In the meeting Scott shared with the the Millennium Development Goals that were established by 187 nations during the United Nations Convention of 2000.  The goals are as follows:

• Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality & empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development

Even though these goals have been in existence for about 9 years, I have never heard of them.  However, I am passionate about these goals and hope to do my little part to achieve them with social media.

• Growing tomatoes to be an anti-viral drug delivery agent.
• Developing an inexpensive device to diagnose malaria.
• Using lasers to enhance immune response from vaccines.
• Infecting malaria-causing mosquitoes with a fungus that inhibits their ability to smell humans.

These grants are given to encourage scientists to pursue bold ideas that could result in breakthroughs related to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases.

The Gates Foundation also announced that it will be spending $73 million to help small farmers in impoverished countries.  This money will be used for a variety of different projects, such as developing drought-tolerant corn, implementing more efficient irrigation, and helping women develop agricultural training programs.

I wonder if God blessed Bill Gates to become one of the world’s richest people because he knew how much good Bill and Melinda would do with the money.

Did you know that the official name for this statue is not “The Statue of Liberty?”  It was instead named “Liberty Enlightening the World.”  

In 1883 Emma Lazarus penned the famous words, which are now engraved at the base of this statue: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Millions of people in the world today who are still victims of slavery, poverty, abandonment, disease, and repressive governments. I need to not sit idly in my land of liberty and forget the “tired…poor…huddled masses yearning to breathe free” just as my ancestors did.  I am enjoying the gift of liberty because of my ancestors, and because I have been given the gift of liberty, I need to use that gift to help liberate others.

These famous words of Emma Lazarus are also just as appropriate to Americans today as they were to the immigrants from generations past who cheered as they entered New York Harbor and saw this statue welcoming them to America. These immigrants came to America seeking liberty.  Today, the immigrants’ ancestors are also seeking liberty…liberty from many repressive elements of our generation, such as addiction, debt, sin and abuse.

May each of us shake off the shackles which bind us, seize hold of our amazing gift of liberty, and help others to do the same.

Made to Stick talks about a research study that compared the effectiveness of donation requests using different approaches.  One donation request provided statistics about the masses of people in one region of Africa facing hunger and poverty.  The second letter simply told the story of one needy girl from that region and said that all money donated would go to her.   Obviously, the second letter was tremendously more successful.  

People are much more willing to help if they know of a specific need, instead of just helping a cause.  In other words, when people learn of a huge problem they often feel that “someone should do something”, but they feel the problem is too large for them to solve themselves, so they do nothing.  It’s kind of like a room that is so messy you don’t know where to start, so you go do something else.  However, when we connect with a specific person with a specific need, we are much more likely to sacrifice and help, because we know we can do something to make a huge difference to that person with whom we are connected.  The specific connection makes the service much more real and meaningful. 

The Adoption.com Photolisting is an example of this principle that I have observed first hand.   When prospective adoptive parents are able to see pictures and read bios of orphans they often connect with and then adopt a specific child.  Many parents choose to adopt internationally after connecting with a specific child, who otherwise would not have adopted. Many parents who thought they only wanted to adopt a healthy Caucasian infant in the U.S. end up adopting an older, special needs child from a foreign country because of the connection which they formed with that child by using the photolisting.

If I came to your church congregation and spoke about the many foster children in your state who need to be adopted, I might have a few families come talk to me after the service.  However, if I brought 12 of those foster children with me and explained that I needed emergency foster homes for those children that night, ALL of the children would be taken in (if the families were qualified), and most of those children (if not all) would be permanently adopted by families in that congregation.

Think about it.  How many of us would, without a second thought, take in a starving orphan who showed up on our doorstep needing a place to stay?  I believe there is enough food, money, compassion, time, and great people in this world to solve huge social crises such as the world orphan crisis, hunger, needless death to curable diseases, and poverty.  The problem is not a lack of resources, but instead is effectively connecting those resources with great people who would be willing to help.  

So, then the question is how we can create those connections on a scale large enough to solve the otherwise insurmountable social problems in our world.  Kiva has showed us one of the large pieces of this solution by helping to everyday people, like my family, connect with and lend to entrepreneurs in third-world countries.  On-the-ground organizations help qualify and administer the loans.  And, their repayment rate would put to shame EVERY major bank in the United States.  My family tried to make a loan around Christmas time through Kiva, and the system was a little too effective.  There were more than thousands of people making loans and only four entrepreneurs seeking loans.  By the time we read through a newly posted loan and tried to participate in the loan, the full loan had already been fully funded.  There were more people at that time trying to loan than people listed seeking loans.  I just looked at Kiva as I wrote this blog entry, and it looks like there are now 208 active entrepreneurs listed seeking loans.  However, just in the last week more than 2,000 loans have been made by people like you and I, totaling more than $750,000.  This is another example that there is an abundance of great people, food, money, compassion and time to solve the world’s greatest social problems.  We just have to figure out how to create the specific connections.  

I want to build my future career greatly around this concept of creating connections to solve world social crises.  How can we more effectively build connections between great people in need and the great people who would love to help if they were just connected with specific situations? 

First, I find the term “bottom billion” inappropriate and offensive, as I have lived among many of these amazing people during the nearly two years I spent in Brazil. These people face almost hopeless poverty, have enormous challenges and we need to help them. However, they are not the “bottom billion”. These are beautiful people filled with amazing potential. These might be the poorest, most underprivileged people on earth, but I don’t agree with the label “bottom billion”.

Regardless of the semantics of the name for this group of people, I agree with Dr. Collier that we need to provide hope for these underprivileged people. Dr. Collier analyzes the role the United States took to help Europe after World War II as a model that the world can follow today to help solve this problem.

He recommends that we provide:

(1) AID

(2) TRADE – After WWII the US tore up the protectionist trade policy and totally reversed it, opening trade with Europe.

(3) SECURITY – After WWII, the US tore up it’s isolationist security policy and put hundreds of thousands of troops in Europe.

(4) GOVERNMENTS – Before WWII the US had not been willing to join the League of Nations, but after WWII we became part of a larger international community that helped create the solution for Europe.

DR. Collier spoke about the need to better utilize the resources booms in these under-developed countries. He recommended international standards to create informed societies, such as government financial transparency and competitive auction formats for contracts related to the developing country resources.

I agree with Dr. Collier that these lessons learned from the successfully rebuilding of Europe after WWII can provide us with several of the necessary pieces of the solution to end global poverty. However, many more solutions are available to help us solve this problem today as compared to 60 years ago. For, example, the power of the Internet allows us to facilitate microlending from millions of people around the world in a way that would have been impossible before the Internet.

Technology advances provide phenomenal solutions if they are shared with developing countries. For example, inexpensive solar panels can provide consistent power in developing countries that have struggled with insufficient and unreliably power supply. Inexpensive wireless technologies can facilitate communication necessary to efficiently run businesses, including access to telephones, email and the Internet. Vaccines for diseases such as malaria can help to halt the ravaging effects of these diseases.

Dr. Collier is right that we need to learn from the successes of the European construction after World War II, but let’s also open our minds to the additional innovative solutions that are available. We can certainly do a better job developing underprivileged countries today than was possible in the 1940s.

The video of Dr. Collier’s speech is embedded below:

The U.S. implementation of this Convention has been the catalyst for many changes in the international adoption process. Some of the most notable changes are the following:

• Adoption Service Provider Accreditation & Approval - Adoption service providers are now under the oversight of the Department of State, for the first time in U.S. history.  As such, they are accountable to the designated accrediting agencies, such as the Council on Accreditation (COA).   Adoption Service Providers must now meet requirements such as ethics, fee disclosure, records retention, training for families, and qualifications for agency staff.

• Forms & Processes - The old I-600 forms have been replaced with I-800 forms.  These forms introduce new requirements intended to ensure families are qualified to adopt, and help to better protect children.  For example, special training may be required for a child with special needs, and all families must have at 10+ hours of training.

• New Criteria of Being Adoptable – Children adopted through the Convention must now meet a new set of criteria as to whether or not they are adoptable.  For example, two birthparents can now relinquish a child for adoption if they are unable to provide proper care for their child. Consular officials must determine whether each specific child meets the criteria of being adoptable before custody is granted or the adoption is finalized in the child’s country.

• Tracking Adoptions – A new Adoption Tracking Service has been implemented to allow the Department of State to track all international adoptions.

• Tracking Complaints – A Hague Complaint Registry has been implemented to provide a system to help monitor and resolve complaints against adoption service providers.  The information in this registry will be used as the adoption service providers are reviewed for accreditation.

The Hague Convention on International Adoption is not perfect. Adoption agencies have complained about various elements, such as the insurance requirements, the increased levels of bureaucracy, and the resulting increased cost to do an international adoption.  Some of the smaller adoption agencies have simply been unable to survive with these additional requirements, and have closed their programs.  That portion is concerning to us, as we have seen a drop in the number of agencies doing international adoption, and the number of adoptions being completed.

However, on the other hand, over the years we have observed a destructive spiral that has happened in countries that do not have very strong adoption procedures and protections.  These countries open international adoption programs, the number of adoptions grows quickly, then a few unethical individuals ruin it for everyone else, and the countries’ international adoption programs are closed down, or implement unnecessary restrictions that substantially decrease the number of adoptions.  I know this is a gross over-simplification of much more complex issues.  However, several countries, which historically had effective international adoption programs are still closed today (or have dramatically reduced the number of international adoptions they allow) because of these core issues.

Whether we like it or not, this is the system is in place and it’s not going anywhere any time soon.  Over time, I believe the number of international adoptions will increase and exceed what they were prior to the issues that have been faced in international adoption recently.  I believe the Convention will reduce the risk of child abduction, sale, exploitation and trafficking. Most importantly, I believe that these systems will provide more protection for children, ensure parents are better qualified and prepared, help adoption agencies provide a higher level of service, decrease the risk to adoptive families, and reduce the risk that countries will close their international adoption programs because of system abuses.  Without diminishing the pain of the current problems, I believe that the Hague International Adoption Convention will be in the long-term best interest of children.

Learn more about the Hague International Adoption Convention.

• According to a recent study, people who spend money on others are happier than people who spend it on themselves.  So, in theory we can buy happiness with money. We just buy happiness by spending our money on other people in ways that make a meaningful difference.  By this standard, Melinda Gates might be one of the happiest people on earth (exaggeration intended to make point).  Since 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $16.3 billion in grants to programs that range from global health and development initiatives and the U.S. educational system. It currently oversees an endowment of roughly $38 billion. Its assets include a gift by billionaire Warren Buffet, who in 2006 announced he would bestow the majority of his fortune, in annual installments, to the couple’s foundation.

• The Gates Foundation has two driving principles: “All lives — no matter where they are being lived — have equal value,” and “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

• “We say, where are the biggest places that need change in the world and what is it we might impact?” Gates said. “We are the catalyst in many cases — or the voice for the diseases we’ve chosen.”

• Melinda cried tears of “unbelievable joy” after learning of Warren Buffet’s decision to hand over most of his wealth to her organization.  She said the gracious donation has allowed the foundation to supplement its health programs by addressing issues such as the elimination of poverty.

Read the article.

I was recently looking at the application for a top-tier MBA program, and one of their essay questions from last year asked, “In your career, you will have to deal with many ethical issues. What are likely to be the most challenging and what is your plan for developing the competencies you will need to handle these issues effectively?”

I believe the most challenging ethical issue that I face is that of social inequality. I live in a world of opportunity and luxury compared to 95% of the world. Note the following sobering statistics:

• By end-2003, there were an estimated 143 million orphans ages 0-17 in 93 developing countries. More than 16 million children were orphaned in 2003 alone (UNICEF).
• HIV/AIDS orphans more than 6,000 children every day.
• An estimated 218 million children aged 5-17 are engaged in child labor, excluding child domestic labor (UNICEF).
• At least one million deaths occur every year due to malaria, a treatable disease (CDC).
• A reported 1.2 million children are trafficked annually for child labor purposes and sexual exploitation (UNICEF).
• One billion people in the world today live in extreme poverty, surviving on $1 a day or less (Gates Foundation).
• Some 250,000 children are forced into armed conflict (UNICEF).
• Approximately 2 million children, most of them girls, are enslaved in the global commercial sex trade (UNICEF).
• 1.1 billion people lack clean water worldwide (Worldvision).

These statistics do not include the absence many other luxuries we take for granted, such as the opportunity for education, plentiful employment, good medical care, and political and religious freedoms. These are simply luxuries that much of the world does not enjoy.

I lived for two years in a third world country. I remember the first time I went hungry, with no food or money to buy food, and the accompanying sense of hopelessness. I know that one night of hunger is trite compared to the plight of millions around the world who regularly go to bed hungry. However, that night helped me to understand, even in a small way, the hopelessness that millions children and families around the world face every day. How would it feel to have my children die because I could not afford a $1.50 vaccine for malaria? How would it feel to have to give my thirsty children a glass of water I knew was filled with bacteria and human feces? How would it feel to have my children go to bed hungry because I could not earn enough money to provide food? How would I feel if my children could not get an education, and I knew they were doomed to repeat the vicious cycle of poverty?

The greatest issue that we face as those who have been blessed financially is to not look at those material goods as our possessions, and instead to look at them as spiritual stewardships. We have been blessed with abundance for a reason, and it is our responsibility to find what He wants us to do with those resources.

Although the global social crisis may seem bleak, we live in a world of abundance. There is plenty of food, clean water, clothing, medicine and education, or at least enough money to create it. The only question is whether those of us who have are willing to share our blessings with those who do not.

Bill Gates is the richest man on the planet (Forbes). He has contributed billions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation’s fortune has increased to $33 billion and is responsible for many charitable works around the globe — from a $100 million HIV/AIDS initiative in Botswana to a $1.5 billion commitment to distribute vaccines to children in developing countries.

I sat in a meeting last year with senior officials from the Mozambique child welfare system. They explained how diseases such as AIDS/HIV and malaria were decimating their population and that within just a few years they estimated that 10% of the entire population of their country would be orphans. They then explained the amazing work that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is doing in treating malaria in Mozambique and the hope that is providing.

Say what you want about Bill Gates, but where the rubber meets the road, he is making a greater difference in the lives of widows and orphans than anyone on the planet. Not only is he giving his money, but he is giving his time. In July 2008, he is stepping away from Microsoft to run his foundation full time. I know I’m not Bill Gates’ judge, and I know there are other factors which will be used to determine salvation in addition to good works. However, I can’t think of a better example of what the prophet James taught, that pure religion requires serving others, especially the widows and orphans.