How You Can Make a Better Safer World

The International Rescue Committee and eight other international development organizations have launched a new campaign to engage Americans on ways to address poverty and global instability. The Better Safer World campaign, which kicked off this month, seeks to increase American concern about global poverty and drive the U.S. electorate and American leaders to take action.

The concept for the Better Safer World campaign was created when the nine organizations - CARE; Childreach; International Medical Corps; International Rescue Committee; Mercy Corps; Oxfam; Save the Children; World Concern; and World Vision - first came together after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We saw the need to address global instability and decided to challenge each other, American citizens and the U.S. government to do more to help the over one billion people on our planet who live in poverty. The result of this challenge is the national launch of the Better Safer World Campaign in Des Moines, Iowa - a grassroots effort to make a better, safer world by helping poor people in developing countries to help themselves.

Of the world's 21 wealthiest developed countries, the United States ranks 20th in the amount of foreign assistance it gives to developing countries. The U.S. government currently contributes 1/10 of 1 percent of its GNP to foreign humanitarian assistance and it must do more. A superpower should not only have the most arms, it should lend the most hands. We are calling on Americans and U.S. elected officials to strengthen assistance to impoverished nations.

The Better Safer World campaign seeks to change the way Americans respond to global poverty. In addition to a commitment from the U.S. government to increased foreign humanitarian assistance, long-term sustainable change must be built on individual citizen commitment to ending global poverty. As Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Jimmy Carter once said, "The greatness of a nation is measured by the generosity of its people."

There is something we all can do to make a better, safer world. As a collaboration of nine of the world's most- respected humanitarian organizations, the Better Safer World campaign has a unique opportunity to increase American commitment to global poverty alleviation. But we need your help.

The organizations that make up the Better Safer World campaign are calling on you, to take direct personal steps to address issues of global poverty.

Visit the website (www.bettersaferworld.org), to find out what you can do to help.