Contrary to popular belief, the amount of money that the United States spends on foreign aid is almost nothing; especially when compared to what we spend on the military. Each year we spend, on average, $30 billion helping the world’s needy while we dump a whopping 663 billion into the military. I have previously discussed why this needs to change and what’s in it for us as a country if we help those still living in third world countries become contributing members of the global economy.
Thankfully, I am not the only aware of these benefits and, right now, there is a team of people working around the clock to convince our politicians that more foreign aid is in our best interests. They go by The Borgen Project, and it was during my internship with them that I initially became passionate about the plight of those in need around the world.
Their Mission Statement: “The Borgen Project believes that leaders of the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global poverty. We’re the innovative, national campaign that is working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign policy.”
Rather than taking donations and sending aid, they are working within our country to educate politicians and citizens alike on the realities of extreme global poverty. The Borgen Project was created by Clint Borgen after working as a volunteer in the refugee camps during the war in Kosovo in 1999. He took a job on a fishing boat in Alaska to garner the funds he needed and started his first campaign with a limited budget and his laptop. Since then they have evolved into a national campaign with volunteers in 220 cities across the United States.
As previously mentioned, The Borgen Project doesn’t take donations to provide aid to those living in extreme poverty. Instead they meet with the leaders of our country to build support for legislation and programs to help end extreme poverty across the globe.
In 2007, they came together with U.S. leaders and organizations to help save $1 billion that Congress had been planning to cut from global health funding. That rescued funding has provided:
- treatment for 1.5 million people with malaria.
- 6.3 million people with bed nets to prevent malaria.
- 3.7 million people with HIV tests.
- 110,000 people with AIDS treatment.
- 800,000 people with treatment for TB.
So, while they don’t function the same way as other non-profits, their organization could easily provide the most impact if they’re as successful as they want to be. Supporting The Borgen Project can bring about a change in the way our country, the 7th wealthiest in the world, provides foreign aid; and that can make a huge difference to those who need it the most.