Host: Peggy Wehmeyer

On this week’s World Vision Report…

·       Finding food for a billion really hungry people in the world.

·       Selling sticks to make a living in Sierra Leone

·       Funding entrepreneurs who offer novel ways of solving old problems

·       Families where prostitution is an every day job

·       A first visit to the Ganges River

·       A popcorn vendor in China

Hunger Interview (5:37)

The World Food Program says there are more than a billion people in the world who are urgently hungry.  That’s one out of every six people on the planet.  200 million of them have been added just in the last two years.  And the numbers continue to rise.  Peggy Wehmeyer talks with the World Food Program’s Bettina Luescher about the situation.

Stick Sellers (5:40 or 6:00?)

For thousands of people in Africa, every single day brings the same question:  will we have enough food to feed the children today?  Will we have anything to eat?  In the village of Kamoria, Sierra Leone, families survive on what they grow on their farms. Cash – for food or anything else -- is in short supply.  The women of the village try their best to bring in a little extra.  Rachael Borlase reports.

Blue Sweater (17:25)

Jacqueline Novogratz has an ambitious agenda.  She wants to solve the problem of global poverty.  And she’s already made a start.  In 2001 she founded the Acumen Fund, which turned the old charity model on its head.  Instead of just giving away grant money, Acumen invests in businesses and organizations that bring life-changing basic products to poor people.  Products like housing, healthcare, clean water, and energy.  Novogratz believes it’s innovative and imaginative entrepreneurs who will ultimately find the solution to global poverty. Novogratz is the author of Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.  She had spent years in the U.S. banking industry, then went to Ivory Coast to run a micro-loan project.  She was full of energy and enthusiasm, but she told host Peggy Wehmeyer it didn’t go quite as well as she had hoped.

Sex Trade Families (8:00)

When we hear about young women working as prostitutes, we usually find out pimps and traffickers lured them into the business.  It’s hard to imagine that women are encouraged  -- or even forced – to work as prostitutes by their family and their friends.  But that’s exactly what happens in a community just outside Delhi, India.  Every day there, married women walk to nearby highways to meet their clients -- passing truck drivers – while their husbands and mothers-in-law look after the children at home.  Sunita Thakur sent us this story about the community and the non-profit group that’s working to change things.

Ganges (2:09)

Not far from Delhi is India’ s most sacred river, the Ganges.  Reporter Peter Aronson saw the river for the first time recently.  He tells us what he saw in this Reporter's Notebook.

Popcorn Vendor (4:22)

Street vendors are an important part of Shanghai’s vibrant local economy.  But the vendors are constantly on the run from authorities who want to clean up Shanghai’s image.  Rebecca Kanthor spent the day with a popcorn popper on a back street in Shanghai.

:30 PROMO FOR THIS SHOW:

            According the U.N. World Food Program there are now more than a billion people in the world who are in urgent need of food.  Another 20-million are simply hungry.  This week the World Vision Report talks with a U.N. official about why there are so many starving people in the world and how to feed them.

            That story, selling sticks for a living in Sierra Leone and selling your body for a living in India.

            It’s all on this week’s show from the Global News Partnership. 

Host: Peggy Wehmeyer

On this week’s World Vision Report…

·       Finding food for a billion really hungry people in the world.

·       Selling sticks to make a living in Sierra Leone

·       Funding entrepreneurs who offer novel ways of solving old problems

·       Families where prostitution is an every day job

·       A first visit to the Ganges River

·       A popcorn vendor in China

Hunger Interview (5:37)

The World Food Program says there are more than a billion people in the world who are urgently hungry.  That’s one out of every six people on the planet.  200 million of them have been added just in the last two years.  And the numbers continue to rise.  Peggy Wehmeyer talks with the World Food Program’s Bettina Luescher about the situation.

Stick Sellers (5:40 or 6:00?)

For thousands of people in Africa, every single day brings the same question:  will we have enough food to feed the children today?  Will we have anything to eat?  In the village of Kamoria, Sierra Leone, families survive on what they grow on their farms. Cash – for food or anything else -- is in short supply.  The women of the village try their best to bring in a little extra.  Rachael Borlase reports.

Blue Sweater (17:25)

Jacqueline Novogratz has an ambitious agenda.  She wants to solve the problem of global poverty.  And she’s already made a start.  In 2001 she founded the Acumen Fund, which turned the old charity model on its head.  Instead of just giving away grant money, Acumen invests in businesses and organizations that bring life-changing basic products to poor people.  Products like housing, healthcare, clean water, and energy.  Novogratz believes it’s innovative and imaginative entrepreneurs who will ultimately find the solution to global poverty. Novogratz is the author of Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.  She had spent years in the U.S. banking industry, then went to Ivory Coast to run a micro-loan project.  She was full of energy and enthusiasm, but she told host Peggy Wehmeyer it didn’t go quite as well as she had hoped.

Sex Trade Families (8:00)

When we hear about young women working as prostitutes, we usually find out pimps and traffickers lured them into the business.  It’s hard to imagine that women are encouraged  -- or even forced – to work as prostitutes by their family and their friends.  But that’s exactly what happens in a community just outside Delhi, India.  Every day there, married women walk to nearby highways to meet their clients -- passing truck drivers – while their husbands and mothers-in-law look after the children at home.  Sunita Thakur sent us this story about the community and the non-profit group that’s working to change things.

Ganges (2:09)

Not far from Delhi is India’ s most sacred river, the Ganges.  Reporter Peter Aronson saw the river for the first time recently.  He tells us what he saw in this Reporter's Notebook.

Popcorn Vendor (4:22)

Street vendors are an important part of Shanghai’s vibrant local economy.  But the vendors are constantly on the run from authorities who want to clean up Shanghai’s image.  Rebecca Kanthor spent the day with a popcorn popper on a back street in Shanghai.

:30 PROMO FOR THIS SHOW:

            According the U.N. World Food Program there are now more than a billion people in the world who are in urgent need of food.  Another 20-million are simply hungry.  This week the World Vision Report talks with a U.N. official about why there are so many starving people in the world and how to feed them.

            That story, selling sticks for a living in Sierra Leone and selling your body for a living in India.

            It’s all on this week’s show from the Global News Partnership.