Poverty Conference Report
Posted by Ruth Ann Angus
Rotary International Future Vision - Symposium to Eliminate Poverty Sustainably
A Report by Ruth Ann Angus
It's tough for me to do an all day event that starts in the wee hours of the morning and goes until evening. Since cancer, my energy level is truly compromised. However, I am very glad I attended what we refer to as the Poverty Conference.
About 400 people came to the Santa Maria Fair Park on Saturday, January 29th. You met Julius Achon last week at our meeting and heard his story. He was our first speaker and truly touched our hearts. It's difficult for us to really comprehend what it must be like to live in the kind of poverty he spoke about, not to mention the strife caused by continual warfare in these regions. The fact that a person can endure being abducted at age 12 into an abusive military and still come out of that experience with the will to do good for others is amazing. Julius told us about finding 11 orphaned children that he didn't hesitate to bring to his home and have his family care for them. This when his family was living on less than $2 a day. He has since set up the Uganda Children's Fund to continue helping children in his country. His talk set the mood for the rest of our day.
As attendees at the conference we all picked workshop sessions to attend. There were six sessions, but time constraints made it only possible to choose two. Mine were Basic Education and Literacy and Economic & Community Development.
I am convinced that education is the major key in assisting third world countries to crawl their way up out of poverty. Furthermore, I am convinced that it is imperative to educate girls. When we educate a boy, he leaves his home area and goes out into the world. When we educate a girl, she stays home and improves the living situation. There is much to consider in attempting to bring education to many of these countries. It is not just book learning that is necessary, but food and health services have to be provided. Many children do not live past age five. We are talking about countries in Africa, Afghanistan, and India where the most extreme poverty exists
Some of you are familiar with our District Governor Deepa Willingham's organization PACE Universal that has built a school in a rural town in India primarily for girls. There are 170 girls attending and 180 are on the waiting list. These children desire education. The organization is now realizing that they need to extend schools in other areas; they need to also educate boys; they need to help adults learn to read and write; they need to provide vocational training for adults. It is a lot to do, but inch by inch they are going forward.
Deepa confided in me that she is intending to fulfill a desire of my heart and that is a school for girls in Afghanistan. She has meetings already planned to begin this process. One of our goals for our club was to fund schooling for a child in a Muslim country. This was my suggestion at our Strategic Planning meeting a couple of years ago and is still on the table for us to accomplish. Supplying as little as $300 a year can buy books, pencils, paper and other school supplies for more than one student in Afghanistan. I also spoke with Deepa about the possibility of Rotary funding secondary education or college education in the United States for young women from Afghanistan as well as doing the school project she has in mind. It is something she and I will have further discussion about.
There was so much more that we all learned at this conference -- Maternal and Child Health, Disease Prevention and Treatment, Water and Sanitation, and Peace and Conflict Resolution. It seems overwhelming, but many of our clubs are working on these projects in conjunction with Rotary clubs around the world. I left the conference boosted with the knowledge that we CAN make a difference and these are real projects that even a small club like Morro Bay Rotary can accomplish. It is the reason that I belong to Rotary because in spite of illness and my own relative poverty, I still want to give back to humanity what I can. In comparison, I have so much when they have so little.
A Report by Ruth Ann Angus
It's tough for me to do an all day event that starts in the wee hours of the morning and goes until evening. Since cancer, my energy level is truly compromised. However, I am very glad I attended what we refer to as the Poverty Conference.
About 400 people came to the Santa Maria Fair Park on Saturday, January 29th. You met Julius Achon last week at our meeting and heard his story. He was our first speaker and truly touched our hearts. It's difficult for us to really comprehend what it must be like to live in the kind of poverty he spoke about, not to mention the strife caused by continual warfare in these regions. The fact that a person can endure being abducted at age 12 into an abusive military and still come out of that experience with the will to do good for others is amazing. Julius told us about finding 11 orphaned children that he didn't hesitate to bring to his home and have his family care for them. This when his family was living on less than $2 a day. He has since set up the Uganda Children's Fund to continue helping children in his country. His talk set the mood for the rest of our day.
As attendees at the conference we all picked workshop sessions to attend. There were six sessions, but time constraints made it only possible to choose two. Mine were Basic Education and Literacy and Economic & Community Development.
I am convinced that education is the major key in assisting third world countries to crawl their way up out of poverty. Furthermore, I am convinced that it is imperative to educate girls. When we educate a boy, he leaves his home area and goes out into the world. When we educate a girl, she stays home and improves the living situation. There is much to consider in attempting to bring education to many of these countries. It is not just book learning that is necessary, but food and health services have to be provided. Many children do not live past age five. We are talking about countries in Africa, Afghanistan, and India where the most extreme poverty exists
Some of you are familiar with our District Governor Deepa Willingham's organization PACE Universal that has built a school in a rural town in India primarily for girls. There are 170 girls attending and 180 are on the waiting list. These children desire education. The organization is now realizing that they need to extend schools in other areas; they need to also educate boys; they need to help adults learn to read and write; they need to provide vocational training for adults. It is a lot to do, but inch by inch they are going forward.
Deepa confided in me that she is intending to fulfill a desire of my heart and that is a school for girls in Afghanistan. She has meetings already planned to begin this process. One of our goals for our club was to fund schooling for a child in a Muslim country. This was my suggestion at our Strategic Planning meeting a couple of years ago and is still on the table for us to accomplish. Supplying as little as $300 a year can buy books, pencils, paper and other school supplies for more than one student in Afghanistan. I also spoke with Deepa about the possibility of Rotary funding secondary education or college education in the United States for young women from Afghanistan as well as doing the school project she has in mind. It is something she and I will have further discussion about.
There was so much more that we all learned at this conference -- Maternal and Child Health, Disease Prevention and Treatment, Water and Sanitation, and Peace and Conflict Resolution. It seems overwhelming, but many of our clubs are working on these projects in conjunction with Rotary clubs around the world. I left the conference boosted with the knowledge that we CAN make a difference and these are real projects that even a small club like Morro Bay Rotary can accomplish. It is the reason that I belong to Rotary because in spite of illness and my own relative poverty, I still want to give back to humanity what I can. In comparison, I have so much when they have so little.