There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. Everybody’s crew.
Marshall McCluhan

A global chorus of voices is calling to make poverty history. We have the resources, we have the knowledge, but do we have the will? The activities collected here are meant to help build that will by providing a glimpse into the lives and struggles of impoverished people around the world. The simulations, skits, and other elements can be used as a part of CROP Hunger Walks, Tools & Blankets events, overnight events or retreats, mission fairs, church camps, and other learning events on hunger and poverty.

The contents are organized around the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) – a remarkable convergence by 189 governments (including the USA) on the most pressing needs of the human family and specific, measurable goals to alleviate them.

The Millennium Development Goals intend by the year 2015 to:

1. ERADICATE EXTREME HUNGER AND POVERTY by cutting in half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

2. ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION by ensuring all boys and girls complete primary education.

3. PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN by eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education.

4. REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY by two-thirds for children under five.

5. IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH by reducing the rate of maternal mortality by three-quarters.

6. COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES by halting, and beginning to reverse, the spread of these diseases.

7. ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY by reducing by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, reversing the loss of environmental resources, and improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers (by 2020).

8. DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT.

Church World Service, working in some 80 countries, seeks to help realize these goals by:

• Providing emergency food aid and long-term development assistance

• Promoting educational opportunities for women and girls

• Supporting infant health and nutrition services

• Securing durable solutions for refugees and displaced peoples

• Developing sustainable, safe sources of drinking water and promoting water as a basic human right to policymakers

• Advocating for just trade rules and the reduction of the debt of poor nations

Help promote this resource: Download a sample ad to use in your upcoming print and online publications and newsletters. Available in PDF or Microsoft WORD format.

Back to top • Credits