But what if it were closer?

Imagine your next-door neighbors starving, their children on the front lawn with distended bellies and bones nearly poking through their skin. You pull into your driveway in your brand new car, bringing home your healthy, well-fed (even overfed) children. As your well-dressed, slightly plump kids get out of the car, you shield their eyes and tell them there is not much they can do. It is best to hurry into the house where supper and a new toy await them. You all run inside, lock the door, close the blinds, and turn on the electric fence so the neighbors can't try to steal food from your garden — which you have not tended particularly well because you have been too busy fighting with the family across the street who knocked down one of your lawn ornaments. Could you do it? I know I couldn't walk past a starving child on my street. Yet, I have done it a thousand times by changing the channel when appeals for contributions are broadcast. Our society does it every day, keeping our heads in the sand, hiding out at the mall, shopping for trinkets and clothes we don't need while over a billion people battle for enough food to stay alive.

The United Nations Millennium Project

The premise of the huge, multilevel United Nations Millennium Project (www.unmillenniumproject.org) is that extreme poverty on our planet threatens us all by causing instability, disease, and the unnecessary suffering and deaths of millions of people. Yet, such poverty can be brought to a close by our generation! I was especially excited by one facet, the Millennium Village Project, which makes immediate changes in the lives of individuals. I will summarize what I love about its simple, hands-on ideas and why I have chosen to support it.

The objective is to develop self-sustaining communities by providing technology, training, and investment, rather than a handout. The work started with a dozen "research" villages (now expanded to 78), located in ten African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. The locations were chosen as hunger "hotspots," often accompanied by a high level of disease, lack of access to medical care, and a severe lack of infrastructure. Each had to be in a reasonably peaceful nation governed by an accountable government, and located in districts where non-governmental or international donor organizations have been able to work successfully.

I have resolved to be personally accountable for my desire to contribute in a meaningful manner. My resolution is fourfold:

• I am choosing a specific village to support to self-sufficiency. This assists me to direct my thoughts, energy, and actions to a specific goal where I will see results.
• I have committed to continuing my support there long term, a minimum of five years or until the Millennium Project directs its energies to another village because this one has become self-sustaining.
• I am doing what the Millennium Project asks of our government, committing .7 percent of my gross sales of this book, of the income of my company, Personal Best Seminars Inc., and any other personal income for a minimum of five years.
• I am inviting you—as a reader, as a have in a world of have-nots, as a citizen of planet Earth—to make the same pledge. The .7 percent solution would hardly be felt by most of you. If you earn $100,000 a year, it is only $700, less than $60 a month. Many of you spend more at Starbucks or on parking meters. If you choose to do this, you can make your pledge to the Millennium Project (www.millenniumpromise.org) for their use where the need is greatest. Because our objective is long-term sustainability, I ask you to please consider making monthly contributions for a span of five years. All contributions are meaningful, but if you want to teach a child about self-sufficiency, would you send him a single large sum of money?