storiesof.us

Social Justice Organizations

+Bright Hope (Dirt Cookies + More

+International Justice Mission

+YouCanMakeIt Chicago Homeless Shelter

+Bridge Communities (DuPage Homeless Help)

Web

+Hunger: Celebration of Hope (resources from Willow Creek Community Church)

Articles

+Child Beggars

Social Justice Experiences

+Limit Your Material Consumption Challenge

Look at making small but purposeful changes in how you steward your spending.

Choose a few sustainable ways you can limit your consumption, then redirect those dollars to help alleviate hunger.  Every time you limit your consumption, put aside the money you saved give it a social justice organization.

+Five–Day Solidarity Challenge

The Five-Day Solidarity Challenge is to eat as half the world’s population does, with meals of oatmeal, rice, beans and vegetables.

The American diet is vastly different than much of the world. Half the world’s population lives on $2 a day or less. As an act of solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the globe, we encourage you to eat as they do for five days.  Set aside the money you would have spent on additional groceries to include with your special offering.

Meal Options

• Plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat
• A tortilla, rice and beans
• Rice with bits of fish or chicken and a vegetable

Portions
Portion sizes are much smaller than a typical American meal. One cup or eight ounces is a generous portion. Meat is a luxury, with the average African consuming about ¾ ounce per day—the size of a small chicken nugget. Fresh fruit is rare, available only if locally grown and in season.

While these meals seem meager by American standards, they actually represent diets in the broad middle of the world’s population. Approximately 1 billion people live on even less—only $1 per day.

**Please use your discernment in determining a portion size that will allow you to function in a safe manner and to also experience what life is like for the other half of the world. Those with medical conditions should honor your physician’s medical recommendations. Contact your doctor if unsure about participation in the challenge.

+Student Impact Samfya High School Textbook Project

When high school students from Willow Creek’s Student Impact became aware of the dire need for basic textbooks at Samfya High School, they undertook a fundraising challenge. Over the course of the next few months, students raised more than $25,000 to purchase over 1,000 textbooks for their 1,175 Samfyan high school brothers and sisters.

Social Justice Facts

Economy

In a society that has increasingly become inundated with materialism and spending, it’s hard to remember the day when our smallest need was not promptly met. In fact, Americans as a nation know a level of wealth never experienced in history. Consider the following:

Global Wealth

The distribution of global wealth is a landslide in our favor. And yet simultaneously, more Americans than ever describe an ache, a loss of meaning, an emptiness inside. A hunger, if you will. Could it be that, as we overeat, overwork, overspend, and overstimulate ourselves with entertainment, we are simultaneously starving ourselves spiritually? Have we so oversaturated our every physical sense, that we have dulled our spiritual senses.

+Stepping Stones Out of Poverty

While food relief is vital in the crisis of starvation, it doesn’t bring long-term solutions to hunger. Five stepping stones must be in place for people to walk toward long-term freedom from hunger and poverty:

>>Immediate Relief - People who are starving receive food.

>>Food Security – Effort is made to create a food source. If people can plant a garden, for instance, they can keep their family fed and still have leftovers to sell at market.

>>Education – Many people have job skills; they simply need to build their knowledge base to become employable. Education and training prepares them for a job.

>>Microenterprise – Once skills and knowledge are possessed, microenterprise companies create jobs by building business co-ops, providing short-term capital, and funding the tools needed to create a profitable industry owned by the people.

>>Fair Trade – Now that they are using their knowledge, skills and tools to produce something of value, these businesses need buyers. Fair Trade provides buyers who pay a fair price for these products, from which the people earn a living wage for themselves and their families.

+Fair Trade

Fair Trade is a set of standards and practices that brings justice and dignity to impoverished people around the world.

Fair Trade involves the following principles:

• Producers receive a fair price – a living wage. For commodities, farmers receive a stable, minimum price
• Forced labor and exploitative child labor are not allowed
• Buyers and producers trade under direct long-term relationships
• Producers have access to financial and technical assistance
• Sustainable production techniques are encouraged
• Working conditions are healthy and safe
• Equal employment opportunities are provided for all
• All aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability

In the USA, TransFair USA places the “Fair Trade Certified” label on Fair Trade Products. Fair Trade Certification ensures that workers are paid fair wages are free from abusive labor practices use environmentally sustainable methods.

Fair Trade and Coffee
The United States consumes one-fifth of the world’s coffee, making it the largest consumer in the world. But few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as “sweatshops in the fields.” Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. How can you combat this injustice? Commit to buying only Fair Trade coffee.

The Fair Trade system benefits over 800,000 farmers organized into cooperatives and unions in 48 countries. Fair Trade has helped farmers provide for their families’ basic needs and invest in community development; however, these farmers are still selling most of their crop outside of the Fair Trade system because not enough companies are buying at Fair Trade prices. Your support of Fair Trade certified products helps increase the demand for Fair Trade among companies, retailers, and consumers, and makes a life-changing difference for small-scale farmers and vendors.