Sustainable Good

A Powerful Opportunity – for Women & Children

Diane Sadler, Communications Specialist for Outreach International, went to see "A Powerful Noise" last Thursday.  She wrote some great thoughts about the movie.

 

 

On March 5th, ten employees and friends of Outreach International attended the special showing of “A Powerful Noise,” a film on women’s challenges and victories, and the kind of empowerment that Outreach International has been fortunate enough to participate in. The stories seemed so much like the ones we hear first-hand every day: Madame Urbain in Africa who, because her father had the foresight and love to send his daughter to school, traveled Mali to talk to girls and their fathers about protecting them from the dangers of illiteracy. Hanh, the young woman in VietNam who contracted HIV and wasn’t about to take the shame and exclusion, but began teaching others the simple science of how to prevent it. Nada, a mother whose family and community were ravaged by wars in Bosnia, and yet organized a group of women to create agricultural cooperatives and fair trade markets to restore their lives.

All of these women, in addition to caring for themselves and their families, also energized themselves to care for others – strangers – those in mutual exclusion and pain. And in doing so, lives, and communities, and countries are being changed.

No one has thrown shoes at Outreach International

It is my firm belief that the kind of work Outreach International is involved in provides more than just health care, education, economic security, and nutrition.  It devlops more than self-esteem and an ability to voice struggles to those in power.

Outreach International  prevents shoes being thrown at presidents. 

You may or may not sympatize with Muntader al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush, but that's beside the point.

Far too often, wars begin because there is a fight over limited resources.  Economic insecurity breeds political insecurity which breeds conflict.  Of course wars, and in particular the Iraq war, cannot be described in such simplistic terms.  But I can't help but think about Outreach's philosphy -- building community, and then supporting that community in solving their own problems -- and wonder if States adopted this way of working out problems, there would be as many international conflicts as there are these days.  Bush claimed that American soldiers were going to come to Iraq as liberators.  Cue the images of Iraquis showering us with flowers and praise.

Help influence our media

May I summarize the last posts by Jeff, Stephen and Matt?

I remember reading quite awhile ago (hence no source, sorry) about media attitudes toward people in different parts of the world and it went something like this: If one American is killed, it's newsworthy.  After that the journalistic worth of other people around the world looks much like this math equation: 1 American = 10 Europeans = 100 Asians =1,000 Central/South Americans = 10,000 Africans.  This is now the unspoken rule when it comes to those "Breaking News" headlines.  Africans just don't qualify as important unless tens of thousands are massacred or killed -- and even then, the story has a quick shelf life.