15 posts from June 2011

(More pictures at Bread's Flickr stream. See if you're in the photos!)

Rev. Dr. Frank Thomas preaches during opening worship at Bread's 2011 Gathering.

 
The Rev. Dr. Frank Thomas is pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis.


Rebekah Richey of Altamonte Springs, Fla., and Jenny Millkey of Palmetto, Ga., laugh during the opening plenary session.

Reinaldo Diaz of Bronx, N.Y., on the opening day of Bread for the World's 2011 Gathering.

Behind the curtain, Holly Hight (left), Bread for the World California Organizer, and Carter Echols (right), Bread's Senior Local Church Outreach Associate, talk backstage on the opening day of Bread for the World's 2011 Gathering.

Holly Hight films the audience.

Cureton Johnson (left) and Roy Birch (right) on the first day of the 2011 Gathering.

David Beckmann speaks on opening day of the 2011 Gathering.

Prayer map.

Last night at Bread for the World's 2011 Gathering, we learned the stories of three Bread activists working on behalf of poor and hungry people: Cameron Shaw, Dominic Barrett and Tina Hayashi. They all live in different parts of the United States and came to their advocacy work from different experiences but with the same result. Watch the videos below to learn more about them and their commitment to helping poor and hungry people.

(Videos by Bread for the World organizers Holly Hight, Mandy Wrinkle and Matt Newell-Ching.)

Seven out of 10 hungry people worldwide are women. Given that women are the primary caretakers of children, helping women out of hunger and poverty means helping kids, too.

Ferishta, an Afghan woman living in Mazar-e Sharif, is keeping herself and her 20 employees (and their children) from hunger and poverty with her soccer ball manufacturing business.

"You know that in Afghanistan sometimes people think that it's very difficult, especially for women, to do anything," said Ferishta, "and I also had the same idea, but after starting my own business I feel so much happier."

In fact, Ferishta's company is one of a growing number of women-owned businesses in Afghanistan. According to the New York Times:

Less than a decade after being banned from schools and offices by the Taliban government, Afghan women are helping to create a next generation of entrepreneurs determined to support their families and give a boost to their nation’s economy. In a desperately poor country in which unemployment estimates top 40 percent, the jobs they create make a difference.

 Here's to Ferishta and other Afghan women like her.

 This story is part of our Wednesday ViewChange video series.

Cacao farmers in the Dominican Republic have been fighting a losing battle with the global economy for a long time. But now, as part of the Loma Guaconejo cooperative, they've found a way to turn the system in their favor.

One of my favorite parts of this story is the frank and funny comments from Ludovina Silverio Santos, a member of the cooperative. It's Santos' delivery of her "lines" that really makes this story for me. She reminds me of another frank and funny cacao (also known as cocoa) farmer, David Kpan of Liberia. I had the pleasure of meeting him last year while working on Bread's 2011 Offering of Letters video, which is about reforming foreign assistance. Fast forward to 4:09 for what I consider to be David's best "line".

This story is part of our Wednesday ViewChange video series.