Is It Possible to End Global Poverty?
12 September 2005
In the Fall 2005 issue of Exchange, we asked a handful of Oxfam supporters that question and printed shortened versions of their replies. Here are their more in-depth thoughts.
Want to add your thoughts to the discussion? We’d like to hear from you! Please email webmaster@oxfamamerica.org. Note that Oxfam will post as space permits. We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity.
In 1964, after his sophomore year at Yale, Bruce Detwiler went to live with a black family in Holmes County, Mississippi. Detwiler had decided to spend his summers as a civil rights worker.
"Before I went to Mississippi I thought I was going to be a businessman," said Detwiler. Instead, he became a professor of political science. But first, he spent a year in Africa, in the Zambian bush, teaching at a school established for refugees from white supremacist countries. Read More
Thalassa Scholl came face to face with poverty when she lived in Pakistan. She was attracted to Oxfam’s work after a devastating flood. She saw a newsreel showing a small Oxfam plane dropping supplies to Sindhi villagers who were stranded on the rooftops. Scholl has been a member of the organization for 20 years.
"I’m not certain it’s possible to eradicate poverty. Greed will always get in the way—greed and politics. But these do not remove our obligation." Read More
Jim Scheibel’s first job after college was with the agency for which he is now the director in St. Paul, Minnesota: Community Action Partnership.
"I head the Community Action Partnership. We’re the anti-poverty agency for Ramsey and Washington Counties. We just did a declaration last fall that says we can end poverty in these two counties." Read More
"The religion I grew up in had as one of its central tenets that the poor will always be with you," said Barbara Waugh, a director of university relations at Hewlett-Packard Company and a long-time radical activist. The weight of that notion cast a pall over her entire life. Then, one day, she read a book about a Bangladeshi man named Muhammad Yunus and his very simple idea for ending poverty: loaning the poorest of the poor small amounts of money so they could acquire an asset—a goat to milk, thread to weave—and start earning an income. Yunus’ ideas about microcredit changed her outlook completely. Read More
Steven Friedman has always been a social activist, and in part it was his grandfather’s Depression-era stories that helped mold his outlook.
"I grew up hearing about the importance of trying to make a difference and the need to look out for all people—especially working people. I grew up hearing about the great things Roosevelt did, things that helped to rebuild the country and put people back to work." Read More
Dianne Antos’ first introduction to Oxfam was in 1991—at an Oxfam Hunger Banquet organized by her son’s high school. Instantly, she was sold on the idea. Her meal that day consisted of a small portion of rice.
"It’s a fabulous education tool," said Mrs. Antos, who trained as a nurse. "I saw the reason behind it. For people who need to learn by experience, it was a very effective teaching tool." Read More
