Catholic Relief Services

God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love… - 2 Timothy 1:7

In recent years, a movement of the Spirit has rallied people of faith and conscience to raise their voices on behalf of hungry people around the world. People from many different religious traditions have come together to challenge our nation’s leaders to end hunger and extreme poverty in God’s world. These voices have been heard. Our nation, along with others, has increased development assistance to reduce hunger in the world’s poorest countries.

With this increased assistance, Cameroon in central Africa has been able to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy. In Uganda, the number of children- especially young girls- attending school has risen dramatically. With increased education levels, farming becomes more productive and hungry people are able to feed their families.

Still, more than 1 billion people struggle to survive on less than $1 per day. In sub-Saharan Africa, one third of the population suffers from chronic malnutrition, and more than 6,000 Africans die every day from AIDS.

The United States has joined other nations in a commitment to cut global hunger and poverty in half by 2015. President Bush has promised to double development assistance to Africa by 2010.

Now we must translate our nation’s commitment into effective anti-poverty measures that reach those most in need.

One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty. It’s within reach, and it takes just a few minutes of your time.

Write to your members of Confess and ask them to make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals of significantly increasing poverty-focused development assistance.

Sample Letter (Handwritten letters using your own words are most effective.)

Your Name

Your Address

Date

Rep. _______________ Sen. _____________________

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate

Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510

Dear Rep. _____________, (Or, Dear Sen. _________________),

Poverty-focused development assistance from the United States strengthens communities around the world and helps poor people overcome hunger and poverty. I urge you to make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals by significantly increasing poverty-focused development assistance in Fiscal Year 2007 and work towards devoting an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to poverty-focused development assistance by 2010.

Increasing development assistance to poor countries will underscore our commitment to democracy and strengthen our ties to people and nations around the world. We have a monumental opportunity in the coming decade to cut global poverty in half. Let’s not waste it.

Sincerely

Your Name

For more information on What You Can Do to End Hunger, contact:

Bread for the World

50 F Street NW, Suite 500

Washington, SC 20001

1/800-82-BREAD

www.bread.org