Meet the Greens!

THE GREENS is a brand new Web site from WGBH in Boston -- you know that station that has its call letters sandwiched around PBS shows like Frontline, NOVA, Masterpiece Theatre and Antiques Roadshow, Zoom and Arthur.

The Greens is an online project that may yet become a TV show -- an animated family (The Greens) who aim to get kids thinking about the world, environmental stewardship and what one can do about it.

"Through the animated episodic adventures, a blog, kids' mail, and regular updates, we will explore green living - sustainability, ecology, environmental care and social equity. We will nudge kids to research, to challenge, to discover, and to take action whereever and whenever they can."

And they even have buddy icons you can download.

What's all the buzz about? $500 for an anti-malaria campaign on your college campus, that's what!

From our friend Seth Green at Americans for Informed Democracy

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS WANTED

Are you ready to change the world? Then, we’re ready to support you in doing it!

A coalition of non-profit organizations have just announced a new initiative called Buzz Cuts that will support young leaders who want to join the fight to prevent malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Buzz Cuts will give ten students $500 grants to implement entrepreneurial campaigns on their campuses to raise awareness and funds to prevent malaria. Students selected for the initiative will also receive an all-expenses-paid, two-day training on malaria advocacy and fundraising in Washington, D.C.

Buzz Cuts is a collaboration of Americans for Informed Democracy, the People Speak, and the Nothing But Nets Campaign. The initiative seeks to encourage college students to use their fresh, innovative ideas to support a global movement that saves lives. We want YOU to raise awareness and funds to support the global fight against malaria. And we want you to film what you do and make it into a "Buzz Cut" or video toolkit that other students can use to put on events on their campus.

Find out more about BuzzCuts here.

Submit your project proposal to BuzzCuts here.

Questions -- email buzzcuts@aidemocracy.org or call 203-773-1202.

Know an eco-friendly printer?

EGR is moving from shipping brochures and other printed products to people to making everything available on our website (in the MDG toolkit section).

Most of this is practical. EGR is commited to staying a small organization (right now I'm the only employee -- next week I'll probably be getting a 16-hour a week admin asst. Hooray!). Printing, packing and shipping takes time and resources we can better spend elsewhere -- and frankly, it's kind of crazy for me to print stuff in St.Louis and ship it to you when you can download it, print it where you are and save the shipping charges!

That said, because of convenience, people often just want to have the finished product arrive on their doorstep. So we're looking for some recommendations of really good eco-friendly printers. A quick Google search turned up one - Greenerprinter.com. Does anyone have any experience with them? Does anyone have another eco-friendly printer to recommend. I'm thinking if we can find one that is really green and really good perhaps we can negotiate a lower price ("group rate" if you will) with them (seeing as environmental sustainability is part of what we're doing).

Any thoughts? Leave a comment!

You Choose 2008

Our good friend Kim Smith at ONE offers this on the ONE Campaign blog.

As the 2008 presidential campaign is heating up around the country, ONE members are reaching out to candidates on both sides of the political aisle to make sure that fighting extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS in the world's poorest countries is a priority for our next president. We need to show all the candidates that there is a growing and visible number of Americans who care about our issues and who are going to local candidate rallies and forums to speak out!

If you don't live in a state that the candidates are visiting yet there are other ways to get involved – YouTube has is highlighting a different candidate each week as part of their new campaign, "You Choose 08 Spotlight." For the campaign, people can submit videos of themselves asking questions to the candidates.

ONE member Sean Camoni has taken on this challenge and posted videos for multiple candidates, from both political parties, to let them know he wants our next president to be a leader in the fight against extreme poverty around the world. Sean has already sent in videos asking presidential candidates Hunter, Kucinich, McCain, Edwards and Romney questions about their policy on extreme poverty.

Let us know in the comments below (and let ONE know, too) if you send in your own YouTube YouChoose 08 video about global poverty.

Bono says G-8 Behind on Aid to Africa

From the Associated Press:

BERLIN -- The world's biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report "a cold shower" for the Group of Eight.

G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to double Africa aid to $50 billion by 2010, according to a report released by DATA _ Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa _ an advocacy group founded by Bono, the 47-year-old frontman for Irish band U2.

"The G-8 are sleepwalking into a crisis of credibility. I know the DATA report will feel like a cold shower, but I hope it will wake us all up," he said.

Bono is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chairs a G-8 summit in Germany next month, to ensure that members contribute what they said they would.

The report shows the G-8 increased aid by $2.3 billion but says they need to increase aid by an additional $3.1 billion to substantially help the people of Africa.

"These statistics are not just numbers on a page," Bono said. "They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunize her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12."

Read the rest here.

Download the Data2007 report here.

Download/stream a podcast of Bono talking with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Bono's love for music and "passion to save the world."

Sign Avaaz/Global Call to Action Against Poverty's petition to G8 finance ministers

This Friday, the finance ministers of the world's richest countries meet to plan the G8 summit in Germany. Two years ago, they pledged to double aid to Africa--but despite their promises, aid from the G8 has actually gone down, and 30,000 children every day are still dying preventable deaths.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has signed on to a letter organised by activist website Avaaz.org and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. The letter will be featured in big ads in the Financial Times and German press on Friday morning, so that the finance ministers are reminded of their promises before they meet.

The text of the letter is below. Click here to go to avaaz.org and sign it yourself.

Together you represent the world’s economic powerhouses. We write to ask that when you meet in Potsdam Germany this May, you also strive to represent the millions of people whose lives are blighted by extreme poverty. Poverty can be overcome, in part through more and better aid, and we urge you to make good your longstanding commitments to provide 0.7% of national income in effective aid, and to commit to binding timetables to reach aid targets. We also urge you to implement innovative finance mechanisms as a key source of much needed finance for development.

Aid is not a panacea. The aid that is given must be predictable, untied and coordinated. Harmful conditions can undermine the return on investment and aid will not deliver maximum benefit without reform of world trade rules, more debt cancellation and improved governance in the recipient countries.

But economic history shows us what aid can achieve. Marshall Plan aid from the US kick-started the rebuilding of a Europe shattered by war and delivered real benefits to the US in terms of new markets for its goods. Aid to East Asia helped catalyse the economic miracles that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Today many African governments are using aid to underwrite growth and provide essential schools, health services and water supplies for their people. The poorest countries in the world need you to honour these aid pledges if they are to meet the Millennium Development Goals and end poverty.

Through their unprecedented support for the international movement against poverty, taxpayers have already given you permission to spend their money saving lives. Please seize that chance tomorrow/today.

Keep your promises to end poverty!

Why should we as Christians care about the MDGs?

Part of what we're looking to do is collect and create the best resources for establishing the deep theological foundation and context for this mission of global reconciliation. An excellent example is this paper prepared by the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas (Ian is vice-president of EGR's board and a professor of world mission and Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School) for the House of Bishops' meeting this past March.

Ian gives an excellent exposition of the shifting of mission from something done by voluntary associations of the church to the "central calling of the Church," takes us through the scriptural proscription for mission and engagement with the world and finally leads us to the MDGs as a 21st century incarnation of the Church's mission. It's a must read -- and you can read it here.