Sitting here last night contemplating this letter, everything Thanksgiving popped into my head. But GeoVisions is a global company and it is only in America that we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week. I do my best to come up with a global theme each month, and the upcoming U.S. holiday won't do the trick.
I saw the new Robert Redford movie with my son last week. The critics hate it, audiences have rejected it, but I think it deserves to be seen.
Lions for Lambs reminded me about the GeoVisions mission and what we are trying to accomplish through our volunteers and teachers traveling abroad to get involved and make a difference.
As a college professor, Redford is trying to shake up a stereotypically apathetic young man who's a current student of his. He actually offers the student a solid B in the course if he never comes to class again. The offer is, in itself, testing the student's apathy. The student is convinced that one person cannot do much to change the world or make a difference. Given the global political climate, he has convinced himself that nothing ever gets to the right place, best intentions are diverted to less-needy areas, and so the whole effort of taking a stand or getting involved seems pointless.
But Redford bristles and reminds the young student, "They bank on your apathy, they bank on your willful ignorance." Redford tells his student, "... How can you enjoy the good life when Rome is burning?"
Therein lies the film's recurring theme, which is that those of us on the sidelines, whatever our political persuasion or professional position, need to get involved and to care about what is happening to our country and the world.
More than 854 million people, globally, are hungry. That's up from 852 million a year ago, according to a recent report from the United Nations. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--that's one child every five seconds. In 2005, about 10.1 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday.
Since the epidemic began, 25 million people have died from AIDS, which has caused more than 15 million children to lose at least one parent. For its analysis, UNICEF uses a term that illustrates the gravity of the situation;
child-headed households, or minors orphaned by HIV/AIDS who are raising their siblings.
Even in developing countries, nearly 11 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. 60% of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition. Here in the U.S., 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet according to
Bread for the World.
The volunteers we have already sent abroad in 2007 did a lot to support the global efforts to correct these situations and more. We already have volunteers signed up for 2008. So...Happy Thanksgiving. We truly
are thankful for these global citizens who give their time and money to go abroad and make a difference.
In
Lions for Lambs, that’s really Redford’s message for the rest of us: Shake off the apathy. Take a stand one way or the other. If you’re on the sidelines, you’re not helping anybody.
I hope I'll see you on a project soon...sleeves rolled up.
We can change the world one person at a time. There just needs to be a steady supply of "one persons" standing in the queue!
Sincerely,
Randy LeGrant
Executive Director