Readership Survey
Editor's note: President Alastair Summerlee welcomes comments on his column at president@uoguelph.ca.
Next week, leading scholars and advocates from around the world will gather at the University of Guelph. Some are travelling from as far away as Africa; others are from places much closer to home: Toronto, Waterloo and Guelph. Their backgrounds, life experiences, careers and outlooks are incredibly diverse, but they've been drawn to our campus by a shared passion and commitment: eradicating poverty.
For two days, they will discuss the challenges that people living in poverty face around the world. Who is making a difference and how and what we need to do better will be among the topics on the agenda. It's all part of the Making Poverty History: Doing More of What Works symposium, a free public event that is being held April 25 and 26 in Rozanski Hall and will feature keynote presentations and stimulating discussions.
We took the name of the symposium from the United Nation's Millennium Development Making Poverty History campaign, which has a goal of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.
The gathering is also part of a series of ongoing events and symposia the University has sponsored this academic year to engage the public in discussions of global issues. In February, we hosted a president's dialogue on the changing role of the media. In January, it was a forum on BSE and bird flu, and last November, a gathering on the Gomery report and Canadian public affairs.
Each of the events was a great success and attracted a wide audience. But of all the topics, I consider poverty to be the most important and the most demanding. Poverty is something that affects everyone. While it often affects groups disproportionately based on race, gender, religion, age and geography, it exists everywhere and poses enormous challenges. It's the universal barrier to education, health and well-being and is the foundation of hunger, ignorance and disease.
Moreover, poverty often leaves well-meaning people bewildered. One reason may be that the problem is so massive and widespread, it's easy to feel overwhelmed even powerless in the face of such global adversity, especially when you hear the statistics. Consider that there are 6.5 billion people living on this planet, and nearly half of them live on less than $2 a day. A billion survive on less than $1 per day. It's a sobering thought.
Even more unfathomable is the fact that an estimated one billion children in the world live in poverty. In Canada, about 15.5 per cent of children live in relative poverty, and in Ontario, there are nearly 400,000 poor children, a figure that has grown by 41 per cent in the past decade.
Every year, more than 10 million children in the world die of hunger and preventable diseases that's more than 30,000 a day and one every three seconds. Overall, poverty kills 18 million people a year one-third of all deaths in the world.
Now consider that the amount of money owned by the three richest people in the world is greater than the gross domestic product of the globe's 48 poorest nations.
The statistics are indeed grim. When something is so overwhelming, it can be difficult to know how or what to do to make even the smallest difference.
At U of G, we've decided to do our part, starting with the community in which we live and branching out to the rest of Canada and the world. Universities are vibrant, active communities of people who are armed with knowledge and experience and willing to be open-minded, level-headed and concerned about the world. Universities should be the moral and social conscience of society and as such, must play a leadership role in eliminating poverty.
An ideal starting point involves focusing on the areas in which we have expertise: enhancing people's understanding about the causes and nature of poverty, influencing public opinion and public policy, motivating students and communities to become engaged in meaningful ways, contributing to Canada's international development activities, and encouraging volunteerism by Canadians at all stages and in all walks of life.
Already, U of G has done a lot to motivate and encourage its students to get involved in their community and in larger volunteer initiatives. In February, more than 100 of our students spent Reading Week helping with hurricane relief efforts in Mississippi, working with homeless and at-risk youth in Calgary, volunteering at a remote native reserve and working with Guelph families in need.
Earlier this month, a group of students raised close to $59,000 to fight cancer during Relay for Life. As I've said before, such social engagement is fundamental to a civil and democratic society.
The University will continue to act as an agent of change in partnership with individuals, organizations and governments to make poverty history. We also want to profile solutions that work.
The symposium is a great start. We have assembled a roster of internationally recognized speakers and experts, with the highlight being a 7 p.m. keynote address April 25 by Elisabeth Tankeu, the African Union's commissioner for trade and industry and Cameroon's former minister of plan and territorial development.
Other highlights of the two-day event include a 9:15 a.m. keynote April 26 by Agnes Wakesho Mwang'ombe of the University of Nairobi in Kenya, who will discuss poverty issues for women and youth, and a 1 p.m. talk by Gerald Helleiner of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, who will speak on local, national and international poverty.
Wednesday will also feature panel discussions at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. that feature participants from UNICEF Rwanda, World Vision, the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and the Tamarack Institute, as well as scholars, business leaders and others.
I invite all of you to join me April 25 and 26 for this extremely important event. Across the world, individuals, governments and agencies are joining forces in the noble struggle to make poverty history, and we want you to be a part of this momentous effort, too.
Whether it involves educating others, campaigning for debt forgiveness, encouraging contributions for development initiatives, promoting volunteer activities or changing public policy, we have an obligation and, more important, the ability to fashion a co-ordinated focus that will take us even closer to eradicating the scourge of poverty from our planet.
