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| THE MICAH CHALLENGE |
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The Micah Challenge is a global campaign aiming to deepen Christian engagement with the poor and to influence leaders of rich and poor nations to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.
All 191 members states of the United Nations have promised to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015. The Goals include measurable, time-bound targets addressing poverty and hunger, education, maternal and child health, the prevalence of diseases including HIV/AIDs, gender equality, the environment, debt, trade justice and aid.
Functions:
The MDGs are so comprehensive that they are pertinent to any justice or community oriented organization. Because the Micah Challenge’s primary advocacy focus is the MDGs, it has gained the support of many organizations, institutions, and individuals and serves as an umbrella for them. This has been a great blessing in that the Micah Challenge has become a barrier free zone for different organizations that have often times been in competition with one another. This movement has a lot of momentum behind it as various organizations celebrate the opportunity to work with other organizations instead of in competition with them. This also opens the opportunity for members of one organization to be in touch with another organization that they may not have been without the exposure through the Micah Challenge.
Since the introduction of the MDGs and the various events and efforts that have been created in response to them, something new has been happening in the fight against poverty. Within Christianity we are seeing unity among denominations and organizations in previously unprecedented collaboration. Individuals and groups from all sects of evangelical Christianity are putting doctrinal differences aside to join one another in the fight against poverty because it has gone too far. The inequality in the world is offensive, and with popular awareness rising people are jumping on board with “white band” movements uniting to end poverty.
The Micah Challenge is not looking to start any new groups or non-governmental organizations; rather, this is a campaign to reinforce existing groups that work for justice. Because the MDGs encompass so many issues, the Micah Challenge is a resource for very specific advocacy/awareness events or very general. As the Micah Challenge can be used to pull in general interest for partner organizations it can be used similarly on college campuses to get students on the same page concerning justice and advocacy. From there students are pointed to the already existing more focused groups on campus. This increases membership and momentum for the fight against poverty.
For a full description of the MDGs see www.un.org/millenniumgoals
For more information on the Micah Challenge see www.micahchallenge.org for the international campaigns website, and www.micahmorphosis.org for the MCUSA youth website. |
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