BTW, have you heard of the MDG? AFAIK, it is not another LOL acronym created by the SMS crazy people but a reference to very serious issues that seem to have escaped most of the world's notice.If it hadn't been for the links sent by Kathy who spearheads the wonderful NGO – EI - that I wrote about here, I wouldn't have known about MDG s either.
MDG refers to the Millennium Development Goals – a set of eight goals ranging from reduction of extreme poverty to providing universal primary education to improving maternal health – that need to be achieved by 2015 as decided in the 2000 UN Millennium summit.
Photo Courtesy kathyaadams
This is a global initiative at the highest level and all countries around the world have participated in the hope of making this world a better place. The basic idea is to help the poorest in the world and if you think it is a simple task, just check out some mind boggling statistics here.
According to this report, there are more than 2.6 billion people, roughly 42 percent of the world's population, waiting in line for toilets that just do not exist. How sad is that? Now get this, for every dollar spent on improving sanitation, it is estimated that at least three dollars, and as much as 34 dollars, are saved in costs related to health, education, and social and economic development. Thats obviously because most of the health issues like diarrhea and malaria are caused due to lack of hygiene. The UN has declared 2008 as the International Year of sanitation and aims to halve the number of people without access to sanitation facilities by 2015.
If we talk of education, consider the fact that to achieve universal primary education, the amount required (around $ 10 billion) every year would be half of what America spends on ice cream alone! (ActionAid)
I could inundate you with more of such surprising data and all of it would point to just one thing : we need to come out of our luxurious cocoons and help our fellow beings.
Imagine every child on earth will be able to read and write, wouldn't have to travel miles just to get drinking water and will be able to avoid going hungry everyday if we just wake up to the new goals and do something about them.
What is surprising is that the kind of wealth and prosperity the world is seeing now is unprecedented and yet every second child born is poverty stricken. It is not inevitable for so many people to be so heartbreakingly poor. The UN's MDG aims to halve the world poverty by 2015. Not just that, the Millennium Development Goals intend to do away with illiteracy, hunger, environmental damages and spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. So many organizations and individuals have come together to work for this noble cause. You can read about it all in details here.
What we can do is become partners in this global war against poverty. We can spread the word and do our bit in helping the unfortunate among us.
Lets make MDG a cool acronym to be talked about and worked upon with interest and enthusiasm. Lets show our TLC to the needy by doing something for them.
* For all those who are not crazy about shortened phrases, here are the full versions of the acronyms I have used -
BTW - By The Way, MDG – Millennium Development Goals , AFAIK – As Far As I Know, LOL – Laugh Out Loud, SMS – Short Messaging Service, NGO – Non Governmental Organization, EI – Empowerment International, TLC – Tender Loving Care
