A big thanks goes out to Milw Pres for hosting me at their adult sunday school. Gave them an update on the foreign aid issue and made the call for more letters to Sen. Wyden to cosponsor.

Thanks again

November 2009

• Ending hunger in after-school settings
• Celebrate the harvest
• Help support child nutrition programs

Indonesia: A Journey from Megalopolis to Village – Fri – October 30, 2009
Join Mercy Corps’ Senior Writer Roger Burks for a lunchtime presentation in the Action Center. Roger will talk about his recent three-week journey through the world’s fourth most populous country with award-winning photographer Thatcher Cook, sharing his experience through photographs, personal observations and the stories of the people we serve. This is a brown bag, so bring your lunch and enjoy!

Friday, October 30th
Noon – 1 p.m.

Aceh Room, Mercy Corps Global Headquarters
45 SW Ankeny St.
Portland, OR

For more information, call 503-896-5002 or visit Mercy Corps Action Center.

Blessings & Blues Benefit Concert for Mercy Corps Clean Water Projects in Liberia – Sun – November 1, 2009
As the November temperatures drop, come get your dose of cool with Janice Scroggins, Portland’s own pianist & Gospel music legend along with Fiona Boyes, Australia’s international blueswoman.They’ll be putting on a benefit concert for Mercy Corps clean water projects in Liberia and the Cascade Blues Association Musician Relief Fund.

Enjoy special guests, Lloyd Jones, Jimi Bott, Dave Kahl, Dover Weinberg, La Rhonda Steele and others.

See more at the Mercy Corps website.

Sunday, November 1, 2009
7:00 pm

Grace Memorial Episcopal Church
1535 NE Seventeenth Avenue
Portland, OR 97223

$10 suggested minimum donation per person
Tickets available through Grace and at the door.
503-287-0418

Portland Business Alliance Presents Business Leadership Evening with Neal Keny-Guyer – Wed – November 4, 2009
Business Leadership Evening celebrates exceptional leadership in the business community and is an opportunity to connect with fellow business professionals. The evening keynote speaker will be Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps, who will discuss Mercy Corps’ commitment to helping those in need and spurring economic development around the world. The evening also includes the presentation of the William S. Naito Outstanding Service Award to J. Clayton Hering, President of Norris, Beggs & Simpson. The award recognizes exceptional leadership and service to the business community and is named in honor of the late Bill Naito.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
6-9:00pm

Portland Art Museum
1219 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR

To register, go to Portland Alliance. Table of 10: $1200. Individual ticket: $125

Presented by Wells Fargo. Sponsored by Hoffman Construction Company, Regence, Miller Nash, TransCanada, PGE and Oregon Business Magazine.

First Thursday in November with Portland Ten Thousand Villages – Thurs – November 5, 2009
Come start your holiday shopping in Portland’s Pearl District at Portland Ten Thousand Villages on Thursday, November 5th, when this unique shop will donate 15% of sales for the day back to Mercy Corps. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products made by artisans from more than 130 artisan groups in 38 countries. As one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, Ten Thousand Villages has spent more than 60 years cultivating long-term buying relationships in which artisans receive a fair price for their work and consumers have access to unique gifts, accessories and home decor from around the world.

First Thursdays are generally held from 5-8pm during the evening on the first Thursday of each month, year-round, and for your convenience, the shop is open all day on the 5th. This popular art walk in Portland’s Pearl district showcases the area’s many outstanding shops and galleries. First Thursdays makes for a festive night for anyone interested in gallery-hopping and grabbing a quick bite or a leisurely meal.

Thursday, November 5th
Shop 10am-9pm

Portland Ten Thousand Villages
938 N.W. Everett Street
Portland, OR

Located in the Heart of the Pearl District on the corner of NW 10th and Everett.

For more information, go to Mercy Corps at First Thursday.

Photojournalism – Youth Workshop – October to December, 2009
For six Saturdays, kids in grades 9-12 can take part in this unique set of training weekends devoted to photojournalism.
The class culiminates in an online photoblog and a gallergy exhibition hosted by the Mercy Corps Action Center with a First Thursday opening.

Six Saturdays
October 24 – December 5th (excluding Thanksgiving weekend)
10am-12:30pm

Mercy Corps Action Center
28 SW First Ave.
Portland, OR

Cost $195 per student

To register or check for availability for this Saturday Academy offering, go to Saturday Academy.

Short Video Storytelling – Youth Workshop – November to December, 2009
Kids in grades 9-12 are invited to learn how to construct a compelling video production using powerful imagery and messaging. Flip cameras are provided; all shooting will be done during class time. Instructors will be practitioners drawn from Mercy Corps and the Portland community.

Four Saturdays November 7th – December 5th (excluding Thanksgiving weekend)
1:30-4pm

Mercy Corps Action Center
28 SW First Ave.
Portland, OR

Cost – $80 per student

To request a registration form, email pdxactioncenter@mercycorps.org.

I have been involved with Bread for the World for 25 years now. The organization has helped shaped alot about who I am and what I believe. Arthur Simon is the founder of Bread for the World and its first President. This book is the story of the founding of Bread for the World, a couple of things jumped out at me and made me want to write a review.

• Its fasinating to me how a Lutheran pastor who grew up in Oregon came to found an anti-hunger orgnization. He lists important things in his life that lead him along this path. But its amazing to see all the little things and realize how easily this never could have happened. There are so many forks in the road of life.
• The fundamental humility of Arthur Simon comes out in the book. He mentions its not a ‘warts and all’ book, but he goes through his shortcomings and setbacks. Its a lesson that would serve all of us well. Life tends to make you hunble over time if you pay attention to it, a little more humility might make thoughs humble moments a little less of a shock and increase our chance to learn from them.

The key insights behind Bread are:

• Christians have for years done good work with private aid, but to be effective we must become public policy advocates as well. Hunger is too big an issue to be tackled by private aid or public programs alone.
• Bread is rooted in the Christian faith and the churches. Christians have a calling to help the poor and take action relying on their faith. It adds a unique, sincere, and powerful voice to the effort.
• Getting legislative action around hunger depends on letters and calls from constituients. It is the only power Bread has and the history of Bread shows the powerful results it can achieve.

Art chronicles some of the successes Bread has had over the years. Bread always works together with other partner organizations, but with these initiatives in particular, Bread has played a leading role:

Foreign

• Emergency and farmer owned grain reserve (1977 & 78). Faster response to famine. Has saved millions of lives over the years, distributing enough food to feed 100 m for neraly half a year.
• Child Survival (80s). US funding for Unicefs 5 low cost child survival measures: promoting breast feeding, growth charts, immunization, oral redydration, micro nutrients (vitamins). Saves 5 million per year. Has helped reduce the global daily death rate of children from 40,000 to 26,000 (still too high).
• Jubilee debt relief (99).Joined the global campaign for debt relief. Achieved the first real US committment for debt relief, allowing poor countries to divert there resources from debt payment, to spending in education and health.
• Reversed the long term decline in foreign aid. We are starting to see steady yearly increases in poverty focused development assistance (Helped found the ONE organization (1% increase in Foreign aid))(The Jubilee campaign started the momentum that lead to this). 

Domestic

• Wic program, started in 1974, provides nutrious food to 8 million mothers and children in the US. It increases the health of children in their most vulnerable years. More work to do, only 60% of eligible are covered.
• Support for the EITC (Earned income tax credit). The increases in the early 90s moved 4m out of poverty in the US.
• Defended food stamps from deeper cuts and block granting to the states. The program still suffered deep cuts during the 80s and 95 during welfare reform. Slowly it has regained some of this lost ground. The month benefit is still too small to meet a families need. $.60/meal/day.

Bread also faced some long term challenges and many obstacles:

• Fighting long term foreign decline. (especially agricultural development – just now being reversed). Decline started in 70s, continued through 80s and 90s. 80’s in particular was a lost decade: US miltary aid doubled, poor country spending in health declined 25%, in education 50%.
• Defensive battles of Reagan years: Increase in tax cuts and militray lead to increased defecits and cuts to programs. They sought a 40% reduction in child nutrition programs, 1 million forced off Food Stamps in early years. Alot of defensive work needed to limit the impact of cuts. Overall inflation adjusted funding for food prgrams dropped 5%, childhood poverty increased 21%. But their were successes in funding for WIC and the EITC.
• Harvest of peace – The hope was that the end of the cold war would produce a peace dividend that could be partly used for development assistance. The first Gulf War reversed this hope
• Welfare reform of the mid 90s. Produced some greater self sufficiency, but drastic cuts to food stamps and lack of investment in education and training meant that most remained trapped in poverty.

Current challenges

• Food crisis and global recession. 100 million more people are poor around the world due to the current global recession.
• Emerging poor & sustainability. Need to find ways for countries emerging from poverty to develop in a sustainable manner that doesnt overload resources and produce huge gaps in income.
• Continuing the current president of Bread for the Worlds (David Beckman) comittment to change the politics of hunger and create a broader, larger movement that can lead us to a world where large scale hunger is a thing of the past.

Art Simon founded an organization that over the years contributed to the saving of millions of lives. Its quite a legacy and achievement. We are slowly moving to an exodus from hunger. We need to continue the progress until we reach the promise land where freedom from hunger is the norm.

Excitement is mounting. Drumming bands are rehearsing. School buses are revving their engines. Portland is about to experience the opening of one of the most unique interactive, educational facilities in the country. On October 8-16th, Mercy Corps formally opens the doors of our new Global Headquarters and the Mercy Corps Action Center with a string of events that will not only mark its 30 year history, but will bring public awareness to its new home in downtown Portland. Come and be a part of Mercy Corps history.

The new Mercy Corps Action Center is an exceptional educational asset to Portland. It’s an interactive learning environment that will inspire a passion for making the world a better place. We want to help people of all walks of life not only understand what Mercy Corps and similar organizations do in the world, but to take meaningful action and become part of a dedicated movement of activists in the United States working to solve global challenges. The new Mercy Corps Action Center will help us accomplish just that.

We expect 70,000 visitors to experience the center annually; middle and high school students will make up our primary audience but we welcome visitors of all ages. Working closely with local school districts, the Mercy Corps Action Center education team will lead class visits and provide teachers with curricula that prepare students for what they’ll learn at the center. Even after their initial visit, students can stay involved by exploring the virtual Action Center at www.actioncenter.org. Online, students can access other Mercy Corps youth engagement programs, such as the Global Citizen Corps, a national network of youth who educate and mobilize their schools and communities to fight global poverty. It’s an exciting time for both Mercy Corps and the city of Portland. See the string of events below. Bring your family and friends.

Thursday, October 8, 2009-Bright Lights Speaker Series with Edwin Schlossberg-6pm This evening event offers a sneak preview of the Mercy Corps Action Center and kicks off a series of events marking the official opening of Mercy Corps’ new Global Headquarters. Come and hear the conversation between Portland Spaces editor, architecture guru, urban-design critic, Randy Gragg and Ed Schlossberg, founder of ESI Design, the New York based firm that designed The Mercy Corps Action Center as well as the American Family Immigration History Center on Ellis Island. This is a free event held at the Mercy Corps Community Room at 28 SW 1st. Doors open at 5:30pm for a 6:00pm start. Seating available on a first come basis. Please RSVP . You can learn more at www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/08/19/16203.

Friday, October 9, 2009–Global Headquarters Ribbon Cutting Ceremony-10am Local leaders, supporters, children, community advocates and the public participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony for Mercy Corps’ new Global Headquarters and the Mercy Corps Action Center, in Ankeny Plaza at 45 SW Ankeny in Portland. Entertainment will be provided by drummers and other musical artists. For more information visit www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/08/19/16204.

Following the ribbon cutting, there will be an open house from 11am-2pm for the public to experience the Mercy Corps Action Center. Designed by Ed Schlossberg, its purpose is to motivate the next generation of leaders in our efforts to address global issues like climate change, hunger and HIV/AIDS. For more information on the Mercy Corps Action Center open house activities visit www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/08/19/16205.

Saturday, October 10th-Weekend Celebration-10am-5pm – The Mercy Corps Action Center programs begin with presentation of family-friendly activities and workshops with a theme based on Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” The day will start in the Mercy Corps Action Center and parking lot and include African dance and drumming, a creative design workshop and an afternoon rock concert, “Rock For Action”, with bands Still Pending, Meet Your Monster, Goodbye Harrison and Don’t Hurt Miles. For more on the Mercy Corps Action Center Saturday programing, go to www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/08/19/16207. The Mercy Corps Action Center will then be open on Sunday, October 11th from 11am-4pm.

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009-Tracy Kidder-7:30pm Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder comes to Portland to discuss his new book, Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgetting. Tickets: $20 (includes admission and a copy of the book) go on sale Monday, Sept. 28th until sold out. Phone orders: Call 503-896-5701 to place an order with a credit card. If you reach voice mail, please leave your phone number and we’ll return the call as soon as possible. Tickets are limited. For information visit www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/09/21/16393. The event will be held in the Mercy Corps Community Room.

Friday, October 16th, 2009-Nicholas Kristof Speaking Event-7pm New York Times columnist, Pulitzer-Prize winner and native Oregonian, Nicholas Kristof appears in conversation on stage with Maria Wulff, president of the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Oregon at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. He will speak about his new book, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” co-authored with his wife and fellow Pulitzer Prize winner, Sheryl WuDunn. “Half the Sky” is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say “No more!” to the seventeenth-century abuses to girls and women in the twenty-first-century world,” writes Tom Brokaw. For more on the Kristof event at the Bagdad Theater visit www.mercycorps.org/events/2009/09/08/16304. Tickets $28 includes admission and a copy of the book. Tickets can be purchased in advance or day-of at the Bagdad Theater Box Office, Crystal Ballroom Box Office at Ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster
outlets. Presented by Powell’s Books, the World Affairs Council and Mercy Corps

We hope you’ll be a part of this dynamic time in Mercy Corps history. Many of you have already volunteered to make these events successful. For that, “Thank You!” Now come. Celebrate. Be a part of the change.

See you in October,

Minda Seibert
Senior Community Relations Officer
mseibert@mercycorps.org
 
45 SW Ankeny Street
Portland, OR 97204
503.896.5741
888.842.0842 ext. 5741
Mercy Corps helps people in the world’s toughest places turn the crises of natural disaster, poverty and conflict into opportunities for progress. Driven by local needs and market conditions, our programs provide communities with the tools and support they need to transform their own lives. Our worldwide team of 3,700 professionals is improving the lives of 16.7 million people in more than 40 countries. For more information, visit mercycorps.org

We learned late yesterday that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has moved discussions on S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act, to Oct. 6. This gives us more time to call our senators to ask them to co-sponsor S. 1524.

S. 1524 is a bipartisan bill which lays out several initial and important reforms of the U.S. foreign assistance system. If your senator is not a cosponsor, please ask for cosponsorship. If your senator is already a cosponsor, please call and thank him/her for supporting this important legislation.

Currently, the bill has 10 cosponsors. We need at least 25 cosponsors to push this bill higher on the Senate’s busy legislative agenda.

Please call your senators at 1-800-826-3688 before Tuesday, October 6, and urge them to cosponsor S. 1524.

You can explain your message further by adding either or both of these points:

• S. 1524 is a strong building block to make our nation’s foreign assistance more effective and accountable. We need you to cosponsor the bill.
• S. 1524 focuses on rebuilding the policy, planning, and evaluation capacity of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It stresses that U.S. policy should be to promote global development, good governance, and the reduction of poverty and hunger.

Thank you for your support.

There is still time to involve your church or faith community in Bread for the World Sunday on October 18 – or another Sunday in the fall.  If you haven’t ordered or downloaded your resources yet, please order them today.

More than 2,000 congregations have already received their free resources.

Some churches devote an entire worship service to Bread for the World Sunday.  Others simply use one or more of the suggested prayers to remember the needs of hungry people. 

I hope your church will do whatever is possible for you. 

Every Bread for the World Sunday order includes a reflection resource with a meditation on Mark 10:35-45 by Rev. John Buchanan, editor and publisher of the Christian Century.  Here is a brief excerpt:

“It’s all right to want to be great.  But greatness is not what you think.  It’s not about sitting at the right and left hand of the king.  It’s not about having lots of money or even lots of professional success.  In God’s kingdom, which Jesus believes is now the operational reality in the world, greatness is measured by service.  ‘Whoever wants to be great must be the servant of all.’” 

Participating in Bread for the World Sunday enables your congregation to join thousands of other congregations around the country as we remember those who live in hunger and poverty.  I hope you will join us.

Clark College Crop Walk

Sunday Oct 11th 1-4:30pm

www.cropwalk.org to signup or donate.

This film is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded  peace for Liberia which had been torn to shreds by a decade-old civil war.

Admission: free will offering

Concordia Univ is at NE 18th ave and Holman

Global Headquarters