Agriculture Griot Ofosu Asamoah talks about National Farmers Day, Ghana’s national holiday which commemorates the agriculture sector, an important part of the country’s economy.

Ignatius Agbo national best farmer receiving his awards from vice president John Mahama

Every year, on the first Friday of December, Ghanaians celebrate National Farmers Day in honor of the gallant farmers who feed the growing population and contributing to the nation’s GDP.

This year’s Farmers Day was centered around growing more food and promoting research for sustainable agriculture development. The event was held at Agona Nsaba in the Central Region of Ghana.

A search committee made up of members from the University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana and other organizations were dispatched to look for this year’s Ghana Best Farmer. It took them 63 days to submit their report to the chairman of the planning committee for National Farmers’ Day celebration.

Out of the 66 contestants, Ignatius Agbo emerged as the 2011 Ghana National Best farmer. He has a farm size of 480 acres, which includes 160 acres of cocoa, 12 acres of oil palm, 15 acres of citrus, 15 acres of plantain, 2 acres of cowpeas, 1 acre of sweet potatoes, 5 acres of cassava, 2 acres of coconut, and vegetables, together with his livestock occupying about 50 acres.

Agbo took home a three-bedroom, fully furnished house to be built at a location of his choice, a generator, laptop and fully loaded modem, and a trip to India. He was the central regional Best Farmer for 2002 and 2005 respectively. Ignatius Abgo called on the government to walk the talk and provide farmers with the needed resources for accelerated growth.

Vice president John Mahama said that the government is committed to make agriculture a key sector of the economy in spite of oil discovery.

The second national Best Farmer is Assemblyman Daniel Ankoma Mends, 39, from the Assin South District of the Central Region. He took home a tractor with implements and insurance coverage for a year.

Philip Kwaku Agyemang, 44, from the Brong Aharfo region came third, and was rewarded with a double-cab pickup truck and a year’s insurance coverage.

The National Best Fisherman went to Agya Kwesi, 39, and National Best Livestock farmer went to Joseph Boney, 70.

Among those rewarded was a disabled woman farmer — she has proved to the world that disability is not inability and that the future of food security lies in the hands of women farmers.

We congratulate you farmers of Ghana, AYEKOO!!!

-Ofosu Asamoah

Drought is a major concern throughout the Horn of Africa, where a majority of the population relies on rainfall, not irrigation, to grow food. In Ethiopia, farmers like Mrs. Silas Samson Buru have benefited from and contributed to a partnership called HARITA, now known as R4. Run by the Relief Society of Tigray, with support from Oxfam America and others, HARITA and R4 have improved the ability of small-scale farmers to cope with drought.

Mrs. Silas Samson Buru is a 59-year old farmer, mother of six, and resident of Adi Ha, a 4,000-person village in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Mrs. Buru owns one hectare (around 0.5 acres) of rain-fed land and 0.25 hectares of irrigated land. Mrs. Buru survived the famine of 1984 to 85 and, for most of the 1980s and 1990s, struggled to feed her family and send her children to school. But now she is the head of the women’s association in her village has a daughter who has completed university. She is a member of the microinsurance program’s community design team and has been instrumental in the design of appropriate index insurance products for her community by sharing her wisdom on traditional agricultural practices and coping mechanisms and representing the needs of her community.

She has also played an important role in spreading awareness on drought insurance amongst the community and policymakers in the United States. Mrs. Buru came to the United States last month to share the positive impacts of weather index insurance in her community with experts at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. I had the chance to listen to her speak at Oxfam America’s headquarters on her way back to Ethiopia. Please watch the embedded video above to hear what she has to say about HARITA.

HARITA (Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation) works like this: farmers buy an insurance policy. If the rainfall during the growing season is above an agreed level, then nothing happens. But, if the rains fail, then farmers get a payout. The extra income ensures that they still have enough money to feed their families, repay loans and pay for other necessities. Because payouts are based on weather indicators and satellite imagery, the costs of claim verification are kept low, thus the program has a better chance of becoming commercially viable. Partial protection from the risks of agriculture enables farmers to take “smart risks” that can help them break the cycle of poverty, such as taking out loans to expand their businesses and buy good seeds. In the face of rising temperatures, they can select more heat tolerant crops, improve their management of water resources, and move planting dates.

One of the biggest barriers for farmers to participating in an insurance program is the cost. But HARITA helps the poorest 25 percent of its participants afford the premiums. Farmers who participate in the government-run food and cash for work initiative, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), which serves 8 million chronically food-insecure households, can pay for the insurance through labour that improves their community and their land. This isn’t just any type of work. Farmers work on community projects such as composting, water harvesting, irrigation, and tree planting =– activities that make them more resilient to drought and climate change.

All combined, HARITA is an attractive program. By industry take-up-rate standards, HARITA is successful. In the first year of the project, 34 percent of the farmers who attended the project information sessions purchased an insurance policy. Last year, HARITA reached more than 1300 households, and now, through a partnership with the World Food Programme and the Ethiopian government, it has scaled up to more than 13,000 farmers.

Similar program are emerging in other places in East Africa. This livestock insurance program in northern Kenya has managed to reach more than 1,000 herders, and show that satellite imagery used to determine the extent of land deterioration can accurately predict actual rates of livestock mortality -– a big step toward designing a cost-effective and commercially sustainable insurance product for pastoralists. Feed the Future is also exploring how it can be a part of microinsurance ventures that mitigate and transfer drought risk faced by small-scale farmers such as Mrs. Buru.

Photo by Flickr user elitatt

Years of working as a waitress in college and beyond taught me how creative some people can get with food. I was always fascinated at the complex and exciting dishes that chefs could prepare from some of the most unlikely combinations. Horseradish and mascarpone? Delicious! Ancho chile and cinnamon? Perfection!

Even still, I’m far more impressed by the creativity displayed by those who can’t afford exotic ingredients  and still manage to put together a meal for their families. Anybody can make something delicious with a kitchen stocked with fresh ingredients and an extensive spice rack. But it’s much more difficult to put together something when you have practically nothing to start with — like tens of millions of U.S. households today.

A new study from the Food and Research Action Center (FRAC) revealed that food spending has fallen dramatically in the past decade, particularly from 2000 to 2002 and 2006 to 2010 -- periods when the economy was struggling the most. Rising food and housing costs, combined with falling wages and inflation, caused millions to tighten their belts to unhealthy levels.

In the study, spending for the median household was measured against the Thrifty Food Plan, the absolute “barebones” food budget necessary for families to get by in emergencies, established by the U.S. government.  

The results of the latest study by the FRAC showed that spending on food for the median household fell from 1.36 times the Thrifty Food Plan level in 2000 to 1.19 times that level in 2010.

Considering the starkness of the Thrifty Food Plan, these numbers are devastating. Originally developed to help families in the Depression Era, the budget was called “The Economy Plan,” and was designed to be used only for a short, restricted period of time. And while this was considered basic survival, the standard for “reasonable measure of basic needs” for a healthy, sustainable diet was measured to be more than 25 percent higher than that of the Economy plan.

Successfully following the Thrifty Food Plan also requires several things that low-income families often do not have these days — easy access to inexpensive transportation and bulk food stores or supermarkets, facilities for food storage, knowledge of food preparation techniques and nutrition, and time to prepare meals from scratch (about 3.5 hours a day).

What does that mean? For most low-income families these days, successfully following the plan wouldn’t just require creativity — it would require a miracle.  

Emily Warne is media relations intern at Bread for the World.

Photo by Flickr user Veronique Debord

Way back in August, the Joint  Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or Super Committee, was charged with developing a plan to reduce our federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Why were they called the “Super Committee?” Because their recommendations would be given “superpowers,” so as to slide through Congress and quickly become law. The Super Committee had until Thanksgiving to produce something, but when November 23 came, they couldn’t do it, leaving most of us scratching our heads wondering, what happened?  You can read their statement here.

So, what happened? Well, this was a missed opportunity for moving ahead and putting our country on a fiscally sustainable path. But before turning away disheartened, let’s examine exactly why the Super Committee couldn’t produce a deal, and what this means for Congress’ 2012 agenda. More importantly, we need to understand what this means for our economy, prospects for the unemployed, and the millions of individuals relying on those federal assistance programs to help them put food on the table, provide for their families, and move out of poverty. The Interreligious Working Group on Domestic Human Needs (DHN) held a webinar last week on the outcome of the Super Committee and what it means for our priorities going forward. You can check it out here.

While relatively successful at keeping their internal discussions from leaking, it appears members of the Super Committee met an impasse when it came to taxes. The two sides just could not agree on a balanced plan that included both cuts and revenues.  So is it bad that the Super Committee couldn’t reach a deal? The Super Committee presented an opportunity for Congress to come together around a bipartisan, balanced, comprehensive deficit reduction package that put the country on solid fiscal ground, created jobs and grew the economy, and followed those values we ascribe to as a country -- like protecting people in need and struggling with hunger. The fact that they didn’t is a missed opportunity.

A final proposal that would have severely cut programs for poor and hungry people would not have helped anything or anyone.  In fact, such a plan would have caused more hardship in an already difficult economic climate. The Center on Budget analyzed some of those proposals. Read them here and here.

So, now what? Where do we go from here? Under the Budget Control Act, the absence of a deal means we will see automatic cuts for the next nine years. These cuts will total $1.2 trillion and begin in January 2013—over a year from now. The National Women’s Law Center wrote a piece explaining some of the myths and facts about what the lack of a deal means. There are some critical points to remember about the automatic cuts that have been triggered.

First, because of the great work by Bread for the World members and activists around the country, some really important programs for poor and hungry people are exempt from the automatic cuts—programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit, and Medicaid are just a few examples. That being said, other vital programs have no protections -- programs like WIC, food aid, and international poverty-focused development assistance. And these programs are already facing cuts because of the ten-year budget caps Congress enacted in August.

But there’s another way. Congress can reduce our deficits, promote job creation, strengthen the economy, and protect programs for hungry and poor people -- those currently exempted from cuts and those targeted for cuts. Congress can do this all by doing what the Super Committee was unable to do—pass a balanced, comprehensive deficit reduction plan that reduces our deficits while protecting that small portion of the budget that funds programs for poor and hungry people. Congress has adhered to this principle to protect poor and vulnerable populations in all the major deficit reduction laws over the past thirty years. It must do so again. It will take new revenues. It will take some tough spending choices. But whether to fund programs for poor and hungry people should not be a choice. Congress has a year. I hope they will step up to the plate.

Congress can take a first step right now by extending unemployment benefits before they expire at the end of the year. If Congress fails to extend federal unemployment insurance, 2 million people will lose benefits in January alone. This assistance helps those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own continue to put food on the table, provide for their families, and search for work. Cutting unemployment insurance is no way to address our deficits.

Amelia Kegan is senior policy analyst at Bread for the World.

Surrounded by red AIDS ribbons projected on the nearby university center, old municipal building and historic Statler Hilton, local businesses, community groups and residents gathered in downtown Dallas’ Main Street Gardens on Thursday evening, December 1, to observe World AIDS Day 2011 and to commemorate 30 years of fighting against the spread of HIV/AIDS. In support of the United Nations’ “getting to zero” campaign, event organizers brought that fight to the local level with the message, “Whether or not you are infected, we are all affected by HIV/AIDS.”

Photo Credit: Paul Golangco /Paulgoimages.com

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dallas City Council Member Angela Hunt delivered proclamations commemorating World AIDS Day. Dozens of local sponsors and partners supported the event where we heard encouraging messages from several local leaders including Martellus Bennett, tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, who encouraged everyone to get tested for HIV. Dallas County has the highest rate of new HIV infections in the state, and one of the highest in the US.

Photo Credit: Paul Golangco /Paulgoimages.com

Photo Credit: Paul Golangco /Paulgoimages.com

At the ONE Dallas booth, we showed “The Lazarus Effect” documentary and passed out ONE’s white wristbands. We also had the honor to share our booth with our partner, World Vision. Rafael Munoz, a World Vision youth development specialist in North Texas, shared information about World Vision’s US programs and helped us hand out the vibrant World Vision “Lives Are on the Line” cards, which highlighted the personal stories of individuals affected by HIV and AIDS around the world.

According to Rafael, “Participating in the World AIDS Day Dallas 2011 reinforces the role of advocacy. In using advocacy, one common value is creating attention to a better life. We need caring individuals to speak about the issues affecting our communities and then move to act.”

World AIDS Day Dallas 2011 certainly made an impact on those attending. One resident from a local homeless shelter remarked, “I used to be embarrassed to tell people that I am HIV-positive because some people wouldn’t even talk to me anymore once they found out. But being here and seeing all of you gathered here, I know that I don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”

Throughout the event people had an opportunity to view panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt which honored the memory of loved ones who’ve been lost during the past 30 years. We took time to thank those who worked so hard for the many achievements made, and we accepted the challenge to persevere so that by 2015 we can truly have a generation that is free of HIV.

-Katrina Thompson, ONE Congressional District Leader, Texas-03

Almost 60 ONE members submitted their pitches for our holiday blog post contest. People could write about their hopes for the new year, what they’re thankful for or their most inspiring moment of 2011. Here are some of our favorite blog post pitches from ONE members across the US. Their stories are intriguing, and I’d love to know more about them!

“This year I spent the summer working with my NGO in Ghana, starting a girls sewing training program, building two classrooms and a nutritional food distribution program. I am thankful not only for the success of these programs, but for lessons and inspirations afforded to me by those I know in Africa.” -Kelsey Finnegan

“I just returned from a trip volunteering in Oaxaca, Mexico so not only am I thankful to have been born with privileges but also to have the chance to experience and help other cultures. Since I have been back in the US, I have spread the word about international volunteerism through blog posts and articles.” -Katie Boyer

“At age 11, I asked my parents why I was lucky enough to be born in the U.S. in response to watching an Oprah Show highlighting the plight of African AIDS orphans with them. This question of justice prompted me to create Kids Caring 4 Kids, a non-profit that works to expose other kids to that very question in the hopes that they will join the fight to help other kids who weren’t as lucky being born in Africa.” -Kendall Clesemier

“You know the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ This year I had a hand in sharing stories of the folks I’ve met in Haiti, West Africa, and Brazil with volunteers who come in to pack food, at the organization where I work. While listening to the song last week on the radio, I came to realize…man…that’s what I’m a part of…opening people’s eyes to the reality of the world around them (and across the seas) and challenging and encouraging them to take action to to ‘Feed the World.’ What a gift this last year has been!” -Amy Soden

“The Agriculture and Hunger Griot course inspired me to be more involved with the world’s food insecurity crisis. Next year, I am launching a campaign with my family and friends. Every time we visit a grocery store, we will have to buy at least one item for the hungry and donate it to a food bank.” -Shayla Price

“I joined a team with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for AIDS orphans in Mozambique. I have signed up for leadership training to lead a team back to the same village next year. Can’t wait!” -Lisa King

Unfortunately, we can only choose one winner, and that is Kelsey Finnegan. She won us over with the girls sewing training program she started in Ghana. We can’t wait to learn more. We’ll try to publish her piece as soon as we can.

ONE love!

Photo by Flickr user fox_kiyo

[Editors' note: This Advent season, we will be running a series of reflections on the Bread Blog from members of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. The lectionary readings for this post are Isaiah 10:5-19; John 4:1-15; and Romans 4:1-8. Keep reading the Bread Blog for more Advent reflections each day.] 

I do not like hot weather. I mean, I really do not like hot weather. This is ironic since I have spent so much of my life living in tropical climates. First, I lived in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. While I was in college in Philadelphia, I visited my parents several times while they were living in the Middle East. Later, for work, I was constantly travelling to warm destinations year round. Then, my wife and I lived in Georgetown, Guyana, a city directly abutting a large rainforest. Now I live in Okinawa, Japan. I keep asking my wife if we can perhaps do an assignment somewhere other than a tropical clime, like Vladivostok or Ulan Bator, Mongolia. I do not think this is going to happen very soon.

Other than slowly learning to tolerate constant sweat, I have learned a lot about water while residing in consistently warm climates. First, it is critical to life; and second, you always ensure that you have an adequate supply before you travel anywhere. It is this idea of water that I want to highlight in today’s readings. John’s gospel tells us, “and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.” The two-hour period from noon to 2 p.m. is generally the hottest time of the day. It is no surprise that Jesus chose to rest from his travels at this time of day.

It is also no surprise that he chose to rest near a constant supply of water. Upon rereading the passage, I am struck by the exchange between Jesus and the Samarian woman. So here is Jesus, during the hottest part of a day, asking a person for water. Yet, he is in immediate proximity to a well. Wouldn’t this passage have greater strength if it occurred in a remote area far away from any water supply? In the middle of the desert or on a mountaintop would add a certain drama to the narrative. Yet, Jesus is at a well.

As water is crucial to life, it is an ideal metaphor for God’s salvation. But, Jesus offers the water of salvation next to an ample water supply. It makes me think of the most famous line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

As we once again approach Christmas and the totality of the Holiday Season that now seems to start in mid-October and ends in mid-January, don’t we find ourselves in a world that has ample access to water, but is unable to drink it? Do we find ourselves so distracted by the briny noise and confusion in our everyday world that we cannot look to the manger in Bethlehem and the miracle of a small yet tumultuous supply of crisp and fresh water that is once again flowing? Drink up, it’s worth it.

Prayer: Dear Almighty God, may we always be cognizant of the glory of your salvation and that your love, mercy, and grace are always present throughout our lives and in our world.  Amen.

Matthew Weitz is a member of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Visit their website at www.nyapc.org.

Grants to fund device for remote health diagnosis – Two big spenders on global health innovation – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Canadian government – are hoping that $38.5 million will be enough money to create a new handheld device that doctors can use in remote areas to take samples from patients and provide analysis on a number of illnesses. Medical researchers already have developed some of the tests they want to include in the all-in-one device, but pulling them all together will be the biggest challenge. (AP)

Study Finds Many South African Children Going Hungry – A fifth of South Africa’s children are malnourished and many live in socially disrupted households, according to a major report published this week. State statisticians say that 17 years after the country’s first democratic elections, black children are still far more disadvantaged than white children or those from other ethnic groups as the roots of the old apartheid system run deep. (Peta Thornycroft, VOA)

West Africa still has time to avoid 2012 food crisis – Africa looks like it might be hit once more by a food crisis -– this time in the arid Sahel region of Western Africa -– but thanks to the world’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), west African countries and donor nations have time to prepare, says the aid group Oxfam. Relying on a combination of satellite imagery, ground censors and food-relief workers on the ground, among other factors, the FEWS began alerting aid agencies of a looming drought and food crisis in the Horn of Africa region as early as August 2010. (Scott Baldauf, CSM)

Zimbabwe suspends flights to S.Africa over debts – Zimbabwe’s state-owned airline has suspended flights to neighboring South Africa over fears its planes could be seized for outstanding debts of more than $140 million, a senior airline official told state media. Economic analysts say Air Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse after years of mismanagement and poor funding by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. (Reuters)

What would you do this Christmas if you had two little children to feed and all you had in your house was one banana? This was life for Heather Rude-Turner, a single mom working full-time. Even with her job, there just wasn’t enough to support her two kids, Naomi, 5, and Isaac, 3.

“I don’t eat a lot of times because I feel bad taking the food away from my kids. I have one banana in the house. If I cut it in half, they can each have half of the banana. I don’t need vitamins.”

Unfortunately, one in five families with children in America are struggling to put food on the table this Christmas season. They need your help.

Can you make a special Christmas gift today for hungry families? Your gift will enable Bread for the World to fight for programs that help parents feed their children.

The government programs that Bread advocated for over the years allowed Heather to get the help she needed so she could feed Naomi and Isaac. Heather recently completed her college degree, and in a few months she’ll be marrying her sweetheart, Mark.

But many families are experiencing a different story this Christmas. The economy has pushed more people into poverty. At the same time, all programs that are focused on helping hungry and poor people are under attack in Congress. If these programs are slashed, the cuts are going to cost lives. Children across America will be hungry.

Will you make a gift now to help us protect funding for programs that benefit hungry people?

We need your support to fight hunger. Please give a special Christmas gift today, and help families like Heather, Naomi, and Isaac.

David Beckmann is president of Bread for the World.

Action: 24. Time: 15 minutes. Level of difficulty: Moderate. For the results of last week’s action, click here.

I don’t know about you, but I take my new year’s resolutions very seriously. It’s the only time of year when I actually make an effort to reevaluate my lifestyle and think about how I can change things up for the better.

In 2010, I promised myself that I would only buy organic meat, even though I couldn’t afford it. As a result, I ate meat a lot less and learned to appreciate meat from sustainable sources. For 2011, I vowed to cut out super-processed foods. Any packaged foods with ingredients with more than two syllables (like sodium acid pyrophosphate) got the boot. Although these resolutions were hard to stick to, I — to my own surprise — did them anyway.

But this makes me realize an important point: if I can commit to resolutions that make my own life better, why can’t I do the same for others? In honor of this notion, I’m making a resolution to volunteer in my community at least once a month in 2012.

We here at ONE would love if you could do the same. Will you add a poverty-fighting goal to your list of new year’s resolutions? Share them with us in the form below, and we’ll share our favorite resolution on Twitter and Facebook in the new year.

Need help with resolution ideas? Vow to sign a poverty-fighting petition each month. Promise to visit with your member of Congress to talk about ONE’s issues. Like me, you can pledge to volunteer. Donate money to your favorite NGO. The list goes on and on.

We’ll circle back with you in the new year and let you know our favorite resolution. Good luck!

As the editor of the ONE Blog, I thought it would be fun to start rounding up some of my favorite web content for you to share on Facebook and Twitter. As you can imagine, I see a lot of amazing things pass through our social media feeds, and I just can’t keep them to myself anymore. Here’s a mix of buzzworthy blog posts, videos and photos:

1. This photo got more than 1,000 likes on our Facebook page — and for a good reason. The message is awesome! Share the photo from here.

2. Jars of Clay frontman and Blood:Water Mission founder Dan Haseltine compares the fight against AIDS to a dragon in this moving essay, “The dragon and how to kill it” on the ONE Blog. It has 30 comments and nearly 400 Facebook likes.

3. Thanks for stepping up to the plate, New Yorker! The magazine published this impressive piece, “Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011.”

4. Our official 2011 holiday gift guide.

5. Glee covers Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” song to raise awareness for the Horn of Africa; Bono and Sting commend the cast for remaking the song in a behind-the-scenes video.

Screen grab from Rick Steves European Christmas

Every year, right after (or sometimes before) Thanksgiving, people dust off their old Christmas records, flip through their CD collections, or search their mp3 files for their favorite Christmas songs. I thought it would be fun to ask our staffers to submit their favorite Christmas songs to share with all of you. Here's what they submitted:

Grace Bae, Art Simon Fellow, Government Relations:

My favorite Christmas Carol is “O Holy Night.” I love the words and melody of this song. I especially love the verse: “Truly he taught us to love one another, his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains he shall bread, for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease.” I was in Uganda for Christmas in 2009, and I remember singing this carol in our office one morning. Christmas in Uganda is difficult because there is no distinction of seasons and I was away from my loved ones. This verse so closely aligned with my line of work in Uganda, and it touches my heart because it shares the gospel message, which drives me to do what I do.

Jennifer Fraser, Organizing Coordinator: 

While living in La Coruña, Spain for my junior year of college, I joined my Spanish university’s choir and performed with them at Christmas time. My year in Spain was one of the happiest times of my life, and experiencing Christmas there was beautiful, holy, and magical. This song is one of the many Spanish Christmas carols I learned and sang while there. The sweet lyrics and happy “bell” sounds instantly bring me back to that wonderful time.

Scott Bleggi, Senior International Policy Analyst:

My first Foreign Service assignment was in Germany.  My kids were very small and everywhere we went we heard children’s choirs. Here is a favorite, “Es fuer uns eine Zeit ankegommen.”  It is a traditional German carol whose lyrics translate to, “A time comes for us, a time of great joy.” (The video below is from our friend, Rick Steves, and the carol begins towards the end of the video, at 3:29.)

Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Multimedia Manager, and Racine Tucker-Hamilton, Media Relations Manager:

Racine: My favorite Christmas song  is "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey. I love the way it starts out slow with just a few chimes and almost acapella, and builds in tempo and a powerful delivery. Similar to how the build-up for Christmas is for some.

Larry Hollar, North Central Senior Regional Organizer

For sheer vocal beauty and simplicity of message, for me, nothing compares to this 17th century French carol. Sometimes I imagine how amazed I would have been as a shepherd experiencing the great good news of Jesus’ birth. This carol evokes images that envelop me -- smell, light, wonder, song. How can we, as today’s shepherds, be open to sensing that deep joy in its fullness again?

Please share your own favorite carols in the comments below! And Merry Christmas from your friends at Bread for the World. God bless you!

Jeannie Choi is associate editor at Bread for the World.

We’re officially 10 days out from Christmas, and the pressure is on to whip up all those delicious dishes that adorn tabletops and cocktail napkins at holiday parties. As you bust out your gingersnaps and Yule log masterpieces, we thought we’d suggest an easy gift you can give this time of year that doesn’t require two sticks of butter: your voice!

We at ONE are all about holiday cheer with a dash of activism. That’s why we’ve come up with this handy dandy recipe card and easy ONE member recruitment tool all in one. Print out a few copies of this blank recipe card, bring it to your cookie exchange or office holiday party and voila! Your best friend will have your favorite holiday bark recipe and ONE will have another voice in the fight against extreme poverty and disease.

Just print out, cut around the edges and fold over

Happy holidays (and eating) from your friends at ONE!

Donations Are Sought to Aid 16 Nations – The United Nations asked donor countries on Wednesday for $7.7 billion to help deal with humanitarian crises in 16 countries in 2012, earmarking much of the money for tackling drought and famine in Somalia. The United Nations is hoping to bolster aid to Yemen to $447 million to tackle the effects of conflict and a food crisis. (NYT)

South Sudan: Will Oil Lead It Out Of Poverty? – South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, is still trying to find its feet, and private companies, international aid experts and diplomats have gathered in Washington to see if they can help. Secretary Clinton kicked off the two-day conference by talking about some the challenges facing the country, but said, one thing South Sudan does have going for it is potential oil wealth — and that needs to be well-managed.” (Michele Kelemen, NPR)

Global health aid continues to grow — but more slowly — during recession – Spending to improve health in developing countries has continued to grow during the three-year economic downturn, although at only half the pace it did a decade ago. As increases in spending by “donor countries,” such as the US, have slowed, the World Bank has picked up the slack. Overall, spending on malaria and child health problems has grown more rapidly in the past few years than spending on AIDS and tuberculosis, but all have seen a net gain. (David Brown, WaPo)

India eyes Africa’s potential – Asian trade and investment in Africa is growing, but where investment in Africa has traditionally concentrated on natural resources, India is looking to diversify its interests in the African continent. Analysts say tariffs on African exports must be lowered in India and red tape must be cut if Africa is to really participate and benefit from these new flows of investment from the East. (CNN)

House GOP unveils $1T spending bill – House Republicans have unveiled a massive $1 trillion-plus yearend spending package despite a plea from the White House for additional talks over a handful of provisions opposed by President Obama. The measure funds programs ranging from border security to combating AIDS and famine in Africa, but chips away at the Pentagon budget, foreign aid and environmental spending. (AP)

Somalia’s Insurgents Embrace Twitter as a Weapon – Somalia’s powerful Islamist insurgents, the Shabab just opened a Twitter account, and in the past week they have been writing up a storm, bragging about recent attacks and taunting their enemies. The Shabab have vehemently rejected Western practices — banning Western music, movies, haircuts and even blocking Western aid for famine victims, all in the name of their brand of puritanical Islam — only to embrace Twitter, one of the icons of a modern, networked society. (Jeffrey Gettleman, NYT)

Census data: Half of US poor or low income – Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families. (AP)

Photo by Flickr user kavehfa

[Editors' note: This Advent season, we will be running a series of reflections on the Bread Blog from members of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. The lectionary readings for this post are Isaiah 9:18-10:4; John 10:31-42; and Hebrews 10:19-25. Keep reading the Bread Blog for more Advent reflections each day.] 

The Isaiah passage is full of fire, fury, smoke, and scorched land. But it did not strike a meaningful cord until I read it a second time – three days after Sunday, October 31, when 58 worshipers at Our Lady of Salvation Church, the largest Catholic church in Baghdad, were gunned down by terrorists. Elder Yousif al-Saka emailed photos of the church in the aftermath of this horrific act: Everything in the church was scorched, sooty, broken, destroyed. You could feel the grief, disbelief, anguish, and desolation in those pictures. The cry of pain in the words and faces of the Christians in Baghdad was haunting.

Why do people persecute one another? Why does religion pit brother and sister against brother and sister? A recent book by Eliza Griswold, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from Fault Line between Christianity and Islam, describes in horrific detail the chaos and murder that has characterized religious relationships in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. No wonder “the land is scorched by the fury of the Lord of Hosts, and people have become fuel for the fire.”

But for all this, God’s “hand is stretched out still.” In John, we read that the Jews picked up stones to stone Jesus, not for his good deeds, they explained, but for blasphemy, calling himself the son of God. The anger created by perceived notions of what is wrong or right, the true way with religious tradition apparently is as old as the Scriptures. Two thousand years later, we still live with intolerance, a perceived righteousness, and stones to throw (actually, much worse) at those whom we believe do not follow the right religious path. So we find wrath among and between faiths, and we confront God’s wrath against the behavior of his people.

The question is, how do we get around this wrath, this violence? Isaiah and Hebrews tell us: forgiveness. If God can forgive his people with a hand that is “stretched out still,” then we must forgive one another as well. We must see the best in one another, accept differing views and beliefs. As Hebrews says, “We ought to see how each of us may best arouse others to love and active goodness … encouraging one another … .”

The violence and wrath in the world calls each of us to do our part by reaching out in love, by showing compassion and support, indeed by being our brothers and sisters’ keepers. Hebrews says, “… the blood of Jesus makes us free to enter boldly into the sanctuary by the new, living way…” In Jesus’ name and in his love, let us forgive and pray for peace and seek to end violence and wrath in our worldly midst.

Prayer: Dear God, you have extended your hand in forgiveness for our sins. Show us the way to extend our hands in love and forgiveness to our brothers and sisters everywhere. Amen.

Marilyn J. Seiber is a member at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. Visit their website at www.nyapc.org.

More than 120 ONE members converged in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for foreign aid and attend a White House leadership briefing. ONE New York and the American Academy of Pediatrics sum up their experience, which included some holiday spirit.

We here at ONE New York were proud to have the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) join us in our visit to Washington, D.C., for lobby day and for a special leadership briefing at the White House.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has been a strong advocate for children’s health domestically and globally. Their new alliance with ONE has strengthened the cause to ensure that voices of children in need worldwide are heard loud and clear.

Steve Gallucci, Ruby Thomas, Dr. Tom McInerny, Alexia Mascall, Alex Tung, Dr. Louis Cooper at the Office of NY Senator Gillibrand

Our joint DC visit started on Thursday, Dec 8th with our diverse ONE member delegation of Dr. Louis Cooper, former president of AAP and professor emeritus at Columbia University; Dr. Tom McInerny, president-elect of AAP; and Alexandra Tung, Alexia Mascall and Steve Gallucci of the Truman National Security Project.

We spoke with staff from the offices of Rep. Nita Lowey, who has been a long-time supporter of ONE, Rep. Louis Slaughter, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Yvette Clark, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sen. Charles Schumer.

We thanked each Congress member for being an active supporter of ONE issues, but urged them to continue their support for protecting the less than 1 percent allocated from the GDP for foreign aid in the coming years. We asked them to specifically support:

1. GAVI’s vaccination program for pneumonia and diarrhea which has killed more children than HIV/AIDS/Malaria combined,
2. Long term investment of agricultural development programs via Feed the Future, and
3. Global Fund and PEPFAR to ensure no child is born with HIV/AIDS by 2015.

On Friday, Dec 9th, we had the chance to see the White House in its holiday form. Each room and hallway was beautifully decorated for the season. We were fortunate this year the White House allowed us the rare opportunity to bring cameras to capture our memories.

After the tour at the White House, we went to the Eisenhower Executive Building to hear informative briefings from our government leaders such as Jon Carson, deputy assistant to the president and director at the Office of Public Engagement; Aaron Williams, director of the Peace Corps; Gayle Smith, senior director for Development and Democracy, National Security Staff; Paul Weisenfeld, assistant to the administrator, Bureau for Food Security; Tom Gavin, White House Communications cabinet member, Media Relations and former ONE staffer.

Each speaker went over valuable educational points related to their respective agencies and thanked our efforts in working persistently and consistently on protecting foreign aid.

Thank you to the White House and ONE staff for making this memorable opportunity possible!

Screenshot from "Educate the Future" by the Global Campaign for Education.

“To get to school, I had to walk barefoot three miles, uphill both ways.”

You might be used to hearing this joke, poking fun at our parents’ and grandparents’ views on how “kids today” have got it so easy, compared to what they had to endure in order to receive an education. But all over the world, there are millions of “kids today” who are actually living this reality every day.

Around the world, 69 million children don’t have easy access to education, if they have the opportunity to go to school at all, according to the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an organization dedicated to promoting access to education as a human right. Nearly 250 million children have to work in order to help their families get by, and it’s hard enough to study for hours without having to worry about helping your family pay their day to day bills … especially when you’re a child.

The GCE is trying to change those figures, by organizing faith-based groups, NGOs, foundations, teachers unions, and other organizations to create a coalition to advocate for a greater emphasis on education as a priority in poverty-focused development assistance.

In a new video showcasing some of the group’s youngest activists, teenage students stand in front of the Capitol building, spelling out “Education for All” with a paper-chain of links decorated by other supporters of the initiative.

One girl emphatically states that she doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, but that she thinks that’s the beauty of education — because it gives her the opportunity to choose from so many potential career paths. For many children around the world, the chance to simply have a career is more than they can ask for.

Hopefully someday, the parents worldwide who had to say, “I walked miles without shoes to get to school,” will have children who will  someday joke about it as well—because everyone will have easy access to quality education, and “those days” will just be a memory.  

To learn more about the Global Campaign for Education, watch the video below or check out their website at campaignforeducation.org

Emily Warne is a communications intern at Bread for the World.

[Editors' note: This Advent season, we will be running a series of reflections on the Bread Blog from members of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. The lectionary readings for this post are Isaiah 9:8-17; Tuesday; Matthew 18:1-6; and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 13-17. Keep reading the Bread Blog for more Advent reflections each day.] 

I reflect on today’s verses after Skyping with my sister and her 2-year-old son, Nathaniel, who live in Australia. The connection isn’t great: The picture is blurry, like I’m seeing my nephew’s face from a distance without my glasses, the edges all fuzzy. Even through this imperfect medium, the pleasure I feel when I see him is visceral. I feel delight, when he calls me by name, Aunty Nicki. I feel happiness, to see him wear the gift I sent him, a cowboy vest from Wyoming. I feel such pleasure to see that he looks so much like my sister, until he smiles, when he is suddenly the image of his father; and yet to know that he is entirely himself, a wholly unique little person.

As I read the verses, Nathaniel fills my head. Perhaps for this reason, the verses from Matthew resonate with me most in this moment, because they are so focused on children. These very familiar verses seem to give two distinct lessons, united by their context; first, that a person must humble themselves and become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God; and second, a dire warning against causing a child (or, by implication, anyone) to lose their faith. My reflections here are focused on the first question.

God’s great love for those who are least in the eyes of the world is one of the defining themes of the gospel. Obviously, and without question, we are called to humility. I wonder, though, what it means to humble oneself and become like a child? I’m no biblical scholar or historian, but my understanding is that the children of the Bible were deemed as chattel, the property of their parents. A rudimentary knowledge of the Proverbs suggests they were subject to the strictest discipline and obedience. They were also considered a great blessing from God, the hope and future of their families and communities. In a nutshell, it seems to me that they were both powerless and of enormous value.

Perhaps there is a lesson here. Perhaps God calls us, first, to own and acknowledge our weakness. Children are absolutely dependent, in ways that adults usually are not. In simplest terms, young children die if the adults in their life don’t provide food and clothing and shelter. And so, lacking the capacity to care for themselves, they give themselves up into their mothers’ arms. Perhaps this, then, is what it is about—recognizing that we cannot save ourselves. Though, for the most part we can feed and clothe ourselves and make choices for our lives, we are ultimately vulnerable. Life and death are out of our hands. And so, like children, we offer ourselves up into God’s arms.   

The Taize Community points out that, shortly before the exchange related in these verses, Jesus tells the disciples “The Son of Man is about to be handed over to those who will kill him,” (verses 22 and 23). It is little wonder that Jesus identifies with the child. Understanding that humans often crush the vulnerable, Jesus is approaching the moment of his greatest vulnerability. Thus, even God, the Lord of the Universe, models to us this humility he requires. He did it when he was born a baby to a poor, unwed mother. He did it again on the cross.

To cast us in the role of children, also speaks of the Lord’s relationship to us. Unless given reason not to, a child trusts its mother implicitly. A child trusts without thinking, without questioning. A child knows where comfort lies, where there is safety, where there is sustenance. It’s that simple.  

In this equation the mother, ostensibly, is the one with all the power. However, she is also vulnerable to her child, in a relationship of mutual dependence and mutual delight. Her own health and happiness are inexorably linked to her child’s, who is capable of bringing the greatest possible grief to her life—by death, yes, but also by rejection. When we long for God, when we look for God, does God feel the joy of a mother when her baby reaches out for her, milk drunk and rapturous? I believe God does. It is wondrous that the God of the Universe, the Almighty One, assumes this role of vulnerability, through God’s love for us.   

Nicki Gill is a member at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Visit their website at www.nyapc.org.

Works cited:  Taize Community. “Children: What does it Mean to Welcome God’s Kingdom Like a Child?” Taize. 13 Mar. 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.

"If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time, cultivate the fields to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace."

-Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Photo by Flickr user  Slideshow Bruce

[Editors' note: This Advent season, we will be running a series of reflections on the Bread Blog from members of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. The lectionary readings for this post are Isaiah 9:1-7; Hebrews 12:18-29; and Matthew 21:23-32. Keep reading the Bread Blog for more Advent reflections each day.] 

Three very different scenarios for this day. The passage from Isaiah originally served as an oracle for the coronation of a Judean king, possibly Hezekiah, and is describing events in a land eventually divided into three provinces by Assyrian kings on their way to the Mediterranean. The language includes an announcement of a divine birth that probably came from an Egyptian coronation ritual, but from our perspective can be read as the forecast of the birth of Jesus: "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

In the Letter to the Hebrews, by an unknown author, the text urges the faithful to follow Christ’s example and live as he did. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for indeed our God is a consuming fire. Not exactly a typical Sunday service.

Finally, in the passage from Matthews, following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus is asked by the chief priests in the Temple by what authority did he act and who gave him the authority, and responds by asking them whether John’s ministry was divine or merely human in its origin, to which the priests replied that they did not know, since the first answer would suggest they believed that Jesus was the Messiah and the second would anger those who believed in John being a messenger of God. Since the priests did not answer the question posed by Jesus on authority, Jesus said neither would he answer their question.

Prayer: Creator God, keep us mindful of the perseverance and messages of those who preceded us in our faith history.

Robert L. Doan is a member at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Visit their website at www.nyapc.org.