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.

Happy Friday the 13th!

I figure as long as a day such as today is followed up by something like Valentine's, it's all good.

Not much is on my schedule right now other than homework- and quite a bit of it. I can't wait for next weekend, during which the Poverty Conference will be held. This conference is open to other surrounding college students as well, hoping to spread this message throughout all of Miami-Dade. According to the website,

"Miami Poverty Conference is a brand new initiative started by University of Miami students to educate students from universities and colleges in the Miami-Dade area about the growing problem of poverty in their community. The conference will take place on February 21, 2009 and will have experts speak about the many different aspects of poverty. For the majority of the conference, students will be divided into smaller groups and attend interactive workshops focusing on various aspects of poverty, including education, immigration, race and poverty, health, and many more. We hope that the conference will not only educate students about the growing problem of poverty, but will also inspire students to actively engage in the community and do their part to alleviate poverty. "

It should be a great learning experience for all involved.

Have a great weekend!