On average, about  16,000 children die from hunger-related causes each day, or one child every five seconds.  About 5.8 million children die from hunger-related issues each year, about double the total population of the state of Utah.  (Source: Black, Robert, Morris, Saul, & Jennifer Bryce. “Where and Why Are 10 Million Children Dying Every Year?” The Lancet 361:2226-2234. 2003.)

If all of the hungry people in the world were combined, the total number would be large enough to be the world’s third-largest country, and more than three times the population of the entire United States.

2007 World Population Rankings

(Source: The Orphan Foundation and State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2008 FAO.”Food Security Statistics”)

Hunger is essentially the most extreme form of poverty, a state in which individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food (Source: Are We On Track To End Hunger? Hunger Report 2004. Bread for the World Institute. 2004.)  Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. (Source: Are We On Track To End Hunger? Hunger Report 2004. Bread for the World Institute. 2004.)  Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.  (Source: State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2008 FAO.”Food Security Statistics”. ) Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities (Source: “Malnutrition”. World Health Organization.)

Here a a few good websites that are working to fight world hunger:

Action Against Hunger - an international network committed to saving the lives of malnourished children and their families while ensuring access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.

Bread for the World – a non-profit organization focusing on fundraising and lobbying for hunger-related issues.

TheHungerSite.com – by using certain websites, money will be donated to charities that combat hunger issues.

WorldVision – allows you to sponsor a child.

Yesterday Crystal and I purchased the domain name Hunger.net. We would love your thoughts about how we can use digital media and Hunger.net to help solve world hunger.  For example, microlending websites such as Kiva, empower us to help entrepreneurs better provide for their famlies.  Microlending is one of the most effective, sustainable solutions to poverty.  Child sponsorship websites such as WorldVision, help connect great people with and sponsor specific children.  What other ideas do you have about how Hunger.net can make a large-scale difference to help solve world hunger?

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:

Kiva works to qualify and monitor microfinance institutions (”Field Partners”) around the world. Then, these Field Partners post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on the Kiva website. Then, individual lenders (like you and I) can read through the profiles of business opportunities and decide which we would like to fund. Individual lenders can contribute just a few dollars, or the entire amount needed. Many requested loans are for just a few hundred dollars.

Once the needed capital is raised, Kiva sends the funds to the Field Partner, which distributes and administers the funds. The local entrepreneur then uses the funds to start or improve a business, or in some cases to improve living conditions. The borrower is supported by the Field Partner and often by a borrowing support group in the local community. Here are some examples of lending opportunities on Kiva:

• Help a fisherman buy a refrigerator in Azerbaijan.
• Improve a restaurant in Pakistan.
• Increase inventory in a spare parts stand in Ghana.
• Increase inventory for a timber business in Tanzania.
• Buy farming equipment and supplies in Samoa.

During the course of the loan, which usually lasts 6-8 months, the lender can receive journal updates and track repayments. Eventually, as the borrower repays the Field Partner, those funds are then returned to Kiva. Kiva claims that its borrowers have a historical repayment rate of 99.7%. Once the loan is fully repaid, the lender can elect to withdraw the funds, or to re-invest the funds in another lending opportunity. Lenders can choose to invest smaller amounts in a larger number of lending opportunities, and keep a portfolio of loans in which they are participating.

Field Partners do charge an interest rate to the borrowers, but Kiva will not work with organizations that charge too high of a rate. Kiva lenders do not receive interest because of U.S. government regulation. However, PayPal waives all transaction fees, so 100% of the funds loaned reach the entrepreneurs in developing countries.

According to Kiva, as of April 13, 2008, 40,577 loans totaling $27,502,710 have been made by 277,535 lenders through Kiva with an average loan size is $520.20.

I believe that most people who learn about Kiva are moved to help. So, what can we do to help? We can obviously choose to start lending, even if it is a very small amount. We can give Kiva gift certificates for birthdays and holiday gifts. Families could save their change, and together select the people to receiver their loans. We can also ask that others make contributions to our Kiva account for their gifts to us. I would LOVE to receive a Kiva contribution as a gift, because it would be far more meaningful to me than traditional gifts.

In addition to Kiva, eBay also operates a similar project, MicroPlace.