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An international effort to eradicate poverty
by Christin Davis –
In an eight-part series, New Frontier is exploring the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate poverty and achieve basic human rights for all people, and detailing Salvation Army work to accomplish the goals.
Goal 1: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Read more about this goal in New Frontier, volume 28, number 3.
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 1: Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere—boys and girls alike—will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
In its 119 countries of operation, The Salvation Army currently runs 504 kindergarten schools, 957 primary schools and 180 upper primary/middle schools, according to the Army’s 2010 Yearbook.
Indonesia’s 2004 tsunami demolished schools and suspended learning activities for children in the region. A Salvation Army mobile library and informal curbside school now brings educational programs and books to school-age children. The Army is working to significantly reduce the number of illiterate young people in the area.
The Salvation Army runs a school for the blind in Jamaica, where children learn Braille in order to communicate. The kids are taught to rely on each other, yet grow in individual confidence as they learn how to dress themselves, how to bathe and even how to pick a mango from a tree. The goal is to promote independence and citizenship.
Understanding that education is a key to opportunity, the Army in Latin America runs educational programs that teach values alongside academics, as well as nutrition and vocational development. These programs benefit more than 3,000 young people.
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: A global partnership for development
See more about the MDGs at endpoverty2015.org and in the spring 2010 issue of Caring.
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