Students for International Development

A New Year, New Beginings 2012!

2012-01-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

   As the new year and semester begins we SIDers have begun as well. Last thursday we met for the first time and we wasted no time in getting straight to work. Among us were several usual participants as well as many new faces joining excited to help and give feed back. Our three lovely presidents welcomed us and announced the topic for the up coming Hunger Banquet. We started off with the usual rooibos tea (really an herbal infusion) and then jumped right into the brainstorming discussion. Our generally focus is Women in Development with the idea that if women and girls in the developing world are empowered and supported then they will in turn change the world. The response to this topic was excellent and the energy in the room grew as we started to discuss different titles and tag lines that could be used to advertise. Then the organization of the event was reviewed and examples from previous years were shown. To head this years Hunger Banquet there are five committees; Advertising, Food, Mood, Involvement, and Entertainment. There will be two to three co-chairs over each committee and these will work directly with the presidents to carry out each assignment in order to maintain the efficiency and success of each area.
   As this new semester takes off we have started with a bang. We are very excited to start working on the Hunger Banquet and getting to know all the new faces that have joined us. If you want to be one of them and get involved in this awesome event please don't hesitate to contact us or just join us at our next meeting, tonight @ 7:30 in the HRCB Kennedy Center room 238!

Ch-ch-ch-check it! HunGeR BaNQueT!!

2011-04-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hunger Banquet=HUGE SUCCESS!! Thanks to all of you for all of your hard work and time that you volunteered to make this happen. Check out some pictures from the event! If you weren't able to make it.. we sure missed you and hope you can make it next year!

The Hunger Banquet is Upon Us!

2011-03-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

Planning Meetings!

2011-02-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

Want to see what you've been missing at SID for the last two Thursdays?! Well, we've been doing a lot of planning for the HB 2011 (and watching a great film from the Ballard Center)! If you want to help with one of the many wonderful committees, sign up here. Also, if you would like to help us advertise for the Creative Competition, sign up for a booth time in either the Wilk or the HFAC this week at this link: :)
And here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Posters!

2011-02-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here are the beautiful Hunger Banquet Creative Competition posters!

What's Happening at SID?

2011-01-31T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow SIDers! Wanna know what you've been missing at SID recently?

Well, basically you have missed a whole lot of awesome PLANNING! That's right, the hunger banquet is just around the corner! The date is March 19th and there will be a matinee and a night program. The theme this year is Peace by Piece.. catchy huh? Don't know what the hunger banquet is? Go here to find out about last year's hunger banquet: http://kennedy.byu.edu/student/SID/hunger/ (p.s. don't pay attention to the dates, location, or theme. It is all last year's info)

To find out about each committee and decide which you should join, read Rachel's last post. Then go here to sign up for one! Here are a few pics from the first hunger banquet planning meeting

our lovely SID presidents! (check out Rachel's awesome hair!!)

Record Breaking Amount of People Attend SID Meeting!

(ok ok, it may not have been record breaking. But seriously, there were a ton of people there!)

Hunger banquet.. here we come!!

It's That Time Again!

2011-01-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

Hey SIDers,
I hope you all had a great holiday season and break from classes and are now ready to kick our Hunger Banquet planning into gear!

Get pumped guys because this semester we'll be meeting every Thursday at 7:30 in 238 HRCB putting everything we've got into planning and preparing for our 21st annual Hunger Banquet. At last week's SID meeting the presidents announced some new changes this years that we're all pretty excited about. First off, we have a change in location. We're ditching the Ballroom and invading the Annex in the Smith Fieldhouse instead. Also, we've decided to adopt a Tipping Bucket-inspired approach to deciding where this year's money goes--we'll be letting the audience decide which projects to fund by adding "drops" to their favorite projects throughout the night. Additionally, we've decided to hold the Creative Competition again, encouraging all who are interested to explore this year's theme, Women In Development, through the artistic medium of their choice.

Interested in helping out? Below is a description of our different committees from our last club e-mail.

MOOD

This committee is in charge of setting up and decorating the SFH Annex in a way fitting for an awesome Hunger Banquet. With the change of venue, this will be an adventure this year, so we need your creativity! The mood committee is key in creating an atmosphere that will allow us to communicate the wonderful message of the Hunger Banquet that we are all so passionate about.

ADVERTISING

This committee advertises for both the Creative Competition and the Hunger Banquet. Responsibilities include coordinating advertising with posters, booths, films, events, flash mobs, drummers, backpack signs, face painting, and anything else you can concoct.

ENTERTAINMENT

This committee is responsible for creating a program of entertainment for the night of, meaning you will work with cultural entertainment groups, getting them there and taking care of them the night of. Another large responsibility, becoming even larger with our change of venue, is to coordinate everything related to lights and sound.

FOOD

Food is an adventure. In this committee you will be working with BYU Dining Services, figuring out food prep and delivery in the new venue, coordinating and organizing servers for the night of, making sure we are adhering to all policies regarding food handling, etc. Food is essential for a banquet! We love all who have put so much work into the food committee in years past.

INVOLVEMENT

Involvement has many responsibilities and may be split into a few committees if needed. This year involvement will need to redefine itself as we are transitioning from doing our NGO Fair to instead working with Tipping Bucket and creating a night where the audience becomes much more involved in what happens after the Hunger Banquet. We term this committee "involvement" for it is the committee that makes sure our audience understands what is going on. There is a message here, and we want those who attend to understand why they are sitting on the floor, why they may be getting a 3-course meal when so many others are not, why we care to put so much work into an event like this, why the world is in need, and what we can do about it. There is much work to be done in this committee, so come with ideas and an adventurous spirit!

CREATIVE COMPETITION

This year we will be putting on the second annual Creative Competition. This committee is responsible for coordinating advertising of the competition, securing gallery spots, receiving entries, organizing and displaying entries, and much more. Another large responsibility of the CC committee is to put on our first official Creative Comp Gala. This will be an event that works with all the departments in the Kennedy Center, putting on a fantastic event for all to come and see the work that has been done, and to advertise not only for the Hunger Banquet, but also for everything in the Kennedy Center and all things done on campus related to development.

Hare Krishna Service Project and Another Guest Post

2010-12-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hey SIDers,
A little note of clarification--I actually wrote this last Wednesday...and then posted it to the completely WRONG blog... yes... the last few weeks of the semester have successfully fried my brain!

The Saturday before Thanksgiving break we had the opportunity to get a group together for our second service project at the Hare Krishna temple. After a brief tour of the temple the boys and girls were divided (apparently we get more done that way) and got to work preparing the temple for the winter weather and harsh winds. When we'd finished we were invited to share a meal in the temple cafeteria. In love with the beautiful Indian products they had for sale in the temple some of us splurged and bought a few things.

Although I haven't been there (yet!), I've always felt drawn to India. A friend of mine named Kirsten Monson felt a similar pull to India. She's asked me if she could share her story with all you SID fans out there. Naturally, I agreed.

New NGO at CARE Week

I have always believed in BYU's motto, "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve." My husband Keyne (BS '97) and I (BS '97) graduated with great intentions to do just that. But the next 12 years--though we took advantage of many opportunities for ward and family service--seemed to be dominated by career and family building. Still, we retained our strong desire to do something to help the world on a larger scale. Recently, we were blessed with just such an opportunity.

In May we took a trip to India where we encountered many wonderful and skilled artisans, who, though impoverished, have a gift for making fine clothing and other goods. We were happy to patron these artisans, as we deeply believe in promoting the simple principles of hard work and self-reliance. The entire trip one question plagued our minds: What is it these people need to pull themselves out of poverty and embark on the road to prosperity? We knew the answer would be life-changing.

We realized that, among other things, one of the greatest needs was more economic opportunity. So we formed a nonprofit called Elevita. It has a two-fold mission: 1) to alleviate poverty worldwide by helping artisans in developing countries find a greater world market for their products, and 2) to use 100% of the profits generated from the sale of these goods to fund meaningful humanitarian projects, especially in education. To sell the artisans' goods we have launched a website, www.elevita.com, with a collection of clothing, jewelry, housewares, and accessories that we have hand-picked from underprivileged artisans around the world. We are currently using the profits to enable village girls in rural India to attend secondary school. This has been an extremely exciting and inspiring venture.

To celebrate the opening of Elevita.com, we will be selling a selection of our goods during CARE week. Elevita will be part of the exhibition before and after the SID screening of the Lazarus Effect. Purchasing goods from Elevita this Christmas season (www.elevita.com) gives people the opportunity to help impoverished families in developing countries while simultaneously doing their own holiday shopping. Our hope is that Elevita will help promote a trend toward socially conscious buying and giving.

Merry Christmas!

Kirsten Monson

This is the kind of development I take great joy in seeing take place. Elevita is a fantastic new organization with beautiful products. I would encourage all to do some Christmas shopping through them this holiday season. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the organization. I've also got some great samples if you would like to see some of the products up close and personal.

See you at the Lazarus Effect screening tomorrow night at 7:30 in JFSB 002.

Ama Rachel

Letters and Movies: SID Style

2010-11-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hey SIDers,
First up: Don't forget, no SID meeting tomorrow night. Instead, we'll be going to the Hare Krishna temple on Saturday to help them prepare their facilities for the winter. We'll be meeting at the Duck Pond south of campus at 9am to carpool up to Spanish Fork--we hope to see you there! Feel free to check out Zach's post on the activity from last year.

Last week's SID meeting was twofold. We started with a ONE letter writing campaign. SIDers brought canned food to donate and wrote letters to Senator Bennett, asking for his support for the plan to commit $1.3 billion towards smart agriculture programs that give farmers across Africa the means to pull themselves out of poverty. Want to help? Write a letter to your state representative in Congress or sign ONE's petition. Want to learn more? Check out the following posts from the ONE Blog:
Multilateral agriculture fund announces plans, rejects 19 countries due to lack of resources
A smart agriculture program that saves time and makes money for women in Mali

For the rest of the evening we were honored with a visit from SID Alum, Blaine Johnson. After incredible experiences like working with Dr. Yunus, studying with Thai monks and chilling with the Dahli Lama, Blaine is currently working with Open Air Cinema, screening movies across the developing world. Open Air Cinema is a for-profit company based in Lindon that makes inflatable outdoor movie screens. While the screens are usually sold/rented for profit, they've recently created a humanitarian branch of the company, partnering with organizations like FilmAid International, Rwanda Cinema Center and Shine Global and Fine Films to take their outdoor screens to locations across South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Blaine was kind enough to take some time to introduce us some of the films that Open Air Cinema has been screening across the world.

First up? War Dance--a documentary about a group of refugee children from Northern Uganda and the national music and dance competition that helps them to begin to heal after their traumatizing experiencing with the Lord's Resistance Army.

The movie is available to stream on Netflix. I watched it last Friday and absolutely loved it. I feel obligated to warn you though, it's a very serious film. Each of the three children featured in the film share their own horrific experiences with the LRA in fairly explicit terms. At the same time, however, it's also a story of hope and joy. "We want people to know that just because we're from a war zone does not mean that we can't do good things," one of the children tells the camera--and thank goodness for that!

Next we learned about Burma VJ, a film about protests in Burma (now Myanmar). Again, another heavy film but also a good one to watch, especially after Aung San Suu Kyi's recent release

The movie, divided into 9 parts, is available in full on youtube. Another that I'd recommend watching.

Finally, we watched Bhutan: Gross National Happiness together as a club. Bhutan is a small, fairly closed-off country lying between India and China. Instead of focusing on raising Gross National Products the former Bhutanese king, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, created a plan to increase Gross National Happiness.

2010-11-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

I came across this quote the other day that I wanted to share with everyone. It's from the first Human Development Report in 1990 (the year I was born conveniently enough!). Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts, let's get more SIDers writing on here!
So here's the quote:

“The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of material and financial wealth”--Bharti Venkatesh

When I was in high school my favorite teacher told me to figure out what motivates me and then find a job that rewards you that way. "If it's money, be a business person or a lawyer," she said, "If it's people, do something that involves people." I'm come to realize that I am very much a people person. I hate money. While I realize that we need it in this world of ours I'm not particularly motivated by the thought of it. I feel like in development so often well meaning people have tried to just throw money at the issue, thinking that money can solve any and everything. Lot of good most of that has done. They see development with the end goal as economic growth. Often when growth is achieved that growth isn't spread to those who need it most. I personally think development is about so much more than money. It's about people. It's people that make this world what it is and it's people that need this world to be better. In seeking a career in development I'm not looking to make money and I'm not looking to make others money. Money is not my goal. My goal is tied directly to the people--my goal is to pursue whatever it is that the people I work for think will lead them to enjoy "long, healthy and creative lives." Let's not kid ourselves into believing we are or ever will be great experts that somehow know everything about development. I recognize the local stakeholders as the real experts. We are merely facilitators.

Anyways, enough from me, what do you guys think?

Thoughts?

Education and Spiral Staircases

2010-11-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

My Beloved-Blog-Following-SIDers!
After a short absence last week I'm baa-aack! And posting promptly after this week's SID activity!

Tonight's SID meeting was all about education in development. We were honored with visitors from Vittana, an organization that does Kiva-like loans but to help students in developing nations go to school, and InterACT (someone correct me if that's the wrong name), an org that does ACT and college prep here in Provo/Orem.

Lesa Young, our ONE Campus Leader, announced the new ONE Agricultural campaign. Congress is considering cutting the budget for the current fiscal year, putting agriculture at a big risk. ONE is trying to prevent this from happening by appealing to Congress to "help farmers around the world earn their way out of poverty for the long term by committing $1.3 billion to smart agriculture programs" (one.org). Next week at 7pm we'll be writing letters to our representatives in Congress, asking for their support. Please come and bring a can of food, too! If you're interested, you can read more about the campaign by checking out the ONE blog. You can also sign the ONE petition right now and help reach ONE's goal of 20,000 signers.

For the remainder of the meeting we took a mini field trip to the spiral staircase in the JFSB to do an education simulation activity with the fabulous Joan Dixon. Everyone was given a card, pink for girls, blue for boys (yes, we buy into gender stereotypes here at SID), with a number on it. Rachel (not me Rachel, SID President Rachel) and Joan shared stats about education statistics in Mali with us as a club as with fewer and fewer students were invited to move up to each subsequent step in education. While 91% of us made it to Primary School (and even then, probably still receiving a rather questionable education), only 1 of the 40ish participants made it to the tertiary level of education, where all of us BYU students are right now. We discussed some of the struggles that are involved in going to school in Mali (lack of money to pay school fees, being needed to work at home, language issues, hitting puberty, a lack of access to schools, school curriculum which lacks relevancy to local conditions, etc. to name but a few) and shared stories about education problems different SID members had seen both here in the US as well as different developing countries we've visited.

At one point, Joan asked the one SIDer who made it to the top of the staircase, representing the small portion of Malians who are able to achieve a higher education, what he planned to do with his education. The student replied that he wasn't sure, maybe he'd just stay in the US where he'd obtained his Masters and his PhD. While that happens a lot, resulting in severe brain drain, I thought I'd share with all you dedicated blog followers, the story of a Malian who beat the odds and obtained as Masters in Public Policy (here at BYU of all places!) and is doing anything but just staying in the US.

Meet my friend Yeah Samaké (pronounced Yay Sa-ma-kay).

Yeah was born in Ouelessebougou, Mali, the 8th child in a family of 18 children. Even though they had little money it was incredibly important to Yeah's father that all of his children go to school, whatever the costs. He believed that in giving his children each an education he could give them the means to break the cycle of poverty that had stricken both their family and their town for so long.

His father was right.

I first heard about Yeah while on an internship in Mali with the Ouelessebougou Alliance. He had just been elected mayor of Ouelessebougou and the 44 surrounding villages and everyone was excited about it. "He's Mali's Obama!" my co-workers told me. Everyone went on and on about how wonderful he was, about how he'd been educated in the US and now ran an NGO called Mali Rising, helping to build schools in Mali. Now he was mayor and he was going to change the way things were done. He was their promise for a better tomorrow, a change they really could believe in. When I was told he was going to be in town and wanted to meet me and my two other fellow BYU interns, I initially thought, "Oh great, how can this man possibly live up to all this talk?" As time after time our appointments with the infamous Yeah Samaké fell through I began to joke that "Obamaké" was merely a conspiracy theory my co-workers had invented to play a trick on me. "You'll meet him," my friend N'Faly assured me. "If Samaké says he'll meet you then he will meet you." When I finally did meet him, my second to last day in Ouelessebougou, I was completely blown away. None of the hype I'd heard came even close to capturing Yeah Samaké. Even now that we're friends I'm still amazed every time I hear him speak. "Inspiring" perhaps is the best word I can think of in describing the man. Yeah is a man who loves his country and has worked his whole life towards making it a better place. He is an incredible example of someone who has beaten the odds, obtained a good education and is now using it to lift his people out of poverty, serving them with all his heart, mind and strength. Serving his hometown and region isn't enough for Yeah, he has decided to run for President in Mali's 2012 presidential elections--I pray that he will win.

Yeah Samaké was recently featured in the BYU Magazine--check out the story if you want to learn more.

That's all for now friends!
Much love,
Ama Rachel

SID--Facebook Style

2010-11-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Just one quick announcement... I was thinking we should put the SID Facebook page to a little bit more use.. it's a bit rusty and I feel like not a lot of people use it. But lets be honest, we all know how much time we spend on facebook... so why not? If you're not a member of the page yet--look it up and join! It's called Students for International Development -- SID, BYU. Feel free to add discussions, questions, pictures, whatever you want! And I will keep pictures updated on facebook so you can all tag yourselves and show all your friends how cool you are (and how cool SID is of course!... lets expand!). So.... yeah! Lets get this goin'! Thanks guys! :)

--Lins

Clothes Drive for the Refugees

2010-11-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have to apologize that my blog posts are nowhere near as exciting as Rachel's! However, I am filling in for her on this one because she wasn't able to attend this activity. October 28, fellow SIDers split up in groups and went out to different areas in Provo to go door to door and collect winter clothing donations to donate to the refugees in Salt Lake City. The clothes drive was a huge success, and a ton of fun! Check out some pics from the activity...

Rachel and Spencer workin' their magic!

lots of donations!

SIDers piling on top of the clothes

(compliments to Rachel Fisher for a few of these pictures that I'm in!)

so many clothes!

hahaha!

Rachel trying on a lovely coat!

ok story time: This blue jacket came from a Floridan guy. He had just barely bought it the week before, and it was his only coat! I'm sure it will be put to good use

some people wear mini skirts during the winter ok? don't judge. hahaha

All piled up and ready to go!

Thanks everyone for your participation in the activity! It was tons of fun!

--Lins

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

2010-11-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Ok everybody, here are the pictures you have all been waiting for! (sorry for the long wait)

ENJOY! :)

Peery Film Festival -- September 30, 2010

Students wait in the varsity theater as the films are being introduced

The filmmakers answer questions about their films and the Peery program

To find out how you can become involved next year, go here: https://marriottschool.byu.edu/sitemap/?id=5817

Kiva Night! SIDers chose people to give micro-credit loans to using KIVA

everyone split into 4 groups according to regions of the world and chose one person from that region

loans were a success!!

Living Proof

2010-10-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hey SIDers,
Ever feel like all we talk about in development is how development doesn't work? Well check out Bill and Melinda Gates' Living Proof Campaign. There are some great videos of success stories to check out on ONE. But don't just keep these success stories to yourself--share them with others. Let's try to make Share the Proof viral. Right now it's just got 345 views. That's it. I'm pretty sure 4 or 5 of those views are from me. Get the word out, SID!

Two Degrees from Former President Bush

2010-10-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hey SIDers,
Sorry I'm posting this a week after the fact (is anyone else seeing a common theme here?) but the truth of the matter is I've been absolutely swamped. But anyways--who cares about me on this blog, we're hear about SID.

Last Wednesday SID was honored with a guest visit from Matt Higginson, our ONE Campus Senior Executive Guy (I'll admit it--I forget his exact title. He used to be our regional director but he has since been promoted to something cooler with Senior in the title) and Michael Gerson, columnist for the Washington Post and former speech writer for former President George Bush. Mr. Gerson helped fight to put AIDS on President Bush's agenda and is currently on a year-long fellowship with ONE. If the ONE Campaign is a foreign concept to you, fear not! I encourage you to read my blog entry explaining who ONE is, what they do and how you can get involved.

Mr. Gerson talked about his own path to politics--from graduating in Bible Studies and Theology from Wheaton College to writing speeches for President Bush, acting as a senior staffer in the White House. He went on to explain that after 9/11 it was evident that America was facing threats that originated in what he called "hopeless parts of the world." He said that in response, the government doubled overseas development assistance, tripling assistance in Africa, taking preventative action to help develop less stable countries and further secure our own nation.

Mr. Gerson also talked about efforts to combat AIDS, explaining that although AIDS interventions are expensive, it is hard to achieve any of the MDGs if the rising generation of leaders is being killed off by the deadly disease. He said that his best experience during his time in the White House was sitting in the Oval Office in 2002 when President Bush decided to approve the donation of $15 billion over a period of five years towards fighting malaria.

"Boldness matters," he told students, "Being ambitious matters," he advised. Mr. Gerson counseled SIDers to get involved in the debate, educate ourselves on the issues and be vocal about our concerns. "Intentions are not enough, we need to be rigorous," he advised, calling for development work to be "rooted in a moral vision of dignity," explaining that as we help others we also help ourselves.

After a short Q&A session Matt Higginson spoke briefly about ONE Campus, explaining that we share a common goal of awareness. He explained that awareness can often feel abstract, not really grounded and somewhat confusing but that ONE wants to do more than just hold up a sign. ONE seeks to influence policy makers and policy, ensuring that our nation's foreign policy includes development. Rather than sending people to the field, one partners with hundreds or different organizations while keeping their focus on advocacy by engaging with elected leaders and with those in office. He explained that we, as students hold a key and unique political power
that politicians are dying to tap into. He encouraged us to use that power to promote the adoption of good foreign policy and international development practices. He encouraged us to become more involved with ONE Campus by participating in ONE's three campaigns for the semester. He told us to first holding a screening of the Lazarus Effect, a movie made by ONE's sister organization RED about AIDS treatments. ONE Campus is also having a Halloween Flier Campaign, "What's Really Scary This Halloween"--check the ONE Blog for details. The final campaign for the semester in the ONE Vote '10 platform drop-off. He also challenged us to become involved in the ONE Campus Challenge next semester and take action to earn points for our school. Matt also recommended applying for ONE internships, especially for Fall and Winter semesters.

Oh and by the way....
Mr. Gerson also gave a Kennedy Center Lecture at noon last Wednesday. Luckily for those of us who had class at the time, the Kennedy Center tries to film all of their fabulous lectures. You can check out Mr. Gerson's lecture here on the Kennedy Center website or by subscribing to the Kennedy Center Podcast available on iTunes.

What's Really Scary This Halloween

Our First Guest Blog Post: Sustaining Haiti

2010-10-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

We have our first guest post! It's from Zach Christensen, last year's club Historian. He's currently in Uganda this semester doing research for Professors Findley and Nielson (cool, eh?) but he's also been involved with an organization called Sustain Haiti. Check out his post below!

Sustaining Haiti

Looking at the headlines recently coming out of Haiti, it becomes clear that the recovery from the earthquake has been slow. The deadly cholera outbreak currently underway definitely could have been prevented with proper sanitation facilities and basic training. Statistics about how little work has been done since the January earthquake can be discouraging and may lead people to ask where their donations to help in the recovery have gone.

For some BYU students and members of the local community, we are especially saddened by the tragedies taking place in Haiti. When the earthquake hit, we decided that we wanted to roll up our sleeves and work among the people affected by the earthquake. We started a project called Sustain Haiti. About 50 volunteers, many of them BYU students, went to Leogane, the epicenter of the quake. We focused on square-foot gardening, sanitation and hygiene education, water purification, working with orphanages and micro finance. We had our share of setbacks along the way but at the end of the summer we were able to establish dozens of gardens, install water filters, teach many school children about hygiene and sanitation, give loans to qualified applicants, teach hundreds of people English lessons and develop many new friendships. Next summer, we will be returning to Haiti to scale up our projects and build on the successes we had last summer. Additionally, we are going to have a small team arrive in January to follow up on our projects.

We believe that in some small way our water filters and hygiene education efforts will help protect our beneficiaries from cholera. We are dedicated to continue working in Haiti as long at the need is there.

Want to lend a hand?
We are going to be having a fundraiser 5k in Orem on November 6th. All proceeds will support our projects in Haiti. Registration information can be found at http://pinnaclesecurity.com/haiti.php.

It's Kiva Time!

2010-10-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

To Our Dedicated-Blog-Following-SIDers,
As promised, I'm finally getting around to posting about last week's meeting. Again, many apologies for the delay--unfortunately it's just that time of the semester.

First up--announcements!
First and foremost--SID this week will be on Wednesday at 7pm NOT our normal meeting time of Thursday at 7:30. We will be honored with the opportunity to hear from Michael Gerson, former Bush speech writer, and Matt Higginson, our ONE Regional Director. They'll be speaking about development through advocacy and their responsibilities with the ONE Campaign. They'll take some time for Q&A, too so come with some good questions to ask! Also, don't forget to join our ONE Campus group by registering at one.org/campus. We're trying to encourage more action in SID this year and our ties with ONE is one of the ways we're trying to get busy! Join in!

We also want to do more activities outside of our weekly SID meetings this year. If you have an idea of a good activity or service project we could do as a club please contact the SID presidents by either talking to them in person at a club meeting or by e-mailing them at byu.sid@gmail.com

Neil from Love at Work gave a little spiel on his organization and the work that they do in Latin America mentoring street kids. If you're interested in learning more about ways to get involved contact the SID presidents for his contact information. Neil likes to attend our SID meetings too so you can probably catch him there as well.

A Plea for Help
I've been thinking about changing things up a little bit on our blog. As entertaining as I am, I want to hear more from YOU, our other club members, every now and then. I firmly believe that SID is full of extremely talented and involved students and I want to celebrate that here on our blog. I also want the blog to move beyond being just a simple record of what we do as a club and become an additional forum where BYU students can discuss issues related to development. As such, I'm looking for possible guest posters here on the blog. If you're keeping your own development blog, have written a fantastic paper on something development-related for a class or just want to write about development, feel free to submit your writing for consideration at byu.sid@gmail.com. Also, I want to highlight the good work that our club members are doing individually, outside of SID by having a SIDer of the Month (or maybe week... I haven't decided how frequent it will be). As I don't know what each of you are doing individually, I need your help! If you're interested in being highlighted or have a friend you think could use a little recognition, I would love to hear from you about how you or your friend have been involved in development. In addition to giving recognition to SID members, I hope that these spotlights will help connect students with questions about ways to get involved with students with answers.

Now that we've gotten through all that--on to Thursday Night's Club Meeting!
Last Thursday we had our first Kiva night. We, as a club, broke into four groups and selected projects in Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East to loan to! After much deliberation the following projects were chosen:

Mrs. Ret Aeth Village Bank Group in Cambodia
Nueva Esperanza Group in Peru
Fatima Abu Abdo in Palestine
Lanaya Group in Mali

It is hoped that this will be a sustainable activity that SID can continue for years to come as our loan recipients continue to pay us back, allowing us to make loans as a club to other promising new entrepreneurs throughout the world.

I hope you guys are all getting through the craze of midterms and as always, feel free to leave comments/questions!

Much love,
Ama Rachel

No update yet but... how about some cool videos?

2010-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hey SIDers,
As of yet I haven't had time to write an update of last week's SID meeting (absolutely horrible, I know) BUT since I love you all dearly and feel a need to make up for my delay in posting I decided to share some cool videos with all of you.

First off, remember a couple weeks ago when I posted about the Peery Film Festival? (If not, give yourself a slap on the wrist and check out my post about it). All the videos are now available online! You can find links to them by visiting the Peery Film Festival Website

Also, check out this video from Bill and Melinda Gates' Living Proof campaign, now managed by the ONE Campaign (remember, we're joining the ONE Campus Challenge this year? Join as a member of our campus by signing up here). Earlier today in a live internet broadcast Bill and Melinda, along with Dr. Debrewerk Zewdie, the Deputy Executive Director of the Global Fund, shared stories about something we don't often discuss in development--successes in the fight against global poverty. The presentation is a long one and I've only just started watching it myself--I would suggest skipping at least the first 20 minutes of it (unless you want to watch twenty minutes of pictures without dialogue).

Don't forget that SID is on WEDNESDAY night at 7:00pm in the Kennedy Center this week. We're honored to have Michael Gerson, former Bush Speech Writer, as a guest speaker. Be there, all the cool kids are doing it ;)

Oh and guess what? SID Bonfire this weekend! Check out the facebook event for details.

I promise I'll post about last Thursday soon!

Much love,
Ama Rachel

Changemakers

2010-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hey SID and Followers of SID,
Sorry I'm posting this so late--things have been more than a little crazy this week (although really, when are things ever calm for college students?)

First up, Announcements!
-Sign up with the ONE Campus Challenge and help SID win cool prizes
-Jonsi, former lead singer of Sigur Ros, is coming to Salt Lake! Get tickets here
-Doctor Yunnis, father of microcredit and the Gremeen Bank, was Simpsonafied.
-Done an International Internship? Enter in the International Internship Poster Making Competition for the chance to win a cash prize. You can e-mail byusir@gmail.com for more details
-Sign up for the Human Trafficking Conference on October 28-29 by visiting swevents.byu.edu. This is a great event and it's free!

And now for something completely different
Last week SID was hosted by the fabulous Scott Jackson *cue wild cheering and applause*. Scott works as a representative for the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGU I) here at BYU. Founded by former President Clinton, CGI U seeks to encourage university students across the nation to become leaders, committing to be changemakers in education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation and public health. The organization encourages students to submit a commitment and apply to be one of the 1,500 attendees of the CGI U Annual Conference next April. At the conference "students, national youth organizations, and university officials...discuss solutions to pressing global issues" (cgiu.org).

Sound like your cup o' tea (rooibus tea if we're being specific here)? Well, here's the scoop! Start by taking some time to peruse the CGI U website and learn more about the Clinton Global Initiatives. Next, contact Scott Jackson by e-mailing scott.j.jackson@gmail.com with ideas about your commitment and fill out the BYU CGI U Commitment Form. After perfecting your commitment with BYU representatives it's time for the real thing! Send your commitment to the CGI U and apply to take part in the conference next April.

As always, feel free to post any questions, comments or warm fuzzies!

Ama Rachel

ONE and the Campus Challenge

2010-10-02T00:27:00.001-07:00

Hey SIDers,
This year SID has decided to become involved in the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) so I thought I'd give our readers a little intro on ONE.

What is ONE?
ONE is a nonpartisan advocacy organization with the goal to make poverty history (sounds like something SID would be into, right?). With the help of its 2 million members worldwide, ONE is focused on combating extreme poverty and preventable diseases, particularly in Africa. Members often work to put pressure on their governments through signing petitions, making phone calls and writing letters to their governmental representatives. ONE is also heavily involved in raising awareness of global issues related to poverty--much like SID aims to do with our annual Hunger Banquet.

So what's this about a challenge?
In 2007 ONE launched the ONE Campus Challenge, described by ONE as being "a friendly, intercollegiate competition designed to mobilize students around global issues." A major branch of their advocacy efforts, the OCC awards points to campuses throughout the nation for raising awareness (example: 50 points for a facebook status about ONE, 50 points if you deck your pet out in ONE gear, 500 points for signing a ONE petition, etc). Prizes are award to campuses that do exceptionally well in the competition. For example, at the end of the year the five universities with the most points each get to send a student researcher to Africa.

How can I get involved with BYU's OCC efforts?
Step 1. Join our campus team!
Step 2. Get busy! Check out the different ways you can earn BYU points and then get on with it! Sign the petition asking President Obama to pledge $6 billion to the Global Fund, an effort to ensure that no child dies of malaria and that no baby is born with HIV by 2015. Check out the ONE blog and read up about what's been going on in development lately and then post about it.
Step 3. Keep coming to SID and listen for more from our most honorable club presidents and our new ONE Campus Challenge Leader, Lesa Young.

Feel free to post any questions you might have!

Much love,
Ama (Rachel Morrison)

KOMAZA | Videos

2010-10-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,
I found a trailer for the Komaza film. Check it out!
KOMAZA | Videos

Peery Film Festival

2010-09-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

This week SID decided to mix things up a little bit. Venturing outside of our weekly 7:30 meetings in the Kennedy Center, we decided to lend our support to the first annual Peery Film Festival sponsored by Ballard Center for Economic Self Reliance and the Peery Foundation.

This past summer, seven burgeoning BYU filmmakers selected by the Peery Social Entrepreneurship Grant Program were given $2500 grants to create short documentaries about social entrepreneurs throughout the world. Paired in teams of two with the goal to create something that would be useful to the organization for which they worked, students filmed within the U.S., Paraguay, India and different countries throughout Africa, highlighting the great work of four different social entrepreneurial organizations.

The films were each six minutes in length and beautifully crafted. Sonidos de la Tierra, a Paraguayan organization that aims to create community and social development through music, was highlighted by Emma Hoskisson and Jenica Heintzelman. Becky Potter Summers and Dusty Hulet featured Samasource, an organization in India that connects women, youth and refugees to life-changing work through the internet. Kody Threlfall and Casey Wilson created a film for Global Citizen Year, an organization that sends recent high school graduates to spend a year volunteering in a developing country before starting their college careers. Finally, Travis and Becky Pitcher showcased Komaza, a non-profit social enterprise that aims to provide sustainable economic opportunities to farmers in Africa by planting and maintaining income-generating tree farms.

After screening the documentaries, film creators answered questions from the audience, underlining the point that although creating the films was a lot of work that the experience was invaluable to each of them. Following the event campus social venture group representatives were also available to network with while interested students munched on delicious cookies.

Sound like something you want to do? The Peery Foundation is now accepting fellowship applicants for Spring/Summer 2011. Fellows are given $2500 to finance travel and production costs to make a short documentary about a social enterprise. Todd Mannwaring announced that the Peery Foundation is now opening up the application process to non-film majors as well. Check out http://peeryfoundation.com/ to learn more about the application process.

See you next time around!
Our new SID Historian,
Rachel Morrison (aka Ama--because there are just too many Rachels out there)

Where did my money go?

2010-04-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

First, my apologies for not having posted since the Hunger Banquet. I have been out of town for a while and haven't had much blogging time. A lot of exciting stuff has been happened since the last post. Notably, we selected recipients of the funds we raised during the Hunger Banquet.

We would like to congratulate the following projects, that have been approved by both the Grantwell Committee and the at-large SID membership for funding from the Hunger Banquet:

1. HELP Uganda - Community Gardens and Income Generation Projects for Local Orphanages

2. Udayan Care - Nutritional support and psychiatric counseling for children of HIV/AIDS victims in India

3. Interweave Zimbabwe - Literacy and empowerment projects determined and run by locals.

4. Care for Life (Mozambique) - Material purchases for the construction of community learning centers and incentives for goal-setting programs.

5. Courage to Hope (Romania) - Support for evaluation materials to assess needs in shelters for abused women and girls.

6. Ouelessebougou Alliance (Mali) - Support for quantitative evaluation program and data sharing between village development workers.

We'd like to thank all of those who volunteered, attended and helped to make the Hunger Banquet such a grand success. We have carefully selected these projects that we feel reflect our core SID values of participation, evaluation, transparency and impact.

Please thank your roommates and friends who attended the banquet, and let them know where the money went!

The Hunger Banquet in the News

2010-03-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some great links about the Hunger Banquet that have been in the media over the past few days.

Utah People's Post

The Daily Herald

Mormon Times (Deseret Morning News)

The Daily Universe

Last day of this year's hunger banquet

2010-03-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Check out this article about the Hunger Banquet in the Deseret Morning News.

The banquet did much to highlight the beauty of different cultures with traditional dances and songs. But more than just raise awareness for poverty, the theme aimed at changing stigmas about the poor.

Thursday's Banquet went wonderfully. We'll have pictures and more details soon. We look forward to another great night tonight. Thanks to all of our volunteers and participants!

Creative Competition Winners

2010-03-03T22:39:00.001-08:00

Here are three of the winners of the 2010 Creative Competition. The five winners were given $200 that they could keep as a cash prize or donate to one of our charities. The theme of the Competition was "Celebrating Human Dignity." Congratulations to our winners and to everyone who submitted one of many outstanding submissions.

This video entitled "Orphanage in Nepal" was submitted by Adrienne Rumsey and Jessica Nelson and edited by Brigham Cottom.

This essay entitled "Change" was submitted by Emily Golightly.
Change Emily Golightly

Another commendable essay entitled "Victoria Memoir" was submitted by Katie Ellis Jahner.
K 1.E.jahner Victoria Memoir

Daily Universe Article about the Hunger Banquet

2010-03-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

Today's copy of the Daily Universe has an article about the Hunger Banquet. The full article can be found here.

The leaders of SID said while one aim of the hunger banquet is to raise awareness about hunger, it is also to create an experience that leaves guests informed and motivated.

“We don’t want students to have an experience where they feel sad that poverty exists,” said Peter Carroll, a co-president of SID and a junior studying international relations from Salt Lake City. “People have value regardless of their financial situation. Those who have had experiences abroad and have seen this have seen that people are capable, creative, hardworking—they’re the same as we are.”

The entertainment at the hunger banquet will include international musical groups, the documentary about Alice made by documentary film student Dusty Hulet and keynote speaker Martin Burt. Burt is the former mayor of Asuncion, Paraguay. In 2001, when Burt’s term as mayor was over, he dedicated his life to promoting economic self-reliance through microcredit.

The next 5 days

2010-03-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Schedule of the next 5 days:

Wed March 3
7:30pm-- Mandatory Volunteer Training Meeting, for ALL volunteers
(The first 200 will get a free Hunger Banquet t-shirt.)

Thurs March 4
3:30-6:30pm Ballroom Setup
7-9pm Hunger Banquet
9-11pm Take Down

Fri March 5
3:00pm -- 238 HRCB Kennedy Center Lecture given by Martin Burt

Sat March 6
3:30-6:30pm Ballroom Setup
7-9pm Hunger Banquet
9-11pm Take Down

Encourage everyone you can to come. Let's make this the best year yet!

A couple of videos about the Hunger Banquet

2010-03-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

This is a video that was recently made about this year's Hunger Banquet. Check it out.

BYU Hunger Banquet Commercial 2010 from Dusty Hulet on Vimeo.

And here is a video made by BYUTV International about a past Hunger Banquet.

Making announcements about the Hunger Banquet

2010-02-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

From the Hunger Banquet wiki here's a great blurb you can send as an email to classmates through blackboard. This is also provides a great way to explain what the Hunger Banquet is when you make announcements in classes.

Students for International Development

A New Year, New Beginings 2012!

Ch-ch-ch-check it! HunGeR BaNQueT!!

The Hunger Banquet is Upon Us!

Planning Meetings!

Posters!

What's Happening at SID?

It's That Time Again!

Hare Krishna Service Project and Another Guest Post

Letters and Movies: SID Style

Education and Spiral Staircases

SID--Facebook Style

Clothes Drive for the Refugees

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

Living Proof

Two Degrees from Former President Bush

Our First Guest Blog Post: Sustaining Haiti

It's Kiva Time!

No update yet but... how about some cool videos?

Changemakers

ONE and the Campus Challenge

KOMAZA | Videos

Peery Film Festival

Where did my money go?

We would like to congratulate the following projects, that have been approved by both the Grantwell Committee and the at-large SID membership for funding from the Hunger Banquet:

1. HELP Uganda - Community Gardens and Income Generation Projects for Local Orphanages

The Hunger Banquet in the News

Last day of this year's hunger banquet

Creative Competition Winners

Daily Universe Article about the Hunger Banquet

The next 5 days

A couple of videos about the Hunger Banquet

Making announcements about the Hunger Banquet

One week and counting

14 days to go

Hunger Banquet preparations

TippingBucket.org and Hunger Banquet Planning

CREATIVE COMPETITION PROMO VIDEO!!

Haiti Panel discussion

Haiti Discussion Resources

Shropshire Music Foundation and Hunger Banquet Committees

Hunger Banquet Kickoff

Anouncing... our Hunger Banquet Speaker!

Hunger Banquet planning

APPLY FOR A HUNGER BANQUET LEADERSHIP POSITION!

Engineers for International Development and Sudan Roundtable

Service project for the Krishna Temple

This week's SID meeting

Microfinance Institutions

Political science and its role in development

Three Cups of Tea

Social Venture Competition

NGO Fair

Kennedy Center Lecture by Padma Venkataraman

The Dancing Forest

Rooibocino Brainstorm Night! Internships/Field Studies/Funding

Hunger Banquet 2009

NEW MEETING TIME

Hunger Banquet in Action

Non Profit Career Placement Presenation

Program Evaluation