Age level Upper Grades to Adult, 1980)
Filmed in the U.S., the Middle East, and in Asia, this moving, Academy Award-winning documentary contrasts children's youthful beauty with the squalor, hardship, and wasted potential of their daily lives. The audiovisual consciously goes beyond the static photos of poor children found in magazine ads to examine the environment that shapes their lives. Students learn how many of their counterparts around the world really live and are encouraged to think about what these children need to thrive. A good introduction to the experience of poverty.

SERVICE TO THE WORLD/NEW WINDSOR SERVICE CENTER
(13 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1992)
For nearly 50 years, the New Windsor Service Center has provided "service to the world," as, among other things, a gathering point for emergency supplies for domestic and overseas use, and a temporary residence for refugees.

SHARE THE HARVEST OF PEACE
(31 minutes - VHS - Age level Upper Grades to Adult, 1990)
Three segments: Cartoon animation links hunger and militarism; legislation to shift resources to human needs; people of faith on the value of public policy advocacy.

SOWING FOR NEED OR SOWING FOR GREED?
(58 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1990)
This hard-hitting video presentation examines the impact of the Green Revolution on developing countries, and questions whether the promise of biotechnology will not reap the same bitter harvest. Twenty years ago "seeds of hope" were planted in the Third World. With the help of improved wheat, corn, and rice varieties, enough food could finally be produced to feed the starving masses. Norman Borlaug won a Nobel Peace Prize for the "miracle seeds: he had developed, but eh increased yields were reserved only for those who could afford the irrigation and agricultural chemicals that the improved varieties required. Today biotechnology is being touted as the new solution, but as the video program shows, agricultural experts from many developing countries believe that until the well-being of local farmers is the top priority, we can expect more of the same.

SURVIVAL GUIDE TO CONSUMER ECONOMICS
(29 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1985)
While the U.S. has an economy based on the production of consumer goods, this economic system involves the whole world and can be strikingly unfair to less developed nations. This peice begins to help the viewer see the connections, ask what can be done to correct this very problem, and begin to explore some small scale personal options.

THEY HOLD UP HALF THE SKY
(26 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1987)
Women, historically excluded from development assistance, are making new strides. A sewing co-op in Columbia and a fish processing co-op in Benin are examples.

3-4-1
(13 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1990)
Facts have faces. While 40,000 of the world's children -- 341 during this 13-minute video -- die each day, primary health care could save the lives of many.

A TIME TO BUILD
(19 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1992)
Inspiring stories of faith and renewal from three Salvadoran communities recovering from the country's 12-year civil war. They suffered terribly during the war, but they still have faith that God is with them.

TO BE A WOMAN: AFRICAN WOMEN'S RESPONSE
(40 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1992)
Stories of women from Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia depict their struggle for social and economic survival as economic crisis racks their countries. Brings home some of the complex issues of debt and development.

TOWARDS A BETTER TOMORROW
(32 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1992)
The story of CASA, the Churches' Auxiliary for Social Action, and its more than 40-year history of emergency relief and development work in India.

TREES OF HOPE
(20 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1985)
In Africa, the extensive use of firewood has led to deforestation. The village woodlot project in Niger offers hope for the land and for the people who depend on wood for fuel.

A WEEK OF SWEET WATER
(40 minutes - VHS - Age level Adult, 1985)
When drought comes, one Sahelian family has hard choices to make. By renewing the community tradition of working together, they can restore the potential of the land. To the anguish of mothers and daughters, another tradition lingers. For adults.

WHERE ARE THE BEANS?
(13 minutes - VHS - Age level High School to Adult, 1994)
In 1993, Linda Shelly visited La Esperanza, Honduras, where she had lived for several years. Even though her Honduran farmer friends had a good bean harvest that year, they did not have enough beans to feed their families. Linda began to ask her friends, "Where are the Beans?" This video presents their answers as a "detective story." Viewers try to find the root causes for the disappearance of the beans. The trail eventually leads to global economic policies and the connections between people living in Central and North America.

WITH THESE HANDS: HOW WOMEN FEED AFRICA
(33 minutes - VHS - Age level Middle School to Adult, 1986)
Lack of support for Africa's women farmers may be a major cause of food shortages. Three women from Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, tell their stories and offer possible solutions.