One

Friends,

As i write these words there are 850 million people in the world who are chronically hungry.

212 million are in India

206.2 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa

524 million are in Asia and the Pacific

52.4 million are in Latin America and the Caribbean

37.6 million are in the Near East and North Africa


More than half of these are children.

I want to show you a video from the world food program.... Please keep your eyes and your heart open as you watch.





I have realised through my years of raising awareness and funds for the global pandemics of AIDS and poverty, that there is a cataract on the mind of many people.

When they are faced with these huge global problems they become stuck, immobilised, by the enormity of it all... lack and hopelessness occupy the entirety of their vision. And so they do nothing.

Thats why I'm always asking you to open your eyes...

Did you see those kids receiving bowls of food at the end of the video.... Those meals are sponsored by sites like http://www.freerice.com/ and http://www.thehungersite.com/



In 8 years http://www.thehungersite.com/ donated five hundred million cups of food to hungry people.

Since October of last year http://www.freerice.com/ has donated 21,665,153,990 cups of food to hungry people.


Did you know that? Take a moment to contemplate the sheer 'bigness', the enormity of that contribution.... made solely by the loving intentions of ordinary people like you and I.

If you were in the hopital room faced with starving kids in this video, or at a rubbish tip where kids forrage for their next meal..... I know you that you would find a way to help. You would give them the money in your wallet, or some food, or the clothes off your back if thats what it took.

But what do we do when we're so far away?

We do the same. Exactly the same.

We open our eyes and confront ourselves daily with the realities of human need. And then we find creative ways of making a difference. Of helping.

Its so simple... its almost childlike in its simplicity... you see a problem and then act to ameliorate it.

But somehow as we grow... we become indifferent and lazy. We become good at finding excuses and shifting the burden of responsibility... on to governments, corporations, God, our neighbours, etc etc.

I encourage you to share this information from the world food program with others....http://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/faq/index.asp?section=1&sub_section=9

Do you have a local newspaper? Why not write a letter, and share your knowledge with your local community?

Or write a petition.... asking for your political leaders to increase what they give to developing nations. Letters and petitions are powerful ways of letting our voices be heard.

The problem my dear friends, is not that there is not enough.

If you ask "Is there enough food in this world to feed everyone?"

The answer is a resounding and unequivocal "Yes!"

The problem is simply that we have so completely bought into the idea of our separateness, that we have forgotten our common humanity.

We have forgotten our place in the family of things.

840 million of our brothers and sisters, 420 million of our children, will not eat today.

30 thousand of our innocent, beautiful children will lose their lives today simply because they dont have enough to eat.

We can not sit by and fold our hands in indifference while this global holocaust continues before our eyes.

We are one.

Inseparable. Indivisible.

Paul simon writes in his most beautiful song:

"As I watch the drops of rain

Weave their weary paths and die

I know that I am like the rain

There but for the grace of you, go I"

Look into the eyes of the hungry and say

"There but for the grace of You, go I."

Sending you my love,

One love,

Maithri