Global Missions Committee

Submitted by John Dancy on February 15, 2006

Questions? Call John
at 401-8727

Offering of Letters – February 26^th, 2006 

IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND THE MEETING, PLEASE WRITE ANYWAY! 

Please join members of the Westminster's Global Missions Committee in an Offering of Letters Sunday, February 26^th, in Room 105 of the Mission Center, following the 8:30 or 11 a.m. service. We will write letters to our two senators and representative to urge them to fully fund aid to poor countries. It’s a way for you to do something about hunger and poverty without writing a check. Refreshments will be served.

 The Global Missions Committee will supply pens, paper, envelopes and stamps, and sample letters and talking points you can use in writing your letter. Committee members will be there to help answer any questions.

 What will we be talking about? 

• In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day.
• Every day, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds.
• 153 million children under 5 in the developing world are underweight. Worse yet, 11 million children younger than 5 die every year, more than half from hunger-related causes.
• Most of these deaths are attributed, not to outright starvation, but to diseases that move in on vulnerable children whose bodies have been weakened by hunger.

A sample letter:

Your name
Your Address
Date

Dear Sen. (or Rep.) _________________,

I urge you to significantly increase 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.

Poverty-focused development assistance from the United States strengthens communities around the world and helps poor people overcome hunger and poverty.  Effective programs like the Child Survival Account, HIV/AIDS programs and the Millennium Challenge Account are helping poor nations and communities make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Development assistance also supports international efforts through agencies like UNICEF.  To fight poverty in the poorest regions of the world, we must support what works.

These programs not only offer hope to the people they help, but they stabilize poor regions, 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.

Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip

Letters from children are particularly effective. We will have sample letters for them, as well.

Our senators are: Senator Elizabeth Dole (Republican) and Senator Richard Burr (Republican). Our Representative is: Rep. David Price (Democrat)

Take five minutes to write a letter that might help change the world!