Blog Action Day on Poverty: October 15

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty is a worldwide effort to speak out against poverty. An organized coalition of bloggers worldwide will be speaking out on October 15. The goal is to trigger a global discussion using the diverse backgrounds and insights of individuals worldwide to bear on this global shame. According to the organizing website for Blog Action Day 2008: "This day is about discussion, idea generation, and education."

Participation is easy. Register at http://site.blogactionday.org. Then, on October 15, post a blog entry about your blog's topic as it relates to poverty, add a small piece of scripting to your blog and you are done.

Poverty is an easy topic if your blog deals with human issues on a daily basis. At the office of Hope for Healing.org in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, we will be blogging about how poverty effects domestic violence victims. It's not an uncommon theme for us. Readers of the organization blog Secondhand Hope are already familiar with this theme. Other blogs may have a harder time making the connection. There is a list of resources online at Blog Action Day that may help you start the discussion.

Owners of monetized blogs are encouraged to donate the ad revenues for the day to the charity of their choice.

Poverty is a growing, complex problem effecting small communities in affluent countries and in the third world but it is not a new issue. In fact, it is mentioned in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document celebrates its 60th anniversary in December of this year. The declaration, accepted by member nations, provides that all humans across the globe be allowed certain rights. Article 25 states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services..."

Yet in 2008, many areas around he globe cannot provide for their basic well-being as outlined above..

Hope for Healing.org works to alleviate conditions in a rural area of East Tennessee in the United States. It is a small community, only 13 miles from the nearest town. In the US, a perceived "country of plenty " poverty raises its ugly head. Clients served have lived in homes without running water or that lacked electricity. In one week in September eleven clients received free food boxes from the food pantry and free articles of clothing. Many clients served have neither high school diplomas or General Equivalency Diplomas. Some cannot read. Many clients served exist on government disability checks.

In Darfur, the situation is much more grave.

Civil war has ripped Sudan apart for over two decades. Almost 2 million displaced people are locked the poverty of refugee camps. UNICEF calls the crisis "UNICEF has called the crisis "the worst complex crisis in the world".

Anita Henderlight of the New Sudan Education Initiative believes that poverty in Sudan can be overcome. She told the following story at the opening of a new school in Sudan. It appears on the NESEI blog:

"When a group of Sudanese boys were fleeing the civil war and found themselves being forced to cross the River Nile, they had a choice to make. They could either jump in as individuals and fight the currents as one small person, or they could join hands and swim across to safety as one, unified body. Unity was their greatest strength in the face of great difficulty. "

Blog Action Day of 2008 invites bloggers to join hands in unity to fight poverty. United we can make a difference. Will you join us?

More information about Blog Action Day of 2008 can be found online.