Poverty Conference

This Saturday was the first Poverty Conference held by the University of Miami. Although it required an early morning check-in (8am) and lasted throughout the day (with dinner at 6:30 and a benefit concert from 8-10), a surprisingly large amount of students showed up. All of the sessions were extremely eye opening, but the students were given the chance to know poverty on a more personal level through a discussion panel with four Miami Dade residents. They spoke about their childhood, their struggles with drug addiction, and how they have dealt with being HIV positive.

A local judge also spoke to the students about the issue of mental illnesses and homelessness, and although it would be impossible to transcribe the entire lecture, there is a video he shared with us that is found on youtube:

Before lunch, the students participated in what is known as a hunger banquet. I find it a bit difficult to describe, I found a clear explanation online from discourse.net:

"Guests draw tickets at random that assign them each to either a high-, middle-, or low-income tier and receive a corresponding meal. The 15 percent in the high-income tier are served a sumptuous meal. The 35 percent in the middle-income section eat a simple meal of rice and beans. The 50 percent in the low-income tier help themselves to small portions of rice and water. (High-, middle-, and low-income statistics used in the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet event are based on the World Bank Development Indicators 2007.) Guests can also assume characterizations that describe the situation of a specific person at the income level to which they’ve been assigned."
Later on in the day there were workshops held by representatives from Habitat for Humanity, One Campaign, Service for Peace Miami, and many others.

Hopefully this is a continued program throughout the years- it raises a good many points on how we can initiate change, spread awareness, and become more understanding of the issues poverty presents in today's world.