Buddhist Global Relief

‘Terrifying’: Rapid Loss of Biodiversity Placing Global Food Supplies at Risk of ‘Irreversible Collapse’

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By Julia Conley,
Staff writer, Common Dreams

Deforestation for palm oil in central Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Image by Ardiles Rante / Greenpeace)

“This should be at the top of every news bulletin and every government’s agenda around the world.”

A groundbreaking report by the United Nations highlighting the rapid, widespread loss of many of the world’s plant and animal species should be on the front page of every newspaper in the world, argued climate action and food access advocates on Friday.

Go here for a concise summary of the 570 page report.

The global grassroots organization Slow Food was among the groups that called for far greater attention by world leaders to the “debilitating” loss of biodiversity and the disastrous effects the decline is having on food system, which was outlined in a first-of-its kind report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Continue reading →

Climate Change and World Hunger

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By David Braughton

Climate Change and the World’s Poor

For the 821 million people across the globe who face chronic hunger, climate change is no theory, but an ever-present reality. Fully 80% of the world’s chronically hungry and malnourished people live in rural areas, surviving only on the food they grow from their rain-dependent farms. Variability in the amount of rainfall, when the rain falls, days between rainfall, or daily temperatures – all the result of climate change – can quickly transform what is at its best a marginal existence into almost certain starvation.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Agriculture, Climate change, Global Hunger, Global poverty, Projects & programs

Tagged Cambodia, Climate change, Cote d"Ivoire, Engaged Buddhism, Global hunger, Global warming, sustainable agriculture

Learning about Home Gardens, Nutrition, and Public Speaking in Vietnam

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By Randy Rosenthal

With so many problems in the world, it sometimes feels like nothing we do can makes a difference. But Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) is showing that by improving the lives of individuals, we can in fact make a difference. A great example of this is BGR’s partnership with Helen Keller International (HKI) on the Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) project in Vietnam, which is now in its third year.

With BGR support, during 2018, HKI expanded their EHFP project to the provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, and Lai Chau, which is one of the poorest areas of Vietnam. In July, the latter two provinces were heavily hit by tropical storm Son Tinh, which caused flash floods and landslides, but the program’s goals were successfully reached in all areas. These goals focused on alleviating hunger mainly through training mothers and pregnant women about nutrition and horticulture. Continue reading →

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Posted in Agriculture, Ending global poverty, Engaged Buddhism, Food insecurity, Nutrition, Projects & programs

Tagged Engaged Buddhism, Global hunger, Helen Keller International, sustainable agriculture, Vietnam

Cooking Porridge and Training Health Workers in Côte d’ Ivoire

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By Randy Rosenthal

One of the leading factors in infant mortality in Côte d’ Ivoire, where about 40% of the population lives in poverty, is malnutrition. This is especially the case in Korhogo District, in the northern region of Poro, where malnutrition is the most prevalent. That’s why Buddhist Global Relief chose to support Helen Keller International’s (HKI) effort to greatly reduce instances of malnutrition among women of child-bearing age in Korhogo, and especially among children during their first 1,000 days of life.

Compared to their projects in other countries, the way HKI approached their effort in Côte d’Ivoire is quite unique. And this is because they focused their efforts on training local community health workers, who could then continue to share knowledge locally, rather than solely holding information sessions. Continue reading →

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Posted in Engaged Buddhism, Global poverty, Nutrition, Projects & programs

Tagged Cote d"Ivoire, Engaged Buddhism, Helen Keller International, Maternal health

Helping Indian Dalit Girls Rise Up and Shine: The Mission of the Bodhicitta Foundation

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By Patricia Brick

The Bodhicitta Foundation provides schooling and job training, legal assistance, social justice and women’s rights education, and other services to impoverished Dalit women and girls in Nagpur, India. Founded by the Australian Buddhist nun Ayya Yeshe, the foundation operates a girls’ hostel and a women’s job training and community center in slum areas of Nagpur. A three-year Buddhist Global Relief grant supports both of these projects.

The Dalits in India–the people formerly known as “outcasts” or “untouchables”–have historically been relegated to jobs considered “below” even the members of society’s lowest caste.; Their work traditionally involved such tasks as cleaning or processing human waste or animal carcasses. Women and girls in this group face additional gender-specific burdens including domestic violence and child marriage. An estimated 30 percent of Indian women experience physical or sexual domestic violence in their lifetimes, according to the U.N.’s Global Database on Violence Against Women. More than a quarter of Indian girls are married by age 18, and 7 percent are married by age 15.

The Bodhicitta Foundation seeks to break the cycle of poverty by giving women and girls the tools they need to financially support themselves and their families. An estimated 2,000 people benefit from the foundation’s initiatives in Nagpur each year. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education, Engaged Buddhism, Global poverty, Projects & programs, Women's livelihood

Tagged Bodhicitta Foundation, Engaged Buddhism, Girls' Education, India

BGR Provides Emergency Aid to Yemeni Victims and Rohingya Refugees

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Bhikkhu Bodhi | Comments Off

By Tom Spies

In the second week of December, BGR made emergency donations to the World Food Program USA to provide assistance to two communities facing severe food shortages. An emergency donation of $8,000 will help the World Food Programme provide aid to the people of Yemen; the other donation, of $4,000, will provide food assistance to the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar now living in displaced persons camps in Bangladesh.

In Yemen, over the past two years a sustained air assault by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia has left tens of thousands of civilians dead and millions of people internally displaced. An outbreak of cholera, the worst in the world, has affected hundreds of thousands of people, 30 percent of them children. One child in Yemen dies every 10 minutes due to preventable diseases. Continue reading →

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Posted in Buddhist social ethics, Emergency relief, Engaged Buddhism, Food insecurity, Projects & programs

Tagged Bangladesh, Children's hunger, Engaged Buddhism, food insecurity, Rohingyas, Yemen famine