alabama possible from the alabama poverty project

Rosa Ramirez

Birmingham Post-Herald

April 20, 2005

Bernice Coar Sterling said she will talk to Miles College students next week about helping eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Alabama.

Sterling, a biology professor at Miles College and a minister at Layman Chapel CME in Birmingham, plans to discuss the issues during the school’s Earth Day celebration. Sterling was one of 50 participants at a Tuesday morning discussion of The One Campaign at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The campaign is an initiative by antipoverty and various faith-based groups to show steps people can take to end AIDS, extreme poverty and starvation globally.

The event was hosted by Bread for the World, a nonpartisan organization supported by 45 denominations nationally to end hunger and poverty.

“It doesn’t matter what your denomination letter is. If you are hungry, you are hungry,” said Rev. Don Williams of Bread for the World, a nonprofit agency. He encouraged participants of the rally to support the goals of the campaign.

Of the estimated 4.4 million Alabamians, 16.1 percent live in poverty, according to recent study by the Alabama Poverty Project, a nonprofit group in Birmingham that aims to reduce poverty in the state.

The study found 10.5 percent of whites live below the poverty level. For blacks and those categorized as “other race,” the rates were 31.1 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively.

Twenty one percent of those living below the poverty level in the state are 17 years old or younger, according to the report.

The federal government classifies a family of two that earns less than $12,830 annually as poor, according to data from the US Health and Human Services. For a family of three the level is $16,090, and for a family of four it is $19,350.

Tuesday’s event was the fourth scheduled trip to the Southeast to reach out to black churches and congregations, said Kathleen O’Toole, national church outreach spokeswoman for Bread for the World.

O’Toole said reaching religious leaders in the Southeast was important because they have an impact on their church members. A dozen church organizations, representing Baptist, Roman Catholic and Episcopalian faiths, among others, were present on Tuesday, she said.

“It’s a catalyst movement,” O’Toole said. She said the strength of the church is what has given momentum to human rights movements in the past.

She said she hoped Tuesday’s talk would create a “ripple in the pond” effect, where Birmingham church leaders will stir action in their congregations and create change in their churches, community, state and ultimately church members, she said. Attendees stressed the importance of raising public opinion and involving youths.

Rev. Clarence Kelby Heath of the Thirgood Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Birmingham said the media are failing to focus on what is important. Instead, they focus on subjects and individuals worldwide who have no direct impact on people’s lives, Heath said.

The One Campaign has 55,000 members with 3,000 O’Toole said. “That is the glue that holds it together,” Other events are scheduled in Seattle, Boston and Pasadena, California.

“We don’t have any media coverage on poverty,” he said. “This issue is far more important than Michael Jackson.” Pop star Jackson is on trial in California on charges of child molestation.

Sterling said that in 2004, pamphlets and information sheets on hunger in Alabama and worldwide and were passed out to students. They immediately showed interest in learning more.

“They are the future leaders in our communities,” Sterling said. “If it is part of the agenda, they will carry it on.”

Tuesday’s participants were asked to sign the One Declaration, in which they pledge to be part of the movement to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty worldwide.

Among other things, the declaration asks individuals to pray for leaders when visiting developing countries, send letters to city and state leaders to support legislation and initiatives that will end hunger and extreme poverty in the United States and abroad.

“You can do more by loving and helping people,” Williams said. “And we can afford to do it.”