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Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Dr. Howard Thurman |
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My love of making a difference brought me to speaking and writing. My love of people has brought me to planet Earth's hunger problem. I invite you to join me in making a difference.
Sincerely,
Patrick Combs
San Diego
January 20, '03
I've made helping solve our hunger problem my mission. I donate 100% of the royalties from my book to charities addressing hunger, and I donate a portion of my income from speaking. I also help by spreading the word.
It's an amazing feeling to go to bed on the day you made a donation because you fall asleep thinking, 'I saved a life today.' Or, 'I saved 10 lives.' It costs so little to save a life. We're talking numbers like $19 cents a day or $34 a year!
I've made up my own hunger campaign slogan. It's called "Everyone Fed 2020." My daughter will turn 21 years old in the year 2020. I want her to not have to live her adult life in a world that has a pain as excruciating as global hunger. So "Everyone Fed 2020" is a realistic goal. Let's work to have everyone on planet Earth fed by the year 2020. Let's start accelerating toward that goal today. What more noble thing could we do with our spare money, and hearts and minds? I hope you will join me.
9/11 was certainly a tragedy of catastrophic proportion, yet on the same day, (as happens every day of the year) 11,000 children under the age of 5 died of hunger; the equivalent of 747 jet full of small children crashing every 40 minutes of the day and night! (36 full jets per day).
In the time it took you to read the sentence above, 2 more children in the world died from hunger, children with names, personalities and futures. There are enough resources amongst us to end it now. Let's do it.
* We can conquer hunger. There is enough food produced in the world to feed every man, woman, and child.
* For only 19¢ a day, or $34 annually, a child can be fed in school for one year.
* Currently world hunger is being solved at a rate about 6 million less hungry people per year. That's great and all of us helping will accelerate it!
* With a donation of just US$100, an organization like the World Food Programme can provide 5,000 cups of rice; US$1,000 will pay for 2,000 pounds of high energy biscuits, vital in the early stages of an humanitarian disaster when people are on the move and unable to cook food; and, US $10,000 will buy a medium-sized warehouse for storing food aid.
* In 2000, more than 12 million children in 54 countries attended school and received a nutritious meal through the World Food Programme. Other hunger organizations are making a big difference also.
My charity of choice is The World Food Programme. The World Food Programme is the United Nations frontline hunger relief agency; in fact, WFP is the largest international food aid organization in the world. WFP transports more food aid than any other international organization. In 1999 alone, WFP delivered 3.4 million tons of food by sea, air, river, road and rail. In 2001, WFP helped feed more than 77 million people in 82 countries.
1) to save the lives of people caught up in humanitarian crises, through Food-For-Life programs;
2) to support the most vulnerable people - children, pregnant women and the elderly - at the most critical times of their lives, through Food-For-Growth programs; and
3) to help the hungry poor become self-reliant by providing Food-For-Work programs to build roads, wells, schools, etc. needed for economic development.
Since I live in the US, I write my checks to the Friends of the World Food Programme.
Friends of WFP
P.O. Box 11856
Washington, DC 20008
http://www.friendsofwfp.org/
www.friendsofwfp.org/
www.worldhunger.org/
www.wfp.org/
www.thehungersite.com/
www.americaschildren.org/
www.worldfooddayusa.org/
One night a man came to our house and told me, "there is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days." I took some food with me and went. When I came to that family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just deep pain of hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She divided the rice in two, and went out, carryiing half the rice. when she came back I asked her, Where did you go? She gave me this simple answer, "To my neighbors; they are hungry also!" I was not surprised that she gave -- poor people are really very generous. I was surprised she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on ourselves, we have no time for others. Mother Teresa
Hunger... not 777 million mouths to feed, 777 million people whose creativity and spirit must be unleashed!
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