FACE TO FACE WITH POVERTY

A Perspective From Tanzania

Program Length: 45 - 60 Minutes

Program Description: According to UN statistics, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty related causes. Learn about the reality of poverty both through global statistics and the presenter’s personal story about the poverty situation in Tanzania. Students will learn about the causes and affects of poverty in this East African nation.

Participant Preparation: Participants prepare best for this program by:

1. Displaying a world map, a map of Africa and a map of Tanzania.
2. Ensuring access to the internet during the presentation. Some visual aids are not available for copying. They can only be accessed from the websites in question. Access to the websites during the presentation is important.
3. Bringing pens/pencils and paper to the program.

Program Format: An action oriented, interactive discussion of a personal poverty experience in the context of poverty as a global issue.

Program Objectives, participants will:

1. Learn about global poverty
2. Explore through questions and gain understanding of the presenter’s situation.
3. Briefly review different approaches to poverty eradication.
4. Develop an appreciation for the need to eradicate poverty.
5. Decide on whether or not to engage in poverty eradication.

Vocabulary Words and Definitions:

• Economic development: Sustained increase in the economic standard of living of a country's population, normally accomplished by increasing its stocks of physical and human capital and improving its technology.
• Participation Rate: The fraction of a country's working-age population that is employed or seeking employment.
• Poverty: the total absence of opportunities, accompanied by high levels of undernourishment, hunger, illiteracy, lack of education, physical and mental ailments, emotional and social instability, unhappiness, sorrow and hopelessness for the future.
• Village: a settlement usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town.
• Human Rights: The rights people are entitled to simply because they are human beings, irrespective of their citizenship, nationality, race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality, or abilities; human rights become enforceable when they are Codified as Conventions, Covenants, or Treaties, or as they become recognized as Customary International Law.
  

Supplemental Resources: The following will enhance this program.
1. The Commission for Africa Report: http://www.commissionforafrica.org/english/report/thereport/english/11-03-05_cr_report.pdf
2. Some world poverty statistics: http://www.bigpicturesmallworld.com/movies/hunger/hunger1.html
3. http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Post-Program Activity Suggestions: Follow through on ideas, priorities and other areas of agreement reached during the discussion.

About the Presenter: Bartolomeo Misana, the youngest of twelve children, was born in Tanzania. He was the only child in the family to go to college. He interrupted his studies to go to work, in order to build his aging parents a house with a metal roof. In one year he saved enough money to build a new house for his parents after which he resumed his studies to the priesthood. Misana served for twelve years as a Catholic priest in his country. Feeling he was not giving back enough to his community and country, he went on to work directly in community economic development as an employee of Catholic Relief Services. After twelve years in direct community work, he joined Southern New Hampshire University for a graduate degree in Community Economic Development (CED). He is currently working as the Acting Director of African Programs at Global Education Motivators.