27 years ago on October 17th, 100,000 people gathered in Paris, France to remember the victims of poverty, hunger and violence. It was the first International Anti-Poverty Day and since then many community groups, churches and charities use the date to recommit their efforts to help the poor.
[ePrayer – Pray for the health of minorities]
Minority groups suffer worse health outcomes than the rest of the population, according to a new report published by Minority Rights Group International (MRG). They call for greater measures to combat disparities in global health outcomes between minority groups and majority communities. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have resulted in much that is good. But one of the fundamental flaws with them has been the lack of a right or equity perspective. Minority and indigenous communities often are marginalised from all aspects of life in their countries. For example, infant mortality among indigenous groups in China’s Yunnan Province was 7.8%, compared to 5.4% for non-indigenous groups in Yunnan and a national average of 2.6%. In Papua, Indonesia, HIV infection rates among minority groups are 15 times the national average. In Guatemala, indigenous children suffer approximately 20 percent higher malnutrition than majority communities. According to the report, lack of access to healthcare and systemic patterns of discrimination are major causal factors behind these figures. [IRIN]
Pray for the health of minorities:
[ePrayer – Pray for water and sanitation in the world]
Water and sanitation, which is fundamental to fighting disease and poverty, are included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Last year, it was said that the world had reached the target of access to improved sources of water, but water quality to a large degree still fails to meet basic UN World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Roughly 80 per cent of global wastewater from human settlements or industrial sources is discharged untreated, contaminating oceans, lakes and rivers. Sanitation is the most lagging of the MDGs. Meeting the target would involve reducing the proportion of people without access to sanitation from more than half, to 25 per cent by 2015. However, more than 2.5 billion people around the world still have no adequate sanitation and of these one billion practice open defecation. Poor sanitation also has a big impact on the safety and well-being of women and girls; the day-to-day humiliation and risks faced by women and girls without access to appropriate sanitation facilities have been demonstrated time and again. Therefore, renewed international cooperation on water management and access to adequate sanitation is needed. [UN News]
Pray for water and sanitation in the world :
[ePrayer – Pray for the poor and marginalised people]
A UN report outlining a new framework to build on the anti-poverty targets known as the MDGs was written to drive five major transformational shifts, including a transition from ‘reducing’ to ‘ending’ extreme poverty, leaving no one behind; putting sustainable development at the core of the development agenda; and forging a new global partnership based on cooperation, equity and human rights. The new framework focuses on assisting the poorest and most marginalised, a disproportionate number of whom are women, and puts reducing disaster risk centre stage in the Post-2015 Development Agenda debate. The report said no one is more vulnerable than people in poverty to face challenges by desertification, deforestation and overfishing and these are less able to cope with floods, storms, and droughts. Natural disasters can pull them into a cycle of debt and illness, to further degradation of the land, and a fall deeper into poverty. [UN News]
Pray for the poor and marginalised people :
