Experience at the UN

So because I had Vetrans Day off from TORCH, I decided to see what life is like for my roommates. They are Loretto Volunteers both working with the Loretto NGO at the UN, and life at the UN does not stop for most holidays. We went to their office in the church center opposite the UN before going to a meeting of the Subcommittee for Affordable Medication (SAM) which is under the committee of HIV/AIDS. Their main topic of the meeting was about one woman's conversation with the ambassador of Swaziland, and how the committee would like to work on getting medication to the people of Swaziland because they have the highest percentage of people who are infected - 39% of people living there! And just to fill you all in, because I had no idea, Swaziland is a tiny country about the size of NJ between South Africa and Mozambique. I'm not sure how much of the particulars I'm allowed to disclose, but one of the ladies has connections to an organization that has helped set up factories for medicine production & education for the people about the medicines in other third world countries and she is going to see if they will get involved. It was exciting to witness the progress of this subcommittee!

I was able to participate in the meeting a little too! Nothing huge ofcourse, but they are using my suggestion for the rewording of their mission statement, and my wording for recognizing the Swaziland ambassador at World Aids Day for his effort. There was disagreement because originally they were going to honor him, but since he hasnt really done anything yet besides talk, they liked my idea of recognizing him and his efforts.

After that meeting, I had lunch with Sr. Margaret Mayce!! It was an informal little get together, but I had a good time. It was nice to see her again also. After lunch we did a little fun stuff by finding the US Mission's temporary home (reg. building underconstruction) and went to UNICEF. Then Mary Jo & Stephanie had to do actual work in the office, so I helped out by making a flyer for a Forum that the Committee for Social Development is hosting.

Later that evening we went to a sneak preview of the documentary "The End of Poverty?" followed by a Q&A session with the ambassador of Bolivia, the director of the movie, the producer, an economist who is famous but I didn't know, and the head of FreeSpeech.org who played a major part in making the movie happen. This movie gives you so much to think about, and explains the major reasons why there is poverty throughout the world while there are other people who have more money than they could ever spend. It put the idea of simple living that we are doing into a whole new perspective because as we struggle to make $100 last a month, there are people who are living on less than 1cent a day. One of the other ideas that hit me was that the US uses about 40% or so of all the natural resources, while places like Bolivia use less than one percent. If everyone in the world was to use as much as the US, we would need 6 Earths, while if we all used as little as the Bolivians, we would only use 1/6th of the earth.

This movie is going on a national tour, and coming to some of the cities that you are all in!! I would definitly recommend going to see it because it is so real. It is a documuntary so its very factual, but its presented in a very easy to understand way. I was walking to the train with Mary Jo, Steph, and Sally (the Loretto NGO) and talking about how I wish that I could give this movie to everyone I know for Christmas because I think its something everyone should have to think about. Sally responded with, "I wish that I could ask everyone to watch this for Christmas as their gift to me."

Check out the website & tour dates!
www.theendofpoverty.com