The Brown & White

The Global Student Union and the Global Citizenship Program held a hunger simulation and concert last Thursday to benefit programs helping to eliminate hunger and poverty.

The events, which brought in 50 to 60 people, were held in Kenner Theater in the Ulrich Student Center.

The benefit concert, featuring the bands Divine Rhyme and The Lars Danko, and hunger banquet was part of Poverty Awareness Week, which included events such as the cardboard box colony on the University Center front lawn and the Dollar-a-Day challenges.

The seating for the hunger banquet was dictated by the distribution of identification cards, which placed those in attendance as someone of either high or low income. Those receiving high-income cards sat at a table with chairs, napkins and glasses of water and were served salads, shrimp and cheesecake. Those who were low-income lined up for bowls of rice and cups of water and sat on the floor to eat.

One of the ID cards, for examples, was "Ravi," from an indigenous group in Gujarat, India. Ravi worked as a picker for the government and had been rallying for the Indian government to raise his wages. Luckily, his wages were doubled, although Ravi was still classified as low income.

Only a few lucky guests were seated at the table, illustrating that about 15 percent of the global population makes at least $10,726 per year, meaning that the other 85 percent makes less money.

A PowerPoint slideshow continually ran during the event, showing images of poverty, homelessness and starvation, especially malnourished children.

Ryan Ruggiero, '09, Laura Boffey, '09, Molly Morrow, '09, and Kofi Ap piah-Nkansah, '09, the Global Citizenship members who organized the event, discussed issues of poverty such as Ethiopia's drought-related crisis and Haiti's federal crisis.

America's poverty situation was discussed as well. Members said almost 37 million Americans live below the poverty line.

Boffey said they organized the event mainly because they care about poverty and hunger.

"This is our capstone project for the Global Citizenship Program," she said. "We're getting Lehigh students to think about these issues."

A short YouTube video about the issues of poverty and starvation was also shown, featuring celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Fergie and will.i.am.

The video displayed statistics in an attempt to make the issue of money and poverty more tangible, like the fact that China spent $50 billion to prepare for the Olympics, which is the amount of money believed to solve poverty.

Also, universal primary education would cost $11 billion, half of what Americans pay for ice cream each year.

The video supported the enactment of Fair Trade and aggressively expanding its practice in the world.

The video also emphasized enforcing the accountability of the world leaders that signed the Millennium Declaration at the United Nations in 2000.

This official legislation posed certain goals focusing on the eradication of hunger and the stemming of poverty by 2015. According to the video, the leaders are nowhere near accomplishing these goals.

The event's leaders also planned a surprise for those in attendance. "Shang," a high-income worker, was told a story about how she fell into poverty, and had to give up her spot at the table for "Pablo," who was told a story of his success.

Guests played a multiple-choice trivia game after video showing, and winners were awarded prizes after the concert. One of the questions asked was "what percent of children live below the U.S. poverty line?" The answer was 17 percent.

T-shirts sold for $5 benefited an organization that supports poor Latin American women. Donations were also accepted.

Before the bands performed for the audience, the floor opened for students to share their own thoughts and experiences regarding the program and poverty.

Nisa Qais, '09, spoke tearfully about how she has seen children die in her homeland of Bangladesh due to a lack of medicine.

"Back home, I would probably be at the high-income table," Qais said. "You have the choice to decide what to do with your life tomorrow. The little boy who worked in my house did not."

Dat Hoang, '12, recalled seeing students in his home country of Vietnam fighting over leftover food from a trip he took.

Appiah-Nkansah said people need to be more aware of wastefulness.

"Make sure you use things according to what you need," he said. "Even think about the water you waste when you brush your teeth."