Ending global poverty through U.S foreign policy is the mission of the non-profit organization The Borgen Project. It was formed in 2003 in Seattle, Wash., by Clint Borgen after his time working in refugee camps during the Kosovo War in 1999 inspired him, says the website. The organization focuses on four major advocacies: Global Food Security; food aid reform; newborn, child and mother survival; and access to clean water, sanitation and power, according to its website. Youngwon Shine Kang-Dauphin, a recent BYU-Hawaii graduate of international cultural studies from South Korea, is the political affairs intern for The Borgen Project. She said she has always wanted to help people, which led her to this internship. “I felt a strong inspiration to serve the world’s poor,” she said. “It was my dream since high school because I had an opportunity to help children who had lost their parents. When I looked at this website, I thought I can do it.” She said her duties include meeting with members of the state’s Congress or their staff to ask them to support poverty-reduction legislation. She also educates other individuals on how to contact their members of Congress to do the same thing. Kang-Dauphin said, “As a Korean, I am so impressed about U.S governmental systems because it is easy and fast to contact U.S Congressional leaders to discuss global issues. It helped me to break political boundaries, and I was able to realize that each individual, regardless of gender, culture, religion, or race, has a strong voice to downsize global poverty or deal with any other issues.” Anyone can call, email, or mail a letter to members of Congress, Kang-Dauphin said. Someone who wants to be civically involved can find who their two U.S. Senators and one Representative are, add the given numbers to their own phone’s contact list, and call weekly. Emailing weekly also works. The Borgen Project website explains how effective this can be. “Once a week, the report will send to the political leader with a tally of how many people called in favor or opposed to each issue and bill. The political leader and key staffs will view the call report and use that information to determine which bills to support,” it says. The caller should say their name and which bill they are calling to support. “This step takes only 30 seconds, but its influence to the world’s poor is strong and the world can be changed through positive law enforcement,” it says. Kang-Dauphin said her intern duties also include representing The Borgen Project at various business, political, and community events with messages in order to help people build global awareness. She said she also does fund-raising. Anyone can donate to The Borgen Project by going to http://borgenproject.org/youngwon-kang-dauphins-fundraising-campaign, which is Kang-Dauphin’s fund-raising site for Hawaii. There, people can read more about her experiences and eliminating poverty. Kang-Dauphin said, “As a BYUH graduate student, it is a great experience to go forth to serve based on what I learned at the school. As a daughter of God, it is meaningful to soften souls of those who suffer from poverty of heart and food insecurity.” The Borgen Project website addresses some common ideas that dissuade people from donating, such as: “Why should I donate to organizations when the government already spends enough money on foreign aid?” The website answers, “Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. government only spends less than 1 percent of the total federal budget on aid, according to the National Priorities Project, and both the government and its citizens could be doing more to support those in need.” “‘How do I know that my donation actually goes to people in need?’” the site says. “Although this is a reasonable concern, sites like Charity Navigator and GiveWell make it easy to view the effectiveness, transparency and honesty of various organizations. It is also important to check if organizations have received the GuideStar Exchange Seal, which rates an organization on its commitment to transparency.” “‘It is better to provide people in developing countries with specific goods rather than money they can easily misuse.’ This particular belief seems to defer a lot of people from supporting an organization. It’s a stereotypical belief that recipients will use money to purchase alcohol or tobacco, and the World Bank sought to prove this wasn’t the case by studying how cash transfers affected the purchase of those two ‘temptation goods.’ According to this World Bank report, cash transfers reduced the amount spent on alcohol and tobacco in about 36 of the 44 estimates conducted.” The Borgen Project mentioned, “Americans drastically overestimate the level of funding going to assisting the world’s poor and consequently there hasn’t been public outrage over the miniscule funding levels. On average, Americans believe 25 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid, and ironically think it should be ‘slashed’ to only 10 percent. In reality, less than 1 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid.” That 1 percent does help, it says. Areas such as health, food, democracy and self-governance, sustainability & the environment, economic growth and financial independence, and education, have seen positive improvement throughout the world, according to The Borgen Project. “I really hope Americans vote for the next president, because that’s the way to deal with global issues,” Kang-Dauphin said. “The next president is really important for the world.”
Writer: Samone Yuen
