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Take action on global poverty

James Thornton

James Thornton

  • Updated:

Putting the ‘action’ in ‘Action Day’You may not be aware of it, but today is Blog Action Day. This is an annual event (in its second year) designed to get bloggers of the World to unite and create debate over the issues and solutions to global poverty. It’s definitely a noble cause, and with 11,000 blogs taking part it could be something that really helps to make a difference. I’m not going to write a post about how we can end poverty for the simple reason that I don’t know how we can. Unfortunately, it seems the vast majority of the 11,000 bloggers posting about the subject on Blog Action Day don’t either.

Don’t get me wrong, these people mean well, but most of the posts I read were along the lines of: “yes, let’s all stop for a minute and think about how lucky we are”,  “let’s pray for the starving Africans”, or teeing up facts like “did you know that only 6% of the World’s population own 56% of the money?”. While noble in their aims, few of the posts I read even began to make suggestions as to how we can stop global poverty, which is a shame because surely the one thing a Blog Action Day really needs is some “action”. Surfing around some of the sites I did manage to unearth a handful of constructive tips for easing poverty in a practical way. Here are my top five, all of which can be done right now:

  • Wheelie Catholic: Dig out old clothes and food cans and take them down to your local food bank
  • kelpenhagen: Use a micro-lending service like Kiva, which help businesses in poor areas
  • Dell Your Blog: Donate your old cellphones to people in poverty-stricken villages
  • The Warning Knock: Sponsor a child or a family living in poverty
  • writer’s flow: Stop throwing your old stuff away
  • Actually, I will add one action point of my own after all: Download and use AidMaker, a piece of software that donates money to poverty charities whenever you shop online
James Thornton

James Thornton

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