Help Fight World Poverty and Social Injustice
Brief Summary
So we live in the 21st century and yet there are still large areas of our world which are plagued by poverty and worse still starvation. That is a sad indictment of our world as it stands at present. If you live in a country that is fortunate enough to have good education, healthcare, wealth opportunity, food availability and clean water without you even having to think about it, then you are indeed very lucky. Any decent person would surely admit that it is not at all acceptable that we live in a world in the 21st century that allows people to be hungry (and even die of starvation), to lack basic amenities such as clean water, decent education and healthcare, and to have to struggle to make a living (physically working a lot harder than those who live in the priveleged world). Why is there such a disparity between the developed world and the developing world? There are potentially many reasons and it can be too easy to blame and too easy not to act. We can all do something, no matter how insignificant or small it may appear, and the more of us that do something, the better our world will be. Please think about it and please have a look at some of the ideas below for things that you could do to help make our world a fairer place for everyone.
Support the developing areas of our world by:
- Easy action: Buying fair trade products at your local supermarket or at special shops and online websites. At least by doing this you can be confident that the people who have made such products have been paid a fairer price for what they produced and given better working environments and conditions.
- Simple action: Politically support fair trade with developing countries. There are lots of campaigns at present trying to improve the trading conditions for the developing world. If you have time, consider writing a letter to your representative politician, or sign up to a petition run by a charity giving your support to fair trade for all parts of the world.
- Support institutions, such as banks or multinational companies, that set out an openly clear and ethical policy with regard to investment and development.
- Support charities whose work is focused on developing the infrastructure, education and health of the poorer countries in this world through regular donations and/or support of their ongoing campaigns. There are a lot of charities who are helping to improve the basic amenities in many countries, such as clean water, and we list some of these charities in ecolinks
- Sponsor a child (or children) in a developing country and receive regular updates from them as they grow up making a difference to their lives and their community.
- Join an organisation that actively campaigns for free and fair trade amongst nations, that there are no vested interests nor harmful restrictions, and that campaigns for a complete removal of crippling Third World debt.
- Vote for a political party that is openly supportive of policies that encourage development of the poorest countries in this world and one that pledges to do all it can to wipe out such poverty and inequality in our world. And one that follows up such support with decisive,clear and open ACTION.
- Volunteer. Take a career break or gap year (or longer!) and do some unpaid voluntary work in a developing country.