Garbage

The other day I had to dig through the garbage at work to find something I had accidentally thrown out. After I went through just 3 bags of garbage I stumbled upon my missing item. All that was dirty was my hands but I felt dirty all over. It wasn't pleasant digging through rotting bananas, wet coffee grounds and who knows what else. After I was done, a very sad thought popped into my head. Thousands upon thousands do this everyday. However they are walking among heaps of garbage, trying to salvage something to eat or take home that they can use or even sell. They are walking among dead animals, sewage, rotting food, riddled with disease. I then read this Compassion blog about the Garbage Dump being "The Mall" for those in third world countries. Here's the link to that blog. We can do something about this. A lot of people think the problem is too big! What can I do to help? We can do something. We all have things we can give up to be able to donate or sponsor a child. No child or adult should have to live like this.
http://blog.compassion.com/going-to-the-mall-aka-the-garbage-dump/

Bangladesh

This month's donation is going to help the impoverished of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has a soft spot in my heart because it is the home of my sponsor child Sadia whom I sponsor through World Vision. This is my sweet Sadia and her family.

Eighty million people live in extreme poverty in remote areas of Bangladesh with little access to clean water, a toilet, a doctor or medicine, a bank, a job, land, or a basic education. More than half of the 156 million citizens of Bangladesh live below the poverty line in a country the size of the state of Iowa. It is the most densely populated country in the world. While rice is the main food and income source for most Bangladeshis, 80 percent of agricultural land is also floodplain, so that when monsoons, typhoons, and tornadoes cause the country’s three major rivers to overflow, poor families already relegated to marginal land are pushed underwater.

Like many areas of extreme poverty around the world, women and girls suffer the most:

• 65% of women in Bangladesh are malnourished.
• 2/3rds of girls ages 10 to 19 are forced into early marriage
• 55% of young women experience early, high-risk pregnancies
• 55% of married women are not free to seek medical help on their own--or to leave their village
• Half of Bangladeshi men and women are illiterate, making adult literacy education crucial

World renew is helping communities in Bangladesh by:

• Improving agriculture by increasing food production, food security, and education. This includes increasing rice crop yields, organic composting, and permaculture and cover crop development.
• Increasing family health through monthly childhood growth monitoring and immunization programs, training traditional birth attendants, improving health and hygiene practices, and family health education.
• Increasing literacy rates among men and women in their traditional languages by teaching basic reading, writing, and numeracy.
• Increasing financial skills, small group savings and loan funds, small business loans, bookkeeping, and business management skills. It also includes training in family law, human rights, and childrens and womens rights.
• Building community by partnering with churches and teaching Biblical principles of development to transform communities through local ownership of projects.