Sunday, September 28, 2008
Leaving for Thailand
How quickly time has past. I cannot believe that we leave this week to got to Thailand. We are so excited about the work we are going to do there. In Thailand we will be working with IGN partner Pastor Naruethep (Arthur) Teerawutroj. Arthur is a national and from the AKHA tribe. The AKHA are a people group that are without a country of their own. They live primarily within the 5 countries of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), China, and Vietnam. Because no country claims them they lack opportunities for education, health benefits, and are suppressed by the government so they lack opportunity as well. Arthur has a great vision to lead his people to a life with Christ as well as to educate them, provide for their physical needs, emotional needs, and teach them skills so they can support themselves and their communities. Arthur has many programs but he also has a network of Pastors (all AKHA) he supports, trains, encourages, and works alongside. Currently funds for Arthur's ministry come through donations as well as he has a pig farm and an orchard. Much of the financial and administrative burden for the ministry falls on Arthur and he is looking for a more sustainable way to support and grow his ministry. While I, and a colleague, are in Thailand we will be utilizing the training we recently had in wholistic community development to help Arthur assess his ministry, the funds he has, the villages and Pastors he supports, etc. and see what he can do to best utilize the resources available, both dollars and people, and help him to identify what he can delegate to the Village Leaders, Pastors and their communities. Also, evaluating options for creating jobs and income. While there I will also be meeting with people from the organization called “LifeWind International”. We hope to connect LifeWind, and other organizations who have good wholistic strategies for community development and training materials, to Arthur so he will have ongoing support and encouragement. We (IGN) believe that it is important to have the leaders take ownership in each of the communities and a goal will be to facilitate to help Arthur empower and educate them so they can not only sustain the ministry but take their communities to the next level. Please keep us and the work we are doing in Thailand in your prayers. We are excited about all that is ahead, and know God will use us in great ways in Thailand, but we also struggled greatly with making the decision to go on this trip or not. Financially this is a challenging time and although we can see the HUGE potential for sustainable life change in the lives of those we will train and work with, concern about our own issues hangs over our head. We are trusting Jesus and lay everything at his feet. Please pray for us in all we do and pray for those we influence and affect along the way. Blessings! Cindie
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Chicago Speaking Engagment
Cindie and Tim from IGN will be speaking along with Michele and Brent Gambrel who recently participated in a trip to the Dominican Republic. We will be at Mayfair Presbyterian Church in Chicago at both the 10:00 am Traditional service as well as the 11:30 Contemporary service. Please come join us and share in our recent trip to the Dominican Republic.
Mayfair Presbyterian Church
4358 W. Ainslie
Chicago, IL 60630
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Speaking Engagement
IGN will be speaking at Our Lady of Peace Church tomorrow Wed. September 17th from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm. The discussion will be on "Finding Purpose... Impacting Lives". We will meet in the church basement, light refreshments will be served. We look forward to seeing you there. The address is:
Our Lady Of Peace
701 Plainfield Rd.
Darien, IL 60561
Monday, September 8, 2008
Poverty Facts and Stats
Poverty Facts and Stats
* by Anup Shah
* This Page Last Updated Wednesday, September 03, 2008
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.
1. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
2. 95% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1
3. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2
4. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3
5. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 4
6. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
7. If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5
8. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.Source 6
9. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7
10. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.Source 8
11. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9
Water problems affect half of humanity:
* Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
* Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
* More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
* Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
* 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
* Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
* The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
* Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
* Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
* To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 10
Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
* 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
* 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
* 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide
121 million
Survival for children
Worldwide,
* 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
* 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,
* 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
* 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
Source 11
12. Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.Source 12
13. Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.Source 13
14. In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.Source 14
15. Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.Source 15
16. In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:
17. The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:
Source 16
1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:
Breaking that down further:
Number of people living without electricityRegion Millions without electricity
South Asia 706
Sub-Saharan Africa 547
East Asia 224
Other 101
18. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Source 18
19. World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.
* The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).
* The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
* Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
* Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).Source 19
20. The world’s low income countries (2.4 billion people) account for just 2.4% of world exportsSource 20
21. The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”
22. In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.Source 21
23. For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22
24. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.Source 23
25. The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.Source 24
26. The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.Source 25
27. In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.Source 26
28. An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
* 3 to 1 in 1820
* 11 to 1 in 1913
* 35 to 1 in 1950
* 44 to 1 in 1973
* 72 to 1 in 1992Source 27
29. “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”Source 28
30. For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:
* Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
* Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
* Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
* Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29
31. A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.Source 30
* by Anup Shah
* This Page Last Updated Wednesday, September 03, 2008
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.
1. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
2. 95% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1
3. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2
4. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3
5. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 4
6. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
7. If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5
8. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.Source 6
9. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7
10. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.Source 8
11. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9
Water problems affect half of humanity:
* Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
* Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
* More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
* Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
* 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
* Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
* The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
* Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
* Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
* To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 10
Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
* 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
* 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
* 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide
121 million
Survival for children
Worldwide,
* 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
* 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,
* 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
* 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
Source 11
12. Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.Source 12
13. Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.Source 13
14. In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.Source 14
15. Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.Source 15
16. In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:
17. The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:
Source 16
1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:
Breaking that down further:
Number of people living without electricityRegion Millions without electricity
South Asia 706
Sub-Saharan Africa 547
East Asia 224
Other 101
18. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Source 18
19. World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.
* The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).
* The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
* Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
* Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).Source 19
20. The world’s low income countries (2.4 billion people) account for just 2.4% of world exportsSource 20
21. The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”
22. In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.Source 21
23. For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22
24. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.Source 23
25. The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.Source 24
26. The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.Source 25
27. In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.Source 26
28. An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
* 3 to 1 in 1820
* 11 to 1 in 1913
* 35 to 1 in 1950
* 44 to 1 in 1973
* 72 to 1 in 1992Source 27
29. “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”Source 28
30. For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:
* Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
* Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
* Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
* Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29
31. A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.Source 30
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
On the Road
We are back in the US and things are busy. Everything went great with our travels home from the Dominican Republic. We are in Northern Michigan now and will be here for the next few weeks. We left the DR the day before hurricane Faye hit the island so we were not affected by the storms that have been hitting Haiti and the Dominican Republic over the last few weeks. We do not believe our partners received any damage as well but we have not heard from them all since our return. Strange thing happened… we managed to not have any major issues while abroad but last Saturday, here in Michigan, Tim was bit by a spider. By Sunday he had a fever, was feeling achy, headache, he had tension in his chest and was feeling weak. On Monday he noticed that several red marks were moving up his arm from the spot the spider had bit him. Turns out he has blood poisoning. He is being treated with antibiotics and feeling much better but please pray for his continued and complete recovery.
Now that we are back our focus has shifted to speaking to groups and individuals about the work we are doing as well as prepare for Thailand and India. We will be speaking on Wed. Sept 17th from 7:30pm to 9:00 pm in the church Hall at Our Lady of Peace Church in Darien Illinois. The title of our presentation is “Finding Purpose… Impacting Lives”. Then on Sunday Sept. 28th Tim, my sister Michele, her husband Brent, and I will be speaking at both the 10:00 am and the 11:30am service at Mayfair Presbyterian church in Chicago IL. We will be sharing stories and pictures of our recent trip to the Dominican Republic. We are working on setting up a few other speaking engagements as well and if anyone else is interested in having us speak to their small group, neighborhood, or other gathering let us know and we can set up a time. We will be in Thailand starting on Oct. 2nd. Please check our blog as we will be keeping our progress updated throughout our work and travels in Thailand as well as India. Many Blessings from IGN to you!
Now that we are back our focus has shifted to speaking to groups and individuals about the work we are doing as well as prepare for Thailand and India. We will be speaking on Wed. Sept 17th from 7:30pm to 9:00 pm in the church Hall at Our Lady of Peace Church in Darien Illinois. The title of our presentation is “Finding Purpose… Impacting Lives”. Then on Sunday Sept. 28th Tim, my sister Michele, her husband Brent, and I will be speaking at both the 10:00 am and the 11:30am service at Mayfair Presbyterian church in Chicago IL. We will be sharing stories and pictures of our recent trip to the Dominican Republic. We are working on setting up a few other speaking engagements as well and if anyone else is interested in having us speak to their small group, neighborhood, or other gathering let us know and we can set up a time. We will be in Thailand starting on Oct. 2nd. Please check our blog as we will be keeping our progress updated throughout our work and travels in Thailand as well as India. Many Blessings from IGN to you!
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