There are basically two phases in the Target Program:
•· Selecting an issue, or Target: by educating and raising awareness
•· Selecting - and hitting! - the Bulls-eye: choosing a fundraising project and focusing on it for a 2 year period
As Environment co-chairs, Kris and I would like to focus on the first phase for the next few months, namely, the selection of a target issue. With all the grave environmental problems facing our planet today, it is our hope that an environmental challenge can be chosen for our target for change. But - seriously - if we don't do better with the environment, it may not matter how well we do anything else! We think the global issue chosen MUST be an environmental one!
What we would like you to do is to think about what global environmental issue you see as most important - what issue could you get passionate about? Don't worry about a specific project or charity to fund, just focus on the issue to address. While it must be related to one of the UN Millennium Development Goals, everything concerned with the well-being of our planet fits into that category, so that's easy. What could it be? We have a suggestion we would like your input on.
I talked to people from many different clubs at the Conference about a possible Target goal and one issue kept floating up...water. It is one of the necessities of life for everyone and everything, yet there are many worldwide problems caused by, and connected to, water. Water problems affect half of humanity. Some facts:
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• There are some 1.8 million children who die each year as a result of diarrhoea.
• In developing countries, women and female children are frequently the main providers of water for household use. Millions of hours each day are spent collecting water, which leaves little time for education or other activities that could improve their lives.
• There are 443 million school days lost each year due to water-related illnesses.
• Access to piped water in the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometer- but not in their house or yard- consume around 20 liters per day. (The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters daily.)
• An estimated 25 million refugees are displaced annually by the contamination of rivers and river basins, more than are forced to flee from war zones.
• Flood and drought are the main causes of poverty and of the displacement and migration of poor populations.
• There is a positive, but complex, link between water services for irrigation and other farm use, poverty alleviation and food security. The overall impact of improved water resources can be remarkable: in India, for example, in non-irrigated districts, 69% of the population are poor, while in irrigated districts, only 26% are poor.
• Much of the world already faces acute water shortages - from the poor areas of central Asia, where rivers and lakes have shrunk or dried up, to the wealthy south-western states of the USA, where the once mighty Colorado River now no longer reaches the sea.
• Those affected most by the water crisis are the world's poor and without an adequate water supply and better sanitation, their situation will not improve.
The actual proposal for the Target issue must be done by the global committees, but between now and the October submission deadline, we plan to include some water information in each of our regular bulletins. Water is a many faceted issue and we will focus on a different aspect in each bulletin. For example, water and the food shortage, water and health, water and education, water and poverty... We are thrilled to have formed a Water Team/Committee with FAWCO members from different clubs. These 5 women will be doing a lot of the water research we will be passing along to you. We will also compile a list of possible water charities and will make that available after the summer so you can get an idea the sort of projects that would be possible recipients if water is chosen as the Target issue. It is the intention for member clubs to get involved by submitting specific project porposals and we are anxious to work with you on that. Start thinking about what your club members would get enthusiastic about supporting.
We welcome your comments, suggestions and general input. Do you support water as a target issue? If not, what environmental issue would you like to support and why? We can certainly submit more than one issue for consideration. Rest assured, there are enough environmental problems...
Environment co-chairs: Anne van Oorschot, AWC The Hague & Kris Colluro-Smith, AWC London
Water Team/Committee: Kara Fairchild, AWC Göteborg in Sweden; Mary Kent, AWO Moscow; Beth Molnar, AWC Hamburg; Cynthia Smith-Ayed, AIWC Casablanca; Debra Yonker-Hecht, Chilterns AWC
Sources: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats ; http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr1/table_contents/index.shtml ; http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr2/table_contents.shtml .