Food
Child Rescued from the Streets
By the time 9-year-old Arsenio was brought to Kaibigan Community Center, a shelter and ministry for homeless “street-dwellers” in Manila Philippines, he’d already been a runaway since age 6. He’d spent most of the last three years begging with a group of street-kids. A Kaibigan staff member rescued him from the streets and reunited him … Continue reading
Global Poverty: down but not out
Looking toward the future, there is some really good news for the developing world…but also some really bad news. First the good. The often-cited statistic of over 1.3 billion people in extreme poverty worldwide has been updated, and it’s gotten a lot smaller. Nearly half a billion smaller! Researchers from the Brookings Institution estimate a … Continue reading
World Food Day 2010
The 30th annual World Food Day is coming this Saturday, and there will be good news as well as bad news to reflect on as we turn our attention to global hunger. The good news is that the number of hungry people in the world has fallen by nearly 100 million from last year’s all-time … Continue reading
Welcome the Children
Cross International has some great news to report from the field. Last year, we worked with one of our mission partners, Mission Evangelique Baptiste Du Su D’Haiti (MEBSH) to support 29 schools for restavek children in Haiti. Restaveks, or children working as indentured servants for their host family, are routinely denied the opportunity to attend … Continue reading
Celebrating Freedom
This weekend, many Americans will express thanks for their freedom as they celebrate Independence Day. The idea of freedom means different things to different people: freedom from want, freedom from oppression, freedom to succeed, freedom to say and do as we please. As Christians, we understand freedom in a very exciting way. Ephesians 3:12 says, … Continue reading
Child mortality on the rise
First the good news: ten African countries are only half as poor as they were two decades ago. Now the bad news: child mortality rates have actually gone up, rather than down, in six sub-Saharan nations. Sub-Saharan Africa holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only region in the world that has seen an increase … Continue reading
The Child Evangelist
Ask a boy who his hero is, and chances are good he’ll name an athlete, rock star, actor, or even a comic book character. But 10-year-old Joshua, who lives at the Cross-sponsored Kondanani Village in Malawi, is no ordinary boy. His hero is a charismatic Zambian preacher he watches on TV, and he’s already started … Continue reading
Born into hunger and disease
It was obvious to Charity’s parents that something was wrong. All babies cry, but not like this. Charity was crying all the time and seemed to be in severe pain, so they took her to the doctor. The diagnosis turned out to be a common one among poor Zambian families: tuberculosis, often the first warning … Continue reading
How Big is World Hunger?
Last year, the United Nations projected a rise in world hunger to 1.02 billion people – more than one-seventh of the global population! Statistics on hunger are always rough estimates, and the results can vary greatly from one study to another. But one thing seems clear: the U.N. number is no exaggeration. In fact, it … Continue reading
Keeping up with the Urban Shift
By 2050, a full 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. That’s four out of every five people! The prediction comes from a recent Financial Times report called “The Future of Cities.” People often migrate from rural to urban settings because cities offer new jobs. But these growing cities are also producing … Continue reading
